So I love the Nioh games, they are crazy action games with a lot of souls DNA but with the added mechanics of amazing combat plus diablo-style loot. Team Ninja has found a weird formula that basically blends together some of my favorite gaming things all in on great little package. And I was sad that Team Ninja came out and explained that they would not be doing a Nioh 3.
That was a fucking lie.
Wo Long is Nioh 3. It's Nioh with a jump button, much the same way Seikro is a Souls game with a jump. Oh an Wo Long puts an emphasis on deflection for defense, and there is no stamina bar.
Wait a fucking minute. Nioh 1 was a lot like a Souls game, then Nioh 2 was an improvement on that much like DS3 was to DS1. Then FromSoft makes a parry focused game with a jump button.
TEAM NINJA!? Are you just copying FromSoft's homeowrk and changing the words around a little so that the teacher wont catch you?
So Wo Long doesn't lean quite as heavily into the parry system as Seikro did, and it still retains that lovely Nioh combat with a few differences to make things feel like an evolution. For starters there is no real stamina bar, but that doesn't mean your free to do whatever you want and spam. Instead there is a sort of Moral meter I don't know what they call it. But it's a meter that is half red and half blue. Attacking and beating the shit out of enemies turns the meter blue which I think increases your damage if you keep it filled but it goes down to neutral if too much time between hitting enemies happens. Dodging and getting hit, turns the meter red and if you fill the meter red you basically are stunned for a couple seconds much the same way you would get stunned if you got hit with no KI in Nioh.
The blue part of the meter also lets you spend it on casting quick magics. Holding R2 and pressing a face button allows you to quickly throw out a spell that you have bound to your four buttons. These spells can be buffs for yourself, debuffs for the bad guys, or attack magics like fireballs and shit. It all sort of depends on what you are building yourself towards.
WoLong is a bit simpler than Nioh especially in terms of the stat department because there are only five stats to level into that all effect a very specific thing on your character. The terms are different but basically you are investing in five elements that affect, HP, offense, defense, magic, and healing or buffing. From what I can tell in the demo, I think the name of the game is going to be specializing yourself in probably no more than two, maybe three of these stats for maximum benefit of a given play style. Essentially it looks like they are going to want you to build towards a playstyle rather than just raw stating yourself. Which is fine it's a bit unique from what has been in these games before so it keeps things focused on the gameplay rather than number crunching and that's cool.
The gear is the demo is pretty basic but there are a lot of modifiers on it, granting spirit bonuses (aka spell power or resistance), martial arts damage (melee combos), things like that. I'm sure later in the game there will be a lot more to it, but it's all very Nioh-esqe so if you know what the gear in Nioh's like you find much the same here.
Let's talk about that jump button. The jump has opened the maps up a bit more. While they still remain pretty linear much the same as in Nioh, there is a lot more verticality to them because you can jump up cliff walls now so long as they aren't too high. They seem to be mostly marked with white scratches, but I've been able to skyrim myself up to places earlier than I probably should have been able to, so it is what it is. Unfortunately adding verticality to the levels is all the jump seems to be good for. It doesn't grant extra attacks or grant special damage (outside of plunging unaware enemies below you) so it doesn't offer the Elden Ring jumping R2 spam for heavy weapons. It's genuinely I think just a way for them to play with level design more.
Combat itself is fast like in Nioh, with a lot of combinations you can pull off with your light and heavy attacks, plus the added bonus of quick spells as I mentioned above. Defense is really where combat has changed here. The dodge button also acts as a directional deflect if you time it right as an enemy lands an attack. Meaning you will parry the move and shove the enemy in whatever direction you were holding the stick. This of course opens your enemy up for a flurry of ass kicking by you. Enemies also have super attacks which are marked by them glowing red during the attack, deflecting these properly will knock them down and allow you to viseral attack them.
What's great about this deflection system is that if you suck at deflecting and have a hard time with timing. You can ignore it and still just dodge like a normal action game no big deal. Hell it's even better because the parry is on the same button so if you dodge slightly too late, you might just accidently deflect and shove the enemy aside instead. It's pretty great if you ask me.
Wo Long seems a lot more forgiving than Nioh and Souls games too, because when I did get hit, unless it was an obviously huge attack I didn't take much damage. You can fuck up quite a lot before you die compared to other games like this. Now you will still die, it's not an easy game, but it's also not as punishing for smaller mistakes which is nice.
I have no idea when this game is coming out but I don't think it's until early to mid 2023. And I'm very excited for it because it's better than Elden Ring....probably.
That was a fucking lie.
Wo Long is Nioh 3. It's Nioh with a jump button, much the same way Seikro is a Souls game with a jump. Oh an Wo Long puts an emphasis on deflection for defense, and there is no stamina bar.
Wait a fucking minute. Nioh 1 was a lot like a Souls game, then Nioh 2 was an improvement on that much like DS3 was to DS1. Then FromSoft makes a parry focused game with a jump button.
TEAM NINJA!? Are you just copying FromSoft's homeowrk and changing the words around a little so that the teacher wont catch you?
So Wo Long doesn't lean quite as heavily into the parry system as Seikro did, and it still retains that lovely Nioh combat with a few differences to make things feel like an evolution. For starters there is no real stamina bar, but that doesn't mean your free to do whatever you want and spam. Instead there is a sort of Moral meter I don't know what they call it. But it's a meter that is half red and half blue. Attacking and beating the shit out of enemies turns the meter blue which I think increases your damage if you keep it filled but it goes down to neutral if too much time between hitting enemies happens. Dodging and getting hit, turns the meter red and if you fill the meter red you basically are stunned for a couple seconds much the same way you would get stunned if you got hit with no KI in Nioh.
The blue part of the meter also lets you spend it on casting quick magics. Holding R2 and pressing a face button allows you to quickly throw out a spell that you have bound to your four buttons. These spells can be buffs for yourself, debuffs for the bad guys, or attack magics like fireballs and shit. It all sort of depends on what you are building yourself towards.
WoLong is a bit simpler than Nioh especially in terms of the stat department because there are only five stats to level into that all effect a very specific thing on your character. The terms are different but basically you are investing in five elements that affect, HP, offense, defense, magic, and healing or buffing. From what I can tell in the demo, I think the name of the game is going to be specializing yourself in probably no more than two, maybe three of these stats for maximum benefit of a given play style. Essentially it looks like they are going to want you to build towards a playstyle rather than just raw stating yourself. Which is fine it's a bit unique from what has been in these games before so it keeps things focused on the gameplay rather than number crunching and that's cool.
The gear is the demo is pretty basic but there are a lot of modifiers on it, granting spirit bonuses (aka spell power or resistance), martial arts damage (melee combos), things like that. I'm sure later in the game there will be a lot more to it, but it's all very Nioh-esqe so if you know what the gear in Nioh's like you find much the same here.
Let's talk about that jump button. The jump has opened the maps up a bit more. While they still remain pretty linear much the same as in Nioh, there is a lot more verticality to them because you can jump up cliff walls now so long as they aren't too high. They seem to be mostly marked with white scratches, but I've been able to skyrim myself up to places earlier than I probably should have been able to, so it is what it is. Unfortunately adding verticality to the levels is all the jump seems to be good for. It doesn't grant extra attacks or grant special damage (outside of plunging unaware enemies below you) so it doesn't offer the Elden Ring jumping R2 spam for heavy weapons. It's genuinely I think just a way for them to play with level design more.
Combat itself is fast like in Nioh, with a lot of combinations you can pull off with your light and heavy attacks, plus the added bonus of quick spells as I mentioned above. Defense is really where combat has changed here. The dodge button also acts as a directional deflect if you time it right as an enemy lands an attack. Meaning you will parry the move and shove the enemy in whatever direction you were holding the stick. This of course opens your enemy up for a flurry of ass kicking by you. Enemies also have super attacks which are marked by them glowing red during the attack, deflecting these properly will knock them down and allow you to viseral attack them.
What's great about this deflection system is that if you suck at deflecting and have a hard time with timing. You can ignore it and still just dodge like a normal action game no big deal. Hell it's even better because the parry is on the same button so if you dodge slightly too late, you might just accidently deflect and shove the enemy aside instead. It's pretty great if you ask me.
Wo Long seems a lot more forgiving than Nioh and Souls games too, because when I did get hit, unless it was an obviously huge attack I didn't take much damage. You can fuck up quite a lot before you die compared to other games like this. Now you will still die, it's not an easy game, but it's also not as punishing for smaller mistakes which is nice.
I have no idea when this game is coming out but I don't think it's until early to mid 2023. And I'm very excited for it because it's better than Elden Ring....probably.
