Demo Review, YES A DEMO REVIEW! 5 Star game incoming

[Tristam]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2384580/DYNASTY_WARRIORS_ORIGINS/

I tried the demo today. Twice. And I'm fighting the urge to do it a third time. It's. That. Good.

I've played almost every Warriors™ game there is. DW 1-6, several Samurai Warriors, DW: Gundam 1-3, Berserk, One Piece, Hyrule Warriors 1-2, several Empires remakes/DLCs, Strikeforce, and the Samurai Warrior/DW crossover games. 30 some odd years of experience loving this series, and I stand by the statement this game is the best. (Yes, I've only played the demo at the time of writing but I'm standing by this)

What's new? Not much. But what's there is polished and turned up to 11. The series has suffered from recycling the same style and engine since DW 3, and now it finally feels like it's been updated for a new generation. This seriously feels like a PS2 game jumped to the PS5. I'll go over what I remember.

First off, you have your own OC protagonist. From what I've seen, they're mute outside of battle cries. The usual self-insert (Male) Mary Sue you get in games like this. Nothing to write home about. Their weapons and equipment can be changed before battle, and you get the usual Sword/Spear/Chakram/Scimitar options you'd expect from a DW game. Each with their own stats and such. There are orbs that give buffs such as more attack range or defense, and horses with their own bonuses and stats. Lastly, you can bring in up to 4 (2 in the demo) consumable items with you. The 1st are a stack of 5 meatbuns that heal you about 30% of your health, and are replenished with meatbuns you find in the field. They work instantly like the healing in Armored Core, even when you're receiving damage. The other item varies from items that heal you to 100%, max out your Brave Meter (more on that later), and various other things. Lastly, you can choose your Special Moves and Body Guard abilities here. More on those later.

You also choose 1 named character, such as Guan Yu, to accompany you into battle. I'll call this person your Partner. They stay by your side, fight well, and have a few abilities I'll cover.

The demo covered the battle with the Yellow Turbans, with you fighting on the side of the alliance. Voice acting was solid, and while it was a bit weird seeing some characters like Cao Cao looking so young, it would have fit the time. There's a few cutscenes, chief of which Cao Cao has a dialogue with you with branching responses and then introduces you to your Bodyguards. Soldiers who level up with you and help you do MORE combat abilities. Then there's a battle prep screen, and then you're in.

------- Now for what you're all here for-- THE COMBAT!!

I used an XBOX controller and will be referring to its buttons from here on.

LB is block. Blocking at the last second causes a counter-attack and some i-frames.

Left Trigger is "Eagle Eye". The camera zooms out high above your character's head, time slows down, and the world goes black and white. Enemies and allies becomes color coded, and names are prominently displayed above everyone who has one. Even distant entities, allowing you to decide which way to go without opening your map.

While the Eagle Eye is open, you can activate one of the 3 Body Guard abilities. Doing so will show how many Body Guards you have nearby (The Demo allowed up to 21) and the more you have, the better the move would perform. Things like Shooting A Volley of Arrows would give a circular target for you to place, while forming a column and rushing down the enemy would give... well a column. A rectangle to send your troops on their way. It's my understanding that normal footsoldiers will fill in the ranks for any dead Bodyguards, but don't quote me on that. These are all powerful, with large 200+ second cooldowns for a reason.

RB brings up the Skill Wheel. You can assign up to 4 Skills in the loadout screen to use in combat. Some are counters, some dodges or parries, some are single strikes, combos, or some combination thereof. The most important are the ones that stop enemy "Red" attacks, serving as a sorta combo-breaker/hard parry move that leaves the enemy reeling.

To activate the Skills, you need to tap into the Brave Meter. Which is effectively a second Musou Gauge that fills up as you damage enemies, albeit at a much faster rate.

Right Trigger is Evade. It's a dodge, Bayonetta Style. You flip with i-frames, and if you do it at the last second it's a perfect dodge. Idk what benefit that gives, but damn does it feel good. You can spam this and I see no consequence for doing so, but I could be missing something?

X and Y are both standard and charge attack, and they're no different than how they've been these last 30 years. There are some new moves for Y though: things like using it while blocking or after dodging will give different effects based on which weapon you have, but the controls are still as simple as ever.

A is still jump, nothing fancy there.

B is Musou. You know it, you love it. The gimmick is that now your Musou bar is sectioned into 2 parts: the first 1/3rd and the rest. Using Musou only takes 1/3rd, no matter how full your bar is. But if you max it out first, you can hit L3 + R3 in order to go into a rage. Making your attacks hit harder, and further, and your Skills drain your Musou Meter (faster, not completely) rather than your Brave Meter. You also get a True Musou attack by hitting B again before the end.

There are still Team Musous which are done either with your Partner or nearby allies. Speaking of, holding Select while your partner's Musou meter is full allows you to take control of them temporarily and wreck havok.

L3 calls a horse and mounts it. Horses have endurance you use to Dash with the RB. You go hella fast and trample anything in your path. X swings normally, Y launches you off the horse for a heavy attack, and B causes you to cheer which restores the horses stamina faster. A just causes you to hop off. It's all simple but it works.

R3 locks onto an enemy.

Up on the Dpad heals, Down zooms the map in, and Left/Right scrolls between items.

The enemy generals now have a Poise Meter. You damage them enough and they sit there, waiting to be slapped around. Hit 'Y' while they're weak and you'll enter a satisfying cutscene where you combo them into oblivion called an "Assault". Finish them with it and you'll get a different cutscene. There are several for each scenario and each weapon.

-------- Presentation and Polish

So I say all that to say the game has stepped up. You can now clearly see on your map where major fights are breaking out as they're all labeled with the Alphabet. Then, at the top of your screen are those same letters. Color coded to let you know who is winning with a mini-bar underneath to tell you how badly. When someone calls for help, the letter representing their battle is shown next to their name. I didn't have to open my map once while playing. No more stopping to scan who is where, or what's going on. Even when my commander is in danger, the call for help comes with a slow-time effect and bold letter in the middle of your screen, whereas most messages are small and to the side. The game REALLY has learned when to prioritize certain messages.

Above all that, I felt more involved. Because not only is the game streamlined in the best ways, but you're meant to catch the best parts. For example: the random pots are gone as far as I can tell. Now certain bases have a corner where several pots are stored. You just go in there and break open 5 at once to stock up on meat buns-- and I DO mean stock up. Remember, you can hold 5 at a time.

Later in the mission, (if the appropriate people are alive) you're welcome to help lead a final charge on the enemy stronghold. The sight and sound of you and your army's horses riding side-by-side reminds me of Gandalf at the end of The Two Towers.™ It was epic, and adrenaline pumping.

The game has duels. Though now, your health bar is frozen so it's just skill based. A tug-of-war-esque bar appears at the top of the screen, and a 50 second timer starts. If you win, you kill the enemy general and get a huge bonus of morale and Courage for your army.

Speaking of, Courage is also easily displayed with arrows next to generals names, and drastically changes how well they fight. This changes as schemes go off, or bases go down, and officers are beaten. The usual DW stuff. Just more palpable.

The next thing I want to mention is the 1,000th Kill. When you get it, the game makes a big deal of freezing time, putting the number at the center of the screen, and then slicing it in half. It's all so over the top and cinematic that it reminds me of launching a super in Marvel vs Capcom or something. But it's done right. Slow enough to make it awesome, but quick enough not to interfere with gameplay.

The last thing I can think to mention are the Grand Schemes. Different plans such as final charges from your enemies, or aggression by your allies. The game not only does a great job of telling you it's happening, but it does an even better job of getting you involved. Allies need protecting and enemies need killing when these things go off. Killing enough enemy soldiers disrupts the plan and swings morale in your favor. Failing costs you morale and Courage.

After ALL that. And after beating the enemy general, you are then ambushed by a not-so-secret boss I'm sure veterans can guess. It's a great fight, showing just how OP enemies can get. The game even traps you within a sorta arena spanning the 3 bases closest to the last spot. Which is why that storage of Meat Buns comes in handy. Both times I played against this boss I went down to the wire, using all 15 buns available to me. But both times, I lost.

The first time.

You see, one of the best new features is the ability to rewatch the game you played at the Game Over screen to see where things went wrong, and then jump back in at various checkpoints. I could have started as early or as late into the match as I wanted, and that's a HUGE relief. Much better than save scumming like in the olden days.

This game wants to get it right and they're really trying with this one. I'd definitely add it to my wishlist if you've ever completed a single Musou game before. Try the demo yourself in the meantime, and tell me if I'm wrong.

TL;DR: The Dynasty Warriors franchise got it's first real overhaul/update since 3 and it's going to be a solid 9/10 game, minimum based on the demo.

[ingueferroque]

Nice writeup~ I don't have as much experience with the franchise but I agree!