Dynasty Warriors: Origins Review

War and Not Much Peace

Omega Force is no stranger to blending the hack-and-slash combat of its long-running Dynasty Warriors series with RPG franchises, including Persona, Dragon Quest, and Fire Emblem. During that time, the main series fell somewhat dormant as the developer sought to reinvigorate its tales from Chinese history. Now things have come full circle as the developer’s flagship series brings a mainline entry and embraces RPG elements in Dynasty Warriors: Origins. The decision to mix up the series by giving players just one original playable character and a singular branching story campaign pays off, creating a thoroughly enjoyable title that will go a long way to reviving interest in the series and helping guide its future.

Dynasty Warriors is based on the historical Romance of the Three Kingdoms novel by Luo Guanzhong. Set during the final days of the Han dynasty in China, the game covers the first half of the novel from the Yellow Turban rebellion up to the Battle of Chibi and its immediate aftermath, as various warlords rise to and vie for power. Rather than controlling the individual warlords, players are instead put in the role of an unnamed original character. Starting the game with amnesia, they follow and participate in many of the main events and battles around China while seeking to understand their past and role as an apparent member of the Guardians of Peace.

Rather than controlling historical generals, players are put in the role of an original amnesiac protagonist.

The story campaign is split into two main sections across its prologue and five subsequent chapters, with players spending time between events participating in available side conversations and battles as they wish. The first half of the game sees players joining up with a rotating array of generals and warlords during the early strife and machinations. This ultimately leads to the second half, where formerly unified fronts become strained under different characters’ goals and motivations, leaing to the ultimate founding of the titular three kingdoms. At this point, players are forced to select one of three factions to follow and support in their quest to bring peace to the realm. There are also a small number of opportunities to potentially change the fate of characters, which in turn leads to a slightly adjusted true ending, although the nature of only covering the first half of the novel means that things are far from fully resolved.

The campaign allows for a bit more focus on the overall story and its characters, although some characters get much more time to shine than others. Its storytelling is effective, if quite straightforward, and helps push the game forward well without really adding too much to the course of events. The player character is somewhat effective at giving players their own place in events, although their personal storyline feels quite disconnected from everything else. The main story campaign lasts around thirty hours, though Dynasty Warriors: Origins offers plenty of reason to keep players after the initial credits. This includes the option to go back to previous points in the story and explore the other paths available without restarting, as well as an extra difficulty level increase the challenge.

Dynasty Warriors’s hack-and-slash combat has been finely tuned at this point, and its iteration in Origins is incredibly strong. With players only having a singular character to control — minus the occasional times they can briefly swap to their in-battle companion — the game injects variety by giving them nine different weapon types unlocked throughout the campaign. It successfully encourages players to keep swapping by tying weapon mastery to character progression, although players might hope for a bit more fundamental difference between them. The weapons each have a unique mechanic, but using them never feels necessary. The more players defeat foes using a weapon, the more proficiency ranks they gain, with each rank up resulting in a level-up. In addition, characters will offer side objectives to complete, most of which focus on a particular weapon, which grant points to be used on passive skill trees.

The large-scale battles are appropriately spectacular.

The series’s formula is alive and well. Players are tasked with meeting certain objectives, usually defeating particular commanders, while wiping their way through hundreds of regular foes and more threatening officers by using a combination of regular and heavy attack combos plus a selection of arts. These arts also help drive a bit of variety between the weapons, even if the basic actions and strategies remain the same regardless of what they are currently wielding. In addition, players will need to make strong use of the parry, block, and dodge options, especially when encountering tougher named officers, which becomes a thoroughly satisfying cycle as players adjust to the timing and tells of the different weaponry their foes wield. Finally, there are the ultimate Musou abilities that make use of the recharging gauge and allow players to rack up hundreds of regular KOs and deal strong damage to officers in a single blow.

Dynasty Warriors: Origins does an excellent job of playing to the spectacle of battle and furthers its combat depth with a morale system that helps give a feel for the current state of the battle. It’s always action-packed, especially when it gets into the large-scale encounters as full armies clash together, with the morale system helping to indicate when such a fight is one of desperation or overpowering the opponent. The full-on encounters that see multiple officers battling alongside thousands of regular troops are where the game is at its best. They are usually punctuated with their own mini-objectives, such as defeating a certain number of foes or officers within a particular time limit, to prevent tide-turning actions from the enemy. While other games in the series grant players commanding roles and allow them to order allies around, that is not the case here, so players are only able to exert influence their their own direct actions. Conversely, there is often great excitement to be found in rushing against time as players try to fight their way to their objective before it is too late. Players can change between its three initial difficulty options at any time, with a fourth added after the credits are rolled, offering widely-appealing flexibility and optional combat complexity. It’s clear that Omega Force is still at the top of the game for providing immensely satisfying hack-and-slash action for all comers.

The satisfaction of a swiftly rising KO count never fails to diminish.

The spectacle is aided by the audiovisual presentation. The game is readily able to have thousands of soldiers on screen at once, and the sight of armies charging toward each other is always impressive, helped by equally strong animations. The UI is generally clear, the camera behaves well, and the game offers all the cues that players need to be successful in combat. There is a bit more reusing of environments than ideal, but there’s a good variety of quirks to the battlefields, particularly the more set-piece encounters. The musical variety also works well, ranging from the tranquility of the game’s more introspective moments to the pumping rock battle themes that punctuate the action. It works greatly with the cries and sound effects to enhance the combat experience. The English voice acting is generally fine, but is stilted at times and feels like it is fighting a bit with the lip-sync during events. The decision to have the player character unvoiced during event scenes does strike as a little odd in some of the more personal event scenes.

There are lots of random small battles that pop up on the map, which players can use to practice or gain some small benefits, though they can be swiftly ignored and aren’t necessary for progress. There’s also a decent selection of slightly larger side encounters, though these also follow fairly standard formulae. Players can also unlock a variety of bond events, which helps add some extra depth and understanding to the large cast of characters, especially those who play more minor roles in the grand scheme of things. Exploring the world map also offers players access to Pyroxene and other resources, which are used to upgrade a selection of gems, one of which can be equipped for a significant passive bonus. New weapons are picked up frequently during combat, but can also be bought in shops, while new battle arts can be unlocked by increasing weapon proficiency, completing certain side battles, or purchasing them from towns. Dynasty Warriors: Origin offers just enough character-strengthening elements to keep players engaged with it, without especially complicating matters.

Dynasty Warriors: Origins is a very welcome return for the series. Omega Force has done a fine job learning from its previous collaborations to help inject a fresh feeling into the game, while retaining the strengths that have given it such success in the past. Both newcomers and returning fans are very well catered for with this latest hack-and-slash enterprise.

 

Disclosure: This review is based on a free copy of the game provided by the publisher.

Scores
BATTLE SYSTEM
    
INTERACTION
    
ORIGINALITY
    
STORY
    
MUSIC & SOUND
    
VISUALS
    
'Great' -- 4.0/5
win
20-40 HOURS
MODERATE

Hack-and-slash combat remains supremely effective

Progression systems tie together nicely

Campaign structure and post-game offers plenty of things to do

Original story feels a bit disconnected from everything else

Different weapons can fundamentally all be used the same way

severinmira

Alex Fuller

Alex joined RPGamer in 2011 as a Previewer before moving onto Reviews, News Director, and Managing Editor. Became Acting Editor-in-Chief in 2018.

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