2024’s PS5-exclusive title Rise of the Ronin will be developer Team Ninja’s first crack at open world game design, but in the much more imminent future, the developer is set to long another Soulslike action RPG in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty. Like the Nioh games before it, Wo Long is set to be another mission-based linear title, but even so, it seems like it’ll be a much more expansive game.
When asked in a recent interview with Wccftech about Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty’s structure, producers Fumihiko Yasuda and Masaaki Yamagiwa explained that though it still follows a mission-based structure, the upcoming action-RPG is a “more open” game than the Nioh titles, with “huge vistas, unique landscapes, and massive castles”, all of which will give players “many reasons to explore”.
“Wo-Long: Fallen Dynasty is more open than the Nioh series, not only due to the addition of jumping mechanics but also due to the game being set in China, as we wanted to give players the feel of a much bigger location, with huge vistas, unique landscapes, and massive castles which are all elements that strongly define China,” the developers said. “The game is still mission-based like Nioh because we wanted players to focus on the action and the intensity of battles with as fewer distractions as possible. Even like this, players will have many reasons to explore stages, as reaching as many different flags as possible to take advantage of the Morale system is quite important. So, even if Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty isn’t an open-world game, players will still be able to do some exploring, and get rewarded for it.”
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is due out on March 3, 2023 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, and PC.