izigame.me

So.
I'm a big fan of Soulslike; Nioh 2 is my favorite game of all time, and DS3/Elden Ring really hit as well. I was a big fan of Sekiro as well, but I wouldn't say it's my favorite. With this in mind, I'd say I should've loved Wo Long.
I didn't
So let's talk; This is not like any Nioh/Souls/Sekiro lookalike game. This actually handles more like Dynasty Warriors (imagine that) with fewer enemies and higher difficulty. I'll spare you the nitty gritty and just go onto what really earned this "no" from me.
So for starters:
Pros:
-Looks great. Character creation is just Nioh 2 with more options (which is awesome imo).
-Solid idea. Three Kingdoms makes a great setpiece for a Nioh-style game. The subject matter is deep, and the teams working on it have earned their stripes as 3 Kingdoms worshipers.
-The game is hard. The battles themselves present a decent threat, and can be quite fun, especially Zhang Bao.
-Fans of Nioh specifically will see a lot of "oh, that just replaces these", like the lovely pandas that replace Sudama. It's a great idea to throw out garbage you won't use and replace it with an item; However I liked how in nioh, giving it a weapon meant you'd get a weapon back, armor for armor, trinket for trinket, etc. I can forgive this small issue since the core idea is still there.
-Access to magic, early on in the game, is pretty cool. I'm sure magic is really cool in the upper levels I haven't gotten to, but it's a nice little thing to have in the wee early game.
-If you play this on a controller, you'll have literally no reason to complain about what the mass amounts of people have been crying about; IMO Soulsbornes aren't keyboard games. They're controller games. This is just my opinion, but if you play DS with a KBM, you're a sadist. Use a controller.
Unfortunately that's all the good I have to say about the game.
Now then, time to drop the axe.
Cons:
- Co-op bad. They should've just copied Nioh 2 shamelessly. Everything about it, that was perfection. Instead we have a glitchy, slow-to-load lineup of our characters that look like they're getting ready for a mobile game. I can't speak to every individual experience, but my game partner and I were literally flying all over one another's screens, lagging. The monsters would sometimes be in places they actually weren't, so you'd go for a stealth attack and hit nothing, then they appear behind you and nothing personnel you in the mouth. We're hoping a patch drops and addresses the Co-op before anything else.
- Combat actually gets kinda boring. So you only have two attack moves, Light attack and Heavy Attack. You also have an obligatory dodge/deflect mechanic and a jump button. Unlike in Sekiro, there aren't any moves that need to be jumped, so your jump is basically more for getting outta tight spots, platforming, and stealth bombing, so it's not a real combat mechanic as it was in Sekiro. If you do a Heavy attack, you take a long charge up and hit for middling damage. If you do a Light, you can combo it up to like four times, then end with a Heavy. A Heavy attack is a combo-ender, a cinematic attack when you posture break, or a stealth kill. That's all. This fighting style is very Dynasty Warriorsy, and it's okay there when you're mowing down literal thousands of people with broad, sweeping strikes. But in this game, like Nioh, where you are handling 1-2-3 enemies at a time, give me some variety. It's fair to note that I haven't progressed *super* far into the game. But it's just not that thrilling to continuously do the same 4 moves on repeat until the thing dies.
- Morale replaces your actual stats. So this whole system sucks. Give me levels back. I don't wanna grind for levels every time I get in a stage. Morale is this wonky system that lets you deal more damage and take more punishment without dying. It's a second set of levels that's only active during the mission you're on, and then it resets. You need to kill enemies and raise flags (bonfires) to raise your morale levels so that you can deal damage, but there's also your normal "Souls-esque" levels that effect your scaling damage and hp, among other things. So you have two systems to accomplish the same thing. (It kinda feels like they had two teams working on progression, and the Dev execs just decided to not pick one or the other).
- Gear system is dogwater. You'll get a million items. (And all of em stink). You can't change affinity from what I understand. The martial arts move attached to the weapon cannot be changed as far as I'm aware. So you might get a weapon that checks every box, but it doesn't have the move you want, or its scaling. There is no more "gear level" as there was in Nioh, so you just have a buncha stuff that all looks the same, and is separated by 1-4 stars. It's kinda just confusing to be honest. It just feels like it doesn't work. Just bring back weapon levels so I can sell the junk that's below my level.
- Weapon variety stinks. So there are some classic, Chinese weapons here. Jian (straightsword), Dao (broadsword/saber), dual Swords, Bo staff, Podao (Guan Yu's weapon), Spear, and a few nifty polearms and such. Problem: Their playstyle is all fundamentally the same, as per the boring combat system, and it's a question of how are you stat-scaling, and do you prefer fast attacks with low commitment, or the opposite? I'm a spear guy myself, and I enjoy the halberds and podao. So unlike Nioh where the weapons all have completely different playstyles with different uses, all the weapons in Wolong are just melee range with some few differences, such as the sudden dash attach on bo-staff, or the wide cleave of the podao. Some are slightly better at dispatching multiple foes, and others are more suited to rushdown play, but they all feel so similar it's almost useless to pick a weapon based on your favorite choice, and just pick the one with the best stats that scales the best for you. Also. Where the heck are the fists? Literally everyone is complaining about the lack of fist weapons and I'm one of them. Just to tease us, if you unequip your weapons, your character visibly knows Kung Fu, and he throws Ba Ji/Pi Gua style attacks. Give us our fists, Wo Long.
- Drip Decoration system with no dedicated screen. So in this game there's an armor decoration system (like in Nioh). You can change how items look to fit a particular aesthetic. Great system, awesome. However, unlike the mentioned game, there is no dedicated screen for it. So you'll be styling up, and you'll have to maneuver your character around the menu, and also make sure they're facing the direction you want them to. Not only that, but there's no preview button, so you have to change to it before you can actually see it on you. Why would a preview button be so bad? Or even better, just show me the item before I apply the drip. Games other than Nioh have done this perfectly (like Guild Wars 2 for example), but Team Ninja *worked* on Nioh, so they *know how to do it*. So tell me why they botched this up so bad.
That's enough for you to formulate a decision on whether you really want to buy this. I didn't have a horrendous time, but I'm going to shelf this game until a massive QOL patch gets released, and I'm more than a little disappointed in the end product. After hearing that Wild Hearts (also a Koei game) dropped to mediocre reviews a few weeks ago, I have to wonder if the teams weren't trying to shove things out the door before Fiscal Year (March 30), cause y'all know how certain publishers are.
I'm 100% certain that if this game had been put off until it was ready, it would've been a blockbuster, but for now, I'm gonna go back to Nioh, DS, and whatever other games actually let me have fun with my friends. Sorry Koei. But do better.