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Dragon's Dogma

There are fantasy games a plenty out at the moment to whet my appetite, so Dragon’s Dogma barely appeared on my radar until I spotted it on a few gaming websites. Dragons, swords, magic, all familiar aspects that make an exciting fantasy world, but what was different about it? My interest was stimulated by the mention of customisable ‘pawns’ that would join you in your quests as well as being involved in the online features of the game. Being able to customise characters is nothing new, but I relish the idea of being able to make customisable groups of characters to join me on any fantasy journey, rather than being subjected to generic companions that you either love or hate. For example, the thing I most loved about the early Final Fantasy games was the ability to at least name your characters, which meant that at the time I would name them after my real-world friends and family. In that sense, I wasn’t going on a journey with a bunch of strangers, but rather my school-friend Jon, who instead of a young teenage boy was a hulking knight, or Keiran; instead of a lazy student was a mystical mage. So if Dragon’s Dogma allows me to go one step further and make multiple companions of different appearances, it’ll be a certain buy for me. So, the demo is out, and I have decided to give it a go.

Immediately on the menu screen I dismissed the actual game portion and headed to the ‘Character Edit’ section. It lists the ability to customise your main character, and your main pawn. Supposedly this may mean that you can only customise one of your pawns to play with, which is better than nothing I suppose. First up, gender and name. You can create a 12 character name, and then a predetermined ‘moniker’ which displays for players with parental controls enabled – supposedly to shield younger players from the grand mage Asshat or the mighty knight Dickface from causing offence. You then are offered a choice of 16 ‘base bodies’ which have a pretty extensive range. You have the bog-standard average man, followed by a slightly leaner version, then a hulking barbarian sort of character. From there, however, you can choose a more hobbit-like body, older men, teenage boys, dwarves and hulking bodybuilders. Next up is a choice of six voices, which you can test out in a range of grunts and battle-cries. Whether this will extend to a speaking role for your character is yet to be seen, but I have the feeling you will be one of those silent ‘Elder Scrolls’ speakers, speaking in text rather than voice. Then come changing face shape and hairstyle – some particularly amusing, but a good choice nonetheless. Then you can change the eyes, with a slightly odd option of having either one, or both eyes permanently closed...a blind character would be an interesting outing perhaps. From there is the normal adjustments to eyes, ears and mouth, nothing special, so you can continue on to the body. It seems that selecting a preset is merely for those who want to jump straight in, as you can pretty much edit each part of the body as you see fit in this section, from height, weight and skin colour, all the way to the musculature of the arms and legs. You can change the characters posture to be more hunched or with a more puffed out chest,  and then a slightly weird setting for your stance to be more ‘ladylike’ or ‘macho’, which seems to merely change the position of your legs and how wide you hold your arms for your body. Not really sure what to do with that one. Then, a multitude of scar options, which extend from your face to parts of your body, depending on how battle-hardened you want your character to be. Add wrinkles for a more mature character, and no fantasy game would be complete without the addition of beards and moustaches. Even to male characters you can add make up, but I couldn’t find anything that brought out my knight’s eyes so I left that option blank. That done, you repeat the process in creating ‘your constant companion throughout your journey as Arisen: your main pawn’. Sounds interesting, no? This done, I continued on to the ‘Prologue Quest’

Strangely, I wasn’t given the option to start with the character I had just spent the last twenty minutes making, but I guess this is a demo after all. So, I tread through a dreary cave area and OH MY GOD IT’S A DRAGON, WHY IS THERE A DRAGON?!?! I have some companion with me, but I doubt our swords and shields will help us here, and OH MY GOD IT’S BREATHING FIRE AT ME! We run, headfirst into some goblins, which are a much easier enemy to slay it seems. The combat is a bit clumsy for this bit, there doesn’t seem to be a lock button to direct your attacks so I was flailing around for a few moments before my sword struck true. But hey, practice makes perfect I’m sure. I’m led to a mysterious ‘stone’ which grants me some pawns to help me. Again, not the one I created, but some welcome allies nonetheless. One of them turns out to be a mage of some sort, while the other carries the bow. They help out well enough in the next battle with goblins, though I feel I missed the opportunity to command them properly.

We then get a glimpse of a nasty looking beast. Great. We continue through some dungeon-like area and one of my companions exclaims that they have found a survivor. Looks like I’m massing quite a little group here – good to know. More goblins to fight – there are some slightly jarring moments of slow motion when one of my companions seems to do something which is meant to be useful, but really just distracts from me bringing steel justice to my foes. Still, I’m sure it will be explained more in the game itself. He just seems to shout things like ‘I will distract it!’ which is great, I guess. Then another WTF moment, some beast with a lion’s head and a snake attached to its back appears and gobbles up one of the knights that my group had rescued, for all the good it did him. While fighting, two of my companions latch onto the beasts back, while my mage prevents it from breathing fire upon me. A nice touch to see that they are at least smart enough to fight for themselves. Then I realise that I too can climb onto the body, so I climb up the neck of the snake that the beast has for a tail and sever it, a pretty gratifying experience. Then we move on to sever the goats head on its back until only a lion-head remains. Defeated, thus ends that mission. Not bad on all accounts, but I will have to try the next mission too.

In this instance I am looking to hunt down a griffin causing trouble to farmers and such. I take the role of my created character in the role an archer this time, and my customised pawn is with us too with a huge sword. Nice. First a group of goblins need to be dispatched and I am able to test out the archery option. It’s easy to use, but I only get a few shots off before a great griffin swoops down to spoil the fun. One of my companions bravely clambers on the beast’s back just as it takes flight, yelling for me to take out the wings. What I wouldn’t give for friends as foolhardy as that! It also seems like the pawn that I created earlier is hacking away, which I am grateful for, while the mage among my companions has granted my arrows and daggers the power of fire. Choosing the right companions is sure to be a prominent feature in this game. Whilst the battle rages on, the griffin decides to take flight to spare itself the cuts and to be free of my arrows range. My pawn, decides to pick up the body of one of the goblins we killed earlier, stating that it will ‘serve as bait’ to bring the fiend down again. Very clever.  However, it seems I wasn’t paying attention to the slightly small and not very attention grabbing health bar, and while I’m notching arrow after arrow the griffin exacts revenge and knocks me to the ground, killing me in the process. Oops. Second time round I manage it by climbing on the body itself, plunging daggers into each lump of feathers I can find. And that’s the end of that demo.

I guess I like it, but I want to know more about how the game actually works. The combat mechanics have been the focus, but I want to know more about the story and the companion options. Whether or not a poor student like myself will be willing to buy the game is yet to be seen, but I’ll be keeping my eye out for any more information that heads my way. In any case, the game is out sometime next month, and if you fancy giving it a go, the demo is free on the Playstation Network right now.