Dynasty Warriors: Origins Visions Of Four Heroes acts as a DLC expansion to Dynasty Warriors: Origins, adding a variety of content, primarily “what-if” takes on certain story events.
This review assumes familiarity with Dynasty Warriors: Origins. If you’ve not yet played it, please check out our detailed review first.
Four New Paths
After buying Dynasty Warriors: Origins Visions Of Four Heroes and reaching the appropriate points in the main game, you unlock four separate DLC chapters which show what could have happened if you took events in a different direction with those who ‘didn’t reach their potential’. As an example, the first DLC chapter shows what happens if you decide to support Zhang Jiao, the leader of the Yellow Turbans. In the main plot, his rebellion fails at the end of chapter 1, and this DLC chapter unlocks after that event at the start of chapter 2.
With this, you have the chance to explore his viewpoint. He was already portrayed as a sympathetic character who has good intentions despite the problems he causes, but this gives the player more of a chance to explore his viewpoint, learn about his struggles, and see him try to make amends by fixing things. These “What-if” scenarios are interesting to experience, both in terms of plot and in getting a chance to explore certain characters further.
Reaching chapters 3 and 5 in the main game unlocks scenarios for the far less sympathetic characters Dong Zhuo, Yuan Shao, and Lu Bu, following the same idea of exploring what happens if you help each of them at a key point for them in the main story and choose to provide support. I did find the Zhang Jiao scenario the most by far interesting, but even seeing Lu Bu act arrogantly and decide to fight all the strong opponents he can is still a good time, even if it’s not particularly thoughtful. Nothing changes too much though. Yuan Shao is still a little too obsessed with being from a noble family, and Dong Zhuo is still a self-described beast, so while it’s more of an insight into the characters and their factions, new revelations are quite limited.
The scenarios take about 15 hours in total to complete if you don’t rush through, so there is a lot of content here compared to many DLCs, though it is somewhat pricey even considering that. It also felt unevenly distributed between chapters, both in the amount of content and in how good the stories were.
More to Unlock?
The DLC brings with it a number of new unlocks, including two new weapons, the bow and rope dart. I can’t say that I was a huge fan of either, and while additional variety is welcome, with ten existing weapons, I only really ended up using them for challenges. It particularly didn’t help that the rope dart unlocks very late on in the Lu Bu scenario, which itself unlocks in the final chapter of the main game. As well as weapons, there are also a number of costumes to unlock. These unlocks carry over to the main game.
The new Dream Skill Panel is unlocked too, which uses Visionary Skill Points that you can only gain in the Visions Of Four Heroes DLC. The skills earned on this DLC-specific skill tree are only active when playing the DLC scenarios. Similarly to the main game, you unlock the DLC-specific skill points by completing objectives unlocked here by talking to other characters. The objectives themselves can be completed in either mode after they’re unlocked, which is helpful for progression.
You can also find some training missions. These unlock weapons and accessories, though most of what you will find isn’t specific to the DLC. Still, it’s an easy way to earn some weapons, and the challenges themselves are relatively fun. Fighting ten officers in a row was something I enjoyed.
While not a DLC-specific unlock itself, you’ll be reaching higher ranks as you play through the DLC and unlock more main game skills. If you play through as chapters become available, this can lead to overlevelling for the main game. The DLC content adjusts its difficulty based on your rank, so you may wish to turn the difficulty up when playing the main story to compensate or play the DLC chapters later on. If nothing else, the chance to rank up some more will help you unlock the main game’s ultimate weapons.
Strategic Battle View
It is worth mentioning that there’s a new feature where you can choose which battles you fight on a map. Multiple armies face each other, and you can decide which to jump in and help out. Depending on which you choose, you can earn different rewards, which can help you either in this strategic overview by giving you options to grind down the enemy army numbers or in battle by calling for special support moves.
It’s a nice enough feature, but nothing worth too much praise. Again, it helps to mix things up a little and make the DLC feel different.
Verdict
Dynasty Warriors: Origins Visions Of Four Heroes is a nice addition to the main game, but it has its highs and lows. The highs, such as Zhang Jiao’s story, a few additional moments in other scenarios, and just being more of the already excellent Dynasty Warriors: Origins make this package hard not to recommend. But the price is somewhat high, and some of the new additions aren’t really the highlights I would’ve hoped for.
DYNASTY WARRIORS: ORIGINS VISIONS OF FOUR HEROES IS RECOMMENDED
Dynasty Warriors: Origins: Click Here for the Review
If you are looking for another Warriors game of a different style, take a look at Warriors: Abyss.
Many thanks go to Koei Tecmo for a PlayStation 5 review code for Dynasty Warriors: Origins Visions of Four Heroes.
A gamer since the days of Amstrad and DOS and someone who has dabbled in a variety of professions. He enjoys a wide variety of genres, but has been focusing on visual novels and virtual reality in recent years. Head Editor of NookGaming. Follow him and the website on @NookSite.
