As part of its ongoing coverage, IGN First has revealed some new weapons in Team Ninja’s Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty. The sword, dual swords, glaive, and bow and arrow have been seen in the demo, there’s also a staff, poleaxe (one of the heaviest weapons), spear, and straight sabre, as per director Masakazu Hirayama. There are 17 weapon types in total – 13 melee-based and three range-based.
He explains, “We chose weapons that were the best match for Chinese martial arts. The motions for each weapon type were based on motion-captured forms performed by real martial artists specialized in these weapons. Then we tuned things here and there to make them feel good as an action game.”
While some weapons, like the dual swords, are easier to pick up than others, producer Fumihiko Yasuda says the game has been balanced in favor of all of them. If you want to stick to one weapon type throughout, then go ahead.
“If you master the combos of a weapon type and get used to the Martial Arts of your weapon, you should be able to beat the game without switching weapons. However, from a game design perspective, we do advise the player to switch weapons depending on the enemy’s attack patterns,” said Yasuda.
Weapons and armor are upgraded at the Blacksmith, costing money and materials. Hirayama also revealed that you can transfer the passive status of a weapon to another. “By examining the weapons you collected and attaching their status effects to your favorite weapon, you can build weapons that are specialized in all sorts of things, ranging from big damage dealers to healing-focused weapons.”
He also notes a wide range of individual weapons, each with its own design, stats, Martial Arts and passive status effects. Some bosses will drop their weapons upon defeat with Martial Arts based on their attacks.
You can also find over 40 sets of armor, each with set bonuses, and yes, transmog is available for simply using a specific armor piece’s looks.
“Fans of the Three Kingdoms period can look forward to finding iconic weapons and armor from their favorite warlords too. For example, you can roleplay as Guan Yu by wearing his armor while upgrading the Azure Dragon Crescent Glaive to make it super strong,” said Yamagiwa.
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is out on March 3rd for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, and PC. It also launches day one on Game Pass.