Dynasty Warriors: Origins – Visions of Four Heroes review

It’s been a year since the launch of Dynasty Warriors: Origins, the latest entry in the long-running series which also serves as a reboot of sorts, putting players in control of a nameless and customisable protagonist for the first time. And while it’s no doubt a little disappointing that we can’t freely go hands-on with our favourite historical figures, its thrilling battles and action-RPG elements make up for it. Now we have a meaty expansion for the game, too, adding yet more battles to overcome as well as other new features and content.

Visions of Four Heroes offers multiple ‘what if?’ scenarios, allowing players to effectively team up with the main game’s antagonists to see how their futures would have panned out if you gave them your strength. Starting from Chapter 2, you’ll first get to ally yourself with Zhang Jioa if you wish. Then, as you make further progress in the main campaign of Dynasty Warriors: Origins, you’ll also be able to cosy up with Dong Zhuo, Yuan Shao and the mighty Lu Bu.

Each of these new heroes has their own unique story to unravel, with new story scenes and of course plenty of battles. The world map has a new purpose here, too, facilitating new Strategic Battles in which players have numerous turns to move around the map and engage enemy forces in smaller skirmishes to whittle down their numbers before engaging in a final large-scale Decisive Battle. Success in the smaller battles also grants players access to Secret Tactics; special commands which can give you a major advantage if used effectively.

Completing all four of the new stories will likely take players in excess of 20 hours, and along the way you also get the opportunity to team up with the likes of Diao Chan and Zhuhe, the latter being seemingly available in pretty much all battles which is nice. Meanwhile, combat is made yet more exciting by the introduction of two new weapons – the Bow and the Rope Dart – along with new Battle Arts across the board. As ever, you’ll need to unlock these new weapons before you can make use of them, though, and depending on how you play that could take a while.

Are any of these things truly transformational? Not really, but they do enrich a combat system that already has a surprising amount of scale of depth, making the action even more exciting. They also present players with new ways to grow and customise their characters, opening up more opportunities both in the main game and the expansion, though some new elements here such as an additional skill tree don’t affect your main campaign progress.

Visions of Four Heroes is simply more Dynasty Warriors: Origins for the most part, then, though perhaps a little more streamlined. And given that the base game is so much fun, that’s not exactly a bad thing. It’s perhaps a little disappointing that we still don’t get to take control of other characters in a more meaningful fashion, but there’s always the next game for that. For now, if you want to spend more time as the Guardian of Peace and fight alongside some fan-favourites of the Dynasty Warriors series as allies rather than enemies, this will serve you well.