I think the way I see it, especially when comparing purely in terms of combat mechanics and design, Dragon's Dogma gets better and better the deeper you get, while Dark Souls (1 at least) gets worse in the second half.
In Dragon's Dogma, the combat starts out extremely simple but becomes really interesting and varied once you start maxing out vocations and trying hybrid classes and party combinations. In Dark Souls, the combat stays relatively the same depending on build but level design takes a massive dip after getting the Lord Vessel. I love the first half of that game but Lost Izalith, Duke's Archives and Tomb of Giants are such a chore every subsequent playthrough. This isn't to say that the level design in Dragon's Dogma is necessarily good, but it stays of the same quality throughout and the focus on large groups of enemies and larger climbable enemies makes the open empty spaces pretty appropriate.
I also just think the sheer player experience between classes in Dragon's Dogma is so awesome, playing Fighter is almost a completely different game than playing Mage, playing Strider is almost like a third person shooter. Dark Souls obviously has different playstyles, but the fundamentals stay very similar between builds.
Thinking about this has made me wish Dragon's Dogma Online's servers were still up again :(
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