Dragon's Dogma: Is it Worth Getting?

[Azure Sage]

So Dragon's Dogma is coming to the Switch and I've heard mixed things. My main pull to the game is being able to make two characters and the companion system. I watched a character creation video and it looked better than what I've seen of most games with such a dull and bland art style. So my main concern now is the gameplay. I don't really care about story because I'm not really expecting anything and I just wanna know if the game is fun to play. So for those of you here who have played it, what did you think of the gameplay?

 

[Ronin]

The character customization in Dragon's Dogma is great and easily one of my favorites. Unlike the generic face models/hairstyles in Mass Effect or Skyrim, Dark Arisen had some awesome variety and let me create a pretty fierce elven warrior. Spent more time than I needed to just going over the various features for my main and the Pawn.

Honestly, the closest thing I can compare gameplay to I guess is Monster Hunter? This really is just MH but with standard mythological beasts and a bit more of an accessible class system. Combat essentially works like this: The more you level up the more skills you get, and you can map those to the face buttons based on your own preferences. Movement might be limited by the time it takes an animation to finish, but generally that isn't gonna be a problem based on the variety of weapons at your disposal. Just like in any action game stay aware of the enemy's attack distance and act accordingly. Besides, once you reach a certain point in the game you won't be getting easily overwhelmed unless it's by severe underleveling. Overall, once you get the mechanics down then the game can be pretty addicting to explore.

The sense of scale is on par with another one of my favorites. *cough*XCX*cough*

 

[Castle]

I can recommend it. It is easily one of my favorite games of recent years.

Character customization is outstanding and combat is totally slick. Even though the graphics are an eye bleeding slurry of browns and grays with texture resolutions on par with the Playstation 2 (yes the "HD" version doesn't improve much) I actually really liked the world of Gransys in the same way I enjoy Ocarina, Majora and Twilight's environs.

You'll never get enough of fighting hoards of enemies and some really big bosses that play similar to Monster Hunter with location specific targeting and just all sorts of ways to bring them down.

The story is actually pretty entertaining and it does some interesting thematic stuff and pulls off some fun surprises.

Navigating the world is a lot like Zelda only with plenty more secrets and nooks and crannies to discover.

The job based class system is what I wish Final Fantasy would do again. All classes play differently, there are a wide range of skills for a variety of play styles and you can swap builds at will and carry skills from one vocation over to another.

The pawn system is simply amazing. This is the most robust AI system in all of gaming. It's tricky to set their behaviors correctly to get them to do what you want to do and some behaviors are utterly worthless and easy to let the pawns slip in to, but once you figure out how to set your pawn's inclinations they'll act impressively smart.

There are some awfully major caveats, however...

1.) The Pawns Never Shut Up and NPCs repeat the same lines every time you speak to them and even change menus in stores. This is the single most obnoxious NPC banter of any video game. Think Elder Scrolls is annoying? Dragon's Dogma is Elder Scrolls "arrow in the knee" cranked up to 11 on a 10 point scale until the knob breaks off and flies into orbit.

2.) Lots of Backtracking. DD has a fast travel system but it is limited. I actually never had a problem with the backtracking in DD but I can understand how some people would. You do get a limited number of fast travel points to place wherever you wish and limited use items to fast travel that are really pretty plentiful. Once you figure out how the world is laid out you'll be able to place your warp stones where you need them to zip around at will without having to go too far out of your way. But you'll still be crossing a lot of the same ground over and over again.

And for a game that is supposed to be played in perpetuity through an endless cycle of New Game+ modes, eventually you'll run out of meaningful progress to make. Stat gains for leveling up diminish to nothing basically after lv100. You can easily break lv80 in your first playthrough. Also, all weapons and armor are as they come, meaning the stats are all the same for each piece and they're even all located in the same places so eventually you'll have acquired and upgraded all the equipment in the game and run out of anything new to get. The story and quests also don't change on NG+.

DD is also difficult... at first. You'll get handed a lot on your first playthrough but once you figure out how things work the game becomes almost dreadfully easy. It is too easy to let yourself power level until even major boss fights become mundane. Even HARD MODE is a nice pleasant level of "moderately challenging" with a sufficiently leveled Arisen and full compliment of pawns.