With its latest 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 Group Ninja’s Nioh collection, 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 deal with deflection. However is Wo Lengthy: Fallen Dynasty higher than Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, or is it the opposite means 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 probably 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, lots of the recreation’s extra magical parts are derived from Buddhist mythology.
By its story, the title explores themes of safety, self-sacrifice, and willpower. Extra importantly, it discusses these ideas via what is probably FromSoft’s most concise narrative but, with a transparent via line to comply with and characters to get connected 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 Group Ninja’s sturdy go well with, however that isn’t to be absolutely dismissive of Wo Lengthy’s plot. There’s lots to understand in regards to the sturdy emphasis the excellently choreographed cutscenes place on the foremost gamers of the time interval and the best way they develop via 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 typically as attainable when dealing with the enemies being thrown your means. This lends itself handily to studying the transfer units of your foes, and it’s simple to really feel your self enhancing as you place extra time into it.
Patrolling above enemies in ranges with excessive levels of verticality and swooping right down to get rid of them earlier than getting into the parry-laden fight is one thing that by no means will get outdated in both recreation, however what actually retains issues addicting in Wo Lengthy is the quick tempo of almost each mechanical side 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 rapidly.
This forces gamers to search for home windows of alternative and requires split-second resolution making relating to what they wish to do and once they wish to do it. Do you have to take this temporary lull within the encounter to heal, or do you have to push your injury? What about buffing your self or spending your accrued 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 numerous validity to the declare. All the 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 numerous the satisfaction from taking down its bosses comes from, nevertheless it additionally implies that if you happen to 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 decide the weapons and spells that finest go well with their playstyle. Its adherence to a breakneck tempo and room for participant expression causes Group 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 via an expansive, largely interconnected world that’s always branching off into new areas earlier than ultimately wrapping again round. It makes for a heightened stage 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 stage of Sekiro’s execution. Wo Lengthy additionally has the distinct drawback of being stage based mostly, which inherently makes lengthier detours unimaginable as a result of the stage has to play out with an identical cadence to the others and ultimately finish with a boss struggle.
Sekiro can be the one recreation of the pair to present you a grappling hook for elevated verticality, which naturally offers it the exploratory win by default.
Total 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 anticipate 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 gives gamers an identical 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 glorious, however one factor is a certainty no matter which is healthier: If FromSoftware and Group Ninja proceed to develop video games alongside this similar trajectory, followers of difficult motion RPGs could have lots to look ahead to within the coming years.
