Dynasty Warriors Origins from Koei Tecmo Games is a departure from the series norm. If you played Dynasty Warriors 9 back in the day, don’t expect to find 90+ characters here. This is a different take on the franchise and honestly, it’s a breath of fresh air. Of course, this might not be to everyone’s tastes but Dynasty Warriors Origins is a title that will consume you with its excellent gameplay and storytelling.
So what exactly makes this title worth picking up?
Dynasty Warriors Origins
In Dynasty Warriors Origins, players will take on the role of a “nameless hero” that gets sucked into some truly epic-scale battles. The game kicks off with the playable character defeating some government thugs withholding food supplies from starving villagers and things continue to escalate from there. Before you know it, you’ll be drawn into the Three Kingdoms’ historical timeline with numerous battles taking place.
The onboarding process is a slow burn and the game really leans into the fact that your playable character has lost his memory and is piecing things together as he fights through the large-scale battles. Being a “musou” genre game, button bashing and hacking and slashing your way through an ocean of enemies is still a key factor here. It’s also, thankfully, still as fun as ever. While the lack of multiple playable characters might offend some Dynasty Warriors series fans, the ability to change your playstyle by selecting different weapons means that you’ll still be able to have a tonne of fun.
Using a sword is more up close and personal while changing your weapon to a “Wheel” (Chakram) really changes the way you play. In addition to being able to change your weapons players will also have access to “Battle Arts” which are special attacks that deal a lot of damage in a flashy manner. Players can also enter into a rage mode which increases their damage output. If you’ve played any of the musou games over the years this will all seem like standard fare to you.
Where Dynasty Warriors Origins stands out above its predecessors lies with the fact that the battles are immense in scale. The sheer number of enemies on screen at any time is crazy high!
Dynasty Warriors Origins also introduces the “Swap Gauge” in battles. This allows you to swap to companion character for a short while and perform a range of attacks as the companion character. This is extremely fun to do in battles and adds more variation to the combat.
Players will be able to combo light and heavy attacks with their battle arts against waves of enemies in levels. You’ll also have access to a more tactical bird’s eye view which effectively pauses the battle and allows you to take in a lot more information about the situation at hand. You can use tactical abilities later on in the game and command your forces to attack enemies too.
Levels in Dynasty Warriors Origins involve running around on large maps defeating weaker foes and tougher enemy officers while defending your own forces. You also need to protect key NPCs in battle and dialogue plays out while you do these things. As you progress the story, you’ll face off against some very tough boss enemies. These battles are challenging and you’ll have to play strategically if you want to achieve victory.
Dynasty Warriors Origins has a difficulty level that’s quite unforgiving when it comes to boss enemies. You’ll have to invest a significant amount of time in levelling up and improving your skills by doing side missions/quests. Defeating bosses however feels incredibly satisfying because of the challenge they present.
The cutscenes that play out in Dynasty Warriors Origins are quite cinematic and really emphasize the storytelling component of the game. If you want to learn more about the lore behind characters you encounter, you can read through tidbits of information in the “Records” section. Graphically Dynasty Warriors Origins looks absolutely fantastic with all graphics settings maxed out. Surprisingly even with so many enemies on screen, the game runs incredibly smoothly and the flashy effects are truly spectacular to behold.
Dynasty Warriors Origins also features dueling where a one-on-one battle will trigger against a foe. You’ll have to fill the gauge at the top of the screen before you can defeat your opponent. This is quite fun to play through and helps break up the button-bashing somewhat and bring a more focused battle into the equation. The game is quite long too and you can easily spend upwards of 30 hours playing through it.
The soundtrack of Dynasty Warriors Origins is fantastic and features a lot of music that is perfectly suited to the game. There are a lot of electric guitar adrenaline-pumping tracks in the game and it really elevates the combat to a whole new level, especially during intense fights. The English voice acting in the game can get a bit annoying when you hear “An enemy officer has been defeated” for the 300th time but for the most part, the voice acting in cutscenes is decent.
There are some weird inconsistencies though with the English voice acting so I’d suggest playing the game with either the Japanese or Chinese options and seeing which voice acting setting you like best.
Final Verdict
Overall, Dynasty Warriors Origins is a different take on the Dynasty Warriors formula while still retaining the core gameplay elements of button-bashing your way to victory. The storytelling and cutscenes solidify the package and even though you can’t choose different characters to play as, the varied weaponry and the strategies involved with using them in battles make this a great action title.
You will need to apply strategy, level up your character’s abilities and weapons and spend some time building a tough-as-nails warrior. And it’s incredibly satisfying doing this! If you’re a fan of musou genre games, you’ll love this game. Give it a try, you’ll most likely have a blast playing it.
Dynasty Warriors Origins Trailer
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The code was provided by the distributor.
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