Dragon's Dogma Preview
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The graphical aesthetic of the game is kind of hit or miss for me. The monsters are honestly epic. Multi-headed serpents and fire-breathing dragons never looked this good. They tower over the player characters and move as realistically as you would expect mythical beasts to move. The mage spell effects are also kind of cool. As they chant, arcane wording flows around them in a stylized fashion before the world blows up right before their eyes.
But everything else kind of rubs me the wrong way. The world and its denizens look like they are were stock extras from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Everything is really generically colored and boring-looking, and nothing really sets apart the environment from any other medieval-themed game. Though the combat tries to be epic in scope, there are points in which you are simply hacking away at a crowd of enemies. There are no stylized hit marks, which makes me think confirming your attacks might be difficult. The sword swings look very generic. You certainly aren't getting the awesome action feeling you get from Devil May Cry or Bayonetta from this game.
Dragon's Dogma is a magnificent idea - and thus far the guys at Capcom have proven that they can successfully implement a good portion of that idea - but more work needs to be done. The game runs the risk of becoming a repetitive hack-and-slash fest or a boiler-plate wad of action RPG missions. If Capcom doesn't make every mission and random encounter as epic as the ones that were showcased in the demo and trailer, then we could easily have just another medieval button-masher on our hands. The story is going to be an important factor in deciding whether the game will be a blockbuster hit or a throwaway failure. Honestly, we have all seen the whole random-peasant-saves-the-land-from-dark-horror thing before. It's time for our plots to evolve past Baldur's Gate for once.
