The scenario focuses on a “Guardian of Peace” joining up alongside these characters to help fulfill their long-sought dreams. Bows and rope darts are added to the mix as new weapons, and Koei Tecmo promised an “even more evolved form” of the one vs. 1000 battles. Of course, you can also look forward to new Battle Arts and companions.

Visions of Four Heroes will become available from Chapter 2 onwards, and pre-orders can net the Yellow Turban Attire for free. It may not necessarily fix the Musou title’s biggest issues, but the new content looks sharp.

Dynasty Warriors: Origins is currently available for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. Check out our review here.

Dynasty Warriors: Origins is the latest title in the long-running franchise, and offers a new interpretation of the classic Three Kingdoms story based on Chinese history. Throughout the game, players take part in battles in the role of a nameless hero. Along the way, players also make choices, which ultimately end up affecting the overall state of China at large, all while also affecting the massive enemy armies that have to be fought.

The story of Dynasty Warriors: Origins will take players from the Yellow Turban Rebellion all the way up to the end of the series of major conflicts with the Battle of Chibi.

Released back in January, Dynasty Warriors: Origins came out alongside a trailer that showcased some of the post-game features that players can take on after they wrap up the main campaign. These features include the ability to change up the music that plays during epic battles, as well as the ability to reforge Traits and Powers on weapons. Lu Bu was also confirmed as one of the returning characters for the game in the same trailer.

The title saw immense success soon after launch, with the PC version on its own seeing almost 70,000 concurrent players shortly after release. This success had done quite a bit to put the game well ahead of its predecessors Dynasty Warriors 9 and Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires. Eventually, Koei Tecmo would confirm that more than a million copies of Dynasty Warriors: Origins had been sold within its first month of release.

Dynasty Warriors: Origins is also available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. For more details, check out our review, where we gave it a score of 8 out of 10. praising its portrayal of characters and replayability options thanks to pivotal choices in the hands of players.

Koei Tecmo and Omega Force had first announced that they were working on a “large-scale” DLC for Dynasty Warriors: Origins back in August during a celebration of the franchise’s 25th anniversary. Along with the DLC, the publisher had also announced that development had started on a remaster of a classic Dynasty Warriors game.

While there has been no confirmation about exactly which Dynasty Warriors title is getting the remaster treatment, it will likely end up being one of the earlier games in the series starting from Dynasty Warriors 2. The first game is likely not going to get remastered, since it was nothing like what the franchise would eventually become. Rather, it was a 1-on-1 fighting game. Currently, Koei Tecmo is referring to the remaster project as “Dynasty Warriors ?”.

The new 25th anniversary video, which you can check out below, takes us on a tour of the franchise’s history, showcasing gameplay from some of the older titles in the franchise, going all the way back to 2000’s Dynasty Warriors 2, which was the title that made the franchise what it is today. It is worth noting that the original Dynasty Warriors is nothing like the series is today, since it was originally a fighting game before its sequel would come out and solidify the “musou” genre.

Despite these announcements, Koei Tecmo hasn’t yet confirmed which of the classic Dynasty Warriors games is getting the remastered treatment, with even the video simply referring to the project as “Dynasty Warriors ?”. The company has also noted that these announcements only mark the start of its celebration plans, with more special events in the works that will be unveiled through the franchise’s official website as well as its social media channels.

The latest game in the franchise, Dynasty Warriors: Origins, was released back in January. The title was released alongside a trailer that showcased its post-game features, which include the ability to change background music for some of the game’s epic battles, as well as the ability to reforge Traits and Powers on weapons. The trailer also confirmed that Lu Bu has returned in the game, this time around as a companion that can be recruited once certain conditions have been met.

The title had launched to immense success right off the bat, and just a few days after release, it got almost 70,000 concurrent players for the PC version alone. This feat had put Dynasty Warriors: Origins well ahead of its predecessors, Dynasty Warriors 9 and Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires.

Koei Tecmo would go on to confirm the game’s success by revealing that, across PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, more than a million copies of the game had been sold in just short of a month after the game’s release. Interestingly, the company also confirmed that its free demo had been downloaded more than 2 million times as well.

For more details about Dynasty Warriors: Origins, check out our review, where we gave it a score of eight out of 10. We praised the title for how it portrayed its characters as well as the level of replayability it offered thanks to pivotal choices that players can make, while also criticising the lack of customisation options for the new protagonist of the game. Also check out details about some of the updates that the game has gotten since release.

As shared on publisher Koei Tecmo’s official website, Dynasty Warriors: Origins’ newest update, which is live now, adds a photo mode, something that players should get plenty of mileage out of. The company has also released a brief gameplay clip that shows the photo mode and its features in action. Check it out below. 

In addition to the photo mode, the update also adds a new Lion Dragon Armor as an outfit, fixes a Steam Deck-specific issue that would cause visual distortions with FSR3 enabled, and addresses other “minor” bugs. 

Dynasty Warriors: Origins is available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Read our review of the game through here. 

The patch features other notable quality-of-life changes and adjustments, like the ability to configure Rumors on the World Map. They’ll still play automatically, but you can reduce their frequency and even turn off the sound. Frame Skip has also been added to the graphics settings, resulting in smoother performance if turned off with Variable Refresh Rate enabled.

Players can also pause events with the Touchpad and hide the UI elements, allowing for screenshots. Furthermore, enemies will be invulnerable for shorter periods during their Rage animations. Check out the full patch notes below.

Dynasty Warriors: Origins is available for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. Since launching last month, it has sold over one million units and received strong critical acclaim. You can read our review, where we gave it an eight out of ten.

Release Version Update (Ver. 1.0.0.5 on Feb. 21, 2025)

Additional Features and Adjustments

• The Gold Serpent Spear has been added to the game. After obtaining a weapon of the Lance type, a letter will arrive at your current base.
• Solved an issue that caused text rendered at high resolutions to appear less clear than it should.
• Added Rumor Settings to the Configuration menu. These new settings allow you to make the rumors that play automatically when on the World Map occur less frequently or make them play without sound.
• Added Frame Skip to the Graphics Settings menu. Turning it off when using VRR may make graphics smoother.
• Shortened the length of time that enemies are invulnerable during the animations that play out when they enter Rage mode.
• Added a feature that allows events to be paused by pressing the TouchPad button and allows UI elements to be hidden.
• Adjusted controller vibration for the Steam/Xbox Series X|S versions so that when Vibration Settings are set to Full Experience, more areas of the controller vibrate during actions like attacking and charging.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug that caused officers to be highlighted as though the Highlight Officers setting in the Display menu had been set to the default even when the feature was turned off.
• Fixed a bug that was causing the portable item Incense of Vitality to not always heal allies properly when used.
• Fixed a bug that disabled the upgrade boost for the Adamantine Flesh Battle Art (Crescent Blade) after mastering it.
• Fixed a bug that caused the strength of Crescent Blade Battle Art Azure Dragon Bellow to not increase in line with its upgrade level.
• Fixed a bug that caused unintended damage when certain Battle Arts were canceled with Battle Arts with Sp. effects.

If you’ve mapped it to the touchpad while R3/Right Stick is for locking on, you can still use Rage with L3 + R3. Other notable changes include bringing up the restart menu after a defeat while a cutscene is playing. A “Helpful” option is also available for the Highlight Officers settings, improving visibility. Finally, the camera rotation speed maxes out at 199 instead of 99.

Dynasty Warriors: Origins is available worldwide for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC – check out our review here. It’s Koei Tecmo’s second biggest launch on Steam after Team Ninja’s Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, surpassing Dynasty Warriors 9 and Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires by leaps and bounds.

Release Version Update (Ver. 1.0.0.3 on Jan. 20, 2025)

Additional Features and Adjustments

• Added Call Horse Response Time to control settings.
  – Default: Your horse will be called the instant you press the Call Horse button.
  – Hold: Your horse will be called when you hold down the Call Horse button for a certain amount of time.
• Made it possible for the Call Horse function to be set to the touchpad buttons.
• Made adjustments so that when the Call Horse function is set to either the down button or touchpad buttons and lock-on is set to R3, pressing L3 + R3 will still activate Rage.
• Display Settings: Added the Helpful option to the Highlight Officers settings.
• The Helpful option improves visibility for the player on the battlefield.
• Made adjustments so that pressing the confirm button during the cutscene after a defeat will instantly bring up the restart menu.
• Controls Settings: Increased max camera rotation speed from 99 to 199.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed other minor bugs.

Note: Controller buttons have been labeled according to PS5 console standards.

This puts it well above Dynasty Warriors 9 and Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires, which peaked at 3,586 and 3,104 concurrent players. Perhaps more impressive is that it ranks second in peak player counts for Koei Tecmo games on Steam per SteamDB. Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is in first place with 75,906 concurrent players.

Time will tell if Dynasty Warriors: Origins can surpass that, so stay tuned for updates. Check out our review for more details – we gave it an eight out of ten, praising its characterization, weapon variety, and combat. You can also download the demo to try out the gameplay first-hand. Koei Tecmo also has a trailer outlining the post-game features – head here to learn more.

However, perhaps the best feature is recruiting Lu Bu as a companion (though certain conditions must be met). As one of the more famous figures in the Three Kingdoms era, he possesses overwhelming strength with area-of-effect attacks that can wipe out hundreds of soldiers. The overwhelming power is balanced by controlling Lu Bu for a limited time, but he makes it count.

Dynasty Warriors: Origins is playable on Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. Check out our review – we awarded it an eight out of ten for its replay value, weapon variety, combat spectacle, and return to what makes the series great. A free demo is also available to try out.

In the interview, Sho revealed that work on the game started at around the same time as work on Dynasty Warriors 9: Empires was coming to an end. Part of the design decisions made for the upcoming game revolved around bringing the franchise back to its roots with a “back to basics” approach.

Interestingly, the studio also revealed that Dynasty Warriors: Origins was the latest in a number of games that were in development. Oba stated that he worked with Oshima on a new numbered entry in the Dynasty Warriors franchise.

Among other things, the now-cancelled project would have had similar features as Dynasty Warriors 7, including a big roster of playable characters. Some of the ideas from these games made it into Dynasty Warriors: Origins, however, including a more approachable story that still manages to keep its depth, as well as its world map.

“It was a little disappointing to stop development, but it doesn’t mean that the ideas we had at that time were completely wasted,” said Oba, according to a DeepL translation. “For example, the direction of “making people who are not familiar with [Romance of the Three Kingdoms] understand the story” and “delving deeper into the story” were carried over to “ORIGINS,” and the “continental map,” an overall map that the main character can move around freely, was something we had in mind when we were working on the [the working title].”

Dynasty Warriors: Origins was originally announced back in 2024, and has been developed to be the perfect entry point to the franchise and its overarching storyline for new players. The game also got a demo back in November allowing players to get some hands-on experience with its gameplay.

Dynasty Warriors: Origins is coming to PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on January 17. For more details, check out our review. And here is everything you should know about the game.

STORY DETAILS

Adapting Romance of the Three Kingdoms is what Dynasty Warriors has all been about, and that’s what Origins is doing again- though this time, Omega Force is going about it a little differently. Unlike its predecessors, Dynasty Warriors: Origins will only cover the events of about the first half of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, up to the Battle of the Red Cliffs. Speaking to TheGamer, director and series producer Tomohiko Sho said, “We really wanted to be thorough and intense in telling this story; it’s one of the epic points, so we’re only focusing on up until that point.”

PROTAGONIST

Past Dynasty Warriors titles have been known for letting players play as multiple different historical figures, though Origins is doing things a little differently. This time, the game focuses on a single protagonist, who is instead an original character who will serve as the lynchpin for the entire story. As confirmed by Omega Force while speaking with IGN, players can still expect to meet several key historical figures, including the likes of Liu Bei, Zhang Fei, and Lu Bu.

TACTICAL ACTION

With time, the Dynasty Warrior franchise has become more strongly associated with its large-scale battles and action than anything else, though with Origins, Omega Force is trying to go back to the series’ earlier entries, when the focus on tactical action was much more pronounced. Speaking to TheGamer, Sho called it a “back to the basics” experience, explaining, “From the very first game of the current Dynasty Warriors series, Dynasty Warriors 2 onwards, the theme is tactical action, and we really wanted to be able to express that in its fullest. That’s one of the key features of the series, and I think maybe in the past ten years of the Dynasty Warriors series, since Dynasty Warriors 9 and the more recent games, the tactical part was a little bit on the lower side. It was more focused on action.”

HERO MODE

Turning the difficulty down will let you play Dynasty Warriors: Origins as a hack-and-slash experience where you can just turn your brain off and have fun, similar to its predecessors, but if you’re looking for more of that aforementioned tactical edge, you’ll want to look into Hero Mode. Combat will be much more challenging in Hero Mode, with IGN’s preview claiming that even regular enemies can pose a decent threat, and that paying attention to parries and blocks becomes a necessity.

NOT OPEN WORLD

There was a lot wrong with Dynasty Warriors 9, and its open world was very, very high on that list. The perfect example of a trend-chasing decision going wrong after woeful execution, the game was made much worse by its decision to shoehorn in an open world- which, thankfully, is a mistake that Dynasty Warriors: Origins is learning from. Between battles, players will now instead traverse a diorama-esque overworld map, which means we can expect a more concise structure.

TACTICS

Commanding troops is an important part of the Dynasty Warriors loop, and Origins is fleshing that part out in interesting ways. Once again, players will be managing the morale of their troops, which, in turn will let you unleash a variety of different tactics or abilities, from attacking enemies with volleys of arrows to contingents flanking enemies. Managing morale and unleashing the right tactics at the right moments will be key.

GENERALS

As we touched on earlier, you’ll be spending the bulk of Dynasty Warriors: Origins playing as a single protagonist, though the game will still allow you to play as other characters at times. Each mission will see you choosing a companion general to take with you into battle, and for brief windows, you’ll even be able to play as them. Generals will come with their own unique weapons, movesets, and abilities, and will allow you to turn the tide of battle in a variety of ways.

THOUSANDS OF ON-SCREEN ENEMIES

Scale has always been a big part of Dynasty Warriors’ appeal, specifically, the series’ love for pitting players against mind-bogglingly large armies of enemies to mow down. Obviously, Origins isn’t looking to buck that trend. In fact, Omega Force is promising larger-scale battles than ever before, with players facing off against as many as 10,000 on-screen enemies at the same time, courtesy of current-gen consoles’ hardware capabilities.

ENDINGS

Like many of its predecessors, Dynasty Warriors: Origins will feature multiple endings, though we don’t yet have word on exactly how many. Speaking with Noisy Pixel about how the game’s different endings will function, Tomohiko Sho explained, “The branching paths are determined by the battles you choose, not dialogue options. At the end of the third chapter, players decide which kingdom to align with, shaping the story’s direction.”

LENGTH

Dynasty Warriors: Origins isn’t going to be a small game by any means, but it also won’t require hundreds of hours of time investment. Omega Force has confirmed that one playthrough of the game’s main story will take about 20 hours, though of course, those looking to see all the endings will be able to get much more out of the game.

PROGRESSION

Progression mechanics in Dynasty Warriors: Origins won’t deviate from the norm too much. Players will make their way through skill tress to unlock various perks and buffs, while over the course of the story, you will also get access to different weapons and arts, with more of them unlocking as you gain more proficiency. Existing arts will also be upgradable, while mastering different weapon styles and their unique strengths and attributes will also be crucial.

NO CO-OP

Dynasty Warriors games have offered co-op as an option for a long time now, though sadly, the option won’t be returning in Origins. Playing musou action games in the company of another player is one of life’s simplest pleasures, so it’s a shame that the feature has been left on the chopping floor. Whether we can expect it to be added in post-launch remains to be seen, but Omega Force and Koei Tecmo haven’t given any such indication as yet.

DEMO

Those looking to get a taste of Dynasty Warriors: Origins’ offerings before deciding to take the plunge can thankfully do so, courtesy of a demo that’s out right now on all platforms and lets players dive into the Battle of Sishui Gate. Including four usable weapons, a range of customization options, and no time limits, it’s a good way of dipping your toes in the water and get a sense of how the game is shaping up.

PS5 PRO SUPPORT

Omega Force has confirmed that upon launch, Dynasty Warriors: Origins will also feature full support for PS5 Pro, with enhancements also included in the game’s demo, which is available now. Whether we can expect any improvements over the demo’s implementation in the full game is unknown.

PC REQUIREMENTS

For those intending to play Dynasty Warriors: Origins on a PC, thankfully, it doesn’t look like it’s going to be a very demanding game. On minimum settings, you’ll need either an a Ryzen 5 2600, along with either a GeForce GTX 1060 or a Radeon RX 590, and 12 GB of RAM. On recommended settings, meanwhile, you’ll need either a i7-7700K or a Ryzen 7 5700X, alongside either a GeForce RTX 2070 or a Radeon RX 5700 XT, and 16 GB of RAM. 50 GB of storage will also be required.