Dragon's Dogma Reviews
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Dragon's Dogma has many flaws and, in general, comes across as unpolished and unfinished. Some RPGs find themselves choosing between gameplay and story. The key to a successful RPG is finding a balance, but Dragon's Dogma chose to focus on an, admittedly excellent, combat system, leaving a story that is laborious to follow and uninspiring. Quests are a drag, characters are lifeless and the game is unforgiving for the patience a player will put into it. The combat carries a lot of weight and is the saving grace for the title, making it playable for that feature alone. If your playlist is getting bare and you're looking for a game to fill that void, or just wanting to get early access to Resident Evil 6, Dragon's Dogma might be a slightly amusing way to waste some time otherwise it might be best to let sleeping Dogma's lie.
G4, 4/5.
Dragon's Dogma manages the rare feat of being a Japanaese-developed game that successfully emulates many of the design sensibilities and aesthetics of Western RPGs. Both the pawn system and the tactile nature of the boss fights are the exemplary features that ensures this game defies the categorization of being derivative. This is one of those promising rough-around-the-edges experiences where you can't help but want a sequel even before your first playthrough is complete.
Digital Trends, 7/10.
For as savory as Dogma's personal experience is, it's not without real rough edges. Needless menus and restrictions obscure simple things like unlocking new skills, crafting items, and reviewing quest information. There's no good reason why you should be at an inn to assign skills you're using, and the game doesn't bother with an explanation. That sort of barrier building, the sort of token role-playing game obliqueness, mars the lightness that's Dogma's greatest strength.
Capcom has made a solid but imperfect mystery, one that lets players discover its secrets quickly and always provides more. Its flaws aren't enough to overpower its fundamental flavor, but are enough to keep the game from matching its peers. Dogma'˜s worth playing if only for the moment the dough starts to fluff and you can make your character dance rather than walk.
Kotaku doesn't think you should play the game.
Dragon's Dogma wants you to be invested in the world. It wants you to enjoy it as much as you did a game like Skyrim. It wants you to investigate, explore, talk with people and take on random side quests, but it's just not compelling enough in those areas to respectfully demand that attention from you. Other games can do that, and we appreciate them for it. Capcom's frustrates you for it.
At the end of the day, a few good ideas aren't worth wasting hours playing a subpar game when there are plenty others like it that manage to execute everything else phenomenally.
And finally, Forbes has some positive first impressions:
Some reviewers have complained that the combat is too hard or too clumsy. I disagree. At times the combat is quite hard, but I never find it particularly clumsy. A lock-on system might make it somewhat more fluid, but I don't think it's necessary.
I've met some bandits that we've slaughtered without breaking a sweat, and others that I've tried to kill half a dozen times before just running around where I knew they would be. The big monsters take a long time to bring down, and it really is exhilarating to be flung about on the arm of a massive troll trying desperately to hang on while hacking furiously at the beast.
I've had some pitched battles with Saurians big lizard-people that wield weapons, have hard scaly skin, and spew poison from their mouths and it wasn't until I figured out how to at once manage my Pawns and lop the monsters' tails off that I started successfully winning those battles.
Combat is made more difficult as you go because without curatives you'll never heal back to full life unless you go rest at an inn. Even magic users can't restore your full hitpoints. This makes the game more challenging, and works quite well.
