It’s pretty rare you can remember the moment you fell in love with a game. But for me, it happened at a random encounter, where we were fighting a griffin, and one of my pawns asked me if I wanted to be thrown at the griffin.
Which I did, and after grabbing onto it and stabbing it repeatedly, I jumped off because its wings had been set on fire and it was dropping like a stone. And then I cut its head off.
It was a moment that should be enshrined in van art. And it was just a random encounter. This wasn’t a quicktime event or a cutscene; this was actual combat.
This isn’t to say “Dragon’s Dogma” doesn’t have flaws. It does, and what makes them frustrating is that they’re basic stuff in the genre, put right up against mechanics that either substantially add to the game or are just so refined it’s glorious. But it also has moments that absolutely soar, and not just when you’re getting chucked at a monster to stab it in the face.
The basic problem that some Western gamers are going to have is that while this is an open-world action RPG, it is Japanese in some very clear, and sometimes off-putting, ways. The game announces this with an awful symphonic metal track that’s the opening theme, and it just gets more schizophrenic from there.
For example, the game wants you to grind experience, and it does it in both elegant ways and annoying ones. One of the elegant ways comes from tasks you find on notice boards: kill a certain number of X, which you probably will anyway, and you get a gold and experience bonus on the spot once you finish the task: no returning to the notice board, for example. It’s essentially in-game achievements with in-game rewards, fetch quests without actually having to bring back the bear asses.
The best example of an annoying way is the fact that there’s, at best, a limited and expensive fast travel system, and the game is full of backtracking. This wouldn’t be a problem as much if the game world weren’t massive and enemies, including the gigantic mythological monsters that will be huge fights, didn’t respawn. Oh, and you’ll be driven into the woods to fight these creatures on a fairly regular basis: make sure you’ve got plenty of healing herbs.
It’s full of both little frustrations and little streamlined moments like this. For example, if you hit Start, and select “equipment” from the Skyrimesque pause menu, you’ll be able to access your weapons and armor…but not your tools and potions. That you have to press Select for. But you don’t need to buy healing potions: you can easily find lots of healing herbs on the ground.
Or the fact that the game has both a sometimes punishing difficulty curve, but the level cap is set at triple digits, so you level up quickly and smoothly, meaning once you finish a few more quests and upgrade your gear, you’ll be able to come back and kick ass.
Or the fact that there are escort missions, and more of them than should really be acceptable in the modern day, but this is again balanced by the fact that your party members and your escortees are not (usually) total idiots (Madeleine the vain, annoying peddler being a notable exception).
Which brings us, though, to the best part of the game: the unique mechanics that make it sing.
Let’s start with the Pawn mechanic. There are frustrations here; don’t let a Pawn you’ve hired instead of created pick up any gear or materials you want, because you aren’t getting it back. But the Pawn system, wherein players create characters and other players use them, is actually really great beyond that: your Pawn comes back with what they’ve acquired, and levels up with you.
More to the point, this means your party doesn’t consist entirely of idiots you have to babysit. They’re more than capable of fighting, healing and otherwise handling threats themselves, and they actually listen to your prompts. They’ll save you more than once.
Party management is crucial, though: once you outlevel a pawn you’ve hired, fire him and find somebody more powerful. Both because you’ll need the help and because it’s just fun to have.
That brings us to the combat and, really, you could not ask for better. It’s smooth and it’s fun, and that’s before you start using the Climb button. This has multiple effects: for example, your Pawn could put an enemy in a sleeper hold, giving you time to carve him up. For larger enemies, you can either grab them and hang on for dear life…or if you time it right, knock them over, giving you a shot at their stomach or head.
Or you could spend way too much time picking up enemies and throwing them off cliffs, like I did. It’s pretty satisfying.
Another nice touch that nobody seems to have noticed is the fundamentals of this game are very polished as well. Take the skill system. Instead of skill trees, you collect discipline points as you level up. Want more augments, core skills, or other talents? Buy them. Want to change your class? Easy. It’s a great system because as you invest more in a class, you think hard before changing out of it; you can go into a hybrid class…but is it worth it?
That said, stay on top of gear and skills: you’ll want to upgrade early and upgrade as often as possible. This game can have a punishing difficulty curve for the unwary.
The level design is actually very good; it’s easy to forget that Capcom knows how to build an open world game, when they want to. You will occasionally bonk into an invisible wall, but it’s not blatantly designed that way: you’re allowed to explore (and rob) the towns and villages. Similarly, the dungeon design is straightforward without feeling like you’re on rails: there’s plenty to find and do even when questing.
Finally, there’s the darkness system. Once the sun goes down, or you go into a dungeon, you’ll need a lantern or you are in some serious trouble. The game changes completely once you get into the darkness, a gutsy choice that really works.
Overall, if you like dungeon crawling, this game is worth your $60. I actually found myself enjoying it a lot more than “Kingdoms of Amalur” or even “Skyrim”. Just be prepared for it to not be perfect.
image courtesy Capcom