A few months ago, I had the opportunity to try out a demo for Dynasty Warriors: Origins. This demo was hidden away at the Brazil Game Show, and among the games I tried out on the show floor, it was one of my highlights. Up until now, I only played games that spun off from Dynasty Warriors, such as Hyrule Warriors and Dragon Quest Heroes.
With the release of Dynasty Warriors: Origins, Omega Force has been promising to return to the series’ roots due to how it has been going through quite a rough patch in the last couple of years. So now, it begs the question: did they successfully achieve that? Should you play it, even as a beginner to the series?
The Tale of the Three Kingdoms
As is customary from the series, Dynasty Warriors: Origins takes place during one of the most important periods of Chinese history, which is known as the Three Kingdoms. Specifically, this is during the great drought that ravaged the country for years, rendering everyone’s crops unable to prosper, leading to hunger among the population.
Unfortunately, the higher-ups of the government responded by only seeking to fill their own coffers by raising taxes. This causes the people to form the iconic Yellow Turban group, with their iconic phrase “The Azure Sky is already dead; the Yellow Sky will soon rise” etched in their banner. However, though they were once heroes, they soon turned to fear and violence against the people.
And this is where you come in. You play as a wandering warrior who decides to tag along with a group of volunteer soldiers led by Liu Bei in the hopes that he’ll perhaps recover his memories. Little by little, the lore behind the wanderer is uncovered, and as much as I tend to hate the overused amnesia plot, this is actually one that convinced me to play along.
The Wanderer’s Past
Over the course of the main story, despite being able to name the wanderer however you like, it doesn’t take long until characters start to call you by a second name: Ziluan. When taking the Chinese characters for this specific name, we have the first character translated as a child and the second referring to a Chinese mythological bird. This name is very important when understanding just who the Wanderer is in the main story.
At a particular point, something caught my attention, and that is the fact that for the majority of the story, the Wanderer is posed as a sort of “neutral party”. At times, it did, in fact, feel like the narrative was treating him as a side character, but behind the scenes, there are many things that will determine the ending.
I enjoyed the overall freedom of choice, unearthing more of Ziluan’s past. I just think it’s a shame that there is no way to choose between male or female. Most of the cutscenes seem to be perfectly doable, even if the genders were switched.
My Battlefield, My Own Way
There are a lot of aspects that make the combat unique, and the main charm is how the Wanderer is capable of using a variety of weapon types, such as spears, swords, gauntlets, and many more. These weapons are mostly a matter of player preference on which one suits you, and each of them has a specific characteristic. Dodging enemy attacks and also successfully parrying them will accumulate Bravery, where you can then perform Battle Arts that will hit multiple enemies.
Before each battle, the game briefly gives you a summary of your objectives with the War Council. It provides a nice and concise explanation of who you should not allow to flee or how exactly the allied forces will act throughout the course of battle. Dynasty Warriors: Origins manages to keep you always engaged in one way or another. This is especially true in the later portions of the game, where even the generals will allow you free reign to do whatever you see please.
In case you have played the free demo version, the battle depicted on it happens pretty late in the actual game, so instead of introducing all of the features present all at once, the game takes a slower approach, slowly dipping your toes with each of them being introduced throughout the first and second chapters. This is very helpful, as it means the game doesn’t overwhelm the player with features being introduced one after the other.
The Consequences of Your Own Actions
Throughout the battle, the game will frequently create “checkpoints,” usually whenever the tides of battle turn in some way. In the case you are defeated during battle or select “Withdraw” from the main menu, you can watch a complete replay of everything you’ve done, including what the characters were saying at each time. You can then select from a specific checkpoint and resume the battle from that point, which makes it much easier to redo your actions in case you feel you’ve made a mistake somewhere.
I was constantly engrossed in looking at the map and planning my next course of action on the fly, especially when the game flashed important messages on my screen telling of an uproar that the enemy did to my allied forces. And turning the tides of what seems to be a losing battle, or when you get when you reach a specific kill count as you tear through enemy forts while fully aware of what is going on, make this for an immensely engaging gameplay loop.
To Grow as a Warrior
Battles in Dynasty Warriors: Origins can be classified into several types: Main Battles, Skirmishes, and Missions. Main Battles are typically reserved for progressing the main story and tend to take the longest. In contrast, Skirmishes are extremely short and only typically consist of maybe one mission at best. Missions sit right in the middle, with two or three objectives, but they’re also not as long.
Now, recall back to when I said that the Wanderer can wield multiple weapons. As you clear each of those battles, you’ll accumulate Proficiency points with a particular weapon type you’ve used. Leveling up your weapon skills will also increase your Warrior Rank, which increases your stats and also unlocks new skill trees where by unlocking their nodes, you’re able to obtain faster recovery or even new abilities.
In terms of grinding, I wouldn’t say this is a particularly grindy game, though. Even against battles that were slightly above my current rank, the game’s difficulty curve feels properly balanced, at least on the “normal” difficulty, which is called Wayfarer. You can even knock down the difficulty to Historian mode, where battles are made slightly easier, making it more accessible to those completely new to the Musou genre.
There’s So Much to Do…
One of the aspects of Dynasty Warriors: Origins that surprised me was how, within my first few hours of gameplay, the progress bar on my PS5 made significant leaps. However, I soon figured out what is the approach that was taken here, and I would even go as far as to say that the progress bar is woefully inaccurate on just how big this game really is.
Instead of multiple shorter chapters, there are a total of five chapters, and each of them is bigger than the other. While Chapter 1 has only seven battles, Chapter 3 goes beyond that, with sixteen of them, if my counting isn’t off. To top it all off, there is no shortage of things to explore in this semi-open world. I actually prefer having five properly fleshed-out chapters than maybe having twelve or fifteen smaller-sized ones.
In the overworld, by using your Eye of the Sacred Bird, the Wanderer can collect Pyroxene. This can be used to craft one of five gems that boost a specific stat. Furthermore, you’re able to obtain Training Menus from generals all around the world, which will give you a specific set of tasks, where completing them earns you Skill Points.
In addition, winning battles will raise that particular province’s Peace Level. When it reaches a certain point, the villagers will even give you rewards, further incentivizing the need to try and max out the peace level of all of the provinces, which, considering the era of Chinese history we’re currently in, there are a ton of them.
Accessibility and Performance Woes
Given that it’s a Musou game, Dynasty Warriors: Origins has some moments where there are a couple of framerate drops, especially on the PlayStation 5. Even after setting the game to prioritize performance, it’s still pretty noticeable that it repeatedly struggles to stay at a consistent 60 FPS. This isn’t too much of an issue and is mostly very situational.
I do feel that there could’ve been an option for bigger subtitles. Even with the option set to Large, it can be quite hard to read them on a larger display. Now here’s a strange thing, and that is the voice and language options. The PlayStation release lacks the ability to set the text and voices to Chinese. This is something that happened with the free demo version, whereas the PC release does have those options. This is a very puzzling thing, and I wonder if the developers plan to just patch in those options later.
The voice acting is…fine, though there are some times when it just feels like the voice actors are monotonously reading the lines of the script without much oomph to it. Furthermore, I also encountered some minor translation mishaps, such as the odd use of ellipsis during dialogue and some parts of the UI that just felt like they were translated, maybe too literally.
A Game for Dynasty Warriors Veterans and Beginners Alike
Omega Force has truly done a great job with Dynasty Warriors: Origins. Even as someone who is a complete newbie to the series, I had a really great time with the game. I don’t normally enjoy stories with amnesiac protagonists, but the Wanderer’s lore was extremely compelling. I constantly had my eyes glued to the screen, and by the time I had stopped playing for a short break, the sun had already set, and I had completely lost track of time. And that, in my book, is a sign that you’re having a good time.
I may not be a Dynasty Warriors aficionado, but I’m confident enough to say that Origins may just be what the hardcore fans were waiting for. It also serves as a friendly beginner’s point if you’re getting into the series from playing all of its spinoffs. While it may have some minor issues, they’re all addressable with a patch, and I hope that Omega Force can take all the positives from this game and provide the much-needed boost in recognition that the series deserves.
Disclaimer: Koei Tecmo provided Final Weapon with a PlayStation 5 copy of Dynasty Warriors: Origins for review purposes.