Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty

Definitely - they unlock characters and often have things like the upgrade materials for your flask.

Cheers all. I haven’t out any recent time into a Team Ninja game since Ninja Gaiden, so all the Nioh-isms are lost on me.

On to the side content!

Lu Bu can do one, as far as I'm concerned

I binned off that mission agains the three wankers and gone on to the next main mission. Like Nioh, it sure is an ugly game at times. That whole section within the city walls is horrible. Flat lighting, high featureless walls on all sides. Then you go through an underground bit to emerge in a beautiful moonlit bamboo garden and it looks stunning again.

It's definitely not got it's claws into me like Nioh did and like others, the niggles are mounting up. It's funny that I was initially atttracted to the simpler combat, being too intimidated to go back into a game as complex as Nioh, except now I'm kind of missing that complexity. I'm missing all my yokai abilities, the stances, the yokai zones in the levels, my ki... All that. It's great nontheless and will be a game I play for a fair while yet, but it still feels like this game is the prototype for Nioh. Nioh 2 remains the absolute high bar.

This on gamepass? I'll add it to my list of games I'll never get around to playing.

True story. At a Microsoft Event in 2008 I had the ignominy of playing Ninja Gaiden 2 very badly while Tomonobu Itagaki watched on no doubt dying inside while I mashed my way through it. I had no idea he was watching.

Yeah, it's not as good as Nioh 2. I am still enjoying it more than most games these days, but it's a bit disappointing. It doesn't help that the story and levels feel a bit random - cohesion already wasn't Nioh 2's strong point, but this just feels like an entirely random collection of levels.




Unrelated thereto: I was stuck for a while on another boss fight (after beating the last handful the first time), 20 attempts or so, not a chance. Respecced to water (the boss likes fire), and I absolutely melted (or rather: extinguished?) him in my first attempt after the respec. The game *really* expects you to respec, what with the travel option to the village at any time, and the respec being free.

After maybe three easy main bosses in a row I finally fought a Lu bu. Annoying of course I got it about 5% health first attempt then had to take at least half a dozen goes. Had 5 billion health so it had to be a parry fest.

As far as this Vs nioh 2 it's a tricky one. I think over all I prefer this as the moment to moment combat is far more satisfying to me.

Again though, it very much feels like I'm comparing souls game, or souls games to Bloodborne or ER. They play so closely to each other yet are different in other ways so I can't help but find myself pining for features in those other games. I'd still rather have this than not have it and who knows where it will be a few months down the line. They always do a good job with their DLC as well.

I think they’ll get there, just like they did with Nioh. Team Ninja have proven themselves reactive to issues that pop up in player feedback and effective at solving them. More 3 Kingdoms stuff with loads of different characters to follow and cosplay as, less of the item stats stuff that’s designed for 3000 hours of play - it’d be a nice half-step between a “standard” character action game and the more RPG focused design of Nioh.

If the engine wasn’t completely shit I’d even suggest pushing it more towards the Dynasty Warriors series in terms of enemy numbers too, as they’re already going for those more open battlefield levels. They do need to sort out the AI path finding before they do their take on Chi Bi though, going between boats is enough of a pain with followers.

Much like Nioh, I liked it because I already understood the context. The way it reframes the events of Dynasty/Samurai Warriors is fun but if you’re not already familiar I can see how it’s hard to get a grip on, especially as you move towards the end. The ending in particular will be fairly meaningless I think.

This is next level nonsense, though. I think it kind of assumes that you know the three kingdom story by heart, who everyone is, their relationships, the lot, so it doesnt explain *anything*.

It would be like you randomly popping up in a cutscene with absolutely no explanation and expecting everyone to just know who Decks is.

I think it assumes everyone who plays it hammers dynasty warriors

I AM DECKS AND WILL UNITE ALL UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN AND EARTH

Yeah, I've just arrived at Lu Bu (bloody hell the level leading up to himi was a lot tougher than any other!). I'm doing some research before going in again and one guide suggests respecing either as earth (using imposing slab) or water (using frost lance and water spike). Of course my build is the opposite (wood / fire) so it's very nice that I can do a consequence-free respec. 

Now I've just got to pluck up the courage to take him on. 

There is a water build that absolutely ruins him. He doesn't even get off his horse, you need to get your friendship up to rank 10 with one of the allies and use his armour set. Should be able to find the video on YouTube fairly easily if you have a look. There is also a quick way to get unlimited cups of cordiality if you need to get a rank up quickly.

youtu.be/NeCkl70j-cM