Dragon's Dogma

What up, Arisen?

I don’t get huge video game playing time, but it does happen. Usually single player and instantly pausable. In fact, anything with a limited number of saves is totally unviable. My day is constantly interrupted, and I can’t really walk and chew gum at the same time—I prefer to give the thing I’m doing my full focus. Anyway, my latest thing is an older game called Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen.

Released in 2012, Dragon’s Dogma is a third-person action RPG with a smooth combat system and some sort of weird story stringing the characters along. It received decent reviews and then an expansion (Dark Arisen) that over-wrote the original game and made it Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen. Setting is a magical, medieval fantasy world (similar to, but tonally different than Scianas). It’s immediately familiar, and surprisingly challenging at times.

Let’s talk about my character build. Swordsman. Bull. I’m a simple guy who puts all his mental energy into breathing and other life sustaining functions. I don’t have time to learn the up down right right twirl, three prebuffs, strike strike GOD MODE complexities of the combat system.

I button mash.

I swing that sword until something runs out – enemies or one of the heath bars. I upgrade passive traits first, and I wear the heaviest armor currency can buy. You could call me a tank, but tanks have a crowd control function (thanks World of Warcraft for teaching us all about tanking) that is still too much for me. Slash. Slash. Slash. Maybe hack. It’s who I am and, since it’s single player, offline play, I have no shame.

After the main, you get 3 followers called Pawns. I keep seeing it as “PRAWNS.” It’s funny and even a little consistent with the lore. Pawns are subhuman servants that do your bidding. A semi-intelligent AI lets them support you in combat and they pick up all the loot/trash you walk past. Kinda nice. And there’s no attachment! You replace the pawns as you level up the same way you swap out swords and gear. One pawn levels with you, your main pawn. There’s a little more vested in her (mine’s a her with obvious uhh aesthetics …) but it’s still pretty thin. “Aught we can find here, master.” Like, it sounds good the first time you hear it, but eventually it loses its luster.

It’s a 12-year-old game that still has some novelty in gameplay and I grabbed it for $5 on steam. Great scenery and variety of quests. What’s better is the second one is coming out later in March. That will be a $70 game and no guarantees it’ll top the first. I’ll still check it out, though.

Disclaimer: This isn’t an endorsement. I’m just sharing something that brought me a few hours of enjoyment while my daughter had a slumber party and destroyed the house.