Dragon's Dogma

[Kage Kisaragi]

Fantastic Game and glad I got it, so why haven't you? To me this game is what Skyrim and Kingdom of Amalur wanted to be. First despite Capcom being well a Japan based company and most VG experts writing off Japanese game developers as being unoriginal and a dying front runner in the gaming market, Capcom has delivered incredibly well. Whatever ideas they have borrowed from this generation rpgs or perhaps even some older ones has being thoughtfully woven into a pretty hard to put down RPG title.

The game feels a lot like monster hunter in it's combat, but unlike monster hunter the fights don't feel as urgent or visceral, and that's a good thing. When I played monster hunter every hunt felt immediate and urgent, which lead to a feeling of anxiety. That feeling of anxiety, would sometimes cause me to make mistakes that if I had just had been more patient or examined the situation more could have probably dealt with the then crisis more effectively, but when Tigrex is chasing you down and breakneck speeds, well a panic in my opinion is normal. However Dragon's Dogma in my opinion did it right, the big monster battles always feel some what exciting even if you've already fought that creature before and have a effective strategy against it. Simple mechanics like climbing the huge beast and whacking at key points on it, or even just using your weight to slow it down or topple it makes you feel like combat is very well exciting. Even spellcasting feels epic in it's own way, from charging/casting the spell, to slowly moving around the battlefield while holding the charge/spell and then releasing it for a spectacular display of imaginary mysticism feels and looks amazing. One of my favorite spells to cast and watch is Maelstrom, imagine summoning a tornado in the middle of a group of goblins or other monsters, yeah... as you can imagine monsters being hurled into the air and bounced around then eventually dropped to their deaths is hysterical, and potent, can't tell you how many times i've wiped out entire groups of enemies with that one, and it looks and moves like a stationary tornado might move, wobbling about at it's climax and this dissipating.

Story wise, the game doesn't make up any elaborate epic tale of freedom, good vs evil, self discovery, love and romance, or anything like that. A Dragon returns from where ever and attacks after years of being supposedly slain or whatever, and then attacks your coastal village, you take up arms and in the fight get seemingly fatally wounded, as the Dragon rips your heart from your chest, it turns out he is placing a kind of curse on you, causing you to live but without your heart for whatever purpose i've yet to discover, you are now Arisen a individual who is tied to the Dragon some how and it's basically up to you to champion the cause of slaying the fowl beast. You aren't alone however, but unlike other RPG's where there is a large cast of controllable characters who will eventually follow you everywhere, capcom did something interest, after you create your main side kick known as a Pawn, you basically recruit other peoples pawns from across the rift, that is other players self made pawns, and they make up your battle party. It's interesting because, they have no real individual back stories, they live only to serve the Arisen, and that means any Arisen apparently. While you're borrowing their pawns they are borrowing yours, and depending on how you raised your pawn they are either happy and thus can reward you with polite complements and gits, or just send him away/ignore him and give you nothing. Pawn's remember the places they've ventured too, and foes they've fought and pass on this information to you and other players who rent/own them. So by lending out your pawn you are effectively helping someone else, as well as potentially gaining information about future quest and monsters you've yet to face.

Exploring the lands as most sandbox style open world rpgs go, this game is a sold seller, while you can't run up the side of mountains vertically, or jump/climb for make shift short cuts, the game does it's best to present you with options in most cases, and of course you always have the option of death by suicide jumping off a high cliff.

Your Arisen is be male or female and the editing options feel pretty decent, while not as intricate as say White Knight Chronicles 2, it does rank right up their with Bioware RPG's like Dragon Age, and Mass Effect, maybe even a little better, though I do think some points of were left underdeveloped. (Is it wrong to want a booty option for women, really? Pancake booties everywhere.)

Im not sure what else there is to say, im not a big music buff so all I can say about that is, is that it's a fine ensemble of music that fit the theme/era in which the game takes place i guess.

[Matt]

I saw a trailer for it.
The highlight seemed to be that you fight a giant chicken.

A giant chicken.

No. Just no.

[Vivica Kang]

I am upset that it's not multiplayer online or is it?

[Simbob4000]

I saw a trailer for it.
The highlight seemed to be that you fight a giant chicken.

A giant chicken.

No. Just no.

Maybe you should watch some other trailers.

[Vivica Kang]

Maybe you should watch some other trailers.

I played the demo...That Chicken was a bad ass.

[Simbob4000]

I played the demo...That Chicken was a bad ass.

The chicken isn't in the demo. One of the trailers has them fighting a Cockatrice, the demo has you fighting a Griffin.

[Vivica Kang]

the chicken isn't in the demo. One of the trailers has them fighting a cockatrice, the demo has you fighting a griffin.

i want to fight that chicken! :(

[Guest_1001]

I'm waiting until my birthday in August. So I'll be avoiding this topic for a long while. I really enjoyed the demo though, especially the character creation. I guess we could do with an option to adjust the size of female characters' rears but, hey, we can make them curvier than in most games. That's a plus!