It’s been nearly seven years since the release of the last mainline Dynasty Warriors game. Dynasty Warriors 9 was a gigantic failure in every single aspect, with an unnecessary emphasis on open-world exploration, terrible visuals and poor framerate. Over the past few years, Omega Force and Koei Tecmo had decided to focus on licensed takes on the Musou genre, as well as a higher emphasis on the Samurai Warriors subfranchise, instead of their marquee Chinese-themed juggernaut. The wait is finally over, as the tenth mainline game in the series is finally available, Dynasty Warriors: Origins. Yet another franchise fell victim to an utterly generic naming convention, but hey, rejoice, it’s more Dynasty Warriors. Let’s see if Omega Force was able to revamp the series to a new generation of consoles.

In short? Yes, they have. But let’s not act as if Dynasty Warriors: Origins is some kind of revolutionary take on a dormant franchise. For better or worse, it’s the same damn thing as before. The devs have decided to focus on a few controversial aspects, and I really don’t think they were sound ideas. Thankfully, if you’re here for nonsensical dumb fun, you’re still gonna have tons of it.

The main controversial aspect about Dynasty Warriors: Origins is its increased focus in its storytelling, completely changing the pacing of the plot, as well as the amount of characters and events present in the base game. Yes, this is still the same Romance of the Three Kingdoms plot you have seen in at least twenty different games made by Koei since the 80s, but Omega Force decided to take things slowly. The game encompasses less chapters, but tells them in more detail. In practice, it’s still a confusing story with a lot of characters whose names you won’t memorize; there’s less of them due to this decision, though.

As a result, Dynasty Warriors: Origins is chock-full of cutscenes and dialogue sections between the main characters. Sadly, the game’s protagonist isn’t voiced, following the tradition of mute Japanese gaming protagonists. Even if there is more storytelling, it’s still a confusing story, as the Romance of the Three Kingdoms isn’t exactly the easiest novel to follow, especially if you’re new to the series. Considering the “Origins” in the title, I don’t think this game does a good job at introducing you, in detail, to the main players in the story. Finally, due to the emphasis on a specific protagonist and storytelling, this is a single player-only game.

A lot of people love to play Dynasty Warriors with a friend, as the frantic, “shut your brain off” gameplay loop is perfect with a friend next to you, but Dynasty Warriors: Origins is devoid of any kind of multiplayer. They really wanted to give further attention to the story mode, which almost feels like Omega Force’s attempt at JRPG-ing their most famous action franchise. The focus on improving your character’s stats is noticeable, and so is the emphasis on grinding on randomly generated missions scattered throughout the overworld.

Whilst main missions retain the same style as previous Dynasty Warriors games, Origins also features an overworld in which your main character can explore a miniaturized version of the map of Ancient China. It looks like a classic Final Fantasy overworld map, and it’s really weird in a game like this. Every now and then, a random skirmish will show up in the map, with a simple (but very repetitive) objective; it usually boils down to killing a general. Do it, and you’ll earn XP and money. You will do this constantly, as weapons are extraordinarily expensive, and every single skill in the main menu needs an ungodly amount of points to unlock.

It’s a ridiculously grindy experience, even if, at its core, it’s not a hard game. There are a few new trinkets added to the combat, such as an emphasis on a shockingly effective parrying mechanic, but let’s be real, it’s a Musou. Played one, played them all. The main appeal of these games is still the fact you can kill a literal thousand enemies in each level, chaining ridiculous combos, and filling up meters that let you bombard foes to oblivion with an ultimate attack. As much as there are new defensive maneuvers and counterattack options, mashing X like there’s no tomorrow will still get the job done.

There are other small trinkets added to the mix, such as a morale boost that enhances the strength of your troops the more you inflict fear at your opponents, but you’ll rarely take advantage of Dynasty Warriors: Origins‘ actual strategic elements when you’re basically the only damn unit in the entire battlefield able to kill people with ease. I appreciate the inclusion, as you can clearly see Omega Force was trying to bring the franchise to a new generation, but there are games that really don’t need to be fixed. Speaking of “new generation”…

Considering the fact that Dynasty Warriors: Origins is only available on modern consoles, you’d expect it look and feel like a current-gen game, right? Well, that’s not to say that the game is ugly, far from it, but in terms of geometry, animations and particle effects, there’s nothing here that couldn’t have been achieved on th PS4 or Xbox One. The difference lies on the fact that there are a literal thousand enemies on any given level, and the framerate never even dared to produce a single hiccup. This bit is actually quite impressive, but I also somewhat expected a bit more from the visuals, as this is a very rare case of a modern game in which you can notice a quality disparity between gameplay and cutscenes; the latter look infinitely more polished.

You don’t need to worry about the sound department, however. Like I’ve mentioned in the past, most Omega Force games have soundtracks comprised of hard rock riffs mixed with whichever instruments come from the land the game is based on. Add in the excellent voice acting, no matter the language you decide to play the game on (Chinese is the obvious recommendation), and you know you’re in for a great audio ride.

No multiplayer and an underwhelming (and voiceless) protagonist make Dynasty Warriors: Origins feel a bit less content-heavy than its predecessors, but it retains the core aspects that make a Musou game so much fun in the first place. Do I think that some of the new features Omega Force has decided to focus on are pointless? Sure, I personally wouldn’t have tried to make the progression and pacing feel as glacial as one from a JRPG, but I won’t say I didn’t have my fair share of dumb fun with Origins. Unlike its disastrous predecessor, it is a really fun experience, putting the franchise back in the spotlight in a good way.

Graphics: 7.0 The amount of characters onscreen is, as always, very impressive, but Dynasty Warriors: Origins is not a visual masterpiece. Many PS4 games look better than it. It gets the job done, though, as it’s devoid of framerate issues.	Gameplay: 8.0 A few new gameplay trinkets, but all in all, a good chunk of these additions feel kinda superfluous. At its core, it plays just like yet another Musou game, with a bit more depth.
Sound: 9.0 It doesn’t matter the language of the voice acting, it’s pretty good. As always the soundtrack is also great.	Fun Factor: 7.5 No multiplayer and an underwhelming (and voiceless) protagonist make Dynasty Warriors: Origins feel a bit less content-heavy than its predecessors, but it retains the core aspects that make a Musou game so much fun in the first place. The new story mode is full of stupidly repetitive sections, but the combat makes up for it.
Final Verdict: 7.5

Dynasty Warriors: Origins is available now on PS5, Xbox Series S/X and PC.

Reviewed on Intel i7-12700H, 16GB RAM, RTX 3060 6GB.

A copy of Dynasty Warriors: Origins was provided by the publisher.