Dynasty Warriors: Origins

[regemond]

What I'm about to say here is either going to reaffirm why you want to play this, or it's going to reaffirm why you don't. There's no in between, and it's because, at the root of it, Dynasty Warriors is much like war - it never changes.

 

You still slash, stab, swipe and scream your way through hundreds, if not thousands of enemies on any given level. You still play out the Yellow Turban war. You still run into Lu Bu, Cao Cao, and all the other DW staples that have been a part of the series since at least the second entry. All of these things are entirely unsurprising. What is surprising, at least to me, is the way this is all presented.

 

Instead of picking a war general and playing (insert number) levels, then picking a new one and doing it again, you play as The Wanderer - a nameless grunt who fights with and against the different characters from Romance of The Three Kingdoms. This is good. It gives you more choice over weapons. You have control over your special moves. You can pour points into upgrading skills and strengths. In a small but effective way, it shakes up the Dynasty Warriors formula. Is it deep? God no. Does it make a difference to your motives? Weirdly, yes.

 

The gameplay loop is presented differently here, too. Like I said, the set up used to be choosing a character, playing the story, then picking a new one and doing it again. Dynasty Warriors 9 tried to mess with this and introduced an open world aspect, but it was TOO open world and felt fucking awful. This game drops you into an overworld, Final Fantasy-style, and has you traipsing from village to village. Small fights will appear from time to time, where you drop into a small cut-out section of a level and need to fight 400 enemies, or a couple of generals, or whatever else. Once done, you'll go back to the overworld and continue your business.

 

You then have medium-scale battles - same again but with a bigger section. Finally, you have the big ass battles. The ones we've been seeing since DW2 on PS2. These come with battle prep, information on win and loss conditions, and all the other stuff we know and love.

 

Each village on the overworld has an inn, where you can read letters, pick up bonuses, or create gems to pour into your stats. You can also mess with your moveset and weapons here.

 

Like I said, none of this is a massive change from what the series has done in the past, but the QoL improvements have made it an exponentially more enjoyable experience than these games have been in years. The small battles for example, there's barely any loading going from the overworld to the fight. It means it's worth taking the small detour to get into a kick off, because you don't wait around too much.

 

I've just got access to a horse, so running around the overworld is quicker now, too.

 

Honestly, if you have a passing interest in this series, give it a go, but only once it goes on sale. I got it free, and I know I'd have felt ripped off paying full price for such a basic, PS2-era feel. If you're not into the hack and slash these games have always offered, there's literally nothing here that's gonna convince you otherwise.