Dynasty Warriors Origins Review: A good jumping-on point that won’t convince franchise doubters

Few franchises have been as enduring as Dynasty Warriors while at the same time being written off by large sections of the gaming audience.

The name of the franchise alone casts images of endless battles, mindless hacking and slashing, and so many sequels and off-shoots that it’s virtually impossible to be a completionist. While some of this reputation is unfairly gained, Dynasty Warriors does have an image problem, one that the stripped-back Dynasty Warriors Origins attempts to correct.

This results in a game that feels more focused and one that’s friendly to newcomers, but it fails to overcome previous entries’ hurdles of repetitiveness and a pedestrian narrative.

Unsurprisingly, the game reaches for grand spectacle as its centerpiece. The battles are genuinely massive, and there’s a child-like wonder to see so many soldiers on screen. Feelings of seeing all your action figures lined up before a climactic battle race to mind. This is central to the Dynasty Warriors fantasy and if you’re not killing over 1000 soldiers in the space of twenty minutes, you feel short-changed.

The game also seems to appreciate that just doing that will accelerate the time-to-boredom at a rate of naughts. There are sections where you have to find a magical jar and destroy it in order to clear a mystical fog,  among other distractions.

On PS5 Pro, the game offers an option to prioritize graphics, prioritize framerate, or attempt to render in native 4K. A 30, 60 and 120FPS mode is also offered. The game doesn’t wow graphically, but it runs well at 120, especially considering the overwhelming number of enemies on the screen at any one time.

Largely, gameplay boils down to fighting for territory by killing generals, all of whom are flanked by hundreds of minions. A map will show you which areas of the battle need assistance, and by clearing camps and defeating named generals, your troop’s morale will increase, leading to in-game benefits.

There’s an enjoyable plate-spinning push and pull to many of the large fights, as enemies attack from both flanks, and you occasionally have to give up on taking over a base to aid an ally in a desperate situation.

Raising enough morale will also trigger some in-game moments like your full army sharing against giant enemy forces which are always a pleasant spectacle.

The game rarely deviates from this, but it throws in some variety via the battlefields themselves. Some are in winding networks of caves, others on sprawling fields. The game’s most memorable battle we’re allowed to speak about sees the player desperately try to scale hundreds of steps while a genuinely technically impressive army of enemies rebuffs them.

Periodically during climactic battles, you’ll be able to instigate a duel, which will see the game grind to a halt for a fighting game-style 1vs1 battle. These serve as nice interruptions to the rhythm, but one gets the feeling that Omega Force was aware that they’re rather mechanically threadbare, as they’re used sparingly.

Combat is fun, and the game gives the player plenty of upgrade points in order to try out the full range of the 9 weapon types, but it’s never challenging if you’re paying attention.

Players can also assume the role of legendary heroes that join you in battle. These characters are extremely overpowered and a lot of fun to use. They mostly function as a “press R2 to win,” button, but you get access to them sparingly enough that it doesn’t break the game too dramatically.

“Combat is fun, and the game gives the player plenty of upgrade points in order to try out the full range of the 9 weapon types, but it’s never challenging if you’re paying attention.”

The reasons for killing north of 50,000 soldiers when your time is up with Dynasty Warriors: Origins aren’t the most compelling, but the narrative isn’t dreadful. There’s slightly too much time on characters repeating story beats to each other that we already know, and the voice acting is inconsistent at best, but it wasn’t a massive distraction.

One thing we really liked was the game’s overworld map, which almost feels like the player exploring a large board game in order to pick missions and explore further. There are a few secrets hidden on this overworld map, and the game regularly populates it with side quests between the larger dramatic battles.

Most sidequests fall down somewhat on just being small portions of bigger battles, but the combat remains enjoyable for the length of the game, so we never felt we needed too much of an excuse to hack and slash our evenings away.

There is a lot to enjoy in Dynasty Warriors Origins, but, ultimately, we struggle to see how it will convert players who’ve long written off the franchise. Perhaps it’s better to think of it as a re-introduction to those who’ve simply burned out, rather than be turned off completely. While the game will likely add new fans to the audience, the repetitiveness, although endemic to the genre, may not translate as well in 2025 as it did when the franchise sprung to life.

It’s hard to imagine that Dynasty Warriors Origins will turn anyone who doesn’t like the franchise into a massive fan, but it’s not a killing blow for the stripped-back sequel. If the prospect of taking on the very biggest battles that video games currently have to offer is appealing to you, then you’ll probably get something out of the game.

Dynasty Warriors Origins is very rarely a great game, but it’s never a bad one, it’s a serviceable, well-made effort that runs well and does exactly what franchise loyalists would expect.