It's really impressive what they accomplished in 2012. The game takes into account player agency in a way a lot of modern RPGs don't. It's also one of the few games that took inspiration from Demon's Souls, but didn't just copied mechanics 1:1. The online component is an unique take on players helping each other asynchronously, something we only saw again in 2020 with Death Stranding.
Gameplay is fun. A bit of a thoughtless hack'n slash where the gear matters more than skill. It starts off really hard and with the heavy "wait and punish" combat, but by the end it allows for some ridiculously overpowered skill combinations. I might be tempted to say that it "didn't aged well", but fuck it, I still enjoyed it far more than a lot of modern titles. It's fun, that's something Capcom always put in their list of priorities even in their bad games.
The attention to detail is quite impressive at times, like making heavier characters activate pressure plates faster and taller ones having more reach in melee weapons. The oil lamp goes out if you roll in the water. Metal conducts electricity so every armored enemy is a walking "please thunder magick me" sign. There's one quest that allows you to forge the delivery item and "complete" the quest twice by delivering it to both people who want it. It doesn't actually change events later, which is a shame, but these things make the game more memorable by itself.
Sadly, the story is a trainwreck. Starts off fine and honestly stays at mostly "OK fodder" throughout its play time, but the ending throws it all away. It's clearly not a narrative-focused game, yet the ending tries to pretend it is and... It doesn't pull off gracefully. At all. It's so messy that it makes me wonder if the second game will just quietly never acknowledge the events of the first game, or will "reboot" it entirely but this time trying to flesh it out.
Dragon's Dogma is a great game, but also visibly an incomplete one. It's a game where you can see the signs of "crap, we've blown the entire budget. Wrap it up and release it NOW", a sign that is depressively common in the gaming industry. It's still a good game on it's own right and worth playing it, but clearly doesn't reach its full potential.
Gameplay is fun. A bit of a thoughtless hack'n slash where the gear matters more than skill. It starts off really hard and with the heavy "wait and punish" combat, but by the end it allows for some ridiculously overpowered skill combinations. I might be tempted to say that it "didn't aged well", but fuck it, I still enjoyed it far more than a lot of modern titles. It's fun, that's something Capcom always put in their list of priorities even in their bad games.
The attention to detail is quite impressive at times, like making heavier characters activate pressure plates faster and taller ones having more reach in melee weapons. The oil lamp goes out if you roll in the water. Metal conducts electricity so every armored enemy is a walking "please thunder magick me" sign. There's one quest that allows you to forge the delivery item and "complete" the quest twice by delivering it to both people who want it. It doesn't actually change events later, which is a shame, but these things make the game more memorable by itself.
Sadly, the story is a trainwreck. Starts off fine and honestly stays at mostly "OK fodder" throughout its play time, but the ending throws it all away. It's clearly not a narrative-focused game, yet the ending tries to pretend it is and... It doesn't pull off gracefully. At all. It's so messy that it makes me wonder if the second game will just quietly never acknowledge the events of the first game, or will "reboot" it entirely but this time trying to flesh it out.
Dragon's Dogma is a great game, but also visibly an incomplete one. It's a game where you can see the signs of "crap, we've blown the entire budget. Wrap it up and release it NOW", a sign that is depressively common in the gaming industry. It's still a good game on it's own right and worth playing it, but clearly doesn't reach its full potential.