Just before I get into it, please no story spoilers for the end as I'm not quite there yet.
I remember playing Dragon's Dogma when closer to when it came out and thinking 'This isn't Dark souls' but i've come to realise what a charming and brilliant game it is.
It's no secret that the key to Dragon's Dogma is it's combat. It still holds up really well and whilst Dark Souls was methodical and tense, DD is all about spectacle and furiously riding huge creatures whilst you slash away at their weak points. It has some of the best looking boss battles since Shadow of the Colossus in that regard, essentially taking one of the best ideas in games and putting it into something else. That goes along with a varied vocation system that lets you play however you like. Want to ride Griffins as they fly up in the air and try and throw you off? Do it. Want to stay back, buff your party and let off devastating spells? Gotcha. Want to get in on the beast riding but then jump off to perform devastating bow crits? No problemo. It's all thanks to a system that allows and encourages you to experiment with your characters build and lets you try out different styles. It's a huge bonus that the magic is really fun in this game as well. Every one of the vocations have some genuinely badass skills and other than stamina, there are no other resources to worry about when using them. The hybrid vocations generously mix up different styles as well to further suit your playstyle.
Another ace up the sleeve though, is the Pawn system. Between a character created main pawn and hired mercenary pawns created by other players, you form a party composition that best suits the quest you're undertaking. You can set them up however you like and it doubles as a brilliant difficulty system. If you're really struggling with a certain boss or enemy, you can easily hire pawns a good few levels higher than yourself to ease the burden. It all feeds back into a pretty clever reward system for using other people's pawns, and pawns can even have quest knowledge to point things out or show you the way or know the trick to taking down an enemy. The AI can be genuinely impressive at times and give you a real sense of travelling with a fleshed out party. Your main pawn particularly starts to be someone you really care about. It can also be just as when you hire someone else's pawn and they turn out to be totally useless, it creates stories as you travel.
The quests are for the most part really interesting and you visit some really cool places, including some memorable dungeons. It's a lot less hand-holdy and more esoteric than traditional Western RPG's, and whilst the writing can be guff at times, there are some genuinely interesting quest lines that are easily missable with differing outcomes. There's also some fantastic music throughout the game.
It's not all great and the game has some genuine problems, like the aforementioned writing, bugs, lack of enemy variety and ones that are there respawn far too often. But for the most part it has charm among the jank. It's exactly like a Japanese developer taking a stab at a Western RPG and taking influences from Dark Souls, Skyrim, Shadow of the Colossus and D&D. It's a flawed gem but I love it.
Feels like there's so much potential in this series that's been left on the table, and I really hope Capcom do something with it.
PS I haven't played Bitterback Isle yet as I never got that far before, but I'm certainly carrying on to it this time. That may even address some of the complaints I have anyway, like enemy variety. If you haven't played DD before, I got it for £9 on Steam last week and obviously the remasters came out recently. Check your PSplus as well, as I had gotten it years ago for free on there. It's certainly worth the money if you have to pay for it. Despite being an amalgamation of other games, there really is nothing quite like it.
<edit by staff: removed the gif with a.. NSFW element in it. Please be more careful with your GIF choices in the future>
I remember playing Dragon's Dogma when closer to when it came out and thinking 'This isn't Dark souls' but i've come to realise what a charming and brilliant game it is.
It's no secret that the key to Dragon's Dogma is it's combat. It still holds up really well and whilst Dark Souls was methodical and tense, DD is all about spectacle and furiously riding huge creatures whilst you slash away at their weak points. It has some of the best looking boss battles since Shadow of the Colossus in that regard, essentially taking one of the best ideas in games and putting it into something else. That goes along with a varied vocation system that lets you play however you like. Want to ride Griffins as they fly up in the air and try and throw you off? Do it. Want to stay back, buff your party and let off devastating spells? Gotcha. Want to get in on the beast riding but then jump off to perform devastating bow crits? No problemo. It's all thanks to a system that allows and encourages you to experiment with your characters build and lets you try out different styles. It's a huge bonus that the magic is really fun in this game as well. Every one of the vocations have some genuinely badass skills and other than stamina, there are no other resources to worry about when using them. The hybrid vocations generously mix up different styles as well to further suit your playstyle.
Another ace up the sleeve though, is the Pawn system. Between a character created main pawn and hired mercenary pawns created by other players, you form a party composition that best suits the quest you're undertaking. You can set them up however you like and it doubles as a brilliant difficulty system. If you're really struggling with a certain boss or enemy, you can easily hire pawns a good few levels higher than yourself to ease the burden. It all feeds back into a pretty clever reward system for using other people's pawns, and pawns can even have quest knowledge to point things out or show you the way or know the trick to taking down an enemy. The AI can be genuinely impressive at times and give you a real sense of travelling with a fleshed out party. Your main pawn particularly starts to be someone you really care about. It can also be just as when you hire someone else's pawn and they turn out to be totally useless, it creates stories as you travel.
The quests are for the most part really interesting and you visit some really cool places, including some memorable dungeons. It's a lot less hand-holdy and more esoteric than traditional Western RPG's, and whilst the writing can be guff at times, there are some genuinely interesting quest lines that are easily missable with differing outcomes. There's also some fantastic music throughout the game.
It's not all great and the game has some genuine problems, like the aforementioned writing, bugs, lack of enemy variety and ones that are there respawn far too often. But for the most part it has charm among the jank. It's exactly like a Japanese developer taking a stab at a Western RPG and taking influences from Dark Souls, Skyrim, Shadow of the Colossus and D&D. It's a flawed gem but I love it.
Feels like there's so much potential in this series that's been left on the table, and I really hope Capcom do something with it.
PS I haven't played Bitterback Isle yet as I never got that far before, but I'm certainly carrying on to it this time. That may even address some of the complaints I have anyway, like enemy variety. If you haven't played DD before, I got it for £9 on Steam last week and obviously the remasters came out recently. Check your PSplus as well, as I had gotten it years ago for free on there. It's certainly worth the money if you have to pay for it. Despite being an amalgamation of other games, there really is nothing quite like it.
<edit by staff: removed the gif with a.. NSFW element in it. Please be more careful with your GIF choices in the future>
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