Dragon's Dogma

Dragon's Dogma
Developer(s)	Capcom
Publisher(s)	Capcom
Director(s)	Hideaki Itsuno[1]
Producer(s)	Hiroyuki Kobayashi[1]
Designer(s)	Yoichiro Ikeda
Programmer(s)	Yoshiharu Nakao
Artist(s)	Daigo Ikeno
Writer(s)	Bingo Morihashi Haruo Murata[2]
Composer(s)	Tadayoshi Makino Rei Kondoh Inon Zur Masayoshi Ishi
Engine	MT Framework[1]
Platform(s)	PlayStation 3 Xbox 360 Microsoft Windows
Release date(s)	PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 NA: May 22, 2012 JP: May 24, 2012 AUS: May 24, 2012 EU: May 25, 2012[3] Dark Arisen PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 NA: April 23, 2013 JP: April 25, 2013 EU: April 26, 2013 Microsoft Windows WW: January 15, 2016
Genre(s)	Action role-playing,[4] hack and slash[5]
Mode(s)	Single-player

Dragon's Dogma (Japanese: ドラゴンズドグマ, Hepburn: Doragonzu Doguma) is a 2012 action role-playing video game developed and published by Capcom. The game features an open world fantasy setting, in addition to hack and slash^[5] gameplay elements.^[1][3] The game was directed by Hideaki Itsuno and includes other staff members who worked on previous Capcom game series, including Resident Evil, Devil May Cry,^[6] and Breath of Fire.^[2]

Following the game's positive critical reception, Capcom stated it would consider a possible sequel in the future, with Dragon's Dogma Online later being announced in January 2015. A version for Microsoft Windows, ported by QLOC,^[7] was released on January 15, 2016.

Gameplay

The player is able to select between various vocations: Fighter, Strider, Mage, Warrior, Mystic Knight, Ranger, Assassin, Sorcerer, and Magic Archer.^[1] Gender choice and appearance settings are also available.^[8] The vocation, or class system, changes gameplay and tactical options available to the player. For example, the Fighter has abilities that focus on hack and slash combat and the Strider is skilled at climbing large enemies.^[9]

One of the game's main innovations is the "pawn" system.^[9] While the player's party is exploring the world, the three party members who accompany the main character are controlled by artificial intelligence, but the player can issue orders to them, including "Go," "Help" and "Come." One of the party members is a non-playable character (NPC) and belongs to the main character's world, while the other two party members are NPCs borrowed from other players by connecting online or are locally generated by the game.^[10] The party members, referred to as pawns,^[9] can talk, seek the main character's help, and provide information about enemies.^[8] The player must work on strengthening the main character and the party members.^[10] The pawns are vocal, yelling out useful hints and strategies, which are often vitally important to surviving tough boss encounters and dungeons. The pawn system also features social networking features.^[9]

The game features a "grab" action, where the main character can grab or cling to enemies, objects, or NPCs. The player can use this feature for more advanced attacks. For example, the main character can either grab on to a griffin's legs and attack it directly, or climb up to reach its head for a more lethal blow.^[8] "In a lot of action games, with big enemies the tendency is just to have you hacking away at the shins. You don't get the full effect of fighting a giant boss," Hideaki Itsuno, the director of Dragon's Dogma, said. "With this game you can climb all over it. If it has a body part, you can attack it." The ability to climb enemies has drawn comparisons to Shadow of the Colossus.^[11]

The game's large open-world environments have drawn comparisons to Capcom's own Monster Hunter series as well as The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.^[11] In addition to the large open world, Dragon's Dogma features a large city environment with over 200 non-player characters (NPCs) who move about according to their own schedules. The player is able to communicate with the residents in full voice.^[8] The game features a persistent world with a day-night cycle.

The game's art style and character movements have been likened to Dark Souls, and the hack-and-slash combat elements have been compared to both Devil May Cry^[5] and Dark Souls.^[12] Some of the fantasy elements are reminiscent of Breath of Fire,^[2] and the combat and party systems have been compared to Monster Hunter.^[11]

The game is designed to be playable even by those who are not skilled at action games. These types of players can recruit strong NPCs and let them do the fighting during combat as they watch over the battlefield.^[10] Players can expect roughly 40 to 50 hours of main quest play and up to an additional 70 hours or more of side quests.^[8]

Multiplayer

Although Dragon's Dogma does not feature a direct multiplayer mode, the developers have revealed that players can compete online with asynchronous encounters called Events via Xbox Live or the PlayStation Network. One such event includes the 'Ur-Dragon' in which the effect of each party's attacks will be combined until the Ur-Dragon finally falls. Players that deal the fatal blow will receive the maximum reward, but all players can still obtain both common and rare items dropped by the Ur-Dragon when they inflict damage.

Plot

The game begins with a knight named Savan proceeding through a deep canyon and eventually a temple. After fighting a Chimera, he passes a set of doors leading to an unknown beast. The story then progresses a number of years until the next appearance of the Dragon, a sign of the end of days.

During its raid on the fishing village of Cassardis, a dragon approaches the hero of the story, telling them that he or she - depending on the choice of the player - is the "chosen one", and proceeds to tear out their heart. Due to having their heart taken, the hero is revived as an "Arisen," and is destined to find and kill the dragon that stole their heart. The Arisen proceeds to an encampment along the way to the capital, Gran Soren. During their stay at the encampment, a hydra attacks. The Arisen cuts off one of its heads, and proceeds to the capital with the head to be presented as a gift to the duke of Gran Soren. After reaching Gran Soren, and investigating a hole known as the Everfall, the Arisen works for the Wyrm Hunt, and proceeds to do various tasks, including uncovering a cult known as Salvation, who want the dragon, known as Grigori, to destroy the world.

After working for the duke, the Arisen is tasked with stopping the leader of Salvation, Elysion, who is attacking a castle. After reaching the top of the castle and defeating the attackers, Grigori arrives and kills Elysion, and it is revealed that Grigori has captured the Arisen's love interest.

The Arisen arrives at the Tainted Mountain to fight Grigori, and is presented with a choice, to sacrifice the kidnapped love interest, or to face the dragon. The Arisen fights the dragon, and stabs it in the heart. The Arisen recovers their heart, and goes back to Cassardis with his/her beloved. After a few days of peace, the Arisen treks back to Gran Soren. Along the way, several details are revealed. The sky has been blotted out and replaced with greenish gray clouds that rain ash, and all normal monsters have been replaced with much stronger versions. After the Arisen reaches Gran Soren, it is revealed that half of it has collapsed, leaving a gaping hole. The Arisen goes to meet the duke, and is surprised to see that the duke has turned into a frail old man. It is revealed that the duke made a deal with Grigori to make himself immortal, but without Grigori, the deal is now forfeited. The duke attacks, blaming the Arisen for his condition, but he is swiftly beaten. Guards arrive, and the duke accuses the Arisen of placing a curse on him and of making a deal with Grigori. The Arisen is then hunted by the guards. The Arisen is chased to the hole in the town, where creatures begin to fly out of the hole, with one bumping the Arisen into the hole.

The hole is actually The Everfall, a center for the strongest monsters in the world and a nexus that connects all worlds together. There the Arisen meets a pawn named Quince, who tasks the Arisen with collecting 20 Wakestones to unlock a portal. After unlocking the portal, the Arisen enters the portal and finds the Seneschal, the mastermind behind the workings of the entire world. The Seneschal is a mysterious being, covered in a glowing light and having two voices, one a woman's, and another a man's. After a short fight, the Seneschal is revealed to have been Savan, the knight at the beginning of the game, who defied Grigori after entering the temple, then chose to fight him and win.

The Arisen and their main pawn fight Savan, now known as the Seneschal, and his pawn. In return for defeating the Seneschal, he/she takes Savan's place, becoming a new fount of will to the world. Before dying, Savan reveals information about being the Seneschal, and tells the Arisen that he is not the only Arisen currently, as there are multiple universes with their own respective pawns and Arisen. As a result, he is only the Seneschal of this universe, though it is a bitter reward, as the Arisen cannot be seen by anyone in the world once they return from their throne. Using the Godsbane, a sword granted to him by Grigori and Savan, the Arisen stabs himself in the heart. The body of the Arisen and the main pawn are sent hurtling back to the world. The pawn wakes up on the beach, and it is revealed by the change in his/her voice that the pawn's form has changed into that of the Arisen. The pawn is then greeted by the Arisen's love interest, and they walk along the beach to Cassardis. If the player romanced Selene (who was earlier revealed to be a former pawn from a past Arisen, her grandmother, who had given Selene her body and will to allow her to live as a human), she reveals that the Arisen has given his/her pawn their will and body to free them from the eternity of a pawn's life.^[13]

Development

The game was developed by Capcom staff members that had previously worked on series such as Resident Evil, Devil May Cry,^[6] and Breath of Fire.^[2] These include director Hideaki Itsuno,^[6] who previously directed games such as Devil May Cry 2, 3 and 4;^[14] producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi, who previously produced games such as Resident Evil 4 and Killer7;^[15] and Breath of Fire designer Makoto Ikehara, who worked on creating the fantasy game world and script elements during the early stages of production.^[2]

During the press conference at Capcom's Captivate event in 2011, director Hideaki Itsuno said that Dragon's Dogma is a game he had been dreaming about making since his school days. He was able to realize that dream due to modern technology, and had been directing a staff of around 150 people at Capcom Japan for the previous two years of development time (three years including conceptual phases).^[8]

At the 2013 Game Developers Conference Hideaki Itsuno presented Behind the Scenes of Dragon's Dogma, which described the development process;^[16] In 2008 Capcom executives called for new 'million selling' IP to be developed - the proposal that became Dragon's Dogma was based in part on an originally undeveloped proposal made in 2000 which incorporated the "pawn" game idea. From 2008 the game was developed under the working title BBS RPG: one aspect of the design brief was to capture the enjoyable aspects of interactivity found on a Bulletin board system (BBS) through the pawn sharing system; additional design specifications were for an open world game, with an action role-playing game playstyle. New programming features required for the game included a multipurpose character editor and open world map data streaming.^[17] The initial map design was approximately twice the size of the final product, with separate regions corresponding to different levels of experience, up to level 100; separate and discrete parallel worlds existed for each player.^[18] Final commercialisation of the product reduced the scope of the world design;^[19] the original concept included the entire island of Gransys, a separate smaller island "Dragon Isle," and the game world's moon.^[17][20]

Itsuno stated that his team has "made Dragon's Dogma and come up to this point through our experience of action games. We're trying to make a new genre: We're using our action heritage and putting that into an action RPG."^[14] In addition to Capcom's previous works (such as Breath of Fire,^[14] Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, and Monster Hunter), Itsuno also cited the influence of other Eastern role-playing video games such as Dragon Quest and Western role-playing video games such as Fable and Oblivion.^[14] Itsuno later explained that they:

"[have] seen a great deal of open-world action RPGs over the years, [but] there's never been one that really put everything together in the action parts. We figured that if there hasn't been a game made by people who understand how action works, then we ought to do it ourselves. We wanted a game where the player is thrown into the world and needs to figure out how to stay alive via nothing but his own controller."

However, it will also be possible for characters to take a less action-oriented approach, with Itsuno stating that they are "making this game such that you can beat the monsters even if you build up EXP, collect good companions and/or pawns, and sit back and watch the battle unfold," and elaborating that while it is an action game, "that's not all that it is. You can fully configure your party and put as much thought as you like into battle, which is something we're doing for people who really want to get into this world."^[21]

Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen

An expanded and enhanced version of Dragon's Dogma, subtitled Dark Arisen, was released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on April 23, 2013. The version included a new zone to explore, all downloadable content (DLC) created for the original release, a new fast travel system, as well as new items, weapons, armor, and quests. There were also various fixes and tweaks made, particularly to the in-game menus. As an incentive, those players who bought the first version could transfer their savegames, and be rewarded with an Eternal Ferrystone (with infinite uses), 100,000 Rift Crystals, a form of in-game currency, and the Gransys Armor pack, containing fixed sets of armor for the player based on that worn by NPCs. The Xbox 360 version of Dark Arisen came on two discs, the first being the play disc holding the main game files, the second an install-only disc containing a high-definition texture pack, and also the original Japanese voice files. Both of these were also available for download, free of charge, alongside the digital version of the game. Reporting on its fiscal year, Capcom described Dark Arisen's sales as "firm".^[22] The Microsoft Windows version was released on January 15, 2016.^[23]

By September 2015, Dragon's Dogma, and the Dark Arisen edition, had combined sales of 2.3 million units.^[24] Dark Arisen also became the fastest-selling Capcom game for Microsoft Windows.^[25]

Release

Two packs of additional quests, titled "The Chosen" and "The Challenger," were released as downloadable content (DLC) in June and July 2012, respectively. Also, a series of quests over a ten-week period, titled "From a Different Sky" were released from May 22 to July 24. There are also several post-launch DLC items, such as weapons, armors and character customization setups.

Reception

Original version

Reception

Aggregate score Aggregator Score Metacritic (PS3) 78/100[26] (X360) 75/100[27] Review scores Publication Score Eurogamer 8/10[28] Famitsu 34/40[29] G4 4/5[30] Game Informer 8.5/10[31] Game Revolution [32] GamesMaster 84%[33] GameSpot 8/10[34] GamesTM 8/10[35] GameTrailers 8.7/10[36] IGN 7.5/10[37] OPM (UK) 8/10[38] OPM (AU) 8/10[39] OXM (UK) 8/10[40] Play 4.8/10[41] PSM 8.5/10[42] Digital Spy [43] RPGamer 4/5[44] The Guardian [45] The Telegraph [46]

The number of pre-orders for the game in Japan exceeded half a million.^[29] The game sold 331,064 copies during its first week on sale in Japan, including 302,040 for the PlayStation 3 and 29,024 for the Xbox 360,^[47] making it the fastest-selling new IP of the previous console generation;^[48] as of June 4, 2012, sales for the PlayStation 3 version increased to 418,210 units sold in Japan.^[49][50] In the United States, the game sold 92,000 copies within five days.^[51] It debuted at third place on the UK charts.^[48] By June 30, 2012, a month after its release, the game had sold 1.05 million units worldwide.^[52][53] As of September 30, 2013 the game had sold 1.3 million units worldwide.^[54]

The game has been well received in Japan, where gaming magazine Famitsu gave the game an overall score of 34 out of 40, based on four reviewer scores of 8, 9, 8, and 9.^[29][55] Famitsu gave it a "Hall of Fame: Gold" award, praising "the game’s variety in combat, the effectiveness of working together with Pawns, the exceptionally fun sidequests, and the uniqueness of each vocation."^[29]

In the Western world, Dragon's Dogma received generally positive reviews. Aggregating review website Metacritic gave the PlayStation 3 version 78/100,^[26] and the Xbox 360 version 75/100.^[27]

Game Informer gave the game an 8.5 out of 10 and stated that "I left the game feeling that I made my mark on Gransys the way I chose to, instead of being escorted from plot point to plot point. When you're talking about an open-world game, I can't think of higher praise."^[31] Eurogamer Italy said that "Dragon's Dogma is a great fantasy game, where the lack of a multiplayer experience is compensated from an impressive single player."^[28] UK magazine PSM3 wrote, "Big, challenging and imaginative, but its hardcore nature won't appeal to everyone."^[56] GameSpot gave the game a score of 8 out of 10. The review praised the "fantastic combat encounters," one of "the best boss fights in any role-playing game," atmospheric touches, and "striking choices" that lead to "an unforgettable ending." The review notes that the game "takes chances, and it's that riskiness that makes this role-playing game so unique among its peers," concluding that, "Engrossing and frustrating, Dragon's Dogma is a flawed and unique gem."^[34]

Play UK criticized it for low framerates on the Xbox 360 version.^[41] IGN scored it 7.5/10, stating "Dragon's Dogma has the scale and challenge of a great action RPG, but not the character or polish. Nevertheless, there's a lot to love here, like some great ideas that make you want to give it a chance."^[37] GameTrailers praised the challenging combat and the gameplay mechanics, though they criticized the story as "flat." Their rating for the game was an 8.7.^[36]

Dark Arisen

Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen received positive reviews. On Metacritic, the PC version scored 81/100,^[57] the Xbox 360 version scored 77/100,^[59] and the PlayStation 3 version scored 80/100.^[58] The PC version of Dark Arisen sold over 265,000 copies in a month.^[69] It was Capcom's fastest-selling PC game to date, though the console versions had higher initial sales due to benefiting from a full pre-launch marketing campaign.^[70]

IGN scored the PC version 8.9/10, calling it a "thoroughly great action RPG" and stating "it has near perfect fluidity and all the epic feel of the Xbox 360/PS3 edition" and is a "valid alternative to The Witcher 3 or Dark Souls, if one can withstand graphics that are not really on par with today's standards."^[64]

Dragon's Dogma Online

On January 27, 2015, Capcom announced a sequel with a new story titled Dragon's Dogma Online as a free-to-play game for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and PC.^[71] The game was launched in Japan on August 31, 2015.^[72] Cross-platform play among all platforms will be supported upon release.^[73]

Dragon's Dogma Online reached more than two million downloads within its first ten days of release.^[24]

References

External links

• Official website