1 
0 I am excited to be playing Dynasty Warriors: Origins’ new DLC, Visions of Four Heroes. Here is hoping for more epic battles, and maybe a more in-depth look into the four heroes we will see. I have already reviewed the base game, so why not check out my thoughts on that. The DLC is available on PlayStation 5 for £28.99. Oh boy, that seems a little steep.
Gifs used in this article may contain flashing.
A Tiger Among Dragons.
Gameplay
The Vision of Four Heroes gives us four mini what-if campaigns. That show the player what would have happened if Zhang Jiao, Dong Zhou, Yuan Shao, or Lu Bu, had not fallen in battle. You start the DLC via your room in the Inn. Zhang Jiao’s is first, but once his story is told, you are able to choose the other three in whatever order you please. I opted for chronological, but any way is fine, since they are all self-contained stories. In addition to the four new stories, you get more challenge missions, as well as two new weapons, and a skill tree panel. I won’t talk about the new challenges as it gives you something to uncover, and they are accessible right away once you start the DLC.
The new weapons are a bow, and rope dart. Both of which bring new, interesting ways to approach combat. Use the bow to attack from a distance and leap around the battle while melee attacking with it. While using the rope-dart you can pull yourself closer to foes. Each come with a nice selection of unique skills to unlock via challenges and by gaining proficiency. Old weapons have also gained two new levels to their proficiency to aid in improving the Guardian of Peace’s stats.
New types of battles
Visions of Four Heroes, introduces strategy battle, to let the player in on more of the action before the fight. These are play in turns, for the player to decide which enemies are best to deal with first. Units will appear with bonuses for you to obtain upon you or an allied unit defeating them. In doing so, you earn bonuses called Special Tactics, which offer the player fun new unit skills to use in battle. Create a zone that negates damage, or bring down a lightning storm to clear the masses.
When the turn timer finishes, the final battle commences, and you will progress the story. Final battles, in-terms of hordes, feel a lot bigger than they do in the base game. And you never end up fighting just one officer, as at one time I had 6 of them attacking me. Which would have been fine with they weren’t main characters.
Graphics & Audio
In true Dynasty Warriors fashion, this new DLC comes equipped with new, harder guitar riffs in its soundtrack, once again making you feel like a force to be reckoned with. Another new thing featured is some new outfits, each obtained by finishing stories. With my favourite being the Garb of Peace outfit.
Longevity
I don’t have an exact amount of hours, but I would say it is fair to say that you get about 10 hours of content. Although this can vary depending on what difficulty setting you have chosen. Sadly, there is not much reason to replay the stories, since there isn’t any alternative or true endings. But I will be spending some more time to max out the new weapons and skill tree. As well as collect the remaining Battle Arts.
Final Thoughts
The Visions of Four Heroes DLC, does brilliantly to provide even more epic battles. But the four stories themselves felt underwhelming and short. With my biggest disappointment being Dong Zhou’s campaign, and a little bit of Lu Bu’s one. I think a whole DLC dedicated to the Jin army would have been a lot better compared to what we had, in more ways than one. The new strategic battles are a great way for the player to immerse themselves, and to feel like a true strategist. Although I would have liked more impact in the final fights. Maybe shorter missions due to the enemy having a smaller force, or weather events. As nothing really changes, and it comes across as padding to make up for less content. I mean, Zhang Jiao’s campaign itself is only four main missions long.
The new weapons are okay. Out of the two, I would say the rope-dart feels and plays much better. I really did not get on with the bow, it felt like it didn’t offer the attack/skill variety that other weapons did. For example, most skills are buffs for the basic arrow move, but they don’t feel powerful. Lastly I hoped for more actual use of the Guardians of Peace’s vision abilities. However, it never appears beyond the introduction of the base game.
In the end, as I mentioned, I think having a DLC based on the army of Jin would felt a lot better compared to what we got. As Visions of Four Heroes didn’t do much with the campaigns. So I will be giving it the Thumb Culture Silver Award.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
YouTube |Facebook |Twitter |Instagram |Discord |Podcast
About Author
