The Difference Between Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty And Nioh

Team Ninja Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, which is launching in less than a month, is also a Soulslike game. Again, like the Nioh games, this new RPG will have a mission-based structure with fairly linear levels. But it will also differ from the Nioh game in several ways. So here, we will go over a few of those differences.

Setting

While the Nioh games were set in Japan, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is set in China. It’s going much further back, with the game taking place in the Three Kingdoms era of China. The setting, of course, will also impact other aspects of the experience. For instance, the combat is built around Chinese martial arts, which means it will emphasize speed much more.

Jump Button

Importantly, there’s now a jump button! The action is speedier than Nioh, and you can do some things, such as jump into an enemy and then launch over them. This opens up another strategy in combat and exploration. Players can have more dynamic action and more freedom in terms of upcoming games.

More Verticality

Wo Long’s level design, similarly, has seen a bit of a change. For one, the demo level featured much more verticality than the majority of Nioh maps; the player character in Wo Long can jump and even scatter up ledges their leaps can’t quite meet. This will allow players to explore in a more vertical sense as well.

No Stamina

Stamina was a key mechanic in Nioh and its sequel, as it tends to be in the vast majority of Soulslike games, but Wo Long is dropping that mechanic. Wo Long has a new combat system, and players are now open to doing defensive and offensive moves in battle. They can switch them up on the fly without using up a bar like a stamina bar. This is one of the biggest reasons for combat in Wo Long being much, much faster pace.

Spirit Gauge

Wo Long’s heart of the combat lies in the Spirit system, a meter that provides visible feedback whether you are on the back foot defensively or pushing aggressively against your enemies. By raising Spirit, the Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty Genuine Qi stored can be used as energy to unleash powerful attacks of martial arts and Wizardy Spells. The player’s Qi increases with offensive moves and decreases with defensive moves. However, running out of Spirit will put the player at a disadvantage, so how and when it is used is key.

Morale Ranking System

The Morale ranking system is one of Team Ninja’s biggest changes in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty. In Wo Long, both the player and enemies have a Morale Rank that indicates their strength. You can raise your Morale Rank simply by defeating enemies, but it goes up faster if the enemy you beat has a higher Morale Rank than yourself. If you get killed, your Morale Rank will decrease; the same can be said for the enemy. Different from a level-based progression system, Wo Long’s Morale Rank indicates not how strong the player is but how that strength compares to your enemies. It not only increases but can also decrease, which makes becoming stronger a completely different process.

Divine Beasts

Besides, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is introducing a “Divine Beasts” system, which adds more complexity to the gameplay and ties in perfectly with the game’s chosen mythology. Each of these beasts is based on a different creature from Chinese mythology. Players can use these Divine Beasts in two distinct ways: Summoning and Resonation. Summoning a Divine Beast will spawn the creature in front of the player and make them carry out some form of special attack. Resonation refers to when the player uses the power of a Divine Beast to imbue themselves or their weapon with a certain trait. All these will give you an edge over your enemies in a number of different ways.

Coming To XBOX

Nioh still PlayStation consoles exclusives, but Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty will be a rare occurrence of a fully multiplatform Team Ninja game. The game is currently scheduled for release on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. So fans who’ve wanted to get a taste of Team Ninja’s Soulslike offerings but have never had the opportunity to are going to be able to dive right in with Wo Long.