The original Wo Long is an overlooked gem. Fast-paced, brutal, and compelling, the game made a name for itself amongst hardcore action-RPG aficionados because of its key gimmick: that basically every single attack could be deflected. While some criticised this because it made the game ‘repetitive’, I thought it was interesting and well-executed enough to carry you through the entire playtime. Augmented by a momentum mechanic that rethought stamina for the fast-paced fights, and a still best-in-class ‘morale’ system that encouraged exploration and completionism, Wo Long has a permanent place on my harddrive.
And, after playing a good five hours of Wo Long 2, I can safely say it’s better in practically every way. It’s now my most anticipated game of 2027. The original game played it safe and stuck close to the solid foundations Team Ninja built with both Nioh and Nioh 2. The combat was grounded (or, as grounded as you’re going to get in a fantasy game about Han Dynasty-era demons) and was clearly spun out of Nioh’s obsession with bushido and the contrast between motion and stillness. Wo Long, as a series, was always supposed to be more concerned with Chinese martial arts. The second game is far more successful with this, mostly I believe because Team Ninja has the confidence to step away from those Nioh roots and experiment with more fluidity and verticality.
And why is that? It’s because of Ninja Gaiden. Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember was in development alongside Ninja Gaiden 4, and you can tell. There’s a “three-dimensionality” in this title that was lacking in the first game. In Wo Long, I would jump into most encounters, mostly because the slightly dopey AI wouldn’t see or hear me coming, and I could land a fatal strike. It was an instant win. In Wo Long 2, though, you need
Maybe Team Ninja has internalised the criticism of the first game a lot, because whilst you can still deflect most attacks, even trash enemies have special moves that need to be dodged or countered, not just deflected. As a result, you need to get pretty dexterous with your hands, hitting the right combination of shoulder buttons and face buttons in some kind of unholy medley of Guitar Hero and Simon Says in order to survive even the most bog-standard enemy. Hey, it keeps you concentrating. Predictably, then, the learning curve is much steeper than in either the first Wo Long or Nioh, but the payoff is also more sublime.
For example, learning which attack animations leave your foes vulnerable to jumping moves before they are able to hurt you is important. Most enemies will glow red when winding up to attack you, and if you hit a shoulder button and jump on them at the same time, you will knock them out of the telegraph animation and inflict stamina damage. You need to be quick – and very close – in order to pull this off, but the rewards are worth it. You can also hold R1/RB and hit the deflect button for what is effectively a ‘critical parry’, which has a shorter effective window but does more stamina and health damage as a result. Basically, you use this when you’ve got the timing of your opponent’s moves down to an art, finishing them off with a spectacular flair. Think Nioh 2’s ‘burst counter’ but with more utility, and you’re in the right area.
Attribution
So long, farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, good fight.
The level design is also more open (more akin to Nioh 3‘s semi-open world than anything else), and much more vertical than any other Team Ninja game I’ve played yet. This means exploration is more varied, with flags dotted around the landscape to tease you into encounters and light platforming challenges to capture them, that actually feel pretty good, given the genre. Movement all around has been improved on compared to that pervasive feeling of ‘high gravity’ in the first game. Whatever the other internal studios learned over on Ninja Gaiden 4 really is showing here.
So, we’ve covered my references to Nioh and Ninja Gaiden in the headline, but where on earth does Dead or Alive come from? It’s the weapons. Each weapon has the unique moveset you’d expect from a character in a fighting game. That’s always been the case in Team Ninja games, but it feels more distinct in Wo Long 2, possibly because of the aerial chains and combos that modify the base, ground-only attacks. Equipping straight sabres, spears, staves, glaives, hammers, or jointed flails, immediately makes you feel like you’re embodying a different character from a fighting game roster. With various Martial Art skills – per weapon – that can be equipped on a whim, you’ve got more say over the final playstyle than you ever did in Ninja Gaiden 4, though I still miss the weapon variety and stance work of Nioh; I just don’t think that system can be beat.
But in a game that’s as singularly about forward momentum as Wo Long 2 is, six weapon classes is more than enough. You’re not so much focused on picking holes in defenses as obliterating them entirely, learning the cadence of dodges, jumps, parries, and the level of aggression required per enemy in order to break down their guard and annihilate them. Jumping into a Martial Art move, twirling into a critical deflect, and then landing a fatal blow on an enemy causes pirouette like chain that makes you feel like the most lethal ballet dancer in China.
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty was already a classic, in my eyes, weighed down only by whatever tendrils of influence Nioh still exerted over the breakout franchise. But, with Wings of Ember, Team Ninja is clearly emboldened and high on morale, confident enough to take all the slightly obscured gems of the first game and place them front and centre here. You can try it for yourself in a demo that is available on Steam, PlayStation and Xbox right now, too.