When I reviewed Dynasty Warriors Origins last year, I felt rather underwhelmed as a long-time series fan who had also invested a lot in researching the historical Chinese Three Kingdoms period to follow the storyline in these games. But when I have the opportunity to check out the upcoming Visions of Four Heroes DLC, I see it helps rectify some of the issues I had in the original Dynasty Warriors Origins.
One of the glaring issues in the original game for me was the lack of viewpoints for other faction leaders like Yuan Shao and the Yellow Turbans’ Zhang Jiao. Together with Lu Bu and Dong Zhuo, the four leaders finally have hypothetical stories where the protagonist Ziluan supports each of them. But instead of appearing as new branches in the main story, the hypotheticals are gathered in a separate segment that also has its own inn hub and skill tree, along with new sets of trials and challenges.
The new stories have not only new major battle stages—they also include a new type of campaign called Strategic Battle. This is where army platoons split up and take turns in dealing damage to each other. You can also influence the battle by directly engaging an enemy platoon, which will generate a Skirmish stage against it.
As you defeat an enemy platoon, you can gain Unit Action Points to launch army attacks that do not consume a turn and Secret Tactics that generate buff or damage areas during skirmishes. It all culminates in a Decisive Battle where you will finally get to challenge the enemy commander’s large army.
The troop numbers only matter for the duration of the specific Strategic Battle. However, I can definitely see this system as a foundation for a new Empires entry in the future. But of course, all the missing characters and regions would have to return first before Omega Force can work on that.
Another issue I had that I did not mention before was the lack of color variety for the protagonist’s costumes. So I’m very excited to see that one of the new costumes added with this DLC has alternate colors that represent all supported factions—including the three main ones in the original Dynasty Warriors Origins as well. This really helps Ziluan blend more naturally with the faction he chose.
Each of the new weapon types also has its own attack methods, staying true to the game’s overall direction. The Bow distinguishes itself by having another attack string where you can attack while holding guard to fire multiple arrows while strafing around. But to unleash the true potential of the Rope Dart, I recommend holding the strong attack button whenever you want to launch an attack that uses it.
And last but not least, I am allowed to share that the mystery character will declare himself as Fei Wei (飛衛). However, there were no actual figures with that name in the Chinese Three Kingdoms period. I instead discovered that this name belonged to a legendary archer mentioned in the Tang chapter of the Liezi texts.
Dynasty Warriors Origins’ Visions of Four Heroes DLC pack will be available for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2 on January 22, 2026.