Review: Dynasty Warriors Origins Reboots the Series’ Gameplay

Dynasty Warriors Origins is a new attempt by Koei Tecmo and Omega Force to rejuvenate the long-running, history-based, hack-and-slash series. The company and studio behind the it managed to overhaul the gameplay system and combat presentations, which is made possible with the processing power of a console like the PS5. However, the strides may also be offset by neglect when it comes to the storytelling and character roster.

One of the subjects that have been talked about the most in the Dynasty Warriors series is the action combo system. The Charge Combo system, where players can unleash different strong attacks depending on the launch position in the normal attack string, has been a fond favorite among the series fanbase but often loathed by other critics as repetitive. Previous attempts to revolutionize the combos, such as Renbu in Dynasty Warriors 6 and the State Combo system in Dynasty Warriors 9, fell flat and failed to impress fans and critics alike.

Producer Tomohiko Sho has promised in interviews that Origins would stay away from Dynasty Warriors 9‘s State Combo system. But while the game was initially shown with the good ol’ Charge Combo system, there is a big twist in the larger picture. The sword is one of the only two weapon types to keep a close resemblance with the staple combo chain. Most weapon types in this game now have the same strong attack from any point in the normal string.

This is also where the game’s actions have further distinctions. Every weapon type has its own unique methods of launching strong attacks. The prompts range from holding or mashing to pressing the button at the right time. Even weapons with similar input prompts still have some differences.

For example, both Xiahou Dun’s Podao Scimitar and Zhang Fei’s Viper Lance will encourage the player to hold the strong attack button to charge up the attacks. However, the Podao will simply power up the attack while launching a staggering shockwave at each level, whereas the lance will require enduring enemy attacks to unleash its full potential.

There may be some concerns that the playable weapon types are too few and some of the weapons used by NPCs are not usable by the player, such as Xu Zhu’s club or Zhuge Liang’s feather fan. But with how every playable weapon type is made uniquely this time around, it may give more expectations towards a similar direction for future series entries.

In addition, there are also new strong attacks linked with the guard and evasion buttons for all weapons. There has been a further emphasis on defense and evasion in this game. Most of the attacks from enemy officers will not be interruptible by regular attacks, and you will have to determine whether you can block the attack, cancel it with a special battle art or Musou attack, or dodge it. By forcing such decisions, it should remove the series’ stigma that the game could be easily beaten by simply attacking with the Square or X button.

One of the features I appreciate the most in Dynasty Warriors Origins is the briefing session in the pre-war council. Prior series entries mostly had the ploys explained in the midst of battles, which may be overwhelming for some players. By providing strategic explanations before the battles, it also lets the player plot their own movements beforehand.

The Eyes of the Sacred Bird, the protagonist’s exclusive ability inspired by Joker’s Third Eye from Omega Force’s experience in Persona 5 Strikers, also helps the player make tactical movement decisions to make the game worthy of its “tactical action” genre. Other than checking officers’ conditions, the ability also lets you detect stage gimmicks like magic sources and hidden paths. You can even order troop tactics that can temporarily debuff enemies when used at optimal positions.

The game now marks any ongoing fights between officers—even outside of bases—with lettered spots. Players will be generally recommended to focus on red spots with enemy advantages to mitigate ally losses. And as the morale gradually shifts in your favor, you will also notice allied officers becoming able to breeze through the fights on their own.

However, I noticed that these spots do not seem to factor in enemy officers with maximum courage, as they can still overwhelm allied officers with a morale advantage. These officers are usually the key leaders with whom the player has to deal directly. Some of them can challenge the player to a one-on-one duel, which occasionally may also include a heightened all-or-nothing stake.

In Dynasty Warriors Origins, the player is also encouraged to work together with troops to enter enemy bases and castles. Opening enemy-controlled gates from the front now requires you to summon help from your bodyguard unit or nearby troops. But while you can unlock a gate’s lock from behind by yourself, I find it perplexing that I need to request help from troops to destroy siege weapons like catapults when I could do it myself in prior games.

The presentation for the battles in this game reaches top marks with the large army clashes and castle sieges at the battles’ climactic phases. Rushing together with allied troops and seeing some of them blown up high by enemy catapult attacks feel so immersive and life-like, especially with thousands of soldiers appearing simultaneously on the screen. Unleashing an Ultimate Musou Attack that can blow away over a thousand soldiers at this phase also has a very satisfying feel as a result.

I am also impressed that Omega Force went back to focus on maintaining a stable frame rate to make the gameplay flow smoothly, just like the PS2-era entries. I still remember how I mostly only saw 30 fps when I played Dynasty Warriors 7 through 9 on the PS3 and PS4 respectively. In Dynasty Warriors Origins, I noticed a mostly stable 60 fps gameplay on the original (non-Pro) PS5, even during the large army clashes I mentioned above.

I also noticed that Origins managed to grasp the RPG-like game progression in a much better way than Dynasty Warriors 9. The protagonist traverses through a gradually opened world map to progress in the story. There are also several requests that task the player to obtain specific items with a vague map clue. Infinitely spawning skirmishes act similarly to random mook battles in RPGs where the player can grind for levels and training missions. And increasing ranks will gradually unlock skill trees that can provide various buffs to the player’s character.

In addition, the battle music themes definitely have some notes from Omega Force’s experience with the Fire Emblem Warriors entries. Pausing the game will reduce some of the instruments seamlessly to make the ambiance somewhat calmer, even with just the electric guitars being strummed. What’s new here, though, is that there is a grander version of the music with even more epic instruments when the stage is at its climactic phase, and it also gives me more excitement to finish the battle decisively.

For all the improvements made to the game’s presentations, though, Omega Force seems to have done those at the expense of the characters and lore storytelling that the studio had slowly built up throughout successive mainline entries. But before I go in-depth with that, let me mention the several positive aspects Omega Force had brought in from these segments.

The age-based design changes for several characters, such as Liu Bei and Cao Cao becoming younger or Gan Ning appearing older, make them fit better with the period setting. The early arc villains like Zhang Jiao and Dong Zhuo also received major overhauls that allowed them to evolve from cliche villains to characters who have properly conveyed purposes.

However, the team opted to focus the storytelling from the perspective of the game’s original protagonist, so much so that a good number of key events from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms novel and other key character developments end up happening off-screen. Not seeing Liu Bei’s sworn brother oath at the Peach Garden is one thing, but the lack of choices to align the player’s viewpoint with the Yellow Turbans and Dong Zhuo’s army—which had been present in prior Dynasty Warriors entries—makes Origins fail to completely explain things that happen inside the factions, such as how the Yellow Turban soldiers degraded into depravity or how the successful assassination plot on Dong Zhuo worked out.

I have also already noticed several series characters who, despite having appeared in prior Dynasty Warriors entries, are missing in Origins‘ full roster. There are already some red flags raised on this topic when the same producer behind the roster-reduced Dynasty Warriors 6 helmed this title and announced a scope reduction in the timeline covered. Altering Xu Huang’s background in his decision to join Cao Cao and thus completely retconning Man Chong is just one of the examples that people who are well-versed in the lore setting might not be able to stomach.

And even though you can have a recurring character follow you as a companion in most battles, I’m finding a very limited window to control them. In each stage, I only see one chance to unleash the tag-team Extreme Musou Attack. And when I do make the switch to control that character, their Rage Mode will automatically activate even when I haven’t pressed the prompts yet.

I haven’t even mentioned my pet peeve with the long-standing localization issue throughout the series, in which Koei Tecmo omits almost every mention of characters’ courtesy names in the English localization, even when the Japanese and Chinese scripts constantly use them. Retaining Yuanhua’s name in the localization may seem like an odd decision from such a team, but I personally hope it serves as an impetus for the English team to consider the full inclusion of courtesy names in future Dynasty Warriors title localizations.

As a side note, I received my Dynasty Warriors Origins review copy on the PlayStation 5. As I pointed out in my impressions of the demo version, the PS5 build is somehow lacking Chinese language options unlike on other platforms. This is because Sony and Koei Tecmo, for some reason, split the Chinese language version from English and the rest. This omission is, unfortunately, still in effect as of the review version. Unless there are future plans to update all regional variants with every supported language, the PS5 version will have a significant disadvantage from the PC and Xbox releases on this aspect.

Playing the game with Japanese voiceovers, however, let me rediscover the pun jokes that Omega Force has regularly put into the Japanese releases since Dynasty Warriors 7. Only a few of these get properly localized to English, though, while most of the puns are lost to ironically accurate translations.

But no matter which voiceover language I go with, I’ve been impressed with all characters in conversations—including even generic generals and non-combatant civilians—having not only proper lipsync but also tongue movements with quotes in each selected language.

Koei Tecmo is finally heading down the right path to revitalize the Dynasty Warriors series’ gameplay actions and presentations with Origins. Those who have gotten fed up with the series’ repetitiveness will find this game the perfect entry to make their return. But while newcomers and returning players may not have as many issues with the storytelling, long-time fans who have grown attached to the lore setting and characters might feel underwhelmed by the various cuts made to both aspects.

Dynasty Warriors Origins will be available worldwide on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and PC on January 17, 2025.