An ARPG good enough to make you look past its dull and lifeless setting
Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen is the recently released PC version of Capcom’s third person ARPG which was originally released in 2012. You live in a small fishing village called Cassardis in a province called Gransys. Gransys is in a world filled with mythical creatures ranging from small goblins to huge chimeras but that makes the events of the game’s first day no less shocking to those who inhabit this fictional world. A dragon is summoned by dark and mysterious forces and his first target is Cassardis. Watching most of the people you know die horribly at the hands of the dragon spurs you into action, armed with nothing but a sword you give the dragon all you’ve got. The dragon bats you away as if you are nothing more than a fly but instead of killing you, the dragon steals your heart, binding your life to that of the dragon and you become the Arisen. The Arisen is believed to be the only person in the world capable of defeating the dragon and so you become an incredibly important person in Gransys.
As with all games, the first thing you’ll notice about DD: DA is how it looks. Being a game that originally released around four years ago, the graphics aren’t exactly cutting edge and some of the textures aren’t what you’d call easy on the eye but there is a real improvement over the original game and it does look pretty good. One of the main problems with the original release of the game was its poor performance but thankfully that’s all been fixed now. Even with a PC in the middle of minimum and recommended (with a pretty weak GPU) I’m able to run the game pretty much maxed out with a stable 30FPS. The UI and menus are all pretty good though you can tell they were made for console rather than PC, I played with a controller so I didn’t have any issues but playing with M&KB may be a bit of a pain at times.
Moving on to gameplay, DD: DA is what you’d expect from a third person ARPG. The game offers you a choice of six basic vocations (classes) and three hybrid vocations (a combination of two basic ones). The basic vocations are all what you’d expect, you’ve got two fighter classes, two ranged/dagger classes and two magic-based classes. Each vocation comes with specific equipment (though most equipment can be used by similar vocations, not just one), skills (active and passive) and of course a unique playstyle. Active skills consist of weapon-specific special attacks such as a skill which lets you fire six arrows at once for the ranged classes and spells for the magic-based classes. The passive skills are again unique to each vocation and offer you certain bonuses such as more health at night time or take less damage when your weapons are sheathed.
DD: DA’s unique selling point is its pawn system. You have one main pawn and two other pawns when you’re playing the game. Your main pawn is effectively a second character but one that is not controller by the player, meaning you decide what they look like, wear, use as weapons etc. but you don’t actually control them. Your main pawn can be any one of the six basic vocations and it’s often wise to switch between them once you’ve reached the max vocation level so you can get useful skills from other vocations. The other two pawns are other people’s main pawns and you have no control over them. There’s a place in the game called The Rift, accessed using Rift Stones, and you can go there to search for and enlist two pawns. As you go through the game, your main pawn will receive knowledge on enemies, missions and locations after you’ve encountered said things and they will then relay helpful information about these things to any other players who decide to enlist your pawns. Once you’re done using a pawn you ‘send it back’ with a gift for its creator as well as a basic review of its appearance and effectiveness. It’s important to have a good mix of pawns of different vocations so you’ll need to play around with your set up to get it just right.
Being an ARPG, there’s a hell of a lot of fighting in DD: DA. Unfortunately, fighting regular mobs is pretty tedious as they don’t pose much challenge at all and they feel like they’ve just been placed into what is already a bland game world. Thankfully DD: DA’s boss fights more than make up for the disappointing mobs. Most of the bosses are absolutely huge, have loads of health and deal incredible amounts of damage. What makes boss fights so much fun is that you can climb on large enemies, allowing you to attack them up close and personal as well as allowing you to more easily exploit their weaknesses. Boss fights also award you with huge EXP rewards as well as a fair bit of loot, usually in the form of rare crafting materials.
I’ll briefly return to the issue of the bland game world, one of two major issues with the game. Gransys simply doesn’t feel like a real place. The two cities in the game have small populations and feel pretty empty when you’re wandering around them but outside the cities the problem is even worse. You can sometimes go a couple of minutes without seeing anyone and since the game involves a lot of long and tedious travelling (thanks to the lack of a proper fast travel system, my other major issue with the game) the world feels all the more empty. While you can set up a fast travel system later on in the game using a limited number of rare items, early on in the game you have to walk across what is a rather large map with the occasional sprints in between waiting for your stamina bar to slowly recharge.
Once you’re done with the base game you can move on to post-game, Dark Arisen and then unlimited New Game plus runs as well as a hard mode and speedrun mode. Post-game offers more challenging enemies and loot while Dark Arisen is the game’s only DLC and again offers more challenging enemies, particularly more challenging boss fights. After completing all that and going through the final mission of post-game you’re given the option to start the game again but with the same character, skills and equipment which can then be done every time you beat the game, offering endless replayability though you’ll probably be done with the game after your second run.
Verdict
Worth Purchasing.
Despite taking place in a bland world, DD: DA’s fantastic pawn system and boss fights make this an ARPG that’s well worth playing. DD: DA may not be as tough as some games but it does provide enough of a challenge to make completing it and even just beating some of the harder bosses incredibly satisfying. If you like a good third person ARPG, do yourself a favour and pick this one up.
Minimum Requirements of Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen:
OS: Windows Vista or newer (32 or 64 bit)
Processor: Intel Core i5 660 CPU or equivalent
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: Radeon HD 5870 or equivalent
DirectX: Version 9.0c
Network: Broadband Internet connection
Storage: 20 GB available space
Sound Card: DirectX-compatible sound card or onboard audio chip
Additional Notes: 1) Supports Keyboard+Mouse and XInput/DirectInput devices including Xbox 360, Xbox One, DualShock4 and Steam Controller.
2) Some high end integrated graphics chips and modern gaming laptops with a discrete GPU may work but have not been tested, nor are they officially supported by Capcom.
Recommended Requirements of Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen:
OS: Windows 7/8/10
Processor: Intel Core i7-4770K or equivalent
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 or equivalent
DirectX: Version 9.0c
Network: Broadband Internet connection
Storage: 20 GB available space
Sound Card: DirectX-compatible sound card or onboard audio chip
Additional Notes: 1) Supports Keyboard+Mouse and XInput/DirectInput devices including Xbox 360, Xbox One, DualShock4 and Steam Controller.
2) Some high end integrated graphics chips and modern gaming laptops with a discrete GPU may work but have not been tested, nor are they officially supported by Capcom.
EmoticonEmoticon