Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen - First Reviews

The first reviews for Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen are coming in:

RPG Site: 9/10

Gaming Age: A+

Attack of the Fanboy

The Verdict

Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen may be a few years old now, but the new PC version is still a blast to play and offers a nice mix of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and From Software’s Dark Souls. There are dozens of hours of epic RPG action to be had here and while the complete package isn’t perfect, that doesn’t stop the experience from being a heck of a lot of fun.

Click to expand...

Hardcore Gamer: 3.5/5

Examiner:

The Bottom Line

Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen is an incredible game. The amount of content is incredible. The ability to control and mix up your character at any time is incredible. The variety in not only location but weapons, armor, and items are incredible. The ability to jump and grab a giant enemy, scaling it to stab it in the face while it thrashes about is incredible. You get it, now if you’re a fan of Fantasy RPG, saving the kingdoms from dragons and demons, and extremely satisfying gameplay from nearly every aspect, buy Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen.

Click to expand...

High-Def-Digest: 4/5

More information.

"You can share sidekicks online. This isn’t a new feature, but it’s still a pretty cool one. You can outfit your A.I. companion character with gear, level them up, make them look real dumb (or awesome), "

Soon enough you will see that the most useful, powerful pawns are the ones that look like tiny school girls. Worst aspect of this game IMO… I tried making a hulking brute pawn with green skin… barely ever was used.

edit: by this I mean people generally choose schoolgirl looking pawns... it's a sad, pathetic indictment of the video game world. I'm fine with HAVING the option to have that kind of character, but sadly, those are the ones that get chosen. Even sadder is the fact that the character customization is really diverse. You can make almost any kind of color/shape/size pawn from tiny little girl to hulking musclebound green colored man.

I count Dragon Dogma as a great game. It's not overly deep and complicated, but every time I play it I know I'm in for some good fun. I hope for a new PC Dragon Dogma at some point with improved graphics and new challenges.

Please make a PS4 Dragon's Dogma sequel.

Seriously, this game is messed up, but the fun parts are AMAZING. Such an odd product.

Is this another one of those Console to PC games like Dark Souls where you need a game controller to play it successfully?

If you read the reviews they indicate the kb/mouse interface is very good but the game has some technical issues (crasshes).

k+m are fine but you get tired at some point managing the inventory because you get trough alot of stupid menus, i mean even the main menu is retarded :lol:

btw that bottom line from examiner is laughable, like its written by a 15 yo who never played an rpg before :lol:

Ovenall said:

Soon enough you will see that the most useful, powerful pawns are the ones that look like tiny school girls. Worst aspect of this game IMO… I tried making a hulking brute pawn with green skin… barely ever was used.

edit: by this I mean people generally choose schoolgirl looking pawns… it's a sad, pathetic indictment of the video game world.

Click to expand...

Hey what's the problem?
Go cosplay, outfit yourself into that look and we'll pick you instead. No need for jealousy here.

Cronis said:

Is this another one of those Console to PC games like Dark Souls where you need a game controller to play it successfully?

Click to expand...

kb+mouse implementation is actually very well done, and the game comes with the expansion included and higher resolution and framerates rates than it had on console, all for half the price. They even had the diligence to fully replace the onscreen/menu instructions to press A B X Y etc console pad buttons to execute this or that ability, which happens in way too many console ports (and to me it's annoying as hell). The game is completely ported to PC and works great.

The game is like Dark Souls meets Monster Hunter so if you like that kind of games I don't think you'll regret getting Dragon's Dogma for PC.

Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen is an incredible game. The amount of content is incredible. The ability to control and mix up your character at any time is incredible. The variety in not only location but weapons, armor, and items are incredible. The ability to jump and grab a giant enemy, scaling it to stab it in the face while it thrashes about is incredible. You get it, now if you’re a fan of Fantasy RPG, saving the kingdoms from dragons and demons, and extremely satisfying gameplay from nearly every aspect, buy Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen.

Click to expand...

Wait a minute when did Brumbek get a job writing on The examiner. :lol:

Couchpotato said:

Wait a minute when did Brumbek get a job writing on The examiner. :lol:

Click to expand...

Couchpotato! You stole my line!! I was about to quote that part and ask why they used my review!! Haha, great Brumbek's and tubers think alike!

WAIT. STOP. Is it possible? Hold up, everybody. I have this INSANE thought right now...please, someone hold me! I'm THINKING, what if, WHAT IF Dragon's Dogma is actually just that good?! Like there could be other human beings who also realize how brilliant the game is?!

What if Brumbek, bless his heart, was right all along!?!? What if the world is just now, finally, starting to give Dogma the respect it deserves?! The masses are waking up from their sleepy Dark Souls and way wacky Witcher 3 combat...and realizing, finally seeing that Dragon's Dogma Dark Arisen is the BEST. THING. EVER!

THIS IS IT PEOPLE!! THIS IS THE TIME OF THE ARISEN!! I AM FREAKING OUT!!!!

Brumbek,

Before you freak out, let's talk seriously, let's talk money: what is your expected revenue from profit share ?

Cronis said:

Is this another one of those Console to PC games like Dark Souls where you need a game controller to play it successfully?

Click to expand...

Not at all : I'm around 15 hours on the PC version and can confirm that you can totaly play with mouse and keyboard (hopefully because I only play with those) BUT there is one thing or two that are not totaly intuitive : For exemple, usually, in RPG on PC, you press M to get the map and K (or J ?) to check the quests. Here, you have to press ESC and then select map or quest. I guess it's probably the way it's done on console because they wouldn't have enough butons for shortcuts.

But the portage console to PC is really well done : No bugs (I haven't had a single one, and no crash neither so far), good graphics (not as good as The Witcher 3 but good enough) and the game reacts well and is fun to play.

One thing missing in my opinion is the possibility to identify and sort the quests by category (primary / secondary / optional in which you just have to kill X monster of a kind) and by level. Here you never know if the quest is for your level or for a much higher one, so you may have bad surprises. And usually I like to do all the secondary quests before the main ones, but here you don't know which are which so I guess I may, at some stage, do a primary quest which will void some secondary before I'll have the time to finish them.

henriquejr said:

Brumbek,

Before you freak out, let's talk seriously, let's talk money: what is your expected revenue from profit share ?

Click to expand...

I do it for the love of epic games!

I just found the most heart-warming and informative video I've seen about Dragon's Dogma. This guy gets it. Please, please, everyone watch this 9 minute video about the love and passion of Dogma!

Brumbek said:

I do it for the love of epic games!

I just found the most heart-warming and informative video I've seen about Dragon's Dogma. This guy gets it. Please, please, everyone watch this 9 minute video about the love and passion of Dogma!

Click to expand...

If I buy the game directly from you do I get a Watcher discount or something?

I dont know. It is this or Goat simulator on steam. Choices choices!

GroNolife said:

Not at all : I'm around 15 hours on the PC version and can confirm that you can totaly play with mouse and keyboard (hopefully because I only play with those) BUT there is one thing or two that are not totaly intuitive : For exemple, usually, in RPG on PC, you press M to get the map and K (or J ?) to check the quests. Here, you have to press ESC and then select map or quest. I guess it's probably the way it's done on console because they wouldn't have enough butons for shortcuts.

Click to expand...

That's a console thing. Sometimes you get a shortcut on PC for it to go faster, but many ports don't bother and you have to use the menu.

Emerwyn said:

kb+mouse implementation is actually very well done, and the game comes with the expansion included and higher resolution and framerates rates than it had on console, all for half the price. They even had the diligence to fully replace the onscreen/menu instructions to press A B X Y etc console pad buttons to execute this or that ability, which happens in way too many console ports (and to me it's annoying as hell). The game is completely ported to PC and works great.

The game is like Dark Souls meets Monster Hunter so if you like that kind of games I don't think you'll regret getting Dragon's Dogma for PC.

Click to expand...

Definitely my AAA RPG to play in 2016!

I will get to this some this weekend, anyone know if it has 21:9 aspect ratio support?

sakichop said:

anyone know if it has 21:9 aspect ratio support?

Click to expand...

From the FAQ:
Q) Does the game still have letterboxing? [*UPDATED* Jan.8]
A) PC version now features full screen rendering without letterboxing on standard 16:9 aspect ratio widescreen monitors. 21:9 ultra widescreen monitors are not supported natively due to fixed UI elements.