Wo-Long: Fallen Dynasty (Nioh/Dark Souls/Sekiro Clone with Co-Op) by Team Ninja

[jro]

Great balls of Vishnu Lu Bu is tough. It's sort of a pain in the ass but I can't help but admire Team Ninja's willingness to throw down hard skill checks with zero cheese.

I.e. I beat Sword Saint in Sekiro by spamming the umbrella counter for projectiles into counter damage, which felt like a pretty interesting strategy that did indeed take skill even if not the intended method. In WL you parry or die pretty much.

 

[jro]

Just beat Lu Bu. I had pretty much given up, uninstalled, then yesterday evening thought WTF might as well give it another shot, no idea why other than being a masochist and thinking no I am not going to lose at a Team Ninja game.

So tonight I ran around with Man of Benevolence Guy for like three hours killing dudes (I had already given him and one other guy all my Cups of Best Buddies) until I could get his armor and weapon and keep the momentum meter (whatevs it's called) at 25, then tried Lu Bu again and was about to die and then somehow won on a parry into red spear to yo face move. Didn't even really register as that whole OMG adrenaline dump you get when you beat a Souls/Sekiro boss (HELLO Genichiro and Sword Saint), more like, shit did that just happen kind of feeling.

I guess that's like a third through the game I'm sure it only gets easier from here.

 

[jro]

That last line was meant to be tongue-in-cheek but actually turned out to be kinda true. Demon Lu Bu was far, far easier than human LB, and I'd say only the Blindfolded Boy really stood out as challenging, and even then I got him on my second try. The Crouching Dragon trial at the very end of the post-game though, that's rough, feels like it's tuned like Nioh's DLC where you're supposed to come back after leveling more in NG+ with the way that dang Aoye can literally one-shot me at level 120.

Game very much changed my mind, I'd be happy to play a sequel.

edit: also found that certain magic spells can be very effective. Changed from wood to ice build around mid-game and then learned to love the icicle rain spell that pretty much wrecks any enemy that stands still for long at all, i.e. pretty nice against bosses if you have allies that can draw aggro. Good move by TN to allow for easy respec as desired.

Edit again, I know there's a new Crouching Dragon challenge if you've finished everything else but I'm not sure I wanna do Lu Bu again with a bunch of other motherfuckers mixed in. I suppose I'll try it sometime but slow cooking my nads sounds not fun for now.

 

[jro]

Finished up Crouching Dragon's Trial a few nights ago to get 100% in the default difficulty, sounds like Aoye is almost always the hardest part of that for people. I'm about 25% through NG+ now but the sorta weird tuning (main level is easy as hell then the boss can two-shot me again) is making me think I'm going to hold off until the dlc comes out starting at the end of the month.

Online community, maybe not coincidentally, reminds me a lot of that in Nioh. Fair few number of players that just legit want help against a hard boss and that's it. Then there's the weirdos that pose at the boss door and try completely inane shit that will never work and are basically completely trolling their summons, just odd. I had one guy, I remember, in Nioh 2 that summoned me then ran all around the level aggroing everything he could and trying to lead them back to me. I eventually aggroed a guy he couldn't kill, summoner died, and I had an odd sense of respect for the sheer gall/gamesmanship. Couple days ago in WL, guy summoned me, then spent ten minutes at a shrine, took off all his armor (I know it's not as big a deal in WL but it made him a two shot kill guaranteed after), posed by the door for another five minutes, then finally went in and solely used thrust kick on the boss. I revived him once then let him die and was like WTF. Didn't have that spice factor like the N2 guy I guess, imo.

Edit, not good at posting on tab. That comment meant for here.