Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember is Team NINJA’s upcoming sequel to the dark fantasy action RPG set in the historic Three Kingdoms era, and it looks to feature a bigger world with some awesome new twists.
Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember Stands Out By Doubling Down On Its Original Ideas
A Not-So-Romantic Retelling of the Three Kingdoms
Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember is the direct sequel to Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, set 24 years after the events of the first game. Like its predecessor, the game takes a fantastical approach, similar to its other soulslike series, Nioh, and aims to retell history by incorporating dark fantasy elements such as demons, magic, and more. Players play as a nameless militia soldier, fighting under the banner of Liu Bei and Sun Quan, where they will make a name for themselves by participating in several iconic battles set during the Three Kingdoms era.
The preview takes place during the Battle of Changban, where the player, along with Liu Bei and Pang Tong, is on the run from Cao Cao’s forces. More importantly, the group is also out to find the famous Crouching Dragon, or more specifically, Zhuge Liang. With not much choice and not a lot of troops to spare, the trio decides to go for a decisive assault on Cao Cao’s stronghold in Changban to be able to safely rally their troops outside of the wartorn province.
There’s not much revealed in the story just yet. However, you are able to lift key details from the source material, and maybe if you’ve played enough Dynasty Warriors.
For instance, this was a key moment in both the romanticized story and the series that showcases the bravery of Zhao Yun and Zhang Fei, two of the famous Five Tiger Generals, on two separate occasions, securing Liu Bei’s retreat from Cao Cao’s assault. More importantly, this was the battle that led to Liu Bei and Sun Quan’s forces, leading up to the climactic showdown between the three warlords in the Battle of the Red Cliffs, or the Battle of Chibi.
As with Nioh and Dynasty Warriors, there can be creative differences that embellish or even change the narrative. In the case of Wo Long 2, it might be fair to assume that the game will likely encompass the events leading up to the establishment of the Three Kingdoms of Shu, Wu, and Wei.
Additionally, the preview raises the question of who the player will be aligned with when all is said and done. While it certainly seems like the player will be forced to be under Liu Bei’s banner, they could tackle an approach where the player can fulfill a similar role to Ziluan in Dynasty Warriors Origins, where you can choose to side with any of the three warlords.
Big Steps With Revamped Morale
While most of the structure of its gameplay loop is retained, a big change will be seen regarding its Morale system. This is a numerical value that’s determined by taking strategic points around the game’s open field, where a higher value means you have stronger offensive and defensive bonuses. To put it simply, it’s like a level indicator that outlines the different areas in a map, where players may use it as a guide to which area to go to next.
In the previous game, raising your Morale involved exploring areas and finding checkpoints called Battle Flags across the map. Instead of simply doing that in the sequel, Wo Long 2 adopts Nioh 3’s style of exploration, where it encourages players to engage in side objectives like taking over enemy bases, finding new points of interest, taking on side quests, and even fighting new bosses that are out in the open.
With an emphasis on exploration, Wo Long 2 also revamped its stage design to introduce greater verticality and more complex exploration mechanics. Some of these include the addition of Wall Running and Wall Jumping, giving players an even wider variety of exploration options and secrets to find across the different maps. This also opens up the game to more platforming sections, adding even more variety to the level design rather than opting for a simpler linear design.
Same Combat Flow, Now With More Wuxia
Wo Long’s combat still retains its core fundamental concept of momentum and back-and-forth design. While it remains largely the same, relying on the unique Spirit system, there are some new additions and changes that enhance the overall design.
Instead of just revolving around Deflects, Wo Long 2 adds new defensive options in the form of Insight Skills to add more variety to the game’s fast-paced combat. Aside from that, it adds more depth to the game’s combat as it lets players use the environment to their advantage depending on what Insight Skill is used to counter the enemy’s Critical Blows.
To add more to this, Critical Blows are no longer just one set of moves. These are now differentiated based on what kind of flash is shown by the enemy’s attack. For instance, a red flash with a circular shape means that an Insight Deflect is needed to counter the attack, while a red flash with a horizontal line means that an Insight Jump is appropriate, and, finally, a red flash with a vertical line means an Insight Aerial Skill is needed.
This adds so much more depth and engagement to the game’s combat system by increasing the variety of responses the player must make, while also spicing up enemy patterns and combat flow.
Additionally, there are more actions that the player can commit to while in the air, and the new Martial Arts and attacks enhance the game’s feeling of being able to use its verticality. For example, one of the Straight Saber’s Martial Arts allows them to do a rising slash that ends with them being airborne. This allows players to either use it as a way to set up an Insight Aerial Skill right before an enemy Critical Blow or just use it to string a high-damaging combo.
The most important part of this enhanced combat design is that the game looks even more Wuxia-like than other action RPGs. Fights feel even more cinematic with the addition of the new Insight Skills, and the animations help a lot with how the game looks and flows.
Channel Your Inner Bruce Lee
Lastly, the preview also gives a sneak peek at a new weapon in the form of Jointed Flails. It is, quite simply, the nunchucks, popularized by the late Bruce Lee. Like the great martial artist, the weapon uses quick swings and agile movement to rush opponents and inflict blunt-force trauma. While the weapon itself is quite lacking in the range department, the weapon’s unique passive more than makes up for it, where landing the last hit of the weapon’s light attack string grants the user a buff that extends its attack range and increases its overall damage.
Compared to the rest of the weapons both in the previous game and available in the preview, the Jointed Flails offer a new kind of playstyle that revolves around being able to utilize its self-buff through its basic light attack strings. Additionally, its attacks and Martial Arts also offer a variety of ways to approach and lock the opponent down, giving it a more aggressive playstyle that emphasizes the game’s combat design where you can Deflect during attack strings.
A Lot More to Expect and Show
Given Team NINJA’s recent track record of action RPGs, it’s not surprising that they want to distinguish their titles with their own designs. In the case of Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember, they’re doubling down on their original idea and design, expanding on both the open-field gameplay loop and sprucing up the combat to introduce more variety and cinematic feel.
Of course, it also begs the question of how the game will perform on release, as the biggest issue with the game was its shoddy performance on PC. On a visual and technical standpoint, the game is still in a very rough state, where it clearly still needs a lot of work on the backend. Given that the game is still in its Alpha stage, it's to be expected that the game doesn't run as smoothly as one might expect from a full game. But with all of that said, hopefully Team NINJA can optimize the game by the time it releases this time around so that history doesn't repeat itself.
Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember is scheduled to release in Early 2027 for PC (Steam), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch 2.
