Dragon’s Dogma Interview

The Guardian quizzed Capcom’s producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi on the upcoming open-world action-RPG Dragon’s Dogma, tackling subjects such as the game’s inspirations, combat, leveling system and more. Here’s a sampling:

Creating a new open-world RPG franchise undoubtedly makes sense for a publisher like Capcom such games can be fantastically popular. But they also require huge teams and costly resources, so represent a bit of a punt. It’s vital, then, that they sport unique features, and Kobayashi-san singles out the “pawn” system, which lets you assemble a party of fellow-adventurers with complementary skills, via rift-stones in the game: “It is, I think, the first of its kind. A lot of open-world games like this are multiplayer, but we specifically chose to make this a one-player open-world game with network functions. The pawns are a sort of legion of not-quite-human people: they don’t act under their own volition, but they follow. As you play the Arisen, you can command them at your will. There are plenty of pawns you can choose from as your support pawns, and your main pawn will be with you throughout the game. The reason for the existence of the pawns why are there pawns in this world, and why aren’t they human? will also be answered as you play the game.”

The pawns add a hint of multiplayer, or at least community-style gaming, as you can make your favourites available to other players via the game engine, Facebook or Twitter. Kobayashi elaborates: “You can reach the pawn community from the main menu, so you don’t have to go through Facebook. It will open up two options: you can either share your main pawn or do a pawn search, which will show all the main pawns that are up on Facebook and Twitter. And you can narrow down your search look for a Mage, or search by skills and gender. You might find a message from the owner. And if you note their online ID, you can search for that pawn in the rift.”

Action-wise, Kobayashi contends that Dragon’s Dogma, despite being a first stab at an RPG, preserves the ethos that pervades Capcom’s other, more action-focused, franchises: “For example, if you grab onto a gryphon, and the gryphon flies off, as long as you’re still holding on, you can continue that battle in the air and bring it down that way. And you can do things like hold an enemy while your pawns attack them. You can grab enemies and throw them off cliffs. That action element, I think, separates Dragon’s Dogma from a lot of the other fantasy games.”