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I’m not good at Soulslike games.
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Today, the highly anticipated newest Soulslike from Team Ninja (Ninja Gaiden & Nioh), Wo Long Fallen Dynasty, has finally been released, and fans of the genre are raving about it. Interestingly enough, even casual fans are giving the game a shot, especially on Xbox and PC, as the title was a day-one Game Pass release.
I am actually one of those filthy casuals, as I’ve been following the game ever since it was announced with intrigue. It is important to state right off the bat that I am terrible at Soulslike games. I’ve tried Elden Ring, Dark Souls, Sekiro, you name it; none of them have clicked. Still, I wanted to give Wo-Long Fallen Dynasty a fair shake, as I’ve always been a fan of Chinese mythology.
After defeating tutorial enemies for the first few minutes of the game, I genuinely felt confident, especially because the mechanics felt easier to pick up and more intuitive for some reason. That bravado got tested pretty quickly, as it turns out that Wo-Long Fallen Dynasty’s tutorial boss is pretty damn hard himself.
Named Zhang Liang, The General Of Man, it took me about twenty minutes to “beat” this boss for the first time, with many of my attempts consisting of flailing around like an idiot just trying not to die (unsuccessfully). After about the 10th death, the boss patterns started to take shape and I was able to eventually get his full health down.
Unfortunately, like most Souls games, my excitement was short-lived. Yes, that’s right, even the tutorial boss has a second phase; one that always resets every time you die. Despite this, I was still excited to keep trying to learn Liang attacks so I could defeat him.
After about an hour, his long-distance attacks and his quick barrages made more and more sense timing-wise, so it was just about patience. Finally, about two hours, and a lot of deaths later, I finally managed to take him down, and boy did it feel satisfying.
Currently, I’ve decided to save and give myself a break before continuing on with Wo-Long Fallen Dynasty, but I’m honestly eager to keep going. Hopefully, this will be the start of a Soulslike obsession for me.
Wo Long Fallen Dynasty is currently available on PS4, PS5, PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S, as well as Game Pass.
