The reason Dynasty Warriors: Origins seeks to break away from what came before is simple, Mr Sho said – it was a result of fan reaction to the last mainline game released in the series, 2018’s Dynasty Warriors 9.
“Either you really liked it, or you didn’t,” he said.
The unreleased sequel was too similar to what came before, he said, but by the time development was in full swing, a change in the games industry ultimately halted production.
Within two days of each other in November 2020, Sony released the PlayStation 5 and Microsoft launched the Xbox Series X – consoles so powerful Mr Sho ceased development to focus on the new hardware.
“The current technology allows us to have many troops and army officers on the screen,” he said.
“This is something I’ve been wanting to do since Dynasty Warriors 2 and 3.”
Those two games, which released on PlayStation 2 back in 2000 and 2001, could at most manage twenty or thirty enemies on-screen at once.
The new hardware can manage a lot more – with PlayStation 5 Pro owners seeing an even bigger leap in performance.
“We’re able to have many troops on-screen – not just thousands, but tens of thousands,” Mr Sho said.
“With the current generation of consoles, we’re able to do that.”