Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember Opens the Game Up in Exciting Ways | Preview

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Jesse Norris

25 minutes ago

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Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember has a demo available right now, and I got to play it early. From Gamescom, where I played a build in rough shape, to home with a far better product, I’ve had a ton of fun going through this semi-open-world, action-focused soulslike.

On Fiery Wings

Wo Long 2 takes the original formula and dials it up. This fiery sequel has a demo available now for players — and it is a damned generous one. I’ve put over five hours into completing all the side and main objectives.

Taking out encampments, defeating sub-bosses, defeating main bosses, and more is as fun as it was a few years back in the original. It isn’t deep; most objectives are just ‘go here, kill this’. Still, its frenetic pacing and far-improved visuals have made it an enjoyable one.

For those who never played the first, Wo Long is set in ancient Chinese lore, full of historical figures as part of a fantastical world. You’ll fight crab samurai, tree monsters, and more alongside some of the most famous figures in Chinese history.

The demo area sees you working alongside Liu Bei’s forces to stop the evil Cao Cao. The original’s flag system is everything, with flag planting being the main way you level in each hub area. As you plant flag markers, which serve as bonfire-style checkpoints, you become stronger while enemies become weaker.

Clear the map by taking over areas, assigning various heroes and recruits to grant you buffs until you’re ready for the next boss. That is Wo Long 2’s loop, and it is an enjoyable one, mainly because of how good the combat can feel.

Diving In, Head Long

Wo Long 2 continues to be a ‘soulslike’ mainly in spirit. The combat itself is far faster and more frenetic than all but Sekiro, in comparison to FromSoftware’s titles. Your most important button, at all times, is B/Circle.

To parry in Wo Long is to live. If you are not ready to dodge all attacks, you’re gonna have a bad time. Thankfully, the timing on parrying is extremely generous, available even during the longest of attack combos.

X/Square is your main attack. Y/Triangle is for heavy moves. Holding the right bumper/R1 is a modifier, allowing you to empower your strikes and parries at the cost of Spirit. Spirit is your stamina and ability resource.

Lose it all, and you are open to massive damage; knock out the enemy’s Spirit, and they are ready to be executed for huge HP damage. Holding the right trigger/R2 allows you to use the face buttons to cast Wizardry spells.

It’s a lot of the same systems as Wo Long, just refined and easier to use. That’s not to say the game is easy by any stretch.

Wo, That’s Tough

The build I played at Gamescom was on ‘journalist’ mode. Enemies were easy to kill, and bosses went down in one or two attempts. My at-home demo is back to a properly punishing difficulty setup.

After dying twice in an hour at Gamescom, I’ve died at least a dozen times in five with the demo you will be playing. Bosses have far more health and deal a hell of a lot more damage than I was used to.

This is more in line with the original title, notorious for its early-game difficulty check that kept a lot of players from progressing. The more open nature of levels here lets you empower your character through both gear and stat upgrades.

While each level has its own power system, your character has an innate leveling mechanic tied to embers you gain both around the world and from defeating enemies. If you die, you leave half of your embers behind, having to either pick them up or break the spirit of the enemy that vanquished you.

I was struggling with a level 16 tree sub-boss in the western part of the map. I spent an hour clearing lower-difficulty areas, leveling my character four times in the process and gaining the ability to hit level 18 for the area. Even then, the fight took me 10 attempts before I finally defeated the sexy tree lady, in a brutal 10-minute-long affair.

A Tale of Two Builds

Gamescom’s version of Wo Long 2 was hideous and ran terribly. At home on my 5080/5800x powered PC, I was able to run the game at a beautiful 4k/Ultra settings and locked 60FPS.

While not quite gorgeous, it is a much better-looking title than the first game. Enemy designs can be a bit over the top, and animations are occasionally difficult to read, which is a bit of a ‘no-no’ for this type of parry-based game.

You can have two legendary figures fight alongside you. It helps split the damage dealt and keeps focus off of your character. It can, however, lead to difficulty in seeing exactly when an attack is coming.

The game also features a robust online system, with screenshots and trailers showing off 3-player co-op. Sadly, it uses a currency-based summoning system like FromSoftware’s titles, which is always a pain to deal with. You mainly get the currency by avenging players killed by enemies around the map while playing online.

The music is good, if not a little repetitive. Voice acting is standard, mediocre Koei Tecmo fare. I preferred playing the game with either Japanese or Chinese VO, as it fit the time period better.

See You in Early 2027

Wo Long 2’s demo is a solid first look at a game I have been highly anticipating since its surprise announcement in the Xbox June Showcase. Wo Long: Wings of Ember releases on Xbox Series X|S (Game Pass), PlayStation 5, and PC (Xbox Play Anywhere) on March 4th, 2027. Keep an eye on DayOne for a full review.

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