I stood in line at PAX East to play Dragon's Dogma the first day of the convention. My wife and I had wanted to play Borderlands 2 but the line stretched across the entire exhibition hall floor at that point, so we figured we'd try out some other games and hoped to sample Gearbox's latest the next day (hah! Another story entirely). We ended up in Capcom's area of the show floor and I wanted to take a crack at Dragon's Dogma. When I finally got a chance to step up to one of the demo units, the only free one was running on a PS3. I couldn't get a good feel for the game as I'm primarily a PC and Xbox 360 player and I was struggling with remapping the controller's buttons in my brain.


This is what's supposed to happen when you hit "X". Not pictured: me in a similar situation impotently flailing my sword because my muscle memory tells me "X" is where the circle button is on a Dualshock 3.

After fumbling my way through some basic combat and getting obliterated by some low-level grunts in front of a crowd of onlookers, I walked away from the display frustrated and a little disappointed. The game seemed to have potential, but I couldn't really judge it as I didn't ever really have a handle on how it played. I couldn't fault the game for my lack of PS3 savvy, but that didn't change the fact that my playtime didn't leave me with any reason to be excited for its release.

Now that there's a demo out which I can play on my 360, I can happily say that the game hit all the right pleasure centers in my brain. The combat is surprisingly deep for what seems at first glance to be a simple button-mashing affair. The inclusion of special attacks for both your primary and secondary weapons (even shields) creates a robust moveset for you to utilize. I can see the grappling/climbing mechanics for the boss fights being a real highlight come review time, and I fully expect it to be aped in by future RPGs.


Yes, I know Shadow of the Colossus did it first. Stop giving me the sad eyes.

Being able to customize your primary pawn (the companion who will be with you throughout the entire game) is another big plus in my eyes. That level of creative control over NPCs is something I haven't seen in other RPGs for years, and I can see it really adding a level of attachment to the character that wouldn't be there if you were assigned the same generic companion as everyone else playing the game. I'm really interested to see how the rift-summoned pawn system plays out, where you'll be able to hire out pawns to other players online who'll come back with gold, loot, experience, and even information on quests and areas you haven't discovered yet.

I was worried that a Western-themed, Japanese-developed RPG would result in a really generic art style, but I love the way the game looks. It's a very dark and gritty world (marketing buzz-word alert) but it has a slight anime flavor in the faces of the characters. If you want to create a short, lithe, huge breasted female avatar with silver-dollar sized eyes to complement your otaku fetish, more power to you (you're still creepy).

The dark, realistic look of the game coupled with the anime influence was only more exaggerated when I was cycling through the pre-made character appearances and made the discovery that someone on the development team is a Berserk fan, the most badass anime/manga series of all time. One of the pre-made male characters is a dead ringer for that series' protagonist, Guts; the skin tone, hair, physique, and even the scar across the nose and missing eye are a perfect match. There's no option to give your character a mechanical arm with a cannon built inside, so I guess they're not completely identical, but I can understand that from a balancing perspective.


Inspiring murder-boners since 1990.

There were a couple things I didn't care for: when an ally performs an action to assist you such as grabbing an enemy and leaving them vulnerable to a killing blow, the game slows down and zooms the camera in to their location. I understand the developers want to call your attention to where and when this is happening, but it doesn't stop the action around you when it does so. On several occasions I found half my health bar gone as a goblin had been smashing me in the nuts while the game was trying to helpfully point out what my pawns were doing. Thanks a lot.

All in all, though, I had fun with the demo and have played through it a couple times at this point, mixing things up and trying new approaches to the combat. What's really sold me on the game is that Berserk reference, though. Any fan of the greatest anime/manga story of all time that's willing to slip a nod to fellow enthusiasts into their game has already earned my $60.


"Go pre-order this game now or I'll cut my own arm off with the dull end of a broken blade. Because fuck you, that's why."