Wo Long is in short, a letdown and failed to meet many expectations. It has its moments, but it is very hard to recommend it at its full asking price, it is best to pick it up on a sale if you have nothing else to play. If the demo is available, make sure you can run it smoothly before picking up the full game.

5/10 - Base Game as of 03/12/2023
7/10 - Combat gameplay (inconsistent difficulty spikes, lack of variety).
5/10 - Story (Neutral, I've seen enough 3 kingdoms from Koei to know and expect; casuals can safely ignore the game story and not miss a beat.).
3/10 - UI/UX, if you thought inventory management in Nioh 2 was bad, Wo Long is even worse.
10/10 character creation - I found the updated character creation to be more entertaining than about 70% of the game.

Now about Wo Long... I will compare it to Koei-Tecmo/Team-Ninja's most recent success, Nioh 2.

Combat
This game is NOT Nioh 2, you won't have numerous builds and options for beating enemies and toughies. You parry or you die - spells and buffs merely cover bits of your mistakes on those parry timings (reduced attack, improve defense, life-on-hit). Said buffs can also be easily removed by opposing elements dealt by enemies.

There is also no animation cancelling. Your attacks chain are executed until you're hit or done. Meaning you should avoid long-ass animated attack weapons (such as the spear). The spear is absolutely garbage so far in my experience because of said attack chain and no animation canceling.

The staff and dual wield weapons are overwhelming superior to every weapon simply because of the combat mechanics in place - they hit fast and they recover fast, minimizing the window in which you are left defenseless and maximizing your ability to interrupt enemy attacks.
"Martial Arts" so far are very underwhelming, but that could change depending on how endgame builds goes; but said martial arts are also RNG skills attached to weapons...
You can't learn new martial arts outside of what the weapon provides which are randomly selected up to 2 (wtf?). Just like normal attacks, your martial arts can also be interrupted mid-attack and take even more damage; which is VERY brutal when a red critical attack hits you...

Hope you guys enjoyed QTE games all these years past, because this game is literally pressing 1 button for that dopamine hit and most other things in the game is purely decorative.

Now about the common enemies you face... All of them have the same model and animations with different colors. You may become tired (as I did) of not seeing anything new after mid-game. (In Nioh 2, human enemies can come at you with 11 possible melee weapon types and demon types are varied enough to keep it interesting).

Note: For the boss fights, I have always engaged them at morale level 20 at least as the game intended.

Now the boss fights...

The very first boss is stupidly tuned to keep out at least 20% of the players who bought the game in an effort by the game to pound the "parry-system mechanics" into the player. Hopefully most said players didn't break the refund period. Also helpers cannot be summoned on the first mission - so have that refund ready if you can't play the game. (In Nioh 2, help can called from start to finish).

Literally the following bosses after the first boss were cakewalk and one-tried until Chapter 3 for me. Dong Zhuo and Lu Bu

The difficulty spikes is annoyingly inconsistent, because I had no issues with some bosses in-between while some were overwhelmingly difficult. (Zhang Liao, Lu Bu part 2, Xiahou Dun).
In the 2nd-to-last mission, all 3 bosses were stupidly easy compared to what came before that I only died once before finishing it.

I got tired of dealing with some of the BS and repetitiveness that I ended up summoning help for some of the bosses. (Nioh 2 would allow for ninja glass cannons, magic for easy mode, and even yokai shift builds for endgame if weapon smashing isn't doing it for you).

UI/UX (User Interface and User Experience)
Dumbed down weapon skills; There are no weapon skills to choose; those skills are determined by RNG on the weapon (lol). See the "Martial Arts" above about their relative effectiveness.

Items are sorted by "time obtained" by default and the game can't remember to sort by rarity nor enhancement levels.

So the completionist in me wants to go back and replay a few missions to collect stuff I missed. But there are no trackers on what I missed (Golden Cicadas, iron-eating pandas). Also, morale flags must be recollected from 0... WTF? There goes that replay value.

After every mission, you're forced to choose to select repeat mission, base camp or next mission. Which for some users, reportedly takes 2+ minutes or simply crash to load in the worst case. Why can't we just return to the mission selection/world map?

Blacksmith is only accessible at the base camp. You can only lock specified items from changes at the blacksmith rather than in the inventory. Storehouse is only accessible at the Blacksmith. Arrows/munitions do not auto resupply during mission. Why do we have arrows in storage for if not to reload? Why can't we have the blacksmith be menu accessed from the world map?

Transmog/gear restyling is only available at the blacksmith and... there is amazingly, no preview!

Those aforementioned issues were not in Nioh 2.

But the issues held over from Nioh 2 still exists (no grouping, shoddy filtering; meaning you can't filter items by gear set, etc.).

Character Creation
If Nioh 2 was about making a waifu and getting good to kill demons, this game is about making a waifu that can't be touched cause getting touched by the red hand is death (at low morale).

Edit: 3/12/2023 - So, I tried replaying some missions to collect items I've missed the first time around. Found out flags have to be recollected (or you get demolished by trash mobs trying to run through it). There are no trackers on missed iron-eating pandas, no tracker on missing golden cicadas... fml, the replay value is practically destroyed for me.

EDIT: 03/11/2023 - Base game main story missions complete. May update review for "complete" edition with the DLCs in the future... If my attention can be held.

EDIT: 03/08/2023 version 1.03 is up, keyboard complaint is gone - for now. will update the review again in the future.

I am playing on a MSI ge76, i7-10750H, 32GB ram with an RTX 3070 with nVidia driver version 531.18.

Edit: Off-Topic

I see some of the comment clowns don't believe my 1500+ hours on KBM on Nioh 2, it is somewhat regrettable I carried a few of you in the past few days through your levels while waiting for this mess to be sorted out.

You know who you are. >:)

Wo Long is in short, a letdown and failed to meet many expectations. It has its moments, but it is very hard to recommend it at its full asking price, it is best to pick it up on a sale if you have nothing else to play. If the demo is available, make sure you can run it smoothly before picking up the full game. 5/10 - Base Game as of 03/12/2023 7/10 - Combat gameplay (inconsistent difficulty spikes, lack of variety). 5/10 - Story (Neutral, I've seen enough 3 kingdoms from Koei to know and expect; casuals can safely ignore the game story and not miss a beat.). 3/10 - UI/UX, if you thought inventory management in Nioh 2 was bad, Wo Long is even [i]worse[/i]. 10/10 character creation - I found the updated character creation to be more entertaining than about 70% of the game. Now about Wo Long... I will compare it to Koei-Tecmo/Team-Ninja's most recent success, Nioh 2. [b][u]Combat[/u][/b] This game is NOT Nioh 2, you won't have numerous builds and options for beating enemies and toughies. You parry or you die - spells and buffs merely cover bits of your mistakes on those parry timings (reduced attack, improve defense, life-on-hit). Said buffs can also be easily removed by opposing elements dealt by enemies. There is also no animation cancelling. Your attacks chain are executed until you're hit or done. Meaning you should avoid long-ass animated attack weapons (such as the spear). The spear is absolutely [i]garbage[/i] so far in my experience because of said attack chain and no animation canceling. The staff and dual wield weapons are overwhelming superior to every weapon simply because of the combat mechanics in place - they hit fast and they recover fast, minimizing the window in which you are left defenseless and maximizing your ability to interrupt enemy attacks. "Martial Arts" so far are very underwhelming, but that could change depending on how endgame builds goes; but said martial arts are also RNG skills attached to weapons... You can't learn new martial arts outside of what the weapon provides which are randomly selected up to 2 (wtf?). Just like normal attacks, your martial arts can also be interrupted mid-attack and take even more damage; which is VERY brutal when a red critical attack hits you... Hope you guys enjoyed QTE games all these years past, because this game is literally pressing 1 button for that dopamine hit and most other things in the game is purely decorative. Now about the common enemies you face... All of them have the same model and animations with different colors. You may become tired (as I did) of not seeing anything new after mid-game. (In Nioh 2, human enemies can come at you with 11 possible melee weapon types and demon types are varied enough to keep it interesting). [i]Note: For the boss fights, I have always engaged them at morale level 20 at least as the game intended.[/i] Now the boss fights... The very first boss is stupidly tuned to keep out at least 20% of the players who bought the game in an effort by the game to pound the "parry-system mechanics" into the player. Hopefully most said players didn't break the refund period. Also helpers cannot be summoned on the first mission - so have that refund ready if you can't play the game. (In Nioh 2, help can called from start to finish). Literally the following bosses after the first boss were cakewalk and one-tried until Chapter 3 for me. [spoiler]Dong Zhuo and Lu Bu[/spoiler] The difficulty spikes is annoyingly inconsistent, because I had no issues with some bosses in-between while some were overwhelmingly difficult. [spoiler](Zhang Liao, Lu Bu part 2, Xiahou Dun).[/spoiler] In the 2nd-to-last mission, all 3 bosses were stupidly easy compared to what came before that I only died once before finishing it. I got tired of dealing with some of the BS and repetitiveness that I ended up summoning help for some of the bosses. (Nioh 2 would allow for ninja glass cannons, magic for easy mode, and even yokai shift builds for endgame if weapon smashing isn't doing it for you). [b][u]UI/UX (User Interface and User Experience)[/u][/b] Dumbed down weapon skills; There are no weapon skills to choose; those skills are determined by RNG on the weapon (lol). See the "Martial Arts" above about their relative effectiveness. Items are sorted by "time obtained" by default and the game can't remember to sort by rarity nor enhancement levels. So the completionist in me wants to go back and replay a few missions to collect stuff I missed. But there are no trackers on what I missed (Golden Cicadas, iron-eating pandas). Also, morale flags [i]must be recollected[/i] from 0... WTF? There goes that replay value. After every mission, you're forced to choose to select repeat mission, base camp or next mission. Which for some users, reportedly takes 2+ minutes or simply crash to load in the worst case. Why can't we just return to the mission selection/world map? Blacksmith is only accessible at the base camp. You can only lock specified items from changes at the blacksmith rather than in the inventory. Storehouse is only accessible at the Blacksmith. Arrows/munitions do not auto resupply during mission. Why do we have arrows in storage for if not to reload? Why can't we have the blacksmith be menu accessed from the world map? Transmog/gear restyling is only available at the blacksmith and... there is amazingly, [i]no preview[/i]! Those aforementioned issues were not in Nioh 2. But the issues held over from Nioh 2 still exists (no grouping, shoddy filtering; meaning you can't filter items by gear set, etc.). [b][u]Character Creation[/u][/b] If Nioh 2 was about making a waifu and getting good to kill demons, this game is about making a waifu that can't be touched cause getting touched by the red hand is death (at low morale). Edit: 3/12/2023 - So, I tried replaying some missions to collect items I've missed the first time around. Found out flags have to be recollected (or you get demolished by trash mobs trying to run through it). There are no trackers on missed iron-eating pandas, no tracker on missing golden cicadas... fml, the replay value is practically destroyed for me. EDIT: 03/11/2023 - Base game main story missions complete. May update review for "complete" edition with the DLCs in the future... If my attention can be held. EDIT: 03/08/2023 version 1.03 is up, keyboard complaint is gone - for now. will update the review again in the future. I am playing on a MSI ge76, i7-10750H, 32GB ram with an RTX 3070 with nVidia driver version 531.18. Edit: Off-Topic I see some of the comment clowns don't believe my 1500+ hours on KBM on Nioh 2, it is somewhat regrettable I carried a few of you in the past few days through your levels while waiting for this mess to be sorted out. You know who you are. >:)