Dragons Dogma, like F.E.A.R. is almost entirely carried by it's incredible combat. Fusing elements from Darksouls, Shadow Of Colossus and Devil May Cry it's a hodgepodge concoction that comes together to create memorable encounters with beasts that make Skyrims dragons seem positively bland, repetitive and devoid of creativity.
It's soup of ideas also hinder it.
Like Darksouls is has a stamina bar, while Darksouls has tight levels that accommodate it, and Elder Scrolls allows the use of mounts, Dragons Dogma has large open plains.
What does this mean? When stamina is drains from sprinting, the player stops dead in their tracks until it refills. Instead of joyful exploration, it becomes a frustrating loop of run> stop > run> stop over and over.
This problem is heightened by pawns. Rather than space out or deliberately make the comments sparse, they deliver a near constant stream of dialogue that never changes. The game offers an ability to silence them, but it essenailly kills the games atmosphere.
Further still, these problems became even more exacerbated by a broken save system. While Darksouls sensibly sprawls bonfires, Dragons Dogma only allows saves from vendors and entering internal areas.
Should the player die, all experience, all items, any quest settings they inputting, need redone.
For many reasons, this doesn't work. Pawns will occasionally fall of a cliff, nullifying a 10+ minute journey. Enemies can occasionally 1 hit kill a player from nowhere thanks to seemingly random placement of enemy levels. Should the player be caught at night, it's practically a guaranteed death.
It's open world design is ill thought out, acting in direct opposition to enjoyment of fighting fantastical beasts.
Combat has issues as well. Unlike classic CRPG's, party members have very limited control. Almost every battle, pawns will simply refuse to attack, returning to the player when stamina is dressed for a pointless canned animation.
Likewise, the skills you set the pawn, they will refuse to use. Opting for whatever they please, which is usually the exact opposite of what you want.
For my chosen class (Rogue), a dagger/bow class, bow was always the best choice. Since enemies can very easily 1 hit kill the player, ranged is preferable with more damage inflicted than daggers, rendering them the inferior option.
While the game it visually dated, it's castles have a sense of scale sorely lacking in the likes of Elder Scrolls. While it's closed of hubs feel like a few measly buildings, Dragons Dogma has a genuine sense of grandeur to it's hubs.
Unlike many RPG's with over-designed armor, Dragons Dogma uses subtly understated armor, which is welcomed. Unfortunately that stat changes of the items are so irrelevant that they serve almost purely as cosmetic items.
The DLC (that comes with the pv version) by default give the player some of the most powerful items in the game. It detracts entirely from the game experience in the long run.
Exploration itself isn't particularly rewarding, while in Darksouls it's common to come across interesting and surprising rewards, the crates that litter Dragons Dogma hold almost nothing but generic items that will immediately be sold at the local shop.
The game has a story, it's not obnoxious nor terrible but it's not particularly engaging either. You won't be sifting through lore books like the Elder Scrolls nor enjoying the mysterious and sparse story-telling of Darksouls.
The game lives and dies on one core aspect, it's combat and beasts. Towering over the player these battles reminiscent of Shadow Of Colossus become an engrossing experience. Unfortunately everything around this is either average or terrible.
Enjoyment is entirely depends on how much the player is willing to persevere to get to the good stuff.
