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When the Dynasty Warriors series hit the PS2 as one of the first wave of games, it completely revolutionized the beat ’em up genre. It might be hard to imagine now, but back in the early 00s, being able to fight off hundreds of men in a battle was unheard of. Consoles (or PCs for that matter), simply didn’t have the horsepower beforehand. Hell, if gamers back then could see Dynasty Warriors Origins in action, they’d never believe this was a video game.
We went from sprites to simplistic 3D (ala Virtua Fighter) to lifelike 3D visuals we have now. In the span of decades. No matter what metric you measure that progress by, it’s nothing short of revolutionary how fast video games have progressed since the 90s.
As one of the most influential games on the Playstation 2, Dynasty Warriors played a huge part in that revolution. Ironically, it’s fame prevented the series from evolving much. Even Dynasty Warriors 8 was fundamentally similar to the original Dynasty Warriors 2.
Now we have Dynasty Warriors Origins. A reboot of the franchise built from the ground up to take advantage of modern platforms.
Is it just as revolutionary as Dynasty Warriors 2 was?
What is Dynasty Warriors Origins?
Dynasty Warriors Origins is a single player 3D beat ’em up with RPG elements. It’s developed by Omega Force, with publication duties done by Koei Tecmo. The game is available right now on the PC, Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles.
Our review copy was awesome provided by our friends over at Koei Tecmo! Thanks so much!
Nobody liked Dynasty Warriors 9. It’s a harsh truth but it had to be said. It took everything that was fun in the series and made it boring. Even the open world couldn’t save it from being blasted by the series’ fans for being crap.
Looking back, perhaps it was lucky that Dynasty Warriors 9 was a big stinking pile of bantha poodoo. After all, without its failure, I doubt Omega Force would’ve gone back to the drawing board and produced Dynasty Warriors Origins.
Fans had complained for years by the time Dynasty Warriors 9 came around that the series needed to evolve. One can say it did evolve with Dynasty Warriors 9…just in a completely unwanted direction.
Thankfully, Dynasty Warriors Origins has the series back on track with a fresh new coat of paint.
As a reboot, Dynasty Warriors Origins overhauls (or outright dumbed) many of the series’ staple mechanics. Reinforcement gate captains? Gone. Static briefing screens? Gone. Huge roster of playable characters? Gone.
This is Dynasty Warriors slimmed down to pure muscle and pumped up with steroids.
That is…honestly what the series needs.
The biggest overhaul is that there’s now a single player story mode.
You play as the Wanderer, an amnesiac warrior who is caught up in the pivotal battles of the Three Kingdoms era. Origins wisely assumes that players have no idea who anybody is (great for the new fans jumping in), so it starts its story right before the Yellow Turban Rebellion kicks off.
That gives it the leeway to slowly introduce the major players without overloading newbies with a slew of unfamiliar names. In fact, to cater to the newbies, Omega Force has even rejiggered the character designs. This…I’m a bit divided on.
I feel that the original designs were iconic enough that Omega Force should’ve let sleeping dogs lie. These new character designs, while looking similar to the old school ones, are quite a mixed bag.
Now everybody looks like either they’re a bodybuilder or somebody who does CrossFit.
A good example would be Zhang Fei.
He is now muscular as hell, a far cry from the portly warrior from past games. Another good example would be Cao Cao, who looks like he belongs in a boyband. Hell, even Dong Zhou looks like he can bench press a bus without effort! A complete 180 reversal from the fat, pot bellied despot we’ve all grown to know and hate.
Instead of grizzled warriors, I feel the art design is now leaning towards more pretty boys and musclemen (and buxomly babes). Nothing wrong with that, but why mess with a good thing?
Thankfully, that doesn’t extend to the combat.
It’s still a massive brawl with a screen filling amount of soldiers most times. You kill warriors by the dozens with your attacks and you have moves that superheroes would be jealous of.
The Wanderer gets drip feed access to a host of weapons as you progress. From swords, to the spear and even giant Chakrams (which the game calls Wheels), the Wanderer is a versatile combatant. Unfortunate then, that’s he’s not as versatile to be able to switch weapons during a battle.
The basic combat system of stringing X and Y buttons to create combos is back, and is enhanced by the addition of new moves called Battle Arts. These are special attacks with different properties (such as the ability to cancel out an enemy special move if executed at the right time) and use a new resource (Bravery) which is gained by attacking enemies.
Each Battle Art requires different amounts of Bravery, so mixing and matching the optimal balance lets you rampage longer than just piling on the heavy duty skills.
That’s not all there is too!
Your character can now parry (an attack with a hugely powerful counter) if you time a block right as an enemy attack is about to hit you. You can also do a block counter, which lets you transition from a block right into an attack move. There’s also a dodge, which also lets you do an attack immediately after you move.
It gives the game a whole lot more strategic depth, as the fights now require some timing and coordination instead of just button mashing.
That depth extends to the overall battles too.
The character count for the battles have been massively buffed up, with minimal pop-in! That’s honestly supremely impressive. Pop-in of the NPCs have always been one of the weakest parts of the series and it’s pretty much gone in this one.
In fact, the amount of NPCs (both friendlies and enemies) is staggering. There has never been a Warriors game with more NPCs on-screen than this one. Huge battles are an integral part of the game too!
This time around, there are locations where the opposing armies can square off and charge each other in massive melees! It’s even got a name; large battles! Imagine the battle scenes in Braveheart or better yet, Lord of the Rings!
Remember the Ride of the Rohirrim? Or how Gandalf brought Eomer’s riders with him to charge Saruman’s army at Helm’s Deep?
Similar charges are in the game.
It. Is. AWESOME!
The Large Battles have their own mini-objectives too! There’s a huge meter that you need to bring down by completing the missions. Killing enemy generals. Provide support. Engage in duels.
Oh that got your attention didn’t it?
Yep, you can now challenge big shots on the other side to mano-a-mano face offs! Duels don’t have a health meter, but have a morale meter that rises as you do damage, and goes down if you get hit. Overcome your enemy with repeated blows (and dodging theirs) and it’s an instant win for you!
I beat Diao Chan and Dong Zhou in this way…and it’s super cool!
Fighting with your allies (particularly your Commander for the battle) is essential. You can now also bring along companions and even swap to them when things get hairy. It’s only a temporary switch though, as the mechanic is meant to give you an extra bump of firepower if you’re struggling.
Once the Musou meter for your companion runs out, it’s back to the player character until you can charge up enough of the companion meter to swap again.
Incredibly, Omega Force foresaw that a ton of old school fans would probably be dying and retrying in this new reboot.
That’s why there’s now a feature to drop into the past battle (you know, the one you just lost) at certain pivotal moments to try to avert defeat.
It’s an insanely awesome feature, letting you bypass restarting the whole battle (though it is an option if you want). It pinpoints when the tide turned, allowing you to try another tactic (or just be more efficient) to see if you can change the outcome.
Perhaps you shouldn’t have stopped to fight that general on the way to rescue your commander? Maybe you should’ve captured that base before enemy reinforcement showed up? Hell, maybe you should’ve been more picky on which general you tangled with? There’s a lot of ‘What If’s’ that you can explore and with this new feature.
Speaking of enemy generals, they too have been beefed up.
They now have a Fortitude meter (displayed as shield icons) that you have to whittle down via your attacks. Once all the icons are gone, the enemies are stunned. Now’s the time to deal some massive damage via combos or execute the new Assault special attack (Y button) that allows you to deal crazy damage by mashing the button.
Hell, that’s not the end of the new additions!
The game now has a world map your character traverses as you move from battle to battle. It’s not like Dynasty Warriors 9’s though, so relax and unclench. The new world map is much more in line with old school RPGs like Final Fantasy VII or VII or even XI, where your character (depicted as a giant) runs around ancient China and encounters towns, battles and other characters.
You can even find consumables and use them for your character.
It’s super cool, and also allows you the option to grind with optional battles. However, it does tend to ruin the game’s pacing a bit when you compare it to the older titles. Instead of moving from battle to battle, there’s a noticeable break between them now. Whereas the older titles covered the Yellow Turban Rebellion in just one or two stages, Dynasty Warriors Origins drags it out significantly, with there being more battles against the Yellow Turbans.
Speaking of expansion, the game also features a new system that ties in weapon progression with skills trees. Oh yeah, now you’re actually encourage to massacre everything in your sights because every 100 kills nets you skill points.
These points are then used in the skill trees that you get by leveling up your weapon proficiencies.
There’s a surprising amount of replayability here that dwarfs any other game in the series (except perhaps Warriors Orochi 3). You’ll find yourself grinding away just to get to the next weapon level to see what you can unlock. It’s a great incentive that was missing from the older titles, which mainly depended on weapon drops and generic leveling to keep you playing.
Unfortunately, I feel that Omega Force might have removed some aspects from the older games they should’ve kept.
The Free Mode (which allowed you to play as stage as any character) is gone completely. There’s no way to play as any other character in the game, other than via tagging them in as companions. Also gone are the individual character story modes present in some games, or the Wu, Wei, Shu and Jin faction story modes present in others.
Being able to use other characters as companions (and play as them for a limited time) just rubs salt into the gaping wound.
I honestly wouldn’t mind a spin-off (like the Empires or Xtreme Legends games) that brought back these old school elements in a new game. Of course, that game would have to have all the new ideas implemented in Dynasty Warriors Origins though.
The Bottom Line.
I’m really glad that Dynasty Warriors 9 screwed the pooch so badly that Omega Force felt that they had to reboot the series to recover. It was about damn time, and Dynasty Warriors Origins is all the better for it.
From the ground up, the game improves and builds upon nearly every aspect that made the Warriors franchise to be reckoned with back in the PS2 and PS3 days. True, the lack of a Free Mode and the redesigned characters don’t really jibe with me, but I’m optimistic that this will either be addressed via DLC, a spin-off or the sequel.
With the foundation that Dynasty Warriors Origins is built upon, I can honestly say that I’m really excited to see what’s coming in the future for the series.
Oh Koei Tecmo and Omega Force, if you’re reading this…PLEASE DO ANOTHER DYNASTY WARRIORS GUNDAM!
TLDR:
Dynasty Warriors Origins’ improvements are a welcome breath of fresh air to a stagnating series and makes the formula fun again!
The Good:
- Long story mode with tons of battles and optional content.
- Deep gameplay system.
- Satisfying combat.
- Massively improved visuals.
- Incredible number of on-screen NPCs.
The Bad:
- Unfamiliar faces and questionable character art design.
- No online component or multiplayer.
- No Free Mode.
- Only able to play as the Wanderer.
- Unable to swap weapons mid-battle.
Salehuddin Husin, EIC
Sal's been in the industry since the early 2000s. He's written for a ton of gaming and tech publications including Playworks, Hardwarezone, HWM and GameAxis. Recently, Sal served as a juror for the Indie Game Awards at Taipei Game Show 2020. A geek and hardcore gamer, Sal will play everything, on any platform.
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