Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty - The Bear and Badger

hylian_elf

An ok. Thanks, I’ll look for it. Just assumed preinstelling would just launch a demo.

JonB

MattyJ wrote:

Played to the first boss, fucking fuck me. I'll have another go (or 20) at it another day but could literally be the end point for me, lol

Yeah, it's a bit of a spike. The rest of the demo isn't that hard.

MattyJ

JonB wrote:

MattyJ wrote:

Played to the first boss, fucking fuck me. I'll have another go (or 20) at it another day but could literally be the end point for me, lol

Yeah, it's a bit of a spike. The rest of the demo isn't that hard.

I might have to grind out the village if I want another go. It took me a while to

Spoiler:

JonB

MattyJ wrote:

JonB wrote:

MattyJ wrote:

Played to the first boss, fucking fuck me. I'll have another go (or 20) at it another day but could literally be the end point for me, lol

Yeah, it's a bit of a spike. The rest of the demo isn't that hard.

I might have to grind out the village if I want another go. It took me a while to

Spoiler:

Take him down, then he has a second phase! And that second phase wrecked me

The slightly good news is that

Spoiler:

MattyJ

Well at least that's something!

Cupatay

digi wrote:

DrewMerson wrote:

JonB wrote:

There's obviously a lot of Nioh still in there…

This sentence threw me, because I’ve been making a mistake in my head. Every time I read Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, I thought it was that game being developed in China, which I now realise is called Black Myth: Wukong. That explains why it’s out soon, and in Game Pass, because I didn’t imagine either thing could be the case for the other game.

b0r1s wrote:

Same. Not in so much of a rush to try it now.

I still thought it was till I read this, ffs!

Me too.

Minnesänger

Despite not being Wukong, and not developed in China, Wo Long is still based on Chinese history, so anyone looking for some Three Kingdoms goodness could do worse than give it a look.

Paul the sparky

Gave the demo an hour, had a couple of bashes at the boss. I'm not really feeling it, I'm sure I took to Nioh 2 a lot faster than this. Not sure I've got the combat down, I seem to be having more joy spamming the quick attack to stagger him than anything else, but it's doing pitiful damage. Need to use parry more.

Having AI dickhead in there "helping" really only upsets the flow and makes it harder to learn attacks and openings. Like, boss guy will wind up for a swing and I'll prepare to parry, only for dopey, who's off screen, to knock him out of the animation for a split second before the boss is back on the attack again while I'm still trying to work out what's happening. Plus the chatter is getting on my tits when I'm trying to concentrate. Irritating

JonB

I don't know if it's there at the start, but you get an item called willow branch that you can use to send your AI partner away. I've found some bosses easier without the help.

MattyJ

Well reader, I finally fucking got him. Thank God. I basically told myself if I hadn't done it by the time I was stopping playing tonight then I wasn't going to bother with the game at all! Looks like I'll keep playing it (until next boss block).

JonB

Paul the sparky wrote:

Reads like an

Spoiler:

[8]

It is as well: https://www.gamesradar.com/wo-long-fallen-dynasty-review/

Paul the sparky

Knew it.

Had a quick glance at the pros and cons. I knew the loot would be cack from Nioh, a bazillion variants of the same gear. Surprised the story hasn't got much going for it though, seemed decent from the demo. I'll have a proper read later, cheers

Unlikely

JonB wrote:

Paul the sparky wrote:

Reads like an

Spoiler:

[8]

It is as well: https://www.gamesradar.com/wo-long-fallen-dynasty-review/

Splendidly helpful review. I may even give this a try, since it's apparently on GP.

Paul the sparky

The last paragraph is absolutely stinking, great work

Moot_Geeza

Love that last line.

Syph79

Noice

Paul the sparky

If this bird brain useless cunt says he will protect me from further harm as he stands and watches me receive the killing blow I might have to join up with the bad guys

Paul the sparky

You know what does me, the relentless barrage of attacks when I'm low health. Don't even get a chance to take a swing and heal

Paul the sparky

Got the twat despite getting stuck in the corner for a bit while he raged out. Camera issues are a staple of the genre

Speedhaak

Another diabolical PC port by the looks of it, devs on a roll this year. Nearlly every PC port has been rubbish.

Wookienopants

Well you would be a PC Wanker wouldn't you

Curtis

Jolly coop forever!

MattyJ

Coop does seem decent, although it puts you back at whatever flag you called the person in at I think? But there isn't any auto booting like Elden Ring once you kill a boss.

Coopers Green

MattyJ wrote:

Coop does seem decent

Thanks Matty, love you too.

Tempy

I played a decent chunk of this at the weekend, think I am about two-thirds/three-quarters of the way through.

It's... fine. I really wish I liked it more, but it's got a nasty habit of chucking bosses and enemies at you that have some really nasty critical attacks, including one boss who had a blink-and-you'll-miss-it tell for a near-instant connect grab that then forces you to watch an animation that looks like it's over before he continues to batter you a few more times and eats your whole health bar.

When the fight is a tense back and forth, the spirit gauge stuff really works, but other times it's OHKO grabs and flying enemies who avoid reprisal which makes you wonder why the mechanic is there. A shame that the core mechanic feels so underutilized at times, and out of boss fights it rarely comes up.

Also the loot, the gear, the stats, so many numbers, the lack of any meaningful quality of life inventory stuff that Nioh 2 had nailed – shocking stuff. Sekiro really showed why a lack of ambiguity is really important in a game about making quick reactions, just gimme hard facts.

I'll probably still plug away and finish it, because I like the Battle/Marking Flag system encouraging exploration, but it does feel like maybe ten too many systems packed into a game that could have done with focussing on just the core mechanic.

g.man

Paul the sparky

Had a few hours on Friday. The next two bosses after the first boss were a doddle, both down first time, unheard of for me.

Still don't think I have a good feel for the flow of combat despite that. Spamming light attack to stun lock the first boss then pop off a heavy or two seemed to be the way to go. Obviously parrying is massive. Magic seems very weak early doors, even against standard enemies

Tempy

About all magic is good for, at least that I've found, is turning off buffs in certain fights - water beats fire and all that.

The main trick of the combat is you'll nearly always want to be holding block, because most attacks don't really drain your spirit much. Deflect when it's safe and you'll deal spirit gauge damage, and earn a decent chunk of spirit in return.

Light attacks are used to build your own spirit up - providing a buffer for blocking, and to power up your heavy attacks - when you're at full gauge, a heavy attack will take off about a third/half of a boss's max spirit gauge, and then a few light attacks will let you fill up the reminder for an easy critical.

It's a clever tug of war resource system, so it's a shame a lot of bosses are big beasties that basically ignore that, or ruin the flow by having attacks that are so fast and damaging that they either OHKO you or interrupt the back and forth to a massive degree.

RamSteelwood

i had a go at this, got to the first boss, took several attempts and eventually beat him, only for him to have a 2nd phase and killed me immediately.
turned it off and not sure i'll go back...obvs an element of 'git gud' but i wasn't really feeling the combat at best of times and struggled to get timing right on the parry. holding block and double tapping parry in the hope you either get the parry or dodge just made the whole thing a bit boring, and trying to be more 'skilful' well i just failed at that!

Tempy

Worth trying to get your equip load down to green - makes deflecting a little easier I've found.

Also want to say that despite the fact HiFi Rush came out this year, Wo Long has gone above and beyond to claim the coveted spot of "worst jump in a videogame 2023".

Truly a shocking feeling hop.

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