Dynasty Warriors: Origins

Written by Nathan Carter on 2/6/2025 for PS5  

The Dynasty Warriors series has been going strong for for decades, but the long-lived and much loved franchise hit quite a snag a few years ago. After the disaster that was Dynasty Warriors 9, the series went on a brief hiatus and has essentially gone back to the drawing board with a reboot of the series in Dynasty Warriors: Origins. Thank God they did, because Origins is one of the best Dynasty Warriors games ever made. It retains the familiar 1v1000 gameplay the series has been known for but with tons of upgrades that make this feel like the true next generation of the series. 

One of the biggest changes to the series that you will notice right away is that instead of having a gigantic cast of 80 characters to play as, this time around you play as a single character throughout the game. Players take on the role of Ziluan, a wanderer who happens to find himself smack dab in the middle of what would become the Yellow Turban Rebellion. We actually get to see the Yellow Turban Rebellion play out in the story, with the initial battle of that conflict acting as the tutorial of the game. Once again the game is an adaption of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms saga, but one thing they have done here is that they only tell about half of the story. It seems like a foundation is being laid down for the future of the series to tell the next part of the story. As a result, the game is more cinematic than it ever has been. You will meet a lot of familiar faces in Guan Yu, Cao Cao, Liu Bei and others. You will be spending a lot of time with these characters as the story goes on, because this time around they are focusing more on the characters and conflicts of ancient China rather than telling the entire Romance of the Three Kingdoms story in rapid succession. 

One new feature in the game is the Overworld. In between battles you will be able to walk around a overview of the land and decide what you want to do next. On the map, there are various shops you can visit to buy and sell weapons. You can visit inns, where you can change your loadouts, view battle history and replay battles, get biographies of the various character you have met, and create gems which you can equip that give you various boosts in battle. On the map you will also meet characters who you can talk to via cutscenes to raise your level with them or they can give you challenges which when completed will give you skill points. Finally, you can find various side battles that you can participate in to farm XP for your weapons and gold. Most of these are small battles which only take a few minutes to complete, but there are also medium to large scale battles, which are way shorter than main story campaign battles but still can take about 5-10 minutes to complete.

Once you do hit the battlefield, as a long time fan of the series, I felt right at home. It's still as fun as it ever was before. Run through the battlefield while eliminating all enemies and officers in your path and watch that KO counter grow and grow and grow. You are still taking bases, still defeating enemy officers, still trying to keep your own officers alive but this game adds a lot of new aspects to keep things fresh. Even though you are only playing as a single character, you still have a number of weapons at your disposal. From swords, dual axes, wheels, gauntlets, bow staffs and more, you can find these weapons on the battlefield by defeating enemy soldiers. Each weapon can be leveled up, and by doing so you will earn points to upgrade Ziluan, but also will learn new battle arts. Battle arts are like mini-Musou attacks that you can assign to each weapon and cost battle arts points to use which will slowly build as you battle opponents. These battle arts can be used to wipe out a number of enemies in front of you but they can also be used to counter unlockable enemy attacks, which then leaves them open for counter attacks. 

The best new feature is the new large scale battles, in which a battle will take place with thousands of friendlies and enemies on the field at once. The goal here is to eliminate as many officers and enemies as you can to slowly drain the enemies resources. After a while, you can also plan a massive strategic attack by completing an objective such as eliminating 300 enemies or taking down specific officers. If you complete this task then you will go on the offensive and will get another objective which is usually to protect a specific soldier on the battlefield. Doing so will launch a massive attack, wiping out an ungodly amount of enemies and swinging the battle in your favor. These battles are amazing. It's hard to describe that feeling of gathering your troops and then rushing into a battlefield only to see thousands of enemies in your path, arrows flying through the sky, shield enemies protecting officers; its incredible stuff. If you come upon an enemy officer they may challenge you to a duel. Initiate a duel and the game almost becomes a 3D fighting game where you battle them 1v1 in the middle of a circle of soldiers in a tug of war style battle. Attack the enemy enough to send the meter all the way to their side and you win, eliminating the officer from the field. 

I do think it is a shame that the game doesn't have the traditional huge cast of characters to play as but you actually can play as other characters. Somewhat. You can choose allies to bring into battle with you like Guan Yu, Diaochan, Cao Cao and many others, and they will fight along side you and you can perform dual Musou attacks with them. You can also choose to switch over to them and play as them for a short time, gaining access to their own set of battle arts and Musou attacks. Finally, you have what's called Rage Mode where you can hit R3 and L3 together and become invulnerable for a short time. When the meter ends you activate a super Musou attack that then pretty much acts like a nuclear bomb - you watch in awe as thousands of soldiers are just eradicated off the battlefield all at once. You also get command of your own squad of soldiers and you can utilize them to perform attacks such as launching an arrow volley at a specific location, charging in a straight line or ordering them to defend a specific location. 

There is one thing that did grind my gears and it's something from the previous generation of the Warriors series that snuck it's way into Origins; the spotty AI of your companions on the field, especially in missions where they are following you. One mission in particular was absolutely infuriating, and I had to reset so many times because all we had to do was make it to the exit point, yet my partner couldn't help but stop and fight every two seconds, which in turn would lead to a certain character that we needed to stay away from at all costs showing up to wipe us out in seconds. Mitigating the frustration somewhat is the fact that failing a battle does not mean you have to replay the entire thing. There are various checkpoints in each battle where you can reset to, allowing you to start from the conditions of the battle up to that point including the health of all the enemies and friendlies on the field. 

Dynasty Warriors: Origins is the shot in the arm the series absolutely needed. It's still the same Dynasty Warriors that fans of the series know and love but this actually feels like a true next-gen experience with all of the upgrades and new gameplay features. Battles are epic, with thousands of enemies on the field at once. The characters are great and I loved spending time with them thanks to the story focusing more on the characters than ever before. The new gameplay features make playing missions addicting and fun as hell. It is a shame that we don't have a giant cast of playable characters like we did before, but I think this game is laying the groundwork for future iterations and it wouldn't shock me at all if they bring that future back in the future. Regardless the Dynasty Warriors series is back in a big way, and better than it ever has been before.