Dragon’s Dogma

I hope this is where Japanese Role Playing games are finally headed towards. No more random battles, no more childish dialogues, no more linear progression, and no more prefabricated characters that all look the same, with hairstyles and clothing that makes you wonder which gender they belong with. Let me decide on how my character will look, let me select which quest i want to do, and how i want to progress through the game. Have the game world be open and dynamic, populated with hidden areas that I can discover myself, difficult bosses that will either test my abilities or make me think twice about confronting.

Finally it seems that Japanese developers have embrace what western developers have been doing for decades now. Dragon’s Dogma takes a little bit from other open world RPGs, and adds a heavy dose of getting your ass kicked over and over again. Don’t be detoured, yes, the first 8 hours of the game will make you pull hair out, and maybe even a sore throat, but after you master the fluid combat system and open nature of gameplay, you will be kicking ass and moving along in steady progression through the story.

The story of Dragon’s Dogma is told through cut-scenes and in-game dialogue, your ultimate goal if you haven’t figure out by reading the title and looking at the box-art, is to kill a red dragon. That is where your main character comes in, once you have customized your character looks, your new pal will have his heart torn out by the dragon. Fear not! He is the Arisen, the one chosen to kill the evil dragon and hundreds of evil minions along the way, including: Goblins, Harpies, Skeletons, Necromancers, Zombies! (wouldn’t be a Capcom game without zombies), has will has tons of mythical beasts from every other fantasy game/novel ever created.

You can choose from three base class to advance your character: Fighter, Mage, or Ranger, once you have reach a certain point in the game, more options are available, such as a more powerful Warrior, or a hybrid like a Mystic-Knight that employs magic with regular hack and slash attacks.

Combat with normal enemies are pretty straight forward, just slash at them till their dead, or blast them with elemental magic from behind. The fun of doing that over and over gain would make this a pretty repetitive game, so to break up the monotonous combat, there are enemies and bosses that are twice your size, and require you to hit them with a specific spell or area of their body. For example, a troll whose only weak spot is its head, but you ask, how do i get to a trolls head if its twice as tall as me? Will, you climb, yes, this game allows you to climb an enemy and attack it on any part of its body that you can’t reach, invest in some stamina potions, and you can pretty much stay on an enemy till it starts crumbling on to the ground. You are not expected to fight all this by yourself, you will have help from your allies who are called Pawns.

Now a Pawn, along with being a valuable ally and asset, it is also a way to share your game with others. Each player creates their main Pawn between the same class options available to your main character. This Pawn stays with you through out the game, it can be customized, adorned with new gear, and each time a quest or event is completed, the pawn learns and will remember the objective done and enemies fought. This Pawn is then added to the Pawn Community where all players connected to the network can access. Each player is allowed two additional Pawns along with their main Pawn, and since each Pawn has a different experience with in the game, their combat and experience differ. So if you haven’t done a quest yet, but the Pawn you added has, it will lead you to the quest destination and have better knowledge of the enemies and quest objectives.

Your main Pawn has the ability to level along with you, however, the Pawns you hire do not, so you are forced to search for newer Pawns as you progress, making each one a newer experience with their different powers and demeanor that their creators have chosen for them. To further create a sense of interaction among players, once you dismiss a hired Pawn, you can give the Pawn a gift to return to the original creator. Once i received a full set of clothing upgrades for my Pawn. You can give remarks to the Pawns appearance, battle capabilities and helpfulness, so if you think a Pawn is ugly, go ahead and tell the creator and maybe he will feel guilty enough to change its appearance.

The world of Dragon’s Dogma is enormous, days into the game and you may find yourself only having explore 1/4th of the map. There are hidden caves and quests throughout the game world. The story progress if you want it to, or you can just run and around and explore till every part of the map is uncovered. It does required you to take a commitment and toughen up a little through the first few hours of the game, where dying over and over again can make you feel frustrated and quit. However, after you smash your way through, you will find a game that you will have endless hours of fun.