Dynasty Warriors: Origins nails the feeling of being an unstoppable force of destruction (at least until Lu Bu shows up) and manages to push the series’ overall formula forward in many surprising ways. However, its deeper approach to characters and the bonds you develop over 30 hours or so completely pushes aside the notion of romances, and it’s a huge missed opportunity.
Step by step, the Dynasty Warriors series has dared to absorb more and more light RPG elements. Mind you, I can’t see the main Musou franchise in the market ever giving us a full-blown ARPG, but it’s been nice to see the simple hack-and-slash series evolve into something else, even if it hasn’t always landed its hits well. For instance, no one will bat an eye if you say that Dynasty Warriors 9 and its Empires side entry weren’t very good. In fact, those two games were very much responsible for Koei Tecmo and Omega Force going in a wildly different direction with Origins.
On a more positive note, 9 Empires included romances… sort of. You could max out the relationship with certain characters, go for a stroll, and eventually marry through a very generic cutscene. Love was already blossoming in the previous DW game, and with how much emphasis Origins puts on the Wanderer’s relationships with his allies (and maybe foes down the line), its omission here just feels odd.
A fair amount of time in Dynasty Warriors: Origins is spent walking from one point of interest to another on the game’s ‘world map’ layer. It’s straight-up taken from classic JPRGs, and it kinda rocks. Random enemy counters would’ve totally ruined it in my opinion, but those aren’t a thing (even if you can farm some procedurally generated events). This loop also includes meeting with allies and friends, accepting missions which are entirely optional, and having short conversations that add quite a lot to who they are and why they’re fighting.
The best part is that everything feels lovingly handcrafted. While much of the last few games felt like lazy filler often driven by recycled assets and rushed design (elsewhere, Nintendo was obtaining strong Musou titles from Omega Force), Origins is not only a return to form, but also a jump to the next level for the franchise. Yes, the central loop can still become repetitive if don’t really love killing thousands to achieve peace (yeah, that whole angle of the story doesn’t work), but love and care have been put into it all.
Perhaps that’s why the lack of actual in-game love has felt so baffling to me. In the age of games like Baldur’s Gate 3 and countless indies finding huge success partially thanks to engaging romances and steamy encounters (if you don’t mess up), it almost feels like a given to have some degree of that in your big new expensive game that’s looking for a larger audience and has roleplaying elements. Koei Tecmo was obviously looking to recruit more players with Origins, and while they might be succeeding following rave reviews, one has to wonder whether they’ve left some easy money on the table by not letting folks flirt with Guan Yu (see below).
I’m sorry, but there’s no heterosexual explanation for that line. I could almost taste cut content or unfulfilled creative intent when the scene just faded to black and we simply continued to be best bros (the whole ‘brothers’ thing is an entire subplot with a faction, by the way). Of course, there’s a rare beauty in heartfelt male relationships which aren’t romantic, and I wasn’t expecting to find them in a Dynasty Warriors game, yet here we are. I’m happy for that, but I also want to smooch Guan Yu or uptight leader Cao Cao.
This whole ‘romance wishlist’ rant also brings us to the noticeable lack of major female characters in the game. I mean, Dynasty Warriors has traditionally been a sausage party, but we got a handful of women that meant business in each game. While it’s true that Origins only covers a portion of the whole Romance of the Three Kingdoms storyline that we’ve experienced many times before in other entries, that’s not really an excuse when devs have taken so many liberties on multiple fronts. Again, I got ‘cut content’ vibes from Sun Shangxiang’s almost instantly flirty attitude towards the Wanderer. Is that the case? We might never know.
With dialogue trees, three distinct factions that reshape the back half of the main story, and a renewed focus on heroes, officers, and the bonds between them, a customizable main character also seemed like a logical choice, yet Omega Force wanted a defined original warrior instead. So far (I’ve yet to roll credits), I’m not seeing the narrative payoff whereas every other story front is sturdy enough. There was a clear vision for this game, and it really shows, but was it the best possible one?
While it’s abundantly clear that Omega Force took some valuable lessons learned from its time working on collaborations with other properties to heart, other things got lost in the way. Hell, even some of the few good ideas from DW9 are missing. It doesn’t really matter when the end result is among the best Dynasty Warrior has ever been, but a more focused installment needn’t let go of some killer bits that were nice to have. Also: Stop making so many characters more likable and attractive if you’re not gonna let us hit on them!
Ultimately, it may all come down to Koei Tecmo and Omega Force being afraid of taking even bigger swings after two consecutive failures with 9 and its spinoff. The franchise was overdue for a refresh, and I can’t complain too much about stuff that I’d have loved to see but is nowhere to be found. The game in front of us rocks for the most part, and it’s hard to see Dynasty Warriors: Origins as anything but yet another fantastic reminder that the right reinvention at the right time can resurrect a stagnant franchise. It worked for Tomb Raider, God of War, and many others, and it’s worked here. Bring on Samurai Warriors: Origins next, maybe?
