Dynasty Warriors: Origins - Switch 2 - Review

Dynasty Warriors: Origins isn’t a new release. In fact we’ve had our review in early 2025 on the game itself. What’s new is it being released on the Nintendo Switch 2. The question is, does it play and translate well onto a handheld device for the better or worse.

For those who aren’t aware, Dynasty Warriors is a franchise or series that has been going for a very long time that tells a fantasized historical story of China’s Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Origins keeps the main narrative of all your heroes such as Liu Bei, Zhang Fe, Guan Yu and more. Those who are familiar with the franchise will know the characters and the Musou gameplay formula. And as mentioned in the previous review, you play a muted protagonist through the loose historical events, opposed to always playing the main heroes of China’s history.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, playing on a handheld isn’t too bad. But before we get into that, one thing to call out is the audio language being only English and Japanese to select from. Especially when the game is loosely based on China’s history of Romance of the Three Kingdoms. You’d think Mandarin would be an available language being that the narrative is set in Ancient China. Or at least that would’ve been a nice option to have.

And much like any games these days, the game has Easy, Medium and Hard difficulty labeled as Historian, Wayfarer and Hero. Some changes compared to its predecessors is the addition of the world map, which feels a little painful. Understandably they’re trying to put a new spin on previous Musou games which had been using the same formula for a long time. But this new addition feels a little pointless. Playing it on handheld makes it a little tricky at times as it is relatively small, but is obviously fine when docked on a big television. That said, keep in mind that this is nitpicking at the game’s pain points. The other issue that players might find is the size of the fonts in the menus being relatively small and thin. Again, it’s an issue for handheld only. However, with many of these Musou games, it’s all relatively straight forward and is a bit of a no brainer. The menus and sub-menus are very straight forward, giving players the options to tinker with their character build to give it that RPG element. The main crux of the game still holds well and is still true to its Musou gameplay. Outside of the added RPG options, it’s definitely still the same Musou game that the Dynasty Warriors franchise is known for.

Cut scenes look good on the Switch 2, which is unsurprising due to its hardware compared to the Switch 1. That said, it’s still difficult to compare gameplay visuals to a desktop or console vs a handheld. And to be fair, the graphics on these Musou games have never been top tier or comparable to top tier AAA games. The Dynasty Warriors franchise has always been more known for its gameplay and fighting mechanics and satisfaction of destroying hordes of enemies. And this version of the game is no exception as it does what it’s known for, but with the updated graphics. In terms of music, it’s what you’d expect from the franchise. If you’re familiar with any of its predecessors, there’s always a guitar riff playing in the background while you’re running through enemies and levels. English voice overs are over the top dubbed, and isn’t a surprise to fans of the series.

Dynasty Warriors: Origins plays well on the Nintendo Switch 2. The graphics look good, and the game itself stays true to its Musou games. Anyone who’s a fan or familiar with the franchise will be satisfied with being able to play this on a portable device, with the option to dock the unit to a bigger TV. The issues it has are not major and somewhat to be expected due to the Switch’s smaller screen, and addition to the latest iteration trying to add RPG and a little open world elements to it. Outside of that, it’s still a lot of fun to unleash and annihilate the army enemies, which still stays true in this Switch 2 port. One option that has been removed from this iteration is the couch co-op function which has always been fun. That said, it could pose a bit of a challenge on handheld due to a smaller screen. Nonetheless, Origins is definitely still a fun game to play on the Switch 2, especially for fans of the franchise.

The Score

8.0

Review code provided by Koei Tecmo

The Pros

The same trusty and satisfying Musou gameplay

Updated graphics and new POV from unnamed character

The Cons

Fonts in menu are a little tricky to read on handheld at times

No co-op option, which had always been fun