Dynasty Warriors: Origins Review
It's hard to believe, but Dynasty Warriors 2 appeared a quarter of a century ago, a true ancient history as far as video games are concerned. Since then, the Dynasty Warriors franchise has spawned 8 main games and numerous spin-offs. Although it is one of the most popular and recognizable hack-and-slash/Musou series, 2014's Dynasty Warriors 8 had introduced a bit of stagnation to the formula. Dynasty Warriors: Origins hopes to breathe new life into the franchise, attract new players, and reward long-time fans with a new experience.
Romantic novel
Like all previous games, Dynasty Warriors: Origins takes the classic Romance of the Three Kingdoms as its starting point. However, Origins assumes no prior knowledge of either the previous games or Chinese history. Instead of telling an extensive story, Origins' narrative focuses on the early parts of the novel, from the corruption of the Han dynasty to the epic Battle of Chibi.
Like the games before it, Dynasty Warriors: Origins balances intense, layered combat with a rich and compelling narrative. The story begins 150 years after the founding of the Eastern Han Dynasty. You play as an anonymous character who begins the game as an amnesiac, perhaps not the most original premise in the world. In any case, he is thrown into a world where the population is starving and corrupt and callous officials are unwilling to help them. This sets up the narrative, the slow momentum of the Yellow Turban Rebellion and the opposition to the Han rulers and fighters.
Along the way, you'll meet a large cast of characters, many of whom will become selectable allies in combat. Others are, of course, enemies. Consistently, the characters are clearly drawn and memorable. While the dialogue can be stilted at times, the game's English voice acting is generally very good. My biggest criticism of the narrative is that it takes a long time to develop. With such a focused story, Dynasty Warriors: Origins has some occasional pacing issues where the narrative saps momentum.
in the fray
Like other games in the Musou genre, Dynasty Warriors: Origins pits the player character against an immense number of low-level enemies and a smaller number of powerful, more challenging officers. Origins changes several tactical and RPG-type mechanics. Still, fans can look forward to the 1v1000 battles they love. With the current generation of consoles and high-end PCs, the number of bodies on the battlefield has become truly impressive.
The action of Origins takes place both on the battlefield and on a tactical world map. The world map has several functions. Guide the player to the next battle, city, or character in the campaign. Scattered throughout the map are resources for upgrades and special items. While Dynasty Warriors: Origins is a relatively linear game, players often return to previously visited areas and there are multiple side quests along the way. As the campaign progresses, the areas become more peaceful and this generates rewards for the character. Origins does a good job of balancing the campaign with optional side content. The map is never overwhelming, but there is plenty to do outside of the main story.
The battles are divided into three levels. Small-scale skirmishes make money and end in a few minutes. Medium scale missions are a little more challenging and earn you new guards and valuable items. Finally, there are large-scale battles that move the story forward. These types of battles will be familiar to veterans of the series. They take place on sprawling battlefields with increasingly difficult officer progression. They also require more sophisticated tactical approaches to win.
From macro to micro
On a character level, Dynasty Warriors: Origins starts with familiar RPG-style combat mechanics and expands on, or at least adds a number of new elements. Fundamentally, your character uses basic/normal attacks, strong guard-breaking attacks, and battle arts tied to specific weapons. Normal and strong attacks increase bravery, necessary to unleash battle arts. Additionally, players have various defensive moves such as perfect dodges, blocks, and parries.
So far, everything is very familiar, which certainly helps the transition for new players. Enemies have Fortitude, which can be removed with a type of Battle Art called Special Arts. As the story progresses, your character develops increasingly powerful levels of rage and increasingly lethal Musou attacks while controlling a fellow officer. Even the basic Musou attack grants a degree of invincibility. By the end of the game, you are truly an army of one.
Like most action RPGs, Origins has a character upgrade system based on seven levels of rank and weapon proficiencies that increase the more you use a specific weapon. Add to these mechanics gems (action upgrades), accessories (stat boosts), and consumables like healing items, and the set feels complete and accessible. On the game's easiest difficulty, you can mash buttons and stumble your way through battles quite effectively. At more demanding levels, mastering the systems is essential.
Cast of thousands
Since Dynasty Warriors: Origins focuses on impressive, large-scale battles, the technology running all the action must be up to the task. On a very high-end PC, I had few problems running the game in 4K with everything on ultra settings. There was occasional stuttering in some of the more densely packed battles, but overall performance was good.
By far, Dynasty Warriors: Origins is the best-looking game in the series so far. The character designs and animations aren't cutting edge, but when you're slaughtering hundreds of soldiers, there's not much opportunity to worry about the details. The same goes for some of the sprawling battlefields and outposts. They work very well as settings, but not necessarily as graphic showcases. Overall, though, the game's colorful art and nods to historical design are visually appealing, supported by an exciting and varied musical score. In other words, the presentation is excellent.
New address
By not listing this latest game, the developers are signaling a revival of the series. In many ways that is true. The action RPG mechanics and narrative-filled design align the franchise with other ARPGs. At the same time, Dynasty Warriors: Origins is still a Musou game at heart. The immense battles that fans of the genre love are still there. This time there is less repetitive feeling and the game should manage to attract new players from other ARPGs.
the good
- Exciting big battles
- Challenge in greater difficulties.
- Engaging RPG Mechanics
- Well acted story
80
bad
- There is still some repetition in combat.
- Some forced writing
- Very minor frame rate stutters