wo long fallen dynasty is basically fine so far that was the initial headline for this handson preview because the game took me through such emotional ups and downs that an exhausted shrug is the best i can provide right now to summarise my feelings in advance wo long is to team ninjas earlier game nioh what sekiro shadows die twice is to dark souls something tighter and a little more focused than what came before at the cost of both breadth and choice problem is dark souls is a great game to build on while nioh 1 and nioh 2 were arguably more mixed bags wo long is an improvement over them at least in the preview build i played but well its complicated lets start with the storykatanaramaimage credit koei tecmoid like to tell you what happens in the plot of wo long fallen dynasty id like to but i cant because its incomprehensible the game is set in a swordsandsorcery version of chinas three kingdoms war in the third century i think and theres some ongoing fracas about jade necklaces immortality elixirs a group of comicallyvillainous yellow soldiers and an evil taoist monk all of that said how they all relate and what were supposed to feel about it is completely beyond mei think the overarching problem of wo long fallen dynasty is that it presents itself pretty poorly in just about every respect the story might be interesting but i wouldnt know because its borderline incoherent and thats not for lack of trying theres constantly at least one character following you around explaining things and vocalising their every thought but its not only clumsilywritten its usually shouted at you during a highoctane brawl with demon tigers so i never had any brainpower to spare for consideration plus i made the mistake of choosing an english dub and the commercialgrade voice acting combined with all the characters being stock archetypes just made me feel uncomfortable and embarrassedimage credit koei tecmoi have to get all of this out of the way because its a symptom of a larger issue that really negatively impacted my early hours with wo long and i was definitely getting ready to bring out the big thumbs down stamp the mechanics are just as badlyexplained as the plot and key elements like spirit morale and fortitude are thrown at you rapidly with little chance to consider or internalise these concepts in my first boss fight my useless sidekick yelled at me in phase two that my jade necklace will give you the power you need to overcome this challenge before becoming uncharacteristically silent and refusing to elaborate furtherwhat does that mean i wailed before getting creamed against a menhir by a spikecovered tentacle so yeah i wasnt having a great time the overall experience felt like being blindfolded and pushed into a boxing ring with three brawny opponentsthe art of warimage credit koei tecmobut then i made the decision to abandon the