Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty won't have difficulty options
"We're thinking it’s 'good' to have one set difficulty."
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty will only have one difficulty level.
As with Team Ninja's previous Nioh games, Wo Long is a Soulslike game that thrives on challenge. Many players subsequently feel the games are too difficult and inaccessible.
Speaking to MP1st, producer Masaaki Yamagiwa defended Team Ninja's decision to stick with one difficulty.
"We're thinking it's 'good' to have one set difficulty so that everyone has the same experience of overcoming a really intense obstacle and they all have that feeling of achievement, like I did it. But the caveat there is giving players all different ways that they can do that," he said.
"It's really important to keep the challenge the same and giving players different ways to overcome it. Wo Long is not an easy game by any means but we're working to give players as much freedom and agency to play it as they want, overcome obstacles in their own way."
Yamagiwa notes the options given for players to play their own way.
For instance, the game features a morale system where players become stronger the more enemies they kill and can then choose which morale level of enemy to face next.
There's also online multiplayer, where players can summon friends to help out, as well as grinding to level up just like in RPGs.
"We're really giving players their own ways to be able to tackle all these things, that's really important to Wo Long's game design," said Yamagiwa.
While the Dark Souls games have long been criticised for their lack of difficulty and accessibility options, the open world design and variety of play styles in FromSoftware's Elden Ring was seen as a positive step forward.
Still, players are longing for an accessible Soulslike.
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is set for release next year across PlayStation and Xbox consoles, plus PC. Check out Martin's impressions of the game too.