Dynasty Warriors: Origins - Review
It is time to go back to where it all began. From the beginning of the journey to the many different possible ends. Dynasty Warriors is back, and it is trying to re-envision its formula for both old and new players alike.
Dynasty Warriors: Origins is the newest entry into the long-lived series, and an attempt at revitalising the series after the last few lacklustre entries had turned fans a little bit sour on it. Instead of the typical formula of playing as your favourite officers through iconic battlefields and scenarios, Dynasty Warriors: Origins takes some light RPG elements and places you in the shoes of a new and unique protagonist, an Unnamed Wanderer with the ability to see things that others can’t. The question remains however, does Origins bring life back to the iconic series? Or is it another middling attempt that is going to be largely left forgotten?
The short answer is, Dynasty Warriors is well and truly back! DW: Origins is a fantastic entry with a unique take on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms drama, that keeps the elements of the previous games that fans love, whilst adding new flair and twists in its delivery. First and foremost being the new protagonist, who you play through the entire game, rather than the typical picking of your favourite characters to play out the famous battles that take place throughout the Warring Kingdoms period. The mute protagonist, known originally as Wanderer, later as Ziluan is an interesting choice. I personally found it a breath of fresh air to be playing as a character adjacent to the story, rather than simply actors in the play that is the Romance of the Three Kingdoms epic.
As Ziluan you are tasked with finding a hero who can help lead a post Han Dynasty China into a better tomorrow. Befriending and journeying alongside iconic characters such as Cao Cao, Sun Jian, Liu Bei and their associated brothers and loyal officers, you get to navigate and influence the direction that things head towards. Ziluan being mute is definitely a choice, and perhaps not the greatest one. At times he feels almost disconnected from the story as a result of the silence, and the occasional dialogue choice doesn’t help too much. Yet, I cannot help but feel endeared to him as well. A man who will influence history and will never be remembered for it.
The story itself feels like it follows the Romance of the Three Kingdoms epic, moreso than previous entries have. It feels particularly campy in this regard playing the game on English. For some reason, the English VA work sounds almost like its ripped from the PS2 games of yesteryear, with modern day fidelity. At first, I thought it was just a few odd choices, but the more I played the more I felt this was a purpose picked decision. The way the characters talk feels like it reads in the story of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and vaguely reminded me of the forgettable TV series from the 90’s. It’s not something that deterred me, in fact, for the most part it made me somewhat nostalgic, but after a while I did find swapping over to Japanese made for a more enjoyable overall experience.
Perhaps the biggest choice for the story progression, is that at some point you will have to choose who you will support, at the exclusion of the other two forces. In this you alter the story and the way that some of the key battles will play out. Certain encounters can be changed dramatically by completing them quickly, or in a certain way and these outcomes are necessary to get the True Ending for a force, rather than their standard ending. This gives the game a whopping six different endings, three standard and three true endings for each of Wu, Wei and Shu, and gives you ample reason to replay through the game. Couple this with the Bond building challenges and missions, the quick world encounters and the many different battles throughout the story, Dynasty Warriors: Origins manages to pack in almost endless game to play.
The decision to take away the ability to play your preferred officers is somewhat alleviated in a couple of ways too. In a lot of missions you’ll have the ability to take one of two partners with you into battle. As you play, you’ll build up one of their Musou bar enough that you will get to temporarily take control of the officer and play as them until their bar empties out again. Whilst these bursts are only short, they give just enough to keep you feeling like you’re getting to play some of your favourites. The second way they deal with this is by giving you the ability to use ten different weapon types. Three of these do feel somewhat similar to each other, but different enough that you do feel like you’re actively playing differently than the others. The weapon types give you a taste of what you’d expect playing as different officers, and whilst it doesn’t completely fix things, it’s a good point of differentiation to keep you engaged.
Perhaps the best part of the game is the ‘boss fight’ type of encounters. Pitting you against some of the most iconic characters, such as Lu Bu, Zhang Jiao, Dong Zhuo and even Guan Yu (if you don’t side with him of course). These battles feel like culminations, and in the instances of Lu Bu and Zhang Jiao are epics that feel almost like a Souls-like encounter. They are difficult, require you to play at a level better than almost any other Dynasty Warriors game has ever demanded, and demand your complete attention for extended periods. They lend a gravitas to these legendary characters that previous entries may not have always quite hit on the head. They feel like bookends to major story beats and are some of the best combat sequences in the game.
Dynasty Warriors: Origins does however suffer from the same issue that most Warriors type games do, and that is repetitiveness. Even though the battles are unique and varied (thankfully), there is no stopping the fact that after 30+ hours of gameplay, you’ll feel like you’re doing the same thing with a different coat of paint on it. For some this won’t matter, but the addition of world encounters and scenarios accelerate this issue, and after a while lead me to stop wanting to do the little encounters that would pop up as I was moving from location to location, so as to avoid the monotonous repetition. Some people won’t care, but for others, this is something that will burn them out before they get to see the endings the game has.
Alongside this, most bond building with different characters is done via objectives given to you. These are almost like MMO ‘kill X’ style quests. The variety of them is ‘kill X enemies with battle arts using Y weapon’, or ‘use X action Y times.’ Whilst it makes them relatively easy to complete, it does feel like padding moreso than anything actually engaging for the game. The bond building could have done with better focus placed upon it, to make these objective more relevant to the story being played. Or to have more of the unique scenarios that you occasionally get to play with certain bond levels.
Dynasty Warriors: Origins is the breath of fresh air that the series was in desperate need of. Keeping some of the open world elements, the light RPG elements are blended nicely with a strong narrative that approaches the well-known story in a new way. The addition storyline whilst light on actual connectivity feels just engaging enough that it makes you want to continue through to see where everything goes. A powerful entry that gives me hope for where things are going for Dynasty Warriors going forward.
The Score
8.5
Review code provided by Koei Tecmo
The Pros
Fresh take and approach feels enjoyable to play
Plenty of replay value in the multiple endings
Boss fights are next level epics that are done perfectly
The Cons
Repetitive gameplay does become too much somewhat quickly
Mute protagonist is kind of bland compared to other characters
