Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen (Xbox 360) Reviews

Intro

A magnificent RPG is to be had in this open-world fantasy adventure that is Dragon's Dogma! Though rough around the edges, Dragon's Dogma has, in alot of ways, similar features but unites them in a unique way (If that makes any sense). Alot of elements that can be noticed such as: The fighting style, large scale battles, and toughness that of Dark Souls, or the massive open-world element that of Elder Scrolls are the reasons why this game is so intriguing. Even a Lord of the Rings feel as you venture the world with up to 3 other pawn characters. And with new innovation features such as the Pawn System, it allows for a better sense of social interaction amongst friends and gamers alike. And the familiar and innovative elements of this game are what make it stand out and truly marvel as an RPG!

Story
The plot of the game is centered around a mysterious Red Dragon whom you engage in battle with at the beginning of the story. Despite your courageous attempt to protect your fishing village that is being attacked, the dragon them eats your heart and flees. Now is there you are reborn, Arisen, destined to defeat the Red Dragon, retrieve your stolen heart and unveil the mysteries surrounding that event. As you progress through the game you'll be able to create a unique Pawn who will be the Mac to your Cheese, the Peanut Butter to your Jelly...pretty much your right hand man/woman. They will endure all the hardship you experience with you and never leave your side. They'll even be able to help other players if need be..which will be described later!



Enemies & Environment
Almost as soon as the game starts you'll be exposed to the MASSIVE open-world and all that the game has to offer. This game is, in no way shape or form, linear. From the moment you leave your hometown you're free to go wherever you want, do whatever you want, and however you want with whomever you want! The game also feature a wide variety of monsters and enemies, each appearing in certain setting and environments. Goblins, wolves, bandits, harpies, trolls, chimeras, and wyverns(Baby dragons) are just a FEW of the many trials that you'll face which keep attention whenever you explore undiscovered areas of the game. As for boss battles, these are a treat for all. New features allow for scaling large creatures in ways such as grasping a griffin as it takes to the skies and continuing to hold on to dead live but attempting to chop it's wings off as well. Very innovative and creative as many enemies major and minor can be subjected to this feature.




The landscape and scale of this game is what I've personally spent 30 hours of the gameplay exploring and they're just sights to stop and gaze upon. Caves, mountains, ruins, valleys and giant towers are some of the setting that are waiting to be ventured and are what compels me to keep discovering the next best thing. And with over 150 locations in the game, your exploration and discoveries will be vast and intriguing from the first footstep.



Another great feat to the game is the free flowing, real-time fighting mechanics that are simple and grow more constructive as you level up. As you level up you'll earn experience which will level up you and your main pawn. Also included are discipline points that are earned from a percentage of your experience points. These points are what are spent when purchasing skills or new vocations(classes). As you start the game you can choose between a fighter, strider or mage vocation and as the game progresses you can choose from hybrid vocations mixing up techniques and battle styles. And with classes come skills abilities! Based on your class you'll be able to choose specific augments and skills which keep the fighting fresh and keep attention to the gamers.



Gameplay & Features
Other than the natural elements that are feature in traditional RPG's the most innovative feature in the game is the Pawn System. When you start off in the game you'll be sent to The Rift, an alternate world where pawn nomads wander. They are mainly used for their combat skills yet lack free will and emotion. Yet they are destined to aid the Arisen whenever needed. It is there that you'll able to create your right hand man/woman, or Pawn. This created character will be customizable and be shaped however you want them to be. At that point the two of you will venture and fight, defend and support you with their life. With time you'll be able to give them a class and fully develop them as you see fit. Mixing up your pawn's vocations amongst one another can create different variation of skills and techniques.



As for online use: During online play main pawns created by online players become support pawns and are registered by the servers to be used in The Rift. Here you can search for other players pawns based on vocation, skill, gender, level to help you in your realm, or world. You're only able to recruit 2 support pawns at a time to help you if you're struggling with enemies or aren't accustom to certain areas that they have knowledge in. This is known as renting pawns.



Now as payment for such pawns you'll be paying in Rift Crystals. This form of currency is obtained by completing quests in the world or finding rift fragments. The price of Rift Crystals varies based on the level and experience of the pawns you wish to recruit. However, if you have a friend on your friends-list with a pawn you wish to recruit, the payment is FREE! And if it's free, it's for me! Another form of indirect of payment also applies and very intriguing.



During online play, data is transmitted and received whenever you stay at an inn. If your pawn is being downloaded by another player since your last stay, they will bring back gifts including new knowledge on areas and quests not yet completed or ventured, items and equipment, experience and even Rift Crystals. So this is a passive payment if anyone downloads your pawn (Vice-Versa). Pretty awesome no?
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Drawbacks
Now that we've heard all the positive and intriguing aspect of Dragon's Dogma there is of course, the not so sunny side of it. A few minor and major faults of the game are what make the game rough around the edges and give skepticism to unsure gamers. With it the following shed some light on those issues.

Loading screens
In this game the loading screens almost always pop up when transitioning into a cave or a new city and just aren't my cup of tea when I'm in the zone. Another form of which every time the game starts up you are prompted by the DLC board which gives updates on upcoming packs and DLC. Nothing to big but it does get a big annoying.

No character/player relation
Vague character, story, and quest lines. With which you'd think these aspects would be an RPG's strong points. Other than creating a character there are no connection between character and gamer. As many we'd all want to care for them in some form but little is to be had here.

Lacking story
The story of the game is quite interesting at the start of the game, however with the massive MMO like world the central theme of the game goes out the window for the next several hours due to exploration and such. None of which are cross linear to the storyline.

Remedial tasks
Lastly, quests being how money is to be made are redundant and remedial as several are recycled, and hold no true value to the games core.


Conclusion
As much as it is great, Dragon's Dogma is a peculiar game by nature. Brave ambition and intriguing innovation is where the game shows it can stand as a fantastic action RPG. With the amazing fighting style, vast open world, and pawn system, the games gives gamers something that is familiar and new at the same time. With drawbacks, that are usually the marvel of RPG's the game is left feeling somewhat unpolished and leaving more to be desired. Dragon's Dogma is a challenge and great if you're in for adventures and if given the chance, the clash of new and old can be what make it loved by all! Thank you for reading!

Dragon's Dogma Trailer

There's Aught Missing

The June 2011 edition of Game Informer magazine included a fairly short one-page article previewing a new IP from Capcom: Dragon's Dogma. The impressive screen shots and brief description of the game made it sound like an open-world Monster Hunter with a real plot; I immediately took note of the game and followed it right up until release. As more information about the game surfaced it became more and more clear that it wasn't exactly what I'd initially hoped, but was still shaping up to be one of the best looking games of 2012. Was it?

My copy came as fast as they could ship it and I wasted no time sticking the game into my Xbox. It took its sweet time installing but when it was finally done, I was pumped and ready to go. The first thing I noticed was that even on my 16:9 TV, the game was presented in letterbox. Persistent black bars on the top and bottom of the screen annoyingly took up space that could have otherwise been occupied by the game's beautiful title sequence (backed by some admittedly unexpected and off-putting J-Rock song). Surely, they'll go away when I start the game right? Or change a setting? Well, no. They don't.

Okay, I'm not going to let one little annoyance detract from the game I was looking forward to for a year. I pressed on through the satisfyingly in depth character creator and crafted a hero that would look you square in the eyes and declare “I kick ass.” The game then began with the introduction of a simple enough looking village by a sea – quite gorgeous, really, until some pesky dragon comes and ruins everything. As the rest of the village flees, my fearless character takes up steel and rushes the ferociously large beast (seriously – this thing was huge).

In retrospect, it may not have been my character's smartest life decision. For all his efforts he was easily bested by the beast. The dragon looks at him amused by his vain efforts, and to really rub it in, the dragon plucks out my character's heart. But just when I'm thinking well that was a short game, my character awakes in a bed with a hard-to-miss scar plastered across his empty chest. How am I still alive? What does the dragon want with my heart? How do I get it back? Don't worry, I'll let you find the answers on your own.

And here is where you begin your journey in Dragon's Dogma. After choosing a starting class and a discussion about what you must do now, you'll be off to freely roam the world. In WRPG style the game is presented to you at your own pace: explore the world, seek out quests from NPCs, or just continue right on with the main plot-line. Doing the last will quickly introduce you to perhaps the game's most interesting aspect: Pawns.

Pawns are soulless, strange human-like beings that have little to no free will on their own. They are instead tied very closely to a person, whose leadership and power reflect in themselves. Shortly into the game you'll enter a second character creation screen, this time to create your “Main Pawn.” Your Main Pawn is the Pawn that is tied to your character, and will always be with you through thick and thin (unless you, say, throw them off a cliff. Not that I'd know, or anything).

The cool part about Pawns is the online renting system. If you're connected to the internet (Gold membership is not required - so that's a plus!) you will encounter and can subsequently enlist the services of real players' Pawns, and they can do the same to yours! Don't worry; your Pawn will never leave your side. When you prompt the server, it will find out if anyone has rented your Pawn, and they'll tell you how well they performed and what kind of rewards you got from it. This very neat feature gives the game a pseudo-MMO feel, and at face value is superb. However a more in depth inspection of the system, while still fully functional and probably the most appealing aspect of the game, reveals a troubling number of nuances that cry poor design.

One not-so-great thing about Pawns is their constant yapping. The concept at first seems so great: the Pawns actively talk to you as you explore and battle, telling you about the area you're in or revealing a critical weakness of a foe. Sounds great, right? It really is at first, and through most of the game it's admittedly tolerable because they'll usually have new things to say as long as you keep going to new areas. But by the time you hear “Wolves hunt in packs!” for the hundredth time for just walking relatively close to a wolf, you may seriously consider just turning the sound off and with a forgettable soundtrack, you wouldn't be missing a whole lot.

Fortunately for the Pawns, even their insistent clamoring may not be distracting enough to take your focus away from the combat in Dragon's Dogma. Easily one of the game's most addictive aspects, Dragon's Dogma offers satisfyingly unique and varied skills across nine interesting classes. Gameplay and combat from one class to the next can easily be radically different from each other, but one thing remains consistent: using your flashy talents to fell a fully-climbable club-flailing cyclops or ferociously fearsome chimera never really ceases to be entertaining.

The game world is decently sized, particularly considering a lack of practical fast-travel features in your first playthrough. Subsequent “New Game+”s allow you to quickly travel around the world, but your first foray really encourages you to explore as much as possible by... well, making you. There's both an up and downside to this. The upside is that although most of Gransys looks similar (rolling green pastures), there are enough spots to mix it up and keep exploration interesting (a foggy forest, mountain-side path, canyon ravine, and poisonous bog come to mind). The downside is that enemy placements are entirely predictable: static levels, and static spawn points. One trip from Point A to Point B will essentially be the same as the next trip between the same points, unfortunatelly.

Dragon's Dogma also suffers from very poor pacing. There's actually quite a lot to do (about 40 hours of play assuming you do a modest amount of side content), but it's all horribly presented. The game presents three types of quests: Main quests, side quests, and notice board quests. The notice board variety are the bottom rung: they're essentially the same quests just under different circumstances, like “Escort this person to this place,” and serve as purely inconsequential ways of gaining money or experience. Side quests are presented to you by an actual NPC and while they don't always tie into the main story, they sometimes do.

The problem lies in the way they, and even the main quests, are explained or presented to you. It's never good when you're working your way through a quest you know is incredibly important, yet you're asking yourself “Wait... why am I doing this again?” Sadly, the plot is actually quite good. The last few missions, and indeed a few missions scattered through the game, had me on the edge of my seat wondering desperately what was going to happen next. Yet because of the poor narration and explanation of the plot, a second playthrough of the game led to a lot of “Ooooooohhhhhhhh” moments. A lot of wasted potential in this category.

I was so excited when I got this game, and was thoroughly pleased with it as I played through it. If you had asked me to write a review right after completing it, I'd be hard-pressed to critique it honestly and would hail it as one of the best games of recent years. With time I've come to look at the game more critically and was able to spot more than a few things that end up making Dragon's Dogma look like Capcom offering us a beta test for what they could have really done with this concept. But if this title ends up just being the precursor to something even greater in the future then I was happy to be a part of the process.

Achievements
Dragon's Dogma's achievements aren't totally unheard of for an RPG. A lot of them are story progression related, a few others relate to side content or exploration. The trickiest of them all would probably be completing all sidequests, or amassing a rather large armoury. Even these, however, are easy to tackle with or without a guide (though for the sidequests, a guide can be very helpful). As of this review, there are no DLC-exclusive achievements, and a completionist should have no trouble maxing this game out.
Achievements never affect the score of a game and are included by reader request. Only the categories below influence the final score.

Summary
Graphics: A few noteworthy scenes stand out in an otherwise average game graphically.

Sound: Lackluster soundtrack and less-than-impressive voice overs coupled with annoyingly repetitive Pawn dialogue makes Sound not this game's strongest point.

Plot: One of my personally favourite plots of recent years is nearly ruined by abysmal pacing and presentation.

Gameplay: Pawns give this single-player game some online flair, and combat with hulking climbable enemies like dragons and hydras is beyond addicting.

Length/Replay Value: 40-50 hours of open-world exploration and questing may be all you get out of this one. Different difficulties and a “speedrun mode” may provide limited replayability, but with no multiplayer aspects and very little end-game content many players may be happy with completing the game once and being done with it.

Yea or Nay? I recommend fans of both RPGs and action-adventure games check out this title as it offers a pleasing mix of both. However, as of this review's publication, Capcom is merely months away from releasing an updated retail version called Dark Arisen. This newer version will be the same game but include extra content and enhanced features. Even if this review made you interested in the game, I urge you to wait a few months until Dark Arisen's release and purchase that instead.

Final score: 7.8/10

At first glance, Dragon’s Dogma promises open world action-RPG in which a hero and his pawns set off on his epic quest to slay the dragon. It has already received free dlc which adds two new game modes, it will receive an expansion later this year, and the sequel has also been announced by Capcom. So is this game worthy of all these extras? Short answer: yes. Long answer: included below.

A tale about a dragon, the Arisen and some other stuff.

The game starts with a short prequel in which you play as an unknown hero in an unknown dungeon who is on a quest to slay the mighty dragon which threatens the world. This section teaches us the basics of the game. After a run-in with a mighty chimera the prequel ends.

Now the real game begins. We get to create a character and find ourselves in a small fishing village named Cassardis. However, there is no time to relax and explore the village as there is a sudden attack by a mighty dragon. It seems our unknown hero from the prequel failed in his quest. Unlike his fellow villagers, who panic and run, our newly created character rises to the challenge. And in the process fails miserably, gets his or her heart stolen by the dragon and then somehow survives. This event marks the start of your journey in which your ultimate goal is to slay the dragon and reclaim your heart. There is a background story to all this, which apparently explains how our character can live without a heart and why he or she should reclaim it. But honestly, even after two playthroughs, I still don’t understand half of it. The poor, sometimes even dreadful, voice acting, the rough looks of the game and the at times ridiculous character animation during dialogues also do not help the storytelling.

So the story overall is not really engaging. Does this matter? In most RPGs, it would but not in this one. This game is more about exploring a massive world full of dangers and learning how to deal with it as you progress through the world.

Strength in numbers, Arisen

Before we set off on our epic quest we get to choose a vocation. In short, this is your character class and it features the typical warrior, rogue and wizard. It doesn’t seems very exciting at first but later in the game six other vocations can also be chosen. These feature specialist and hybrid classes. Furthermore, each vocation has unique skills and equipment. Up to six active skills can be taken into field at once and these can be learned and changed at inns. So actually, a lot of different play styles are possible and you can alter your character any time you visit an inn.

After a short walk with a fellow with a glowing hand, we arrive at an army encampment. It is here we find out that there is one plus to the dragon taken your heart. Apparently you are now an Arisen and can summon Pawns from the Rift at will. Yeah right, how do they come up with stuff like this? Anyway, Pawns are the all-important sidekicks which will fight at your side, gather items and help you through quests. Your main pawn is your own creation and will stay at your side at all time. Apart from a vocation and skills, you can also set an inclination for your pawn. This inclination greatly affects a pawn’s behavior in the game. Furthermore, you can hire two more pawns created by either the game or other players. Where your pawn levels with you, the hired pawns do not. Thus, the game encourages you to change your party often and you can experiment freely with different party set-ups. I had a lot of fun experimenting with different party setups and tactics against the various enemies in-game. It is a pity though, that the use of both the leveling and the pawn system are poorly explained in the game. The poor explanation of some of the basics makes the start of your journey far more difficult than it should be.

The Arisen’s duty

As Arisen, it is our duty to rid the world of all the terrible beasts the dragon has unleashed upon it. In fulfilling this duty, we will face three kinds of quests: main, side and notice board quests. Overall, the game takes an open world approach, but some sections are cleverly closed off by powerful beasts, or door which you cannot open till you progress in the main quest line. The main and side quests are often related and gradually introduce you to new enemies and areas. Because the quests are related, completing side quests can also affect main quests. For example, if you choose to help a fellow recover a magic tome, he might show up in another quest where you set out to kill a mighty beast and help you by casting spells the battle against this beast (sorry I’m not giving more details, that would spoil the moment for you).

The downside to the interwoven quests is that progressing through the main storyline can cause side quests to fail for no apparent reason. Oh, and if you think you are smart and load up an older save to do the side quest first; you can’t do that. The game has only one save slot and it auto-saves in that slot, so there is no going back. Nevertheless, the main and side quests are mostly interesting and fun. Sadly, the notice boards quests are your typical grind quests where you a kill a certain amount of enemies or gather a certain amount of items. Really, it is best not to bother with the notice boards because the quests they offer are uninspired and boring.

Well-equipped and ready for battle

With our quest log filled, skills set and pawns ready for action, let’s discuss a very important aspect of this game: the combat. The combat is action-oriented with the different vocations offering a wide variety of possible styles. Your foes are not just your typical bandits and goblins, but also massive beasts from mythology. Battles against these creatures are in one word epic. Unlike other games where you hack away at the toes of the beast until its hp bar is down, this game makes you work for your kill. The game takes a Monster Hunter approach to combat and preparation, tactics and patience are key. Climbing of beasts to exploit weak-spots is also possible, and really cool. In combat, the camera can be a bit unwieldy but this rarely gives trouble. Dragon’s Dogma offers challenging battles which can easily last over 30 minutes against some of the bigger creatures. But even the simplest enemies can pose big trouble if you rush in due to a good AI. Rarely, have I seen bandits or wolves work together so well. Still the game doesn’t get too frustrating when you recognize that some areas are best avoided at low levels. Overall, this game remains challenging throughout your first play-through.

Achievements

So what do we get for all our efforts to rid the world of terrible beasts? A lot of satisfaction and, more importantly, 50 achievements. Most of which are unlocked through completing quests, exploring and looting. Basically, it is your typical RPG list with one downside. Some of the achievements are secret and easily missed and since you only get one save slot, you have to replay the entire game if you missed one of these. Well, you have to do the game twice anyway since there is an achievement for that too. And that second playthrough can get rather boring since it is a cakewalk compared to your first one.

Summary

Overall, Dragon’s Dogma is best described as a diamond in the rough. It is a great game which sets the player on an epic journey of exploration and monster slaying. But it also suffers from poor graphics and storytelling and quests which fail for no apparent reason. Still, it is one of the better RPG’s out there and if you can look past its faults it will easily keep you occupied for about 60 or so hours.

Games over the past few years have arguably become somewhat lacking in innovation with countless 3rd and 1st person shooters flooding the market.
Last year we saw Dark Souls which broke the mould and won acclaim across the industry. Capcom now step forward hoping to achieve the same with their newest creation Dragon's Dogma.

The game starts in similar fashion to most action RPGs, firstly designing your hero. While the character creation is a mixture of presets and a couple of sliders it is well put together and offers you enough choice to feel like the character your creating is fairly unique, options such as split eye colours show a good attention to detail where many other games fall short.

Again following the usual RPG theme, you start in a small village as a seemingly ordinary person. Shortly afterwards the town is attacked by a massive dragon. Seemingly this brings out the hero in you and you are forced to fight. The dragon makes light work of you however it soon becomes apparent he likes a challenge, and promptly rips out and eats your heart before telling you if you want it back you'll have to go through him.
Fortunately not having a heart seems to only be a minor setback for our hero, he soon wakes and you can set off on your epic journey.
Just before leaving the first town, a mysterious character falls from the sky and insists on accompanying you. You are informed he is a pawn however for now this makes little sense so we'll catch up with that later.

Leaving the first town you'll find the controls fairly straight forward. Movement is with left stick, camera on the right. there is a slightly unusual element of skill attacked being selected by holding a shoulder button then choosing x,y or b. Although slightly unusual the skill system is fairly intuitive and takes little time to get comfortable with.

Moving forward you soon arrive at the next town, here you are challenged by a voice to prove yourself as the arisen. Once this is achieved the voice is appeased and you are granted your very own pawn.
This is the single most innovative part of this game and what truly sets it apart from others in its genre. A pawn is a secondary character that will follow you to the ends of the earth. As you did for yourself you are offered a full character editor to customise them how you please.
After this is done it is explained that other heroes in other worlds are able to hire the use of you pawn to help them in their quests. This is similar to the summoning situation in dark souls where you can get assistance but actual online play is limited you will not see hundreds of other players running around for example.
Once you have your pawn setup you can access an interface to hire other peoples yourself. There is a variety of search options and you can choose how you think will best suit your team using rift crystals which you can find, or gain from others renting your pawn.
Your team can consist of a maximum of 3 pawns (your own and two others) adding an element of final fantasy esque team battles, but obviously in real-time.
Further to this Pawns also are quite the scholars; they will learn from experience both in how to fight enemies and how to complete the quests you undertake. While the second might immediately seem of little use, hiring a more experienced pawn that has completed your missions can easily save you some running around as they are quite vocal and will help guide you as best they can.
Occasionally after you rest at an inn you will be informed your pawn has returned for helping another hero and you may find yourself receiving gifts as well as new knowledge, a brief review and some rift crystals

** Mild Spoiler alert look away now**

Once you are all set you progress through the story with challenging missions and enemies which could use a little more variety but just about enough to not get too boring, this all comes to a final climax which gives you one of the most epic final battles you will have played in any game.
Then if that wasn't enough once you've reclaimed your heart the game throws an extra little twist and offers you both some more missions for a second complete ending followed by the chance to play an ever more popular new game +.

** You can look again now **

One thing to point out, currently NG+ doesn’t scale with character level and as such the second play through will seem easy which is a shame.

Beyond that there is little to say, this game is one that is at risk of being missed by many despite great creativity and innovation. It is solidly built with great visuals and attention to detail.

For me this should be considered a big challenger for game of the year. And a highly recommend buying it if you can find a copy.

NB. A short point to note, some people have compared the difficulty of this game to Dark souls. I feel it is worth saying that with the exception of a couple of places in the game this is not the case, which mistakes are punished with a good team the difficulty is never beyond the reach of the player and certainly not something to put people off.

Edit: couple of changes to address potential spoilers.

Playing this game I'm any where from utter despair to saying this game is awesome. From what I have played so far I have marveled and sank in to depression. Whilst doing so many things well there are a few major flaws.

The story starts well enough your heart is stolen by a dragon yet you are still alive but the story does seem to fade. From an RPG this is not a good sign many quests lack depth and substance and at times so does the main story, you will often try to chat to random people in the street and they will say "I will talk to you later" I mean what the hell is that useful for? A lot of potential but lacking.

The graphics range any where from spectacular to average depending where you are in the world. It is difficult to craft an open world but surely they could do better in some areas.

The enemies range from your standard wild life and bandits to large boss creatures chimeras and hydras. You have the ability to climb on them reminiscent of Shadow of Colossus to attack there weak points but during their thrashing around it can be hard to direct where exactly you want your character to climb. But with no fast travel you will be fighting the same enemies over and over again due to set respawn point. Again good interesting ideas better than QTE but not the best execution perhaps.

But I do not hate this game I can look past the flaws and can see what could have been. The problems in the game did not stop me from enjoying the game but there were parts I wanted to rip my hair out. Constantly walking back and forth across the same area fighting the same bandits in the same spot a million times all the while your pawns shout the same pointless drivel over and over again to the point you want to throw the game out the window. It is a shame there is so much potential but the flaws will turn most players off this game it is Dragon Age esque but with a more open world.

The best bit- Some of the boss battles are epic

The worst bit- If I here a pawn yell "HARPIES!!!" One more time their is a good chance I may kill some one.
Scoring this game is difficult I dont want to rate it to low as the game is great at points but the flaws demand points be taken off. After some thought I'm rating this game
80% - with an asterisk
You will either love this game or hate it. I recommend a rent for most RPG players and would only recommend a purchase if you loved the Dragon Age games. The reason the score is high despite all the problems highlighted is due to potential and the creators trying to do something slightly different with the battle system instead of following the crowd.