Hello Escapists. Just an hour or so I got ahold of the Dragon's Dogma Demo and I've noticed that a fair amount of people are interested in it (particularily PC players because as of yet, it is being console-exlusively released).
So to start with, the Demo is split into two parts, a prologue that presets your controlled character, and another mission that you do with your customized character and customized main-pawn.
Let me start with the customization menu. In short:It is extensive and you will have an easy time making the character you want the way you want it. There are options for any facial features, about 40 options for each, options for beards, hairstyle, a few tattoo's, scars, make-up, you can even customize Limb Length, Height, voice (just for attacks and recoils etc.) width, weight, posture and stance. Dragon's Dogma has a great customization menu.
Now to start with actual gameplay, I'm going to be frank. The demo's pretty short. Just one boss and a mob or two each.
Part 1: Mashing for Dear Life.
The first demo consists of you starting off just outside a dragons lair. The backstory is that you are Arisen, and have mastered an army to go an destroy this dragon, in order to end "the cycle" I'm not sure what this means but it sounds interesting. At first look I seemed lost, as with most Japanese style games, the UI feels sort of alien and almost intimidating, at least for me (a strict western style RPG'er), but after a few minutes you seem to not notice. You go into the cave with your companion only to empty out into a roofless cavern with a huge... I mean gigantic dragon, that quickly spots you, says something about destroying all life, and follows through with a massive spray of fire.
You quickly dash (sprint using the left stick) past the fires and run into a couple goblins. This is my first taste of combat. It consisted of Light Attacks (X Button) and Heavy Attacks (Y button), these are your sort of "keys" (X, Y, and B buttons) for the console. You can then invert them to a sort of different "build" depending on what your alternate weapon is with the left bumper, mine being a shield, switched to 3 more abilities Shield Bash(X button) Crest Attack (Y button, a shield bash but the heavy attack version) and then Shield Summon (B button, a sort of taunt).
I quickly dispatched these unfortunate crimson skinned demons.
The animations are fluid enough and the attacks have a bit of flair to them, your weapons seem like they have real weight as they crack bone and slice flesh. You jump off a ledge to find a glowing stone. Your companion informs you that these stones summon other Pawns that are loyal to you to the end. The companions given to you are an elfish sort of archer madam, and an old witch hag who is fluent in fire-magick. After these companions join your side, you empty into a hall and are soon cut off by a some more goblins, and then empty out into a greater room with a broken bridge and are cut off by a snow harpy. This is were combat gets interesting. You can either try jumping into the air and slash wildly at the harpy's wings, patiently use your taunting ability (LB+B) and wait for them to calm down, try to grab them out of the air (RT, used to grab ANYTHING, including companions, which is a bit funny to watch) or simply depend on your allies' abilities. The combat soon becomes a game of planning, but we'll get to that later.
After a few eliminating a few dozen or so Snow Harpy's, you jump off the bridge to the room below you and find the door to be slammed open and a few of your vanguard desperately shout for help. You meet them and rush into a grand hall,surrounded on all sides with rock walls but has one side with a staircase that has a huge door guarding it. After dispatching a few more foes, you rush to the door....
And are cut off by a giant f**king Chimera. This beast has a huge Lions head and torso, then the lower abdomen morphs into a gross sort of giant goat whos body piggy-backs the lions body and who's back legs serve as the all-in-all beast's hind legs, and then a monstorous anaconda-like snake serves as the tail.
The beast leaps from high up the wall and tackles one of your survivor vanguards, tearing him in pieces.
You quickly form rank with your companions and charge the beast. Now, this is when Dragon's Dogma may set itself in stone from any other RPG as far as combat goes. particularily in boss fights like this one. The monster's health was split into 3 sets, for each body part, Lion, Goat, and Snake, and each extremity had different rolls as far as mechanics went. You could selectively eliminate each of these using the climbing feature which uses light attacks which drain stamina while climbing, as opposed to when on ground where they don't; heavy attacks are used as a sort of combo finisher, once you use them while climbing, you follow up by jumping from the monster.
I rushed the monster... leaping high into the air, grabbing the ugly mug of the lion and flipping unto his bushy main, stabbing as I went across, and as I climbed the beast's neck it shook wildly, trying to break free of my grasp but I quickly gained footing and mounted its neck. I slash viciously, mashing my blade into its skull, my allies tearing away at the snake and goat trying to repel me. My mage companion caused my weapon to go ablaze, and soon the rugged flesh of the lion was set ablaze. I tore and hacked an then felt the satisfying tear of the lion's head, rendering the Chimera's physical attacks useless. I then lept off the beast, waited a few seconds to regain my stamina, and rushed the snake head, very quickly lopping it off with my sword. Then all that stood left was the nasty goat, kicking and struggling futily as it desperately tried to hit us with its sad last stand attacks.
The whole confrontation lasted about 10 minutes.
After defeating the beast, a looming voice (the dragon) filled the hall, challenging me to the ultimate duel.
DEMO OVER. Damn.
Anyways thats part 1 of the demo my friends. Take from it what you will and do what Escapists do! (Debate!)
Part 2: COMING AS SOON AS I CAN TYPE.
Part 2: When Mechanics Are King!
I immediately found myself in a field. I was playing as the giant badass viking I had customized in the menu just a few minutes before, and the pawn that I customized was just to my right. A mage named Alexandra (male, wierd name) and and archer named Sid (hah) were tagging along. In front of us we saw a gang of some Goblins, undoubtetly waiting to rob some unlucky folks along the roads.
I found my character to be wielding two daggers, and a bow to his back. I charged in with my daggers, twirling and twisting in a haze of steel. These animations are pretty damn impressive. Much more so than the sword/shield combo that the preset warrior from the other demo had.
I very quickly tore through these unfortunate goblins. I looked around and, in the distance a few hundred feet away, the gates of a large city of stone rose from the ground. Behind me was a hill with a dark forest just beyond, the sun was just in twilight.
I stared wondering if that was it. I looked around, not a health bar to dwindle at in sight. I started to pace towards the city. A low shriek echoed the valley, I looked around, the shriek got louder... then a massive shadow loomed over my party and I gazed to the sky, only to see a hulking mass of feather and tallon dive-bomb into my group. I was blasted back quite a ways, my health half drained from the devastating attack. I took out my bow (holding down the LB button,) and turned toward the monster. It was a giant Griffin, with massive wings and four eagle-like legs and an eagles head. I began firing bolts that were set ablazed by my mage companion. For a few minutes, my arrows just barely grazed the beast and I began to grow frusterated at my futile attempts. A message then appeared to the left saying my pawn had learned something. He turned to me and said "I have learned how to find this foe's ilk!(?)" he then yelled "Burn his wings!". In a sort of facepalm state, I aimed at the monsters wings and began letting arrows soar into the flesh. The beast stopped its flight and began hovering over my party, a sort of "wing buffet" effect coming from it, knocking my allies back a bit. But, with some effort, and well placed aim and tactics, dodging the beasts dive-bombs, dashing past mid-air slashes and claws, and jumping down some ledges in order to avoid the monsters fly-by's, the breackish feathers were set in flames and the monster screeched in pain, and plummeted to the ground. My party quickly swarmed the beast, it raked rabidly, tearing at anything that moved. Following a similar tactic I used against the Chimera, I leapt onto the monsters backside, hoping I could grab a wing. I pulled myself onto the monsters right wing, tearing away at ligaments and knotted muscle the beast quickly saw into my tactic and rolled onto its back accordingly, and knocking me away.
It began to take flight but I pulled a move that almost made me want to buy the game on the damn spot.
I gained my footing, coming out of a roll, and rushed to the target. Just as the beast began to get air, I jumped heroicly and reached for the monsters leg. To my disbelief I caught it! I began quickly tearing away at the monster and it only glided a few seconds before it gave into the magic bolt and fired arrow that flattened against the monsters skull; just before impact I let go of my foe and fell a few feet and came out of an evasive dive and into a full on sprint toward the Griffin. I ripped my daggers from their sheaths, and began my whirlwind of steel at my foe. He was now down the last of the three bars he started with and that was quickly dwindling. In a mist of steel and fire, the Griffin found its match. I ended the epic encounter my jumping onto the beasts head, stabbing once to gain footing, used the arcing snap of the beasts head to leap high into the air, and landed dagger first into the center of the eagle-like monsters skull, meeting brain with cold metal.
Synopsis: Dragon's Dogma has presented itself in a sort of Dark Souls meets Skyrim game, featuring extensive combat with an even more extensive world to explore. The graphics are very strong, the lighting is great, the animations are astounding as far as combat goes.
The combat itself is tight and responsive. The pawns are not witless AI and will form tactics and strategies, and even learn new ways of fighting monsters. The UI itself is a bit cluttered and from what I can tell the inventory system doesn't look impressive but its not exactly game-breaking.
The RPG defines itself as you having either being a mage, warrior, or ranger type, and then further mixing two of these or specifying heavily into just one.
Combat is based on weapons/skills that are appearent with each class. It is presented in a Guild Wars 2 type where two combinations of weapons are used with different roations/builds of abilites, of which you have 3 skills each.
My personal opinion: If you are patient, and give yourself enough time to learn the game's subtle mechanics, and master its appearent ones, and appreciate the mix of eastern style fluidity feel meets Western Style gritiness this RPG may very well be your personal RPG favorite of the year. It will certainly be something to look for on its release day by me.
So to start with, the Demo is split into two parts, a prologue that presets your controlled character, and another mission that you do with your customized character and customized main-pawn.
Let me start with the customization menu. In short:It is extensive and you will have an easy time making the character you want the way you want it. There are options for any facial features, about 40 options for each, options for beards, hairstyle, a few tattoo's, scars, make-up, you can even customize Limb Length, Height, voice (just for attacks and recoils etc.) width, weight, posture and stance. Dragon's Dogma has a great customization menu.
Now to start with actual gameplay, I'm going to be frank. The demo's pretty short. Just one boss and a mob or two each.
Part 1: Mashing for Dear Life.
The first demo consists of you starting off just outside a dragons lair. The backstory is that you are Arisen, and have mastered an army to go an destroy this dragon, in order to end "the cycle" I'm not sure what this means but it sounds interesting. At first look I seemed lost, as with most Japanese style games, the UI feels sort of alien and almost intimidating, at least for me (a strict western style RPG'er), but after a few minutes you seem to not notice. You go into the cave with your companion only to empty out into a roofless cavern with a huge... I mean gigantic dragon, that quickly spots you, says something about destroying all life, and follows through with a massive spray of fire.
You quickly dash (sprint using the left stick) past the fires and run into a couple goblins. This is my first taste of combat. It consisted of Light Attacks (X Button) and Heavy Attacks (Y button), these are your sort of "keys" (X, Y, and B buttons) for the console. You can then invert them to a sort of different "build" depending on what your alternate weapon is with the left bumper, mine being a shield, switched to 3 more abilities Shield Bash(X button) Crest Attack (Y button, a shield bash but the heavy attack version) and then Shield Summon (B button, a sort of taunt).
I quickly dispatched these unfortunate crimson skinned demons.
The animations are fluid enough and the attacks have a bit of flair to them, your weapons seem like they have real weight as they crack bone and slice flesh. You jump off a ledge to find a glowing stone. Your companion informs you that these stones summon other Pawns that are loyal to you to the end. The companions given to you are an elfish sort of archer madam, and an old witch hag who is fluent in fire-magick. After these companions join your side, you empty into a hall and are soon cut off by a some more goblins, and then empty out into a greater room with a broken bridge and are cut off by a snow harpy. This is were combat gets interesting. You can either try jumping into the air and slash wildly at the harpy's wings, patiently use your taunting ability (LB+B) and wait for them to calm down, try to grab them out of the air (RT, used to grab ANYTHING, including companions, which is a bit funny to watch) or simply depend on your allies' abilities. The combat soon becomes a game of planning, but we'll get to that later.
After a few eliminating a few dozen or so Snow Harpy's, you jump off the bridge to the room below you and find the door to be slammed open and a few of your vanguard desperately shout for help. You meet them and rush into a grand hall,surrounded on all sides with rock walls but has one side with a staircase that has a huge door guarding it. After dispatching a few more foes, you rush to the door....
And are cut off by a giant f**king Chimera. This beast has a huge Lions head and torso, then the lower abdomen morphs into a gross sort of giant goat whos body piggy-backs the lions body and who's back legs serve as the all-in-all beast's hind legs, and then a monstorous anaconda-like snake serves as the tail.
The beast leaps from high up the wall and tackles one of your survivor vanguards, tearing him in pieces.
You quickly form rank with your companions and charge the beast. Now, this is when Dragon's Dogma may set itself in stone from any other RPG as far as combat goes. particularily in boss fights like this one. The monster's health was split into 3 sets, for each body part, Lion, Goat, and Snake, and each extremity had different rolls as far as mechanics went. You could selectively eliminate each of these using the climbing feature which uses light attacks which drain stamina while climbing, as opposed to when on ground where they don't; heavy attacks are used as a sort of combo finisher, once you use them while climbing, you follow up by jumping from the monster.
I rushed the monster... leaping high into the air, grabbing the ugly mug of the lion and flipping unto his bushy main, stabbing as I went across, and as I climbed the beast's neck it shook wildly, trying to break free of my grasp but I quickly gained footing and mounted its neck. I slash viciously, mashing my blade into its skull, my allies tearing away at the snake and goat trying to repel me. My mage companion caused my weapon to go ablaze, and soon the rugged flesh of the lion was set ablaze. I tore and hacked an then felt the satisfying tear of the lion's head, rendering the Chimera's physical attacks useless. I then lept off the beast, waited a few seconds to regain my stamina, and rushed the snake head, very quickly lopping it off with my sword. Then all that stood left was the nasty goat, kicking and struggling futily as it desperately tried to hit us with its sad last stand attacks.
The whole confrontation lasted about 10 minutes.
After defeating the beast, a looming voice (the dragon) filled the hall, challenging me to the ultimate duel.
DEMO OVER. Damn.
Anyways thats part 1 of the demo my friends. Take from it what you will and do what Escapists do! (Debate!)
Part 2: COMING AS SOON AS I CAN TYPE.
Part 2: When Mechanics Are King!
I immediately found myself in a field. I was playing as the giant badass viking I had customized in the menu just a few minutes before, and the pawn that I customized was just to my right. A mage named Alexandra (male, wierd name) and and archer named Sid (hah) were tagging along. In front of us we saw a gang of some Goblins, undoubtetly waiting to rob some unlucky folks along the roads.
I found my character to be wielding two daggers, and a bow to his back. I charged in with my daggers, twirling and twisting in a haze of steel. These animations are pretty damn impressive. Much more so than the sword/shield combo that the preset warrior from the other demo had.
I very quickly tore through these unfortunate goblins. I looked around and, in the distance a few hundred feet away, the gates of a large city of stone rose from the ground. Behind me was a hill with a dark forest just beyond, the sun was just in twilight.
I stared wondering if that was it. I looked around, not a health bar to dwindle at in sight. I started to pace towards the city. A low shriek echoed the valley, I looked around, the shriek got louder... then a massive shadow loomed over my party and I gazed to the sky, only to see a hulking mass of feather and tallon dive-bomb into my group. I was blasted back quite a ways, my health half drained from the devastating attack. I took out my bow (holding down the LB button,) and turned toward the monster. It was a giant Griffin, with massive wings and four eagle-like legs and an eagles head. I began firing bolts that were set ablazed by my mage companion. For a few minutes, my arrows just barely grazed the beast and I began to grow frusterated at my futile attempts. A message then appeared to the left saying my pawn had learned something. He turned to me and said "I have learned how to find this foe's ilk!(?)" he then yelled "Burn his wings!". In a sort of facepalm state, I aimed at the monsters wings and began letting arrows soar into the flesh. The beast stopped its flight and began hovering over my party, a sort of "wing buffet" effect coming from it, knocking my allies back a bit. But, with some effort, and well placed aim and tactics, dodging the beasts dive-bombs, dashing past mid-air slashes and claws, and jumping down some ledges in order to avoid the monsters fly-by's, the breackish feathers were set in flames and the monster screeched in pain, and plummeted to the ground. My party quickly swarmed the beast, it raked rabidly, tearing at anything that moved. Following a similar tactic I used against the Chimera, I leapt onto the monsters backside, hoping I could grab a wing. I pulled myself onto the monsters right wing, tearing away at ligaments and knotted muscle the beast quickly saw into my tactic and rolled onto its back accordingly, and knocking me away.
It began to take flight but I pulled a move that almost made me want to buy the game on the damn spot.
I gained my footing, coming out of a roll, and rushed to the target. Just as the beast began to get air, I jumped heroicly and reached for the monsters leg. To my disbelief I caught it! I began quickly tearing away at the monster and it only glided a few seconds before it gave into the magic bolt and fired arrow that flattened against the monsters skull; just before impact I let go of my foe and fell a few feet and came out of an evasive dive and into a full on sprint toward the Griffin. I ripped my daggers from their sheaths, and began my whirlwind of steel at my foe. He was now down the last of the three bars he started with and that was quickly dwindling. In a mist of steel and fire, the Griffin found its match. I ended the epic encounter my jumping onto the beasts head, stabbing once to gain footing, used the arcing snap of the beasts head to leap high into the air, and landed dagger first into the center of the eagle-like monsters skull, meeting brain with cold metal.
Synopsis: Dragon's Dogma has presented itself in a sort of Dark Souls meets Skyrim game, featuring extensive combat with an even more extensive world to explore. The graphics are very strong, the lighting is great, the animations are astounding as far as combat goes.
The combat itself is tight and responsive. The pawns are not witless AI and will form tactics and strategies, and even learn new ways of fighting monsters. The UI itself is a bit cluttered and from what I can tell the inventory system doesn't look impressive but its not exactly game-breaking.
The RPG defines itself as you having either being a mage, warrior, or ranger type, and then further mixing two of these or specifying heavily into just one.
Combat is based on weapons/skills that are appearent with each class. It is presented in a Guild Wars 2 type where two combinations of weapons are used with different roations/builds of abilites, of which you have 3 skills each.
My personal opinion: If you are patient, and give yourself enough time to learn the game's subtle mechanics, and master its appearent ones, and appreciate the mix of eastern style fluidity feel meets Western Style gritiness this RPG may very well be your personal RPG favorite of the year. It will certainly be something to look for on its release day by me.