“If you sought to live you had naught but run and hide yourself away.” In a small peaceful village of Cassardis where people live in happiness by the sea. Playful children runs around the village,  the sound of waves, seagulls chirping, the cool breeze of the sea, and fishermen doing their work for the day. Dragon’s Dogma is what you’ll expect out of an action RPG(role playing game). With its fearsome monsters, combat, and the open world. 

    Set on an island called Gransys and it’s in crisis. The peace that was once there is gone, a fearsome dragon called Grigori has reawakened with monsters to destroy the world. That is when the world is in need for an Arisen to slay the foul beast Grigori to save mankind. You play as Arisen that was once living a normal life in a small fishing village of Cassardis, when Grigori attacked the village, you were the only one that stood up and fight without fear. Grigori gouged out your heart and made you an Arisen. Breathing without a heart as you make your journey to get what’s yours back and save the world.

  Dragon’s Dogma was published by Capcom and designed by Kinoshita Kento. First launched in 2012 on last generation consoles, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. Later was rereleased with Dark Arisen in 2013, this time coming to Microsoft Windows and featuring DLCs(downloadable content), many bug fixes and new weapons and armor. Came to the Playstation 4 and Xbox one in 2017 and Nintendo Switch in 2019. Capcom is one of the most popular game studios in the world. Having big hits such as Devil May Cry 5, Resident Evil 2 Remake, and Monster Hunter World. The engine that was used to make the game possible was MT Framework. This engine was used in many other Capcom games such as Resident Evil 5 and 6, Devil May Cry 4, and Monster Hunter.

   The combat is what a true RPG is supposed to feel like, with it’s devastating monsters and ways to defeat them. A feature Capcom has added that is completely different from other action RPGs was that the player was able to grab onto huge monsters they’re fighting. This holds as an advantage from other RPGs, instead of the player just being in the ground and swinging their sword everywhere, why not just grab on the monster and climb to it’s weak spot to make the fight more fun. Completing quests, killing monsters, bandits, and animals will grant the player experience to level up and leaving materials behind for the player to craft and upgrade weapons and equipment.

   Since it’s an RPG  the player’s character will be customizable full of various options to choose from, such as height, weight, face, hair, skin, and many more. The game has a total of 9 vocations to choose and any of them is enough to take down a dragon. The vocations are warrior, strider, mage, sorcerer, etc.There’s no multiplayer and since it’s based on a pawn system. Early in the game the player will get a pawn since all Arisens are meant to have one. Pawns are customizable just like the player and vocations as well. Friends from the player that own the game on the same system that had created a pawn can be of use for the player. Pawns will assist the player on their journey. A pawn with a mage vocation can heal the player if he/she is hurt and buff weapons with elements to make them stronger against foes.

  Downsides of the game was that in the first version there wasn’t a good way to get around the huge map, there isn’t even horses and going by foot always leave the player on low stamina. Fast travel is available but it requires ferrystones and they’re rare to come by and they cost a lot of gold. Luckily this was solved in Dark Arisen with an eternal ferrystone that has infinite uses and it’s for free. The pawns could get annoying sometimes, they would say the same thing over and over but this can be  turned off in settings. Sometimes pawns can be useful during a quest because they’ll tell the player where to go and clues. The way the side quest works is that it’s based on where the player is on the story and if the player misses to talk to the npc(nonplayer character) before the next progress of the story, the quest is long gone, this is a problem for new players.

  The music is based on what situation the player is in, like if the player is just walking on the road, the peaceful soundtrack marks the environment and the vibe it’s in. During combat the music will be intense making the fight more fun and enjoyable to the mood. The menu screen music for Dark Arisen is a beautiful song called Eternal Return sanged by Aubrey Ashburn. This song really defines what a game of Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen is, with the crisis that’s going on in the world and a hero that’s going to make things right.

  Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen is an underrated RPG that the critics failed to receive. This isn’t a game for everyone but for those that really loves RPGs this is the one. The game has its ups and downs with in the first launch but the fans still love it. Everything this game has to offer is a true action RPG experience.