Dynasty Warriors: Origins is the tenth mainline entry of the historic Dynasty Warriors franchise based on the War of the Three Kingdoms. Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying.

Dynasty Warriors: Origins Review Overview

What is Dynasty Warriors: Origins?

Dynasty Warriors: Origins is an action RPG developed by Omega Force and published by Koei Tecmo that focuses on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms novel. Being the tenth mainline entry in the well-known Musou franchise, the game retains its popular hack-and-slash gameplay where players primarily take control of one character and fight against an overwhelming number of enemies in strategic warfare. The game introduces a silent protagonist with his own story while being the player’s avatar in rewriting the story of the Three Kingdoms.

Dynasty Warriors: Origins features:
　⚫︎　 Based on a Romanticized Historical Novel
　⚫︎　 Single Player Action RPG
　⚫︎　 Silent Protagonist
　⚫︎　 Smaller But More Established Character Pool
　⚫︎　 Classic 1 vs 1000 Hack and Slash Gameplay
　⚫︎　 Modernized Dodge and Parry Mechanics
　⚫︎　 10 Playable Different Weapons

For more gameplay details, read everything we know about Dynasty Warriors: Origins’s gameplay and story.

Dynasty Warriors: Origins
Steam		PlayStation		Xbox

Dynasty Warriors: Origins Pros & Cons

Pros	Cons
Refocused "History Lesson" Expanded Character Identities Amazing Performance and Visuals Addictive Hack-and-Slash Warfare Vastly Improved Strategy Aspect	Extremely Bland Protagonist Awful Allied Officers

Dynasty Warriors: Origins Overall - 82/100

While Dynasty Warriors has been on the decline for the past decade, Dynasty Warriors: Origins proves that even old and beloved dogs can learn new tricks. It retains its action-packed one-man-army type gameplay but improves on it by introducing new mechanics without destroying the pace. Additionally, the game has made a big adjustment to focus more on retelling the story of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms while fleshing out the multitude of characters included.

What I’ve said may seem like the franchise is going in a completely different direction with the future of the series, but that isn’t true at all. Sure, there are a couple of issues and nitpicks here and there, but most of these are eclipsed by the focal points that Koei and Omega Force decided to double down on. All in all, Dynasty Warriors: Origins is an amazing and much-needed reboot that the franchise needed while keeping its whole identity and foundation intact.

Dynasty Warriors: Origins Story - 8/10

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a tale that’s been beaten like a dead horse, as this is the tenth time we’re seeing the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the Battle of Hu Lao Gate, and the like. The retelling of the story is enhanced by the game’s infinitely more interesting characters compared to its past iterations.

Dynasty Warriors: Origins reestablishes the characters that we already know and love by expanding more about their personalities with the several interactions that the amnesiac player character, Ziluan, has with them. Additionally, the protagonist also has his own story that’s intertwined with the Three Kingdoms story which isn’t quite as compelling but does exist and does not overstep on the actual story.

Dynasty Warriors: Origins Gameplay - 9/10

In an oversaturated market of action RPGs, Dynasty Warriors: Origins has modernized and reinvented itself as one of the proponents of the genre with engaging parry and dodge mechanics, strategic moment-to-moment combat, and still-addicting hack-and-slash action.

This might be the most amazing Musou-style gameplay that they’ve done to date. To no one’s surprise, the 1 vs 1000 gameplay loop remains deeply satisfying and entertaining. I can assure you that the gameplay is not stale at all, and it packages the mechanics, combat, and progression into a more evolved and improved form. There are some issues with the game like the character being locked to the bland protagonist for about 90% of the time and some AI mishaps, but these aren’t huge deal-breakers that ruin the experience.

Dynasty Warriors: Origins Visuals - 8/10

The game looks and runs amazingly well. There are a lot of games nowadays that can’t balance visuals and performance, but Dynasty Warriors: Origins isn’t one of those. I did not experience any slowdown, frame drop, or anything performance-related issues in my playthrough, which is already great.

The series has always been pretty good in terms of aesthetics, character design, and overall visuals to the point where my only issue is how good the characters look. You can sometimes forget that they’re military officers and warlords despite their porcelain look and perfect figures.

Dynasty Warriors: Origins Audio - 8/10

The franchise has always been known to have pretty hype music ever since it became an action RPG more than two decades ago. While its music and sound effects can carry most of the experience, the voice acting may put some people off. Veterans of the franchise are already used to how characters deliver their lines as if it were a classic dub of an old Asian action film but newcomers might have to adjust a little bit as it may not be for everyone.

Dynasty Warriors: Origins Value for Money - 8/10

For $69.99, Dynasty Warriors: Origins is an actual AAA experience. It has a lengthy story with multiple playthroughs involved, an engaging gameplay loop to keep you hooked, and amazing visuals and performance that won’t let you down. It’s a great Musou title for newcomers and veterans, as it’s simple enough to understand for the former and different enough to revive the series for the latter.

Dynasty Warriors: Origins Review: Rebooted, Refocused, and Revived

The Dynasty Warriors franchise has been one of my guilty pleasure games when I want to just have fun in a video game. I have several fond memories of playing the older titles, where I still remember most of the characters’ appearances and designs in past iterations.

While I have fallen out of love with the series over the years, my excitement for the newest title, Dynasty Warriors: Origins, was palpable at best since I didn’t think that they could innovate from their core identity and gameplay loop. Safe to say, I’m glad to be proven wrong this time, as this may be the best Dynasty Warriors entry yet with its new focus on storytelling, noticeable changes to its core gameplay, and amazing presentation.

More Story-Focused While Telling the Same Tale

At this point, most veterans familiar with the Dynasty Warriors franchise know the story of how the Kingdoms were established. The Yellow Turban Rebellion is quashed by the efforts of Liu Bei, Cao Cao, and Sun Jian with their respective armies. Followed up by Dong Zhuo and his tyranny where Cao Cao organizes the lords in opposition against him.

The difference now is that the game introduces a silent protagonist who earns the title, Ziluan, or the All-Seeing Bird. Without spoiling too much of the game’s story or the protagonist’s story, the protagonist is an arbiter of peace, where you are involved in several fights with the ultimate goal of attaining peace. I will admit that the new story isn’t too compelling in its own right, but it does well enough to be interesting and doesn’t detract from the story of the different characters in the Three Kingdoms.

Smaller Roster But More Interesting Characters

The franchise was known to have massive rosters of playable characters that you can choose in a single playthrough. However, Origins changes it up by having the protagonist be the character you play for about 90% of the time. The other characters are still there as companions, but they’re mostly there as an additional offensive option for you to use rather than a full-fledged character. This may sound like a con to you, but this makes way and enhances Koei and Omega Force’s efforts to focus on the game’s story.

Throughout the story, you’ll slowly be introduced to several different characters and even socialize with a number of them where you’ll discover that they’re more than meets the eye. They explain their personal goals, stories, and even how they’re aligned with the lord that they serve.

This doesn’t seem much but this makes several of the characters a lot more relatable, as before you’d just view them as pawns or soldiers to help further your cause. This emphasizes the game’s story and characters as it expands more on the ambitions, goals, and personalities of the characters involved aside from the results of the battle itself.

Looks Great, Plays Even Greater

There are not a lot of modern triple AAA titles that had zero issues with performance on release. That being said, Dynasty Warriors: Origins hit it out of the ballpark in terms of performance. In my playthrough playing on the PS5 and prioritizing performance, I did not encounter any significant slowdown or frame drops even when the battles were massive and cinematic.

To add to this, the visuals and the audio design of the game are superb. The character designs of the series have always been one of the highlights of how they change up certain characters’ appearances and sometimes even their weapon of choice. Additionally, the music and sound effects remain top-notch as it rounds out the audiovisual experience.

Addictive and Improved Musou Combat

While the core of the game is to have you going against insurmountable odds and mashing attack buttons to eliminate the opposition, the further you get in the game, the more interesting the gameplay becomes. The main additions to the combat are the dodge and parry, as the franchise doesn’t exactly have the most interesting combat outside of juggling enemies until they die. These new mechanics spice up the combat in a variety of ways, as you’re actively looking to perfectly block or dodge attacks to keep the offensive since even the run-of-the-mill enemy officer has stagger protection most of the time.

To add to the already addicting combat, you’ll have the opportunity to use different weapons in the game which add a lot of variety to the gameplay as each weapon plays very differently. You have the Sword which is an all-around great weapon, the Spear which has a long reach and equally as long combos, the Gauntlets which were my personal favorite where you freely flow between different stances to overpower your foes, and many more.

There are a total of ten different weapon types, and honestly, all of them were satisfying to use. You’re even encouraged to use different weapons to hone your proficiency and unlock new combos and attacks for that weapon which also levels up your overall Rank to gain access to even more passive skills.

Later down the line, you’ll take control of an actual unit assigned to the protagonist. You’ll be able to order them to do several things like an archer volley, infantry charge, or something of that nature. While it doesn’t seem big on paper, this becomes a big aspect of the game later on where you need to break formations and make openings for you and your allies to successfully win skirmishes.

Nitpicks, Issues, and Other Non-Desirables

While the graphics and the audio design are great, there are some minor nitpicks that I would point out mainly due to the appearance of officers and some of the voice acting. While it is considered a fantasy, it could hardly be believable to have soldiers that look like supermodels heading off to wage war against an opposing kingdom. Hell, even the older characters look way too good, which isn’t exactly a problem it’s more that some characters don’t exactly look the part of being an actual lord or officer. The voice acting is something people have to get used to, as the franchise doesn’t exactly have the best dubs for several games.

Some of the bigger cons that the game has are the bland protagonist and the game’s awful allied officer AI. RPGs are no strangers to having silent protagonists who only speak through dialogue choices and in-game text, but Ziluan in particular takes the cake for being one of the more boring protagonists out there. I’ll chalk it up to the character not being animated enough to express emotion as he stands there during dialogue just being a chill guy and listening to everyone else.

Lastly, the franchise has had notoriously bad allied AI and it continues to this day. You’ll find yourself babysitting your allies as they commonly find themselves in dire predicaments going solo against multiple enemy officers. It’s bad enough that random allied officers withdraw from the battle, but it’s even worse when the battle is lost when your main officer just goes and dies. It does lend to the fact that your role is to be ready to help whenever and wherever, but sometimes it can be annoying to drop what you’re doing to go across the map to aid an ailing ally.

A Worthy Revival

It’s no secret that the series has been stale for a very long time now and has been trying different ways to innovate itself. This iteration changes that, as not only does it put a spotlight on the great story of the Three Kingdoms, but it also lets the characters introduce themselves to the player aside from being soldiers on the battlefield.

Overall, Dynasty Warriors: Origins was a game that the series desperately needed and it delivered. From its audiovisual experience, storytelling, characters, and gameplay, the game has improved upon every facet that it has while keeping its identity the same.

Is Dynasty Warriors: Origins Worth It?

If You’re Looking for a Historical Action RPG, Yes!

Even with a steep price point of $69.99, Dynasty Warriors: Origins does not disappoint. There’s a multitude of options in the action RPG space, but there isn’t anything quite like a Musou game.

Despite being known for being a series where you could turn your brain off and just mindlessly destroy armies at your leisure, Dynasty Warriors: Origins is familiar enough to retain its identity yet has enough changes and difficulty spikes that keep things a lot more interesting.

Not to mention that the game has focused on telling the story of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, where you will spend hours replaying the third chapter of the game a total of three times to experience all of the endings of the kingdoms of Shu, Wei, and Wu.

Digital Storefronts
Steam		PlayStation		Xbox
$69.99

Dynasty Warriors: Origins FAQ

Do I need to play the previous games to enjoy Dynasty Warriors: Origins?

No. Dynasty Warriors builds on its previous iterations with new character designs, mechanics, and other features but almost always retells the same story as the popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms. If anything, it might be even more beneficial if you start with Dynasty Warriors: Origins as opposed to its older releases as the current game is labeled as a reboot for the franchise.

Does my progression in the Dynasty Warriors: Origins demo carry over to the full game?

No. The demo is a standalone product and does not carry over your progress into the full game.

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Dynasty Warriors: Origins Product Information

Title	Dynasty Warriors: Origins
Release Date	January 17, 2025
Developer	Omega Force
Publisher	Koei Tecmo
Supported Platforms	PC (Steam) PlayStation 5 Xbox Serires X|S
Genre	Action RPG
Number of Players	1
ESRB Rating	ESRB Teen
Official Website	Dynasty Warriors: Origins Website

Michael Gerra-Clarin

Resident fighting game nerd, avid FFXIV fan, and enjoyer of mostly anything gaming. Currently, he is enjoying Dawntrail as a Viper, while dying to Messmer's flames in Shadow of the Erdtree.