![]() The point I am attempting to build toward here is that nothing has changed and this has been obvious enough since 2020 when Nioh 2 released, them milkers had been pumping for a couple years preparing the efficiency needed to iterate quickly. ![]() This was a brilliant, rare moment from a developer who had long been known for the diminishing returns they’d produced for the Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden franchises in the early 2000’s, cheap re-hashing and reworking of each product was basically their thing, whenever a good (or even great) idea came along they frickin’ milked it. Think of it as a Souls-like with a Diablo II level of replayability and customization. All signs point to the company themselves being somewhat surprised that it became as big as it did, basing their relatively simple plot around an unfinished Akira Kurosawa script and creating an almost ridiculously indulgent set of loot, slash n’ craft systems which directly encouraged the player to beat the ~40 hour game on escalating tiers of difficulty with better loot rewards. It was a much-needed variant in the character action side of things and the systemic depth was certainly there for those willing to engage its almost too richly fleshed out mechanics. When Team Ninja produced Nioh back in 2017 it was nothing short of a surprise for its decent enough Character driven cinematic storytelling alongside its forward-thinking and deepest yet take on the Souls-like third person action RPG headspace. The catch is that there’ll be no respite from its bland storytelling, rehashed puppet-like characterization, and cheap level design beyond a “skip cutscene” option and a bit of skill developed for its deflect/parry timing focused combat. ![]() Early-set artificial spikes of difficulty and faceless reskinning aside the general loop of Nioh-style games is still tightly tuned in terms of the action and the overall mechanics of combat are satisfyingly different to the point that this game cannot help but be quite a lot of fun. If this begins to sound familiar, yes, in most ways Team Ninja have produced what is clearly the bones of Nioh 2 with a Three Kingdoms-era skin, a parry focused combat system, and a jump button. The Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty experience is one of plainest, seemingly cynical game design centered around bullet points pertaining to what they can borrow from their past games (and other popular games in the sub-genre) within reason while producing the most cost efficient “triple A” video game experience possible, complete with thirty percent of the game being sold to the customer at a later date as DLC. Staring into the neon lit, sword-and-spear clashing action of this Chinese period piece ( Han dynasty per Romance of the Three Kingdoms) video game one should naturally come to the conclusion that it has no soul, no artistically driven heart or love to share as it presents a nakedly derivative, uncreative experience which is void of any truly resonant statement or personality.
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