Genre: Action RPG
Available Platforms: PC, PS3, 360
Platform I played it on: PS3
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
So Dragon’s Dogma just came out on PC and that spurred me on to go back to it on PS3 and finish it off (which I did like an hour ago at time of writing this, after a 4 day long run that consumed my life,) after letting it hang in gaming limbo for months while I played other shit. I couldn’t even really tell you why I left the game in that state to begin with because I actually really enjoyed it from the first moment I got my hands on it, but sadly it just got left on the wayside because of other games. Until now!
The story takes place in the land of Gransys, a dark fantasy world populated by monsters. One day, in the quiet fishing village of Cassardis, a dragon appears – the herald of the end times – and tells your created character that they are the “chosen one”, the Arisen. He then proceeds to steal your heart and taunts you to come and take it back from him, because it is DESTINED. What follows is the Arisen’s quest as they help out the people of Gransys and try to become strong enough to face the dragon and find out just what the hell they’ve gotten themselves mixed up in. The game features thee fucking best third act I’ve ever seen in a video game, but the entire story is strong overall and suitably dark and philosophical in nature. The game is very Berserk in all the right ways (and even features Guts’ and Griffith’s armor and weapons in-game just so you know what inspired the story and world). People are assholes, morality is tricky, the world is ending, the sovereign of the land is crazy and fucking horrible monsters are a normal part of every day life. Sounds too real, right? Characters come and go throughout the story, all on their own personal quests, and the game really does a good job of building a truly believable fantasy world populated by real characters. There are a multitude of (missable) side quests that you can partake in in order to flesh out the world and characters and it’s absolutely worthwhile to seek them out just because of that fact. Throughout the course of your questing you will also be asked to make some moral choices and your actions (or inactions) will affect various factors and characters as the game state progresses. My favourite part? You guessed it! No binary morality! And the fact that the game’s state/world progresses in a fluid, believable way as you progress in the story.
The gameplay is standard action RPG, with a few nice twists. Its very JRPG in its design, with XP being thrown at you in gigantic fistfuls (I finished the game at around Level 57, but you can literally go to infinity. I don’t even know how either) and gold is thrown at you in equally ridiculous amounts (offset by the fact shit is expensive). When you start the game you have access to a detailed character creator, with the ability to edit every part of your character, from their physical features and gender, down to their height, weight, voice and “title”. You also have a multitude of classes (vocations) to choose from, with the basic template being rogue, warrior and mage. Each vocation determines what kinds of weapons and armor you can equip and what you can do on the battlefield. The warrior-type classes are the heavy-hitters, wielding either sword & shield or two-handed weapons, with move sets more reminiscent of classic hack and slash games. Mage-types obviously have spells, featuring both a wide range of offensive and defensive magics. They are absolutely needed in a party, dealing insane magic damage as well as buffing and healing the party as needed, with the downside being that they can’t physically attack and their armor typically has the weakest defense. Rogue-types are more nimble and can climb up larger enemies easier, with access to both bows and daggers so they can fight at long and short ranges. I went with the Strider vocation myself, which is a rogue/fighter hybrid class allowing you access to both sword & shield and bow & dagger move sets. To be honest I just messed with the sword move set for a little bit in order to play with Griffith’s sword, before I got the double jump ability and never left my trusty daggers again. That brings us to this game’s best fucking feature: you can climb bosses like Shadow of the Colossus! Any large enemy can literally be grabbed onto and climbed over in order to reach weak points (or just for fun). You can also pick up smaller enemies and things in the environment to vary your play style up a little. Which brings me to the question: why the hell can’t I do this in EVERY ACTION RPG EVER?! You literally fight giant ass monsters in every action RPG worth it’s salt, but this is only one with this climbing mechanic. It needs to be pushed for everything. Climbing, sprinting and the usage of class-specific weapon skills and abilities all use from your stamina meter and managing this meter is of the utmost importance in combat. Another unique feature of the game is the “pawn” system, which are your A.I controlled party members. You have a main pawn, which is created by you personally like your player character and sticks with you throughout the entire game. The other 2 slots in your party can be made up of pawns you hire, either from other players online (being their main pawns) or from a “local” selection that the game generates for you offline. Pawns are essential for playing the game as not only are they valuable party members to help out in combat, but pawns who have experienced quests, areas and enemies in other players’ games will gain knowledge of these things and use that knowledge to help you in turn. They will often offer useful advice in combat such as pointing out weaknesses and employing strategies they’ve learned, or during quests by giving you hints about where to go next. If your main pawn gets hired by another player, they will also come back with knowledge from that game world, as well as rift crystals (the currency you hire pawns with) and maybe a gift if the other player was kind.
The game features a huge world, with a wide variety of environments, like the tiny fishing village you start out in, to dense forests, icy mountains, and open plains, to the great big city, to a wide variety of dungeons that somehow manage the perfect balance of not too big and not too small to make going back to them constantly not tedious. Traversing this world will take up the bulk of your time with the game as fast travel is extremely limited, and enemies and items will periodically respawn which can be annoying, but are usually easily avoided if you’re not in the mood for fighting. The game features a day/night cycle that affects NPC and enemy behaviour and placement in the game world, with the biggest change being that at night shit gets REAL. Not only is it unbelievably dark, but monsters are also stronger and more numerous and will often ambush you in the darkness. I have never been more terrified in my life than when I was fighting some skeletons on a dank, dark road and got ambushed by a chimera out of nowhere while I was not properly equipped to deal with it. The game aims for realism in it’s gameplay as well, so it encourages you to properly prepare before venturing out, with the proper herbs, food and solutions to handle status ailments and healing, the best equipment, and a wide variety of tools to help you along the road, such as your trusty lantern (that you should never leave home without). The game also features a weight system that actually affects your movement speed and stamina the heavier you are, so inventory management is important.
The game is far from perfect however, despite being a blast to play through. For one, the frame-rate can be highly unstable, especially when shit starts popping off and magic is being thrown around left, right and center. I don’t know if this was fixed on the PC version, but on PS3 it happened to me sporadically. The game has a fully-voice acted cast and dialogue, but it also cuts corners when it comes to cutscenes, with some of them being nothing more than that ugly, very Japanese way of doing them where characters are standing around statically, just waving their arms and flapping their lips randomly while they drop exposition. If you’ve played any JRPG ever, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Also the lack of a good fast travel system can really grate on your enjoyment of the game, especially if grinding out a few of the MILLIONS of noticeboard quests that pollute this game (how many fetch quests, monster grinds and escort missions can you do before you commit suicide?). Overall the game just feels like it needed a little bit more polish to smooth over some of the rough edges. Its a flawed masterpiece if ever there was one.
I recommend this game for anybody who enjoys RPG’s because this is the most fuckin RPG game you’ll ever played. It’s unforgiving, but fair if you play by its rules, which might not appeal to everybody. It’s nowhere near Dark Souls levels, but it is challenging, so be prepared. It’s both epic and unepic in scale at the same time, as well as being an intensely atmospheric and engrossing experience. The soundtrack is just amazing and the game somehow manages to make every encounter feel unique and awesome. You owe it to yourself to experience this game for yourself because it is goddamn worth it. It’s filled to the brim with enough unique ideas and charm to warrant a playthrough alone, but coupled with the amazing game world and story, it just pumps it up to the next level. The only things I have left to do in the game is fight the Ur-Dragon and maybe do the Dark Arisen DLC, but in a few months, after the hype from the ending(s) dies down inside of me.
Conclusion: 5 wakestone shards out of a possible 5
RANDOM MUSINGS 