Lubu playable?

[First Mate]

Surely with how popular this guy is him and Diaochan would have their own story/path and you can help them right?
Inb4 DLC

[arks]

They should be, making them into paid dlc would diminish the goodwill they have (whatever left of it)

[Chortles]

Officially the only fully playable character is the Wanderer, Lü Bu is not one of the nine Companions (who are a mix of DW5 bodyguards and temporary power ups, not fully playable characters), no player Halberd moveset has been revealed (as opposed to what Lü Bu has as a NPC), and there's no Other story, only a branching narrative where at the roughly halfway point the player will be prompted to side with Cao Cao, Liu Bei, or whichever of the Sun men is in charge at that point.

In practice... here's one paragraph from a preview of the Tokyo Game Show demo, from someone who's previously reviewed/done guides for 3K games; boldfacing is mine:

Those changes didn’t worry me once I understood what the team is going for with Origins. After playing previous Dynasty Warriors titles with anywhere from 60 to 80 playable characters, Origins having significantly fewer fighters feels like less of a restriction and more of a realignment. I did try to guess the roster of playable characters, but Sho noted that the team wouldn’t be able to disclose more info (he also didn’t want to divulge whether Lu Bu would be playable or not).

https://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/dynasty-warriors-origins-preview-tokyo-game-show/

[Sage Pirotess]

Lu Bu is not worth perusing

[First Mate]

Originally posted by Chortles:

Officially the only fully playable character is the Wanderer, Lü Bu is not one of the nine Companions (who are a mix of DW5 bodyguards and temporary power ups, not fully playable characters), no player Halberd moveset has been revealed (as opposed to what Lü Bu has as a NPC), and there's no Other story, only a branching narrative where at the roughly halfway point the player will be prompted to side with Cao Cao, Liu Bei, or whichever of the Sun men is in charge at that point.

In practice... here's one paragraph from a preview of the Tokyo Game Show demo, from someone who's previously reviewed/done guides for 3K games; boldfacing is mine:

Those changes didn’t worry me once I understood what the team is going for with Origins. After playing previous Dynasty Warriors titles with anywhere from 60 to 80 playable characters, Origins having significantly fewer fighters feels like less of a restriction and more of a realignment. I did try to guess the roster of playable characters, but Sho noted that the team wouldn’t be able to disclose more info (he also didn’t want to divulge whether Lu Bu would be playable or not).

https://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/dynasty-warriors-origins-preview-tokyo-game-show/

So they did not give a flat out no and can't disclose more info, which means they are hiding he is playable on release (which I hope so given his popularity) or his route is going to be DLC post launch..
I guess there is a worst case where we are actually only limited to 9 characters at least in story mode, which would be a massive let down.

[kdsgpz]

No

[First Mate]

Originally posted by kdsgpz:

No

It seems nothing is confirmed either way, they have only confirmed 9 characters because that is what is shown in their demo. Guess more news will be released soon or we find out on release sadly.

[Chortles]

Incorrect; the demo has only three of the nine Companions, and when the producer was directly asked at TGS how many characters will return as Unique NPCs (a standing practice of Omega Force since the first Samurai Warriors*) and definitively answering thirty-eight, for a total of forty-seven returning characters in all. This is contradicted by the producer not explicitly ruling out a playable Lü Bu.

* Before Azai Nagamasa and Tokugawa Ieyasu became playable in SW2, both of them had unique models and toted spears.

[White Rabbit Alice]

is a free mode planned, with all these other characters hopefully?

[Legendary Mr. Tiddles]

Originally posted by White Rabbit Alice:

is a free mode planned, with all these other characters hopefully?

If whatever main story mode is regular length for this series, there for sure must be free mode, or you could be done 100% within a few hours. I'm expecting free mode bare minimum, and/or a bunch of other ways to play, otherwise everyone here and at KOEI is just wasting their time.

Companions being playable full-time in a side mode just makes sense. They have movesets, might as well put them to use.

[WorldWhisper IV]

Back to Hu Lao Gate we go then

[Nerdkartoffl]

Originally posted by First Mate:

So they did not give a flat out no and can't disclose more info, which means they are hiding he is playable on release (which I hope so given his popularity) or his route is going to be DLC post launch..
I guess there is a worst case where we are actually only limited to 9 characters at least in story mode, which would be a massive let down.

Mind sharing that copium? ^^

When was the last time, they (or for that matter, any big studio) did anything for their fans, besides the outliners? (rethoric question!)
Most companies have the mentality of "minimal effort, maximal profit".

They will DLC the ♥♥♥♥ out of this game. At least, if i go by SAMURAI WARRIORS 5, ONE PIECE: PIRATE WARRIORS 4 (other publisher but yeah), Fate/Samurai Remnant and WARRIORS OROCHI 4

I honestly hope, i'm wrong on this! But the last few years have not shown a good development.

[First Mate]

Originally posted by Nerdkartoffl:

Originally posted by First Mate:

So they did not give a flat out no and can't disclose more info, which means they are hiding he is playable on release (which I hope so given his popularity) or his route is going to be DLC post launch..
I guess there is a worst case where we are actually only limited to 9 characters at least in story mode, which would be a massive let down.

Mind sharing that copium? ^^

When was the last time, they (or for that matter, any big studio) did anything for their fans, besides the outliners? (rethoric question!)
Most companies have the mentality of "minimal effort, maximal profit".

They will DLC the ♥♥♥♥ out of this game. At least, if i go by SAMURAI WARRIORS 5, ONE PIECE: PIRATE WARRIORS 4 (other publisher but yeah), Fate/Samurai Remnant and WARRIORS OROCHI 4

I honestly hope, i'm wrong on this! But the last few years have not shown a good development.

I was definitely on some copium and I know what Koei are like... I am 99% sure they are gonna milk it and add his story as DLC.

[First Mate]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBOpTZdeYEI&ab_channel=%E3%82%B3%E3%83%BC%E3%82%A8%E3%83%BC%E3%83%86%E3%82%AF%E3%83%A2Channel

Hopium with Diaochan/Lubu route looking at the treasure box icon?

[Legendary Mr. Tiddles]

Originally posted by First Mate:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBOpTZdeYEI&ab_channel=%E3%82%B3%E3%83%BC%E3%82%A8%E3%83%BC%E3%83%86%E3%82%AF%E3%83%A2Channel

Hopium with Diaochan/Lubu route looking at the treasure box icon?

All that action when you're just "running around with your army" looks pretty neat (but it's just running around).

That world map looks to me like a much better idea than the full-scale open (and empty) world of Dynasty 9. Seems clear you will have some form of exploration gameplay.

Lu Bu on marketing material or collectibles is a given if he's in the game at all (and he is). I wouldn't take that as irrefutable evidence that he's playable but I trust that Koei wouldn't be so dumb as to strip all that potential gameplay material. Otherwise your one play mode with your one playable character have better be fleshed out really hardcore (because if you know, you know: it's so much more efficient to have your players play through the same levels more than once with different characters or variables, instead of everything being a one-off. And recycling is ECOLOGICAL! #SaveTheWhales)

[Chortles]

Originally posted by Legendary Mr. Tiddles:

That world map looks to me like a much better idea than the full-scale open (and empty) world of Dynasty 9. Seems clear you will have some form of exploration gameplay.

I find it a good combination in that you still get DW9's 'where are all the places that are referred to' (prior games used cutscenes for this) while retaining both pre-DW9 set-piece battles and DW7-8 pre-battle character interaction, albeit mainly set in the overworld instead of in camp/war council.

Originally posted by Legendary Mr. Tiddles:

(because if you know, you know: it's so much more efficient to have your players play through the same levels more than once with different characters or variables, instead of everything being a one-off.

If the Tokyo Game Show demo is any indication, the first half of the story (before players are prompted to choose one of the Three Kingdoms for the rest of their playthrough) may indeed be one-off battles... having only one fully-playable character also means no need to come up with character/kingdom-specific interactions for their own perspectives, as the demo had players' choice of Companion determine their starting position.

For example, the Japanese version of the PlayStation Blog article on this demo mentioned that it's easier to aid Sun Jian if one picked Sun Shangxiang simply because they started closer to him; choosing Xiahou Dun or going solo put players closer-to-center, while choosing Guan Yu put players even further away from Sun Jian.