Dragon's Dogma

Anyone hear about this upcoming game?:

http://www.destructoid.com/an-in-dep…a-214881.phtml

It's a Japanese take on a western style RPG, apparently. Looks pretty good, though apparently more of an action based RPG. Anyone have any thoughts on this one?

All that I can say is that I'm following it since about a year, and maybe it'll be on my buying list Capcom wants to try some Monster Hunter formula combined with western medieval setting. I'm very curious about it… And yes, it's mostly an action RPG oriented toward online co-op because of the customizable follower you bring along with the main character. I really hope it'll be good .

It's not a rpg. Capcom stressed this in there E3 showing from June. Still looks good I just hope the co-op isn't forced on you like all recent co-op action rpgs.

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/…%80%99s-dogma/

Dragon’s Dogma is not an RPG. The development team has previously masterminded the Devil May Cry games, Resident Evil 4, Killer 7, and many more. This team likes action, and that fact shines in Dragon’s Dogma — a game with fast, stylized combat in an open world filled with massive beasts. This is Capcom’s first open-world game and is powered by the powerful in-house engine MTFramework, responsible for other PS3 games including Resident Evil 5 and Lost Planet 2. That allows us to have an open world without sacrificing the graphical quality you expect from Capcom games.

I agree it's not much of an RPG from what I've seen. I was on the fence as to which forum to post this in. Still, another preview I watched they mentioned a few times that it has RPG elements.

It's a single player game. There is no co-op play at all. Apparently you choose a main character from a few archetypes, then a "pawn" (sort of a constant sidekick or henchman that stays with you throughout the whole game) that complements him/her. The online aspect will allow you to use custom pawns that other players have made… not sure how necessary this will be.

After that you can recruit other NPC pawns with varying levels and abilities in many different ways. Some will need you to do a quest, others will need to be paid, some might just join you if you ask nicely.

I'm not an expert on any of this, but that's what I learned from a few articles I read. You can google them, but here's a recent one from Eurogamer that's outright calling it an RPG, and sounds pretty positive:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20…-dogma-preview

I'm intrigued. Though I was ultimately put off by the ridiculously hardcore nature of Dark Souls, its Japanese take on a western RPG was extremely refreshing. Hope this has something to offer different than another Dragon Age cinema game or the last fourteen remakes of Gothic. (not that there's anything wrong with those…)

Indeed it's a single player game, but there'll be an online feature: I've read in some site that you can customize your pawn and also you can swap it with other players.
Here's the explanation: http://www.vg247.com/2011/09/01/capc…a-pawn-system/
The online feature is (fortunately) completely optional, but indeed there could be some fun with it…
The main concern for me is about the 'RPG' component: I know that is mostly a 3D action game, but I'd like to know more if the main character could earn experience, level up, etc.
Not to mention that I'm just curious about NPCs, plot and secondary quests…

All this speculation is why I (generally) don't follow games this early out. A pure guees at this point, but I think they're emphasizing the ""action" parts as part of a marketing campaign. Every bit of info you hear about these things up until it's available in stores is marketing crap.

That said, I'd also like to hear more about the quests, NPCs, dialog, etc. Fingers crossed, I guess.

Yes I'm looking forward to the game as well with my fingers crossed also. They even stated a pc version might come out if enough people want it. Capcom is one of the Japanese publishers getting involved on the pc.

Capcom did this "Neopets Puzzle Adventure" game, which was programmed by the makers of Putzzle Quest - it's imho only (and imho also strongest) drawback is that this game exclusively uses ONE kind of puzzle game …

This game is definately an rpg….I'm not sure why they would tell y ou it's not. I have been playing this the last few days and it feels a lot like skyrim. It handles followers a bit different though in that you summon them and they follow you. It has a huge world and the monsters are pretty wild.

I love that you can grab onto the big ones and climb up them as you fight, which is required to kill some of the bigger monsters like cyclops, and when I say bigger I mean REALLy bigger. If you have a 360 you should check this out.

Originally Posted by rune_74
If you have a 360 you should check this out.

Or a PS3. While my opinion of DD is a little less enthusiastic, I'd still say it's an entertaining game from what little I've played. The combat is pure hack&slash though, and it's definitely an action-RPG imo.

The question from me: is it endless mobrespawn grinder?

If not, I'll give it a try.

Originally Posted by JDR13
it's definitely an action-RPG imo.

Just curious, but what RPGs that have come out in the last 25 years that weren't action RPGs? Pretty much every RPG I've ever played has had plenty of action. Isn't the term "action-RPG" a bit redundant anyway? Just wondering.

Anyway, this is another game I haven't gotten around to playing yet. I will though. Might be my next purchase. From what I've seen of it it looks pretty cool.

Sorry didn't realize it was a ps3 release as well. Definately a action rpg, but thats ok for this. It doesn't respawn anymore then say skyrim did I don't think. I enjoy the huge monster fights, if a bit frustrating.

Originally Posted by Fluent
Just curious, but what RPGs that have come out in the last 25 years that weren't action RPGs? Pretty much every RPG I've ever played has had plenty of action. Isn't the term "action-RPG" a bit redundant anyway? Just wondering.

The term action-RPG is generally used to describe games where - 1.) The amount of time spent in combat makes up the a large majority of playing time, and - 2.) combat is determined directly by the player's reflexes rather than stats or any type of dice roll. Although I think most RPG fans would agree that the second example is the primary one.

That's why, for example, most people don't consider games like Planescape: Torment or Arcanum action-RPGs, but games like KoA or Divinity 2 would be.

Originally Posted by JDR13
The term action-RPG is generally used to describe games where - 1.) The amount of time spent in combat makes up the a large majority of playing time, and - 2.) combat is determined directly by the player's reflexes rather than stats or any type of dice roll. Although I think most RPG fans would agree that the second example is the primary one.

That's why, for example, most people don't consider games like Planescape: Torment or Arcanum action-RPGs, but games like KoA or Divinity 2 would be.

Gotcha.

It seems that most games on consoles are action-RPGs. Can't really think of an RPG I've played that hasn't been centered around being in combat.

Originally Posted by Fluent
Gotcha.

It seems that most games on consoles are action-RPGs. Can't really think of an RPG I've played that hasn't been centered around being in combat.

I thought the difference was mostly about two things: quantity of stats and number of times you hit the mouse. Diablo was probably the creator of the sub-genre because it didn't really properly fit into either RPG or action games and was too popular to be ignored. It had stats and story and quests and phat lewt, so it didn't really fit into the action game bucket of that time, but it was also a button masher with only 3 stats, so it didn't really fit into the RPG bucket (dominated by turn-based, or real-time-with-pause, tactical battles) of that time, either. Had Diablo been a disappointment on sales, it would have been criticized for being a tweener, but since it did so well and spawned countless copycats, the talking heads were forced to create a new bucket.

In my personal opinion I even extend "Action-RPGs" insofar that they are loot-centered, too.

Plus, that their social NPC interaction is usually reduced to the bare minimum.

Besides, the term "Action-RPG" is a viable term used to describe this kind of games in German gaming media. I had expected that this term was used and accepted as such outside of Germany, but it seems now to me that this was an misunderstanding.

Edit : Besides : Here is a small discussion on the game, too : http://www.larian.com/forums/ubbthre…787#Post452787

Well, most of the "action-RPGs" I've played have plenty of NPC interaction as well.

Kingdoms of Amalur has over 500,000 lines of spoken dialog. You can interact with NPCs all day if you want to. Yet it has a lot of action combat to go along with that.

Hell, even Diablo had plenty of story. Diablo 1 and 2 were certainly hardcore RPGs in my book. But I can at least understand why one would label them "action-RPGs".

I tend to think that KOAR is rather a micxture between "Action-RPGs" and more traditional ones. I believe that it perhaps would have even spawned its own sub-genre. But I'm not sure, and I'll never be able to prove it, because it failed so much (in terms of sales).

It actually sold pretty good, just not enough for what they wanted. I think it was in the 1.5 mil or so.