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After my preview of Dynasty Warriors Origins, I also had a chance to speak with Tomohiko Sho, producer of the game, and one of the masterminds behind the franchise. A long-time fan of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms era/book like myself, it was a real pleasure to sit down and chat with him about this upcoming game. It all felt very much like a step forward, heading back toward what made the franchise popular and famous in the first place.
Through a translator, Tomohiko Sho opened up about quite a few topics concerning Dynasty Warriors Origins, from the story length, what led him to work on the franchise in the first place, and so much more. It was an incredible discussion, and it was clear that like myself, Tomohiko Sho is a huge fan of the era. It’s fantastic to see it brought to life again in this way.
Tomohiko Sho on Dynasty Warriors Origins’ being a rebirth of the franchise, and more
Q. First of all, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us about Dynasty Warriors Origins. Could you please introduce yourself to those who may not be familiar?
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Tomohiko Sho: So, I worked on the very first Dynasty Warriors, the PlayStation 1, the fighting game version, and from that, I worked on all the Dynasty Warriors games up until DW6.
And then after that, I started, I was involved with a lot of the collaboration titles that we've been doing. So, Dragon Quest Heroes 1 and 2, and Fate Samurai Remnant, and I've returned back to the DW series after a bit of an absence.
Jason Parker: I think it might be time for another Dragon Quest Heroes, with 3 Remake coming, and the 1+2 Remakes coming next year. Maybe, maybe it's time for Square Enix to come knocking again.
Tomohiko Sho: Yes, I've also been talking about this with Square Enix as well!
Q. Much like myself, you started with a love for the RTK game series. Was it a particular game in the series that sparked your interest, and led you down this path?
Tomohiko Sho: So, when I was in junior high school, that's the first time I actually played the Three Kingdoms game, and it was also the first time I ever heard of simulation games.
And from that, that started to pique my interest in the Three Kingdoms. So, I started reading the novels based on it and the manga. So, that's how I started to really like the Three Kingdoms story.
And with that, I really thought that with the story, I was really engulfed by the fact that at the end of it, there was no actual unification at all. And that, I thought, was something that really interested me, and that's what I really liked. That's what really drew me to the story itself, and also the way that it sort of focused on the individual various officers that you see throughout the story.
Jason Parker: Yeah, I think the unification didn’t happen for almost like, another hundred years. Somewhere in there. It was with Sima Yi’s kids.
Tomohiko Sho: [Laughs] Yes.
Q. Dynasty Warriors as a franchise neatly straddles the line between the serious drama of the Late Han, and over-the-top, incredible action set pieces. With the previous entry into the series being far more serious, and receiving a fair bit of criticism, did it feel nice to get back to the huge armies being cut to ribbons by one warrior?
Tomohiko Sho: I do know that there are a lot of people who do love Dynasty Warriors 9. So, but I think one thing that we weren't really able to do was really focus on the individual battles within the game.
And I think it got a little bit too big. I think one thing we did for this game is to be able to, in order to really pull out those like individual battles and characters, first we decided that not to use an open-world approach to this game.
And I think you also sort of touched upon that, but with Dynasty Warriors 9, you didn't really get that really, the full action, that exhilaration wasn't really there.We did actually hear a lot of people also commenting on that as well.
We really wanted to be able to bring out the most of the action elements of this game in this game. I think it was also one approach in order to really feel that exhilarating action. One of the approaches that we thought that we wanted to do was to be able to present as many officers — enemy officers on screen as possible.
So, this probably compared to Dynasty Warriors 9, probably about like 10 times more troops in general you can see on the field.
Jason Parker: And I was one of the people that liked 9! I had a lot fun playing it when it came out. But the open world was just a little too … open world. So, I like this approach more, I think.
Tomohiko Sho: So, definitely China is a big continent. It was really, really big. I think that, you know, this time we wanted to make sure that we can take it into a size that we make the most of the size that we do use in the game without being too big.
Q. One thing that I think is interesting, is that, instead of controlling one of the more notable warriors/generals/tacticians, the player controls an unknown soldier - who I believe has amnesia? Was this done to immerse the player into the era better, or has there been feedback around replaying the same stages from different perspectives, such as the previous games offered?
Tomohiko Sho: The first reason is that you really wanted to be able to give series fans a brand new experience in the game. And I think being able to experience those battles that they probably played before, you can really see it differently.
And the second reason is that we wanted to make the game so that anyone who doesn't know anything about the Three Kingdoms story, they don't know anything about Dynasty Warriors, that they're able to really catch on to the story and get an understanding of the story and the world.
And since the protagonist has amnesia, they're able to start at the same level as that protagonist, being able to find out about the world and the characters alongside the protagonist.
Q. Though the player will be primarily controlling this unknown character, what about the various factions? Will the player be able to fight primarily for Shu, Wu, or Wei? How is that going to work?
Tomohiko Sho: To begin with, with the game, it is sort of based on individual chapters. And so up until the second chapter, essentially you'll be battling with that faction of Liu Bei, Cao Cao, and Sun Jian. So you'll be able to fight alongside them.
And then, so up until the second chapter, you'll be playing sort of alongside the Wu, Wei, and the Shu factions. But after that point, starting with the third chapter, you will choose which one to follow.
Jason Parker: I’d choose Wei every single time. No hesitation.
Tomohiko Sho: Yeah, we actually heard the same thing from the dev team. "Yeah, oh yeah, I’m gonna stick with Wei." But when they actually played up until the end of the second chapter, then a lot of those people were like, "Actually, I don’t know. I think I’m gonna stick with Wei.” So I think when you play through it, maybe you might change your mind.
Jason Parker: That gives it replayability. You can go back and play as a different faction.
Tomohiko Sho: So yeah, definitely we did take that replayability into account so that it would be fun to play as, you know, players will be able to also play as the other factions.
Q. From what I understand, Dynasty Warriors Origins has battles from the Yellow Turban Rebellion through the Battle of Red Cliffs. Was there a push to go further beyond that, or did the team think that would be too much for one game, given the new art direction and improvements to overall gameplay in the current title?
Tomohiko Sho: I see. That's a very good question. So that's a very great question. So I think that really when you think about it, it's, you know, 50 years plus of stories in the Three Kingdoms/Dynasty Warriors, and you know, up until now, we’ve had 90 characters. I think now we’ve reached a point where that’s a little bit too much for us.
This time we really wanted to be able to focus on each individual battle, each of the individual stories, and also be able to really focus on the characters and get to know more about them so people can really learn more about these characters and how great and exciting it is.
And really want to also convey that to the various players. So I think because of that, we decided to not do the full up until the 50 years, but we decided to do up to a certain point.
And if I were to be honest, I actually wanted to make it a much shorter period, not even go up until Red Cliffs, but in order for people who are brand new to the Three Kingdoms story, I think one of the well-known or sort of exciting battles is that battle of Red Cliffs.
And that would probably be a better point to sort of, to go up until. That's something, you know, even though I was a bit hesitant at first, we decided to, you know, go along with it.
Jason Parker: That really was where everything started to change on the map too. So that is a good stopping point.
Q. Are there any new features in Dynasty Warriors Origins that you're particularly excited about players getting their hands on? Something they haven't seen in previous trailers?
Tomohiko Sho: I'm not so sure how much I can talk about things that fans haven't seen yet. But, but first, I just want to mention that for this game we definitely are focusing on making sure we have both the tactical and action elements and being able to able to be very solid and bringing that out so it can become sort of like the one and only sort of signature tactical action game out there.
I think he's also kind of thinking about what hasn't been in the trailers that we've been talking about. But one thing we can kind of mention that I have mentioned is that there will be multiple endings. And I think everyone knows that they'll probably want to be one for each kingdom. But I want to mention, there aren’t just three.
Jason Parker: Ooh! That is interesting.
Tomohiko Sho: I think we’ll be having another trailer coming out soon. People will find out more about the game there. I think in terms of things I can talk about, that they haven’t seen yet, there isn’t very much I can say yet.
Jason Parker: I had to try! [Laughs]
Q. Can Dynasty Warriors Origins be seen as a sort of rebirth, or reset of the Musou-franchise?
Tomohiko Sho: Yes, that’s actually correct. That’s something we were conscious of, and to emphasize that, we decided on the title being ‘Origins’. But also, there are a lot of fans out there who like the style up until now, featuring a huge cast of characters. So that is something we hope we can revisit, maybe in a different format in the future. But first, we need to be able to sell this! [Laughs]
Q. Last - which is your favorite faction?
Tomohiko Sho: All of them! And the same thing for favorite characters, they’re all my children.
Jason Parker: Well, the actual best character is Lu Bu [Laughs].
Tomohiko Sho: So, if it were from Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the entire story, I think my favorite is Zhuge Liang.
Jason Parker: Oh, I see! My actual favorite character has always been Sima Yi.
Dynasty Warriors Origins hits shelves on January 17, 2024, on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
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