DynastyWarriors: Origins by developer Omega Force andpublisher Koei Tecmo Games—MicrosoftXbox Series X Review written byNick with a copyprovided by the publisher.
Reading time: 8 minutes
Back in 2018, Developer Omega Force tried to do something differentwith the long-running Dynasty Warriors franchise to very mixed reception. Theseries has long had its fervent supporters and dismissive detractors for avariety of reasons, but the large majority of gamers seemed to be in agreementthat the series was in need of a shake-up. However, opening it up to a more open-worldenvironment didn’t work for everyone (in ourreview, we found it flawed, but still enjoyable).
Now we have the newly released Dynasty Warriors: Origins which again tries tobreathe some new life into an old series, and I suspect it will be much morewarmly received this time around. Againsome changes were taken with the tried and true formula, but they feel morecarefully thought out and executed. The end result is a game that has familiar,enjoyable trappings, but enough new wrinkles to create something that feels bothfresh and comfortable at the same time.
I fell in love with the tale of Romance of the Three Kingdomsback when I first played it on the NES back in the 80’s, and have since playednumerous games (the self-titled strategy series, Destiny of an Emperor, KessenII, TotalWar: Three Kingdoms and the Dynasty Warriors games to name several). I'veeven read the book which is a more fantastical retelling of the historical novelsThree Kingdoms. I go way, way back with this tale, making me an idealdemographic for these games right out of the gates.
One of the issues that I think faced Dynasty Warriors 9 wasthat the open world format felt unfocused. There was this wide open worldfilled with the potential for encounters or discoveries, but oftentimes it feltdull and lifeless. Certain spots and locations were visually interesting andhistorically important, but so much of the remaining landscape felt like fillerat the time. It is worth calling out that there is something of an open world /exploration element to be had in Dynasty Warriors: Origins, but it’s handledfar more cleanly and in a more streamlined fashion. You have an oversized representationof your character (and other characters you can talk to) on a sort of overworldmap as you visit villages, find items and open up new passageways that lead tocontinuations of the story. It’s actually quite lovely to look at and doesn’tfeel as empty and dull as the unfocused approach of Dynasty Warriors 9.
Here Dynasty Warriors: Origins takes a decidedly differentapproach, and puts the focus on story, and more importantly on our primaryprotagonist. You can name the character whatever you like, but generically he’sreferred to Ziluan and serves as our gateway into the story here. What’sinteresting is how this character is handled like a bit of a blank slate.Instead of choosing from among the many generals of legend from the story to play,you can customize your skills and pick different weapons for the protagonist, craftinghim to match your preferred play style. There’s probably room in futureinstallments to take this formula and add a character creation system, maybeeven allowing for female protagonists as well, but what’s here is still anexcellent start.
There are times I felt a bit like I got a bit of FinalFantasy spilled onto my Dynasty Warriors here. The visuals, both the charactersand environments, with loads of symbolism and style are a cut above anythingelse the Dynasty Warriors series has provided to date. There’s a few otherparallels too, like how varied the music can be. There are plenty of sceneswhere we get a more traditional-sounding Chinese score, but then when the fightingstarts you have heavy metal guitar riffs to compliment the one-to-many beat-‘em-upaction that the Warriors games are known for. It’s also worth grinning aboutthe moniker our amnesiac protagonist goes by: Guardian of Peace. It's one of the weaker elements of the story,the all-too-familiar forgotten memory trope that allows our main character tolearn with us. He asks the questions we might not know, while being a blankslate of skills to develop the way we like. Thatcombined with the occasional faint glowing light they exude had a very FinalFantasy Warrior of Light vibe that I couldn’t help but recognize.
It's interesting that our primary protagonist is treated abit like a forgotten remnant of time. He is positioned to participate in somany of the major events told in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, starting hisadventure by meeting the legendary Guan Yu shortly before the Yellow TurbanRebellion sets the stage for the story to come. That said, there’s a bit ofagency given to our protagonist, as he isn’t given voiced lines (unlike many ofthe other characters in the game), but you as the player get to choose someresponse choices along the way. By and large, these appear to be mostlycosmetic, as I replayed some scenes and tried some different options and itmostly just resulted in different dialogue responses, but nothing that majorlyimpacts the narrative. I will say ‘most of the time’ as there are somealternate endings that can be seen, which is a rather nice touch.
However, as much as I love the story told here, andappreciate the fresh perspective of following this single character through itto experience it through their eyes, there is some pretty clumsy dialog andtimes. While I appreciate that there’s English voice acting, it can berather stiff for some the characters as well. It’s not bad, it’s just notalways great either. That being said, while there’s plenty of cut scenes andsome exploration to be had, the focus of the Warriors games tends to be thecombat. And fans of Musou combat won’t be disappointed.
There’s numerous weapons to be found and learned, and there’stwo leveling systems at play here: one for the character and one for theirweapons expertise. At first glance, combat seems quite similar to what has comebefore, and weapons all have light attacks that are functionally pretty similaras you can clear out dozens and dozens of the simple enemies that come at youin waves. Those familiar with the series will not be surprised to see that it’sin the heavy attacks the weapons tend to differentiate themselves with chargeor combination attacks having a different sort of weight and impact on how theycarve through the masses. Again the basic peon doesn’t offer a whole lot ofresistance, but when you start encountering the more powerful named generals,that’s where things get interesting.
Dynasty Warriors: Origins does bring some effective new wrinklesto the mix, with blocking, well-timed parries and careful dodges can mean thedifference between victory and defeat. Throughout the majority of the series,there has been a legitimate argument made that you can button mash through theentire game with little to no effort, especially on the lower levels ofdifficulty. While this tactic still does in fact work for the majority ofcombat, the more powerful generals of the game also use these defensive toolsmore than in years past, and not just as blocks, but a means to set up counterattacks that can have devastating consequences. I won’t go so far as to saythat the combat’s overly technical and tactical, but I did find myself usingthese defensive maneuvers more in this release than probably any of the mainstreamWarriors titles of the past. Sure, you can still button mash your way to success a lot of times, but there are more layers and nuance than we've seen from the series before, and it does help to stave off potential button mashing monotony.
During the battles, there are still the tactical and goalelements to be considered and those are generally pretty well managed throughthe UI, the pre-battle briefings and morale adjustments. The focus of the combat,like the story, is on your protagonist. There are some moments where you can doa quick switch to a companion character, but it’s short-lived and always partof a bigger special attack. While these are not entirely new concepts, they areas well-executed (or better) as ever and help to give the Warriors titles theirdistinctive flavor from other more traditional beat-‘em-up / brawler games.
From a technical standpoint, I want to call out how solideverything is. I already mentioned how much I enjoyed the visual style andmusic, but it’s worth noting that the engine seems better optimized here thanit has been in years. Watching massive waves of opposing soldiers smash intoone another is appropriately epic, and the framerate and field of depth hold updespite the insane number of moving characters and background effects takingplace on the screen.
Dynasty Warriors: Origins deserves its flowers here. It’s adramatic improvement over the last release in the series, managing to find theright balance between being comfortably familiar while providing a freshexperience as well. There’s room to grow from the new framework provide here,and a few rough corners that can be polished up, but the overall experience isone that fans of the long-running series should love, and I believe appeal tothose who might be coming to Dynasty Warriors new as well.
Score: 8.75 / 10
