Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen Review (PS3)
Introduction
Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen is a compilation of the original game with the expansion Dark Arisen included. This game also has gameplay changes such as new skills, weapons, armour sets, etc. You may also choose to use back your old save from the original game.
Story
Your playable character is a good old citizen in a town called Casadeis. He/She is living peacefully until a red, fiery dragon attacked the town, and ravaged the townspeople there. You fought the defiantly, but ended up in failure, and the dragon took your heart literally. However, you did not die, and begins to discover your destiny as the Arisen, a chosen one who will bring down the dragon to bring peace, as well as having the power to command loyal followers called pawns.
The story is simplistic enough, and it is pretty much same old story seen in regular RPG games and stuff. There isn't much memorable moments in the story itself, and the story itself can be boring sometimes. Not all characters in the game are memorable, since most of them are seen in few cutscenes and is vital in your Quests. However, the game's mythology is quite fascinating, such as the dragon, Arisen, pawns and stuff, but Capcom failed to use the creative mythology to make the storyline much more interesting.
Gameplay
i) Exploration and progression section
Exploration is pretty much like other RPG games that have open world maps, where you can travel anywhere without much restrictions. Since your map is not filled, you will unlock the portion of the map only where you have traveled before. Your Map will be one of the most important thing in this game, since it allows you to check where is your destination, setting Waypoints, etc. If you are lost, use the Map and set a course to a town or a rest area. While roaming the kingdom, you can search for items such as herbs, treasures and etc for your healing items, equipment materials, etc. Certain items can be combined for weapon enhancements, or most items can be sold for money if you are short on it.
Unfortunately, despite the game's free roaming in open world, the game lacks the means of fast travelling, such as transports, warp points, etc. In other words, you need to go to ALL of your destinations for your Quests on foot. However, you have an item that allows you to travel back to your main base, but that item is costly, and uncommon to find in the game itself other than beating certain enemies or buying at certain merchants. Since this game has extremely large map, lack of fast travelling essentially means a lot of tedious backtracking to previous places.
You can find dungeons throughout the game, and some dungeons are required to complete for story progression. Some dungeons require minor puzzles to complete, and not exactly tough to complete. The hindrance of going to dungeons is the lack of light source. In dungeons, most of it are dark lit areas, and you won't be able to see the path clearly. A light source such as a lantern proved useful at this, but it too need oil to keep the fire aflame. The game also have day and night cycle, where some monsters are not seen in day and vice versa. Travelling in the night is dangerous without a light source, thus you need a proper light source such as a lantern and a healthy supply of oil to refuel it.
Game progression is done by completing main Quests. There are two types of Quests. One is from the notice board, and the other is given by the people. All notice board Quests are entirely optional, and can be done if you like it or not. In order to get a Quest from a people, you need to talk a person who has green speech over their heads. Most main Quests are done by talking to people, so talk to people often. Quests' objectives are varied, such as searching objects, killing a number of enemies, etc. Depending on the nature of the Quests', you will get the reward appropriately to the Quests' difficulty. Notice board Quests and other optional Quests are missable after progressing at certain point in the game, so it would be best if you complete all the optional Quests before progressing in the game,
Unfortunately, there is no easy way to identify which Quest is the main Quest for game progression or it is an optional Quest. The main aspect of this game is total freedom in roaming, but the aspect itself is a bit flawed, since people can get confused or stuck somewhere in the game. You can always set a Quest as your priority, and it allows your pawns to give helpful hints for that particular Quest itself.
ii) Combat section
The combat in this game is pretty much action RPG, where your character has access to light and heavy attacks, jump, or even grab things. Depending on what weapons you are currently equipped, your attacks and skills will differ greatly with each other. Some enemies can be grabbed to exploit their weakness, such as grabbing a saurian to cut it's tail quickly. You may also grab objects to throw at enemies, or even throw people off in the game. Larger enemies such as chimeras or griffins can't be grabbed directly, instead you will scale on it's body and try to attack it's weak point. Most enemies in this game have different weaknesses, thus having a well-balanced party is essential in having safe journey in the game.
Your character and your main Pawn has their own levels. The higher the level, the better your stats. To rank up a new level, you need to acquire EXP by killing monsters or completing Quests. Most actions in the game require Stamina, such as using skills and sprinting. Be aware that if you use your Stamina carelessly, your character will be fatigued at a moment, and will take a short time to recover his/her Stamina.
Pawns are your party members in the game where they will assist you in battle and Quests. You will always have a main Pawn in the game, where you can customise his/her vocation and appearance at the start of the game. You can have up to 4 members in party, with two recruitable pawns. You can recruit Pawns while travelling in the game, or recruit them through the Rift. If your level is equal or higher than a Pawn's level, you can recruit him/her for free. If the Pawn's level is higher than yours, you need to spend some Rift Crystal points to recruit them. Since each Pawn has different vocations, skills, and levels, choose wisely to form a well-balanced party. If your current party has 2 recruitable pawns and you want to recruit a new one, you need to release one from the party before doing it. If your pawns died in battle, you can always find new ones in the Rift or in the city of Gran Soren. While in combat, you can issue simple commands to your pawns, such as attacking the enemies or come to your aid. You may also share your main Pawn online and allows other players to use him/her. Doing so nets you various rewards, such as items. You can also use other player's main Pawn, but only if you have an online connection.
iii) Customisation and upgrading section
As you progress in the game, you will feel the need of buying new armours and weapons to defeat stronger enemies. To do so, you need Gold, which can be obtained by completing Quests and finding them scattered around in the game. Different armour pieces will change your character's outer appearance, such as body armour, weapon, leg armour, etc.
This game features a class system called Vocation. At the start of the game, you need to choose a vocation between Fighter, Mage, and Strider. As their name implies, Fighter relies on melee attacks, Mage relies on magic attacks, whereas Strider relies on quick and ranged attacks. As you progress in the game, you may change your vocation to different one, such as hybrid vocation like Mystic Knight, or advanced vocation like Assassin. Depending on your playstyle, there is a plenty of choice of vocations for you to choose in the game.
Each vocation have their own sets of skills that are tied with their related weapons and innate abilities. To learn a skill, you need to spend Discipline Points (D.P.). D.P. is earned by killing enemies or completing Quests. Since your character uses D.P. for all vocations, you can balance the D.P. expenditure to one class, or even multiple classes at the same time. After that, you need to set your skills before using, as quick shortcuts in battle. Your main Pawn will also use the similar system in learning new Skills, and you can change his/her vocation as well, equipment, etc.
iv) Gameplay conclusion
Another problem I find in this game is the bad saving system, and the inability to save multiple save files. Personally, I find that a good RPG game should allows players to save multiple save files, such as Final Fantasy XIII-2, Tales of Graces f, and Dark Souls. However, this game does not have it, and you only have one save file. Since the game auto-saves at many points in the game, you may find yourself in trouble if you have done something wrong in the game, such as accidentally killing your escort in a Quest. The Pawn system is easy to learn, and vital in combat and Quests.
You can play the game solo with only your main Pawn as your sole companion as a challenge, although I do not recommend that since having more Pawns at your side saves you a lot of trouble in fighting tough enemies like hydra.
Graphics
My expectations on graphics for this year's game is high, and unfortunately Dragon's Dogma graphics are surprisingly mediocre. Since this game is made by Capcom, I expect the game's graphics to be great, but this did not happen. Character models are not detailed enough, and they look way outdated. Monster models however, look pretty good, such as the dragons, hydra, etc. Environments look pretty good, although there are some poor collision detection between the environment and your characters as well as monsters, such as sword going through the monster's head.
The game also suffers some performance issues, especially framerate issues. Frame rate gets terrible when playing the game in high action, or in certain parts in the game such as when saving the game. Make sure that you download the latest patch to reduce the framerate problem. Another thing I am not satisfied with the character animation and poor lip syncing. Many character animations are poorly done and unrealistic, especially the NPCs animation when talking to them, and they have poor lip syncing when they are talking.
Sound
The soundtrack is well-done, by Inon Zur, Rei Kondoh, etc. Most of the orchestral music works well in the game. A standout track in this game is the game's main menu, which is a J-Rock song by the popular by B'z. It is rare for vocal song to be played in the main menu of a game, and the song is pretty good itself.
When playing this game, there are some noticeable sound cuts when in combat. It is not gamebreaking, but noticeable. Pawns often giving out hints and help while travelling, although one pawn's speech will cut off another pawn's speech directly, which is a bit annoying.
Replay Value
The game has good replay value, where you can complete the game's optional Quests, which most of them easily increases the playing time of the game. Otherwise, you can play the New Game Plus mode, where you can complete any Quests that you have missed before, or try exploring other parts in the game that you haven't traveled before. Due to the game's saving system, you might want to consider playing the game second round.
Conclusion
This game has many similarities from other games, such as Monster Hunter, Shadow of the Colossus, Dark Souls, etc. Unfortunately, these did not make the game much better, and it fells short from being an extremely good action RPG game like Dark Souls. If you are into fun combat in an RPG game, have a try with the game's demo before buying it. Some people commented that this game's lack of multi-player is a big issue, but I do not exactly agree to it since this game is designed for immersive single-player experience, and I thoroughly enjoy the game despite some of it's major flaws.
Score
Story: 7/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Graphics: 7/10
Sound: 7/10
Final score: 7.5/10 or 30/40
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Inclusion of new expansion.
- Interesting mythology.
- Fun and great combat system.
- Deep character customisation, like vocation, appearance, etc.
- Balanced difficulty for both non-RPG and average RPG players.
- Total freedom in roaming in the game.
- Easy to learn Pawn system.
- Good music.
Cons
- Mediocre storyline.
- Not memorable voice acting.
- Mediocre graphics, like poorly done character models.
- Weak fast travel feature.
- Unstable framerate issues.
- Quests are not categorised in appropriately, such as main story Quests category or optional Quests category.
- Minor bugs and glitches are present.
- Poor character animations and poor lip syncing.
- Pawns dialogues often overlaps another Pawn's dialogue when travelling or in combat.
**Downloaded from Gematsu.
Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen is a compilation of the original game with the expansion Dark Arisen included. This game also has gameplay changes such as new skills, weapons, armour sets, etc. You may also choose to use back your old save from the original game.
Story
Take back your heart (literally) from the vicious dragon.
The story is simplistic enough, and it is pretty much same old story seen in regular RPG games and stuff. There isn't much memorable moments in the story itself, and the story itself can be boring sometimes. Not all characters in the game are memorable, since most of them are seen in few cutscenes and is vital in your Quests. However, the game's mythology is quite fascinating, such as the dragon, Arisen, pawns and stuff, but Capcom failed to use the creative mythology to make the storyline much more interesting.
Gameplay
i) Exploration and progression section
Travel to various locations in the kingdom of Gransys.
Unfortunately, despite the game's free roaming in open world, the game lacks the means of fast travelling, such as transports, warp points, etc. In other words, you need to go to ALL of your destinations for your Quests on foot. However, you have an item that allows you to travel back to your main base, but that item is costly, and uncommon to find in the game itself other than beating certain enemies or buying at certain merchants. Since this game has extremely large map, lack of fast travelling essentially means a lot of tedious backtracking to previous places.
You can find dungeons throughout the game, and some dungeons are required to complete for story progression. Some dungeons require minor puzzles to complete, and not exactly tough to complete. The hindrance of going to dungeons is the lack of light source. In dungeons, most of it are dark lit areas, and you won't be able to see the path clearly. A light source such as a lantern proved useful at this, but it too need oil to keep the fire aflame. The game also have day and night cycle, where some monsters are not seen in day and vice versa. Travelling in the night is dangerous without a light source, thus you need a proper light source such as a lantern and a healthy supply of oil to refuel it.
Game progression is done by completing main Quests. There are two types of Quests. One is from the notice board, and the other is given by the people. All notice board Quests are entirely optional, and can be done if you like it or not. In order to get a Quest from a people, you need to talk a person who has green speech over their heads. Most main Quests are done by talking to people, so talk to people often. Quests' objectives are varied, such as searching objects, killing a number of enemies, etc. Depending on the nature of the Quests', you will get the reward appropriately to the Quests' difficulty. Notice board Quests and other optional Quests are missable after progressing at certain point in the game, so it would be best if you complete all the optional Quests before progressing in the game,
Unfortunately, there is no easy way to identify which Quest is the main Quest for game progression or it is an optional Quest. The main aspect of this game is total freedom in roaming, but the aspect itself is a bit flawed, since people can get confused or stuck somewhere in the game. You can always set a Quest as your priority, and it allows your pawns to give helpful hints for that particular Quest itself.
ii) Combat section
Your fighting style depends on your current Vocation.
Your character and your main Pawn has their own levels. The higher the level, the better your stats. To rank up a new level, you need to acquire EXP by killing monsters or completing Quests. Most actions in the game require Stamina, such as using skills and sprinting. Be aware that if you use your Stamina carelessly, your character will be fatigued at a moment, and will take a short time to recover his/her Stamina.
Pawns are your party members in the game where they will assist you in battle and Quests. You will always have a main Pawn in the game, where you can customise his/her vocation and appearance at the start of the game. You can have up to 4 members in party, with two recruitable pawns. You can recruit Pawns while travelling in the game, or recruit them through the Rift. If your level is equal or higher than a Pawn's level, you can recruit him/her for free. If the Pawn's level is higher than yours, you need to spend some Rift Crystal points to recruit them. Since each Pawn has different vocations, skills, and levels, choose wisely to form a well-balanced party. If your current party has 2 recruitable pawns and you want to recruit a new one, you need to release one from the party before doing it. If your pawns died in battle, you can always find new ones in the Rift or in the city of Gran Soren. While in combat, you can issue simple commands to your pawns, such as attacking the enemies or come to your aid. You may also share your main Pawn online and allows other players to use him/her. Doing so nets you various rewards, such as items. You can also use other player's main Pawn, but only if you have an online connection.
iii) Customisation and upgrading section
Customise and create your own unique character, as well as choose your own vocation.
Early in the game, you can customise your playable character's appearance, such as hair, skin, body build, etc as well as gender. Later in the game, you can also limited customisation on your character, such as his hair in a barber shop, but you won't be able to make other detailed customisation such as body build and etc.
As you progress in the game, you will feel the need of buying new armours and weapons to defeat stronger enemies. To do so, you need Gold, which can be obtained by completing Quests and finding them scattered around in the game. Different armour pieces will change your character's outer appearance, such as body armour, weapon, leg armour, etc.
This game features a class system called Vocation. At the start of the game, you need to choose a vocation between Fighter, Mage, and Strider. As their name implies, Fighter relies on melee attacks, Mage relies on magic attacks, whereas Strider relies on quick and ranged attacks. As you progress in the game, you may change your vocation to different one, such as hybrid vocation like Mystic Knight, or advanced vocation like Assassin. Depending on your playstyle, there is a plenty of choice of vocations for you to choose in the game.
Each vocation have their own sets of skills that are tied with their related weapons and innate abilities. To learn a skill, you need to spend Discipline Points (D.P.). D.P. is earned by killing enemies or completing Quests. Since your character uses D.P. for all vocations, you can balance the D.P. expenditure to one class, or even multiple classes at the same time. After that, you need to set your skills before using, as quick shortcuts in battle. Your main Pawn will also use the similar system in learning new Skills, and you can change his/her vocation as well, equipment, etc.
iv) Gameplay conclusion
Solid gameplay, but flawed due to some major exploration issues.
The gameplay is solid, but I felt that this game suffers major exploration issues. Since the game does not have any fast travel means, you will often finding yourself backtracking to many, many places to complete your Quests, either it is optional Quests or story Quests. The combat feels good, and the enemy difficulty feels balanced if you are leveled enough. Quests are poorly done, where we won't be able to know which ones are the story Quests and optional Quests until we have done it. Thus, missing a number of optional Quests is unavoidable, especially if you are a new player and not using any walkthroughs.Another problem I find in this game is the bad saving system, and the inability to save multiple save files. Personally, I find that a good RPG game should allows players to save multiple save files, such as Final Fantasy XIII-2, Tales of Graces f, and Dark Souls. However, this game does not have it, and you only have one save file. Since the game auto-saves at many points in the game, you may find yourself in trouble if you have done something wrong in the game, such as accidentally killing your escort in a Quest. The Pawn system is easy to learn, and vital in combat and Quests.
You can play the game solo with only your main Pawn as your sole companion as a challenge, although I do not recommend that since having more Pawns at your side saves you a lot of trouble in fighting tough enemies like hydra.
Graphics
Mediocre graphics, with some performance issues.
The game also suffers some performance issues, especially framerate issues. Frame rate gets terrible when playing the game in high action, or in certain parts in the game such as when saving the game. Make sure that you download the latest patch to reduce the framerate problem. Another thing I am not satisfied with the character animation and poor lip syncing. Many character animations are poorly done and unrealistic, especially the NPCs animation when talking to them, and they have poor lip syncing when they are talking.
Sound
Mediocre voice acting, with spectacular orchestral soundtrack.
Voice acting in this game is mediocre. Not many standout performances by the voice actors, although if I must choose which one is the best, I have to say the dragon's voice actor did the best job.
The soundtrack is well-done, by Inon Zur, Rei Kondoh, etc. Most of the orchestral music works well in the game. A standout track in this game is the game's main menu, which is a J-Rock song by the popular by B'z. It is rare for vocal song to be played in the main menu of a game, and the song is pretty good itself.
When playing this game, there are some noticeable sound cuts when in combat. It is not gamebreaking, but noticeable. Pawns often giving out hints and help while travelling, although one pawn's speech will cut off another pawn's speech directly, which is a bit annoying.
Replay Value
Good replay value if you want to play the New Game Plus.
Conclusion
Despite some of it's major problems, this game is still fun to play.
Overall, this game is solid, but have it's own share of major problems, such as exploration issues, mediocre graphics, framerate problem and weak story. The combat is quite fun, where you can play as different vocations anytime which has different set of skills, as well as exhilarating monster fights.This game has many similarities from other games, such as Monster Hunter, Shadow of the Colossus, Dark Souls, etc. Unfortunately, these did not make the game much better, and it fells short from being an extremely good action RPG game like Dark Souls. If you are into fun combat in an RPG game, have a try with the game's demo before buying it. Some people commented that this game's lack of multi-player is a big issue, but I do not exactly agree to it since this game is designed for immersive single-player experience, and I thoroughly enjoy the game despite some of it's major flaws.
Score
Story: 7/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Graphics: 7/10
Sound: 7/10
Final score: 7.5/10 or 30/40
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Inclusion of new expansion.
- Interesting mythology.
- Fun and great combat system.
- Deep character customisation, like vocation, appearance, etc.
- Balanced difficulty for both non-RPG and average RPG players.
- Total freedom in roaming in the game.
- Easy to learn Pawn system.
- Good music.
Cons
- Mediocre storyline.
- Not memorable voice acting.
- Mediocre graphics, like poorly done character models.
- Weak fast travel feature.
- Unstable framerate issues.
- Quests are not categorised in appropriately, such as main story Quests category or optional Quests category.
- Minor bugs and glitches are present.
- Poor character animations and poor lip syncing.
- Pawns dialogues often overlaps another Pawn's dialogue when travelling or in combat.
**Downloaded from Gematsu.
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