Koei Tecmo is one of the biggest and most important Japanese gaming companies, as it's responsible for the creation of multiple iconic franchises, like Dynasty Warriors, Dead or Alive, Ninja Gaiden and more. Fortunately for fans of the company, it recently disclosed its plans to keep prioritizing th??ese type of produc??ts.

In a new Q&A document for its shareholders (which Automaton translated into English), Koei Tecmo detailed its expectations for the future of the gaming market. The company explained to shareholders how it "expects the console and PC game market to grow," especially afte?r the recent release of new and more powerful hardware.

On top of that, Koei Tecmo also noted how the mobile gaming market is already mature enough and "significant growth is unlikely to be seen", citing as an example the recent growth in AAA home console releases that we saw in countries like South Korea and China. Although the company's representatives didn't list any specific games, Stellar Blade and Black Myth: Wukong are two prominent examples of this phenomenon.

Koei Tecmo is clearly pivoting to the development of AAA games for PC and home consoles, as it plans to "steadily produce AAA titles" in the near future. In order to achieve this goal, the company is aiming to increase its workforce, as it now has 2500 employees, but it plans to hire at least 5??000 people in total. All of this is not much of a surprise since, as it disclosed in the Q&A, Koei Tecmo recently opened a new in-house AAA studio and has refined a new high-quality game engine known as the Katana Engine, which is so flexible that the company is confident it'll "reduce development costs and improve quality."

Can Koei Tecmo keep all of its promises?

In a day and age in which more and more companies prefer to create low-budget games that can rack up a lot of money via gacha systems and microtransactions, it is a breath of fresh air to see one of Japan's biggest players favoring AAA experiences for PC and home consoles instead. Koei Tecmo does have a history with mobile gaming, but it never committed t??o the format as much as other eastern companies.

There have been a few re-releases of its classic games, some mobile installments in franchises like Dead or Alive and Dynasty Warriors and its most recent endeavor, the iOS and Android ports of Atelier Resleriana. It would be a bad move from Koei Tecmo to flat out ignore the mobile gaming market, but based off of its recent output, it's evident it has been prioritizing AAA home console games i??n recent years.

In 2024, Team Ninja (a division of Koei Tecmo) released Rise of the Rōnin, a 3D action-adventure PlayStation 5 exclusive that received positive reviews from critics and gamers. It's also planning to release Fairy Tail 2 on December 11, the second open-world RPG based on the classic manga series by Hiro Mashima.

On top of that, Koei Tecmo plans to release more AAA games throughout 2025, like Atelier Yumia, Venus Vacation Prism, and its most promising new project: Dynasty Warriors: Origins, the first new entry in this iconic Musou franchise in 6 years, and an a??mbitious game that will offer a much-needed return to formula. If it can deliver on all of these new games (especially Dynasty Warriors: Origins), Koei Tecmo'?s plans to further delve into the AAA gaming market will w?ork just fine.

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Not to make you feel old but the original Dynasty Warriors was released over 25 years ago back in 1997. Since then the series has seen nine main 'numbered' entries and a handful of spin-offs. It's been almost seven years since the last entry in the franchise, Dynasty Warriors 9, which I think most fans of the series would agree was quite average at best. At the time, our very own Chris Carter felt it was 'clunky and unwieldy'.

I've always been a fan of 'musou games' like Dynasty Warriors. There's something about mindlessly hack n' slashing your way through hordes of enemies that almost feels tranquil in a way. But over the years, the many releases of Dynasty Warriors—and similar style games—admittedly started to weigh on me. As Omega Force and Koei Tecmo started to diversify the catalog of musou-style games with other themes and even IP's with amazing releases like Warriors Orochi 4, Hyrule Warriors, One Piece: Pirate Warriors, Dragon Quest Heroes, Fire Emblem Warriors, Berserker and the Band of the Hawk and more. The standard Dynasty Warrior formula started to become stale for me.

Fast forward a few years, and I had the opportunity to play the first three chapters of Dynasty Warriors: Origins. While I typically prefer to play these styles of games on console, I previewed Origins on PC. I started with a controller, but out of curiosity switched to a keyboard and mouse just to see how it felt. In that regard, let me start by saying it actually felt way better than I expected. Button smashing just comes easier on a controller, but the keyboard controls felt just as smooth once I reworked some the key binds on things like the special attacks. Thankfully, the controls aren't the only things I felt were greatly improved in Dynasty Warrior: Origins. In fact, it feels improved in most aspects.

A real Origins story

Without knowing too much about Dynasty Warriors: Origins beforehand, let me first share with you what I quickly discovered; the Origins moniker serves a double meaning: a return to the origin of the Dynasty Warrior franchise, as well as the game's intent to tell the story of the Three Kingdoms period when the Cao Wei, Shu Han, and Eastern Wu dynasties reigned over Chi?na. For those not familiar, it's known as one of the bloodiest periods in Chinese history, so quite fitting for a game where you are tasked with fighting massive armies.

Storytelling in previous entries in the franchise has been a bit lackluster, to put it mildly. It's never been a strong point of the series, but to be fair, it never presented itself as such. With Dynasty Warrior: Origins, the storytelling is much more prominent, right from the start.?? There are cutscenes, fully voiced characters, and more that all work together ??to tell the story of the Three Kingdoms. As someone who's very interested in the period, I'm excited to see how the story is told over the full game.

While Dynasty Warriors is known for letting you select from a ton of staple historical characters from the period, Origins puts the player in the role of their own character. As you play you'll level up, getting various stat boosts, skills, and other abilities as you progress. As you get deeper into the game, you get access ??to those fabled heroes and can choose to take them with you and even control them in battle for a period of time. I know not everyone is going to like this change, but I'm actually enjoying being my own hero and forging my own legacy this time around.

After the first battle, Origins opens up a bit into a semi-open world setting. You're able to traverse a 'World Map' of sorts and choose which regions to battle in. Each region has its own sets of battles and missions? you can do to increase the peace level of that region, rewarding you with stat buffs and boosts along ??the way. Progressing will unlock more regions, allowing you to progress and essentially alter the story of the Three Kingdoms based on your decisions.

Battlefields as big as ever

The major "Wow Factor" of Dynasty Warriors has always been its massive scale. You versus entire massive armies on the battlefield. I'm happy to say the scale is bigger than ever in Origins, with more enemy and army counts on the battlefield than I'm pretty sure, well?, ever. In fact, with a somewhat m?ore direct approach to combat compared to other entries in the series, you can actually find yourself quickly overwhelmed by how many enemies are actually on the battlefield.

Well-timed special attacks and the use of powerful abilities can really turn the tide of battle in Origins, especiall??y in the 1-on-1 encounters with more challenging enemies. You can eventually choose to surround yourself with your own micro-army of guards and can even issue orders to them such as to defend you, charge an area, or even focus attacks on an area. This too can real??ly change the tide of battle.

Overall, battles themselves feel a bit more tactical, or maybe even technical, compared to previous entries. Button smashing isn't quite the option as it used to be, as I said, you can find yourself quickly overrun by even basic infantry units on the battlefield. It's not super tactical like a Soulslike game or anything like that, but you'll have to make use of your special att??acks and combos to effectively carve routes through the battlefield. It's a change for the series for sure, but a good one I feel.

After playing through the first three chapters of Dynasty Warriors: Origins, I have to applaud Omega Force for the direction they've chosen to take the series in. It would have been easy to just release a prettied-up button-mashing Dynasty Warrior game with the same playa?ble characters and endless grind potential. I know there are certainly some people out there who may prefer that.

But for me, the innovative changes to the series provide a unique—and honestly just outright more fun—experience to the formula. Omega Force and Koei Tecmo have taken a lot of the staples from the franchise like massive-scale battles and expanded them while also improving the overall game through better storytelling, more interesting combat, and a player character-driven focus. I think this will put the series in a great spot to be appealing to both newcomers and long-time fans, and opens up for the potential to really continue to innovate in the future. Dynasty Warriors is so back, and I'm here for it.

Dynasty Warriors: Origins is set to release on January 17, 2025 on PC via Steam, PlayStation 5, and Xbox? Series X|S.

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