Overall, Wo-Long is a pretty good game. It shines during its chaotic combat sequences, bolstered by flashy animations and bombastic boss battles. Boss encounters, character customization, and the "spirit" system all serve as notable strengths for this title. Graphics and level design are sadly quite outdated, yet still yield strangely long loading screens. The game runs fairly well on Xbox Series X, and I personally experienced little technical hurdles and no crashes. Although the minute-to-minute combat is fantastic, it becomes hard to enjoy it with enemy encounters that prioritize cheesy hidden placements of enemies and overall bland enemy variety to unleash your growing skills upon. As one masters the game's parry system, the difficulty becomes manageable and quite rewarding, but it is hard to not grow frustrated as you traverse redundantly designed levels (i.e. draining a moat to enter a monotone tunnel 3+ times in one mission) in hopes of reaching the next exciting boss fight. The morale system, while neat it in concept, is also hindered by the frustrating enemy layouts. Working diligently to raise your morale can easily become instantly negated by some foot-soldier hiding behind a corner, ready to instant hit you with a critical strike just because you so dared as to explore the world. This nerfs you going into the next encounter, and in a way would sometimes discourage me from engaging with the combat system at every chance… despite it being the game's strongest facet. The spirit system, in contrast, is well realized. Balancing overall offense, defense, wizardry, martial arts, and parries while considering your fluctuating spirit bar is a core means by which the combat stays splendidly exciting. This dance shines during boss fights. These boss encounters proved to be a consistent highlight throughout the entirety of the campaign. Although the deflect system is critical to nearly every one of these fights, there are enough differences in visual design and attack patterns for these fights to all prove wonderfully distinct. Fans of fast-paced, challenging combat will most likely enjoy their time with Wo-Long: Fallen Dynasty. For a completionist, this journey's runtime (excluding NG+, and only considering achievements/trophies) will likely fall in the 40-60 hour range for most people.

7.5 / 10