Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen PC Previews
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The folks at CAPCOM gave a few outlets the chance to try a pre-beta build of the PC port for Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen, which is why we now have a few previews to round up for it. For the most part we already know how the game works, so I'll focus on how the PC port is faring, especially since we're getting close to its January release window.
The combat also has echoes of Dark Souls, emphasising careful parrying and blocking. But unique to Dragon's Dogma is the ability to climb on large enemies. You can shimmy up a troll's leg and hack away at its head as it tries to shake you off. Pawns can grab smaller enemies and hold them, giving you a moment to attack. Battles are tactical and any attempts to dumbly hack-and-slash your way through the game will be met with a swift, unceremonious death.
Japanese games often suffer from bad PC ports, but the preview version of Dragon's Dogma I played boasts a broad selection of graphics options, plays at a steady 60fps, supports high resolutions, and gets rid of the black bars that plagued the console version. I noticed some shadow glitches while using a lamp to light dark areas, but hopefully these will be fixed. I wouldn't say it was a pretty game but the art and animation are so full of character I don't mind its low-poly models and slightly blurry textures too much.
Immediately upon Quince and Salde joining forces with my prologue adventurer, we're beset by a Chimera; half-lion, half-goat, and the third and final half that of a snake. It's absolutely enormous, and serves to showcase another of Dragon's Dogma's little quirks: clambering all over 'boss' enemy types is absolutely essential.
See, if I were to hack away at the Chimera's heels - the only viable hacking target from my standing position - I might eventually diminish its health bar with the help of my Pawns. While the victory may technically be mine, it wouldn't be one to savour. However, by climbing up the Chimera and attaching myself to its snake-head-tail, I'm enacting a much more effective assault, quickly chopping the entire appendage clean off its body.
Meanwhile, my Pawns have been hard at work buffing me and attacking the Chimera themselves. "Go for the tail!" they advise, or "The goat head is dead." The goat head is indeed dead, and now simply lollops about on the surviving lion's neck while we go to town on what remains of it. One of the more memorable RPG fights in recent years, and it happens around five minutes into Dragon's Dogma.
With all three halves of the fearsome Chimera lying dead on the ground of an ancient tomb, there's time to assess how DD:DA has aged since 2012, and in its migration to PC. I'm playing a pre-final build, but I'm encouraged. Blurry texture resolutions and simple character models do tell the story of its last-gen console origins, but there's a decent swathe of visual options in the graphics menu to boost those visuals all the way up into 2015 territory. The lighting model, which is used to great atmospheric effect throughout, looks every bit as good now as it did upon release.
Finally, Destructoid has a video showcasing the options in the PC port:
