Reviews

Dynasty Warriors: Origins review — One player hack and slash

It’s been more than half a decade since the last mainline Dynasty Warriors game, but now the series is back with a prequel, titled Dynasty Warriors: Origins. It again takes on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but this time in the eyes of a new protagonist, known as the Wanderer.

Combat-wise, Origins retains the core Musou formula that the series is known for. It is still the classic one versus one thousand hack and slash combat, but with some significant improvements. For one, there is now a perfect dodge and parry mechanic that breaks up the monotony of button mashing. In a way, Origins feels like a hybrid between Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty and the old Dynasty Warrior titles. Origins seems to reuse a ton of assets from Wo Long, such as the Yellow Turbans who appear in both games. 

Dynasty Warriors: Origins - First 30 Minutes on PS5 [GamingTrend]

There is also a new Eyes of the Sacred Bird ability that allows you to reveal sources of sorcery and command troops. It’s a nice added gimmick to make the game feel a bit more tactical, but honestly falls short in making any noticeable impact to the overall gameplay. Every mission has a win and lose condition, but it generally revolves around defeating a particular enemy. As such, most of them feel the same and the game gets boring very fast. There are some escort-type missions but the pacing for those is awful.

You spend your time outside of battle on an overmap, traveling between different regions of China and embarking on missions that put you into battle. In the overworld, you can visit towns and shops, unlock fast travel points, and talk to NPCs to pick up side quests or training missions. Visiting inns allows you to rewatch story segments, look at game records, and check game statistics such as total play time and enemies defeated.

Exploring the overworld map can lead to currencies called Old Coins and Pyroxene. Pyroxene is used to create and upgrade 1 of 5 possible gems that can be equipped on your character. Gems grant passive upgrades such as: Extend Attack Range, Boost Damage to Launched Enemies, Restore Health for every 100 enemies defeated, etc. Old Coins on the other hand can be exchanged at the Shui Jing Retreat for extra Pyroxene or cash. Here is also where you can check your bond levels with notable characters in the story.

The Wanderer can be equipped with 1 weapon, 1 gem, 4 battle arts (or weapon skills), 2 accessories, 1 horse, and various consumables. Completing missions and training tasks grants you skill points that you can allocate in a skill tree. The higher your rank, the more skill trees that will be available for you. Each node grants passive upgrades such as increased base health or attack power, the ability to evade repeatedly, or restoring more health from eating buns.

Dynasty Warriors: Origins - Zhang Jiao Boss Fight [GamingTrend]

The game comes with three difficulty levels: easy, normal, and hero. You can change them at any time, which is convenient for those that want to test out the waters before committing to one difficulty. In general, the game is almost too easy on easy and normal, and it’s hero mode that cranks up the difficulty tenfold. But one complaint is how spongey enemies are. Enemies are more aggressive and you need to make full use of the combat systems in order to succeed. On hero, you also need to keep an eye out on your comrades, who might make the entire mission a failure if they fall in battle.

The iconic and legendary Lu Bu obviously makes an appearance in Dynasty Warriors: Origins. He is indeed a force to be reckoned with and remember: do not pursue Lu Bu.

Origins strays away from the traditional Dynasty Warriors formula as it tries to attempt a more narrative-heavy approach as compared to the usual arcadey feel of the franchise. Because of this, you won’t have a huge roster of characters to play and switch between, but instead only control the nameless main protagonist: the Wanderer. The story also only covers the events leading up to the Battle of Chi Bi in 208 AD, so expect the next entry to continue where this one leaves off.

That being said, there is an occasional support character that assists you on specific missions that you can control temporarily. These companions include notable names such as Xiahou Dun, Sun Shangxiang, and Guan Yu. Unfortunately, you will not be able to play as legendary names such as Liu Bei or Cao Cao. In my opinion, this is a huge downgrade from what the series is known for. I want to be able to play as several different characters!

To alleviate my above pain point, the game does offer a whopping 9 different weapon types, ranging from gauntlets and spears to giant podaos and wheels. Each weapon type has its own unique playstyle and skills, giving you the opportunity to experiment with different techniques and strategies. You start the game off with just the sword, but discover and acquire new weapons from fallen foes on the battlefield. Each weapon has a rank that increases the more you use it, granting you new combos and skills.

Dynasty Warriors: Origins - Rebellion of the Ten Attendants [GamingTrend]

Unlike all the previous Dynasty Warrior games, Origins does not feature online or couch cooperative play, which is an immense disappointment, to say the least. It is not known currently if Omega Force or Koei Tecmo will add this feature later on or not. Any Dynasty Warriors game is enhanced greatly when you play it with a friend, so this is a complete missed opportunity. The very nature of the game can get very monotonous as you’re literally just button mashing through the mission, so having the option to play with a friend at least varies it up a little.

In terms of technical performance, it’s your usual high quality Koei Tecmo game. No complaints at all in this department. Dynasty Warriors: Origins comes in at a sizable 42.1GB on the PlayStation 5, with both a performance and graphics mode. If you are playing on a VRR enabled display, it can go as high as 120 fps, but in testing, the true frame rates hovered around 62-66, which is still good. It takes around 4 seconds to load in from the main menu and some rumbling is supported on the DualSense controller.

For whatever reason, the PS5 version of the game only comes with the English and Japanese dub, and not the Chinese voice over. I know for a fact that the PC Steam version features a Chinese option, so it boggles my mind that it isn’t on the PS5 version, especially when the game itself is based on Chinese history and lore. Furthermore, there’s just a bit too much dialogue and cutscenes for my taste. There’s honestly more talking than actual gameplay, which is just insane when it comes to an action game. Thankfully you can skip cutscenes, but sometimes you have to sit through 5-6 of them back to back.

You can get the Deluxe Edition of the game if you pay an extra $20. What do you get for doing so? Play the game 3 days early and get access to an official Japanese artbook and the official soundtrack featuring 20 songs. This is not worth it, as you cannot access the extra goodies from outside of the game or even download the songs you paid for. Save your hard earned money for something better, please. I am an avid supporter of pushing out demos before full releases, so if you are on the fence about the game, try out the demo before committing the full amount to buy.

An avid enthusiast of both tabletop and video games, finding endless joy in exploring different realms of entertainment!

70

Good

Dynasty Warriors: Origins

Review Guidelines

Dynasty Warriors: Origins represents a commendable yet contradictory effort to rejuvenate the series. In balancing familiar elements with new features to create a refreshing experience, it loses sight of what made the originals fun and fails to improve on what made them monotonous.

Henry Viola

Unless otherwise stated, the product in this article was provided for review purposes.

See below for our list of partners and affiliates:

Buy Now

Buy Now

Buy Now

Buy Now

Buy Now

Buy Now

Buy Now

Buy Now

Buy Now

Trending

To Top
GAMINGTREND