Seeing a new Dynasty Warriors title in my review list brought me a lot of joy. It kind of felt like a birthday present of sorts because I have played this series since Dynasty Warriors 2 and have enjoyed its evolution and growing roster through the years. That said, I had no idea what to expect from Dynasty Warriors: Origins.
Publisher Koei Tecmo has tried to revamp the series quite a bit in recent years with Dynasty Warriors 9 and Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires being prime examples. Not all of those changes were good or well-received by longtime players. However, the publisher seems to have learned from their mistakes and missteps of the past.
While Dynasty Warriors: Origins is not quite perfect, it is amazingly good to play. It also includes many of the core changes that players have demanded over the years while also introducing some new mechanics that are pretty fun to experience.
Dynasty Warriors: Origins concentrates on the nameless hero protagonist who was the original character all the way back at the beginning of the series. Although many people won’t remember the original concept of the game, it was all about how that nameless hero got to interact with famous generals and others from Ancient China.
The adventure begins with players picking out a character model to use as an avatar for the nameless hero and then dropping into an opening scene where villagers are being harassed by local government forces. Here is where you have your first famous encounter as you join forces with renowned general Guan Yu to fight off the government forces and save the village.
The first thing I noticed about Origins was how detailed the graphics are now, especially the character models. Guan Yu looked amazing. He was certainly imposing and fierce looking, just like you would expect from a famous general. The game allows you to choose which kingdom you want to join when you start playing, and I chose Wu as I always do with the Dynasty Warriors series. I really enjoyed getting to see some of my favorite characters with the new graphics.
That first battle acted as a tutorial to all of the controls in Origins, which have become much more complicated over the years. This is where I hit a sticking point. Some of the controls required me to click and hold the right analog stick while also hitting one of the face buttons. Just making that claw like movement is hard enough, but trying do so in the middle of a frenzied battle is almost impossible to pull off exactly when it’s needed. Overall, I feel like the controls are excessively complicated in Origins while not adding too much to the experience.
Players get to experience a lot of different battles as Origins draws from previous titles as well as Chinese history. Everything from the Yellow Turban Rebellion to the battles of The Three Kingdoms period is represented with players seeing the combat from the eyes of their nameless hero right there on the ground in the thick of everything.
Overall, Origins is kind of slower paced compared with other titles in the series. But that is a good thing because it really gives your character as well as all of the characters you meet the ability to have their personality shine though. Given that, it was a bit of an odd choice not to include any romantic options in Origins. At first, I thought there were, especially after having a lot of great conversations with Diaochan. But there are no romantic encounters in it, and I was bummed because marriage has been in the Dynasty Warriors series for at least a decade. Perhaps it could be added in a future patch for Origins.
Moving on to the combat, which is a mainstay of the series, I was a little surprised that while your character can switch between nine different types of weapons (everything from wielding two pikes to a sword), so can everybody else you encounter in Origins. Previously in the Dynasty Warriors series, historical characters had unique weapons and abilities. Here, other than having some enemy generals use a strategist’s fan, there was not much difference between them.
Some NPCs did manage to keep the weapons and moves they had used traditionally in the series like Sun Quan, Zhang Liao, and Guan Yu. But many others lost their unique weapons. For example, Sun Ce’s tonfas became gauntlets and Taishi Ci’s clubs became pikes. Newer fans may not be bothered, but as someone who has played the Dynasty Warriors series forever, it was kind of disappointing.
The battles themselves are much more detailed than in previous games and understanding how enemies think is a key to victory. The AI is very smart now and will require planning ahead instead of just swinging blindly into a mass of enemies. Players will need to coordinate with allies too, which is new. And players even get their own personal guard that can help out by doing things like charging forward with spears into a breach point in the enemy lines or firing off a volley of deadly arrows to soften up a position. It really does make you feel more like a commander, even as you also wade into the fray and fight hundreds of enemies at the same time.
Going back to the past while also adding improvements and new gameplay mechanics is a win for Dynasty Warriors: Origins and the entire Dynasty Warriors series. I played Origins for hours on end, going through it fully several times. It’s filled with thrilling moments that never stop both on the battlefield and off, and it makes for a perfect title to jump into for both those who are new to the series and veterans who worried that Dynasty Warriors might be getting a little bit stale.
Dynasty Warriors: Origins earns a nearly perfect 4.5 out of 5 GiN Gems.