It’s been a extremely good begin to the yr, huh? For some time now, the primary quarter of the calendar yr has been as packed out and quality-filled as the vacation interval, however within the age of service video games and evolving titles, even the largest and finest video games are liable to releasing instantly into shopper quicksand. We’ve had Metacritic-topping titles like Useless Area remake, Octopath Traveler 2, Like a Dragon: Ishin, and Wild Hearts (that everybody else appeared to love besides me, apparently).
However there’s one sport, maybe my favorite of the yr to this point, that’s already beginning to be forgotten about. I suppose, when you could have a brand new Future growth and one of many greatest beta assessments the business has seen in years drop across the similar time, that’s sure to occur, isn’t it? However this sport got here to Recreation Move and all the things, so that you’d suppose it’d have extra endurance – alas, that’s the curse of getting a lot alternative: folks will typically simply go choose different issues.
I’m speaking, in fact, about Wo Lengthy: Fallen Dynasty. The newest hardcore motion sport from the sadists behind Nioh and Ninja Gaiden, the sport discovered a lot love amongst early adopters and critics, shortly rising to the highest of the gameplay charts on Xbox and turning into one thing of a speaking level amongst folks on social media. At launch, the web was abuzz with chatter about this sport – and as a long-time Nioh diehard, I cherished it! Lastly, due to Recreation Move, folks have been giving this odd little ‘masocore’ collection a go; the Nioh collection was not locked behind a £30+ assortment on the PS4/PS5!
However, as quickly as that swell got here, it went away. Not even every week later, the dialog died down, and I’m seeing fewer actual participant graves populating the Wo Lengthy ranges as there have been at launch. Such is the curse of the Recreation Move monster of the week; kick down the doorways, draw the eye of everybody within the Xbox and PC saloon… after which discover your spot on the bar alongside Unpacking, Tunic, Excessive on Life, A Plague Story: Requiem, and Vampire Survivors.
This isn’t a criticism. Removed from it. Taking a look at information from our buddies over at TrueAchievements, you possibly can see that (in its first week on Recreation Move) the playercount for Wo Lengthy was “considerably ahead of 2022 hit Elden Ring”, and “solely simply shy of matching the first-week TA participant counts of each Darkish Souls sport mixed”. No imply feat, and that’s the ability of having the ability to draw folks in at no further price, proper?
It additionally signifies that the sport has a really strong playerbase for its eventual (paid) DLC. And Staff Ninja is aware of the right way to do DLC nicely, let me let you know. Nioh had an exquisite, wintery growth with its ‘Dragon of the North’ add-on, and Nioh 2’s ‘The Tengu’s Disciple’ and ‘Darkness within the Capital’ each added some depth and meat to the entire expertise with some killer new weapon sorts, superb new locales to discover, and a few killer bosses that put even base-game behemoths of their place… the much less mentioned about Nioh 2’s damp finale, The First Samurai, the higher, although. Eurgh.
Taking the monitor file as a complete, Staff Ninja has promise. Understanding that it has to supply one thing actually particular to attract in its 100,000+ Recreation Move gamers again to the sport, I’d hope that the developer pulls out all of the stops and actually delivers on the very best concepts in its cart. It’s not like there aren’t any choices: we finish very early on within the story of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and we’ve got loads of narrative threads to drag on. In addition to the diverting paths of Cao Cao, the Solar household, and the Liu Bei brothers, there’s a complete subset of tales nonetheless tied up within the remaining Yellow Turban empathisers, and Zhao Yun.
I imagine in Staff Ninja, and its admittedly old-school method to DLC expansions. Give me a complete new map, cram just a few bosses in it, give me a brand new weapon, and make me bleed slightly bit extra. Please. I’m begging you. All of us thought Wo Lengthy was fairly easy, actually, so upping the ante and making the post-game problem one thing actually particular will possible go down rather well with everybody after an actual Souls-like expertise.
Folks could have stopped going off about Wo Lengthy merely every week after its launch, however well-timed and well-executed DLC will show that there’s loads of life – and enchantment – in Recreation Move video games which have had their 5 minutes within the solar. Simply ask Useless Cells; an evergreen instance of the right way to maintain participant rely up, and folks coming again.
