With its current launch, Wo Lengthy: Fallen Dynasty has been turning just a few heads within the motion RPG sphere. Whereas clearly carrying the torch handed off by developer Staff Ninja’s Nioh sequence, Wo Lengthy delineates itself with a big emphasis on parrying enemy assaults earlier than executing highly effective ending strikes. This has led to truthful comparisons with FromSoftware’s Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice from 2019, which was equally demarcated by its concentrate on deflection. However is Wo Lengthy: Fallen Dynasty higher than Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, or is it the opposite manner round?
That’s proper; it’s the battle of the Souls-likes and we’ll be throwing our personal hat into the ring. Within the curiosity of a extra granular comparability, we’ll be breaking down every recreation into three classes, evaluating their variations, and deciding which title excelled essentially the most in every space. With out additional ado, let’s check out some tales.
Narrative & Lore — Winner: Sekiro
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice takes place in a fantastical, fictionalized iteration of Japan’s Sengoku interval, which occurred all through the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It sees its immortal protagonist, Wolf, charged with guarding the lifetime of a younger boy named Kuro. Moreover, most of the recreation’s extra magical parts are derived from Buddhist mythology.
By way of its story, the title explores themes of safety, self-sacrifice, and dedication. Extra importantly, it discusses these ideas by means of what is probably FromSoft’s most concise narrative but, with a transparent by means of line to comply with and characters to get hooked up to throughout its period.
Equally, the occasions of Wo Lengthy: Fallen Dynasty’s story unfold throughout a darkish fantasy interpretation of China’s Three Kingdoms interval. As such, the sport attracts closely from Chinese language martial arts and mythology, with specific nods to the historic novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms for its depictions of sure characters.
Sadly, storytelling has by no means been Staff Ninja’s sturdy swimsuit, however that isn’t to be totally dismissive of Wo Lengthy’s plot. There’s lots to understand concerning the sturdy emphasis the excellently choreographed cutscenes place on the most important gamers of the time interval and the best way they develop by means of the fixed conflicts, nevertheless it’s merely not as tightly plotted a narrative as Sekiro’s.
Gameplay — Winner: Wo Lengthy
It didn’t take lengthy in any respect for Wo Lengthy to endear me to its gameplay. From the phrase go, it wastes no time in pointing on the parry button and urging you to make use of it as usually as potential when dealing with the enemies being thrown your manner. This lends itself handily to studying the transfer units of your foes, and it’s simple to really feel your self bettering as you place extra time into it.
Patrolling above enemies in ranges with excessive levels of verticality and swooping right down to eradicate them earlier than getting into the parry-laden fight is one thing that by no means will get previous in both recreation, however what actually retains issues addicting in Wo Lengthy is the quick tempo of almost each mechanical facet of the sport. A majority of the participant’s arsenal, be it an offensive spell, a buff, or a simple assault, all play out speedily and finish simply as shortly.
This forces gamers to search for home windows of alternative and requires split-second determination making concerning what they need to do and after they need to do it. Do you have to take this transient lull within the encounter to heal, or do you have to push your injury? What about buffing your self or spending your amassed Spirit Gauge? All of that is facilitates a tangible feeling of ahead momentum and customizability in lots of conditions.
Sekiro’s parrying has been humorously known as a rhythm recreation by some, however there’s a variety of validity to the declare. Your complete thrust of your gameplay is to attend for the enemy to assault you, parrying till their posture meter fills up and memorizing the transfer units to make sure your victory. It’s a extra inflexible system, in different phrases, that predominantly duties the participant with doing one factor nicely till they win.
That is the place a variety of the satisfaction from taking down its bosses comes from, nevertheless it additionally signifies that should you aren’t a fan of what the sport is asking you to do (on this case, memorizing assaults and parrying them) it’s simpler to bounce off of it. In Sekiro, it’s very a lot a case of sink or swim.
This goes double with the relative lack of construct choices in comparison with Wo Lengthy, which lets gamers choose the weapons and spells that finest swimsuit their playstyle. Its adherence to a breakneck tempo and room for participant expression causes Staff Ninja’s newest to edge out Sekiro, and it’s additionally the extra accessible recreation given the chance of cooperative play with NPCs or different gamers.
Exploration — Winner: Sekiro
Like most FromSoftware motion RPGs for the reason that launch of Darkish Souls, Sekiro guides the participant by means of an expansive, largely interconnected world that’s consistently branching off into new areas earlier than finally wrapping again round. It makes for a heightened degree of immersion, and the sensation of discovering a brand new location or hidden merchandise is all the time an thrilling one.
Whereas the extent design of Wo Lengthy does sport extra verticality and interconnectedness than the Nioh video games previous it, it merely isn’t to the identical degree of Sekiro’s execution. Wo Lengthy additionally has the distinct drawback of being degree primarily based, which inherently makes lengthier detours inconceivable as a result of the stage has to play out with an analogous cadence to the others and finally finish with a boss battle.
Sekiro can be the one recreation of the pair to offer you a grappling hook for elevated verticality, which naturally provides it the exploratory win by default.
General Winner: Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
As is all the time the case with direct comparisons of this nature, the discrepancies between the video games largely come down to non-public style and what you count on heading into both one, however Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is the extra finely crafted online game upon an examination of all its components, providing an extremely distinctive expertise in full service to the idea of parrying.
To not be outdone, Wo Lengthy: Fallen Dynasty provides gamers an analogous emphasis on parrying with extra room for participant expression in its gameplay, however on the tradeoff of technical execution and worldbuilding falling in need of the excessive bar of high quality established by Sekiro.
Each video games are largely wonderful, however one factor is a certainty no matter which is best: If FromSoftware and Staff Ninja proceed to develop video games alongside this similar trajectory, followers of difficult motion RPGs may have lots to sit up for within the coming years.
