Should you choose General or Shadow in Dynasty Warriors: Origins - Character fighting while jumping high on a stick
Image via Koei Tecmo

Should you choose General or Shadow in Dynasty Warrior: Origins?

Which will you pick?

Finally making it to the end of a long game is always a great feeling, especially one as satisfying as Dynasty Warrior: Origins. But it is there that you get confronted with a choice, should you choose to become a general or shadow in the ending? Let’s see what happens when you pick either one.

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What happens if you choose general or shadow

The choice of wanting to become a general or a shadow happens across several of the canonical endings of Dynasty Warrior: Origins. Maꦕjor spoilers for the plot of the game follow after this point, so read on only if you have already completed the game or arrived at the choice.

Character on a balcony
Image via Koei Tecmo

Overall, we can safely say that this choice matters little and does not affect much, as the story by that point is effectively over. While this choice does set up an interesting consequence for the future titles in the Dynasty Warrior series, it does not impact anything in the story of Origins. Perhaps it will have consequences in a futu💖re DLC, but, as of now🌠, the only thing affected by this choice is a couple of paragraphs in the ending text.

I💯f you choose to become a general this iꦯs what happens:

  • The other officers and faction leaders will praise your decision and your actions throughout the course of the game. They will also encourage you as you will join their ranks, promising to help you.
  • The paragraph detailing your story at the end will list some of your future actions and deeds as a “fate-shaping general”.

If you, instead, choose to live as a shadow, this is what✅ happens:

  • The other faction leaders and Officers will still praise your decision and your actions throughout the course of the game.
  • The paragraph detailing your story at the end will list some of the actions and deeds as a mercenary guarding the peace of the world behind the scenes.

Since the only difference is a couple of paragraphs in the en🌺ding, we would recommend making the choice that makes more sense for you as a player.

When does the general or shadow choice happen

The choice to become a general or a shadow happens across most endings in the game. In the normജal ending, Ziluan is asked by Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang if he is planning to join the ranks of the military as a general or remain in the shadows as a mercenary. But, since this is not the true ending, this choice does not impact a lot at the moment.

The same choice happens also should the player take Sun Quan’s side. In this case, Ziluan is summoned by Shengxiang and Sun Quan to again ask about what he wants to do in the future, whether to remain in the shadows or join the military. Again, this choice matters little as the story is effectively over. The choice also comes up again in the true ending to the game, with little to no impact on what happens after.


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Author
Image of Damiano Gerli
Damiano Gerli
Damiano Gerli is a gaming historian and freelance journalist, born with a faithful Commodore 64 by his side. He has been writing about games for more than twenty years with articles on gaming history published on Kotaku, PC Gamer, PcGamesN and Retro Gamer magazine. Loves playing Ace Attorney and the Like a Dragon series plus, of course, anything retro. Say hi to him on Bluesky on damiano.bsky.social and his blog //genesistemple.com.