Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen

Dragon's Dogma is a really weird game. It's VERY META. Pros: - Combat is unique, monster climbing is fun - The different 'classes' are all actually quite fun - It's unique in a weird way - The Dragon's Voice is great(And one of the best boss fights in any game) - DLC/Late Game can feel like a completely different game - Has a lot of fun hidden mechanics/things you could play this for 200 hours and find something new easily Cons: - For me...too META. It feels like half game half commentary on what a game is especially the late game/New Game plus/DLC - VERY Grindy in the late game - Most NPCs are REALLY flat especially as the game progresses - It's wonky, I really suggest a game guide, you can literally accidently end up in love with any NPC in the game - It feels like it tried to be immersive in lacking direction with a lot of things, but it's so vague and so WEIRD that it just feels like it requires a game guide. A few times something is intuitive and when you solve it you feel good. But honestly I cannot imagine playing this without SOME guidance, you would just miss half the content on a first run(And I don't have the patience for playing a game a dozen times to find everything worth doing) - Starts out a mix of SOULSISHY and classic fantasy. But the end game feels more like a roguelike/diablo dungeon crawl that while it had some good points felt artificially stretched out to take longer than it needed to. Overall: Dragon's Dogma is a strange but fun game. And a lot of it's best qualities are also it's worst ones. I don't know that everyone needs to play this. But if you want something that feels a little different and can handle slightly older graphics it's worth playing. Expect it to be a tad wonky, and feel unrefined at times. But it also really delivers in a few places. Unless you absolutely love it, you can probably skip the DLC stuff in my opinion and stick to the main plot which is much more satisfying.

This game is an enigma for me. I've never disliked so much about a game and yet enjoyed so many concepts about a game... Highs: *Class design : Vocations are distinct and complex. You can swap between them and experience multiple playstyles on one character. *Pawn system : Building and commanding a loyal slave army.. Err, pawn army.. Is a unique mechanic that has the 'gather and venture forth' feel. A multiplayer group in a singleplayer game. *Boss encounters : Fighting large monsters is really fun. Scaling, knocking parts off, there's a real epicness to some encounters. Lows: *Glorified walking simulator. If it wasn't for my friends high level pawn, I'd of quit the game early on. If you cut out all the walking, the game is like.. 5-10 hours max. Not saying you can't adventure, but when your walk/jogging across the map every main quest, the tedium adds up. A big long run for a few quests is fine, but the long slogs are incredibly boring. Too few enemy types : Not only do you spend 20 minutes walking to a place you just were for another quest, you get to fight a minimal variety of chaff enemies over and over and over and over and over..... You fight the same goblins, harpies, bandits, skeletons, etc the whole game. With a few gems of a rare big monster right. *Absurdly bad UI and systems. The inventory management is an absolute nightmare of weight limits, multiple inputs for simple tasks, and menu scrolling. The gear upgrade system is equally contrived. Multiple inputs, odd delays in enhancements. Far too much clunkiness for a Capcom game. *The pacing.. Ugh, just when the story reaches its epic climax the game grinds to a halt and relies on vague poorly hinted or explained mechanics, restrictive vendor timers, and a mandatory scavenger hunt before you get the credits to roll. This game is an odd one, I can see why it has a cult following. The highs are really high. Yet, it's weighed down by the fact it's a bad video game. I can't recommend it. Granted, the game is a decade old, nobody is gonna read this anyway.

Im so happy Ive decided to try this game. It takes me back to simpler times, its like the feeling Ive had when playing Skyrim for the first time. Amazing game

초반에 시스템도 불친절하고 진짜 아무것도 안알려줘서 "그래, 몬스터 잡는 단순한 오픈 월드 액션이 겠지,,," 했는데 헐, 아니였다;... 생각보다 엄청난 깊이의 스토리가 담겨져 있는 게임. 억압하는 세상의 속에서 정해진 규칙을 깨부수고 나아갈 수 있는 강한 의지가 있는지 주인공에게 실험하는 명작임... 원작이 10년 전에 나왔다고 하기엔 1도 안촌스럽고 너무 재밌음.

[h1]Such a love and hate one[/h1] The game really gives you no guidance and unless you have friends who played it before, you can get to several unbeatable situations. I passed around bandits and stuck at higher-level location with barely any chance to get back. + Very impressive combat system + Skills, weapons, magic are passionate + Dorky helpers from other dimension + Cool monsters and bandits to fight + Curious world to explore - Feels like 2007 MMO at times - Too easy to ruin the playthrough

It was once described as "the greatest 7/10 ever made". This is both incredibly true, yet also keenly wrong. Nobody is going to tell you that this game has no flaws. But they'll be grinning wildly from ear to ear reminiscing about wild Dogma moments cooing over their pawns while they're telling you this. This game is far more than the sum of it's parts. It's the little things. Like the look of surprise on a canonically rapist Ogre's face when you zap it with lightning while sneaking around a lucky corner stumbling around with a wet lantern in the dark in a pitch black hell dungeon with only the electric arcs of the spell lighting your way to stop it rampaging and explosively knocking everyone off a deadly ledge. Maybe that is what a game needs to ascend beyond 10. At that point I don't think flaws matter much. I don't know. But I do know you should probably try this game. It is what it is. One of the best games on steam. And don't forget: wolves hunt in packs.

This game is simultaneously as shallow as a puddle and as deep as a large lake. The world and characters are cardboard standees. The vocation system is neat. Its balancing systems are also at odds with one another. The combat is somewhat unique and I find it fun (after the low-level BS), but the game is chock full of janky, unsatisfying, and messy design that has no respect for your time. (And no, I'm mostly not talking about trekking across the map, as I know how to use Port crystals, and the DA version at least gives you the Infinite Ferrystone since they realized limiting it to consumable stones was a terrible idea with their amusement park-like map and awful quest design). It's like Oblivion, except the alchemy system is SO MUCH WORSE. It's like Kingdoms of Amalur, both in the Destinies/Vocations feeling and playing quite distinctly, and in that the combat can be fast and fun, and allow for tactical engagement and varied approaches. In that way, this actually feels a little deeper, but less focused. Then there are the pawns. Engaging and tactically useful, but can be frustrating from their stupidity and jank as often as they come in clutch. The tandem party synergy is fun to put together for different enemy types, though. The problem is that it's completely unclear how to make them do what you want them to do. Firstly, if you're going to or already playing it, you should know the game installs in a broken state, and yet they continue to sell it. BIG STRIKE ONE. We need legislation to address this extremely common problem. Go to pcgamingwiki because you have to set the *correct* CPU core count, because the game sets the wrong one, resulting in stuttering for no reason. Also, use DXVK. Doing both of those fixed the stutters upon rotating the camera and traversal stutter. The pop-in in this game is pretty bad, though. The opening cutscene also looks like ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ due to horrible PS2-quality textures and material and lighting rendering. It basically only looks halfway decent in dungeons unless you're using an aggressive custom ReShade, which I am. Also, there's content missing from the console release, in licensed Berserk gear, a less immediately obnoxious starting title theme, and the original Japanese VO audio (the English dub is good, but I like the variety, and it's a break from the incessant repetition). You have to fix these yourself, like the config issues. But the Berserk gear still always crashes my game so I can't use it. The Game Itself The game design, plot, and storytelling make Bethesda look profoundly competent by comparison. It's an absolute mess, and either tells you nothing at all relevant to what you need to know at every juncture, or says something vague, (and often outright incorrect and misleading). I don't mean like Morrowind (or, I assume Dark Souls) because those have lore and at least the former has NPCs with more than two lines of dialogue. This game just takes absolutely no care at all to establish you within the world as one of its denizens. You are 'The Arisen', and there are a few stock BS shounen anime characters who act like ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, mindless NPCs, or dere deres. The maybe 4 hours I wasted on Monster Hunter, aka "Animation Lock: The Game" endeared me more to its "characters". It's ironically telling that they 'pawns', who canonically have no will or set personality of their own, feel like they have more depth than any human I've encountered. And I swear that's not just because Laura Bailey and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn do the female pawn voices. Probably. The male pawn voices are good, too. As for gameplay loop, you have to guess at everything. At least 30% of my playtime was either wasted in inventory or Alt+Tabbed and looking at skills and items/gear in the game wiki and asking Gemini trying to figure out something that was poorly or utterly unexplained. It is deep, I will give them that. But that also means that you're likely to never find what you actually want without making a second job out of learning the game and grinding for random gear. And there is a wrong way to explore and wrong quest order. I will say that it's actually the Only game, besides the Metal Gears, that I actually somewhat enjoy fighting giant enemies instead of immediately rolling my eyes at the ridiculous implausibility of a tiny humanoid taking on a mythical creature. Play Order Should you rush the main quest? Do "plot" sidequests? Noticeboard quests? Before the "Come To Court" quest they have an NPC explicitly warn you about missing out on content before you start the quest... and it's a gross miscommunication to the point of being false. This is pure Japanese grindcore, build-tweaking jank, and it was in serious need of someone playing the role of Director to make it have a sense of purpose, coherence, or personality. Need to access your storage? sleep? buy, sell, or upgrade gear? change your vocation or change skills? Well you have to talk to some a*hole who recites the same lines you have to skip through EVERY SINGLE TIME. AND THEY KEEP REPEATING AFTER EACH. AND. EVERY. CONSECUTIVE. ACTION. This is all compounded by there being two NPCs in the main town that you'll go to for this 99.9% of the time, so it's not like Skyrim where you sleep at an inn when you get somewhere. That right there is enough to have to decide on a thumbs down. Straight to jail. The game has a weight/speed/stamina system. Okay, I like that idea. It expects you to collect twice as many items as Skyrim, with a quarter as many unique identifying icons, and have to go to storage management locked behind NPC dialogues. Most of the time I can't even *find* the curative for what ails me. There are also about 4 different versions of every different curative. I don't just mean recipes, I mean different items. Poison and salves also have the exact same yellow color and bottle shapes. Oil and water look the same. And YOU CAN'T SORT AT ALL! That means you are incentivized to only carry what you might use (in a forever-jumbled mess that sorts by order added). There are like 15 different status-related curatives/buffs/anti-debuff items, and multiply that a few times for the ingredients that you need to make them (again, a mystery until you try it out, but has none of the sense of discovery of Oblivion alchemy). You CAN use Mage and Sorcerer pawns (if they have three different upgraded powers split across two vocations) to mitigate all physical and magical status ailments, debuffs, curses, add weapon enchantment buffs and the like, but you're also incentivized to complete things with a smaller party for more XP. Even with a full party of low level pawns you're still gonna get gang banged by 30 wolves at a time, and bandits that will 2 or 3-shot you. Also, the user pawns are... user made. So you're going to see a lot of both generic and low-effort, and just atrocious designs, and repetitive powerful DLC starting gear. I didn't see a decent looking and nicely kitted out pawn until about level 30. Just having to sift through all that dross can be exhausting. The pawn AI is also obtuse and the game is completely misleading and underexplains how you're supposed to manage it, and they just randomly decides to stop doing basic things right (like GATHERING). That's right after having a full-party and all pawns working mostly rationally. It feels like ping-ponging and lagging scripts.

[h1]8割の人間が凡か低評価して残り2割の人間がまぁまぁ気に入るかガッツリ気に入るか、これはそういうゲームだと思います。[/h1] ※初見の人が今から買うなら基本セール待ちで自分にハマるかどうかしっかり吟味した上で遊ぶのが良いです。 無印（PS3版）、DA(PS3版）、DA(Switch版）、そしてsteam版の計4本を買いましたが2012年から今日まで彼に近しい理想の作品が現れる事はありませんでした。 『キャラクリ可能、三人称、アクション爽快、オープンワールド（一応）、剣と魔法とファンタジー、ダンジョン要素』を満たせる作品が古今東西随所の随所を漁りに漁っても有りそうで意外と無かったのに加え、唯一無二の個性である「ポーン」も合わさって思い出補正と青春と愛着がごちゃ混ぜになっているのが私の【ドラゴンズドグマ】に対する所感です。 このまま私見を語ると3万字は余裕で超えるのでこの作品に合う人と合わない人、公平性を保つため先に欠点を成るべく出した上で私情もほんのり入ったアピールポイントを淡々と並べていきます。 [h1]このゲームに合う人[/h1] [list] [*]キャラクタークリエイトが好き [*]自分が作った主人公が好き、仲間も出来る事なら作りたい [*]快適、高速寄りのアクションが好き [*]ストーリーや設定、不便要素はある程度許容出来るし多少ガバでもOK [*]剣と魔法のファンタジー世界で分身である己を動かして兎に角冒険感を味わいたい [/list] [h1]このゲームに多分合わない人[/h1] [list] [*]アクション、動きにリアルや重厚感を求める [*]ストーリーや設定、NPCとの会話や書物系アイテムの質に重きを置く [*]最近のオープンワールド系ゲームレベルのフィールドやマップの広さを期待する [*]移動手段に馬や高速移動、制約無しのファストトラベルを求める [*]「このお使いゲー意味ある？この不便要素意味ある？」と思った瞬間冷める 　 [*]サブクエストを全然やらずにメインストーリーを直行する [/list] [h1]世間一般で言われてる良くない所（多分このゲームを買うか検討している人が一番気になっている部分）[/h1] [list] [*]昨今のゲームじゃ当たり前のファストトラベルがない（”戻りの礎”という置くとワープできるようになる設置アイテムと”刹那の飛石”というワープする為のアイテムが必要。steam版には”刹那の永久石”という使用回数無限のアイテムが最初から倉庫にある） 　[*]”所持重量”というこのゲーム固有の仕様がありキャラの体重が重ければ重いほど持てるアイテムの数が広がり体重が軽いほど持てる量が減るが、反面移動速度とスタミナ回復量が上がる。 「Very Light→Light→Medium→Heavy→Very Heavy」と変化していき最終的にはoverでアイテムを持てなくなる。 この変化値によってキャラの移動速度、スタミナを消費する行動全般に低下の影響がでる。 ちなみにキャラの装備とアイテムは合算されて表記される。 基本的にはMidiumまでで抑えるのが一番良いが、職業やプレイスタイルによっては装備と事前に持っていくアイテム+旅先で手に入れた素材によってどんどん増えるので非常に不便。 （※一応持てる重さを増やすアビリティや味方ポーンに持たせるといった回避策はある） [*]通常ダッシュがスタミナ仕様。仮にもオープンワールドで。仕様であり多分開発的にこのゲームのセールスポイントっぽい [*]所謂必殺技に当たるスキルもスタミナ消費。そのうち戦闘しながら回復アイテムであるキノコや他アイテムをショートカット設定してガブ食い飲みするようになる [*]他ゲームじゃ当たり前の「自由にステータス振り要素」がない。現在就いているジョブに応じた固定の成長率があるので、こういう取り返しがつかない重要要素が気になる性格の人はwiki見て逆算してください。私は全シリーズ全キャラ通して逆算して1レベル単位でジョブ変えたり戻したりで育てました。 [*]当然ポーンもジョブに応じた固定成長率＋性格に応じた行動とどのスキルを優先して使うかのAI要素があるので割と考えて設定しないと期待通りに動いてくれない。気になる人はwikiで(ry [*]ストーリーはぶっちゃけあって無い。メインシナリオだけサクサク進めたら多分10時間も掛からない。RTAなら1時間20分で終わる。 [*]サブクエストの中身やNPCの会話も物語性やストーリーはあって無い。人によっちゃスカスカ認定すると思う [*]そんなに困る人は居ないと思うけど序盤（特に夜）でフィールド道中に出てくる狼や盗賊が低レベルの割に強い。 [*]マップがマジで狭い。俗にいう傑作オープンワールドゲームレベルの広さを期待してるプレイヤー程多分ガッカリすると思う。「マップの狭さを徒歩移動で誤魔化す作り」と認識すれば概ね想像できるかと [/list] 今でこそ頻繁なセールで異常に安く買える上に評価も悪くないこの作品ですが、上記の羅列を見ても分かる通りハッキリ人を選ぶので発売当初はあまり芳しくなかった記憶があります。 （The Elder Scrolls とかいう最強且つ超大手のゲームが以後歴史に名を刻む【V】を出した半年後くらいにドグマ無印が出たのもあって色々と流れが凄まじかった） それでも私がドラゴンズドグマを支持するのは明確な欠点を帳消しに（個人的）出来るほどの魅力に溢れているからです。 [h1]キャラクタークリエイト/ポーン[/h1] このゲーム唯一無二の個性でありセールスポイントだと思います。 主人公を自由に弄ってアクション出来る。それだけなら他メーカーに幾らでも既存品はありますが、ドグマは旅を共にするパートナー的ポジション、俗にいう【ポーン】も自由にクリエイト出来て好きに世界を連れ回せます。 しかもオンラインに繋げば他プレイヤーが作り上げた自慢のポーンを自分の世界に連れてきて一緒に旅ができるという当時としては画期的なシステムになっています。（他会社は何でこれ全然真似しないんだろうと思う位には珍しい気がする） [h1]剣と魔法ファンタジー×爽快高速アクション[/h1] 昨今の同ジャンルと比較しても珍しいコッテコテの王道ファンタジーにスピード感早めでプレイヤーが気持ちよく戦闘が出来る軽快な作りになっています。 この辺は流石アクション屋のカプコン、デビルメイクライの開発陣が今作の制作に大きく携わっていたお陰か随所の動作やモーションに片鱗が見えます。 元々海外製ゲームの少し癖のある動きよりも、直観的に滑らかで気持ちよくなれる和製ゲームの方に親しみと好みが有ったので、この辺も個人的には強く気に入る理由になっていると思います。 [h1]（一応）オープンワールドなのでシームレスに広がるフィールドと童心に帰るような冒険感[/h1] 何だかんだこの部分が一番気に入ってるかもしれません。 幼少期から学生の頃に感じた非日常、冒険への強い憧れやワクワク感。されど現実にそんな世界は無いと認識していた所に現れたのがドラゴンズドグマです。 今見ても確かに小さいなーと思うし他ゲームマップ比較動画でもドグマは大体下位らへんを彷徨っているパターンばかりですし、当時を振り返っても言われまくってた程には明確な欠点だったと思います。 それでも尚「自作の主人公にポーンと他世界のポーンを引き連れてクエストを受けたり装備を着飾ったり、真っ暗闇の中襲い掛かるモンスターを倒したり野宿で一夜を明けたり、偶然見つけたダンジョンに未知と期待と胸を弾ませ、いざ潜る」と言った独自の体験と楽しい気持ちが生まれたのもこのゲームだけでした。 マップが狭い分移動は基本徒歩、時間経過で過ぎていく昼夜と様変わりする風景に時折会話を挟みつつお供してくれる仲間達。 そういった不便と苦楽と奇妙な一体感を共にする構図こそが自分にとってのめりこむ要素だったのかもしれません。 [h1]黒呪島（今でいうDLCに当たるエンドコンテンツ）[/h1] タイトルであるダークアリズンの名前の由来にもなったエンドコンテンツ「黒呪島」は、本編と真逆のダークな雰囲気全開のハクスラ要素マシマシ新ダンジョンマップを探索する作りになっています。 （因みにゲーム開始序盤の方から普通に行けるようになってます。当然レベル差がキツいけど） 本編にあった設定やストーリー等の新要素を散りばめつつ、本編以上の超高レベルモンスター相手にボコりボコられ途中にある宝箱から未鑑定アイテムを発掘、場合によって帰還し準備を整えつつアイテムを鑑定し己を強化し再度潜るのが基本構造であり黒呪島の醍醐味要素になります。 人によっては本編よりも此方の方に脳を焼かれて延々周回していたりドグマが再評価されたのは黒呪島があったからと言った意見が出るくらいには中毒性がある様で…。 [h1]最後に[/h1] 盲目的に好きを語るだけではなくシリーズを初めて触る人に向けて出来うる限り悪い部分も書き出してみましたが、少しでも参考になれば幸いです。 実際に遊んでみた結果、私の様に14年間他アクションゲーにドラゴンズドグマの幻影と呪縛を求め続け囚われ続け彷徨い続ける。そんな亡者みたいなプレイヤーが今後一人でも現れてくれたら嬉しいですね。

[h1]Dragon's Dogma is a tedious RPG with insanely good combat, even by today's standards, wasted in a horribly designed game[/h1] Phenomenal combat and class system (vocations) that all play differently and offer different thing, encouraging you to currate your party with pawns that excel in other things to complement your character but that's about the only good thing I have to say about the game as it is wasted on eggregious game design the whole time. Enemies aren't even hard, they're just annoying. They run/fly around for most of the fight, wasting your time playing cat and mouse with them. Status effects in this game might be unique but they're just frustrating to deal with and the worst status effect designs I've ever seen in an RPG. Exploration is tedious and unrewarding, especially with limited stamina for running with low stam regen and no mount or consistent fast travel system. Quests are eggregiously designed to mislead you and often the description will straight up lie to you. Pawns have terrible AI and talk way too much unless you turn chatter off which is boring. Story is the kind that only becomes good when you get to the ending. It's stale and presented in an unengaging way. NPCs are bland and nothing in the game makes your character feel important or implicated in the world it lives in.

As someone who bought this game 6 years ago and refunded it, I happily and regretfully say I was missing out, big time. There isn't anything like it out there, not to say that's always a good thing, but in this case I mean it with full positivity. As a game, it's really fun and it gets "adventure" right, somehow. A lot of what it does for me it does in a way I can't quite explain. Story is a different matter entirely, however. The narrative has negative payoff, in my opinion, and there's absolutely no reason for me to even do Bitterblack Isle. It adds nothing to the story, and I'm not even interested in it. I was, when I played the game, very interested to find out how it went, but right now there is no point in BBI whatsoever. If you do go in expecting some literary masterpiece, you won't find it here. It isn't a story that leaves you empty like Mass Effect does, it just IS empty.