Dragon's Dogma initially charms with an interesting premise, ingenious online pawn system and intriguing blend of western and Japanese design, before slowly revealing itself as having little else to offer. Any semblance of story is essentially nonexistent as the game--seemingly confused as to whether it's a single-player RPG or an MMO--sends you on foot and with limited fast travel across a truly depressingly lifeless world undertaking vapid escort, fetch and kill quests entirely unrelated to your character's motivation. Whilst combat is weighty and enjoyable, pawns are next to useless in battle due to poor AI and the enemy-climbing mechanic lifted from Shadow of the Colossus is an embarrassingly clunky imitation. A dated mess of half-baked ideas.
2.0 stars / Poor
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Took a few tries over the last couple years to get into this one but once I finally did it rules so much lmao combat is fun ofc but I really love the strange world they’ve created here
To everyone who says the game get's better. Is 30 hours and 36 levels in enough already? I just don't know if I can go any further. I opened up like 1/8th of the map and the backtracking is slowly killing my will to live.
Are you doing every sidequest that comes your way? I didn't and beat the main story in about 20 hours. I then spent the next 20 or so slowly going through Bitterblack Isle, which is much more difficult and intense than the main game.
sadly, a mediocre contrarian-core (that I have 400 hours in)
tonally it's very cute, injecting its grounded western fantasy with a dose of bizarre Japanese-ness but the star of the show is the combat which the awful pawn system and the lack of balancing seriously detract from
the trifecta of combat-poisoning balancing flaws are as follows: 1. healing system -- impossible to die as long as you don't get one shot therefore zero tension and excitement, also more inventory management, less video game 2. stamina system -- nonexistent in the beginning, endless late game), incentivises spamming the same ability over and over 3. awful jrpg leveling system -- zero complexity i.e. doesn't lead to any interesting builds, happens too often and affects the game too much (by granting free full HP healing)
I was initially planning to create a decoy comparison with dark souls and how the latter solving all of those issues resulted in its success and the enduring popularity of the series, and then reveal that there's actually ANOTHER Capcom franchise that ALSO solved them (Monster Hunter) but after the latest gameplay reveals it's been abundantly clear that there's been very little done in that regard.
Still glad it exists I guess and hope to be wrong and endlessly ridiculed for that.
reaaally tried to get into this but the balancing is god awful and the exploration/traversal in this game is really painful at times. theres enough creativity here to get me excited for the sequel though.
Had exactly the same experience as moonisharp. I probably would have enjoyed it 15 years ago, but playing now, it just felt way too "game'y" for me, with the good in theory but very clunky in practice combat not even close to overshadowing the horrible story, characters and exploration.
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Note: Unlike reviews, comments are considered temporary and may be deleted/purged without notice.tonally it's very cute, injecting its grounded western fantasy with a dose of bizarre Japanese-ness
but the star of the show is the combat which the awful pawn system and the lack of balancing seriously detract from
the trifecta of combat-poisoning balancing flaws are as follows:
1. healing system -- impossible to die as long as you don't get one shot therefore zero tension and excitement, also more inventory management, less video game
2. stamina system -- nonexistent in the beginning, endless late game), incentivises spamming the same ability over and over
3. awful jrpg leveling system -- zero complexity i.e. doesn't lead to any interesting builds, happens too often and affects the game too much (by granting free full HP healing)
I was initially planning to create a decoy comparison with dark souls and how the latter solving all of those issues resulted in its success and the enduring popularity of the series, and then reveal that there's actually ANOTHER Capcom franchise that ALSO solved them (Monster Hunter) but after the latest gameplay reveals it's been abundantly clear that there's been very little done in that regard.
Still glad it exists I guess and hope to be wrong and endlessly ridiculed for that.