Play video games long enough and you eventually associate companies with specific titles and genres. 2D fighting? Capcom’s Street Fighter. Japanese RPGs? Square Enix, Final Fantasy. Western RPGs? Look up games from Bioware.
So when something like Dragon’s Dogma hit the shelves it’s bound to raise a few eyebrows. After all, it’s an RPG by Capcom. Aside from Street Fighter, the company is also known for Resident Evil and Devil May Cry, all of which are action-oriented titles. It’s not completely unfamiliar territory though. They’ve ventured into the genre before with Megaman X: Command Mission and Namco X Capcom. Both games received mixed reviews, meaning they were good enough to be bought pre-owned back in their day. This less than impressive track record was what I had in mind when I dived into Dragon’s Dogma.
What It Is
The simplest way to describe the game is that it’s part-Skyrim and part-Dark Souls. It features an open world similar to the former then slaps in the difficulty of the latter. The result is a game that dares you to explore it. There’s enough variety around to encourage random traveling but the aforementioned difficulty will make you think twice about it.
By sandbox game standards the entire world is actually pretty small. For example, there’s only one hub separating the starting area and the game’s capital city. If you follow the main storyline you’ll reach it in about three hours on your first try, maybe thirty minutes on the second playthrough. You’ll be thankful for the confined space though. Traveling is done almost entirely on foot. The option to teleport or “fast travel” to your location is severely limited. First, you can only arrive at two destinations, with the second one unlocked halfway through the game, then there’s the added catch that you can only do so at the cost of an expensive reagent. In short, prepare to do a lot of walking in Dragon’s Dogma.
On the plus side the open world is pretty inviting. With the exception of a few story-related locations everything is fully explorable. Environments include open areas of grassy fields, bandit encampments and the obligatory mysterious ruins. It’s tough not to be distracted by the scenery as you make your way through some of the game’s missions. Then there are the dungeons. Man, the dungeons. When you first step into one it’s hard not to make a reality check. Did you really just step into a random cave without finding out what was inside? Hope you came prepared. The denizens of the game are more than capable of handing your ass back to you on a bloody, silver platter.
Combat & Vocations
Speaking of blood, combat in Dragon’s Dogma is a bit different from the usual console RPG standard. First, it is a manual and deliberate affair. There are buttons for jumping, light and heavy attacks, buttons for your secondary weapon and button combinations for your skills. There’s no auto-attack, no rolling to hit. Second, there are no random encounters. You can initiate combat yourself or try to avoid it. You’ll find killing to be a constant thing once you venture out and you will quickly move from fighting bandits and goblins to creatures straight out of a Dungeons & Dragons monsters compendium. The pace, difficulty and feel of combat will remind you of Dark Souls, thankfully minus the hair-pulling. It’s tougher than most console RPGs but not enough to make you want to throw your controller at the screen.
One of the game’s strongest points is the class system (AKA vocations). It’s got the usual starting classes of fighter, mage and thief (known in-game as strider), advanced classes of all three, then three more based on combinations of two (i.e. fighter-thief, fighter-mage, etc.) It excels in giving each class a unique feel, allowing you to find one that suits your playing style. Fancy ranged combat? Try the strider. Not dealing enough damage? Go with the mage. You can then choose to forgo healing and focus on destructive spells by following the path of a sorcerer. There’s no pressure to commit to a class if you don’t want to. As long as you have the requisite points—which don’t take a lot of grinding to acquire—you’re free to switch as much as you want.
Final Word
Dragon’s Dogma is a game for those who are looking for an RPG that presents a serious challenge. It features an open world, solid combat and diverse character classes. It borrows elements from popular games to create a flavor that’s uniquely its own. It’s a surprising title from Capcom, one that turned out to be successful enough to spawn a sequel, based on what I’ve read. So if Skyrim or Dark Souls left you wanting for more, consider looking this up. It might be what you’re looking for.