Dynasty Warriors Origins PS5 Review. The epic tales from the beloved story The Romance of the Three Kingdoms have lasted through the decades in Chinese culture. Based on the first half of this novel, Dynasty Warriors Origins is an ambitious new vision for the game series which has been an ever present franchise on PlayStation over the last 30 years.
Developed by the team at Omega Force, Dynasty Warriors Origins takes place during the fall of the Han Dynasty and puts players in the role of a nameless protagonist suffering from amnesia.
Dynasty Warriors Origins (PS5) – The Embers Of War Burst Into Flames
Becoming A Hero
Setting out on a quest to regain your lost memories, the player becomes embroiled in the turbulence as the Eastern Han Dynasty begins to crumble. The people are suffering, rebellion is afoot and in an attempt to save a child you go into battle against oppressive officials in a desolate village. This action sets you on a path that is entwined in the struggle between different factions to gain control of the empire.
While your memories of your past have been forgotten your martial art skills certainly have not. Your exploits in battle gain you notoriety as you begin to forge a path forward for the future of your people. New to this release is seeing the story play out from your own characters perspective rather than from each of the story characters points of view. You strive to help those in need and to bring peace and harmony back to the land.
As the saga plays out over five chapters you build out your character to your specific gameplay style with choice of weapons and skills to best aid you in combat. There are nine weapon types in all which unlock progressively as you advance.
High-Paced Combat
The combat is fast, with you dishing out combos, special attacks, pulling off perfect parries and evading your enemies incoming attacks. Standard soldiers offer little by way of challenge and can be dispatched with relative ease but they are by no means just cannon fodder. They do chip away at your health while you are trying to deal with the more formidable generals. Each general has their own style and weapon choice. Figuring out their strengths, weaknesses and attack patterns is something akin to a souls like game.
Your exploits on the field of battle can have huge influence on the armies you fight with a morale system that affects the soldiers in your ranks. Duels can be initiated with opposing officers during battles. These are similar to the scene in the film Troy where Achilles is called to the front lines to duke it out against the best warrior the opponent has to offer. The setup is similar with soldiers from each side gathered around to view the spectacle. Victory here can give a huge advantage to you in the overall battle. Fail and the momentum can easily shift in the opposing sides favour.
The controls are responsive with a very comfortable layout allowing you to dish out the pain with relative ease. One spot where improvement could be made is with the DualSense specific features with use of the controller speaker for weapon clash sounds and use of haptics to enhance the battles.
Graphically, there is nothing here that will set the world alight but on the animation front this game shines. The fluidity of the attacks and chains of combos, as well as flurry of weapon strikes and over the top mid air spins are incredible to behold. So too is the epic scale of the major battle, with legions of soldiers in their droves duelling across vast battlefields made possible by the power of the modern hardware.
Tactical Warfare
While you are tasked with dispatching enemy soldiers, lieutenants and generals there is also a bigger picture at play. Leading into an encounter the generals discuss the battle strategy. Here you get the conditions for both success and failure. It is not always as simple as beating your foes; take your eye off the ball and one of your generals being forced to flee can swiftly end the fight. Holding strategic points also goes a way toward success.
The encounter is not just focused on the point of the map you are currently occupying, with multiple skirmishes playing out simultaneously. A keen eye needs to be kept on the progress of each as your urgent assistance may be needed elsewhere to swing the tide in your favour. Use of an ability called “Eyes of the Sacred Bird” allow you to assess the progress of the battle and to decide where your skills are most in need.
Thankfully once you get to a certain point you get a horse to aid in your efficient travel across the battlefield. Furthermore, your horse also gains experience and levels up improving the stats.
World Map
The world map is a representation of the Three Kingdoms period in China and acts as the RPG element to the game. Travelling around the different regions you meet different characters, take on missions, learn lore and find valuable items. It is a great way to visualise the vastness of the territory, showing just how difficult a task it would have been to pull everything together into a cohesive society.
Access to different regions is initially restricted and opens up as you progress through the story. It is on your travels here that you can form bonds with different characters, picking up knowledge from each one you interact with and bringing those skills into your combat arsenal.
Upgrades & Items
The core loop of the game is building your warrior into a formidable force to be reckoned with. Skill trees a plenty allow you to progress your characters skills. Weapon proficiency is earned in combat and new weapons can be acquired from defeated generals with each weapon carrying its own stats, and can also be purchased from shops at local villages.
A resource called pyroxene can be picked up on the world map which regenerates in same spots over time. This is a valuable element which can be used to craft gems at inn’s dotted around the map. These gems offer different stat boosts depending on which is equipped. Each of the five gem types offers different bonuses and these bonuses increase as you craft more of each gem type. These are an essential component of your battle skills and can be tied to your play style. My preference was to use the wellspring gem, which recovers health as you defeat a certain number of enemy soldiers.
Battle Replay
Failure in battles comes with a replay function that allows you to repeat your exploits from different checkpoints in the battle. It gives an overview of the progress of the tide of battle, who is winning, who is losing and the strategies that have been instrumental in the success of the victors. It’s a solid feature as some of the epic battles can go on for quite an extended period of time and some in my experience were close to an hour. Being able to rejoin the fight mid battle at different spots makes for alleviating frustration at having to begin again from scratch.
That said, sometimes it’s best to begin again especially if you’ve ignored the strategy and gone gung-ho lone wolf style for victory.
With New Game+ allowing for replaying with different loadouts and playstyles there’s a lot of bang for your buck here, while completing the campaign 100% with all side missions can take in excess of 100hrs.
Dynasty Warriors Origins had me intrigued with the delivery of a very compelling story and I have since gone down the rabbit hole of consuming all I can from the lore from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms saga. If you are a fan of Game Of Thrones then there is a lot to like here in this epic tale. This game gets it hooks into you and has you coming back for more.
Dynasty Warriors Origins releases on January 17 for PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X/S.
Review code kindly provided by publisher.