The cult fantasy RPG that found its own weird path to adventure
Like its cyclical fantasy world, Dragon’s Dogma has lived many lives. First released for PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2012, it was then re-released on those same consoles, updated and expanded, as Dark Arisen in 2013. In 2016 it returned with a PC port, then again for PS4 and Xbox One in 2017, and, most recently, it came to Switch in April of this year. That its cult success endures to this day is testament to its wonderful, singular strangeness.
On the surface, it appears a rote open-world action RPG, Japanese developer Capcom aping Western ideas and Tolkienesque fantasy. Dig deeper, however, and you discover something far more distinct and alluring. Capcom had its own vision for what a game like this could be: something built on turning left wherever its contemporaries turn right.
At its core, it’s about journeys – long, hard treks across its sprawling kingdom. It’s about learning the landscape around you, managing dwindling supplies and the moment of relief when, after days on the road, you finally spot civilisation on the horizon. It’s not afraid to inconvenience players in favour of giving its world and its quests a greater sense of scale. And it’s not afraid to be scary – not simply hostile or difficult, but dangerous. Thanks to a brilliantly unfriendly lighting system, nights are pitch-black. Even with a light source, navigation after sundown is terrifying, as you stumble through trees and scrub pursued by predators who only wake in the darkness. Its caves and dungeons aren’t simply handfuls of fights and stashes of treasure; they’re lairs. Exploring their cramped, lightless tunnels is an exercise in tension and release as you creep forward, pushing your luck ever further, before a great beast erupts from the shadows and smears you across the walls.
This story is from the August 2019 edition of Edge.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the August 2019 edition of Edge.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles
Anyone familiar with the concept of kitbashing is already halfway to understanding what Tomas Sala’s open-world builder is all about.
Children Of The Sun
René Rother’s acrid revenge thriller – an action game with its limbs broken and forcibly rearranged into the shape of a spatial puzzler – is at once a bonafide original and an unlikely throwback. Cast your eyes right and you wouldn’t blink if we told you this was a forgotten Grasshopper Manufacture game from the early PS3 era (we won’t be at all surprised if this finds a spot on Suda51’s end-of-year list).
Post Script
What does Rise Of The Ronin say for PS5 exclusivity?
Rise Of The Ronin
Falling in battle simply switches control to the next person up, and then quick revive fixes everything
Post Script
The pawn and the pandemic
Dragon's Dogma 2
The road from Vernworth to Bakbattahl is scenic but arduous. Ignore the dawdling mobs of goblins, and duck beneath the chanting harpies that circle on the currents overhead, and even moving at a hurried clip it is impossible for a party of four to complete the journey by nightfall.
BLUE MANCHU
How enforced early retirement eventually led Jonathan Chey back to System Shock
THE MAKING 0F.... AMERICAN ARCADIA
How a contrast of perspectives added extra layers to a side-scrolling platform game
COMING IN TO LAND
The creator of Spelunky, plus a super-group of indie developers, have spent the best part of a decade making 50 games. Has the journey been worth it?
VOID SOLS
This abstract indie Soulslike has some bright ideas
