''TO BATTLE WE GO!''
Developed: Omega Force
Published: Koei Tecmo
Genre: hack and slash
Release Date: Jan 16th,2025
Platforms: PC/PS5/Xbox Family
Review copy provided to me by Koei Tecmo
Dynasty Warriors Origins is the latest installment in this long running franchise and it is developed by Omega Force and published by Koei Tecmo. With the Musou genre being hit or miss and expanding to IPs outside of the normal Dynasty Warriors franchise like Zelda and One Piece, Omega Force now decided ''you know what, lets show them what a true Dynasty Warriors experience is''. But does their efforts pay off? or do they fall short? Only one way to find out, so lets go!
''BRO, PUT YOUR SWORD UP, WHAT THE HECK?''
GAMEPLAY:
Ive been playing Dynasty Warriors style games for quite some time, through the extremely good aspects of the franchise and the really really bad ones as well, and as someone whos been a fan of the franchise as long as I have, I've seen this franchise go from the niche game you find on sale for like $20 or buy it used for $10 at Gamestop, to a franchise that has really been a cultural phenomenon in the industry with branching off its style to big name IP's as mentioned before with Zelda, One Piece. Now if we can only get a game called STREET CATS: WARRIORS that involves you creating an abandoned street cat and having to recruit other homeless cats to survive as you fight in kitty styled Musou combat against other alley cats and even stray dog gangs - that would be awesome. My weird game wants aside, Origins is a game that feels both traditional of the Musou genre, bu also a tad bit of fresh air as you navigate through the Three Kingdoms period that narrowly traverses through some very complex matters in regards to historical records, and through this journey you will actually meet major players and key figures from the history books that many people will now without having to give themselves a history lesson before hand to have an enjoyable experience. I mean, who wants to go back to history class right? only thing I remember is opening my eyes, being all groggy and text stuck to my face like I was a Silly Putty doing to laying straight onto my text book page... I still got an A though, so suck it, history.
Combat wise for Origins, is where the game shines overall, which is the area you'd hope it would because these titles are all about the intense musou action of slicing through dozens and dozens of enemies at a time with single strikes and duels against other enemy officers. With normal enemies requiring you to do a traditional use of spamming your attacks to clear the way, however with the officers, there is a bit more strategy to it due to the use o fa parry and counter system that moves beyond just the typical one button presses of an ''X to Jason'' and instead use parry and timing it with counter attacks in order to win matches by capturing bases, managing player morale and finding the best place on the map to take on next and capture. Its basically me at 3am after a power nap, not knowing where I am or what day it is, but knowing I'm hungry as heck, so I think of the best strategy to use in order to find out where I'm getting late night take down from. Yup its just like that, totally. Moving around each various battlefield feels better than ever with the parry and counter attack systems, everything feels more dynamic than you've been used to, but still keeping the intense atmosphere you know and love. As you progress through said combat and through the game, you will begin to transition from various different weapons to use, such as traditional sword, gauntlets, heavy swords, and each one of these weapons having a different wait, different speed, different use to them that forces you to use different tactics based off a specific weapon you use in order to benefit the most from its use - Which is great because it makes you branch out a bit and not just spam the game with one singular weapon and makes sure your stay with the game does not get boring or monotonous and continues to make everything feel new and fresh from start to finish.
But just like a can of Pringles, once you pop, the fun dont stop and this holds true for Origins as well. While you are mastering the art of strategy on the battlefield and testing out your new weapons, you'll be able to appreciate the addictive system known as Progression System. With this system in place, the more you progress your character and weapons by advancing in the game, you will be using skill points to unlock brand new abilities that can turn a no win situation into a last ditch hail mary win due to upgrades such as health regeneration, which is one I relied on a ton because, lets me honest, I'm not very good at Musou and just flail around everywhere hoping for the best... just like those stupid kids who cant get the monkey's head on the statue properly in Legends Of The Hidden Temple. I HATE those kids so much... TURN THE DANG MONKEY THE OTHER WAY, HIS HEAD DOESNT GO ON BOTTOM OF THE STATUE WHERE HIS BUTT IS, WHATS WRONG WITH YOU. Ahem. Its nearly mandatory in my personal view to use this customization to its fullest to get the true nature of this game to show itself full force when leading your troops into combat, feeling like its your Avengers style moment like you're going to give them a ''ASSEMBLE'' command or something. Though these are great things, obviously theres downfalls to go with the addictive nature of the title too, such as yes the game is more open ended compared to previous Dynasty Warriors games, however it fumbles a bit on that premise by having a rather confusing and somewhat broken navigation system, which to be honest, hinders side quests quite a lot, which can ruin the immersion about of exploration between your normal story missions. Secondly because of the large amount of characters you can use, it tends to drag down the storytelling aspect of the games narrative as well, even if its an improvement overall, it definitely could've been a lot better, which you can clearly tell by the quality seen here.. but it falls short just a tad. I'm pretty sure its those dang kids in Nick Arcade's fault, they cant do anything right. Wait... I hate them too? what the heck?
''FLY MY PRETTIES, FLY''
OVERALL:
At the end of the day, Dynasty Warriors Origins ends up being such a fun time and one of the better experiences in the Dynasty Warriors series in the last few mainline entries. Is it perfect? nope, as stated earlier, the underwhelming navigation hurting missions definitely sucks and the not quite up to snuff storytelling doesnt meet expectations either... but with its addictive and varied combat, multiple different weapons to use to learn and master, progression system that allows you to play the way you want to with specific upgrade abilities, parry and counter attack techniques and large scale epic battles, definitely makes this a must have for any Musou fans or Dynasty Warrior fans in general. So with all that having been said, my verdict is clear, GameNChick says BUY NOW
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