How does combat compare to Wo Long

[Littlefatcat]

I tried going back to Wo Long and did not enjoy it. The fast parrying just isn't fun during the boss fights. After a while my brain checks out from all the fact that it is hard to dodge attacks and that you must always time your parry's perfectly. It's not so bad against small enemies but some bosses are definitely harder than others. Has anyone played both Ronin and Wo Long?

[Lavian]

You might find a fighting style you like in Rise of the Ronin, but in my experience, if you didn't like doing parrying a lot in Wo Long, you probably won't like it much here either.

Personally I love it in both, and I think Rise of the Ronin does it better (it's dedicated to its own button, and it's possible to hold block and use stamina for safety during parrying), but the game very much does encourage using parries to create openings where you're safe to attack, much like in Wo Long.

That said, if you're fine with the normal enemies in Wo Long, you might be fine with it in Rise of the Ronin. There's no ultra-long ultra-fast 20-hit combos you'll have to parry to get a single opening in Rise of the Ronin. Pretty much after every short combo chain of a boss, if you manage to parry the last hit, you'll get a small opening to get some damage in. Also, obviously the red attacks give you openings when you parry them (and they're relatively frequent), but even some of those are chained together (though there's some fighting styles that allow you to interrupt those combos).

[causality]

Originally posted by Lavian:

You might find a fighting style you like in Rise of the Ronin, but in my experience, if you didn't like doing parrying a lot in Wo Long, you probably won't like it much here either.

Personally I love it in both, and I think Rise of the Ronin does it better (it's dedicated to its own button, and it's possible to hold block and use stamina for safety during parrying), but the game very much does encourage using parries to create openings where you're safe to attack, much like in Wo Long.

That said, if you're fine with the normal enemies in Wo Long, you might be fine with it in Rise of the Ronin. There's no ultra-long ultra-fast 20-hit combos you'll have to parry to get a single opening in Rise of the Ronin. Pretty much after every short combo chain of a boss, if you manage to parry the last hit, you'll get a small opening to get some damage in. Also, obviously the red attacks give you openings when you parry them (and they're relatively frequent), but even some of those are chained together (though there's some fighting styles that allow you to interrupt those combos).

Sounds like it's closer to Sekiro than so I will probably enjoy it over Wo Long's parry simulator while watching the boss play DMC.

[Garrington]

Wayyyyyyy better. Some of the best combat I've played in a game tbh. Lots of options, many stances all with their own combos and special attacks. When mastering stances you can interchange abilities from other mastered stances. Can change on the fly by chaining combos as well as weapons(similar to wo long this part). Parrying is powerful but not necessary like wo long, but is also more user friendly. They turned parry into an attack as well, so even if you mistime the parry you still perform an attack, its not just whiffed. Different weapons/stances also parry differently and dodge differently. Dodge is certainly more viable and some stances like the gikei ryu have OP dodges lol. It's really great, far better than wo long and nioh imo. I'm sure there are videos on youtube to watch of it. Also a ton of content in the game, not short by any means

team ninja expanded their studio and dev team for this game, it's their biggest project ever. It's made with much better quality than wo long, although not perfect (but what game is besides ghost of tsushima)

[Littlefatcat]

Originally posted by Aja2889:

Wayyyyyyy better. Some of the best combat I've played in a game tbh. Lots of options, many stances all with their own combos and special attacks. When mastering stances you can interchange abilities from other mastered stances. Can change on the fly by chaining combos as well as weapons(similar to wo long this part). Parrying is powerful but not necessary like wo long, but is also more user friendly. They turned parry into an attack as well, so even if you mistime the parry you still perform an attack, its not just whiffed. Different weapons/stances also parry differently and dodge differently. Dodge is certainly more viable and some stances like the gikei ryu have OP dodges lol. It's really great, far better than wo long and nioh imo. I'm sure there are videos on youtube to watch of it. Also a ton of content in the game, not short by any means

team ninja expanded their studio and dev team for this game, it's their biggest project ever. It's made with much better quality than wo long, although not perfect (but what game is besides ghost of tsushima)

That's a good point. It is a much bigger game with a bigger team than Wo Long and there is a difficulty slider. Wo Long had other issues that made me less enthusiastic about playing. It lacked the overall tone that made Nioh good. The Rise of the Ronin footage I've seen makes me think of Rurouni Kenshin, Ninja Gaiden, Sekiro, and Ghost of Tsushima and a touch of assassins creed.

[Shade42]

The combat flow is closer to Wu long more than Nioh where you constantly need to keep an eye out for the enemy's red attack(actually if you think about it, Oni counter from nioh 2 is basically deflect from wu long). Note that the game's is really unforgiving for missing red attacks compared to wu long especially if you even slightly under-leveled than your opponent on the higher difficulty(missing one could kill you from full hp in the beginning levels at medium difficulty).

[Littlefatcat]

Originally posted by Shade42:

The combat flow is closer to Wu long more than Nioh where you constantly need to keep an eye out for the enemy's red attack(actually if you think about it, Oni counter from nioh 2 is basically deflect from wu long). Note that the game's is really unforgiving for missing red attacks compared to wu long especially if you even slightly under-leveled than your opponent on the higher difficulty(missing one could kill you from full hp in the beginning levels at medium difficulty).

I saw some Japanese streamers play on easy mode and normal and it didn't look harder than Wo Long. They were missing parry's and were not dying. I'll probably stick to medium and then try hard mode when I feel more comfortable. There's always easy difficulty if I give up and just want to explore and enjoy the story.

I also noticed people flicking their sword during fights. I'm guessing this is like the Ki pulse because they are able to keep attacking and overwhelming the opponent. That was another thing that sucked about Wo Long. No Ki pulse :(

[Lavian]

The game's really not that difficult, even on hard (neither was Wo Long, to me, if you're trying to gauge based on my opinion).

Nioh 2 was by far the hardest out of the three, though I might just feel that way because that was the first one I played, so I was a worse player.

Not sure about between Wo Long and Rise of the Ronin's hard mode (almost certainly easier on normal/easy though). I can only think of one particular boss in either game that was actually hard hard, where I genuinely had a moment of, "I don't know how the hell I'm going to deal with this" (though Wo Long's Taotie was frustrating for different reasons). Unless you count the Wo Long DLC bosses, but Rise of the Ronin doesn't have DLC, so I've got nothing to really compare that to.

The boss that actually gave me quite a bit trouble in Rise of the Ronin is unfortunately pretty early. Still beat it though.

The game kind of gets easier as you unlock more perks and more fighting styles you might be more comfortable with (kind of like Nioh, tbh). Having only 6 elixirs instead of 10 in the early game means you have less health to play around with, and personally, I didn't really find my groove until I unlocked some of the fighting styles you get later in the game from that boss (which is a lot, because again, that boss is pretty early).


Also, it should be noted that parry doesn't always double as an attack if you whiff. It depends on your combat style. The Nioh-ryu uses Haze for its parry startup animation, for example.

[cacromwell3113]

There are parries like Wo long, but it's not obnoxious as wo long was. You can do actual melee damage to opponents because it doesn't sacrifice that for deflection or wizadry. Enemy AI isn't overtuned like Wo long. They can actually deaggro and leash. Loot in Ronin works more like Nioh, but you pick it up like wo long. Martial arts aren't hard locked to weapons.