Gameplay-wise, this is certainly one of the best, most refined, most satisfying Musou games out there. But story and character-wise, it's a mixed bag compared to previous Dynasty Warriors entries. We're all here for the gameplay, which is top-notch and I adore it, but the latter is still worth considering and will be the focus of this review.

Dynasty Warriors is, of course, a loose adaptation of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms novel, which itself is a dramatization of real-world history. While Dynasty Warriors does make wildly inaccurate depictions of individual characters by turning them into exaggerated anime tropes, like Zhang He being comically flamboyant and obsessed with perfection/beauty in previous games, Origins made the decision to ground many of these characters' personalities. Zhang He is a normal guy now.
Calling them 'grounded' is rather generous though, the more accurate word is probably 'flat'. This is a byproduct of my biggest criticism towards Origins, the main protagonist, who I will be referring to as Ziluan.

Dynasty Warriors typically doesn't have a singular main protagonist due to the nature of Romance of the Three Kingdoms spanning over a hundred years and containing the perspectives of multiple factions (though Shu is definitely portrayed as *the* good guys). That means there were dozens upon dozens of playable characters in previous DW games. Origins changes this, containing only a single playable character whom you experience the entire narrative from the perspective of. Problem is, he's a silent avatar character. And I don't mind non-historical additions, I love the hypothetical story lines across the series (which I'll mention later), but Ziluan doesn't add anything of significance. Being a silent avatar, he has no personality. And being meant as a self-insert (despite not being at all customizable), he's also a Gary Stu that makes all other characters, even his *enemies*, constantly bow down and kiss his feet when he so much as breathes near them.

The more in-depth bond conversations that Origins added are great conceptually for expanding on characters that were previously surface-level tropes, but in practice, they all, and I do mean *ALL* with no exaggeration, devolve to said character confessing how obsessed they are with the perfect, awe-inspiring Ziluan. This includes some characters you are currently in conflict with. And every time Ziluan and an enemy officer meet on the battlefield, they always talk about how tragic it is for them to have to battle such a beloved, totally platonic friend. Keep in mind Ziluan only speaks in the occasional one-sentence dialogue option that has a very poor illusion of choice. And one of the biggest character changes caused by Ziluan is with the famous Lu Bu, who no longer cares at all about Diaochan because *both* of them are now infatuated with Ziluan.

At the very least, the bond conversations Ziluan has with both men and women have an equal amount of romantic tension, so the bisexuals stay winning.

Ziluan also has his own story line that interrupts the main Three Kingdoms narrative and barely changes between routes because, like many silent avatars, he has amnesia and has to rediscover his purpose and choose whether he should go back on the path fate has decided for him, or if he should be his own man who makes his own decisions as a free spirit (he'll still be the lapdog of whatever faction you choose to make him serve). It's not that interesting, and one of the new characters introduced for this storyline, Bailuan, is my new least favorite DW character and I hate him every time he's on screen. When he shows up, it's either as a cryptic sign board or a whiny edgelord. But I have to give him credit for being the only Ziluan hater in the entire game. There's also a character who almost exclusively appears in flashbacks that is a literal gender-swapped Ziluan who seemed like a shoe-in for a gender option for Ziluan. This may be shocking for some of you to hear, but women exist. They (or anyone else) might prefer to play as a woman in their games, and this game denies that for some bizarre reason. You could swap the genders of the two and nothing about the story changes, I don't know why they didn't have that option.

Anyway, how's the main story? It's actually better than the older DW games, or what's there is. It only goes up to the Battle of Chibi, but it goes *way* more in-depth overall. The Yellow Turban Rebellion is a whole arc, with Zhang Jiao actually being a sort of a tragic, misguided antagonist instead of a crazy hippie. And they made him hot. Dong Zhuo is also less comedically evil. I mean, he's absolutely still evil and deserves no sympathy, but this time he has an aura of authority and charisma so it's a more intimidating, believable kind of evil than a Saturday morning cartoon kind of evil. The battle against Lu Bu is also insane, he went from just another officer with amped stats and Super Armor to an actual, full-on, cinematic boss fight. Dark Souls comparisons are overdone and wildly misused nowadays, but Lu Bu really does feel like a Dark Souls boss (also in part due to the universal addition of parrying and perfect dodges) which just reinforces his reputation as *the* one-man army that makes him the face of this genre. His characterization also maintains the more cool and confident depiction he had in DW9, which does make him scarier than the angry meathead he was in the past.

However, another thing Origins does poorly are the Hypotheticals. Previous games' Hypothetical routes were secret branching story paths. Self-explanatory. Origins Hypotheticals are mere secret endings. No new battles or anything, mostly just an extended ending cutscene. It's a bit of a letdown.

So overall, the gameplay is peak Musou, but my goodness does Ziluan constantly have a domino effect of disappointment on everything else simply by existing. But that's fine, you can skip all the cutscenes and still have a blast even if there's a fraction of playable movesets compared to previous DW games (which, I didn't mention this, but it leads to many preexisting characters losing their iconic weapon types) because those movesets have a lot more depth than any before. Origins also gets extremely difficult on higher difficulties for those of you who thought Musou games are mindless. Large Forces add to the power fantasy since you can pop a true Musou and nuke over 1000 soldiers in one fell swoop, or you don't do that and it becomes a brutal war of attrition. Extremely satisfying either way. The gameplay is just so darn fun, and with it being the most dominant part of the game, it obviously still nets a positive rating. If Ziluan is deleted for the sequel, it could end up being the definitive 'best' game in this entire genre.

The quintessential 'play while listening to a podcast' series. If you're on the fence, wait for a discount. If you've played the various licensed/outside IP Musou games, go for it.

Battles are generally forgiving, but there are still some ridiculous difficulty spikes. Also, certain weapons become useless later on if you don't have the right battle arts. Play for the gameplay.

Got consistently 100fps+ at 1440p.

how the ♥♥♥♥ you beat Lu Bu