Dragon’s Dogma is an action role-playing game coming out May 22nd for the PS3 and Xbox 360. The game is fantasy based with an open-world setting. The setting, combined with the hack-and-slash style of fighting, made me think of Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim at first, but these are two very different games.

According to Capcom, “The Arisen” is a hero who has had his or her heart ripped out by a dragon. This heartless hero is destined to find and kill that dragon.

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The Good the Bad and the Ugly

Customization

My favorite part of the demo was the character creation. This has to be one of the most comprehensive customization systems on a console. Along with the normal options of hair, eyes, skin, face shape, etc., there were also options to customize height, weight, stance (ladylike to macho, imposing to timid), scars and makeup for both genders. I was able to create ethnic characters that actually looked like their race instead of a brown colored Caucasian person. They also had afros available, which I always appreciate because I’m a fan of natural hair.

You not only get to create your own character, but you also customize your main pawn. The pawn system reminded me of Suikoden Tierkreis. You can summon pawns from other player’s worlds in online mode. I like the idea of it but it wasn’t actually part of the demo. The two additional pawns I received in the demo were the two mentioned in the digital comics.

I can’t (off the top of my head) think of another RPG that allowed me to also customize my companion characters, so I thought this was a really cool feature. I made a big sexy hunk to keep me company. 😉

Pawns

Overall I think the pawn system was a good idea, and I enjoy the fact that they guide me as well. The pawns are constantly telling me where to go, giving me battle tactics and clues, and just yelling enthusiastic war cries.

But on the other hand, my pawns WOULD NOT SHUT UP. They often spoke over and on top of each other and other NPCs. They even spoke their little repetitive sentences over IMPORTANT GAME EXPOSITION. It was pretty annoying and NPC chatter overlap is one of my RPG pet peeves. The other one is when characters are cut off because a cut-scene has started. It always leaves me feeling like I missed something. However, much like my issue with having to use lanterns instead of magical lights following me around, this pet peeve probably won’t affect most players’ enjoyment of the game.

Gameplay

Another small issue was the promise that players would be able to climb around the giant animals to hit the weakest spots. I could (after a few failed attempts) climb onto the monster, but I couldn’t seem to move around on the monster at all. I thought it was just me but checked with my buddy and he had the same issue. I don’t know if this is a demo glitch or if we were just doing it wrong, but climbing onto the back of a flying monster was nevertheless epic-ly awesome.

Speaking of climbing on things, it was my pawns who told me to do it. And the monsters did everything they could to shake me off. AIs were smart. I kind of enjoyed having them attack and heal willy nilly without tactics but also felt it made the game a little too easy. One article even mentions that you could sic your pawns on a monster and then stand back and wait for it to die!

The Ugly

The ugly is actually very simple: this game is ugly.  I played on the PS3 and a friend played on 360. We both found the game equally displeasing to the eye. It was dark, dreary and blocky. I couldn’t even see if it was possible to find loot in the demo because I just couldn’t see anything on the floor. And I had my lantern on!

I already get eye strain enough as it is, add a dark setting and my loot hunting, completionist tendencies and we have a headache. 🙁

Overall

Despite my minor qualms, I really enjoyed the (super) short demo and would be interested in seeing more of the game. Honestly, now that I think about it, this demo was just too short to make a final decision. There were definitely some awe moments, like the first time we approach the dragon, and flying on the back of a griffin, but I would want a little more gameplay before making a purchasing decision.

Here is the Progression Trailer from Dragon’s Dogma. [tube]oHjv0uNlg-M[/tube]