Dynasty Warriors: Origins’ free demo is already winning me over

I’m all in on checking out Dynasty Warriors: Origins when it launches in January after having a fantastic time with its newly released demo.

Koei Tecmo’s Dynasty Warriors series is one of gaming’s definitive action franchises. Its style of gameplay, known as Musou, centers around players acting as a powerful force on a battlefield. Players constantly use massive attacks and abilities to kill hundreds or thousands of enemies that can barely leave a scratch on them. The Musou’s maximalist approach to combat is quite endearing, and as a result, it has spawned tons of games.

Outside of the nine previous mainline Dynasty Warriors titles, there are spinoff franchises like Samurai Warriors and Warriors Orochi in addition to licensed Musou games for everything from The Legend of Zelda to Persona to One Piece. I particularly enjoy the Nintendo-published Hyrule Warriors and Fire Emblem Warriors games, but I have only occasionally dabbled in the mainline Dynasty Warriors games, which are responsible for moving the series forward. After playing the free demo for Dynasty Warriors: Origins, I’m ready to get my Musou fix right from the source.

A return to the series’ origins

In Dynasty Warriors: Origins, players control a character referred to as “Wanderer” as he commands forces on the battlefield through events and battles from Romance of the Three Kingdoms. This demo specifically features the Battle of Sishui Gate, where the Wanderer works with historical figures like Cao Cao to defeat Dong Zhuo’s forces. Most of the story content feels out-of-context within this short demo, but I’m intrigued to learn more about Japanese history through Dynasty Warriors: Origins.

Once the fighting starts, Origins embraces the Musou formula head-on. Players are dropped right into the thick of battle, with the main goal being to escort Yuan Shao and others to the gate, taking over bases and defeating any powerful general units I encountered along the way. That’s all formulaic as Musou games go, but that’s not a bad thing. Koei Tecmo has clearly mastered its craft at this point, so I still felt at home playing, even though the bulk of my Musou experience is with spinoffs.

Koei Tecmo

If you enjoyed the large-scale battles found in games like Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, you’ll equally like the gameplay here. It’s all turned up to 11 with bigger enemy and hero unit hordes than I’ve ever seen in a Musou game before. Initially, there was simple fun to be had in mashing my way through the Battle Sishui Gate, but before long, I did come to understand the deeper strategies required to do well.

There’s always been a tactical layer under the Musou genre’s maximalist energy, but in the other Musou games I’ve played, I didn’t have to worry as closely about my moment-to-moment strategy. Dynasty Warriors: Origins requires more attention, making it more engaging. Dodging and parrying attacks in the thick of battle is quite important, so I couldn’t just mindlessly button mash when I came upon a more powerful enemy. The demo’s final boss, Lu Bu, was particularly tough to beat if I wasn’t extremely careful with what I was doing.

There are new “Tactics” abilities that allow the Wanderer to command groups of soldiers to do things like rush forward and attack or fire a volley of arrows. This can help in breaking through a thick wall of enemies or deal helpful damage to more powerful enemies. It was also important to keep an eye on my map, and if my allies were winning fights. If they weren’t, I had to rush to their assistance to ensure I didn’t lose. Occasionally, special mid-mission objectives would pop up and require me to rethink my strategy to gain a massive boost or hurt the enemy’s morale.

Koei Tecmo

These systems work harmoniously together to create something that feels familiar as a Musou but still pushes Koei Tecmo action formula forward. While I’ve yet to take the plunge and fully complete a mainline Dynasty Warriors game, the added strategic depth layered underneath Origins’ routinely satisfying action is enough to indicate that this will be the first game of 2025 that I’ll really want to play.

If you want to check out this exhilarating mission, Dynasty Warrior: Origins’ demo is now free across PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. The game launches for those same platforms on January 17, 2025.