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Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, the upcoming Soulslike game from publisher KOEI TECMO GAMES and developer Team NINJA, recently got a brand new gameplay trailer, alongside the game's pre-orders going live.
Much like the developer's most notable creation, the Nioh series, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is an action role-playing game with an emphasis on fast-paced combat and customization.
The recent showcase for the game, titled "action trailer" gave players a look at the high-octane combat and enemies as well as a few bosses. Much like the Nioh series, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty features extensive customization and a versatile gameplay system, supporting multiple different playstyles via weapon and armor combinations.
Alongside the game's new trailer, KOEI TECMO GAMES partnered with renowned Soulslike YouTuber, FightinCowboy, to give fans an exclusive look at Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty's gameplay during an hour-long livestream. Here are a few key details that fans might have missed from the gameplay preview.
Hidden combat features to pre-order bonuses - What fans missed in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty's gameplay preview
1) New weapon and movesets
While Wo Long sees the return of most weapon types from the Nioh games, Team NINJA did add a few new classes, first of which is the spear. Much like how it is portrayed in many other action role-playing games, the spear in Wo Long is effective at both long-range as well as close-quarters combat.
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty features an expansive skill tree for each type of weaponry, akin to Nioh. This allows players to have full agency over the active as well as passive skills for their weapon of choice.
While KOEI TECMO GAMES did not go too in-depth with the spear's skills, they did demonstrate a few active options, which were as flashy as they were effective in dispatching hordes of enemies.
2) Blocking and parrying
Blocking and parrying has returned from the Nioh series. Players can block incoming attacks using any of their equipped weapons at the cost of losing a great deal of stamina, which can leave them vulnerable to critical attacks.
Parrying, on the other hand, can help them get the upper hand on enemies by dealing a lot of stamina damage, which in-turn allows them to deal a critical hit.
Parry windows on enemy attacks are really tight, which can be very tricky for players coming fresh to Wo Long. However, those who are familiar with Nioh's gameplay and combat system can easily get in grips with the system in the new title.
3) Losing and retrieving experience points
Being a Soulslike title, Wo Long features some staples of the sub-genre, including a steep difficulty curve, challenging but satisfying boss fights, and experience-based progression. Much like the Nioh titles in Wo Long, players will be rewarded with experience points for killing enemies and bosses in the game, which is used to level up.
Taking note from Bloodborne, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty will feature a similar experience retrieval system. This is where gamers will need to defeat the enemy they died to in order to get their lost experience points back. Enemies that kill the heroes and keep the points hostage will get buffed as a result, thus making it a greater challenge to get their lost experience back.
It remains to be seen how Team NINJA will balance this system without making experience-retrieval frustrating for players.
4) Fall damage nerfed
One of the biggest complaints players had with Nioh and its sequel was the number of accidental deaths caused by fall damage. While Team NINJA hasn't eliminated fall damage from Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, they have significantly nerfed it to not cause any accidental deaths.
The developer has taken a similar approach to FromSoftware's Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. As such, falling from a platform during combat and exploration will only deplete a certain amount of HP, instead of outright giving them a Game Over screen.
This will allow players to not lose their hard-earned experience points from an accidental pitfall they overlooked while fighting a horde of bandits or an enraged creature.
5) Pre-order bonuses and editions
Last, but most certainly not the least, KOEI TECMO GAMES and Team NINJA have started accepting pre-orders for the game on all platforms, including PlayStation and Xbox consoles as well as PC. The title will come in two differently priced editions, alongside a pre-purchase bonus, which includes two exclusive armor sets.
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty's pre-order bonus armor sets are:
- Zhuque armor set
- Baihu armor set
The two different versions and their contents are as follows:
Standard Edition ($59.99)
- Base game
- Pre-order bonus armor sets
Deluxe Edition ($84.99)
- Base game
- Pre-order bonus armor sets
- Digital artbook
- Digital mini soundtrack
- Season Pass (with three major story expansions)
- Qinglong armor set
The story expansions included in the Season Pass for Wo Long include:
- Battle of Zhongyuan (scheduled for release in June 2023)
- Conqueror of Jiangdong (scheduled for release in September 2023)
- Upheaval in Jingxiang (scheduled for release in December 2023)
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is scheduled to release on March 3, 2023 for both, the current-generation (PS5 and Xbox Series X|S) and the last-generation consoles (PS4 and Xbox One) as well as PC (via Steam).
