《Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember》上手预览：中国军阀音乐剧与恶魔

When I first heard the cross between The Romance of the Three Kingdoms (or Dynasty Warriors), Soulslikes, and Demons – Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty was getting a sequel, I literally jumped out of my chair. The first romp through ancient China took a dystopian approach to the retold events of the Three Kingdoms, with solid combat mechanics, excellent enemy design, and hard difficulty in spades. All of this, plus reimagining some of the instantly recognizable generals of Three Kingdoms lore, is what Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty was all about, and KOEI TECMO is continuing the story.

Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember continues the conflict right after the events of the first title, but includes more reimagining’s of the Three Kingdoms lore, quality-of-life improvements, and new weaponry to destroy adversaries with; so, when allowed to get behind the glaive in Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember, I agreed faster than the Three Kingdoms did to shut down the Yellow Turban Rebellion. Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember improves on its predecessor in nearly every way.

“Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember improves on its predecessor in nearly every way.”

First things first: in Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember, you play as a new unnamed warrior (aka the Chosen One), introduced as an injected plot point in the conflict and separate from the main character of the first title. This time around, Cao Cao, the ruthless leader of Wei, burned your village to the ground. This sets the stage for why you’re helping with the conflict, but beyond the crib notes, Wo Long 2’s narrative remains a mystery for launch. That said, my time playing Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember started on the set-ablaze Yangtze River in the middle of the Battle of Red Cliffs.

This is a key point in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms conflict, and it’s instantly recognizable for scholars of the series. While The Three Kingdoms blames Cao Cao’s inability to continue marching on seasickness, it remains a mystery what happened in the Battle of Red Cliffs.

Like Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, Wo Long 2 establishes its narrative with the musical theatrics present in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and this works amazingly, adding meaning and reason to the fighting while allowing demons to remain front and centre. Unlike Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, however, Wo Long 2 deploys a vastly improved UI, a new way martial arts work, and more weapons to defeat demons with.

In practice, Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember is light years ahead of its predecessor. While the same dark fantasy coat is draped over the Battle of Red Cliffs, the level’s design takes you through hidden passages, Dark Souls 2-like enemies that will backstab you, and general sequences that feel dramatic on par with Dynasty Warriors. In one scene, I used a ballista to shoot a rope across the Yangtze River and ran along it like a Shinobi to get across.

While it sometimes feels choreographed, Battle of Red Cliffs keeps you on your toes, down to environmental hazards (in the form of constant on-and-off fire blasts) and enemy placement. Wo Long is back like it never left in Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember. Aside from quality level design, the entire weapon and skill (known as martial arts) system has been completely overhauled. You won’t have to rely on a random weapon and RNG drops to use your favourite martial art; you can now learn it from the skill menu and equip it from the same menu.

While this seems like a small change, this is a massive improvement over Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty. Previously, I would toss weapons if they didn’t have my favourite Glaive skill attached, even if the weapon was far better than mine. Now, the Glaive skill can be carried to new weaponry without having to forcefully nerf your character to keep it.

Team Ninja has also been tuning smaller-level issues, and all weapon functions and buffs are now clearly legible and have explanations attached. Like Diablo IV’s after-launch patch, Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember removes a lot of the noise around weapon abilities and makes it easier for players to tell what all the buffs do. Now, weapon stat scaling and how the weapon will work with your build is far easier to read.

On top of that, Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember introduces numerous new weapon types to help you destroy Cao Cao’s forces (and demon spawn), and each one felt great in practice. The Dual Chakrams (used by Sun Shangxiang in Dynasty Warriors 3) have made it into Wo Long 2, along with Nunchaku and a massive Great Hammer that would make Kirby’s King Dee DeeDee squeal in envy. Of course, former weaponry like Glaives, Spears and Pommel Sabres are still on the menu, and they still work with the precision of the first title.

“Moving through the atmosphere in Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember is exactly as advertised in the first game, but combat overall feels far more fluid and responsive.”

As I flitted through the level, I also noticed new warlords are present in the Battle of Redcliffs. For the first time in Wo Long, Pang Tong, the “Fledgling Phoenix” and master strategist, becomes your ally, and Huang Gai (who returns from the DLC) plays a significant role in the conflict. Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember stays true to the timing and timeline of each battle, and deploys warlords accordingly. Due to this (and the events of Fallen Dynasty), Lu Bu will be MIA.

Moving through the atmosphere in Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember is exactly as advertised in the first game, but combat overall feels far more fluid and responsive. Reading enemy movement relies on recognition still, but Wo Long 2 gives more visual cues (like a flash of red or another colour during a nastier attack) to let you respond.

In combat, Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember tethers these improvements together to unleash a masterful flowing combat system that allows you to feel like a true warrior of the Three Kingdoms. What you get in return is growing into what feels like the strongest Team Ninja fighting system to date. In one combat segment, you can deflect a critical blow and send an enemy sprawling to the floor, dodge another unblockable attack, use an Insight Skill to lift an enemy out of his shoes, and finish with a massive Glaive slam worthy of Guan Yu himself. Flow state hits different in the sequel, and it feels good.

“While playing Wo Long 2, it felt as if Team Ninja asked me personally what all my problems were with the original, down to how spells work, and corrected them accordingly.”

While Dynasty Warriors lets the player have a power trip when killing dozens of enemies, Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember lets you outclass smarter and more demonic ones with skillful deflects and strong attacks that make you want to scream at the screen. A few times to my demo companions that sat around the room’s dismay, I did.

During a boss fight with a particularly nasty half-crustacean, half-human woman, all of the functionality Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember teaches you is sewn together to make the fight feel epic and tense, and it does. The crab-omination tries to end you by burrowing under the ground and surfacing abruptly, swinging wildly at you, and slamming the crab hammer on your head. After skillfully smashing the fight’s flank with a Great Hammer, the boss fight becomes a little more sporadic once you hit the halfway point.

This is where you will have your work cut out for you. The crab has a second phase – denoted by the Kaioken-like red miasma that shrieks from its carapace – and now it corners you and stabs you repeatedly with its many legs. When I hit a flow state, I was able to parry every single one of these crab leg stabs, and this is where Wo Long 2 felt its strongest. In the heat of battle, using all the tools the game gives you against a seriously strong opponent and beating them down is the stuff of legends.

After determining I could hold martial arts skills, I dropped a big hammer swing on the crab boss and brought it to its knees. While my adventure didn’t conclude there (and another boss fight, particularly the demon filling the tunnels with lava), it’s clear KOEI TECMO and Team Ninja have taken notes on what they did wrong with the original and swapped nearly everything to make the sequel better.

For these reasons, Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember remains glued to my calendar and now circled when it launches. While playing Wo Long 2, it felt as if Team Ninja asked me personally what all my problems were with the original, down to how spells work, and corrected them accordingly. When Wo Long 2 hits console and PC on March 4, 2027, I’ll be there to pick up right where I left off.