Dragon’s Dogma Previews

We have a few more hands-on previews for CAPCOM’s open-world action-RPG first foray, Dragon’s Dogma, coming from both PAX East and Captivate, like this positive piece from 1UP:

he game’s Captivate demo saw players descending a deep chasm — called the “Everfall” or some such — by traversing a spiral path downward around its perimeter. As I traveled level-by-level with my rugged warrior protagonist and his AI companions, I finally realized why Dogma seems so naggingly familiar: It is, in effect, a modern take on Capcom arcade classic Magic Sword.

Of course, Magic Sword was essentially the midpoint between Black Tiger and Dungeons & Dragons: Shadows over Mystara: A fantasy action brawler starring a sword-swinging hero as he ascended a mystical tower. Along the way, the player would liberate allies from captivity in the tower — anything from a slim sorceress to a burly lizard-man — and these newly freed fighters would tag along as A.I.-controlled companions, leveling up along the way, until you chose to swap them out for a different character. Dogma’s A.I.-based Pawns are nothing less than the modern-day descendants of Magic Sword’s warrior companions, and the act of descending a maddeningly deep pit — Magic Sword’s ascent in reverse — really drove the connection home for me.

GotGame:

Towards the end of the demo, we were allowed to get our hands on the game itself. First we roamed around in the main capital Gran Soren. Within the capital, we walked around and talked to a few NPCs while also getting a hang of the game’s impressive physics. In one instance, we picked up an NPC and proceeded to throw him off a ledge. The poor bastard, tumbled, flipped and flopped his way to the ground. Even when we simply ran with him on our shoulders, the character’s limbs and head moved about naturally. Another cool feature of the game is the ability to take in-game screenshots and share them via Facebook or Twitter, which is cool when you do something funny in the game.

Finally we jumped into a boss battle that required us to get down and dirty. We made good use of our magic skills and long-ranged attacks, as the rather large enemy would pounce us when we got close. Taking a page from Shadow of the Colossus, we were also able to grab on and climb up to the beast’s head to stab him in the face. You can also do damage to certain areas, such as the legs, arms and torso; the enemies react accordingly. After a heated battle, we downed the beast and thus ended our demo.

VGRevolution:

I found myself wandering the vast landscapes and enjoying the world around me. At times I had Lord of the Rings moments where I had myself and my diverse party traveling together and taking on foes, it was a great feeling and I could really see myself sinking hours into the game.

My playthrough ended though with a fight with a griffon (or at least I think that’s what it was). The boss-type enemy had my party and I surrounding it while trading blows until I finally put it down with a swift swing of my blade. I have seen gameplay videos though and realize that this griffon is nothing compared to some of the foes you have waiting for you in the full game. The gameplay video of the drake that I embedded below are some of the bigger bosses you will find yourself fighting and I hope when that day comes I am much more prepared.

The gameplay wasn’t super hard and with time to get your feet under you it becomes a lot easier. That being said it was still very challenging so if you were a fan of Dark Souls you can still get gain that experience.