How does Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty's "rock, paper, scissor" style Wizardry system work?

Koei Tecmo recently showcased how the Wizardry system in their upcoming action role-playing game, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, will work with each elemental buff. The developer revealed a "rock, paper, scissor" style counter system that allows players to use different elemental attacks to nullify incoming attacks or passive debuffs. The Japanese publisher also showcased how players can use each elemental spell to counter other elements during gameplay.

This game features a robust Wizardry system, a massive upgrade from Koei Tecmo and Team Ninja's previous action role-playing titles, Nioh, and its sequel, Nioh 2. The Wizardry system in Team Ninja's upcoming action RPG feels like a mashup of their most recent work in the Final Fantasy spin-off, Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, and Nioh 2.

The Wizardry system in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty features unique offensive and defensive spells that players can use to imbue their weapons with certain elemental affinity or use as passive damage dealers during combat. Spells and talismans were somewhat secondary in the Nioh games; however, for their upcoming game, Koei Tecmo has made the Wizardry system and spells an integral part of combat.

Given how integral it is to Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty's combat, many players were somewhat skeptical about how the Wizardry system would work. Fortunately, Koei Tecmo has finally given a full breakdown of the "rock, paper, scissor" style Wizardry system ahead of the game's launch to give players a complete overview of how it benefits the moment-to-moment gameplay of Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty.

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How does the "rock, paper, scissors" Wizardry system work in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty

The Wizardry system in Team Ninja's new title comes with various elemental affinities, with each element having its own strengths and weaknesses. In a recent Twitter post, the game company and the developers explained how the Wizardry system and spell counters would work in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty. According to Team Ninja, the elemental spells work in the following order:

• Wood is destructive to Earth.
• Fire is destructive to Metal.
• Water is destructive to Fire.
• Metal is destructive to Wood.
• Earth is destructive to Water.

In Nioh games, a creation of the collaboration of the two Japanese gaming heavyweights, spells (which are called talismans and scrolls) were relegated to secondary buffs that players can use to enhance specific combat attributes for a limited time or give them passive bonuses, such as additional weapon damage or elemental buffs for artillery. The talismans in Nioh also allowed players to harness a few elemental abilities, but those were rarely as effective as the game's default melee options.

With Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, Team Ninja experimented with bringing spells to the forefront of combat and were, for the most part, successful in their attempt. In the game, most weapons come with their own elemental affinity, and players also get access to active spells to use in conjunction with their melee attacks to deal extra damage.

Team Ninja is taking the same approach for Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, albeit focusing more on making elemental spells viable as primary offensive tools. Spells have always been integral to Team Ninja's soul-like experiences, which they have finally refined to perfection with their upcoming action role-playing game. It remains to be seen how effective the Wizardry system ends up being in the game's moment-to-moment gameplay.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is scheduled to release on March 3, 2023, for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Windows PC. The game also releases day one on Xbox Game Pass for consoles and PCs and has a demo scheduled to come out on all platforms on February 24, 2023.