Key Preview Takeaways:
- Visually, Wo Long 2 is a beautiful game.
- No stamina gauge means faster action.
- I love that the combat system encouraged me to be aggressive and chase perfection.
I have a confession to make, friends: I’ve never played the original Wo Long. I know, I know. Dust off your pitchforks, light your torches. I have it coming in the same way that we all do. “How could you, Will? You’re an action game guy!” Listen, I’m of the opinion that Team Ninja is one of the best to ever do it. Maybe even the best. But everybody’s got blind spots. That’s what I told myself as a giant spider thing with weird arms named Wugu who I’m sure would have been easier if I’d played the original smashed me into the ground for the umpteenth time. I was also coming into the fight cold. My demo had been split by an interview with producer Mazakazu Hirayama and development producer Masaaki Yamagiwa. Great for this preview. Bad for me. But the beauty of Team Ninja’s games has always been that they ask you to believe you can make it to the next moment, that you can be perfect for just a few more seconds. You have to believe. And I did.
But before we talk about the end, we have to talk about the beginning. My demo started with a simple objective: retake the demonic island. Sure, man. Why not? As I maneuvered my character down the Red Cliffs, I was stunned by Wo Long’s beauty. Team Ninja’s games have always had a distinct visual style, but if I wasn’t marching off to battle the demonic, I’d have stopped to take in the view. Flowers swaying with the wind, a shadow cast by a wooden fence, a leaf carried gently to the ground by the breeze. Even the ships with their brilliant red sails, afire under the cliff, and the glowing mountain of corruption rising from the ground like a severed fist were beautiful, in their own way. Something to fight for, I guess. But beauty isn’t why I’m here.
Down the Cliffs, onto what remains of the pier. Open a chest for some of the loot Team Ninja has become famous (infamous?) for over the years. Raise a flag for the future and morale. Across a rope attached to a ballista’s arrow, I find my first foes. Regular soldiers. My Gray Iron Dual Chakrams (everything, everything is Xena) make quick work of them. God, it’s good to play an action game where weapons have movelists again. Just have to be careful not to follow those poor fools into the water myself. My character can duel with the best of them, but he can’t swim.
Across the water is where I find my favorite trick of the demo: launching a guy into the air and watching as he falls into the water, then jumping away at the last moment so I don’t take the plunge myself. Every game should have jump cancels. Wo Long 2 understands this. Yes.
A couple of boats (and deaths) later and I am coming to grips with Wo Long 2’s combat, its speed. And it is fast, something Hirayama and Yamagiwa emphasized when I spoke to them.
“We got heavy inspiration, obviously because it’s set in China, [from] Chinese martial arts. And for example, if we were to take a game that was based in Japan, like a samurai game, the samurai really focuses on the non-movement as well as when they actually have to move. But when we looked at Chinese martial arts, there’s a lot of speed, there’s a lot of back and forth, there’s a lot of over-the-topness to it. So we definitely got the battle system inspiration from that.”
But the battle system also emphasizes aggressive play. “One of the concepts that we have for this game is we got every inspiration from Chinese movies… back and forth attack and defense, like action movies…” the producers told me. “There’s going to be really speedy combat and a lot of back and forth, but when you perform attacks in series… it’s going to open your options up a little more and you’ll be able to do more actions by continuing to attack.”
You can feel it immediately. By continuing to land hits, you build your own Spirit gauge, which you can spend on Martials Arts (insert drum roll), special attacks unique to each of Wo Long 2’s 18 weapons or Wizardry. Bolts of lightning to electrocute the unprepared. Freezing your blade to take out enemies made of fire. It’s in making the choices at the right moments, and being willing to play defense, that Wo Long 2 shines. You could just block, I suppose, or roll away. These are the tools we are used to in the soulslike, and they are the weapons of cowards. But there is no stamina gauge here, nothing to limit the fun or prevent you from being aggressive on the attack and risking parries on defense. Transcendence comes in the moments you see the attack coming, all outlined in a flashing red circle enclosing its occupant like a halo, and rush into it for the deflect. Perhaps you will die. Perhaps you will be glorious. But unless you open yourself to failure, neither option can come to pass. Glory is only possible in vulnerability. No heroes were forged in safety, in the conservative. I know what I would rather be.
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