Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is another addition to the ever-growing lists of Eastern mythology and soulsborne games. As a soldier who gets involved in a political and mystical conflict, you'll be fighting a whole mess of men and monsters.
It can take some time to get used to the feel of the game and the chaos of the combat, but you'll start acting like a duelist in no time. Although the plot does a good job of covering all the important points, there are still parts that it never really touches on. Therefore, it's up to us to wonder about them and come up with our own logic.
8 Instant Trust
Although this is a trope in video games at this point, it keeps nagging in Wo Long. Your character is a completely unknown and low-ranking figure who is saved under mysterious circumstances. Sure, the MacGuffin character tells you that he decided to save you because "he believes that you're destined to do great things," but it's not like he puts up posters of you everywhere.
From then on, every character you meet completely trusts you with their lives and looks to you for leadership… even while you're wearing the armor of the enemy.
7 Demons Are A Normal Thing
Usually, when end-of-the-world stuff happens and supernatural elements that people didn't think were real appear, there's some genuine surprise. Here, there's a bit of a moment when demon soldiers rise from the ground, but the novelty wears off pretty quickly.
In fact, your allies will make passing comments about the presence of demons with little shock or awe. Keep in mind that this is a world where humans can fuse with tigers and no one bats an eye. Even when boss demons appear, everyone is just like, "Okay, this might be a hard fight."
6 Little Attention To Martial Arts
Martial arts is a huge part of Chinese tradition and history which is why so many games revolve around it. In Wo Long, martial arts is introduced as just another mechanic that you probably won't use because it's impractical.
When you're fighting human enemies and even bosses, you never get the sense that they're martial arts masters, so there's no reason that you should be. There's even a nice animation depicting what appears to be your central nervous system glowing whenever you activate, but it never comes into play in any more meaningful way.
5 Taoism Interpretation
There are many Eastern practices, but one of the most prominent is Taoism. This is the system that makes a huge appearance in Wo Long as the antagonist's go-to practice. However, he's referred to as a Taoist despite being everything that a Taoist shouldn't be. True Taoists dedicate their life to service, but he is completely self-serving.
They also must live in balance with nature among other things, but his actions blatantly disrupt the balance. Even though he may be seeking immortality, it's not through living a virtuous life. At this point, why would anyone refer to him as a Taoist?
4 Demons And Humans Working Together
As if the whole spectacle of demons appearing suddenly didn't shock anyone in Wo Long, the collaboration really confuses things. It's never made clear what was the catalyst for demons to start popping up, but the enemy forces seem to accept it as well.
You'll visit numerous locations where human enemies will be wandering around demons and vice versa with each just going about their day. Even though the trio of enemy leaders is clearly in cahoots with dark forces, it's difficult to believe that there was no resistance from their means about having to work alongside actual monsters.
3 The Elixir Is Everywhere
If you paid attention to the opening narration, which of course you did because you're a good person, you'll learn that many conflicts were fought over the life-giving Elixir. After hearing this, you would think that the Elixir is a legendary MacGuffin or at least very hard to obtain. However, that's not how it is at all, as it seems everyone and their accountants have some Elixir.
It takes the form of a small glowing bead that has the power to transform people into powerful forms and give them overwhelming spiritual energy. You'll come across it fairly often, and some enemies will even drop some if they feel so inclined.
2 Wizardry Comes Naturally
Wo Long doesn't have you believe that you were a wizard until you level up for the first time. Each level-up category focuses on one of the primary natural elements which affect different stats and access to different spells.
When this happens, there's very little fanfare that comes with it with your character and their allies being completely unfazed by it. Within moments, you fling fireballs and toxic gas through sheer willpower and without any indicator that you're magical and no one mentoring you on it.
1 The Villain Is Casually OP
Making your way through the intro level of the game lets you glimpse into the villain's whereabouts as he spies on you from a cave. From this, it's implied that he's tracking you and trying to find a way to trap or kill you. Since he's also an elderly man, he gives the impression that he wouldn't want to confront you directly.
That is, until he literally teleports directly to you, causes some damage, literally takes what he wants for himself, and leaves you for dead. I mean, you need him to be arrogant so that you can have a game to play, but at least he could appear to taunt you or sucker-punch with all the supposed power he wields.