Dragon's Dogma Review

Greg Tito

PR for Dungeons & Dragons
Sep 29, 2005
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Dragon's Dogma Review

After the dragon attacks, tedium sets in.

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Dec 14, 2009
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I really like this game.

Reminds me of Dark Souls and Monster Hunter.

Light on story, but great on combat mechanics, character customisation and atmosphere.
 

BehattedWanderer

Fell off the Alligator.
Jun 24, 2009
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So...Skyrim crossed with Monster Hunter?

That's kind of the feel I'm getting from the review. Maybe a touch of Dark Souls, with the size of boss enemies and the supposed difficulty?

And I like the idea of there being areas that are beyond you, since it seems like it would be more accurate. Even Fallout had places where you could stumble into creatures that would turn you to ribbons if you weren't prepared (and sometimes even if you were), while maintaining a fairly loose narrative structure. I'll be picking this up soon, in that case.
 

StriderShinryu

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Dec 8, 2009
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Typo Alert:
Greg Tito said:
But even after you figure out a strategy to defeat them, it just takes far too long to whittle down their huge XP bar
Should probably be "huge HP bar"

Anyway, I'm quite enjoying the game so far. It's still a rarity to get solid enjoyable combat in a large scale RPG and, as I'm playing a melee character, I haven't really noticed the aiming difficulties described in the review.

I definitely feel this is one of those games that is a pretty ibvious buy or not buy. There's not much hidden here. If you want an open world action RPG with Capcom's consistently strong combat system allowing you fight recognizable mythological beasts, this ones for you. If that doesn't excite you then there's nothing here to change your mind.
 

remmus

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Aug 31, 2009
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BehattedWanderer said:
So...Skyrim crossed with Monster Hunter?

That's kind of the feel I'm getting from the review. Maybe a touch of Dark Souls, with the size of boss enemies and the supposed difficulty?

And I like the idea of there being areas that are beyond you, since it seems like it would be more accurate. Even Fallout had places where you could stumble into creatures that would turn you to ribbons if you weren't prepared (and sometimes even if you were), while maintaining a fairly loose narrative structure. I'll be picking this up soon, in that case.
As someone who own the game I can confirm that the Dark Soul comparison is valid, the game has very little hand holding, with limited usefulness of magic healing, the one save file (and yes that includes the auto saves) as well as many enemies who will rip ya if you dont fight smart.
 

Lvl 64 Klutz

Crowsplosion!
Apr 8, 2008
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I don't know how the pawn system will work in the long-term scenario, but I'm really starting to get annoyed with companies adding online multiplayer components to their single player games. Multiplayer modes are all well and good, but things like this and White Knight Chronicles' online group quests seem to forget that eventually people stop playing these games, leaving people who arrive to the party a little late high and dry.

If the game keeps a constant database of these pawns, then I don't really have a complaint here, it's just a trend I've noticed a lot of RPG's (Western-themed J-RPG's for the most part, oddly enough) doing.
 

twaddle

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Nov 17, 2009
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It sounds like this is a great game, but it going to suffer from being severely underated because from looks alone,it looks like a third person skyrim knock-off, and the market is becoming oversaturated with old world fantasy rpgs
 

AwkwardTurtle

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Aug 21, 2011
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DVS BSTrD said:
Would also have been nice to have some decent character creation instead of a bunch of presets.
Just curious but what exactly do you mean by that statement? Do you mean the customization of the main character and pawn? I thought that the customization was pretty detailed in that respect. o-o

twaddle said:
It sounds like this is a great game, but it going to suffer from being severely underated because from looks alone,it looks like a third person skyrim knock-off, and the market is becoming oversaturated with old world fantasy rpgs
Okay, I know I shouldn't be asking you specifically about this, but seriously what about this game makes anyone think of Skyrim? I have never before been so at a loss about a comparison between two games.
 

AKDread

Yabadabadoo
Jun 1, 2012
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Daystar Clarion said:
I really like this game.

Reminds me of Dark Souls and Monster Hunter.

Light on story, but great on combat mechanics, character customisation and atmosphere.
you are right the story is lacking, but the game makes up for that with everything else.
magical archers FTW!
 

Eric the Orange

Gone Gonzo
Apr 29, 2008
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I'm kinda surprised you didn't mention the very limited fast travel system. from other reviews I've read that's usually the main complaint is the tedium it creates of retracing your steps through the same sets of re-spawning encounters.
 

Danzavare

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Oct 17, 2010
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I have a question: Does downloading other players' pawns on the Xbox 360 require Gold Membership? I have access to Xbox Live but, knowing the kinds of games I play, I've never found it worth buying a subscription.

I have a heap of games to get through first, but this is definitely on my to-buy list. At the very least my partner will probably make me snatch it up soon.
 

CD-R

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Mar 1, 2009
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Wether you like the game or not it did do one thing worthy of praise. It pretty much rendered quick time events obsolete. Also I'm surprised you didn't mention how at night the game literally turns into a survival horror.

Danzavare said:
I have a question: Does downloading other players' pawns on the Xbox 360 require Gold Membership? I have access to Xbox Live but, knowing the kinds of games I play, I've never found it worth buying a subscription.

I have a heap of games to get through first, but this is definitely on my to-buy list. At the very least my partner will probably make me snatch it up soon.
It's a multiplayer aspect so I'd imagine you would. But the game comes with a set of pre-made pawns so you don't have to be connected online. It's just more fun
 

Danzavare

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Oct 17, 2010
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CD-R said:
Wether you like the game or not it did do one thing worthy of praise. It pretty much rendered quick time events obsolete. Also I'm surprised you didn't mention how at night the game literally turns into a survival horror.

Danzavare said:
I have a question: Does downloading other players' pawns on the Xbox 360 require Gold Membership? I have access to Xbox Live but, knowing the kinds of games I play, I've never found it worth buying a subscription.

I have a heap of games to get through first, but this is definitely on my to-buy list. At the very least my partner will probably make me snatch it up soon.
It's a multiplayer aspect so I'd imagine you would. But the game comes with a set of pre-made pawns so you don't have to be connected online. It's just more fun
I just thought of it as downloading player-made DLC but I suppose Microsoft would probably disagree with me.

That's a relief, kind of, I imagine they won't be as interesting as the player-made characters.

Catpcha: snare drum
 

Simonoly

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Oct 17, 2011
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Lvl 64 Klutz said:
I don't know how the pawn system will work in the long-term scenario, but I'm really starting to get annoyed with companies adding online multiplayer components to their single player games. Multiplayer modes are all well and good, but things like this and White Knight Chronicles' online group quests seem to forget that eventually people stop playing these games, leaving people who arrive to the party a little late high and dry.

If the game keeps a constant database of these pawns, then I don't really have a complaint here, it's just a trend I've noticed a lot of RPG's (Western-themed J-RPG's for the most part, oddly enough) doing.
If you play it offline the game randomly generates pawns for you to hire.

If playing online, whenever you rest at an inn your main pawn is updated on the games' servers. So if I stopped playing the game tomorrow and never touched it again, someone in 2 years time would still be able to hire my pawn as it was the last time it was updated on the servers.

I actually had the same worry as you in regards to Demon's Souls and that's kind of come true now. Demon's Souls just isn't as much fun without the online mechanics.

Catchpa: morning person
 

Scars Unseen

^ ^ v v < > < > B A
May 7, 2009
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This is one of those games where the gaming public is highly at odds with the reviewing press. In the reviews, every compliment seems to be backhanded, and the reviewer seems to only grudgingly rate the game above a "meh." On the other hand, read some message boards, and you'll hear a lot of claims of this being their Game of the Year. I'm not certain I'm quite there yet, but it is the best new IP I've played in a while, and I would rate above Mass Effect 3 even if that one didn't have a shit ending.

My favorite 2 features of the game:

1) The "pawn" system has the best AI companions I've ever seen in a game. Your main pawn can be trained and learns combat tactics from observing your behavior as well as that of the monsters you fight. They will surprise you, and not in that "he's stuck on the chest high wall again" way. And that behavior carries over when you hire someone else's pawn.

2) Unlike most streamlined Action RPGs, the game is unpredictable, and that unpredictability actually breathes life into the game. Relatively early in the game, I was escorting a merchant to a military encampment, when we were set upon by skeleton mages and warriors. It was a tough fight, and just when I thought I was going to get the upper hand, a flight of nearby harpies joined the fight. Now I'm fighting spellcasters, greatsword wielding skeletons and monsters that will sing you to sleep and then swoop down and grab you, carrying you up into the sky. And just when I thought things couldn't get any worse, a chimera jumped in ans started tearing everyone up. It was a tough fight, but I managed to survive it, though the merchant wasn't so fortunate. It was the most fun I've ever had failing a quest.

Gryphons will swoop down and tear you apart, or they might just grab a cow and fly away, ignoring you altogther. Pawns will sacrifice themselves, riding an ogre down the side of a cliff so that you can survive. It helps that the combat is genuinely fun in a way that makes me laugh at all the GoW clones that couldn't hold my attention. This is a great game as long as you don't mind that it deals more in emergent storytelling than in cutscenes and scripted events.

By the way, You have a friend's list, and you don't have to pay to hire your friends' pawns. If someone wants a boost getting started, my PS3 ID is Scars_Unseen and I've currently got a level 26 fighter that can help out. His name is Taslar. Here's a current screenshot of him(he's the one on the left):