Dragon’s Dogma Demo Impressions

Dragon’s Dogma is an epic new game from Capcom that is set to release May 22, 2012. The demo was recently released on PSN and XBOX live this week and I have gotten the chance to try the demo for myself. I consider myself a hardcore RPG fan and enjoy the genre more then any other. When the game was first announced, I saw “RPG” and “Capcom” and immediately thought that, while Capcom specializes in fighters and action games like Street Fighter and Devil May cry, this could be a really interesting game.

Months and months later, more information was released, and the game started to look more and more interesting to me. The game looked to be amazing, and it seemed it would combine concepts from a few games I enjoyed, like Monster Hunter and Demon’s Souls. I thought to myself, how amazing this game could be, and all the co-op possibilities flowed through my mind. I thought to myself, “could this be the co-op role playing game I have been waiting for?” Thoughts of teaming up with friends to fight monsters, completing quests like Monster Hunter and having a role playing leveling system really excited me. Then the sad news came that the game would not include co-op. I was disappointed, but still excited that maybe the game would still have a good story and an interesting enough class and skill system.

I finally got my hands on the demo, and immediately decided to create my own character before playing any of the demo missions (you do not get to play your created character for the demo). The character customization felt really fun and complex enough to make my character feel like my own. I felt like I could spend a long time, when the game is released, creating my own two characters. It was really cool to me how detailed you could make the character look. You could make anyone from a whimpy looking old mage to a young and energetic, dagger wielding bad ass.

The Pawn system allows players to hire other players created companions, and while the demo did not allow this feature to be tried out, I am really looking forward to having my created character rated by others, and to rating the silly looking, and bad ass players that help me out in my quests.

After I created my characters, I jumped into the first demo mission. This is where I felt slightly dissapointed. I was hoping to really delve deep into the menu systems, but discovered that you cant even access any game menus beyond the usable items. There was no discription of the 6 different available skills and no way to view my characters complex details. I know this is a demo and not the full game, but I was hoping to get more of that from the demo.

The combat in the demo left me with mixed emotions. While I really liked how you are able to use 6 different skills and a light and heavy attack all without having to pause the game, I was a little confused why there was no ability to perform a quick dodge. I had to resort to jumping around if wanted to dodge an incoming attack. One aspect that I really thought was fun was the grab option. During a fight your character has the wasy ability to grab on to the opponent and attempt to attack while hanging on for dear life. The mechanic worked really well and it was extremely fun hanging on to a beast while slashing away at it.

Another small issue I had was with the three companions that accompanied me on the mission. Often times there were important things one companion was trying to tell me and another companion would interrupt and speak over him at the same time. This is not a really big deal but it seems like it could get annoying.

I only played through the demo one time and was hoping a lot more from the demo. I was mostly hoping for more because I am really excited to get my hands on this game next month. I felt like demo did not do the game justice. It seems like the full game will be much more fun when you are able to use your own created character, class and skills and have your own companions of your choosing. The demo was mostly disappointing, because it felt like a poor representation of what the game should be and did not do a good job conveying a lot of what the game will offer. My opinion on the game did not change after playing, and I still cant wait for its release.