Really wanted to like this game, so many good element abouts it.

The flow and events in the battle is definitely better than the older games I've played in the series (2-6). The main issue for me is I was expecting a purely DW combat type game and unfortunately there are a lot "Dark Soul aspects" where you need to dodge and parry often and effectively. If you can't do these things there will be "bosses" that you can't beat and not progress through the story line/game. Otherwise so far the game has been a great experience but if your expecting old-school DW combat you are going to be in for a shock.

Constant stutters and NPCs teleporting to your back almost every time when the stutter ends makes this game utterly unplayable. This was never the case when game launched. The so-called patch addressing the issue didn't fix anything either

Dynasty Warriors is, without a shadow of a doubt, my absolute most beloved series of all time.

Dynasty Warriors 5 was the first (real) video game I ever played as a child on a hand-me-down Playstation 2 and his little collection of games he no longer had any need for. I played it and its spin offs to completion so many times that I had to constantly buy new discs because I would scratch them with how often I would play them.

Needless to say, Dynasty Warriors is a staple of my childhood, kicked off my musou obsession, and will forever hold a special place in my heart. I would go on to play all of them -- every single one of them released in the West -- including the bad ones. I will fight you over 6, and I put at least 2,000+ hours into 9 on console out of some sort of sunk cost fallacy (no, I'm not going to stan it, but I will say the cast has never looked better).

Dynasty Warriors Origins is the reboot of this beloved series of mine, and it had some big, biiiiiiiiiig expectations to meet. I'm going to preorder, play the hell out of, and probably love (to an extent) no matter what Warriors slop KOEI manages to put out, but I knew Origins had to be good. Not just good, it had to be great, or there was a very real chance my favorite video game series was going to be canned, or at least put on hold for a long time (looking at you, Samurai Warriors :c).

It succeeded.

I was skeptical of the one, non-customizable protagonist Ziluan. I was kind of annoyed, actually -- so many characters are looking better than ever, have competent voice acting (Yu Jin is voiced by freaking ELIAS TOUFEXIS! MY FAVORITE VOICE ACTOR?? WHAT?!), and have decently well-done clone movesets, why the heck wouldn't I want to play them for longer than 30 seconds at a time? Yet, Ziluan, despite the fact the dude doesn't even talk (except for in-battle, for some reason lol "I've got you!"), has become a staple, a favorite even, of mine. The variety of movesets makes up for this game's biggest drawback, with so many weapons to choose from, I basically feel like I'm playing a different character each time, even if some of the weapons do look a little goofy on twinky Ziluan. The outfits for base game Ziluan were kind of lacking, but the DLC does fix that (a year later, meh).

The combat in Origins is by far the most engaging and enjoyable in the entire series. Parrying is fun and sensible, dodging is viable and swift, and each weapon having its own gimmick really does lend credence to the fact that KOEI learned from their mistakes in 9. The overland open world is cool, and has a real purpose! Let's hope it's repurposed for an Empires title.

The visuals are nothing short of stunning for Dynasty Warriors, which has never really been at the forefront of graphical fidelity. The 1-vs-1000 style is really emphasized here, with you fighting literally thousands of soldiers at a time, and being able to kick their asses. It's a far cry from the days where a couple of archers could slime even the most seasoned musou players, but it has its own charm and this game derives its challenge from other aspects, namely the engaging officer combat.

There's so many little other things I could rave about -- duels, soldier tactics, ZHUHE (I love her), but it'd just emphasize what I've already gotten across; I love Dynasty Warriors Origins.

Of course, I can't just love everything about the game. It has its drawbacks, and I will complain about those.

Why the heck can't I customize Ziluan? It's not like he's a real character, and it seems like at one point they were considering allowing this, if not at least allowing us to choose between him or Zhuhe. It took a year for them to allow us to play her without mods (more on that in my Visions review). If we weren't going to be able to play the available musou characters (a limited cast, mind you, even cutting some characters that were actually around in the time before Red Cliffs), then at least let us customize Ziluan the one character we do play. I don't think it's a big ask.

The altered fates (aka this game's version of "hypothetical scenarios" found in most of the other games in the series) kind of suck. I don't mean like they aren't enjoyable to play, I mean the stories kind of just aren't really all that engaging for fans of ROTK/DW storytelling. Like.. two of the three factions you play already won Chi Bi, so.. history isn't really changing except for the fact a couple of officers survive to fight in it I guess (if I have to live through another scenario where Sun Jian/Sun Ce give up the reins of leadership to Sun Quan despite being ALIVE AND WELL ONE MORE TIME I'M GONNA CRY. Get a new idea KOEI!). Only Wei's is really different, and not by that much. The pay off for the challenge of completing these altered fates isn't really worth it.

I don't mind the 'everybody wants to sleep with stupid sexy Ziluan' effect in the translation (I guess that's the explanation) but like none of the interpersonal character conversations are really anything but, you know, 'I really really really like you Ziluan you're so cool.' There's a few interesting character moments, but none of it really matters it and let's be honest, you got these cutscenes because you did the challenges for more upgrade points.

I'm not grinding region peace. It just kinda seems pointless. I don't play warriors games for countless battles against like 30 peons and a Wise Yellow Turbans General who is trying to kill Peasants.

None of these things truly detract from my overall experience with Dynasty Warriors Origins, though -- the game is phenomenal, and if you're a long time fan of Dynasty Warriors like I am, then you probably aren't even reading this review and have already gone out and played it. If you're an interested party, then yes, this is one of the better ones to start with! But also, you should play DW5. Like, go emulate it or something after you've finished this one. It's peak, and has Sima Yi in it. Actually, just play any of the ones with Sima Yi in it, which is basically all of them. Just play all of them.