How is this game?

It looks interesting, kind of like a mix of The Witcher 3 and Dark Souls if you will. How is the story/characters, the atmosphere/exploration of the setting, sound design, and gameplay? Are there many bugs/glitches that really detract from the experience in big ways? I'd probably be getting it on the Xbox One X if I got it. It's about $30 on there. It looks interesting to me, but I'm not sure if it's worth the money right now.

@ntm: It was worth the $60 when it came out, but that really depends on what you like in games.

Dragons Dogma is barely anything like the Witcher or Dark Souls for that matter. It IS an action RPG that is heavily class based with a somewhat open world structure. The combat is incredibly satisfying and the pawn system of AI companions that roll with you in a party is really great. The story is extremely Japanese and for the first three quarters of the game seems basic until it goes completely off the rails near the end stretch. The Dark Arisen expansion introduces a really great new dungeon to the mix with awesome new enemies, but it is very late game content that will challenge you even at high levels.

IF you're looking for a dynamic RPG with a great combat system that thrives on diversity in moves and classes then this will satisfy that in spades. The combat in Dragons Dogma is really excellent and caters to many different styles of gameplay from heavy bruisers, to agile thieves or ranged magic users, and everything in between. If you'r elooking for a deeply involved story with a rich plot and great writing..ehh.. I don't want to sell it short but this is not the strongest part of the game. The open world aspect is pretty decent because unlike games like Skyrim all the loot is static and all the dungeons are bespoke, which means that exploring the world actually matters as diving deep into some caves with reward you with unique and interesting loot rather than 3 gold coins and rusty dagger number 34.

Some people try it and fall in love with it while others bounce off hard because of the very Japanese nature of this game.

It’s a really unique Action/RPG that has gained a strong cult following ever since it’s original release on 360/PS3. Personally I love it. Story wise it’s nothing to write home about but gameplay, atmosphere and exploration wise it’s fantastic. When I think of the game that best captures a Western Fantasy RPG setting of wizards and dragons, trolls, goblins, creepy dungeons and caves full of skeletons and cultists this is it. It just feels like playing a fully realized old school D&D campaign.

Great classes. Fun combat. Cool quests. Good open world. Bananas magic. Cool AI pawn (sidekick) system that lets you loan out and borrow adventurers. There’s also a great climbing system for fighting/targeting larger enemies.

I’ve started the game a few times, and always eventually got distracted, but it is cool as hell and totally worth $30.

I don’t remember many bugs, since you asked, and one version I own is Xbox One X.

I'm biased because this is my favorite game of all time, but let me explain what you'll find here. The gameplay is probably one of the most unique things about it, you won't find many RPG games that have such gameplay. Combat feels and looks great, there's a ton of abilities and you can easily switch classes. I'd say the combat is way more fun and fluid than both Dark Souls and Witcher. The magic system in this is really awesome too, with a ton of incredible spells. Don't think there are any or many glitches, it's very polished now. It was directed by Hideaki Itsuno, the person responsible for many Devil May Cry games, including the upcoming DMC V. (I hope after DMC V they'll give him money to make DD2)

I really like the story and the characters, but it's definitely nothing too exceptional, it's just decent. The world on the other hand was really cool to explore with a lot of interesting caves, dungeons or just outside locations. Some quests are quite fun too, and the ability to befriend NPC which has an important story impact later on was a neat idea. Atmosphere is totally there, especially at night! You can see very little and you absolutely should pull out your lamp or torch or whatever light source.

Your max party size is 4 and that includes your own created main character, your created companion (a pawn) and 2 other pawns either found in the world created by the devs or ones that were created by other players and recruited in special places. The character creator is one of the most expansive and varied creators that can be found in RPGs/open world games. You can only directly control your own created character and the 3 other companions are mostly independent. You can set how you want them to behave or what to do, like heal, gather items etc. With time your created companion will learn from your actions and develop on their own, but you can always change their behavior if you don't like it.

One of my favorite things about this game is how everything changes post-story, I don't wanna spoil anything, but let's just say this game has one of the best post-story content and the world changes dramatically!

Plus, there's also a variety of cool modes which were later added, like speedrun mode, hard mode, and there's infinite new game plus! Oh and it's called Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen because it's sorta like a complete edition and includes the Dark Arisen expansion which adds a huge new location with its own story, new creatures, bosses etc. but it's for high level characters so try that way later into the game.

I personally think this game still looks good, but it can objectively look a bit dated, graphics wise. Gameplay wise it definitely still holds up and it really feels great! 30$ is a crime for the amount of content and awesomeness you get with this package! And if you're worried even more that you won't like, wait for a sale, it's been discounted often, at least on PS4, so I imagine it's the same on Xbox.

It's one of my favorite games ever. There's nothing really quite like it, though- There are comparisons to be made between it and other open world RPGs, like the Witcher and Dark Souls, but it's not really too much like them. It's kinda its weird own thing.

Story and characters are pretty light (except near the end, where the story gets pretty nuts), but not in the Dark Souls way. Just in a "Yeah, it's there, it's fine, and it's not too intrusive" kinda way.

I'm not really the person to ask about exploration- I never get much satisfaction out of it in games (probably why I'm not really into the Souls games). One thing to note, however, is the map really isn't all that big. There are only some decent points of atmosphere in the story, but I found the atmosphere in the Dark Arisen content in particular to be fantastic.

Sound design is good, but never really stood out to me like in the Souls games, where I really loved it.

Gameplay is where Dragon's Dogma shines. Incredibly fast and fluid combat that makes the game a joy to play. The boss fights are fantastically fun, what with the ability to climb all over giant monsters. Difficulty is great. It's pretty tough (which is why it got some Souls comparisons early in its life, despite the two really not being that similar), but I think it pulls it off perfectly. The Vocation system is somewhat reminiscent of the Final Fantasy job system, though I wish there were a few more vocations to play around with. The only thing I would say is to stay away from playing as a mage, at least your first playthrough, since they're pretty different in combat than the other classes, and, in my opinion, not nearly as fun. Could give a poor first impression. I say first playthrough because you realize that, once you get into New Game+, the game seems very much designed with NG+ in mind. I've probably played the game 10 or so times.

Even back when it first came out on 360, I rarely remember encountering any glitches. I don't believe it has the reputation of being a buggy game, a la Bethesda games.

Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I think that it could perhaps be described as an "arcade open world RPG", as odd as that juxtaposition sounds. It's all about making the gameplay fun, while being a bit lighter on everything else.

EDIT: Damn, writing that out REALLY makes me want to play it again. I keep it installed on my PC at all times, may as well boot it up...

So close to being one of the best games ever, so close..

I love it, but it's definitely a special kinda game that won't hit everyone that way. I's like if those old DnD capcom brawlers were an open world RPG or something. The story is largely uninteresting and not really there - It's all about having very good-feeling combat in this fantasy setting against chimeras and goblins. It is not without its flaws. It's a bit too much of a numbers game, for one. Unlike Dark Souls, you can't really just run through it level 1, and getting into a scrap with a higher-level enemy won't work out for you at all. And it's easily broken by a cheap healing herb that lets you basically live forever as long as you remember to stock up on it. Same for the stamina system, which regenarates very slowly, encouraging just eating some stamina regen stuff in the pause menu rather than managing the flow of combat like in Dark Souls, so it's not balanced great. Instead of regular party members, the pawns you have to deal with can be very annoying and repetitive in their chatter, but are easily quieted, mercifully. There aren't actually a ton of enemies that get used a lot, so you're gonna fight the crap out of those goblins. I wish you could have a larger moveset on the fly rather than the limited stuff per weapon. It leaves the warrior especially with very few options.

But all the animations are great, the movement is free and responsive and it's an action-rpg that for once gets the action part of that name right, in a way bioware games, the witcher, bethesda's rpgs and so on can't even come close to. You can climb on the monsters, you can double jump, you can do all sorts of cool shit. And it's all framed excellently, with impact frames and blurs in just the right places to make just playing it feel good, especially as the strider-type classes. That's what makes it amazing. There are other good parts - the atmosphere during the night is incredibly tense, as it actually gets pitch black and you never know when you're gonna run into a cyclops. There's a story turn at the end that I liked. The character creator is out of this world, and you can customize both your character and your main pawn.

But what you really need to know is that it's what you'd expect when the people that made Devil May Cry 3 and 4 decided to make an open-world action RPG. It's console first, action first. That's what makes it stand out so much next to all the western open world RPGs from devs that used to just make them for PC, with crappy combat but a big focus on story branching, lore and characters. Dragon's Dogma is dumb, in that good old Capcom way. Bioware will make a dozen romanceable characters with their own missions and dialogue trees. Dragon's Dogma tracks every single NPC's affection towards you, which is how lots of people ended up with their love interest in the final scenes being the local innkeeper or store owner. It's not as overtly campy and funny as Monster Hunter World or Phoenix Wright or whatever, but it's still ridiculous. I love it.

In terms of bugs and stuff, it ran like garbage on both 360 and ps3, but it looks like the pc/next-gen ports are stellar. It's definitely nothing like Dragon Age Inquisition was for me even on 360 though. Aside from a lackluster performance, I don't think I ever had any technical issues with it. The one time something glitchy happened it was entirely my fault - I grabbed onto a harpy, which carried me away and which I could partially steer, and I managed to steer it through a super high up window into a locked chamber that was just there for decoration and never meant to be entered. When the harpy inevitably dropped me down into that chamber, there was no way out besides reloading.

Edit: I think I can sum this up better. This is the Witcher 3 griffin boss:

This is a random DD griffin:

That's it.

As you can see, you should play it? Atleast maybe try it?

I have only agreements with what everyone else has said. The pawn system is fun, the combat is electric and switching up classes was always refreshing. I generally had fun and liked what I was doing but the last bit of story was fucking awesome and I loved it. I always always always wanted to play this but it looked soooooo jank on last gen consoles, framerate/letterbox wise, and eventually I got my wish of a pc release to actually play it. I'm assuming the one X version is fine too? It gets heavily discounted on steam and other sites for steam, but for xbone seems to be $20 used at gs and not too common elsewhere for much cheaper than $30.

*Quick Hijack* Anyone see the platinum action rpg based off a japanese mobile game Granblue Fantasy? Platinum doesn't really do stuff that doesn't come out in english but no official word yet I think on a western release. Anyway, I like the look of the game and the combat looks weighty and fun. Definitely flashier and more anime than this game, but I honestly can't think of too many games with this kind of action combat. Souls being a slower paced stamina system and dynasty warriors being pure masher. Thinking about Dragon's Dogma again just reminds me of this trailer and how I just want them to say "yes, it'll be in english". I'll finish playing Tales of Berseria one day but that combat feels the complete opposite, really mashy and boring to me even though I like the game around it.

In agreement with all the praise in this thread, but additionally it has the best character creator ever as far as I'm concerned.

The original game had one huge flaw, that it really didn't have any fast travel and you had to spend 45 minutes running to the same locations over and over, but the DLC added the ability to buy the whatits that lets you drop a fast travel point. Beyond that, its a pretty great game, the combat is a ton of fun until you're forced to kill the same monster the same way the 100th time. But I think you hit new content fast enough that it doesn't need to be a problem (dlc helped with that too), and the story goes some wild places.

I tried to go back to it on PC recently, and couldn't get very far into it because I'd killed everything 100 times before, but its very clearly a better game now. Probably didn't need to kill that ogre every time I went to the ruined watchtower if I could just teleport there, and wouldn't be so sick of it. Totally worth 30 bucks.

Cool, seems like something I might like. To be honest, the biggest thing I fear is that the game might become too repetitive, be it the reasoning behind the tasks you're doing, or maybe even the setting. I don't want that to happen. The game looks like it plays well. Visually it doesn't look great, but it's good enough. I love The Witcher and I love Dark Souls; I know it's not exactly like those, but if there was a close comparison to anything else, I'd hope it'd be that, or at least much better than what I've seen people compare it to (Skyrim/Monster Hunter). I think Skyrim is okay, and I was never interested in Monster Hunter. I don't know if I'll get it right now, but perhaps soon.

One of my favorite games of last generations. Though you should be warned that, aside from some interesting developments near the end, the story and characters are largely uninteresting. The real draw is supremely satisfying combat, a very fluid level up/class system, and some extremely good atmosphere. As much as I love that game it certainly isn't for everyone. Still, $30 seems like a low enough buy in to try it out, depending on your financial situation of course.

Austin Walker is a big fan. Give it a search on Waypoint if you want to be sold on it.

Edit: Here's the article I was thinking of: https://waypoint.vice.com/en_us/article/qbvzwq/its-old-and-its-clunky-but-you-really-must-play-dragons-dogma. Really just long form of what people are telling you here. Dragon's Dogma is kinda like a prototype, more linear, Breath of the Wild in that it encourages exploration and experimentation, and ranges between dreamlike wonder and utter dread at points due to the combat system.

Dragon's Dogma a quirky, aggressively Japanese game that plays incredibly well, with fast, responsive, and varied combat and a story that is... barely present for most of its run and then totally crazy near the end. It also makes some really weird, boneheaded decisions about the structure of its world, the visibility of its quests, and the transparency of some of its mechanics. You're going to figure out pretty quick if you're going to be the kind of person who tolerates that stuff or not, and while there's a certain charming quality to how little DD follows the standard open world script, there's also some occasional tedium and confusion alongside it.

There's really nothing else out there quite like it, which excuses a lot of its more glaring flaws and makes it one of my easy favorites of the last console generation.

@charongreed: the original game did have fast travel, it just worked in a weird and very Dragon Dogma-ish way by having you activate teleport portals and then expand a limited resource to actually teleport. In Dark Arisen you simply got an unlimited travel stone so all you had to worry about was opening those “portals” by their own stones. It was quirky and kind of interesting because the night time was not only way dark but a lot more dangerous which made it a risk reward sort of thing of when you decided to fast travel as it was a more precious resource.

@ntm: I love DD but it certainly is repetitive, enemies spawn in static locations and frequently respawn. The world is anything but dynamic and eventful so that can add to the tedium a lot.

Thankfully what it lacks it makes up for in fantastic core combat systems with some very solid ARPG mechanics ontop.

Dragon's Dogma is a hidden gem and went wildly underappreciated at the time, but luckily has gained a cult following. Fantastic combat and a real sense of scale during boss battles. It's hard to do correctly, but grabbing onto a griffin and having it take off and start flying around the world with you on it, completely dynamically, is amazing. It's also one of the few open worlds to get night time exploring right. Dark Arisen is a fantastic expansion pack, too.

It definitely has some issues, such as the stamina system being too restricted during exploration, and the main story being pretty non existent until the last 1/3 of the game. Oh, and with the re-release they replaced the title screen with some generic fantasy music instead of the fucking amazing song in the OG release. Ugh. I will street fight any motherfucker that talks shit about Into Free, just try me.

I've bought and played it on three different systems now ('360, PS3, PS4), so I'm highly biased. It has an unusual and quirky vibe to it, which I'm all into. It's very different from both Western RPGs and JRPGs. It feels very Japanese at times, especially with the music, storyline/narrative, and in the way your AI team behaves. It also feels very Western at times, in how you do combat with your chosen character and how the game-world is structured, which feels more like a Western RPG with its openness. Then it has systems that are unique to this game, like the pawn system and boss fights.

The main likeness it has with Dark Souls is that exploration can be very punishing. The main likeness it has with Witcher is that they are sort of open-world games. They are all action-RPGs so there's that as well.

If you want a unique Fantasy RPG this is worth playing, for the storyline, the combat style, pawn system, and sense of exploration.

The best gauge to see if you'll like the game is to Watch parts of a walkthrough, because then you get a bigger picture of what the game is like.

Hey how about everyone shut up because I have games to play. I have new and old games I've spent money on to play that I haven't touched and every time I come back here to read about others also gushing about this game I just want to play this again. I HAVE GAMES TO BEAT FOR THE FIRST TIME PEOPLE, STOP MAKING ME WANT TO PLAY THIS.

Sidebar: I'm like halfway or more through Katamari Damacy(replay) because of the GBE playdate stream honoring Ryan. I DON'T NEED THIS PEOPLE, SOMEONE STOP ME. Some games are just that subjectively damn good I guess you can't help it.

I can pretty much echo what everyone is saying here. I remember Patrick describing it as bland in the Quick Look, but I don't see it that way. It's more like an odd, slightly unsettling dreamworld.

One of my favorite things is that everything feels handcrafted. There aren't that many dungeons and ruins compared to other Western RPGs, but every single one feels unique and worth exploring.

It's one my all-time favorite games, and what makes it great has been summed up already very well, so I'd like to mention something I didn't see. The Bitter Black expansion for the game is just fantastic. And it is reminiscent of Dark Souls in a very good way. It's definitely end game content but it's so fucking atmospheric and tense, and so damn rewarding to progress through(get your pawns thoroughly trained before going to the Isle though). I love the whole game, the pawn system is pure genius game design, but the expansion is just as good as video games get.

I bought this game three times, so, yeah, it's pretty good.

A lot of people really, really like this game.

I feel like I should like it way more than I actually do, considering how much I like Dark Souls and, more importantly, what I like about Dark Souls (great combat, awesome locations, great world to explore, chests that give you pre-determined loot instead of a bunch of random shit that I couldn't care less about, some really well-thought out RPG stuff).

But the beginning of this game isn't all that great, its hooks don't seem to be apparent until some ways into it. I've started and restarted it several times and each time get kind of bored, kind of quickly. This thread is making me want to give it another shot but right now I'm playing through Dark Souls for the umpteenth time (that Remastered version looks and runs buttery-smooth on PC, guys!) and I want to finish Metro 2033 before Octopath Traveler comes out.

So it's yet another game in the ever-growing "I'll get around to it someday" pile.

EDIT: Also, I want to note that you can turn down how chatty your NPC's are. I understand that some people want their pawns as chatty as possible but I'd much rather them keep quiet, or only say something occasionally. This is an excellent feature that should be widely implemented in any game that has people shouting stuff at you.

I absolutely love this game, one of my favorites of all time. I think the other posters already covered why quite well.

@vortextk:Yes! that was my biggest disappointment at E3 that there was no word on it. It was at PAX East (the video was) at the Cygames booth so I was hoping we'd at least get a date and word on an English localization

It's a different take on an action RPG, which makes it worth playing in my book. It's one of those games I really wish had gotten a sequel because the core combat system is great, but there's just enough jank and weird design decisions to be annoying. It's also a really small world, at least when compared to something like The Witcher 3 or Skyrim. I don't think that's a big problem, but you will be going to (or through) the same areas quite a bit.

At PAX...that's a good sign atleast!

@doctordonkey: there's a PC mod that fixes this and Dark Arisen is perfect now!!

I want to love this game as much as others, but I've tried playing through it twice now, and gave up around the same point both times (probably 10-15 hours in I'd say). The combat is fun, but I didn't find it as deep as some people claim it to be. And for how small and hand crafted the world is, I found it to be incredibly dull looking in spots. There are lots of bland textured mountains and sprawling grass areas with little to no charm. It's worth noting that I did enjoy my time with it, just not to the extent as other folks. Ultimately, the PC version is quite buggy (lots of crashes when entering/exiting locations) which is what really made me drop the game entirely. Too many great games these days to force my way though a buggy game that I only kind of enjoy.

Also...some of the dialogue...oh boy.

"We must use fire, Arisen!"

"They're master works all, you can't go wrong."

"Goblins ill like fire!"

And don't get me started on their use of the word 'aught'...aught this, aught that...good god. Those still haunt me to this day.

@big_denim: I would say that the "combat" is less deep than fun and how the class system is also fun and I barely see anyone promoting the game to have anything much different to say other than yes it is a drab world.

I also don't remember having a buggy time with it, which doesn't mean much because supposedly some people had little to no issues with arkham knight too.

I don't think there are a LOT of instances where the game does stuff like this, but there was one particular moment when I realized how unique the game was. Up until that point, I believe I had come across things I couldn't access because of stats or skills (like, I wasn't strong enough or I didn't know lockpicking or whatever). But at one point I came across a tunnel that I wanted to enter, but my character said "I can't fit into that".

I tried a few times, but I eventually just looked up how I was supposed to enter that tunnel. It turns out the problem was just as my character said - they were too big. That particular route was gated based on how tall you made your character in the character creator. Only characters under X units of height could go through that tunnel. I presume there are also places where your character can be too short to access, but I don't know.

edit: My point is that it's a game that's not afraid to do weird stuff like gating paths based on stats most other games would consider purely cosmetic. Character weight also has specific gameplay implications

@ivdamke: @ntm:

I second this. It IS repetitive, but the moment to moment is really great.

It’s a game I’ve never finished, but loved while I played it. I find that totally okay in the case of Dragon’s Dogma. It’s worth it for those good times (...they’re so good!).

@vortextk: Fair enough. I guess I just found the climbing a bit tedious and cumbersome, but I suppose it is a mechanic that's fairly unique.

And ya, bugs on PC are never a guaranteed thing. They weren't abysmal (hard crash every 3 hours or so), but it was enough of a deterrent to have me give up the game for good. Which is unfortunate, because I did have a good time with it despite my criticisms of the game.

@bbalpert: that's hilarious, where was the cave?

Have to agree with this. The game is one of my favorites. Combat is amazing, story gets somewhat interesting at the end, but more than anything it is not afraid to have some crazy design decisions that make the game feel so much more organic. Everything these days feel like it was designed in a min/max spreadsheet and normalized to be as bland as possible. Like bbalpert said there are some truly interesting things this game does. For example I still remember leaving the poor village girl to die in the woods (on my first play through), because I didn't take her quest seriously enough and progress the main story line too far. What other games let you fail quests with hidden time triggers anymore? None.

I've always had a real soft for DD:DA. It is a lot to take in for the first few hours; the controls are not super easy to comprehend at first, so I'd recommend just diving in and fooling around for a while before maybe restarting. But I really love the sword/shield combat and the flexibility of the combat system. It takes a while before all the interesting abilities pop up, but a good team of warrior/archer/offensive spellcaster/healer is fun to run around with. There's a lot of trial and error in terms of knowing where you can go without getting your ass kicked, but that's part of the fun.

@slag: I don't remember the details, but I think it was a military outpost/fort that got taken over by goblins or something. When you go in to help the soldiers clear the place out, you find some tunnels that the goblins dug under the fort (it's how they got in). The path you can't get through if you're too big was one of the entrances to those tunnels.

@bbalpert: Ohhhh I know exactly where that it is. I forgot all about that, I think I couldn't fit in either. Doing some quick googling, apparently only the smallest size possible in the character creator fits

This thread made pick up Dragon's Dogma again on 360, at which point I realized the servers shut down this spring and bought it on PS4 instead. I wish it ran on 60 like on a solid PC, but just a stable 30 frames, no screen tearing, a higher resolution and no black borders is a clear improvement.

I had also forgotten how hard those bandits on the way to Witchwood hit. I tried killing them a dozen times before I gave up and just ran past them all. Gonna come back in 20 levels and mop the floor with them and their dumb hyper armor.

@redhotchilimist: Oh yeah those bandits are the worst, so many of them too. I don’t know why but that group specifically seem so much stronger than any other group of bandits. Always used up 90% of my healing items when I went that way.

One thing I like about DD is how structured the relatively small map is. Like it’s not dynamic at all and it kinda feels like an MMO with how the enemy spawns are always the same. It kind of makes it more memorable. I can still remember exactly how everything looks and where everything is to specific detail. Compare that to an Elder Scrolls game where it’s so much more random and less rigid to a point where stuff blends together for me.

I swear those guys have a clown car parked just around the corner.

But yeah, same here. Having run through Gransys so many times now, I know it like the back of my hand. Which has its advantages and its downsides, you know. It is a little boring to see the same areas again and again. On the other hand, it's also nice to be able to see the entire game map in my head.