PROS:

An evolution of gameplay that was asked for many years.

2. new and interesting choice of varieties of combos, each weapon has its own unique fighting style.

3. An unique story mode, perfect for veterans and newcomers of the series.

4. Character design has been renewed, giving characters different personalities, while maintaining their historical goals.

5. Despite the original music composer having left the company, the soundtracks are still very good, with remixes of the old ones that will make the veterans shed tears of nostalgia and newcomers appreciate it.

6. Enemy officers don’t look like ants in front of you, their shape increases depending on how difficult they are to take on, the series had a drastic difficulty change starting from DW7, making it way too easy and boring, the ps2 titles had what it takes for a good challenge and Origins, finally brings that back, making the game being true to its title.

7. The voice acting has been made good again, DW9 had an huge fiasco due to the very poor english voice casting, but now you can relax and be stress free, many professional voice actors joined the cast of Origins, making the game more enjoyable, so you can avoid fighting and reading texts at the same time and not being forced to put voices in Japanese, although the original japanese voice cast is more than worth to listen to if you can focus properly. Although the new English voices are good, I can’t help but miss the old cast and their iconic lines, which are kinda different hearing them from new voices. I have also noticed they struggle to pronounces names, when they do you can clearly tell even if you don’t pay attention, since they slow down quite a bit when they do, this is to make sure they pronounce it correctly, it’s understandable I guess, not everybody can have deep knowledge about chinese pronunciation.

8. Some npc officers don’t feel anymore generic and forgettable, they do actually interact in the story and have important dialogues, it’s hard to believe it, and you forget that they are npcs and not playable officers, due to some of them having deep connection into the story. This is something that no other DW has ever done before, it’s really crazy to think about, now I won’t spoil you which npc is important to the story, but trust me you won't be disappointed.

9. The Battlefield feels more immersive, it gives you the feeling that you are really in the Three Kingdom Era, a feeling that previous DW games tried to achieve, but did not get anywhere until now.

10. To make things more challenging and interesting, the game features boss fights, who will fight you with unique moves and will require you to use more of your brain instead of your fingers, something that the previous titles could have easily added, both DW and SW could have been more intense and fun with this feature, for example when you fight Oda Nobunaga during the incident at Honnoji in SW4, it doesn’t exactly add much except for you being locked in the fiery temple and Nobunaga healing once… yea that does not exactly add much and you can easily bring him down, but Origins totally change things and will make sure you’ll have a fun and challenging experience during these boss fights.

10. Leveling up it’s kinda different here, you are required to increase your weapons proficiency, each time you level it up with any weapon, you will automatically level up your stats, this system seems to have been made in a way to make you play as every weapon in the game and give you an experience full of variety during Story mode. There are a total of 6 skill panel upgrades to boost your stat or learn new arts for your weapons. This system will surely keep you occupied, DW surely didn’t lose its grindy spirit.

12. Battles are not fought like we used to, enemy AI is very engaging, making officers put up a lot of resistance with a super armor that you’ll need to break multiple times in order to defeat them.

You will have to cooperate with your allies in order to win, supporting them in their fight is essential to achieve victory, helping them will increase their morale and sometimes join you in chain-attacks, so unlike the older titles, you are going to share sweat and pain alongside them, if you want to complete the stage.

It has been a very long time since Dynasty Warriors was considered a hard game, and finally after so long it is once again! Origins is really challenging, making you think twice before you smash those buttons without a brain, your allies will play a major role in battle, let them die and you will be punished heavily by making the battle more difficult and eventually lose.

To me Dynasty Warriors 6 was the last hard title of the series, despite what everyone might think about 6, you cannot deny that the difficulty was still challenging.

Somehow I can’t help but think that Dynasty Warriors 6 tried to achieve what Origins did, however the game was heavily rushed and it cut so many contents only for the sake of being released for PS3 as early as possible, since the console was just released.

I’m not sure how long they've been working on Origins, but they surely have brought the series to be recognised and got out of the mediocre circle that the series long suffered into.

13. You can’t spell Dynasty Warriors without ‘’Don’t pursue Lu Bu’’. This time he is no joke, Origins brings Lu Bu to his full potential, giving you a big scare when he ends up approaching you. For those who played the demo, might know what I mean, however this is by far the strongest version of Lu Bu that you’ll ever see, he is so strong that it might even compare to his Wo Long Fallen Dynasty counterpart.
I’m not saying that other DW games had a weak Lu Bu, in fact I still have nightmares of some fights against him, like in DW3, where he is considered one of the strongest to this day. Hell even in spin off games like Strikeforce he is a big of a challenge, but Origins truly surpasses them all.

14. Besides the usual hack n slash combat, this time you are able to gather your own personal unit, to make them launch different types of stratagems, such as charging with their spears or launch a rain of arrows, this is something you don't get in your usual Dynasty Warriors and I think it works perfectly for this one, since this feature seems something more appropriate for an Empires or a Kessen game, if anyone even remember what are those.






CONS:

Other characters can only be playable temporarily in selective stages. What’s worse is in order to ‘’play’’ as them you’ll have to fill an huge chunk of Rage bar, which can take you a bit and by the time, the stage already ended or you are close to beat it and let’s not forget that when the rage ran out you will swap back to the wanderer, this makes things very insulting to the player, since Dynasty Warriors has always been about playing with your favourite character, and the fact that Origins toys with you about it, it’s really sad and pathetic.

The self insert protagonist is totally unnecessary, since his background story can easily be filled by a customised character, this is a very poor choice, since the game heavily promotes bonding with famous officers, this rpg aspect serves far better for your own OC, therefore I find the Wanderer very invasive, annoying and forced. by not adding the option of creating your own character, this game loses a big chunk of points.

Many characters’s iconic weapons have been changed to something more ‘’generic’’.

Exploration is very limited, although the walkable map is nice, it would have been fun a tiny bit of free roaming (example DW7) especially inside the inn and visiting towns.

This is just the best Dinasty Warriors experience you can have

Simply lovely

Dynasty Warriors Origins revitalizes the beloved hack-and-slash franchise with a deeper focus on storytelling and refined gameplay mechanics. This is a huge leap in quality for Omega Force and I can't wait to see what's next. To summarize my thoughts on the game in Pros vs Cons format: and a stellar PC version. While it shines in presentation and gameplay, the lack of full character control and repetitive missions may hinder long-term enjoyment.

Pros:
+ A stronger emphasis on story and character development, adding depth to the series.
+ An improved combat system with satisfying combos and new mechanics.
+ Stunning visuals and polished character designs -characters like Zhang Jiao and Dong Zhuo look badass!-.
+ Excellent PC optimization with smooth performance and customization options. Official Ultrawide support!!
+ Dynamic battlefield events.
+ Actual boss battles.
+ Incredible music as always! That DW4 Eve remix hit the right spot..

Cons:
- Gameplay and objective variety can feel repetitive over time.
- Limited control over the diverse roster of characters. I came into this game with an open mind regarding controlling a single character -with other characters being playable on short bursts-. The vanilla main character is boring and I hope future titles revert this change.
- Ally officers are still too fragile, often being defeated far too easily. This has been a recurring issue and remains disappointing.
- The bond system could be a lot better.

8/10, highly recommended.