http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/xbox-360/2011/12/14/dragon-s-dogma-preview/2
The initial reaction when we sat down to see Dragon's Dogma demonstrated was, we'll admit, one of confusion; at the fact that Japanese giant Capcom has opted to tackle the Western RPG genre, but also that this was the first we'd heard about it. Medieval fantasy RPGs with dragons and huge, open universes are right up our alley, but we can't say we'd even heard the name before. Alarm bells immediately started ringing, even as the intrigue rose.
The confusion only increased, however, as one of the most unusual game presentations we'd ever seen started to unfold before us and a developer spent ten minutes explaining the basics of character creation - that you can choose hair styles, alter height and so on. It's the type of feature that we'd expect as standard for a modern RPG, yet Capcom was lavishing it with such attention as to raise the suspicion that there's little else of interest beyond the customisation screen.
Ultimately, it was a suspicion which was later proved to be mostly correct, as the presentation would only continue to pour attention on features that were at best unexciting and at worst tedious.
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The bulk of the demonstration was spent watching a Capcom representative attempting to tackle a golem he'd encountered in a clearing. Despite the fact that this battle went on for at least 15 minutes and involved nothing but constant hacking at the foe with blade, bow and a conveniently located ballista, the golem refused to fall. The hero character even clambered all over the foe several times, in the hope of delivering a death blow, but all the attempts merely ended with a fraction of the golem's health bar slicing off.
After 15 minutes of constant battle against what we were led to believe wasn't even a miniboss, the demonstrator led his party away from the battlefield, apparently bored with his own game. We walked down a path, saw a castle in the distance, were asked to speculate what may be inside and then...that was it. Lights up, curtain down; the presentation was over.
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Steadily it dawned on us that we'd spent close to half an hour having the game demonstrated to us, but hadn't learned much about the game other than the fact that it's challenging to the point of boredom. We knew nothing about the story, only little of the larger world and had seen only enough the game to comment that the colour palette looked predictably earthy and unstylised. The only memorable fact about the game was how forgettable it appeared to be.
In short, all we knew was that Dragon's Dogma was an open world Western RPG that lacked multiplayer, but involved AI-driven NPCs who could be given basic orders such as 'Come' and 'Go'. And it had golems who were as hard as rock.
Later though, with research and discussion we were able to learn more about the universe of Dragon's Dogma, such as the fact that the story starts with the hero having his heart ripped out by a dragon. Surviving only through miracle and mystery, the hero then sets out to reclaim his organ and slay the dragon that bested him; uncovering in the process why he's been branded something as generic as 'the chosen one'
Eventually, we found out more and confirmed that, somewhere within the mire of Generic Fantasy Land, there are actually a handful of interesting ideas that are worth discussing.
First among these is the way that NPC party characters are introduced in the game; as other-dimensional creatures who, though they look human, aren't. Called Pawns, these otherworldly warriors are viewed with suspicion by most of the beings in the Dragon's Dogma universe, but are mysteriously willing to pledge themselves to your service when you summon them from their extra-planar home.
The Pawns will kill for you, die for you and follow you everywhere, no matter how you behave or who you betray. This in itself fosters a closeness between you and them, as you must accept absolute responsibility for their well-being even though you know so little about them.
Who are they? Why will they follow you? Why do they keep calling you 'Arisen'? These are the questions which will prove central to the Dragon's Dogma plot, according to Capcom, and the mystery wrapped up in the answers is one of the game's draws, in our opinion.
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Even then, though, the Pawns don't seem to be implemented perfectly. You're only able to control them in the most rudimentary fashion from what we saw of Dragon's Dogma and, beyond that, their behaviour is littered with annoyances. The Pawns insist on narrating all of their own actions, for example, both in and out of combat. Our battle with the golem was no less a cacophony of status updates than the walk to the castle - 'I'm going here!', 'I'll attack with my bow!' - these limited lines repeat over and over.
The presence of the Pawns also makes it hard to determine where the focus of Dragon's Dogma lies. While the presence of party members, stats and character customisation imply a full-on RPG experience, much of what we saw seemed closer to the third-person hack and slash genre, especially since you can't control NPCs as you would in other Western RPGs.
The ability to grapple with enemies also supports this idea that Dragon's Dogma is at least half an action game; players can clamber over larger enemies to strike at their (usually glowing) weak points from up close. It's a mechanic more often seen in brawlers or fighting games than in RPGs, and it could be taken to indicate that Capcom isn't as comfortable with the Western RPG mould as it may otherwise appear.
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It's possible that we've got the wrong end of the stick with Dragon's Dogma; it's entirely foreseeable that an unfocused presentation has cast the game in an unfair light. Dragon's Dogma may not be as generic-bordering-on-dull as we've seen it to be. At the same time though, we can only comment on what we've seen and heard, which is a developer fascinated with the standards of a new genre and a battle that waged far too long and too dully for no reward.
The concept behind the Pawns and some of the deeper story elements are certainly interesting and, as a singleplayer RPG, these will carry great weight. At the same time however, we've not seen anything anywhere else around the game to suggest that this is an RPG with anything new or exciting to offer.
