Review

Me Versus The World

Dynasty Warriors as a franchise is probably best known for the word “Musou”. To most gamers musuo is a genre akin to classic beat’em ups but amped up to eleven. In Japanese musou means to be unmatched, which is the perfect description of how it feels playing Dynasty Warriors. If this is all sounding a little poetic lets get a tad more blunt. The core concept is one versus army battler. A concept so finely appreciated by gamers it has since spun off with other properties like ‘Zelda’ and ‘Berserk’.

I will be looking at the Switch 2 port of Dynasty Warriors: Origins. Ryan, fellow GameHype peer covered Dynasty Warriors: Origins on initial release. His review can be found here!

Dynasty Warriors’ games are based on “The Romance Of The Three Kingdoms”. A Chinese historical novel set at the turbulent end of the Han Dynasty. Dynasty Warriors: Origins takes us back to start to experience it through different eyes. You play as an amnesiac wanderer who was in the right place at the right time. Getting directly involved in historic battles with legendary heroes.

Story wise there is an awful lot going on. There are heaps of characters having many political conversations setting up the battles to come. However I must praise how Dynasty Warriors: Origins approaches its story telling. All of the exposition could have easily been just cutscene after cutscene. While many cutscenes happen a lot of story telling is also told within battle. Plot points and character moments occur on the battleground. I got a lot more from the story at these points as I was more tangibly involved. With the Switch 2’s form factor I don’t really fancy watching long cutscenes when I can be getting into the action.

Speaking of action, the gameplay is sublime. Each and every battle I was eagerly awaiting, to the point I wanted to skip cutscenes. Playing as the wanderer you are pitted against what seem like insurmountable odds. You stood there nervously as a thousand man armies charges in your direction. Then you press the attack button, your blade extending hitting twenty or so warriors at once sending them flying. After a few more attacks and you have carved through over a hundred opposing warriors. Reality kicks in and you become aware the odds aren’t against you in the slightest, you’re basically super-powered.

The wanderer has eight different weapons at his disposal. All of which offer slightly differing way to fling your opponents off the mortal coil. Call me basic but I found myself gravitating towards the basic sword. Using a weapon over time will increase your proficiency, levelling the wanderer up providing access to more combat moves, skill trees or stats. This diet RPG mechanic connects you with the wanderer nicely. That’s probably a good thing as well as your going to be spending a lot of time with him.

The wanderer is kind of the only playable character which is a huge departure from the series. Most musuo games tend to have a huge roster of heroes to play with. While yes most of them are very similar to one another they often had either a fun character quirk or unique super move. Dynasty Warriors: Origins has seemingly abandoned the all star roster. Now during battle the wanderer can take companions with him. During battle they can become temporarily playable to defeat a few hundred enemies. Usually finishing with a devastating move that can change the tide of battle. These brief moments made me yearn for more characters that I could just play as when I wanted to.

The giant battles with multiple objectives to capture runs very well on the Switch 2. Offering both a 30 frames per second cap or a variable rate that aims higher but changes during gameplay intensity. I absolutely love having the options of high frame rates or a stable experience. Flicking between both of these modes I couldn’t even see too much difference in the graphics either. I did find myself playing more in the capped mode as I prefer stability. The choice is most applause worthy. As is the ability to swap between these graphics modes with ease in the pause menu at almost any time.

I throughly enjoyed my time with Dynasty Warriors: Origins on the Switch 2. Graphically it was very pleasing while maintaining performance in intense battles. The game feels right at home while playing handheld but performs well when docked. Picking up and playing the less consequential side missions in spare moments is where I found the most fun. Dynasty Warriors: Origins is a very strong port for the Switch 2. I can’t wait to get back to slaying more enemies while on the go.