erm...it kinda looks like this posted a bit off center?
Dragon's Dogma: When East Meets West!
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 On 02/25/2013 at 09:07 AM by ActivisionStoleMy360 See More From This User » |
So to kick off my time here at Pixlebit, I thought I would start with a game that I have started my NG+ playthrough on, after picking it up on a whim sometime back! So Dragon's Dogma is somthing different than what I expected, and I say that because this is a Capcom game...This Japanese company really took on the idea of making a more western RPG in terms of the mechanics, setting and controls! The social intereaction is quite different, where it allows you to have substantial influence or no influence on other peoples games through the use of your companion!
While you are given a default "pawn" which is your companion named Rook (ya I saw the irony), he does not ever level up with you, or your primary pawn that is your creation! In the beginning you end up customzing yourself in terms of pretty much everything you'd ever want to have! you are shown as being just a normal every day sort of person. Well, the game starts out with something that says "The End at the Beginning" which will make absolutely no sense until the end, and to save those who think I am spoiling it...no its not actually the end of the game you are playing at the beginning! But anyway, back on point! Your companion or your main "pawn" that you customize and that levels up with you not only accompanies just you, but will appear in other peoples games as they play, and those people can actually employ your pawn (its ok, doesn't matter if you and that person are using your pawn at the same time or not) to influence their party, and what they go out into the world to do. Though your pawns are slightly more limited in vocation than you are (no hybrid pawn vocations so no assasins, mage archers or mage warriors). Their use is incredibly important in the game because, to borrow a phrase from Zelda, "It's dangerous to go alone."
Moving on to the beastiary, its quite different (I think I used that word right). Capcom goes out of their way to really try and root through western
cultures mythology (and their own) to take out thepreceptions of various beasts that would roam the lands of the middle ages. You will see things as insane as gryffins, Hydra's, Dragons (sorta obvious right?), and your standard fair of easier enemies as you end up going through the lands,learning about the various culture that Capcom built! The world is actually designed to give a true feeling of the days of old but infusing them with magic and as much accuracy to what the written works say the world looked like (including the things that were probably just embelishments, like goblins and dragons right? :p ). The interesting thing about each of the enemies you will encounter, AND your companions or "pawns," is that each creature has
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In general the game does feel and play much more like a WRPG, but it retains some of that JRPG indentity in terms of the feeling of the cinematics! Observing quite a few of them, they have the fine quality and feel you would get from a Final Fantasy cinematic (no joke first one I saw, I swore that was the first thing I thought about). The general story has that feeling as well, there is a romantic subplot, its sort of bland and could use some work in terms of itself, but it fits the story like a glove, and finds a way to be completely relevant to the main end of the game! That in itself is completely 
unique and fantastic. The one thing I really enjoyed about the romantic subplot was that it could have been anyone of your choosing (except pawns) that you interacted with. While there were obvious choices, the influence you had over anyone in particular in the world is a possibility...with that said there are some real horror stories of endings (lol?) where people accidentally ended up with something they weren't looking for. So I would say the affinity mechanic needs some tweeking. All in all I would highly recommend it, I really was surprised by the quality of this game coming from Capcom! they sort of fell off the deep end a while back, and its nice to see that perhaps some new blood there created something so fantastic. Right now you can likely pick this up on the cheap, so if you are skeptical, thats what I did! I would say pick it up soon to play it, because coming up next is going to be Dragon's Dogma 2 (hopefully soon) which will hopefully expand upon the story and give us more of this world, or perhaps a new one!
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