PAX Preview: Dragon’s Dogma Hands-On
Capcom is looking to burst into the action-RPG scene with their newest IP, Dragon’s Dogma. The company’s answer to franchises like The Witcher and The Elder Scrolls, Dragon’s Dogma seeks to stake a claim in the genre with this gritty, visceral interpretation.
Handing out wearable cardboard shields to attendees, Capcom has been looking to make the presence of Dragon’s Dogma known at PAX East this weekend. I got my hands on the demonstration version of the game while attending the show, but unfortunately, this build simply raised more questions about the title than anything else.
The demo for Dragon’s Dogma starts out dark… very dark. So dark, in fact, that you’ll be prompted to light a lantern. With your surroundings lit at last, you’ll make your way forward through a linear series of caverns, doing battle with monsters such as goblins and harpies.
Right off the bat, you’ll find that the aesthetic for Dragon’s Dogma is quite familiar; you wouldn’t be faulted for being reminded of BioWare’s Dragon Age. The game really seems to lack any sort of visual identity. If you didn’t know what you were looking at, you could easily confuse Dragon’s Dogma for one of many other dark fantasy games.
Basic combat is performed through a series of light and heavy attacks. There didn’t appear to be any sort of depth with regards to chaining together light attacks into heavy ones as you’d find in some action games – light attacks simply let you unleash a flurry of blows, while heavy attacks let loose a single, powerful blow. Holding down either shoulder button gives you access to a set of special attacks with different properties. These abilities seem to be tied to your equipped items, meaning you could utilize a series of sword maneuvers with one button and perform shield-based skills with the other.
One element of combat that does help differentiate Dragon’s Dogma is the grab mechanic. Performed through the right trigger, grabbing a basic enemy will let you grapple with it or perform a unique move based on the scenario, such as ripping annoying harpies out of the sky. This especially comes into play against larger enemies like hulking bosses, which can be climbed and mounted in order to reach more vital spots. It definitely beats simply slashing away at the ankles of giant creatures.
Partway through the demo, you encounter the game’s woefully under-explained “pawns” system. Pawns are AI controlled NPCs which follow you around and assist you in combat. You can give incredibly basic orders to them with the d-pad, but other than that, there didn’t seem to be much tactical application of them. Occasionally, one of them will land a strong blow or other impressive feat, which causes the camera to cut away to a slow-motion look at their accomplishment. However, these moments don’t carry the dramatic weight they perhaps should – you have no direct control over how they act, so it’s hard to get invested in their personal successes. Pawns also seem to be devoid of any sort of character or personality, simply doling out canned, generic lines in and out of combat. It feels as if there must be more to this system, but from what was shown on the floor, pawns seem like little more than generic henchmen.
The demo concluded with a battle against a fierce chimera, which was at least a clever boss. As you might expect, the chimera comes equipped with three heads, each capable of its own attacks. By aiming attacks and strikes precisely, you can actually kill specific parts of the chimera, letting you prioritize which of the nasty threats you wish to neutralize first. This is accomplished by proper placement of blows and using the grab mechanic to climb along its back and reach the parts higher up.
All in all, it’s really difficult to judge what Dragon’s Dogma really is based on what Capcom decided to show off. The game is supposed to be an open-world RPG with strong emphasis on character customization, but this demo shows precisely none of that. Instead, the game presents itself as a rather bland dungeon crawler with mediocre combat mechanics and an all-too-familiar visual style. Here’s hoping that the actual game has far more to offer.
Yea, capcom has been having difficulty presenting what the game is about, from watching all the stream videos of actual open world gameplay, the game looks really really great, but the demo provided only the prologue where you fight a mini boss. Which is a shame, I hope people will check out the videos for the game than judging from the staged demo, because, they’re not the same.
The pawns are explained in the pawn videos which can be found on YouTube. They are beings from another dimension which are practically your slaves. You have a main pawn who ties into the main story and who can be customized like your main character.
The quest you played was simply that; a story quest. Here’s the open world at play:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=pOgchg-az9k#t=2007s
When the scene cuts to your pawns, it’s not to show their accomplishments but rather for you to help them. If a pawn grabs an enemy, the camera will show them doing so and you can quickly rush over to the pawn while he/she is holding the enemy. Using the d-pad, you can issue orders to your pawns and you can also change the tactics for your main pawn by sitting them down in a chair and talking to them. You can also buy new abilities for your main pawn and choose their class and change their equipment:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2llddhnv2M (Pawn sharing)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHOd3MJ9F3w (Strategies)
As you can see in the above videos, the player and pawns are working together employing unique abilities to win the battle. One pawn knocks the chimera over with magic while the warrior uses his special ability to further damage it.
You shouldn’t really judge the entire game based on one demo level. There’s several two hour streams on YouTube and that’s excluding the countless other 30 minute walkthrough videos showing the open world.
The pawns are explained in the pawn videos which can be found on YouTube. They are beings from another dimension which are practically your slaves. You have a main pawn who ties into the main story and who can be customized like your main character.
The quest you played was simply that; a story quest.
When the scene cuts to your pawns, it’s not to show their accomplishments but rather for you to help them. If a pawn grabs an enemy, the camera will show them doing so and you can quickly rush over to the pawn while he/she is holding the enemy. Using the d-pad, you can issue orders to your pawns and you can also change the tactics for your main pawn by sitting them down in a chair and talking to them. You can also buy new abilities for your main pawn and choose their class and change their equipment.
As you can see in the pawn videos, the player and pawns are working together employing unique abilities to win the battle. One pawn knocks the chimera over with magic while the warrior uses his special ability to further damage it.
You shouldn’t really judge the entire game based on one demo level. There’s several two hour streams on YouTube and that’s excluding the countless other 30 minute walkthrough videos showing the open world. Then there’s the progression trailers which you evidently missed.
You are a douche because if you search ANY kind of youtube videos on Dragon’s Dogma, you’ll see very few of them take place in dungeons. Guy Le Douche
You appear to have missed the point, and that is, if Capcom is marketing this as an open world RPG, why not allow players to experience that at the convention? If someone walks up and plays it, not know anything about the game, their impression will be of what they played – a linear dungeon.
Bethesda did it right when they demoed Skyrim at PAX Prime last year. You were given a few missions you could go for if you wanted, but you were otherwise dropped off into the world and given free reign for 20 minutes. So before you go calling Chris a douche, you might take the time to realize this impression is based only on what he was able to actually play, since it’s all that was offered.
Zach, yes that part is true..but for someone who has an online blog or opinionated page such as this..it should be that author’s duty to do a little bit of research, where in this case would have required a 5 second you tube search. I stand by my comments.
I’m curious if you could elaborate on some of your “under-explained” comments in what could vaguely be called a preview.
If you had done any due diligence on the game, you would realize that night time and caves are meant to be dark, that “The night is dark, and full of terrors” is actually an intended gameplay mechanic. Of course you can rely on the journalistic excuse of, “But this is what I was given in a demo”, except that is like playing a demo of Dark Souls and complaining that it is hard without researching Demon Souls and what From Software intended with the game. (which some bloggers.. I mean game journalists did.)
You mention the familiar aesthetic for Dragon’s Dogma. How can anyone think this game running on Capcom’s MT Framework looks like Dragon’s Age? I’ll give you a hint as to what it does vaguely look like, I’ve referenced that series already. Honestly, how can you believe a Japanese style fantasy game looks like a western rpg, and not only not a D&D themed RPG, but a setting created by Bioware that lacks certain things.. you know, like Chimeras, Goblins, Hyrdas, Cyclops, those type of fantasy creatures that are in Dragon’s Dogma yet absent from the game it looks so similar too in your eyes. Do all games in certain genres look the same to you?
I also am curious why you spent an entire paragraph lambasting how a “demo” doesn’t fully explain the complex Pawn System, but provide that nice journalistic caveat of, “It feels as if there must be more to this system, but from what was shown on the floor, pawns seem like little more than generic henchmen.” So in essence, Capcom shouldn’t have gone to the trouble of bringing a “new demo” (As in different from the E3 and TGS demos that do elaborate more on the story and pawn system) to show to the public because in your eyes, you want everything explained to you in a demo?
Man, good thing you aren’t doing this kind of critique on every demo ever released. (You mention in your Theatrhythm preview that FF6 is your favorite, but since there wasn’t a demo, lets use FF7 as an example.) By your logic, Square should be lambasted for not explaining the Materia system fully in the demo, I mean what were they thinking? Oh yeah, and did you get to wander around that big huge world in the demo? Yeah, you were stuck in Midgard! Hey, this is 2012, and by now game companies should be able to provide multiple demos with varied content fully explaining all systems right? Sheesh, I remember when some of use were just happy to get a taste of game, not have our cake and eat it too.
So why in your Heroes of Ruin preview do you call hitting the same attack over and over: “Rhythmically tapping the B button will launch a string of combo attacks” but having a light attack in this game equates to: “There didn’t appear to be any sort of depth with regards to chaining together light attacks into heavy ones as you’d find in some action games – light attacks simply let you unleash a flurry of blows”
Is Heroes of Ruin’s combat that complex to you? Or do you just like Square better than Capcom?
The sad thing is, I found this thanks to it being linked on NeoGaf, which just shows anyone these days can write a gaming blog without any real appreciation for games or be tasked with researching a genre or title before spewing the first thing that comes to mind after playing a demo. This kind of hyper critical asinine dribble is why we can’t have nice games anymore that branch out or try new things… because putz like you start the negative press before it gets released because you can’t “try” to be a game journalist.
Please learn to “try.” I don’t want to have to play Final Fantasy 22: Square lets me push a button once an hour between cinematics! or Call of Duty 50: Now we do 3 sequels a year!
Sure, I’d love to clarify a few things about my experience with the game.
I went into the demo with more or less a clean slate with regards to the game. It had not been a title I had been following very closely, but I was very curious. Unfortunately, the demo that they chose to show off for the game didn’t really demonstrate what will likely be the game’s strengths – things like character customization and open world depth were entirely absent in what was available to play.
This was compounded by the fact that no one from Capcom was present to guide me through the game. Every other game I got a taste of at PAX had a developer or knowledgeable attendant on-hand to explain the nuances of a particular title and provide some context as far as how the demo fits into the larger scale of the game. For a title like Dragon’s Dogma this would have been ideal, but unfortunately Capcom elected to let the game stand on its own on the show floor.
Please understand that this is simply a hands-on preview based on my impressions of the game from what Capcom had on display. This isn’t intended to be an in-depth review of the game. Unfortunately, what was provided did not leave a strong impression of what this game was supposed to be.
Don’t get me wrong – I want to see originality in the gaming world just as much as you do, and I’m really hoping that Dragon’s Dogma ends up delivering when it ultimately is released. But that’s the problem: the demonstration at PAX was sorely lacking in creativity.
I’m not sure if this has been said or not, but the Pawn system has been explained as of about a month and a half or more ago. The essence is this: You create a main pawn just like your main character, and that pawn follows you at all times, leveling with you. You then get two support pawns, which you choose online (though there are a number of premades if you don’t want to use the internet for it), which are made by other players. They’re other players’ main pawns. These pawns don’t level and aren’t customizable, but you can swap them out for new support pawns at a rift stone.
Pawns learn about the world and enemies they fight as they experience things in the game. Your main pawn will bring back knowledge as it’s gained with other players, and you’ll also get that knowledge from support pawns you bring in. Likewise, anything they don’t already know that they learn while with you will go back to their original player. Pawns will share this info verbally at the appropriate times; for example, telling you how best to take on the golem you’re fighting. What its weak points are, how to get to them, that sort of thing.
You can also give pawns gifts if it strikes your fancy – say, if they were helpful to you – when you send them back. Any gifts your main pawn was given by other players will come back to you every time you rest at an inn. (Your main pawn is with you at all times, even while hired out to other players, so this is is the only way to receive such gifts.)
In summary: Pawns are player-created AI support characters who fill out your party, and they learn useful things about enemies, the world and various quests as they experience these things with whatever player they’re fighting with. The knowledge is then shared with any other players who use them. So in addition to being fighting members of your party, they serve roles as guides and tacticians as they learn through experience. OXM posted this video on Youtube that’s useful for learning about the pawn system.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEsVmmXQqWA
I should clarify that by “create a main pawn just like your main character”, I meant the customization process is identical, not necessarily the pawn and the main character. You create the main pawn using the same creation process as you do with the main character.
I agree with Zach,if you’re going to let people play a demo of a game, you need to let people experience the best features of the game.In Dragon’s Dogma’s case, that aspect is the open-world nature of the game.If you don’t experience some taste of that in the demo, the demo ends up coming up short.