I've just finished playing this, and have completed it once
(and begun a new game plus with the same character). It's a free-roaming RPG
for the PS3 and Xbox360, and I played the PS3 version. An internet connection
adds to the experience but is not essential.
Character Creation
Perhaps uniquely, Dragon's Dogma has the player not only
create the player-character but also a permanent sidekick (the main pawn).
There is no racial option, but height can be altered
dramatically and pointy ears are available.
There's quite a lot of customisation on offer, mostly
through a large array of presets with more detailed options for each
body/facial part also available. Stance, musculature, fat, scars, arms, legs
and torsos can also be independently altered. You can even give them different
coloured eyes.
In brief: there's a very good set of options allowing for a
broad range of characters to be created.
Gameplay
Dragon's Dogma has fantastically good gameplay. There are
nine classes (vocations) to choose from (three starting, three advanced and
three hybrid) and they fundamentally change the way the game is played. They
all have genuine advantages and weaknesses, and there isn't a class I don't
want to play at some point.
The pawn system (which could've been better named) involves
your main pawn and two support pawns. The main pawn levels up with the
player-character but is never directly controlled. As per the player-character,
the main pawn is outfitted and given a vocation/skills by the player, and acts
as your permanent sidekick.
Support pawns are summoned through rift stones and are
computer-generated or come from other players (if you're connected to the
internet). Getting a pawn of your own level or lower is free, but a higher
level pawn costs rift crystals, a second currency used only for this purpose
and in a single shop.
Likewise, your own pawn can be hired (either by the computer
taking pity on you or through the internet by other players), and gain
experience of areas, enemies and quests. You'll also receive a certain number
of rift crystals in return for this. It's a cool and innovative way of using
the internet, and whilst the game is single player it does add a nice communal
touch (and it's a warm and fuzzy moment when your pawn gets highly rated and
comes back with a ton of rift crystals).
Enemies broadly vary between two main types: a
standard-sized foe and a massive one. The massive ones can be devastating all
by themselves, but can also be climbed and damaged so that they drop weapons or
get stunned. The smaller ones look less fearsome but a gang of bandits can and
will give you trouble for the early-mid levels.
There's a reasonably good variety of enemies, and they do
have upgraded versions (goblins are grunt standard, a strong version is the
hobgoblin and so on). Some have criticised the range of enemies, but there's a
nice mix from mythology, with griffins, chimeras (chimerae?), a hydra, a
dragon, cyclopes, and ogres all making an appearance alongside goblins,
bandits, wolves and harpies.
The character and main pawn can be decked out in a wide
variety of clothing, with many body parts having separate armour and clothing
slots, which I really like. It adds to the options for customisation, and all
clothing/armour can be upgraded if sufficient money and (sometimes) extra items
are possessed by the player. You can equip borrowed pawns but the items you
equip them with are a permanent gift.
The menus are somewhat clunky. It is nice being able to see
how your character/pawn looks with new armour, but the buy, sell and enhance
options are all entirely separate and there's a separate menu for items and for
equipping them. Not a serious issue, but it could've been better done.
Saving is poorly done because there's just one save slot.
Now, this game has one of the most easily versatile player (and pawn)
approaches I've seen for some time, so you might ask why anyone would want a
second save slot. Well, it would be nice to have an extra character, and if the
save gets corrupted (not happened to me but have heard one or two reports of
this) then, unless you've backed it up, you're screwed. Happily, the save can
be backed up with a flashdrive, but it would've been far better to give the
player multiple save slots.
There is fast travel but it's highly limited and requires a
special item which is slightly expensive and not very common. Some have
complained about this as questing involves trekking out to do it and then back
to base. This can sometimes be tedious, but it also makes returning home a real
achievement and actually means that the day/night cycle matters. Not only is
night pitch black, it is also when more serious monsters come out to play,
making getting back home in the dark a more trying ordeal. Overall, I think it
works pretty well.
Difficulty: this has been whinged about by many a reviewer.
I don't know why. The game's challenging and doesn't use level-scaling, so if
you go into a level 25 area at level 5 you'll get slaughtered, but if you
return at level 35 you'll kick arse. Generally, the difficulty is spot on, as
the game is challenging without being frustratingly difficult. Ensuring your
party is balanced and your borrowed pawns are more or less the right level is
important. Actually defeating major enemies feels like a serious achievement
rather than an inevitability.
In brief: the gameplay is absolutely fantastic. In a world
of hand-holding simplicity Dragon's Dogma stands apart as a challenge for the
player to meet.
Story
A weaker spot for the game, which is a shame. The story
starts out well, and it ends (there are multiple endings and I've just seen the
one) well, but the vast majority of the game in the middle doesn't really
develop the story. There's also a weird incident in the castle
of Gran Soren I won't spoil which,
at the time, seems massively significant for the player but just seems to be
forgotten about by everyone after it occurs.
The world itself is exciting to play in but could use rather
more development and some specific lore to stop it feeling so entirely generic.
This is also true of Gran Soren, the capital, which works perfectly well but
feels like it's entry 1 in 101 Stereotypical Fantasy Cities.
I don't want to say much more because the ending (whichever
path you take) is somewhat surprising, and I don't want to spoil them.
In brief: good start, an original end but is depressingly
absent in the middle.
Sound
A mixed bag, this one. The music is good, excepting the
opening menu music, and the little jingle when you slaughter a massive foe is
reminiscent of the old RPG days when you'd get victory music after a turn-based
triumph.
The sound effects are also good. My character began as a
mage and then became a sorceress, and it was always cool to hear a wall of
flame erupt or the excellent and devastating maelstrom spell whirl through the
air. If your character gets severely low health then the screen darkens, the
sound muffles and you can hear her (or his) heartbeat, which is a nice touch.
The voice-acting is a bit of a weak link, though. It's good
at times, and not so elsewhere. The actors may also be hampered somewhat by a
slightly poor effort at ye olde English which has led to some clunky phrases
and a serious overdose on the word 'aught', which is used far, far too often. I
hope the chap who did Vagrant Story's brilliant translation is employed for
Dragon's Dogma 2, which is reportedly already under development.
In brief: good music and effects, but the voice-acting could
use a better translation and some better performances.
Graphics
Character faces could be better, but perhaps I'm being
picky. The transition from dawn to brilliant sunshine and then through dusk to
absolute darkness works very well.
The effects of spells are well done, and it's great to see
that when you cast a very high end spell (high maelstrom or high bolide, for
example) the game doesn't skimp on the effect. There are few more joyous sights
than seeing an entire gang of bandits slain by a giant whirlwind or crushed by
meteorites raining from the sky. Especially pleasing is that when fighting a
massive foe you can set parts of their body ablaze, which looks great.
The landscapes look nice, and there's a little bit of
variety between grassy, rocky and wooded areas. I really liked the
armour/clothing variety. I'd been worried from some of the pictures that
there'd be an abundance of chainmail bikini style armour, but most of it looks
good without plumbing such depths (or attaining such heights, if that's your
kind of thing).
In brief: the graphics are pretty good generally and
especially so in combat.
Bugs and other issues
I don't want to jinx the game but I don't think I came
across an actual bug.
The save slot issue I've mentioned already, and some quests
will be cancelled, sometimes without warning, if you accept a certain different
quest.
The difficulty is, for me, pitched perfectly, but if you
played Skyrim on normal and thought it was pretty tough then this game might
not be for you.
The framerate can very occasionally slow a little, but this happened rarely and wasn't too serious.
It's not a problem with the game itself, but on-disc DLC is
the work of Satan. I really hope this doesn't make a repeat appearance for the
sequel.
Conclusion
I very rarely pre-order games, especially on a whim, but
this has turned out to be a surprisingly good game. The combat is the best in
an RPG since Vagrant Story, the pawn system is innovative and works very well
and the story (whilst conspicuously absent in the middle of the game) is a
fresh take on the old 'dragon threatens the world' plot, which has become
rather common in RPGs of late.
There are rough edges, but they're minor compared to the
excellence of combat and the sense of actually beating a game instead of just
jumping through hoops. I knocked half a point off the score due to a lack of
extra stuff for a new game plus.
Score: 8.5/10
