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Capcom recently announced Dragon's Dogma 2, the highly anticipated successor to 2012's underrated RPG. The first game, despite being largely a standard high-fantasy RPG, had a number of things going for it. Like the combat and Pawn system for example.
Considering the original game is on sale across all platforms, is it worth checking out for newcomers? Especially those looking forward to the sequel? Here are five reasons why Dragon's Dogma is still deserves attention. However, there are also areas where it falls short in 2022, so let's take a look at five of those as well.
Dragon's Dogma is a familiar yet fresh experience and here's why
1) The combat is one of the best of its era
If there is one thing Dragon's Dogma is known for, it is the combat, For a 2012 game, it is surprisingly versatile and fluid. The core loop is a hack and slash, of course, with magic and ranged elements. Maintaining a well-rounded party is also key to triumphing enemy encounters. Taking cues from their own Monster Hunter games, players can even latch on to larger beasts to deal damage.
2) Unique magic system
Magic is another highlight of the already excellent combat. The game features various elements like fire, ice and lightning. All these can be cast by Mage class characters, however, it is not as simple as pressing a button. There is a lock-on system for casting spells and players must actively choose the target and/or body part to shoot at.
The usually lengthy cast times ensure the strategic placement of magic users as they can be interrupted by foes. Throw in unique abilities like levitation that can aid in exploration and it is an experience quite different from other RPGs.
3) Ingenious online integration in a single-player game
While Dragon's Dogma is not a multiplayer game, it manages to incorporate online in a rather amazing and organic way. As a heartless human called the Arisen, players must take down the red dragon that stole it. This journey will require Arisen to enlist the help of NPCs called Pawns.
Lorewise, these are humanoid beings that serve Arisen and can be summoned from a portal. Said portal allows connectivity to the internet to browse Pawns created by other players which can be summoned to aid the host Arisen at the cost of points called RC. Really, there is nothing else like this out there.
4) The Pawn system
The Pawns themselves are interesting. While there can be three other members in any given party, only one can be created by the player. The other two must be picked from the Pawn list or can be in-story party members. But to keep things brief, players can tweak everything about their Pawn, from cosmetic customization to classes (also called Vocations) and Inclinations.
The latter are parameters defining how a Pawn will behave in combat and even help in exploration like collecting loot. The pawns will also act depending upon the player's own fighting style and Inclinations. All in all, Dragon's Dogma features some of the best companion AI out there - to an extent at least.
5) Amazing enemy designs
Throughout the adventure, players will encounter a variety of monstrous bosses like Hydra, Griffin and Dragons. These are often larger than life encounters, allowing the Arisen to take full advantage of their powers and demonstrate their ability. Most bosses are well designed, challenging and memorable, demanding both mastery of the game's mechanics and a tactical sense.
Unfortunately, the game is not flawless
1) Dated visuals
This is to be expected from a decade-old game. While some aspects like character models (particularly unique enemies such as the main red dragon Grigori). Otherwise, the color palette is fairly bland even when strolling through lush forests, despite the updates made to the Dark Arisen version.
2) Bland open world
The open world of Dragon's Dogma is small by today's standards, but even then a lot of it is filler. There's little to find besides crafting materials and some enemies that will spawn. Most of the time will be spent traveling from point A to B while collecting some herbs and looting some boxes for potions. The impressive combat can only carry the game so far after all.
3) Poor balancing and design
Make no mistake: Dragon's Dogma is a challenging game. Especially at the start. Stamina can deplete rapidly when attacking, and the brief pause between recovery can leave players vulnerable.
Add in the fact that a lot of enemies can be very tanky (particularly bandits and other human enemies) and spawn in large numbers on top of that, things go further downhill.
In such situations, they can even take out Pawns easily if the player is outnumbered. The fact that there is only one save slot (for an RPG with occasional decision-making) is a big flaw as well as the autosave will often save right over the player's manual saves
4) Poorly explained game mechanics
Dragon's Dogma has pretty in-depth gameplay mechanics, but many will not be explained clearly. For example, first-time players will encounter Inclinations when creating their own Pawn. There are several of them and the game drops no hints as to what any of them do.
Players also receive Discipline points to unlock new Vocations and learn new skills, but the basis on which these are handed out is unclear to newcomers too. Also, enemies have fixed levels and do not scale to players, but there is no level indicator to portray this information.
5) Repetitive nature of the game and tired mission design
As good as combat is, that can only go so far when the foundation is mediocre. Battles eventually become either a slog or just a hindrance. Most side missions include fetch quests to grab a specific amount of materials or killing a certain number of enemies.
There are also some escort missions - nothing hard really, but rather they're dull endeavors made no better by the barren world. Plus, who enjoys escort missions to begin with?
