This might come as a surprise, but since the first game’s release in 1997, there have been over 30 Dynasty Warriors games — and that’s not even counting spinoffs like Samurai Warriors. Over the decades, Dynasty Warriors has become one of the most secretly prolific gaming series out there, spreading its influence to other gargantuan franchises like Zelda, Fire Emblem, and Persona.
Dynasty Warriors: Origins promises to be a crucial step in Koei Tecmo’s defining series, but producer Tomohiko Sho doesn’t want to stop there — he already has some big ideas for where future “Warriors” collaborations could go.
“I believe collaboration games will continue to be important for the Warriors series in the future. By collaboration with various attractive IPs, it allows us to take on new challenges and provide entertainment that maximizes the appeal of those IPS,” Sho tells Inverse, “As for franchises to collaborate with, this is my own personal opinion, but I’ve always wanted to do work with Star Wars and Lord of the Rings.”
While collaboration games have all provided unique takes on Warriors, nothing has helped hone the formula like those core Dynasty Warriors games. The series has always struck a fascinating balance between historical depiction and absurd dramatization — as Dynasty Warriors is based on the famous 14th-century historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. This novel chronicles the turbulent events near the end of the Han Dynasty, roughly AD 169-280, when three warring kingdoms of Wei, Wu, and Shu plunged the country into chaos.
After the extremely lackluster release of 2018’s Dynasty Warriors 9 the series was at a crossroads. Dynasty Warriors 9 tried to integrate the series’ trademark massive hack-and-slash battles with an open world, and it sadly just didn’t work very well. The series needed to take a step back and really look at its identity again, and find an answer for the future.
Dynasty Warriors: Origins hopes to be that answer, giving longtime fans something new and providing newcomers the perfect chance to jump in. In doing that, it’s made some utterly massive changes — like focusing on a single playable character, where the last game had 94.
“One of the main reasons is to allow everyone around the world to fully enjoy and understand the charm of the Three Kingdoms. Up until now, having some knowledge of the Three Kingdoms and its characters was somewhat of a prerequisite,” producer Tomohiko Sho tells Inverse, “However, our aim for this game is to show the allure and provide an enjoyable experience of the story and heroes for those who are completely unfamiliar with the Three Kingdoms. ”
That sense of change has permeated every level of Dynasty Warriors: Origins — this is an evolution for the franchise, with Sho it’s “a significant evolution, similar to the transition from Dynasty Warriors 2 to Dynasty Warriors 3,” which at the time in 2001 made the jump from PlayStation 1 to PlayStation 2.
But part of what’s so interesting about that focus on a singular character, is how much tighter the story of Origins will be. The last few Dynasty Warriors games span decades of events and prominent battles, weaving the stories of dozens of characters together. Origins, however, will end at the “Battle of Chibi,” an event that any Dynasty Warriors fan will know by heart.
Chibi is one of the most tremendous battles of the period, where the Shu army and its strategist Zhuge Liang launched a brilliant fire attack on Wei’s navy that changed the course of history. But by comparison, this event happens roughly 25 percent of the way into Dynasty Warriors 8’s story. This means Origins depicts the early Three Kingdoms period in much greater detail.
“By setting the climax at the Battle of Chibi we have created the most intense narrative experience to date,” Sho says, “In the past, the story was told linearly from the viewpoint of certain officers or by each kingdom, but in this game we have carefully depicted the story from its very beginning, and players can experience episodes from the perspective of a non-historical character.”
This means more chances to bond with and flesh out the established characters of Dynasty Warriors, and Sho notes even the chance for story branching and multiple endings — with these branches having much more significant differences than past games.
While all of these changes are likely things that will attract new players, part of the struggle of Dynasty Warriors, as a series, is providing something new for longtime players. These are historical events that nearly every single game is recreating over and over. For example, anyone who’s stuck with the franchise has likely played the Battle of Chibi at least a half-dozen times. Sho notes that having a knowledgeable development team and the high performance of current consoles has allowed the team to achieve large-scale battles without any limitations or reductions, even if it was an immense challenge. But depicting these well-known battles also requires each game to have something crucial that differentiates itself.
“To my knowledge, I don’t think there is any other action game series that is based on the same story and battles, so this is a truly challenging task,” Sho says, “Each time, we have continued to search for different angles, perspectives, and ways to enjoy the Three Kingdoms story, and we have continued to devise ways to add our own interpretations without deviating from the source material. By depicting everything from the perspective of a protagonist who does not belong to any kingdom or force, I believe we’ve created an experience and surprises unlike anything seen before.”
Origins clearly hopes to be a fresh start for Dynasty Warriors, one that looks at the past as much as it does the future. There’s clearly a lot of thought going into what makes a Dynasty Warriors game what it is, and Sho notes the team wanted to “take on the challenge of returning to the roots of the game with a different direction from Dynasty Warriors 9, while reflecting on the appeal of the series.” On top of that, there are other little details sprinkled in for longtime players, like arrangements of songs from across the series, that will “delight” fans.
There’s undoubtedly a lot riding on Dynasty Warriors: Origins, but Sho and the development team already seem confident about the game they’ve created. It’s not often you see such an established franchise take a step back and try to completely redefine its identity. Because of that, Sho notes that Koei Tecmo doesn’t currently have any plans for Xtreme Legends or Empires versions of the game — a tradition that’s been running since Dynasty Warriors 3. But if Origins is successful and well-received, Sho would “like to consider” future developments, including large-scale DLC content.
The other big question now as well, is what the future of Samurai Warriors looks like — an offshoot of Dynasty Warriors that focuses on Japan’s Sengoku period. The sub-series last entry, Samurai Warriors 5, released in 2021 and was an extremely traditional take on the franchise that was moderately well-received. But big changes could be coming there as well.
“The future direction of the Samurai Warriors series will depend on the thoughts of the series producer [Hisashi Koinuma],” Sho says, “But I believe Dynasty Warriors: Origins can serve as a significant turning point or catalyst for the evolution of Samurai Warriors as well.”
