Team Ninja's transition from the brutally challenging Ninja Gaiden action games to the Nioh series of horrific action-RPGs may as well have been seamless. Yet Team Ninja is now looking at Nioh as simply the first step toward what comes next. Next being the newly announced action-RPG Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, revealed during the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase 2022 event. Think a more horrific Nioh meeting the mythology of the Three Kingdoms, and that's Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty.

The announcement trailer for Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty was entirely cinematic, which while unfortunate was nevertheless optimal for conveying the core ideas behind the game. Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is a Three Kingdoms story, rooted in the tripartite division of China from 220 to 280 AD, much like how Nioh was set in Japan's Sengoku period in 1600 AD. Also like Nioh, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is a dark retelling of mythology filled with magic, heroes, and incredible evil.

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Again like in Nioh, the primary antagonists of Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty will be demons, but not solely demons. The political status quo of the Three Kingdoms era offers a ripe offering of familiar characters that players will undoubtedly meet in-game. The trailer even teases one such encounter - the unstoppable Lu Bu. This isn't Dynasty Warriors, so Team Ninja fans should expect a Lu Bu battle unlike anything they've previously experienced.

While gameplay for Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty has yet to be revealed, some assumptions can likely be made. One key aspect of the game's development is Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty's producers. It's officially confirmed that Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is a joint production of Fumihiko Yasuda and Masaaki Yamagiwa. Yasuda directed both Nioh and Nioh 2, while Yamagiwa's best known for his work on Bloodborne.

The Nioh series of games were already heavily influenced by From Software's Souls franchise. Now, one of Wo Long's main producers worked on Bloodborne. It's exciting to think that Team Ninja's follow-up to Nioh 2 might be a game even more akin to From Software's work, potentially darker and more challenging, than before.

Publisher Koei Tecmo is also making Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty particularly special to Xbox gamers. Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty won't arrive until early 2023, but when it does, it will be available as a day one release for Xbox Game Pass on PC, console, and via the cloud. Fans can expect much more to be shared about Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty closer to the game's arrival in 2023.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty releases early 2023 on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

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