Oh. My. GOD. This game is utterly amazing in nearly every single aspect. Word's can't describe how awesome this game is how unique it is, and how... Weird it is? Why do the party members never shut up? Why did this turn into a fairy tale? Why am I able to make my character look like either myself or someone like Scarface or my little brother or anyone else I want to put through this? Let's take a look at the recent PS3 game called Dragon's Dogma, Capcom's latest breakthrough in games that doesn't have anything to do with Megaman. XD

The first impression I got was that it was gonna be a good RPG, the beginning of it cemented the fact, if it didn't look like the end of the game right off the bat, but it wasn't. But when I got through the tutorial and arrived at the character creation screen? Holy crap, there were so many features I could put on my character! The creation process took quite a time before I decided to have him look like me. Like Dragon Quest IX for the Nintendo DS, you can make your own hero, along with creating one and recruiting 2 others, called pawns, to join you, making your personal pawn also look like darn near anyone you want. I made mine look like my little brother, and made him a mage. The pawns, when you're online, can be traded between users, and kinda remind me of "Pokemon".

The graphics are amazing and very appealing to the eye. The scenery is amazing and has many secrets to find, the characters look sleek with their armor on and their animation is fluent, and using your character's skills look appealing and epic as well when you use them.

The sound? Man, the soundtrack is awe-inspiring to listen to, and the sound effects sound like they indeed have some kick to them. But... The pawns when they shout hints and strategies? Ugh, they are what kill the experience somewhat. They never shut up, and there's no option to turn down their volume. I don't really have a lot of good things to say about that, they're annoying at times when they just shout randomly at nothing sometimes.

My God, is this game addicting to play and fun. The level up system, while it takes a while post-game, it goes way beyond 100, I've seen videos where the level goes to around 300 or more, even though there's little change in between levels. The quests are fun to do, but tough cause some enemies are tough to make show up. Also, some quests where you have to get a certain amount of items can weigh you down and slow you up unless you transfer said items to a pawn that can carry them. So, to sum up: Giant level-up system and limit, plenty of quests to do, plus DLCs that continue the story? Yeah, it'll keep you glued and determined for a while.

The story is that a dragon attacks your village and takes your heart, making you an Arisen, able to control pawns and grow in power through battling experience. It sounds like a pretty unique situation, but as the story progresses and depending on which girl you built the best relationship with... It just also turns into a "Save your beloved and the kingdom from the dragon" story. Like a fairy tale with its happy ending, but plenty of times more epic.

The depth, past the main story, gets a heck of a lot more deep in the DLCs, with the Dark Arisen and a lot more. That's where pretty much all of the depth is, some of the other characters are just glanced over. The DLCs help the depth of the Arisen legend and the pawns, but little else.

The game is difficult unless you get good equipment and you grind like heck. Mostly to get the passive skills and the weapon/class specific skills needed. You get discipline points along with experience that'll help you buy the skills and equipment you need to beat the enemies and mini-bosses in your way, carrying over when you switch between nine classes, also unlocked with discipline points, with the combo classes needing more. The mini-bosses can get as common as the regular enemies at times, and they respawn, so it's good for grinding on in later levels. But it doesn't help that without rare "Waycrystals" and "Waystones", you'll spend forever and waste your energy trying to get back to the main town every time. The enemies also can get very strong, and Wakestones are necessary to stay alive, needing 3 pieces to forge a whole, usable one. They're basically your extra lives, because if you lose all of your health, you can choose between either respawning at the last checkpoint, at the last save or returning to the title screen. So unless you've got plenty of Wakestones and healing items, you'll backtrack and and lengthen the game more than you should unless you get better armor, equipment, skills, and train to higher levels, thereby adding even more to the difficulty depending on the player. For me, I suffered that problem for a while, but got over it once I trained.

To sum up, it's a unique kind of game that's addicting and has many interesting points to it, like the pawn system, large "Skyrim" like world, plenty of quests, even though it's the three standard "Collect" or "Kill" or "Escort" quests. The controls are also easy to get used to after a point, and it doesn't stop being fun after the end of the game and to the DLCs. I highly recommend you give this game a chance and that you give it a play, cause you'll be surprised that, once you get past the flaws of the constant talking pawns and difficulty, you've got a unique, shining gem of a game in your collection that you won't stop playing for a long, long time.

Lol, GREAT REVIEW!!!! Lots of detail and you explained your scores clearly. good job. 

jaws123 : Thanks ^^ Being a DD player, I had a lot to say about this game. Again, give it a buy and play it if you haven't already, you'll see what I mean. It'll be worth it. plus the DLCs if you decide to get them.

Incredible review quality here! I read so many reviews everyday that I start to have trouble finishing them sometimes (always force myself to though), but this review...this one not only kept from feeling repetitive, it also felt fresh throughout the entire review! I really enjoyed reading this from start to finish. Thank you for making such a great review. I hope we see more from you in the future!

Eirinn : Happy to help out! ^^ Trust me, this is far superior than my other reviews here in the past. When I find another game and have the time, I'll be happy to make another quality review like this again!