Taking a page from the ever-popular Souls titles, Team Ninja won’t be offering difficulty options in the upcoming multiplayer action-adventure title Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty. This also falls into line with the company’s past title Nioh, as well as the most recent DLC for Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, which can only be played on the highest difficulty setting possible.
Despite the challenge, the team doesn’t want to scare away potential new players. While the difficulty can’t be altered, the dev team has mentioned a morale system, allowing players to become stronger the more morale is increased. It will also be possible to level a character as you would in a traditional action RPG, though how these two systems will interact has yet to be shown in any meaningful way.
A demo for the game is currently available on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Those who complete it will be awarded with the Crouching Dragon Helmet, which will transfer to the full game when it releases next year.
The producer of Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, Masaaki Yamagiwa, recently spoke to MP1st about the decision to only offer one difficulty setting.
“We’re thinking it’s ‘good’ to have one set difficulty so that everyone has the same experience of overcoming a really intense obstacle and they all have that feeling of achievement, like I did it,” Yamagiwa said. “Wo Long is not an easy game by any means, but we’re working to give players as much freedom and agency to play it as they want, overcome obstacles in their own way.”
Last month, it was announced that Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty will take around 40 hours for most players to complete. A new trailer was also released, which you can watch in full below.
While it sounds like the title will offer some options for those out there who may not have the most confidence in their video gaming abilities, it’s also introducing a particularly terrifying addition straight out of titles like Dark Souls 2–enemies that have the ability to summon real-life players as backup. Of course, this doesn’t mean certain death, as the player might not be too great at the game. There’s a chance, however, that you’ll suddenly need to go face to face against the best Souls player in existence, so tread carefully.
Wo Long is inspired by Luo Guanzhong’s Romance of the Three Kingdoms, written in the 14th century. The title was originally teased as part of Koei Tecmo’s 40th-anniversary stream in October 2021 and was formally announced during the Xbox & Bethesda Showcase 2022 in June. Fumihiko Yasuda is directing the title, previously known for his work on both Nioh and Nioh 2. The producer Masaaki Yamagiwa will be known to many Souls fans for his work on Bloodborne.
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is scheduled to release in early 2023 for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
