[Review] Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty – Complete Edition

If there is one thing Koei Tecmo loves revisiting, it is the story of Romance of the Three Kingdoms. It has been the inspiration for many of their games, including their turn-based strategy game of the same name, the hack-and-slash Musou Dynasty Warriors, Dynasty Tactics, Kessen II, and the Sangokushi Eiketsuden series. Most have been real-time or turn-based tactical games, but now Koei Tecmo is changing tact with their own Soulslike game in the form of Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty.

Now, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is not a new game, nor is it Koei Tecmo’s Team Ninja studio’s first foray into Soulslikes (that honor belongs to NIOH). It has already been out on other platforms since 2023, and received mostly favourable reviews from critics. It saw enough success that several DLC expansions were released so players could continue to enjoy its universe a little bit more. With a sequel on its way in 2027, and the Nintendo Switch 2 being much more powerful than its predecessor, this action-packed RPG has now come to the system as Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty – Complete Edition, which bundles the base game and all previously released DLC into one tidy package.

Okay, so let’s dive into the game’s story. Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty – Complete Edition is a reimagining of the classic Romance of the Three Kingdoms, retold in a dark fantasy setting. Set in 184 AD during the Later Han Dynasty, China has not only fallen victim to the rising Yellow Turban Rebellion, but has become overrun by demons and terrifying beasts. The fall of Man is all but assured, as corrupted warlords seek a mysterious elixir that will grant them immortality at the cost of mutating them into demons and other monstrosities.

The player takes control of a nameless militia soldier who, after being fatally wounded, is saved by a mysterious blindfolded boy, thanks to a jade pendant that was gifted to the soldier mere moments before his injury. There is little reprieve, though, as the protagonist and the young boy are soon ambushed by Zhang Liang, General of Man. During the battle, Zhang Liang transforms himself into some kind of Chimera, and the soldier is pressured into unleashing his own power to summon a divine beast. After defeating Zhang Liang, A dark Taoist appears to kidnap the blindfolded boy and knocks the nameless soldier off a cliff and into the deep waters below. The nameless soldier regains consciousness to find himself on the shore. He picks himself up and sets off to rescue the blindfolded boy from the dark Taoist. On his journey, he will meet legendary heroes and formidable foes, whilst engaging in combat with fabled beasts of old, and summoning divine beasts of his own.

The story of Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty – Complete Edition alone is enough for me to want to play it without hesitation. It has a pretty interesting story, with interesting characters taken straight from Chinese history and mythical creatures to boot. Where I falter with it, though, is that it’s a Soulslike game, and I just can’t gel with them at all. Granted, I played Lies of P: Complete Edition on Switch 2, and I did enjoy that. However, to do so, I had to reduce the difficulty of that just so that I could play it without getting completely owned every five seconds.

So, yes. As you can imagine, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty – Complete Edition is a Soulslike game where you have to grind through grunts and prepare yourself for a lengthy boss battle where every mistake you make could cost you dearly. Fail to deflect or parry an attack, and your health will diminish very quickly. I learnt that the hard way with the game’s second boss (the first outside of the tutorial). It would come at me like a freight train, and I had not quite picked up the skills necessary to deflect its attacks properly. I have since discovered that the game’s Morale system is a buffer of sorts when it comes to the game’s difficulty. The game does not have varying difficulty modes and instead uses a Morale System. As you get better at deflecting enemies and defeating them without taking damage, you can improve your Morale, which will make you stronger. You will be able to deal more damage and take less damage from enemies. If you get hit or defeated by an enemy, you will lose morale and become weaker instead.

When it comes to combat, you will have an arsenal of weapons at your disposal, including swords, knives, polearms, and bows. The standard attack button is Y, and strong attacks (called spirit attacks in-game) are designated to X. Your ranged weapons are assigned to ZL to aim and ZR to fire. As well as your typical attacks, there are also Martial arts that you can attack with, and Wizardry spells you can conjure. By defeating enemies, you can earn genuine Qi that can be used to upgrade the five Chinese Mythological Elements that make up your stat build. Wood Virtue increases HP and Spirit sustainability, Fire Virtue reduces Spirit cost for spirit attacks, and so on. By building up these stats, you will also gain Points that you can use to learn Wizardry Spells; however, you must keep in mind that the respective virtue level of a learned spell is equal to or higher than the minimum limit of that particular spell; otherwise, you can’t use it.

The general gameplay loop to Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty – Complete Edition is to defeat enemies, collect any loot they drop, equip it if it is better than what you have already, take on tough bosses, loot them, and repeat. The amount of gear that enemies drop is quite abundant, which is great in the beginning as you try to find decent gear to equip, but eventually you will be encumbered with low-level gear you can’t use. Fortunately, you can sell unwanted gear at Battle Flag checkpoints, but better yet, you can salvage it at the blacksmith in the Hidden Village to get upgrade materials that you can use to improve the weapons you want to keep.

Being the Complete Edition, all previously released DLC is included. The Battle of Zhongyuan, Upheaval in Jingxiang, and Conqueror of Jiangdong content is all here, as well as extra weapon sets that you will be able to equip early on in the game, and a special accessory that pinpoints all the locations of the Marking Flags on the Minimap.

Although the game is predominantly a single-player experience, there is an online multiplayer mode where up to five players can team up to play together. You can set up or join a random lobby, set up a private lobby for friends using a password, and there is the invade option where you can jump into someone else’s game to disrupt them. I will admit that I have yet to try out the multiplayer stuff, but it’s great to have these features as well for those who will make better use of it. I must note, though, that an active Nintendo Switch Online subscription is required if you want to make use of the online multiplayer features.

I went into Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty – Complete Edition with initial interest that was swatted by frustration when I couldn’t beat the darn Monkey beast in the first hour or so of the game. I had to step away for a bit, then refocus on the best technique to beat him. As I have mentioned before, I have played many hack-and-slash games, but Soulslikes are not my forte. It goes against my usual action game skill set, as I had to adjust my typical button-mashing technique and learn to be more patient with my foes. I eventually got to grips with the mechanics of the game and found the deflect/parry system much more lenient than I previously thought, but it does differ between enemies. Once I had gotten a better understanding of the game’s mechanics, I found myself enjoying the game a lot more.

When it comes to resolution and performance, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty – Complete Edition offers a Prioritize FPS mode or Prioritize Resolution Mode. They are the only two modes and can only be chosen from the main title menu. The Prioritize Resolution Mode outputs 1440p, but drops the frame rate to 30fps. When playing in docked mode, this is probably the preferred option, as you will get a more detailed image, but the frame rate is not a steady 30 and does stutter in intense fights. The Prioritize 60 FPS mode goes the other way. The frame rate will hit a steady 60fps; however, the trade-off is that the resolution will be knocked right down to 720p, making the visuals look a lot muddier, which is definitely not ideal on large TVs. As for Handheld mode, the frame rate and resolution are locked to the Prioritize FPS mode, which is better for the Switch 2’s screen as it doesn’t need to be 1440p.

With all that said and done, I have actually become a convert to Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty – Complete Edition. It takes time to learn, and more to master it, but the mix of martial arts, sword fighting, and using flashy elemental spells makes this game so cool and engaging to play. If you enjoy Chinese Mythology and martial arts and are willing to put in the time, you will find Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty – Complete Edition a game well worth playing, even on Switch 2.