Dragon's Dogma or the Story of a Pawn Game Review

Dragon's Dogma or the Story of a Pawn Game Review

It was only when I got to the end did I realize that Dragon's Dogma was the story of a pawn. To be honest, I've been itching to review this game. However, I was too busy playing Dragon Dogma to review Dragon Dogma. Before I forget, my Pawn is called Pride. Please Hire her out when you get a chance. In any case, last Saturday, at 4:30 AM, I slew the Dragon. At level, 61. The next day I defeated the Final Boss. Well, let us not get ahead of ourselves here.

My bro and I have been going through a Dragon killing phase. Thus, purchasing Dragon's Dogma was the logical choice. My bro had heard good reviews of the game. At the time I purchased the game, it was worth an arm and a leg. We bought it used. The used version did not include the instructions. Thus, we where playing the game literary in the blind.

The first thing that humored me of Dragon's Dogma was the opening song. That Capcom knows that to the sell to the Americans, all they need is rock and roll. They are infamous for making games with Great background music. I also had the chance to hear the Japanese version of the Dragon Dogma theme song. Its similar to the English version. However, it has a more animeish kinda background tune. Plus, the guitar Solo is more fierce, than the English version.

Onto the game itself. Looking back, I think I should have taken some photos of my main character. However, I was hesitant with experimenting with all the features. It also took a bit to try the online feature. I am sorta glad that it was for free. In any case, I designed my Kida Nina. I've gotten into the habit of naming my main characters Kida. The Karma attached to that name has always assured Victory in all the game files I undertaken since then.

When we where designing the character, we looked over the top the bodies available. We found it hilarious the small child form available. When it came to give a more detail edition to Kida Nina, we sorta made her even smaller. For the hair, eyes and skin, we sorta went albino. Although, we did not give her red eyes. I also gave her grown up makeup. I wanted to go for the whole, little girl who thinks herself an adult kinda look.

Body wise, my bro insisted on giving her a large bust. We compromised in making her bust a point smaller, than maximum. Manners wise, we made Kida Nina very lady like. As it is usual of our first files, we made her into a rouge. All our first and last dragon files are always Rouges. I've been thinking ,that for my next file, to make my next chick a mage.

After the Kida was done, we sent this chibi running. The beginning was totally awesome. I am speaking of the Beginning, after the Fighting chimera Tutorial. I did not see the purpose of the first Arisen showcase. However, when I went to fight the dragon, I finally got the joke of it. In any case, I thought it was pretty cool seeing the Dragon just sleeping in the middle of the sky. How do you miss something so big?

Well, the Dragon was awakened by several annoying harpies. I cannot blame him for going on a killing rampage. It seems he woke up on the wrong side of the cloud. After munching on a few harpies, the Dragon attack Cassidis. This is where Kida Nina comes in. She was crazy enough to jump the Dragon. The dragon rewarded her bravado by taking her heart. That was so cool!!

After that, Kida Nina became the Arisen. Like you all know, she was later contacted by a pawn. Before leaving, I explored a bit, made a few pals and did a mission here and there. When I got to level 10, I entered the encampment to seek out more pawns. To earn the trust of the pawn legion, they asked me to do an impossible task. I was annoyed at the ambiguity of such a request.

After wondering outside, like an idiot, I returned inside the camp to fight an Oger. After this event, I got to create my second. I named her Pride. Since Kida Nina was small, I made Pride huge. I was aiming at making a mother figure for Kida Nina. The game was vague about the family history of the arisen.

So, basically, Pride was a tall, hot red headed chick. I made her into a warrior. You know, for balance purposes. Once my party was full, we went exploring after slaying the Hydra. Eventually, we returned to escort the hydra head to Grand Soren. That was the first official escort mission. Now, that I think about it... the first escort mission involve helping Madelaine get to the Encampment. Anyhow, on the way to Grand Sore, the harpies made it a super annoying mission. The pity was that the Wagon almost died because of all the falling rocks. Truly, that was a major pain.

When I arrived, the salvation conspiracy began. This random black guy wearing red, whose name alludes me, asked me to chase after this guy. I managed to do the spy mission pretty decently. He was getting something from the only hot merchant chick in the game. I had already done her escort mission and given her some money to get to the capital.

After this mission, I went exploring. I arrived to the mage tower. In that place, you find the best of everything. Thus, every once in a while I visited the mage tower or the Blue Moon Tower. Once I got bored of wondering around, I did the wyrm hunt missions. You know, fighting Salvation here and there.

By this time, I had already done the mission that helps us meet Selene. Quina had sought her out to cure our heart condition. However, Selene did not have any answers. I found her hilarious and I gave her everything I had on me. After her escort mission, she was glowing pink. Pink is the aura for love. Thus, while chasing after Salvation in the city, I overheard some random guys who wanted to burn Selene for being a witch.

I quieted my hunt for Salvation and went to save Selene. The Golems provided a nice distraction. In this mission, we met a ghost Arisen. She told us how Selene used to be a pawn. However, when the Arisen gave her heart to her pawn, Selene was able to become human. Heck, she turned into her Arisen.

I found this turning into the Arisen thing rather puzzling. If Pride was going to turn into me, she was definitely going on a tangent. I don't know why, but Pride would not shut the hell up. I kept telling her to shut up in the Happy chair. However, she was always yap, yap, yap, about some nonsense or other. I gave up eventually on keeping her quiet. To make matters worse, almost all the pawns in the internet had been raise to be chatterbox. At times, I would get 50 different instructions from all of them. I could not make out what they wanted.

This was when I noticed that Kida Nina had lost her voice when she lost her heart. It made sense considering how she communicated by signs with her pawns. Plus, all her answers where yes and no. I suppose she was traumatized by the whole event. Then again, it might just have something to do with Kida Nina, and not the Arisens in general. They where all very talkative, from the Dragon to God.  

Speaking of other Arisens, Duke Edmund was a real jerk. Here I bring him a Hydra head and he makes a fool of me. I did not find the fool's hat hilarious. I think the fool was the Duke's second. They where always together. Yet for a while, I thought it was the mystic knight from Salvation.

After this event, I met Aelinore. One night, the maid asked me to see the girl in her room. Kida Nina was to sneak in at night. I arrived, but moments later the Duke came in. Aelinore or the wife of Edmund hid the Arisen. Her husband went on to choke her while sobbing for some Leonora. I did not get his woes at first. However, when I fought the Dragon I understood why the Duke was crazy.

At this point I had two options:  1. Hide and watch Aelinore die. Decisions, or 2.Save her and have the Duke choke me instead. Decisions... Bro thought my hesitation was mean. Thus, I went to save Aelinore. The Duke snapped out of his crazy train. To save her honor,  Aelinore sent the Arisen to Prison to get a whipping. Had the Arisen a voice she would have said to Aelinore, " You, Bit#@sh!!".

So, I got a whipping. Later that night, Aelinore gave me the keys to escape. All the while in Jail, I wondered why my pawns had not come to save me. Well, it seems they where waiting outside with my things. I got out of Grand Soren wondering how this event had changed the game. I hesitated a bit before returning to the palace.

When I worked up the courage, I saw that things where peachy, except for the whipping. I then went back to the wyrm hunt. I found a tablet that led me to the Fool and the Dragonforge. Both had failed to slay the Dragon. According to the Dragonforge, the king had slain the Dragon. Thus, I wondered about this new Dragon.

Then, there was the thing about the blue lights and the tentacle monsters. Nothing of the game made any sense. Plus, I was not happy about the whipping. The game was no longer funny. While wondering around, I found a magic tablet in the middle of the Witchwoods. I also found there a metal Golem. I took the tablet to the Dragonforge. He told me that it would turn into something neat.

Mine became the Arisen bond. This ring allows you to make anyone fall in love with you. I had read on the internet that you could duplicate the Ring. I made several copies that where worth an arm and a leg. The first one, I gave it to the weapon smith to get a discount. I gave another one to the Blackcat copy cat guy, and I think I gave one to the King. The last Copy I wanted to give it to the Aelinore. However, she was no where to be seen.

I searched for her, all over the palace. I even got arrested a few times. I sorta figure that the Duke had slain her. Counting my losses, I resolve to go live in a monastery. I took the Arisen and Pride to a monastery that I had run into at night. It was the first time I had gone inside. Other times I just passed by it. I was too busy killing zombies and 2 Ogres around the area of the monastery. Those Ogres are a real pain. They go crazy for the chicks in your party.

The first time I ran into one was in the Everfalls. I was supposed to go around. However, I decided to slay it. The first time, I fought an Ogre I was in a super low level. I only slew it by luck. He kinda fell from the Everfalls. The night that I discovered the monastery I ran into 2 Ogres. By then I was used to fighting them, plus I was using the magical archer form. That is truly the best form in the game. It has an attack that always hits all the weak spots.Thus, it was easy to slain it. The hardest Ogre I ever fought was the one in the mine. It took me forever to kill it.

Early on, I developed the bad habit of biting on more than I could chew. During my wanderings, I fought Drakes, Chimeras, Jumbo Ghost Guys, Ogres and Golems.  The hardest one was the drake. I fought it in the Assassin form. I measured the distance it took for it to get bored. I also found the biggest rock I could hide behind. I then got close enough to the drake and shot him with my zoom in shot.

The drake obviously did not like this one bit. He flew to the air and started chasing after me. I then hid behind that infamous boulder. Thus, he came and went all the time. As he arrived, I aimed for his heart. When I did managed to knock him down I sent my pawns on ahead to strike the beast. I eventually stopped sending the pawns to fight the Drake cause he kept killing them.

Trust me, it is not a bright idea to fight a Drake at level 20. This battle took forever. It took 3 game days to slay the beast. I made some good process whenever the night arrived. I had the passive Assassin ability that made me pumped up at night. It also helped that the Drake's heart glowed like a Christmas light, in the darkness. The problem was that at night time, one always got attack by an army of Goblins. I was always too busy fighting the Drake to worry about the goblins. However, between Pride and the other pawns I was able to focus on felling the Beast.

That long battle was worth it. I got all my equipment to reach red Dragon level. Oh, I fought this Dragon in the area, after the Ancient Quarry. You know, a forest filled with Hob goblins and Saurians. I remember the first time I fought a Saurian. It was in a mission inside the Well of Cassidis. It was full of those beast. They where kinda hard the first time. You know, me being in level 15 and all. I had missions down there from time to time.

I think that is enough of meme, non storyline monsters for the time being. As I had said before, I went to live in a monastery. There I met Quina. She was so depressed at not finding a cure that she sought the Faith for answers. She had excelled in healing and blessings. I did a little mission for her and got 5 Flowers that never withered.

She was supposed to have been transferred to the Grand Cathedral, but I sorta lost track of her. The guy that was supposed to escort her also disappeared. Annoyed by this, I went to the palace and gave gifts to the evil magical knight that was plotting against the Duke. I wanted to trigger the killing the Duke mission. However, I never triggered it.

A lot of other things happened. I liked the griffin hunting a lot. It allowed for the Blue Moon Tower to be fully unlocked. It was there where I found my first port crystal. I used it in the escort missions often. Whenever there was like 5 missions to a certain place, I left the telepoty there to hurry up the other missions. I did like 22 escort missions. I also got a battle trophy for doing so many. I never lost anyone in those escort missions. Mostly cause I loaded a lot. Plus, I avoided the Ogres and the Chimeras.

In one of them, I had to go to this Miasmic something, something place. I managed to get the guy there in one piece, or two. When the night fell, I was attack by a very freaky looking Ghost. It was a really hard battle. Mostly, cause I could not reach the ghost. I was trying out the magical knight form. For a while, it was not humoring one bit. I had this weird attack I could not figure out. It simply summon a white ball of magic. In this battle, I learned that I had to strike it to make the magic work. Thus, I was able to defeat the ghost guy.

Well, some time passed. I did the Salomet ring mission. I kept the ring and gave the Duke a duplicate. He was supposed to give me a coat as a reward for the Cockatrice mission. However, his fake obviously did not open the chest. He was just there... staring. I guess he sorta figured I had the true ring. I simply left there and did not do any sudden moves. I was afraid that if I opened the chest with my ring he might choke me.

After this mission, and another one, we reached the Final Salvation mission. Those necromancers where raiding a fort. The head why almost slew me, but I was saved Grigori the Dragon. He gave a final, cool Dragon speech and dared me to follow him. I accidentally discovered his lair. I was supposed to ask the Dragonforge for instructions.

I sorta chicken out at the entrance. I went back to Gran Soren to rob the Duke of all his goodies. On the way, I saw Aelinore's maid. She told me of the hidden location of Aelinore. She was trapped in this Random castle all the way up north. I got a guard's armor and went to rescue her. Entering was no big deal.

The guards where, rather dense. They where too stupid to realize that anyone with pawns is an Arisen. I walked to the hidden room of Aelinore. She asked me to get her out. We had a cute, yuri kiss, and we went off. This escort mission was a real hassle. By this time, I was trying out the warrior form. However, between my armor, my weapon, my skeleton keys, ect. I was overweight. To make matters worse, I could not carry Aelinore properly. I was hopping to just carry her and run out. However, I kinda ran into the guards. I slew them as they arrived.

The real problem began underground. The little Aelinore was too much of a Princess. She asked me to help her cross all rivers and stairs. I was up to here with the mission, by then. I dropped the guard's armor set and half my item bid. I was still too heavy. I did not want to loose my fancy red equipment. Thus, I took drastic measures with the little Aelinore. Whenever she did not budge, I would kick her across all the obstacles. It was not the most glamorous way of going about this escort mission. Yet, it got the job done. Halfway, I met up with my pawns. After fighting a band of thieves and kicking some royal behinds, we got to Aelinore to safety. I think I will leave the discussion of the final battle, and the last half of the game for later.  Truly, the Dragon Dogma game is 5 stars worthy.