Started playing it because the sequel is coming out and I got interested in the IP because the gameplay trailers for the sequel are really good.

Bought the first game for about $4 during Steam winter sale and was blown away by the gameplay

-You can climb big monsters and keep stabbing them from very close range
-Depending on your class, you can toss your party member (pawn) onto a monster
-The magic spells effect look sick. One party member I hired (you can hire pawns from other players - it's basically the game's multiplayer function) was summoning a meteor shower lol
-Night times look like actual night time, as in pitch black, and you'll need a lamp to navigate your way through the darkness of the night or inside dungeons/caves.

I'm very surprised that the first game was so seldomly talked about. Both the friendly and enemy AI are really good too.

Easily a 9/10 game with so many features that were way ahead of its time. A few features that feel quite annoying though/outdated like there's no quick save button and no quick button to open the map. You'd have to go to menu and do that.

-I also really like that it can be very hard to save scum in this game (i hope they don't change it for the sequel). Basically for one character, there's only one save file, and autosaves will overwrite your save file.

-Monsters also have weak points like in Monster Hunter. For example, saurians (humanoid lizard creatures) have their tail as weak points, and when you cut it, you severely weaken them.

Another game the braindead critics didn't get. Probably didn't even play it but since Capcom was unpopular at the time they slapped on a mediocre score and moved on.

tried to play it back when it released on ps3, and again recently on my ps5. It's okay. Not something i would go back to TBH. I enjoy the Monster Hunter games from capcom more.

Never played the first.


I'll be there day one for the second game though. Hopefully it's good as you nerds say it is.

Dragon's Dogma: DA was easily the game of the 2010s.

Better than Bloodborne, better than Souls, better than Nioh.

It was not designed nor made to tailor to Westoid cinematic moviegame dikksukkers, which would explain why it got overlooked and reviewed poorly.

One of my friends swears by that game but the sequel doesnt look that great to me. The gameplay looks kind of slow and stiff and the world looks generic af. From his recommendation though I'm planning to try it,

…are those points supposed to be impressive?

It’s a boring piece of schit That’s praised by a cult, nothing more.

This. I don't know what happened as to why it became so underrated, but now that I've played it for around 30hours, I can compare it to other fantasy-adventure-rpgs that I've played and I can confidently say that it's better than Dragon Age Origins, Skyrim, Pillars of Eternity, Nioh, Hogwarts Legacy, Elden Ring, and just a step or two below Witcher 3. I put it around the same level as Mass Effect 1-2 even though their genres are different. It just reminds me of the awesome feeling that those mass effect games gave me and how they felt way ahead of their time.

If the devs worked on to even improve the strengths of the first game and its outdated/annoying parts like annoying inventory management, no quick save and map button, etc, Dragon's Dogma 2 will be top contender for GOTY 2024.

Amazing game, best action rpg ever made by far.

But it had some flaws, if they iron out those in DD2, then it will win GOTY

Edit: wizard above shares my thoughts

Fully agreed. It’s a great example of Japanese gameplay design prowess.

It’s solid/great across all areas, and even does some things amazingly well. FromSoftware couldn’t make spellcasting as fun across 3 Dark Souls games as it is in Dragon’s Dogma.

My one criticism is that it’s a bit flat/generic stylistically, compared with something like the SoulsBorne titles.

You would legit never get a game like this coming out of the West. If a Western studio made DD it would be the exact opposite, i.e. really solid graphically, narratively and stylistically, but utterly chit gameplay.

If they put more fast travel rocks in the sequel it might not be too bad. Theory is good but the execution sucked.
Pawn system is pretty dated too. Just let us have our own party. From what I remember, enemy variety was an issue. Also came out in the golden age when Crapcom was lying to their customers.

Overall, a pretty good game. I'm pretty sure it reviewed well so I'm surprised you think it's underrated.

Ahhh yea this is another criticism actually. Not so much from a gameplay pov, but narratively the whole pawn thing was stupid. You should just have normal human party members and if they die you gotta replace them with new ones.

Agree with everything, even the criticism part. But if what you're craving for is an adventure in a fantasy world with swordsmen, mages, goblins, ogres, undead, griffins (some of the monsters btw remind me of the monsters from Berserk), that's exactly what you'll be getting.I have mixed feelings with the pawn system actually. At first I was mostly negative about it, but i kinda like it as an online feature/way to feel like you're connected with other players. But yeah I wish for the sequel that they tweaked it to make it better in some way, and I would also really love to have at least 1 actualy human npc party member and not just pawns.

The reason I say they are dated is because they have no story or character to them. It's hard to think of many RPGs where your party members have no backstory or unique dialogue. Even Horizon Zero Dawn had more interesting characters.

From what I remember all the Pawn system ended up being was somebody making a class and putting attributes into an NPC and then another player has to drag it around the world while they gain experience from it.

I would much rather party members I can interact with and have unique identities like in most RPGs.

That's also the reason why I have mixed feelings with it. On one hand, your companions aren't compelling because they're not humans, so they don't have background stories or motivations other to support you, the Arisen, but on the other hand, I quite like that they're you're connection with other players. I really hope that with the sequel, we can get 1 or 2 human companions though and maybe just one pawn from another player. because nothing beats well-written side characters that can be your companion in your journey.

The good thing though is that even though the game is old, the pawns have great AI. They're well programmed. There was a time when one of my pawns became incapacitated and I have no idea where it was, and then one of the pawns went in to grab it and carried it over to me so I could revive it. They would also pick up things like rocks and barrels to throw at enemies. Sometimes I look at gameplay footages of the sequel and mistake the pawns or companions as other players because they kinda move like a real player would.

Regarding the sequel




Looks like the pawn system will be largely the same except that they'll have more dialog lines and how they learn from their owners quests and give you advices will be improved, which is one thing that I forgot to say in this thread

Even in the first game, pawns who have already went through an area or a quest with their masters will be able to give you advice regarding those if you hire them, which is again a very interesting way to connect to other players.

Say if your friend went through a very difficult quest and you hired his pawn, that pawn will be able to advice you regarding that quest and the area.

I still prefer to have human npcs with their own background stories and motivations rather than pawns, but i think the pawn system isn't a fully negative one and is a unique way to be connected with other players.

I enjoyed it, but I feel its properly rated.

One of the few stamina-based combat games I enjoyed. Customizing your pawn to be OP was fun as hell too. I played the game during the height of the "fukking white male" meme, so I actually named mine "White Male" lmao.

Looking forward to the sequel for more meme-worthy shenanigans.

Someone I recommended the game to actually started playing the game and just informed me that he's using my pawn and that it's awesome. That feels really good and makes me more motivated to level up along with my pawn now. I'm starting to like the pawn system more and more. It's such a unique way to share an adventure in a supposedly single-player game.

Dragon's Dogma 2 reviews looking really good too [10 hour review from IGN]


The fact that they're confident in giving media a lot of time to review the game and use their own footage is a really good sign

They say that they also even lessened the quest markers and other things that would otherwise guide your hand through quests, so the advices from pawns from other players will really be more valuable.