Sometimes I have to admit when a game has me licked. I fucking tried with this game but man did I fucking suck at it. I was ready to just hop on here and smash this game to bits but really I couldn't give you much with the exception that I sucked at it. So in a vain attempt to maintain some journalistic integrity, today's review comes from the evil mastermind that is Brett Campbell. Take it away, sir. --
DRAGON'S DOGMA: (XB360/PS3)
This console generation has been a landmark for RPG's if only for the fact that it's been dominated by western development. Sales charts clearly show that gamers would rather slay dragons in open fantasy worlds than, say, try to save the world for the umpteenth time as a melodramatic teenager with a bad emo haircut. Capcom must have kept that in mind when developing Dragon's Dogma, because with the exception of a few common Japanese mannerisms, this couldn't feel more like an authentic western RPG. In fact, in certain ways it manages to exceed the qualities of the very games it tries to emulate.
You start your adventure in a small, peaceful fishing village when *dah duh DAHHHH* a dragon attacks. In the ensuing chaos, your hapless hero (completely customized to your own liking) grabs a sword and foolishly decides to take the beast on. Obviously this doesn't go well. The dragon eats your heart, then, in so many words, tells you if you want it back to come and get it.
It's not Shakespeare, thankfully, but then again, what is? From there on you have free roam of the hauntingly gorgeous country known as Gransys. Dead trees lurch over dusty valley floors, crow's cages hold citizens being tortured by harpies, foggy swamps are populated by goblins. Think of the landscape in the George Lucas classic "Willow" and you'll be in the atmospheric ballpark.
After some more story points you'll be rewarded with the opportunity to create your "pawn". Pawns are basically husks of humanity that have no will except to serve you. You can tweak the behavior of your pawn from the skills they learn to the way the address you. Best of all, if you're playing online your servant will be uploaded into The Rift, a ethereal fog where other players can summon your creation to help them in combat. Everything your pawn learns about quests, enemies and the environment from assisting other players will be retained the next time you log in. Say your pawn learns from The Rift that setting a griffon's wings ablaze will bring it to the ground; when you encounter a griffon he or she will inform you of the strategy. It's a brilliant, simple and engaging use of online, and something I'd love to see in future games.
From this point on you'll start to notice a lot of ways this game tries to take the best of Skyrim, Dragon Age, Dark Souls, even Shadow of the Colossus, and mold them into some amazing sort of unicorn of a game. Sometimes it falls short of all those games it obviously draws inspiration from but majorly it manages to equal, and in surprising moments, surpass them.
The game's music is standard fare for the genre, though it is quite good. Hearing the music change once you find an enemy's weakness signals the change in dominance on the battlefield, and really adds a level of excitement to the game. A lot of the time you're simply listening to the wind blow, though. It adds an eerie quality to the occasions when you're enjoying the questionably peaceful beauty of the land.
Combat in Dragon's Dogma is a hack and slash, spell slinging dream. You're equipped with a light and heavy attack along with a button used to defend with a shield. Holding either shoulder button and pressing one of the top three face buttons will enact your character's spells or skills. Skills consist of devastating blows, slashing or skewering your opponents and opening them up for juggles or combos.
Magic is quite often graphically impressive and fun to wield. Summoning a rain of meteorites, walls of fire and even whips of concentrated lightning blaze up the battlefield into a fit of chaos. You can also enchant your and your party's weapons and shields with elemental magic, making the all the more deadly. Best of all, there's a "grab" button, making it easy to lift a weakened bandit over your shoulder and throw him off of a cliff (believe me, that never gets old). As enjoyable as it is to take out a gang of hobgoblins in this manner, the real joy in Dragon's Dogma's combat is the big monsters. Using the previously mentioned "grab" button, you can climb up any of the beasts, go for a ride (or flight), find their weak point and hack away, a la Shadow of the Colossus.
Mounting a chimera with your three pawns (your creation and up to two others uploaded from The Rift) feels so visceral and intense, especially when you kill off parts of the mythological beast. There are more big encounters to go on about, but I think it's best to enjoy the surprise and see the realistic animations at work. They're managed to top my list of boss encounters for this generation of consoles.
So, with all this gushing comes with some gripes. The difficulty in the early stages of the game is overwhelming. Sticking to the main quests until around lv. 10 or 15 is a must, though the game doesn't let you know that. The graphics are hit or miss, with the latter being more prevalent during the opening hours of the game. Perhaps most annoying, aside from the costly use of ferrystones, there is no easy way to fast travel across the land of Gransys. You will be doing a ton of walking, often back and forth across the huge map until very late in the game. Once you get over some of those bumps, you're really in for a treat.
What it comes down to is this: if you like classic fantasy, this game is very much worth giving a serious look at. More so if you loved the games previously mentioned in this article. This game definitely stole my heart, and I don't mind if I don't get it back during my second playthrough. -- Brett Campbell
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