Sometimes you just want to fire up a game and unleash hell on hundreds if not thousands of enemies and no series of games does that quite like Dynasty Warriors. Ever since the series switched lanes from a one-v-one fighter to a one-v-thousands fighter. the series has become a bit of a gaming staple. Dynasty Warriors: Origins, as the name hints, heads back to the beginning for a sort of reboot.

It’s safe to say Dynasty Warriors 9 was a bit of a turning point for the game. Fans didn’t take to it as well as past games. DW9 switched things to an open world and its signature gameplay didn’t quite merge as hoped. And so, developers Omega Force decided to take things back to the drawing board in more ways than one with Origins.

Empire of the Fun

Dynasty Warriors: Origins takes the series’ bombastic gameplay, but aims to tell a more intimate and focused tale. However, like the other entries in the Dynasty Warriors series, Origins once again is based on the Chinese novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms games history Chinese Han Dynasty

But interestingly, Origins only covers the first half of the novel instead of the full book. Which, in turn, gives everything room to breathe as you play a nameless amnesiac hero, whose convenient amnesia is used to introduce both of you to the world and how it all works.

Chen-ging of the of Guard

Dynasty Warriors: Origins is all the better for its narrative and scope changes. The game is a much more story driven affair than Dynasty Warriors‘ are used to. I would go far as to say that Origins has a JRPG feel to its tale at times, especially as you meet the vast cast and bond with them.

Though, oddly for being such a blank slate in terms of a lead character, you can’t customise his look. With how everything is set up, it’s just almost jarring that there isn’t a character creator screen.

Same Wei

What hasn’t really changed is the challenging combat, which basically sees you rush into evermore odds-defying battles, though this time around you’ll only get to see action with our nameless hero, which is a shame but he’s a very capable warrior.

Dynasty Warriors Origins PS5 Xbox Series S X

He can wield nine different weapon types, each having their own skills and combos, and you can really dial things into your own taste on the combat front, through a number of different skill trees.

So, playing around with them all is key, as no one feels the same. Though if you find you’re not getting anywhere with your current loadout, you can switch weapons mid-battle to add a bit of spice.

HandyNasty

It’s also worth noting that the enemies have seen work too as mobs now put up a threat, sure they will not break your combo but will gang up on not only you, but your officers too. Which happens a bit too often as you end up having to tear across the map to save their bacon. This is a pain if you’re leading the charge to the final battle.

You’ll also get to buddy up with nine different companion officers, that you can also control for an extremely limited time. But this tiny window of control is a hell of a lot of fun, as these officer’s deal double the damage you can and can easily turn the tide of any battle, due in part to have a truly devastating ultimate attack.

When not in the heat of battle you’ll be traveling the vast over world map, finding new battles or helping the locals, as well as letting you see how things are changing in the world. This is a welcome system as it works well and gets rid of Dynasty Warriors 9 open world elements.

Wu-ing Generals

There is also an interesting bond style in the game. This is mostly dialogue and cutscene-driven, but can be a few fights, too. Building bonds will see you issued challenges, basically checklists of attacks, or small battles, to complete in order to bag you some extra rewards.

There is also a branching path system that kicks in about chapter three, that will see you being able to back one of the three core kingdoms. Seeing you head into a unique story path, also adding in a bit of replayability to the game, though beware each path can take easily 20+ hours to complete. So, you’ll be at them for a while if you want to do all three.

Visually the game looks great from the backdrops, to the single warrior in the fight. Everything looks battle worn while carrying the Chinese vibes and tones that the source material oozes. Sound wise its epic from the sweeping score, to the voice acting which is surprisingly good on the English front…but you can default to the original Chinese if you wish.

A Shou-In

Dynasty Warriors: Origins is a fresh take on an age-old formula that gets more right than wrong, sure lead character customisation would have been good, but the 1 vs 1000 fights are epic from the first to the last.

Dynasty Warriors Origins maps landscapes locations

And these grand and epic battles are only enriched by an engaging tale that isn’t just passed over like in previous iterations. Dynasty Warriors: Origins the perfect jumping on point for newcomers while mixing things up just enough to make the hardcore fans sit up.