Should You Play Dynasty Warriors: Origins?

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home January 31, 2025 6 Views 6 Min Read
Should You Play Dynasty Warriors: Origins?



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Dynasty Warriors: Origins raised a lot of questions in the lead-up to its launch. With a restricted roster and a focus on a mysterious new protagonist, fans wondered if this would be the same hack-and-slash series they’d grown to love. Now that the game is out, we can finally see for ourselves whether Origins is the future of Dynasty Warriors, or a failed experiment.

The Leaders of Shu, Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei in Dynasty Warriors: Origins.

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The main figures of Dynasty Warriors: Origins and the faces behind their voices.

If you’re on the fence about whether to take the latest journey into the world of the Three Kingdoms, we’ve gathered all the relevant details here so you can decide for yourself.

Review

Here at TheGamer, DWO was reviewed by none other than our Editor-In-Chief, Stacey Henley. She loved the combat, praising in particular the unique feel and fighting style of each of the ten usable weapon types. However, she noted that the game’s greater focus on story and narrative is held back by its attempt to put in the fictional Wanderer as a perspective character, since he lacks any real depth or personality.

There’s some fantastic action combat with an array of weaponry in Dynasty Warriors: Origins, and for some people, that will be enough. But as the game pivots to a more narrative focus, it only exposes its shortcomings, and feels too repetitive and inconsequential to sustain its own story.

As Stacey’s review concludes, the combat is king in Dynasty Warriorrs, and Origins nails that part of the formula, but its storytelling isn’t up to the task of bringing the Romance Of The Three Kingdoms to life.

Review Scores

Outlet

Score

TheGamer

3.5/5

Game Rant

8/10

IGN

9/10

Eurogamer

3/5

GamesRadar+

4/5

OpenCritic

81/100

Metacritic

79/100

Time Expenditure

A single run of Dynasty Warriors: Origins’ main campaign can take as little as 16 hours or as many as 30, depending on how bogged down you want to get in side quests. That doesn’t tell the whole story, though, as there’s a ton of content to unlock after finishing the game at least once. Not only are there three main story routes to explore, but each one has alternate-history paths that can unlock new endings.

All told, getting to the point where you’ve done absolutely everything that there is to do in the game could potentially take upwards of 100 hours, so if you’re a completionist you’ll definitely get your time in.

Sima Hui at the Shui Jing Retreat in Dynasty Warriors: Origins.

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Old Coins let you unlock rewards at the Shui Jing Retreat in Dynasty Warriors: Origins.

Cost

Like it or not, a $69.99 price tag is now the norm for Triple-A new releases. Dynasty Warriors: Origins is no exception, and it’s not currently on any subscription services like GamePass, so unless you plan to wait for it to go on sale – which realistically won’t be for a few months at the bare minimum – that’s the price you can expect to pay.

That said, it’s available on most major platforms, including:

What Players Are Saying

Flawed But Fun – Matt Arnold

Honestly, most of the problems that I have with Dynasty Warriors: Origins don’t show up until dozens of hours in, at which point I’m having too much fun hacking and slashing my way across battlefields to really care. I wish the divergent storyline paths gave us more “what-if” scenarios, but I can understand not wanting to stray too far off the beaten path for the franchise just yet.

Origins is a load of fun, and there’s plenty to do in the postgame. As an added bonus, I think I have a better grasp of the characters and relationships in the Romance Of The Three Kingdoms than I ever did before, so as clumsy as the narrative might have been at times, it definitely worked in that regard!

A Bold Experiment – Stacey Henley

Dynasty Warriors: Origins is a solid musou game that lets you play it your way, as long as your way means sticking with one very dull character. Packed with action set-pieces stretched across broad maps, it’s a bold entry in the Dynasty Warriors series, but doesn’t have everything a diehard might want. If you don’t mind figuring out your own path and replaying key moments to finish the game, Origins is well worth trying.

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