Dynasty Warriors: Origins Review
The latest game in the Dynasty Warriors series is an exhilarating experience that brings the Musou series to the latest console generation.
Dynasty Warriors: Origins. Credit: Koei Tecmo
Dynasty Warriors: Origins is my first experience with Omega Force and Koei Tecmo’s venerable musou series, aside from the licensed Nintendo Switch spin-off Hyrule Warriors. The series revolves around the exciting fantasy of being able to singlehandedly defeat massive armies, often consisting of hundreds or thousands of enemies. The latest title fully utilizes advanced console hardware to deliver on this promise in a more impressive way than ever before, while incorporating changes to its formula that make the game feel fresh and engaging.
The series is loosely adapted from the 14th-century Chinese novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong. It is set during the Three Kingdoms era of Chinese history, a tumultuous period following the fall of the Han Dynasty from 184 to 280 CE. The plot of Dynasty Warriors: Origins begins with the Yellow Turban Rebellion of 184 CE and culminates in the famous Battle of Chibi (also known as the Battle of Red Cliffs) in 208 CE.
Dynasty Warriors: Origins. Credit: Koei Tecmo
The game’s story and gameplay take a significant departure from previous entries in the series by introducing a new protagonist instead of placing players in control of established heroes from the source material. The main character is a wandering warrior, described as a "guardian of peace," who suffers from amnesia. Throughout the game, he befriends the familiar series protagonists and fights alongside them. Players will have numerous opportunities to interact with these well-known characters through various conversations and cutscenes. While these interactions are generally enjoyable, the writing and performances can feel somewhat stilted. It often becomes a bit ridiculous how readily everyone confides in the protagonist, a complete stranger, expressing their emotions in overly dramatic terms.
Despite letting the player control the classic heroes for only brief moments during specific missions, the game still feels varied and fresh thanks to the nine usable weapons the game features over the length of its campaign, including a sword, lance, gauntlets, chakrams, and more. Each weapon type levels up individually and features unique combos and special attacks, known as Battle Arts.
Dynasty Warriors: Origins. Credit: Koei Tecmo
Combat in this game feels exhilarating. While you can easily defeat regular enemies, they primarily serve as distractions from the more powerful officers leading them. It's important not to just mash buttons; to defeat these formidable foes, you must time your dodges and counters effectively. Successfully executing dodges and parries boosts the Bravery meter, allowing you to unleash powerful Battle Arts.
By attacking officers repeatedly, you can drain their Fortitude, which eventually lets you stagger them and trigger an Assault that deals significant damage. As you engage in battle, you also build up Rage to various levels, which can activate brief invincibility and Musou attacks capable of defeating hundreds of enemies in one go.
Dynasty Warriors: Origins. Credit: Koei Tecmo
Before each battle, the game provides a strategy briefing cutscene, but ultimately, you’re free to move around the field as you wish. Using an ability called “Eyes of the Sacred Bird,” you can see the locations and status of key flashpoints of the battle and determine where you most need to intervene. Your actions can turn the tide by boosting your force’s morale, which will rise or plummet depending on the enemy's strength. Likewise, defeating a large force will drain enemy morale. Often, you’ll be in the thick of it, and the game will tell you that one of your generals is in a losing battle and needs your help. It’s a thrill to destroy the enemy onslaught or cut through them on your horse to hurry to your generals’ aid in the nick of time.
Losing a battle isn’t too frustrating because the game features a helpful rewinding system. Instead of starting the mission over from the beginning, you can resume from key points in the battle. If you see where things went wrong, you can start from that point and try out different tactics. Perhaps you overlooked a skirmish you shouldn’t have or took too long to capture an important stronghold. This system allows you to experiment and discover the best path to victory.
Dynasty Warriors: Origins. Credit: Koei Tecmo
Between battles, you move around a world map, traveling from region to region. You can meet other officers on the path and converse with them to grow your bonds; they also give you missions that will earn you valuable skill upgrade points. Brief side missions pop up all over the world as you explore. Unlike the campaign battles, these usually only take a few minutes. They help grind for upgrades or achieve the officers’ missions, but they quickly get repetitive. They’re nowhere near as exciting as the game’s main storyline missions.
Towns have shops with new weapons, and the inns there allow you to read letters that enclose rewards or progress the story. You can also craft stat-boosing gems at inns using a collectible item, pyroxene. Crating here is simple: using pyroxene will generate one of five random gems, and each one boosts the overall level of the five gems you can equip.
Dynasty Warriors: Origins. Credit: Koei Tecmo
Visually, the game isn’t very special for its style or the quality of its graphics; it’s run-of-the-mill for a AAA current generation title. What’s impressive is the sheer number of onscreen enemies assaulting you and fighting with each other. The scale of these battles, running at a smooth, consistent framerate on the PS5, is awesome. All the action, coupled with the sound design and excellent electric guitar-driven soundtrack, makes Dynasty Warriors: Origins one of the most exciting action experiences to be released recently.
If you enjoy action games and beat-em-ups, Dynasty Warriors: Origins’ beefy campaign won’t disappoint. There are two story paths to explore and over 40 hours of gameplay. I plan to go back and see what I missed.
Dynasty Warriors: Origins will be available on January 16, 2025, on PC (Steam), PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.
Overall Score: 8/10
Played on: PS5
