Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty finally gets a first look at its amazing gameplay. The title is grounded in both magic and Chinese martial arts.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty Gameplay Trailer Shows Off The Game’s Fast-Paced Action Combat

Team Ninja and Koei Tecmo are at it again! During this year’s Gamescom event, the team unveiled a full-length trailer that featured actual gameplay. Footage lasted only a bit over a minute, and it was filled with so many things to unpack and digest.

Let’s go ahead and see what Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty will look and play like!

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty Gameplay Revealed

The trailer starts out slowly with previews of various game levels and minor beasts. Once Team Ninja’s logo comes out at about the 15-second mark, all hell breaks loose (in a good way). Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty’s main feature is given center stage: its quick and brutal combat.

Our unnamed player character is a soldier who fights for his survival at the end of the Han Dynasty. Combat this time around focuses heavily on dodging and evading instead of parrying and countering (though you still have the option to do these).

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty’s fights are quick and brutal, and extremely stylish due to the acrobatic movements that the character can perform. They will take up arms against both man and beast, and everything mythical in between. Great sound effects and visual feedback also further create a heightened sense of weight and impact in its fights.

Swordplay is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to weaponry. We will also have access to glaives, and more. The game is also heavily based on Chinese Martial Arts and was even motion captured using real experts.

No Time to Rest

According to game producers Fumihiko Yasuda and Masaaki Yamagiwa, the game will not have a stamina bar like in Nioh games. Players will have to make split decisions about whether to evade or go on the offensive. Removing the stamina resource entirely will remove one more thing that the player will need to keep track of, resulting in a more focused encounter.

This is a good thing, considering the trailer footage is so fast-paced. Removing the Stamina Bar will eliminate the downtime that usually comes with waiting for the bar to fill up. Players no longer need to dance around the combat area while waiting for their dodge to finally become available again!

Being agile is also another thing that this game will do differently compared to the Dark Souls games or Nioh 2. Since this new character can now jump around, they are free from the shackles of horizontal play space. Team Ninja was able to create environments that are even larger this time around to account for the player’s ability to traverse verticality.

Speaking of exploration, it also looks like we might get a mount to ride on and gallop into combat. While there wasn’t gameplay footage specifically dedicated to mounted combat, there was an in-game cutscene that suggested that it will be part of the story at least. Here’s hoping that we get the option, as fighting on Torrent was quite fun in Elden Ring.

The Magical Side of the Three Kingdoms

We also got to see some magic available to our character. Mystical arts exist in this world and thus aren’t too grounded in reality. Aside from being able to set his sword aflame, the character can also summon lightning bolts to smite his foes. In more dire circumstances, he can even summon a great flaming Pheonix that will incinerate his foes. Summoning reminds us of Spirit Ashes in Elden Ring, though the Lone Wolves have nothing on Wo Long’s flaming avian.

Hopefully, there will be tons more summonable creatures to play around with in this game.

It’s a good thing then that we have many magical abilities at our disposal, as the demonic hordes of Chinese Mythology are also quite formidable. The game’s footage also gave us a glimpse at some of the epic bosses we will have an opportunity to take down. Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty showed off a corrupted crane, a demonic serpentine lady, an unholy gatekeeper, and an ancient Swap Fiend.

The Wait for the Dynasty

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty has been confirmed to release on all major consoles, except the Nintendo Switch. It will also be available on day 1 via Xbox GamePass, which should be great for those who have access to the excellent service. No price point has yet been determined, but it will hopefully cost $59.99 instead of the increased price of some of the new next-gen games. Wo Long will release in “Early” 2023.

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For more on Gamescom, check out The Last Case of Benedict Fox Preview – Everything We Know So Far, Phantom Hellcat Takes Center Stage With Intense Theatrical Combat, and The First Descendant Official Trailer Shows Off Its Cast and Combat.