Dynasty Warriors: Origins takes place across five chapters. There’s technically a short prologue chapter too, but it’s only a single tutorial battle to get your feet wet with the combat. Every chapter is roughly equal in terms of length, though you may wind up spending the most time in Chapter Three for reasons I’ll explain below.

Dynasty Warriors: Origins may not have the huge amount of movesets that the previous games in the franchise did, but the nine weapons it does have are all incredibly fun and have a lot of depth. Not only does each weapon have fun combos and a unique gimmick, but each one also has several unique battle arts to cause pure chaos on the battlefield.

DYNASTY Warriors is best known for starting its own genre, and now there are dozens of musou games for almost every popular IP. While the original series made a misstep with Dynasty Warriors 9

Origins is a refreshing soft reboot that gets back to basics while still finding a lot of room to make several appreciated improvements.

In Dynasty Warriors Origins, the Battle of Niuzhu is a pivotal clash in Chapter 4, where Sun Ce begins his ambitious conquest of Jiangdong.

Origins evolves the long-running series, meshing its hack-and-slash core with an action-oriented slant that enhances its extravagant warfare.

A PC copy of Dynasty Warriors: Origins was provided by the publisher for this review. Dynasty Warriors: Origins releases on PC via Steam, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S on January 17th, 2025.

Origins is a classic Musou game through and through, featuring high-energy rock music, and legions of grunts to cut down as easily as blades of grass. That said, Origins is far from a by-the-books Dynasty Warriors game.

T he Musou combat of the Dynasty Warriors games has long since evolved from simply mashing the square and triangle buttons with the occasional tap of the circle. Starting in Warri