On the Dragon’s Dogma Demo and Grabbing a Griffin’s Butt

The demo for Capcom’s latest RPG ‘Dragon’s Dogma’ released today as an exclusive to Xbox Live Gold members. I’ll make a long story short – it’s crazy dope.

(But really, you should probably read on, too.)

The demo gives players access to a couple quests as well as the ability to full customise their character. After originally picking a ‘base body’, players are able to completely tweak every aspect of their character, as well as one, main AI companion known as a Pawn. These characters will also be transferable to the full game come its release in late May.

My created character is a busty, fiery redhead referred to by the moniker of ‘Toots’. She’s like Christina Hendricks, with knives. Although your characters are given custom names, monikers – pre-made names within the game – are also given, just incase a player with parental controls turned on doesn’t want to have ‘Dave FuckFace’ accompanying them on their journey when they utilize ‘Dragon’s Dogma’s’ ‘rent-a-Pawn’ service. Your pawn – the second character you can customise – can be transferred to other players’ games to help them on their quests, providing them with additional help and your Pawn with helpful information on quests, locations of NPCs, and important intel on how to take down some of the game’s bosses upon their return. Of course, you can borrow other players’ Pawns too. This feature isn’t really used in the demo, but it’ll be a big part of the game on its release.

The demo contains two quests. The first, the prologue, has you in the role of a pre-made character who is joined by some pre-made Pawns. At first glance – the setting, the lighting, the atmosphere – it all looks a bit ‘Dark Souls’, and you’d be right to think that as both games certainly share some similar qualities. Whereas my main complaint with ‘Dark Souls’ was the sluggishness of the controls and lengthy animations, there’s none of that in ‘Dragon’s Dogma’. Everything feels fast and fluid – giving a goblin a quick shield bash then stabbing directly into his heart has a satisfying feeling to it, especially after receiving a fire buff from a mage Pawn, so the goblin then explodes into flames.

After slaying many goblins and harpies, the prologue then moves onto one of the main focuses of ‘Dragon’s Dogma’ – the boss fights. A chimera – complete with lion head, goat head and snake-headed tail – pounces onto a poor red shirt and the demo’s first boss fight begins. A key figure in ‘Dragon’s Dogma’ is its grab mechanic. Whereas most RPGs would have players hacking away at the shins are larger scaled opponents, ‘Dragon’s Dogma’ lets players jump onto and grab enemies, all while slashing away at them (a bit like ‘Shadow of the Colossus’). The first course of action to defeating the chimera is to grab onto its backside, climb up its tail and then cut its snake-head clean off. It’s a challenging, but very exciting and ultimately rewarding experience. All bosses have weakspots, so learning when and how to get to them is key – whether it be climbing up a towering beast, clinging on for dear life, or knocking it over with force so you can give it a slap on its bottom.

The last quest accessible to players in this demo is one in which players must face against another boss; this time, it’s a griffin. As expected, fighting a griffin is a little different than fighting the demo’s last boss, the chimera. It’s much larger and it, well, flys. I had assumed that the griffin was a triggered event just like the chimera, so I was stunned when, as I was happily smacking about some goblins, the griffin descended rapidly toward the ground, knocking back both my party and the goblins. My natural reaction was to cripple its wings with my bow, but as it attempted to retreat, I instinctively jumped forward and grabbed onto its, well, its buttocks. My misplaced buttocks grabbing didn’t deter the griffin as it took to the skies. So now I was grabbing a giant bird’s rear-end, while also flying through the air. I climbed my way up (again, a la ‘Shadow of the Colossus’) and began hacking away at the bird’s wings, which promptly made it hurtle toward the ground before crashing spectacularly, ready to receive a welcoming party from my Pawns.

You know what I did after that? I quit the demo, turned off my Xbox 360, and pre-ordered the game.

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