Many challengers have come to face Dark Souls and its many spawns and failed. Nioh is a game that is beloved by the Souls-like community, though. Both Nioh and its sequel helped elevate the genre along with set things in a new era, aka feudal Japan with samurai.
What Nioh and Nioh 2 did for samurai games, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is doing for Chinese action games. It’s certainly not the first game set in this time period, as Dynasty Warriors has existed for many console generations. Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is a much different game than Dynasty Warriors, though. It’s even different compared to its spiritual predecessors. So, let’s make Nioh 2 comparisons specifically to find out how.
6 Loot And Weapon Customization
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is no easy ride, but it at least helps those not accustomed to Souls-likes better than Nioh 2. One key thing is the inventory system. Players can buy supplies at checkpoints, but they have a bigger wealth of options at the blacksmith between buying gear and upgrading it in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty.
Nioh 2 did admittedly have a good loot system for an action RPG in the sub-genre, but Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty just one-ups it slightly. Even though this game isn’t a sequel, it is a spiritual successor, which is why it’s great to see Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty improve on so many levels over Nioh 2, even if some things are on a smaller scale.
5 Countering
Learning how to deflect in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is much easier than it is in Nioh 2. It almost doesn’t require skill at all, but it does insist on players learning when to read opponents. When enemies or bosses are going to attack with something devastating, they will flash red.
Sometimes players need to deflect right away, and sometimes they need to wait for that fatal move to land. There is a trick to every in the game, but it’s a bit more lenient than Nioh 2, which is a game that almost requires frame-perfect timing to get the most out of a good counter.
4 Summoning Spirits
Both games feature spirits players can use alongside magic spells. Nioh 2 treats its version of spiritual beings like simple abilities that are handy in a fight but aren’t that powerful early on. It takes a while to unlock the Divine Beasts in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty because they are strong in nature ranging from attack magic to healing magic.
One of the best Divine Beasts in the game is Qinglong which can create a healing circle for the player and their party members. It is an OP Divine Beast, but that is good for players who are not that good at Souls-likes.
3 Multiplayer
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty and Nioh 2 feature three-player online co-op, which is the standard for most Souls-likes. Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty has a few more multiplayer options for how players can match with others online, but the experience overall for both is pretty close. The one thing Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty has over Nioh 2 is that it allows players to form an offline party.
There is no couch co-op in the game, but there are AI partners that will join players in each chapter of the story. They can even mix and match their party with AI and online partners. This is a huge change for Soulslikes on a large scale as it allows players unable to connect online to still get some help in their quest.
2 Character Creation
The first Nioh featured a single character, William Adams, who everyone had to play. Players could customize their looks a bit through some hair and costume changes, but overall it wasn’t much. The character options in Nioh 2 were a big step up, and the same is true for the character creator in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty. Players can choose between a male and female version of their character and even change their voice.
There are accessories to equip, tattoos to form, and the list goes on. It doesn’t do anything dramatically different from other character creators in recent RPGs, but again, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is at least more advanced than Nioh 2, as it has been three years since 2020.
1 Morale And Difficulty
Overall, the thing that is most inviting about Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is that it is much easier to get into compared to Nioh 2. Hardcore action RPG fans adored the challenge of Nioh 2, and that's great, but the difficulty was not appealing to everyone. There are no difficulty modes to choose from in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty either, despite Team Ninja experimenting with this idea in their previous Souls-like game, Strangers of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin.
However, they did add a new mechanic to Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, the Morale system, which increases the offensive and defensive powers of players beyond their character level. It's sort of like a card game of War wherein the highest number wins. For example, if a character has a Morale of ten and the enemy has a Morale of eight, it should be easier for players to fight that enemy. The higher the Morale count, the more successful players will be.
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty was released on March 3, 2023, and is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.