Dynasty Warriors Origins producer and Omega Force leader Tomohiko Sho recently talked about the dev team’s attitude towards fanservice in a candid three-way discussion with Denfaminicogamer and 4chan founder Hiroyuki Nishimura.
While Origins features less fanservice compared to some past entries (in terms of sexualized female character designs, jiggle physics and the like), there was no direct intent to tone down the sexiness per se. Rather, Sho explains, as the team was focusing on refining the game’s tone, things that didn’t fit into the concept naturally got filtered out.
“When it came to portraying the characters, their personalities and dialogue, we aimed for a serious and strait-laced approach. We wanted to bring out the full appeal of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and create a story that felt immersive. I guess sexy elements took a backseat as a natural outcome of that.”
Citing examples such as Sun Shangxian and Diaochan, Sho comments that forcing the characters into overly sexualized roles wouldn’t have fit into Omega Force’s vision for Origins. “Diaochan plays a vital and serious role in the story, so we had a clear direction in mind for her from the start. […] We gave her a special background – such as her early education in martial arts – so we wanted her to look like someone who could realistically fight. If we went overboard with fanservice, it’d feel weird during combat, so we tried to tone that down.”
According to Sho, the development team considers sex appeal important, which is why they worked hard on finding a balance that wouldn’t compromise Dynasty Warriors Origins’ tone. On a side note, he also jokingly suggested that all of Omega Force’s efforts got spend on the extensive cast of male generals.
Sho:
That said… honestly, I just really like the older male characters, so I think a lot of our resources probably got spent on them instead (laughs).
Hiroyuki:
Yeah, most of the characters in the game are old guys anyway (laughs).
Sho:
Yes, which is why this time we tried really hard to portray these old guys as attractive. And for the few female characters we had, the team did a great job making sure they naturally fit in with the rest of the cast.
(via Denfaminicogamer)
Dynasty Warriors: Origins is available for the PC (Steam), PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.
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