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TapTap Game of the Year 2023 #9: Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty - more than just a Soulslike

3K View2023-12-13

Team Ninja’s recent run of games have been unfairly, I think, lumped into the Soulslike genre. The fact is, Nioh, Nioh 2, and now Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty are more accurately thought of as the children of Ninja Gaiden. While they’ve adopted a few of the mechanical concepts popularized by Dark Souls and Bloodborne, their core identity is centered in lightning-fast combat and high mobility, giving players the opportunity to feel like the most lethal thing on the battlefield.

Wo Long is packed with fights like this, and as an added bonus, it’s a blood-soaked romp through the top-billed cast of Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Sure, I’m always down to take on a mountain pass full of demons and elixir-crazed bandits, but getting to do that with Cao Cao and Lui Bei at my side? Sign me up twice.

A nightmare romp through the Three Kingdoms - Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty review

https://m.taptap.io/post/4745716

I went into Wo Long expecting a simplified version of Nioh 2, and while Team Ninja made some smart decisions about cutting down on inventory management and overall menu time with this game, the end result maintains a surprising level of depth. There’s a “wizardry” system that’s based on Wuxing, or the five elemental phases of traditional Chinese martial arts, and mastering these can unleash apocalyptic effects on the battlefield. There are dozens of side quests that provide opportunities to deepen your relationship with your companions, and they’ll fight alongside you as you take on fearsome demons and world-historic villains.

Of course, there’s also a massive array of weapon styles to master as well, from standard-issue straight swords and spears to flashier options like twinned halberds, slashing spears, and repeating crossbows. I lost countless hours at the blacksmith, tinkering with upgrades and infusing new traits into favorite weapons. As I sit here writing this, I’m itching to fire Wo Long back up and pore through all that stuff again.

My favorite thing about Wo Long, though, is its brilliant deflection mechanic. In an inspired bit of design, Wo Long’s central combat mechanic isn’t an attack, but rather deflection. The idea is that using an opponent’s own energy against them is far more powerful than any attack on its own. Deflection is so key to Wo Long’s combat flow that one of the controller’s face buttons is dedicated to it, and it opens up opportunities to do spectacular counterattacks and coups de grâce against enemies that tower over your character like malevolent office buildings.

My own quibbles about calling it a Soulslike aside, Wo Long proved to be the first in a remarkably strong year for the genre: Lies of P and the new Lords of the Fallen both went on to carry the torch while FromSoft itself returned to its roots with Armored Core VI. Wo Long hooked me like none of these others managed to, though, and it’s easily one of my favorite games of this year.

Check out the rest of TapTap's Game of the Year 2023 picks at this link, and share your own choices in the comments or by making a post and using the tag #TapTap GOTY 2023.