It seems there is no shortage of Soulslikes. With the magnitude of success garnered from 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Elden Ring, developers are turning to this unique spice of gameplay that blends difficulty, high fantasy and lore crafting into an enthralling concoction. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Team Ninja, a close admirer of Soulslike design, has conjured 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, which is a worthy competitor to adorn the Soulslike cr💟🏅own.
Wo Long sets its action in ancient China during the Three Kingdoms Era. The nameless protagonist must 🐈navigate an ever-growing demonic threat destroying the land. The journey is, unsurprisingly, challenging, but the game does a whole heap right. Here are a few things that could elevate this Crouching Dragon epic.
10 Th🌠e Loot System
Combing dangerous landscapes for valuable loot is a hallmark of Souls games. Wo Long quadruples down on the loot system, making sure you’re never a few inches from picking something up. Unfortunately, it's not as good as it sounds.
The sheer amount of loot you can acquire diminishes the excitement of finding it. Worst still, Wo Long handles loot flimsily, often g꧙ifting you with droves of either useless equipment or replicas of stuff you have. Less would definitely be more in this scenario.
9 🌳The Overbearing Stats
Number crunching ಞis a distinct taste when it comes to stats in an RPG. However, when you have a system that attaches an eye-watering amount of number stats associated with weapons and gear, this can create a barrier for newer players.
Wo Long opts for an overbearing stat system. The rarer the gear, the more perks it will have attached – each with percentage notches. The sheer amo🐻unt of numbers can𒆙 cause confusion when trying to build a devastating character. Ditching the minuscule percentage rates would have been the way forward here to streamline the build gameplay.
8 Better🍸 Story Telling
Team Ninja tapping into Koei Tecmo’s expertise in the Three Kingdoms narrative grounds the game in a rich story. Unlike Dark Souls, where world-building and narrative are never fed to yo𝓀u, Wo Long is telling trying to tell a linear story aided by cutscenes. The way the game tells the story, however, is stumbling and challenging to grasp.
You might struggle to understand what exactly is being told here. The cutscenes are unhelpful in moving the story along, as each one seems to introduce things out of nowhere, or add several new things all at o💃nce. Team Ninja should have narrowed in on clean storytelling elements, instead of constantly throwing new plot points and lore at you for no reason.
7 💎 An Articulate Protagonist 💮
Silent protagonists have seen a drop in major RPGs. Games like Atomic Heart and Fallout 4 attempt to root your character in the story more by giving them a vܫoice. Wo Long’s protagonist, whilst being whoever you want them to be, loses gravitas by being wholly ina🙈rticulate within a conceptually epic tale.
The tale is woven within the seams of high fantasy, and the protagonist holds their own during cutscenes. You see them battling with ease and aiding grand historical figures, but remaining silent and reserved. This static approach to character often leaves confusion in the protagonist's motives. A more performative protagonist may have dispelled narrative confusion.
6 Characters Given Dist♑inctive Character
Wo Long features a vast arrꦅay of characters. Most of them will fight by your side, and you can improve their honor the more you fight with them. Aside from each character model having a distinct look, most of the characters in the game beh🐲ave the same.
This is particularly harmful to the story. Character development could be improved to form better identitiesไ and more em💟otive characters, which could aid the investment you have in them and their role in the story.
5 More Enem🍷y Variation
When you think about Soulslikes, there's no shadow of a doubt that you ponder about the enemies you’ll be facing. Wo Long combines demonic ferocity with the Yellow Turban Rebellion, creating memorable baddie designs. However, going from battlefield to battlefield, enemy variation appears surprisingly sparse and leaves room for more variety.
Zombies, big zombies, animal zombies and the odd warlock are among the most common enemies you’ll tackle. Getting about halfway through the adventure, the enemy variation is recycled to a glaring degree.𓂃 Thank goodness the bosses themselves adhere to memorable, morbid design - a factor Soulslikes are famous for.
4 Have Your Companion 💝Heal You
Companions assist you on virtually every stage of your journey. Known as Reinforcements, you can always conjure warriors you’ve met𓄧 to fight by your side. They are useful, but not invincible, and a downed companion will have to be revived via a healing animation. It’s a shame this life-saving favor cannot be reciprocated.
Once your health has run its course, that’s a crushing defeat. You’re dead. No option for your companion to give you a second chance. Whilst this mechanic could dent the satisfying harsh but fair difficulty design, it's strange this favor is omitted when you need it most.
3 Less Repetitℱive Side Objectives ❀
Alongside progressing the game, Wo Long features optional side quests which are usually discovered in the Hidden Village. These quests lack depth and resort to all feeling like fetch quests that have very little in♛centive to🍎 complete.
When it comes to Soulslikes, it's hard not to always want more. Sadly, you won’t find it in the side quests. If these missions had a bit more air of mystery around them, it might have helped with engagement. The sub-battlefields offer more bite when it comes to additional gameplay, but only barely.
2 💖 Adding Audio Cues For More Gestures
Completing a line on the Soulslike bingo card are Wo Long’s gestures. Actions that can be performed by the protagonist range from dancing to playing dead. They work well and 🃏are a nifty distraction, however, some🐟 of them lack a suitable audio cue.
When you use t🥃he laughing gesture, your protagonist silently mimes the actions where a belly-laugh sound would be appropriate. It becomes glaring when so many of the gestures feature sound effects, like the stamping one.
1 The Status Effects Are Negligible ♈ 𝔍
Wo Long does borrow the best features from the Souslike genre. One of those is status effects, wღhich can have a hold on you or be put on your weapon. Unfortunately, both ways are rather negligib🎃le in effect and could have been buffed.
Working better for weaponry, statuses like poison or stone, that are supposed to halt you, come off as mild inconven🐬iences. You’ll barely even recognize a status effect has been applied to you ꦓdue to the animation being vague. It makes navigating areas with said poison a bit too easy.