Dragon’s Dogma

(Capcom for Xbox 360)
By Mike Delano

Saturday mornings don’t get much better than hanging out with a buddy, creating a character that I’ll use to lay waste to the fantasy land of Gransys over dozens of hours. I enlisted my friend for his supreme character creation skills, and before long, he’d used Dragon’s Dogma‘s tools to create a Ronnie James Dio look-alike (naturally) that I then proceeded to use to slay all manner of mythical beasts. That’s the crux of this fantasy RPG; dynamic, engaging combat that feels more than an action game than the basic, rough-around-the-edges battles gamers are used to in RPGs that are this ambitious. This emphasis on gameplay means that the story, which seems a lot like a secondary focus, might not make your heart race like the narratives in other games, but Dragon’s Dogma succeeds in realizing its vision of skirmishes that stick in your memory. These encounters occur across all manner of scenery, against myriad fascinatingly-designed monsters, and they feature your own created character who may be climbing on an enemy’s back to deliver sword strikes or circling from afar, slinging fire arrows into a Cyclops’ eye. The glory of battle is the heart of the game, and action fans and RPG fans alike should find a lot to like in these intense tests of mettle.
(www.capcom.com)