Koei Tecmo recently released a limited time demo for Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember. While the game isn’t releasing until March of 2027, I was able to play the demo and get an idea of what the full game will be like. The demo was available for a limited time, until September 30th.
🎮 GAME AT A GLANCE:
Game Title: Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember alpha demo
Played On: PlayStation 5
Developer / Publisher: Team Ninja / Koei Tecmo
Price: Demo - Free; Full Release - $69.99
Genre: Souls-like Action RPG
Overall Impression: Great visuals combined with fun parry / deflection-based combat (like in the first game), rewarding open world exploration (like Breath of the Wild) and constant loot (like Diablo) - (full impressions below)
Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember takes place in China in 208 AD, during the turbulent period that would become known as the Three Kingdoms. The story follows a young warrior living in a hidden village in Jing Province alongside their friend, the scholar and strategist Pang Tong. Their peaceful life is shattered when Cao Cao’s forces invade the province and destroy their village, forcing the protagonist to take up arms and join Liu Bei’s forces.
GAMEPLAY IMPRESSIONS
I played the first Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty on Gamepass when it released back in 2024. I’m a huge fan of Ninja Gaiden and Team Ninja, so I wanted to give their Souls-like game a try. I played it for a few hours and defeated a few bosses, but eventually I fell off of it, and it never really clicked for me.
So when I heard they were releasing Wo Long 2 I wasn’t super excited, but since they had a free demo to try I figured, why not? Maybe the second game made some improvements over the first.
Even from the title screen I noticed Wo Long 2 had very nice visuals (but then again the first one looked great too), and its character creator is pretty robust as well (although I never spend too long customizing my character). I ended up choosing a scowling-looking Asian gentleman and got right into it.
It took me a little time to get used to the action and rhythm of combat, and I died several times to an early group of bird-like warriors who didn’t seem that hard, but when they would all attack at the same time, I found myself overwhelmed faster than I could heal, but then I discovered something awesome. I backtracked just a bit up an incline and found a large boulder just sitting at the top. Sure enough, I lured the bird warriors up the path, hit said-boulder and it rolled down the hill crushing them all. It was awesome, and I felt super smart for figuring that out (even though in retrospect it was really obvious); this became a common theme throughout the rest of my time with the demo: finding cool stuff strewn all throughout the landscape.
Honestly I haven’t played a game since Breath of the Wild where you would see something cool-looking in the distance, make your way over to that area, and find something that made the journey worth it. Even Elden Ring doesn’t give me that same feeling, since there are a lot of areas in Elden Ring that look cool, but don’t have anything waiting for you as a reward (BTW - I LOVE Elden Ring, so no shade being thrown its way).
Back to combat for a minute. Like I said, it took me a little while to get into the feel of combat, but after a short time I was parrying fools left and right, and performing critical hits like a badass ninja. The combat certainly has a different feeling than a game like Elden Ring, but I really liked it once I got the hang of it.
The way you discover chests and items on fallen enemies reminds me SO much of my time playing Diablo III (I haven’t played IV yet), and in a very good way. In just a short amount of time, I had amassed multiple sets of armor and weapons I could choose between and I found myself constantly finding something new that was better than something I had equipped. The last time I remember a game doing that for me was Diablo, and that was one of the things I liked most about playing Diablo. Wo Long 2 definitely has that same vibe of finding cool weapons, armor and items around every corner and constantly making you question whether you should swap out your equipped items to maximize your build. The first Wo Long had lots of weapon and equipment upgrades too, but something about the way its delivered in the sequel feel more rewarding.
Overall this combination of parry-based combat, rewarding open world exploration, and constantly finding cool loot to upgrade your character made the demo for Wo Long 2 a ton of fun to play.
VERDICT: HYPE LEVEL 5/5
The demo for Wo Long 2 really impressed me. I didn’t expect much going into it since I had fallen off the first game, but I was very pleasantly surprised with the experience. I love the parry-based combat, and the critical hit execution moves are very cool. I love the sense of rewarding exploration that I haven’t felt since Breath of the Wild, and I love all the loot you collect that constantly gives you a reason to tweak your loadout and maximize your stats. While I wasn’t that excited about Wo Long 2 when I first heard it announced, the demo has completely changed my mind. I can’t wait for March 2027 to continue my adventure.
WATCH GAMEPLAY
You can see some of my gameplay from the demo in the video below: