Redemptive Origins Dawn on Dynasty Warriors with a Brilliantly Refreshed Saga

A Refreshing Take on a Beloved Franchise: Dynasty Warriors: Origins
As the winter blues set in, I find myself reaching for comfort media – and for me, that means Chinese historical dramas. While the elaborate costumes and overly sweet romances are enjoyable, sometimes a girl wants something with a little more teeth. Enter Dynasty Warriors: Origins, the latest installment in the long-running franchise that has given me exactly what I needed.
A New Perspective
After a brief hiatus from the series, Omega Force, the developers behind Dynasty Warriors: Origins, took a detour into licensed games like Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, Persona 5 Strikers, and Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes. This detour gave the studio the new perspective it needed to shake things up and bring a fresh take to the franchise.
A New Hero
In Origins, you play as the Wanderer, a character with no memory of himself. As you progress, you slowly regain your memories and special powers. The Wanderer can use any type of weapon, which is a welcome change from previous games that locked weapons to a certain character. Each weapon has abilities you unlock through continued use, and the Wanderer himself has skills and perks he unlocks via skill trees.
Combat Revamped
Combat in Origins is simple to get the hang of. You have a light attack and a heavy attack that can be modified by using your dodge or jump. There’s also a suite of abilities that consume a resource called "bravery" that you earn by landing hits on your opponent. Finally, there’s block and parry mechanics and an ultimate ability called "musou" used when you’re impossibly surrounded or need to put extra hurt on an enemy general.
A Challenge Worth Overcoming
While this all sounds like your standard hack-and-slash game, I was pleased to find that Origins made me work for my victories. Even on the standard difficulty and with years of experience playing Warriors games, I couldn’t just blindly hack my way through enemies. Generals hit surprisingly hard, and if I wasn’t using my various abilities to mitigate or counter their attacks, they’d continuously generate shields I’d have to keep chewing through to take them down.
A Hero’s Journey
Battles take place on large, winding maps stuffed with bases to take over and enemy generals to defeat. Even though defeating the enemy leader while keeping your own leaders alive is generally the only win condition, I loved being a completionist. When I got a panicked cry for help from my allies, it was fun rushing to their defense even if helping didn’t make the battle end sooner. It made me feel like a big damn hero. And isn’t that the whole point of a game that lets you fight alongside the legendary characters of Chinese history?
A Cut Above the Rest
Playing the hero is the best part about Origins and what’s been sorely missing from the franchise. Earlier games were burdened with unnecessary systems like the atrocious, poorly-paced open world of Dynasty Warriors 9 or the no-thoughts, head-empty button mashing of Dynasty Warriors 8. But in Origins, executing a special ability pulled you into an elaborate cutscene with animations that look like they were ripped straight out of a wuxia film. My choices in the game’s story moments let me build relationships with characters I have loved so much across so many different mediums.
A Critic’s Take
I understand other reviews’ criticisms of the Wanderer. As a character, he has no personality to speak of, and his quest to regain his memories isn’t compelling. But I can easily overlook that because this is Dynasty Warriors. All I’m here for, and what this game has given me in spades, is to eat meat buns and pursue Lu Bu – and I’m all out of meat buns.
Get Ready to Join the Battle
Dynasty Warriors: Origins is out now on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.