Dynasty Warriors: Origins Visions of Four Heroes and Switch 2 impressions

Despite my issues with Dynasty Warriors: Origins‘s writing and how it handled its original main character, I found it to be an enjoyable return to form. When Visions of Four Heroes was announced, it promised to expand upon a solid base further by adding in even more weapons and a series of “what-if” scenarios. And even though that might be what we got, I don’t think there’s enough here to justify Visions of Four Heroes‘s asking price.

Visions of Four Heroes is More Dynasty Warriors: Origins Visions

The meat of Dynasty Warriors: Origins Visions of Four Heroes is the set of new missions, all themed around the titular “heroes”. As Ziluan drifts off at the inn, he dreams of potential paths that could have taken place in another time. This takes the form of four campaigns following characters from the main game – Zhang Jiao, Dong Zhuo, Yuan Shao, and Lu Bu.

Each new campaign is chosen separately from the main story, and you’re forced into choosing Zhang Jiao first. After that, you’re free to choose any order for the other three, assuming you’ve progressed to specific chapters in the main game.

Unlike the base story, each campaign in Visions of Four Heroes is far shorter. You only get a handful of important fights, with the rest comprised of so-called Strategic Battles (more on those in a minute.) I’d say that even if you play through all of the new content, it wont match up to a single route in the base game.

Each additional campaign is written in a similar fashion to standard Origins, as the protagonist essentially shifts the tide of each battle. Characters fawn over their martial prowess, though you’re thankfully spared things like the bonding cutscenes. If you didn’t like the story beforehand then this wont change much, but it does at least give you slightly more time with characters that didn’t show up as much previously.

Each large battle is still the strongest part of the DLC, as you rush across the map to take out specific targets or enemy camps. You gain access to a few new weapons to spice things up in the form of the bow and rope dart. I was able to try out the bow early in the DLC, with it being a unique addition to the roster. Its main gimmick is that you can actually attack at range (something quite rare in Origins and Dynasty Warriors as a whole), building up charges that can be spent on powering up heavy attacks.

On the other hand, I wasn’t able to get a proper look at the rope dart until after I had already ran through most of the DLC. I got to try it out a little during sections where I could select Diaochan as a partner, and it seemed more plain when compared to the bow. Still, new weapons are more than welcome, on top of the increased level cap for each that carries over to the base game.

Otherwise, the only real new mechanic is the aforementioned Strategic Battles. Armies fight on the map, and you can choose which ones to take on. Defeating specific armies gives you passive buffs and stratagems that can be activated in future fights. Most are simply AoE buffs or attacks, and I never really cared which ones I got first.

Strategic Battles feel like a beta take on a potential new Dynasty Warriors Empires entry, rather than a fully fleshed out mechanic. They’re essentially just a collection of side missions from the main game gathered together, with little in the way of actual strategy.

Yet, even with some easy to ignore flaws, Dynasty Warriors: Origins Visions of Four Heroes‘s actual problem is its price. At £28.99 it’s nearly half of the (already relatively expensive) base game, while not offering that much more overall. For that price, I would have liked to see enough to match up with at least one of the main story paths.

If you’re okay with the asking cost and want more Dynasty Warriors: Origins, Visions of Four Heroes might be worth it. Otherwise I’d say you’re better off waiting for sales later down the line.

Dynasty Warriors: Origins is Solid on Switch 2

Alongside the release of Visions of Four Heroes is the Switch 2 version of Dynasty Warriors: Origins. The franchise has always felt right at home on the Switch, mostly due to the many licenced Nintendo Warriors games that have released over the last few generations, and Origins is no exception.

As you’d expect with a game initially targeting the PS5 / Xbox Series generation of consoles, there are a few graphical tweaks that have been made to this version. Resolutions are lower, and you’re never going to get a fully consistent framerate even if you lock it to 60FPS. I mostly stuck to playing handheld, and while framerates are clearly all over the place (and especially bad on the world map for some reason), it never looked too bad due to the smaller screen.

The same can be said for visual quality in general. While you’ll notice a drop in texture quality and distant objects, it still looks great during large battles. I’d say the only real problem I had (outside of some much larger drops during later battles) is the tiny font. It’s something that carries over from the other versions of Origins, and something I would have liked to see tweaked for handheld play.

Otherwise, this is likely about as good as you can get for a handheld version of Dynasty Warriors: Origins, or at least comparable to playing the PC port on some higher end handheld PCs.

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A copy of Visions of Four Heroes for PC and Dynasty Warriors: Origins on Switch 2 were provided for this review by the publisher.

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