Publisher Koei Tecmo and developer Team Ninja have released a new Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty story trailer to shed light on the fabled “Elixir of Life” as one of the game’s core themes.
Ancient Chinese rulers often sought the elixir in order to achieve immortality and eternal life, and believed minerals like jade, cinnabar, and hematite contributed to longevity. A famous story is one where the Chinese Taoist Xu Fu was sent on a big expedition to the legendary Penglai Mountain across the seas to search for that elixir, but never returned. The trailer directly references a Taoist character who is looking for that jade to create the ultimate elixir of immortality, strongly hinting at the identity of his real historical counterpart, Xu Fu.
As per ancient Chinese traditions, players will be able to channel the power of the Four Auspicious Beats who were given names and identities in Taoism practices and oversaw the seasons and the elements. They are The Azure Dragon (Qinglong in-game), The White Tiger (Baihu), The Vermillion Bird (Zhuque), and The Black Tortoise (Xuanwu). However, in other texts, the Yellow Dragon Qilin is also mentioned as a fifth deity, and so the game allows the players to harness the powers of five different elements and mythical creatures as they wish.
The game events also occur during the time of the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.–220 A.D.), though it contains elements for the Three Kingdoms period that succeeded it, and the player will be fighting many warlords from that period as per IGN’s latest developer interview. One character they mention is the military general Zhang Fei – he also appears in the trailer and demo – and as one of three iconic protagonists of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms historical novel, he exhibits great strength along with the game’s own demonic twist on history.
The developers also mention that the game’s deflect mechanic will be easier to execute following the feedback from the demo, and the process of using recovery items will be shortened, so defeating Zhang Fei (the first main boss) is going to be a bit easier, but it won’t be less serious than it should as, after all, this is a Team Ninja game.