What a difference seven years makes. In 2018, the dismal Dynasty Warriors 9 effectively put Koei Tecmo's storied hack and slash series on ice, but Dynasty Warriors: Origins is a completely different beast. For the first time in generations, the franchise feels fresh again — a genuine evolution of what's come before.
To be clear, Origins is not Dynasty Warriors 10; there are fundamental differences here that make Origins its own standalone thing. But at the same time, it doesn't quite feel like your typical spin-off, because the production values are what you'd expect from an all-or-nothing mainline sequel.

Origins is structured unlike any Dynasty Warriors title before it. Instead of jumping between stages via a menu, it adopts a story-based format that has more in common with RPGs. The whole game takes place on a world map that you're free to traverse, visiting locations, characters, and battlefields as you go.
It's not open world, but it is player-driven. You assume the role of a mysterious young man, who just so happens to be a dangerously skilled martial artist. The beginning of the game sees you cross paths with the legendary warlord Guan Yu, and in turn, you're introduced to the turbulent Three Kingdoms era of Chinese history — now told through the eyes of your silent wanderer.
We say 'Three Kingdoms', but as its name suggests, Origins is more about the beginnings of this war-torn age. It covers — in much greater detail than ever before — the events that lead up to the climactic battle of Chibi, which, in previous games, was often utilised as a stage-setting clash, rather than a dramatic conclusion.
You could argue that Origins' overarching plot is forced to end just as it's really starting to heat up, but this is still a hefty historical adventure. The campaign clocks in at around 30 hours — but that's counting for just one part of the game's three-pronged narrative.

About halfway through said campaign, you're presented a crucial decision: you need to side with one of China's three rising factions — Shu, Wei, or Wu — and play out the rest of the story from that perspective. You'll bond with a completely different cast of characters and engage in unique, faction-specific battles depending on your choice.
Basically, this structure triples Origins' potential runtime, making it one of the most robust Dynasty Warriors games ever made — despite the fact that it only covers about one third of the overall Three Kingdoms saga.
Ultimately, this focus on earlier events works out brilliantly; characters are given much more room to breathe, and the storytelling benefits massively as a result. What's more, being able to interact with these key figures from the perspective of a single player protagonist keeps everyone grounded. Familiar Dynasty Warriors faces have simply never seemed so human — the (often comical) caricatures of past games have been given genuine depth for the first time.

Getting to know these heroes (and villains) through fully-voiced bonding scenes adds a surprising amount of weight to your faction-related decision. By siding with Wei, for example, you know that somewhere down the line, you'll have no choice but to march into battle against those who you had once called friends. This makes for some deliciously dramatic — and often bittersweet — moments during key conflicts.
Thankfully, upon completing the campaign, you're given free reign on returning to previous chapters, or even individual battles. You also get to keep all of your progress — levels, abilities, and weapons — which makes replays a breeze. Naturally, most players will want to jump straight back to the all-important faction choice, and decide on a different path. As such, you don't have to worry about replaying the entire game at least three times if you want to see everything, which is much appreciated.
There is one part of the story that doesn't hit as hard as it should, however — and it boils down to your amnesiac protagonist. To be fair, the setup surrounding this unnamed hero is somewhat interesting, but as your tale unfurls, it just can't match up against the drama and tension of the central Three Kingdoms narrative, and starts to feel like a slightly annoying distraction from the stuff that, at this point, you're truly invested in.

Fortunately, narrative stumbles are all but forgotten when you take to the field. The sheer scale of the main story battles in Origins cannot be overstated: these are some of the most impressively gigantic encounters we've seen in gaming. They're sometimes on par with what you'll find in the modern Total War titles, but you're right there, in the thick of it, playing a full-on action game.
This is where Origins solidifies itself as a true evolution of the series. These clashes finally feel like the realisation of Dynasty Warriors' longstanding '1 vs. 1,000' design philosophy, as your most devastating special attacks cleave through hundreds of troops in an instant. At its peak, when you can barely make out what's happening thanks to the writhing mass of on-screen chaos, Origins is intoxicating.
Which brings us to the combat system itself. The core of Dynasty Warriors' action remains intact, with simple, sweeping combos letting you mash through waves of grunts — but the biggest alterations manifest when you're up against enemy officers.

Officer fights emphasise a back-and-forth that's built on defensive actions like parries and dodges. After dealing with your opponent's onslaught, you take advantage of their vulnerable state with combos and abilities of your own, breaking their morale — basically a stamina bar — in the process. Once that's depleted, they're left wide open, and you'll either strike for huge damage, or deliver the final blow with an immensely satisfying, weapon-specific finisher.
The actual rhythm of combat may take some getting used to if you're familiar with other Warriors games, because it's evolved beyond that hack-and-slash, borderline button-mashing basis. This is a much more reactionary system, akin to what you contend with in a character action title.
And in our opinion, it works really well. In making officer encounters more involved and strategic, they stand apart from the regular, troop-crushing combat. Straightforward basics give way to some intense skirmishes as the game progresses, and honing your skills against the toughest of foes — shoutout to Lu Bu — provides a great sense of growth.

That said, there comes a point where repetition does start to set in. All of your enemies submit to the same mechanics, and with only around twelve different weapon types to learn from a defensive standpoint, more skilled players could grow weary of longer battles, where sturdy health bars are your only real obstacle.
Dynasty Warriors has a long history of offering up colossal playable character rosters — but that isn't the case in Origins. While your protagonist is capable of wielding ten different weapon types — each with their own movesets, abilities, and unique mechanics — some fans will undoubtedly miss the unbridled variety that was once present in games like Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends.
But again, this is just the way that Origins is designed, with a singular, player character perspective in mind. And for what it's worth, you do get to play as a small selection of other heroes — albeit only temporarily. In most story battles, you can team up with a companion, who'll fight alongside you until their musou bar is full — and when it is, you can take direct control of them for a limited time.

Your allies can dish out some serious destruction, so they're best utilised as another kind of super attack. And honestly, you might need it; Origins can become very tricky very quickly if you don't keep an eye on the surrounding battlefield.
The series has always had strategic leanings, but Origins can be particularly punishing. You don't need to babysit every ally across every map — thank God — but you will have to race over to certain characters and give them a helping hand from time to time, if only so that the opposing army doesn't break through your formation.
Keeping track of a battle isn't too difficult — it's mostly just a case of actually listening to what your allies are saying, and following the general plan that's explained at the war table before each encounter. But Origins knows how to keep you on your toes, and we'd go as far to say that it features some of the most engaging maps in the franchise.
Conclusion
In many ways, Dynasty Warriors: Origins is the series at its best. The gigantic, jaw-dropping battles, the tense wartime drama, the player-driven power trip — it's a thoroughly impressive return to form for a franchise that came so close to dismantling itself seven years ago. Origins isn't just some water-testing spin-off — this is both an evolution of the formula and a fantastic realisation of what Dynasty Warriors has always strived to be.
Comments 51
If anyone's got any questions about the game or the review, let me know and I can try to answer them.
Origins really surpassed my expectations. As someone who's been playing Dynasty Warriors since the PS2 days, it's a huge relief to see the series make a deserved comeback.
As a huge musou fan this reads for me as a 9/10. Repetition is a part of this genre so it is not a con for me. Looking forward to this very much but I have so many good games that I will wait a bit.
@ShogunRok any estimation about the time for the Platinum?
What if any are the PS5 Pro enhancements?
Damn u small subtitles 😱
It was never in doubt, I will 100% be getting this game!
Edit: Just looked at Metacritic and I'm happy that it's around 8/10
I’m a sucker for DW. I even like 9. I will buy this as soon as I can
I'm really looking forward to this one, I've been feeling the drought from DW games.
I will absolutely pick this up, although I might wait for a small sale since I have plenty to play still currently.
Good review. Really looking forward to this.
If I may suggest, could PushSquare reviews come with a little check list featuring which graphical settings the game has i.e. Quality/Performance etc. Throw in Avg. FPS for these modes. Also, highlight whether the game supports Pro console variant and which graphical features that supports too (and it's avg FPS etc).
It could be presented in a seperate list box on the page, outside of the review.
Could also feature things like Accessibility, sound, and maybe even avg. game length.
Just a thought.
Sounds like a good time! I'll probably wait it out for a lower price but glad the series has some life left in it.
N.i.c.e. dynasty warriors origins is back.last dynasty warriors game i really enjoy.was dynasty warriors next.word up son
@dardel Platinum's going to take quite a while, as you need to play through all three factions and do a lot of extra stuff. I don't necessarily think it's a hard Trophy list, but it is time consuming. 70+ hours, I'd say.
@Dan-The-Van On the Pro you can select the 'Prioritize Graphics' option but you cap the frame rate at 60 instead of 30. So you get the best of both (and it's mostly very, very smooth).
There's also a native 4K option on the Pro, also at 60fps if you choose, but it feels more like 45fps or so.
Would definitely recommended the former option if you're playing on the Pro.
@ShogunRok I haven't actually played a Dynasty Warriors game since the PS2, I remember they had fun battles but not much in the way of story.
Still to play a musou game (I have one or two in the backlog to be fair) but I am feeling drawn to this one… I might dive in.
@Reform Origins probably has the biggest emphasis on story in the whole franchise, so times have changed on that front.
It's still very much a Dynasty Warriors game, though. Even if you haven't played since the PS2, it'll seem weirdly familiar I bet.
For me the best choice was when you could play as eatsblished characters or create your own character in the same game. I haven't played DN in years so this is a good time to go back with the visual improvements. I hope they have another run at adapting established IPs with the new engine too.
@bowzoid We do include Accessibility for some games when the data is available from our partners.
Good shout on the graphics settings info. It’s definitely something to consider, but worth noting we don’t proclaim to be Digital Foundry so probably won’t include scientific info like average frame rates and pixel counts.
But we could certainly endeavour to show what graphics options are available where possible.
I love Dynasty Warriors, but tiny text is increasingly becoming a problem for me. Looks like I'll be waiting to see if it gets patched. (I'm continuing to wonder why in the world so many games feature text for ants)
Also, quick note for author Robert Ramsey: great review, thank you for the in-depth coverage! One minor, pedantic recommendation that I have is to swap the phrase "cannot be understated" for "cannot be overstated." The former means that something is so small or poor that it would be impossible to find something smaller or poorer; in this article's context, it would mean that the battles' scale is so small that it wouldn't be possible to be smaller. It's a commonly misused phrase, but your mileage may vary - may not be worth doing an edit for, haha!
@get2sammyb I've always found the Hookshot Media reviews to be among the best in the business (and your emphasis on accessibility is a big part of that). Cheers for all the good, detailed work on this content!
@get2sammyb Thank you.
I tend to come here first for my reviews. You guys tend to be one of the first too. More often than not, before or same time as DF. Would be great. Either way, I will always be here for the review drops
@ShogunRok is the difficulty the same as the demo where as u play on hard and the entire army pretty much dies instantly 😅
The demo was great. Really living up to the idea of affecting the flow of a whole battlefield
I grew up playing Dynasty Warriors 2 and 4 cooperatively with my best friend. I absolutely love the games, but they have lost their appeal as I’ve gotten older. However, this review reads and sounds fantastic so I’ll definitely be picking this up.
@Drago201 The full game feels better balanced than the demo, but that might just be because the demo is so fast-paced, and you obviously have much more time to learn the combat system in the full thing.
On the harder difficulties your allies do die pretty quickly, though, if they're left to struggle alone. So you have to be aware of how the battle's going and prioritise who you want to save. It gets intense!
On the normal difficulty you still have to keep an eye on things, but I didn't run into any huge problems.
@brakeman90 Thanks for reading, and you're absolutely right, that should be 'overstated'. Fixed it!
As for the subtitle size, I have to imagine it'll be patched. Crazy that it's so small to begin with, but seems like it should be an easy fix.
Hey @shogunrok
Great review, sorry if I missed this (I am skim reading before a meeting!).
How many playable characters are there? Can you do free play with them? Is there any other modes? I know in the demo you could control them briefly.
Thank you in advance!
@ShogunRok thank u for the reply so it sounds like I'm doing things on normal 1st so I can get used to things for a hard mode playthrough
@stocko So each kingdom has three companion characters, so that's nine overall. Ten including the protagonist.
Sadly, you can't free play with the companion characters, although you can freely choose who to take with you when you're replaying stages after finishing the game for the first time.
Like in the demo, you can only control companion characters for a set amount of time during a battle.
@ShogunRok great review, thank you, exciting to see it back!
I was just wondering if you can customise your character at all, or are you stuck with generic Musou Man?
@Hyena_socks Nah, he's a set character — you can't customise his appearance outside of changing his costume (but I've only unlocked one additional outfit outside of DLC).
You can change his weapon type, of course, which changes his animations and everything — but that's it.
@ShogunRok
Thanks for the reply! So you can only play as 10 charaters!? No playable Lu Bu etc.? If so, that is pretty disappointing, I love the variety of characters movesets and special moves. I hear there were like 44 characters, but they must be NPC's?
>Bafflingly small subtitles
Oh for crying out loud. Not again Koei... You need to stop this. Was so excited to finally get a new GOOD DW game.. But yeah. That's a deal breaker unfortunately. Ryza 3 had the same issue, and I had to drop that as well cause I couldn't read the subs. It really should be standard feature to change text size by this point.
@stocko Yeah I think a lot of DW fans will criticise the fact there's only really one playable character and the rest are just along for the ride.
But like the review says, this isn't Dynasty Warriors 10 — it's trying to be its own thing with a protagonist-focused story. And to be fair, the ten different weapon types all feel quite unique, with their own combos and special attacks.
And yeah, the game does have loads of characters — basically everyone who appears in the old games up until Chibi — but the vast majority are NPCs who you fight alongside and can bond with outside of battle.
@ShogunRok
That has changed It from "day one purchase" to "wait for sale". Maybe they will add these characters as playable in the future!
@stocko I do wonder what kind of DLC will be released for Origins. I wouldn't be surprised if they add some kind of extra mode where you can play as different characters, or like an arena activity.
Hey, can someone confirm if the Chinese dub is available on PS5?
I don't think I will ever get this series. "Player driven power trip" is what I always hear, and it ends up feeling like stepping on bugs. Bugs that don't sting, or bite back. The story has been treading the same path for so long that it's worn the path into a canyon it can't see out of.
I also just have a bad feeling this is going to absolutely skewer players with mtx and iterations down the line. Hope I'm wrong! For whatever reason I'm getting the kind of dread I get from a modern fighting game release. Like they'll change something to screw over players once reviews are done and the game lands.
@Greifchen Yep, you can choose between English, Japanese, and Chinese dubs.
Preloaded with early access, can't wait to jump into it tonight!
pre ordered £39.99 looks great value
Yeah... it's just not what i am looking for in a dynasty warriors game. It's taking Souls influence when they literally just made Wo Long.
I hope we get a proper DW10 in the future just like DW8. I want a large roster, each with unique weapons.
This demo felt like a little too much. Gone are the simple battles and just having fun crushing everything red on the map. Game felt too busy for me to enjoy.
ctrl F "local coop" 0 results.
This is a bad sign.
As a die hard fan since the ps1 I honestly can't wait!!! Does anyone know how performance is on base ps5 at all? I don't mind a few dips here and there, as long as its not dw9 levels of slowdown and performance.
Its not for me i play this for massive amount of characters that play different.
Framerate dips aren't a con, it is literally a game mechanic at this point in point.
It isn't a musou game if your fps doesn't tank.
I have never been into musou games (only played Persona 5 Strikers and Fire Emblem 3 Hopes) but the demo was really fun to play so I will pick this up.
@ShogunRok
Sorry, bit late for this one, but after reading your review I have been playing the demo.
Have they fixed the broken 120hz option from the demo - in the demo turning on 120hz in any mode adds a weird frame pacing / judder issue thats just not there in the 60hz cap (almost like VRR deactivates).
Thank you.
(Playing on Pro)
@Rich33 I can't answer that, sadly — I don't have a display that's 120hz compatible so I couldn't test it. The 120hz option is still there, but can't comment on how well it works.
For what it's worth I haven't seen any other reviews point out performance issues, so hopefully it's been fixed.
@ShogunRok
Thank you - its certainly something you would have to see in person - even a video probably wouldnt show it, and I dont think it would show up with just straight fps testing.
To be fair after checking out your review I did watch a few more, but apart from yourselves (and of course the likes of DF and NXG), I have sadly learnt from experience not to be too trusting when review sites talk about performance.
The 60hz option in Perf and Graphics mode seemed to run well on Pro (not native 4k though) in the demo.
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...