In addition to these basic movements, the player runs through the era of war while using magic called senjutsu and the effect of summoning beasts called “divine beasts”. If you’d like to learn more about the underlying system, check out our previously published demo preview article.
Adjustments from the trial version have made it easier to decide on the change, and the speed of using recovery medicine has been improved.
First of all, I would like to write about two adjustments that I felt remarkably when compared with the trial version. One is that it has become easier to decide on Hua Jin. Huking is the key to winning or losing a battle, but in the trial version, the timing felt severe. However, in the build I tried this time, it was considerably relaxed. It’s now easier to aim for a change even when your physical strength is at the limit, so you can fight without hesitation.
The other is “improving the speed of drinking recovery items”. At the time of the trial version, the character stiffened for a long time when using recovery against the enemy’s attack motion, and there were many cases where the character would die after being slashed even though they wanted to recover. It’s tuned to be fairly quick to use, with less stiffness and a nicer recovery.
As a result of these adjustments, the overall exhilaration of an action game has been raised. The enemies didn’t get weaker, but it felt like the players were able to move as they wished.
Experience 3 new stages, the key to capture is the morale rank
This time, we were able to test out two stages of the story “Section 1: Tenkogasu Yellow Fire” and “Section 2: Two Shadows of Gigi”, as well as Mt.
“Section 1: Scorching Yellow Fire” is the beginning of the game, set in a village in Xuzhou. The player, a volunteer soldier who arrived in this village to subdue the Yellow Turbans, meets a boy, and the story begins to move rapidly. Villages on the brink of destruction are infested with common soldiers dressed in yellow turbans, and from the beginning, the theme of this work, “Romance of the Three Kingdoms,” is strongly conscious of the taste. This is a stage with a strong tutorial aspect, and the player proceeds while confirming the basic actions and operations of the game. Basically, it has a structure that is close to a straight road, and the last thing waiting for you is Zhang Liang, who was indebted to you in the trial version.
After finishing the boss battle in Section 1, the player will arrive at Higashiyama, Taizan County, which will be the stage of “Second Section: Two Shadows of the Righteous”. And Zhao Yun, one of the heroes representing the Three Kingdoms, appears first. As soon as Zhao Yun meets the player, he will travel with them as a companion. From here, a system called “reinforcement” that accompanies companions is released.
If you have friends, the enemy’s attack will be dispersed somewhat, but basically this friend will not lead the battle. It is not effective to let your friends fight and run away, it is your own play that holds the key to the strategy.
When the second section begins, the stage expands further. The stage of this work has many height differences, and the main character can also double jump from the beginning, so he will fly around the roof tower. It is also possible to attack the enemy from a high place, so it is fun to find a route to attack from above as a strategy when you find the enemy.
What you should pay attention to when clearing the stage is the “morale rank”, which is a unique system of this work. The morale rank is a rank that indicates the relative strength balance between the player and the enemy, and can be raised by defeating the enemy. However, the same applies to enemies, and enemies with a higher morale rank than the player will inevitably become formidable enemies.
The morale rank is reset when you die, but you can get the “indomitable rank” by releasing the military flags scattered throughout the stage (there are also small military flags “flag flags”). Indomitable ranks fix the minimum morale rank. In other words, if you release a lot of flags on the stage, you can fix the minimum morale rank at a high value.
When facing a boss, if the player’s morale rank is low, the already strong boss will become a more formidable enemy. become a strategy. Not only bosses, but also enemies with extremely high morale ranks appear throughout the stage. You can measure the strength of the enemy with the morale rank and decide whether to defeat or avoid it. It is important not only to mow down all the enemies in front of you, but also to avoid once and find another route.
There is no doubt that this work is a highly difficult death game, but I felt that the placement of the “war flag”, which is also a checkpoint for retrying after death, is user-friendly. There is always a military flag point in front of the boss, and the military flags are scattered within a relatively short range on the stage. It is exquisitely designed so that repeated retries do not bother you.
A hideously beautiful boss, Gouetsu, awaits you in the beautiful nature of Mt.
Mt. Tenchuu, which is also being released on IGN First, is a stage surrounded by a bamboo forest with a stream running through it, and in the early stages, it cuts through the road surrounded by bamboo groves.
Tenzhuzan is a stage where you can see the scenery of the mountains. Multiple routes are prepared to the point where the boss is. You can go around while searching for the flag, or you can run straight through the route to the boss and aim to clear the stage in the shortest possible time. A wide variety of characters appear one after another, even among the normal enemy demons. There are a lot of ferocious enemies that will be defeated at once if you let your guard down even for a moment, and you can’t stop the tension just by advancing along the way.
The boss of Mt. Tenchuu, Gouetsu, has a distinctive visual impact, but the swaying hair is particularly impressive and you can enjoy the advanced graphics. Despite its large size, it moves agilely and moves quickly, so it tends to be overwhelmed, but you should be able to capture it by firmly deciding on the kajin. There are plenty of attacks, so there should be many attacks that are difficult to decide on at first. It will be important to challenge repeatedly and learn variations.
Diverse weapon types with variations to accommodate different player preferences and playstyles
Another highlight of this work is the wide variety of weapon types that can be manipulated. The other day, I introduced some weapon types, but in this trial, I was able to try more hammers, taichi pestle sticks, and swords.
All of the weapon types that I was able to try have different behaviors with simple operations, and each has its own personality. Don’t think too hard, equip a new weapon, kill a few enemies, and you’ll learn the weapon’s personality.
Here, I would like to explain the differences mainly in terms of firepower, reach, and stiffness (the time when the character cannot move after an attack). Twin swords have low firepower and short reach, but they are less stiff and easy to move to the next move. Players can easily move even after attacking. Great swords and spears have excellent firepower and reach, but their stiffness is a little longer. The contrast between the heavyweight weapons, the big mallet and the taichi pestle, is more pronounced. In addition to the stiffness after the attack, there is a slight stiffness in the motion before launching the attack, which makes it vulnerable, but it has tremendous firepower. However, weapons with large gaps like these can be used after deciding to counter with Hua Jin. The more vulnerable the weapon is, the more effective it is to evade the opponent’s attack and “seek a chance to counterattack”.
As a result, I ended up playing with weapons with high firepower such as long swords and mallets. This is a preference of play, and the writer was challenging the play to do a large amount of damage without interrupting the combo as much as possible in his attack turn. On the other hand, Kurabe, who played the test together at Mt.
It is effective to change weapons according to the enemy’s attack style, but more than that, it may be said that it is a variation to respond to differences in personal tastes and play styles. There are no weak weapons that cannot be used, and each has its own strengths. All operations are unified and simple. There is a solid degree of freedom to pick up your favorite weapon and challenge the battle with simple operations.
It was also mentioned in the interview about the weapon type, but the existence of the blacksmith who met along the way was also revealed.
You can pay money to upgrade your weapons or buy new weapons. It wasn’t unlocked yet when I met the author, but it is said that the special effects attached to the weapon can also be carefully selected at the blacksmith and given to the weapon of your choice. It can be said that it is a good consideration that it is firmly compatible with people who like hacks and laps.
Senjutsu is a battle flag, and divine beasts are obtained through story progression.
“Senjutsu” is magic, but in this work, you can learn it by unlocking it in the skill tree. The unlock condition is to level up the “five elements” that control the player’s parameters.The distribution of the attributes of senjutsu is as follows. Fire line (fire attribute), Water line (water attribute), Earth line (rock attribute), Wood line (thunder attribute), Metal line (poison attribute). Senjutsu with different attributes can be freely arranged on the four shortcuts. According to the director, Mr. Hirayama, depending on the compatibility of attributes and Senjutsu, it is possible to use Senjutsu to nullify the powerful attacks of the boss. Many of the immortal arts that can be learned in the early stages are projectiles, and they weren’t powerful enough to hit the enemy’s weak point attributes and defeat them at once, but they were useful as medium-range projectiles that could be easily deployed. In addition to its ability to keep you in check from mid-range, it is also useful as a combo part, and is often used not only in stage exploration but also in boss battles.
“Divine Beast” that helps the player, but this can be summoned by advancing the main story. The first Kirin you get is created from Zhao Yun. Divine beasts are summoned by consuming the gauge, and I often used them as a way to rebuild the situation when the enemy cornered me, like Bomb in a shooting game.
Recommended for death game beginners
As a result of adjusting the problems raised in the trial version, I got the impression that the contrast between the strength of the enemy and the exhilaration of the player became clearer than in the previous version. The operability and comfort of the action are up, but it’s not that the texture is gone.
Each weapon type is unique, and the play feel changes just by switching. I felt that it was carefully adjusted so that “various ways of playing according to the player’s personality” are possible.
The story that pushes the dark fantasy to the fore is also powerful, and the content of the cut scenes can be expected.
One of the points where “Wo Long” can be recommended for those who are new to “Death Game” is the placement of checkpoints in the stage, which I felt was user-friendly. It may not be all stages, but as long as you played multiple stages in the early stages, the stage structure was prepared to make it easy to retry. With such attention to detail, even users who are unfamiliar with this genre should be able to capture it by trying many times.
It seems that there are still many attractive elements in “Wo Long” than I played, but for the time being, I would like to wait for the release date with my neck long. This work is scheduled to be released on March 3, 2023 for PS5 / PS4 / Xbox Series X / Xbox One / PC.
