Dragon's Dogma

Do dragons really have a dogma?

This game has quite a few interesting aspects that keep it unique from other games in it's genera, even if it isn't the story. The combat and classes as well as the unique amount and varied monsters keep this game generally fresh. The world overall can seem droll at times, but as often as not, there is quite a bit of beauty to some areas. The pawn party is unique onto itself since I don't recall any other game doing such a thing and although the game's surroundings can be beautiful at times, the graphics aren't always a pretty. These are my thoughts about Dragon's Dogma.

I have to fight that!?

 

The story begins with the awakening of a dragon, hence the title. It decides to attack the village your character lives in, in which you, since you're such a brave soul, begin to attack it using only a sword and wearing some cloth. Not really a smart idea since the dragon could literally eat you. Instead it decides to take your heart, for unknown reasons, and gobble it down. Apparently when this happens you become Arisen. Your journey is set in stone, you're to kill the dragon and end this blight of it's attacks and vanquish other monsters as well. No easy task alone, but with your fellow pawns, you can take on the dragon to defeat it. What's a pawn? A pawn is a being that looks human, yet doesn't give expression, feelings, or anything otherwise. They are exactly what they are called, pawns. They are there for the Arisen, to fight monsters and otherwise protect the Arisen from death. They also come from a dimension called The Rift, in which you can summon other pawns, but I'm getting ahead of myself. There are quests, people to help and people to become friends with which all ultimately aid you in your quest to kill the dragon.

"It get's excited when it sees a women!"

 

The combat in this game varies enough to keep you otherwise occupied. The controls can be sketchy at times and targeting the creature you would like to kill can be difficult since there's no lock-on capabilities with most classes.  Each enemy has their own set of weaknesses and strengths that you need to learn. Your pawns generally tell you what each is weak to and knows how to deal with each foe. If you have a pawn that doesn't know how to deal with said foe, they learn about it. The more you fight an enemy, the more they learn. It's an interesting feature and it also works the same way with quests. There is a unique gameplay ability that allows you to grab or scale a monster, like in the sense of Shadow of the Colossus. You can grab hold of any creature, be it human, wolf, or cyclops. This adds another interesting element to combat. For instance, be wary when climbing up the back of this ogre in the picture above or he may just jump up and slam on his back to get you off. Your pawns are able to do the same and by having them grab hold, they can attack while holding and slow the monster with their own weight.

Every class is a viable option

Any class you choose can be effective. Even the basic classes from the three choices in the beginning can be kept till the end of the game. As you level these classes, you increase your vocation level which allows you to learn more abilities. The higher the level of your vocation, the better off you are. What's that? You don't enjoy the class you chose? That's fine too since you have the ability, once you reach the main city, to choose which ever vocation you'd like. Not only that, but you also have access to six more classes. You begin with your basic fighter, mage and strider. If you're not enjoying those or you just feel like trying something new, you've got your advanced classes, which is a beefier version of your basic classes, or you've got your hybrid classes, which blend two classes together and allows you to use abilities and weapons of both basic classes. I myself went from a strider to a ranger simply because I'm a fan of longbows. It turns out I made a good choice. Be wary though, not every class can use every weapon or armor. Most equipment is class based and as such I almost made the mistake of not having a bow when I changed classes. You can also upgrade your gear through vendors with specific materials collected from the land or monsters. Not only can you change your class, but you can change the class of your main pawn as well. Quite useful as I found that having only two mages in my party was holding me back greatly. You also can upgrade their equipment as well. Each class has their unique capabilities and work quite well in tandem with all other classes that your pawns can have.

At least they're not lonely

 

Speaking of pawns, Capcom decided to introduce a unique way of adding pawns to your party by way of a Rift Stone. These stones allow you to go into the dimension that the pawns reside in and choose which pawns you'd like to include in your party. Of course, your main pawn is always there to stay, I based my pawn off of a friend of mine actually. Not only can you invite pawns to join your party in the main world, since so many roam around there, but you can come into the rift and find specific pawns for your team. Even more specifically, you can choose to add any of your friend's main pawns to your party as well. It's like you're playing with your friends, but you're not. You are however helping them out greatly by helping them collect rift crystals. Rift crystals are used to pay a pawn to join your party in some cases, or are used to purchase rare items from some special vendors. Questing with pawns earns them crystals when their Arisen gets online the next time. Not only can you get additional currency, but if you so choose, when you leave a pact with a pawn in your group, that pawn will return to it's owner with the items left on it. Think of it as gift giving since the player will receive that item. This also implements a neat way of helping a friend who doesn't have good enough gear to continue with the game, or to help him upgrade his gear.

Breathtakingly average

 

The world and scenery in this game can be great at times and very dull at times. I've found that traversing the land gets boring rather quickly, until I explore a new area. I find the main problem is that you'll be running through the same areas over and over far too often. Capcom has always had this problem with backtracking as I call it. You open a new way to find a key to a door which you've explored to before which gives you a key to a door that was in your new way. They've gotten better at fixing that issue with sending you straight ahead in some cases, but when you have an open world to explore like this, I find it better for the atmosphere to add interesting locations to run across rather than a canyon floor. There were times I stopped and admired the view, but mostly I trekked through areas rather quickly to get to the next location. The turning from night to day gives a bit different scenery and more danger as areas you've been through can have stronger enemies or just a larger amount than during the day. Most locations are just your generalize caves, mountains, plains and forests. Others can include ruins, catacombs, and other ancient structures. Apparently the main city is ancient, but it looks pretty well kept to me. The world can feel small at times, but if there's an area you haven't explored you, you should head there if you want to find something new. Be careful though since you're more likely to run across something that could easily kill you as I've done that time and time again.

There are some issues that I have with this game overall. The one that annoys me the most is the pawn chatter. They say the same things far too often, way too often actually. It's nice to hear some lore about the place, but they don't need to say something about it each time we go through. I'd rather like to duct tape their mouths than anything. Another thing is the lack of a targeting system. When using melee attacks against small enemies, I like to move from one to another quickly and with accuracy, but am sometimes unable to. Not a game breaking point, but frustrating at times. The foliage in this game is completely lacking graphically. It's your basic 2-D image pasted to stick in one spot while it rotates around to keep the same view for you. It's ugly unless used correctly which it's not in this game. There's close to no 3-D foliage except for trees and bushes. Maybe I'm nitpicking, but I dislike that and feel it's more lazy than anything else. There are other small things that can be annoying at times like the weight system, but that's there for a reason and is justified. Also the missing feature of fast travel, but again, was not included due to the game's design and is also justified.

The issues listed before are miniscule in comparison to the pros in this game. Being able to climb on the back of huge bosses and monsters gives an exhilarating feeling of power and struggle which I so desperately love. The ability to upgrade weapons and armor that you find or purchase is nice since I've grown accustomed to doing so in other games. The pawn system is a great way to raise difficulty since you can make it so you've only got a party of two rather than four, although the difficulty in general tough as is. This game implements things that others should follow even if it lacks in other areas. I for one am enjoying this game and will further enjoy it in the time to come. There is a demo of the game out right now, so if you're leery on purchasing it, you can download the demo and give it a try. Dragon's Dogma is currently available on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.

Tomorrow I'll be talking about Monster Hunter, another Capcom developed game, and more specifically about Monster Hunter Tri for the Wii. Until then keep on slaying those monsters and game everyday.