Without Itsuno

 

When legendary developers fade from our studios it is often usually the end of a run we're not going to see again for quite a while. When Hideo Kojima left Konami that was pretty much the end of thier relevancy as a game developer- they've not even managed to scratch the AAA world since despite recent attempts- but hey, I guess they're happy serving slop up to their audience of awaiting guppy fish. When Shinji Makami left Tangoworks, he did so under the force belief that if they just kept making award winning games then someone would want to keep them around- obviously they ended up being shut down in the next year and had to be bailed out in a temporary resurrection we can only hope sticks. (Bailed out of a shutdown? Huh, I guess that means someone found the award winning studio worthwhile. How bizarre.) And now that Hideaki Itsuno has left Capcom- what does that mean for the franchises he left behind?

Itsuno's legend began a little bit into his career when the man was brought on as a 'reorganiser' to a failing project that was spiralling down a pit. The horrifically disastrous Devil May Cry 2 was being helmed by a figure purposefully hidden to history because the mess they were making of the project was that bad all have stricken their name from the books. Devil May Cry 2 was apparently on a nose dive and with the hard work of Itsuno in refocusing the project the team managed to squeeze out something that could actually be released in the public- but if you've ever actually sat down and played the thing you'll know that's small praise. A largely gutted charm and wit, distinctly missing stylistic flair of the original, thoughtless level design, unambitious combat improvement, (or, more appropriately, regressions) laughably ill-conceived bosses- yet also the only actually worthwhile secondary campaign in the franchise. It wasn't something worth resting your cap on. And Itsuno agreed.

What happened next could only have been the result of someone with a fire lit under them, because the absolute heel turn from Devil May Cry 2 to 3 is a mind-blowing achievement. When I did my playthrough of the franchise recently, even all this years removed from the original environment and release dates, I could feel that Devil May Cry 3 was something special without any context. Combat wasn't just revived, it was rewritten- they created the style-based combat the franchise has been known for ever since. Dante and his brother Neo-Angelo/Vergil got their souls this game. The supporting cast stood out proud with great moments and designs so good we're still comparing modern Lady redesigns to her original. The game was challenging, the bosses were impressive and memorable, the title was a powerhouse- plain and simple. And Itsuno established himself as a director with a mark to leave.

He may not have birthed the series himself but Itsuno would go on to help define Devil May Cry over the years with the honestly under-appreciated Devil May Cry 4- which refined a lot of what 3 was doing into an actual half-decent evolving narrative, the heavily critiqued DMC, which is the only game I haven't had the pleasure of in the franchise so far, and my favourite of the franchise- Devil May Cry 5- the absolute pinnacle of this genre of games, a master in every facet. All with Itsuno either in the director's chair or on as a supervisor. If the man was so eager to rewrite history so he wouldn't go down as the cause of Devil May Cry 2- he ended up going above and beyond in his role. But what if I told you the reason I lauded the man's work had nothing to do with any of that?

You see, a while ago there a little Fantasy title that dropped off the face of the earth for being released at the same time as Skyrim- the single biggest fantasy game of that console generation. This title was not as big as Skyrim, nor as immersive, nor as pretty. But do you know what Dragon's Dogma of that age did well? God it was charming. And unique. Dragon's Dogma was an action adventure hack-n-slash brimming with identity and purpose in the robust grapple and climb mechanic to the cleverly designed and dynamic boss enemies- I could go on about my love for Dragon's Dogma until the cows come how- and how severely underappreciated it was by the public! 

Itsuno similarly agreed that the game never got it's flowers from the public and spent a decade trying to give it another go around. In that time we'd forever hear allusions to a potential sequel, got a middling Anime to tide us over and had to endure China bragging about their country only MMO version of the game. Only now, in the year of our lord 2024, was Dragon's Dogma 2 finally given the greenlight to release and it finally introduced the world to a game unlike what they expected. A creativity machines begging it's audience to play around, just like the modern combat for the Devil May Cry franchise. And whilst I have my issues with it, I would love to see more content come to DD2 to push it ever further beyond! But now, I'm not sure that's ever going to happen.

Like a spirit hanging around past it's due it would seem that Itsuno was just hanging around Capcom in the hopes of getting Dragon's Dogma out the door and now that's done- so is he. Itsuno has left the company behind and in doing so robbed Capcom of their strongest talent- in the shaky hope that those left behind will be capable in his absence. But so far? All I know of non-Itusno products is the absolute mess that was made out of the non-chinese release of the Devil May Cry Mobile game- a once exciting little product in it's own right. And Dragon's Dogma? I'm afraid to see that delicately balanced little swansong dragged off a cliff by weak directors manhandled under dumb executives.

Capcom aren't going to drown, they'll always have Sonic. But my reasons for still keeping up what the blue studio was up to? Yeah that was pretty much exclusively caught up in the many machinations of this one creative powerhouse. Truly the company isn't going to be the same and the legacy he leaves could be in shaky hands. Dragon's Dogma 2 pleads for more content but do I really want a DLC that Itsuno didn't work on? Do I want more Devil May Cry games that he didn't work on? We kind of starting from scratch in the trust department and that's always the sad part of departures like this. I just hope the man is proud of himself.

Dragon's Dogma 2 Review

I knew you loved this world too much to leave it behind!

Being quite honest with you all- I, like many other diehard Dragon's Dogma fans, never thought this day would come. For years it seemed a forgone conclusion that the quirky little action RPG with a sprinkle of something indescribably swashbuckling and reckless was consigned to forever populate the annals of cult-status curiosity. Even when the announcement was made and the clock fully set- I'd be lying if I didn't confess a bit of disbelieving whiplash, an unwillingness to really comprehend the fact that one day soon I would be playing a brand new Dragon's Dogma adventure, therefore it was only really in the final week that those last second jitters started creeping up upon me. Is the magic still going to be there? Will I find some of those returned design directions cumbersome in the decade apart and deprived of these here rose-tinted glasses? Will I get back that easy 'pick and play' wonder that I've missed from my RPGs of late?

In answering these queries I picked up my copy, on the Xbox Series X for hopes of taking advantage of the 4k offering to see this game at it's best- a decision which might have saved me a lot of the PC launch woes we hear the game suffering from. That being said, even the Series X console version is not free from some stutters, occasional slowdowns in the more busy post-game sections (never prolonged but enough to be temporarily disruptive) and one crash, early on. Although across about 49 hours of playtime, that isn't the most terrible occurrence in the world. I'm also quite surprised to report there were no quest bugs for me throughout the entire game, which seems strange to gloat about but... man, I've endured Assassin's Creed, Baldur's Gate and my umpteenth playthrough of Skyrim across the past few years- totally bugless quests are a novelty to me!

Upon starting Dragon's Dogma you will confronted with the most brazen aspect of this game's ethos- that it is in some ways as much a reboot of the DD franchise as it is a sequel. I was actually quite surprised to see the game entitled 'Dragon's Dogma' on the title screen, sans the 2, and actually 'tabbed out' (so to speak) in order to check that the software name was still called Dragon's Dogma 2 and that Capcom hadn't suddenly decided this was a definitive remake at the last second. (They hadn't, the game is still called 'Dragon's Dogma 2'.) And it is a decent point to check on because with this release Dragon's Dogma appears to be much more of a 'Final Fantasy' style anthology than we might have originally believed. (Although I've never had the opportunity to play the Chinese MMO release- so maybe such groundwork was laid there.)

Sure, those that are familiar with the original might think they know what that entails- to spoil the original game a bit; (it released in 2012- you've had your chance!) that narrative was framed around a loop of 'Arisen' revenants hunting the Dragon that stole the hearts out of their chest only to go on to then become the next Dragon or rise even further to assume the role of 'Seneschal' and watch over the loop on your own. Dragon's Dogma 2 was sold as an 'alternate world story', but we're already familiar with the 'world hopping antics' of our Pawns (player designed companions who remain our allies throughout the game) as they enter the games of other players and return with useful snippets of information- 'Alternate world' is not as grand of a concept to introduce as Hideaki Itsuno may have believed when he said it. But let me be clear for him- this is an alternate universe.

That is to say, Dragon's Dogma 2 doesn't even depict the same Dogma that the original game did. The order of the world that we knew, of Arisen meets Dragon meets Seneschal- entirely irrelevant in this new setting- and I think that is an important nugget of the world for new players to grasp lest they confuse themselves trying to fit in the rules of this new world within the constraints of the one we knew. (Not least of all trying to figure out how any of this is happening in the first place when the canonical 'true ending' of Dragon's Dogma 1 involved, as the theme song quoteth 'Finishing the cycle of Eternal Return'.) This story is a story anew.

And with a new story should come a fresh introduction- for those coming in for the lesson. Here we go- Dragon's Dogma 2 tells the story of 'The Arisen' an immortal warrior chosen by the herald of doom itself 'The Dragon', to be the world's champion. This individual is identified for their display of abnormal will, typically in the form of courage, and then has their heart delicately ripped out of their chests by an overly-long dragon claw before that beast then pops the organ in it's mouth and scarpers. Thus forms the bond between Dragon and the now-immortalised Arisen, and thus starts the prophecy wherein that Arisen must slay their Dragon, lest risk their will breaking against their nerve, thus severing the covenant- roaming the world as a failed Arisen forever more.

To this task the Arisen, the player, commands AI companions known as 'Pawns'. Pawns are soulless beings born to be directed into action by the Arisen, and crucially each one is designed by another player courtesy of the neat 'shared world' of Dragon's Dogma's online! Each player designs their 'Main Pawn' near the beginning of the game to be their one constant throughout the adventure, but that Pawn can spawn in, or be summoned into, other Arisen's worlds to serve as one of their Side Pawns. Everytime you rest (in this game that means sleeping at an Inn or your bed but not when you do it at a campsite) you'll get a brief report of the other people who hired your pawn, be awarded some Rift Crystal currency and maybe even receive a little gift for the hardwork your little helper put in.

                                        

Pawns go a little deeper than that too this time around. Quests that they go on enter into the Pawns memory, meaning that when you have an objective that is obscure or far away, knowledgeable Pawns in your party that experience that same quest in another world will chime in to lead you to your destination with pin-point accuracy. (And only the occasional AI pathfinding meltdown.) They can also be equipped with one of a few specialisations which gives them a role beyond their vocations (class) to stand out as unique. One might feed you consumable curatives in battle if you equip them with some, others might democratize picked-up loot automatically in order to prevent the Arisen becoming overloaded and hitting those 'slow down' thresholds in carry weight. And one might just translate Elven for you. Which is so insanely helpful- I've got no idea what the knife-ears are saying about me behind my back!

This forms the pseudo-online character-sharing aspect of the gameplay trifecta which characterises the unique gameplay loop of Dragon's Dogma with the second being the actual combat itself. Vocations of the Arisen and their pawns can be switched out without any cost at any of the guild members found in all populated settlements- this isn't one of those games where you build a character for one class and stay rigid in that role, nor is this one of those games where there aren't really any classes and every character kind of just evolves into becoming the same character once the obvious better skills start becoming apparent. Instead you swap between being a spellcasting mage one day to a cartwheeling rogue the next, a elemental arrow raining 'Magic Archer' to a pirouetting sky dancing 'Mystic Spearhand'. And much to the game's credit- every single class feels like a fresh character.

With the pedigree of the recent Devil May Cry games on the game director's resume this shouldn't be any great surprise, but the amount of small details that go in to make each class feel mechanically simple but blossom with systemic distinction is quite masterful from the design department. Magic Archers will balance a lock-on reticule to disperse their magic effects over a wide range of enemies, or focus in on a single big enemy with a dozen simultaneous effect arrows. Whereas a non-magic archer has to aim true and move fast, with the trade-up being unbeatable single target damage when you get in that perfect zone to focus. Mystic Spearhands are constantly vying for the all-import stunstate which allows for a devastating finisher hit so powerful it knocks entire health bars off some bosses. Fighters become moving fortresses, Thiefs are free-scrambling death dealers- and Tricksters are a particularly difficult to manage class of decoys, feints and enemy misdirection. Not a single class is tacked on to fill a gap- and I have played them all extensively because they're that much fun to mess around with!

And if that isn't enough, there is the final ultimate vocation that even I, with my plus 100 hours playtime, still don't feel comfortable enough to work properly. The Warfarer (not 'Wayfarer' as it is so often mistaken to be) allows the player to wield all weapons at once but only with a very specific selection of skills curated from the larger list. Core skills of each class are retained, as are playstyles, and the Warfarer's special skill is essentially the ability to switch through each in a line- presenting a logistical puzzle of setting up complimentary class switches in the right order; a direct evolution of the Devil Arms system Nero works with through Devil May Cry 5. Warfarer is essentially the end-game way to play the game, and those who master it will essentially have turned their arisen into a medieval version of Dante through bitter trial- a jack of all trades and the all around master to boot.

Together with the slot-in abilities that you can switch between in rotations of 4 in order to refine an exact tool set and you've got yourself dozens of ways to play through the 10 different available classes. The only real let-down of this system is the fact that the absolute tons of great looking weapons and class specific armours you pick up throughout the game hold no further influence upon playstyle. All they offer are stat numbers and the occasional miniscule resistance to certain debuffs. In that vein the game offers similar itemisation to Souls-Borne games in that they largely serve only to feed the 'fashion souls' gameplay angle. To which I can actually attest- there are a bunch of really cool different types of armours throughout Dragon's Dogma 2 that cater to a vast array of medieval fantasy tastes from your chainmail solider to your tin-hat paladin, fur cloaked mountain barbarian and bone horned hunter- all with mix and match potential. I don't typically comment on cosmetic variety in my games, and when I do- it's because I find them particularly noteworthy.

All these tools go into crafting the monster slaying arsenal, with the large-scale boss battles making up the heart of the Dragon's Dogma play cycle. Squaring up against towering Ogres and monstrous dragons feels run-of-the-mill on paper, but until you've scrambled up the swinging tail of a floating drake and stabbed a knife in it's heart sending the beast crashing back to the ground in a brutal heap- you've never seen these scenarios at their best. There's a undeniable cinematic quality in the spectacle of Dragon's Dogma's 'David vs Goliath' approach to boss design, and coupled with the popping beauty of Capcom's RE engine, some of the the most frantic moments of the biggest fights are simply mouth-watering! But the combat is more than skin deep- each boss is infused with inherent weaknesses that the player must pick up and exploit in order to bring creatures low- and they span far more than just your typical elemental weakness! One-eyed Ogres can be blinded, Griffins falls out of the sky if their wings are set ablaze and Trolls lust after women so much they put themselves in harms way. Scrambling up both sides of an armoured Ogre in order to break it's fastenings, stripping the armour that keeps you crawling up to that ever-vulnerable single eye is peak Dragon's Dogma at it's absolute best.

The key most evolution of Dragon's Dogma from 1 to 2 is the way that the team realised the world space- which is a pretty big deal given that the gameplay loop of Dragon's Dogma 2 always revolves around travelling and navigating their overly hostile world. Seeing as these roads are one's you'll be walking up and down for hundreds of hours, part of the thirst for a sequel was the fact that these routes were often so simple and basic and easy to grow tired of. Which is probably why Dragon's Dogma 2 ramps up it's exploration so considerably. You'll find dozens of caves, alternative paths, breakable rock walls, collapsible floors, gaps that can only be covered with special skills, heights that can only be reached with Levitation. I even know you can push a stumbling ogre over a cliff edge in order to form as bridge. (I know it's possible, I just haven't managed it yet.) And just this morning people learned that you can feed stone blocks to the giant discarded trebuchet around the map to destroy even larger clumps of rocks and open up even more paths. 

With the introduction of a whole new biome, the craggy deserts of Battahl, that exploration has spanned out even more with crumbling ruins of some bygone civilisation scattered across the wasteland, and precarious pully-rope bridges that suspend you over the deadly gorges, but themselves are often beset by gangs of harpies. Even the city world spaces you'll be traversing, Vernworth and Bakbattahl, are so much more alive than the duke's city from Dragon's Dogma 1. They are less flat and more varied, stuffed with nooks and crannies to discover, and constructed with obvious cultural distinctions. From the Western European inspired medieval buildings to the Eastern European inspired mountain dig-out homes- you'll feel like you've travelled the breadth of a continent from one end of the world to the other. It makes you wish that the Photo Mode didn't suck so bad. (Seriously- it might as well just be a 'turn off HUD' button for how useless it is!)

The Beastren, who occupy Battahl, are your typical anime 'monster people' race- only with the good grace to actually commit to making them cat people, rather than just giving them vague cat accessories. This race is actually fairly well conceived on a visual level, carrying enough distinctiveness for one to be recognised to another, although obviously not nearly as much as regular humans do. I just wish there was perhaps a bit more material detailing their specific cultures or origins, as even the narrative makes it clear that Battahl is not inherently their land, meaning it's customs are not their ancestral ones. Heck, Vermund was founded by a Beastren! A little more thought could have gone into to realising their narrative distinctiveness, similar to how Races are handled in The Elder Scrolls franchise. (Speaking of The Elder Scrolls- I'm sad that the Beastren don't speak in Khajiiti voices. Big shame.)

One of my fondest memories of an unforgettable trek was during my journey to track down a Dragon to seize it's valuable blood. A journey that led me through an in-game business week of pushing through the Battahli wastes. Making ground until my party couldn't stand straight anymore and then camping over the night. We were beset by duo Ogres and swooping Griffins here and there, and even ended up getting lost down an ancient cave and coming face to face with a Medusa, which I managed to grapple onto the back of whilst it failed and brutally decapitated it. All this before the actual designed intended showdown against the Lesser Drake atop the mountain sliding ruined Coliseum. That alone was my own personal little 'Jason and the Argonauts' style adventure.

The only real problem with all this is the fact that, lo and behold, there's little tangible unique content worth exploring all this world to uncover. Inside all those caves, atop all those rooftops, and tucked in all those back corners- all you'll typically find are a clump of the same few monsters you've seen dotted around the open world. Chests with a small assortment of decent to good consumables stuffed in them. Maybe now and then you'll get a cool piece of armour, but it's rare and there's little logical sense as to where these items spawn. (And you'll need to buy all the best gear anyway.) The bosses, Dragon's Dogma 2's most fun content, aren't plentiful enough for many unique one's to be squirrelled away in these back corners of the open world either- as far as I know I think there are only two hidden unique monster spawn locations- one for each biome.

Which touches on what is easily the biggest let-down of Dragon's Dogma 2- enemy variety. We heard a lot of talk about the way the team have handled monsters since the days of Dragon's Dogma 1 and a little bit of mention of variety. But I remember watching those previews and seeing the same Goblins, Wolves, Ogres and Trolls from the original. Fantastically realised monsters, of course, but one's we were already familiar with. With the full game out, it actually seems there is less enemy variety than we got in the first game! There are no Beholders or Cockatrices or Dire Wolves- in fact, the 'petrification medication' is literally only used for a single boss in the game that spawns in a single location across the map. Killing monsters with fantastic skills, learning their unique patterns and how best to exploit them- that is the height of the gameplay cycle in Dragon's Dogma 2- which is why it is so unthinkable that the team pulled back so heavily on expanding these vectors out! At the very least, if they couldn't greatly diversify the rooster, they could have least focused on monsters unique to the one's we know from the first game! Granted, each monster has been designed totally from scratch, such that Saurians are no longer impossibly annoying to fight and Harpies actually take advantage of the fact they can fly to stay out of reach- But I think we are all saddened by the inability to meet and learn about a fresh new cast of monsters.

Aside from the beastly, the world of Dragon's Dogma is stuffed full of the NPC characters that are designed to give the world a heart- and through a series of robust world generation tools the team have given Dragon's Dogma 2 a decent foundation. You'll find every NPC with a daily life they live, jobs, friends, and frequent haunts- and the player is able to interact with them by learning of their favoured types of gift and showering them in those until they receive some attention in return. The procedural job board from the original game is entirely gone this time around, so there's no hope of earning profitable quests from liked individuals, but sometimes a few might show up outside your home to embark on a 'journey' to some backwater part of nowhere. Don't expect all these NPCs to be fully realised personality driven fonts of exploration- that isn't the point of the game- but expect just enough life to buy into the fiction of this world's existence and why you might care to keep people safe. Particularly given how easy it is for NPCs to die now that monsters have a chance to invade the capital cities!

I love how you can find certain NPCs walking the wilds and being beset by monsters who you can choose to save. Fast travel, achieved through travelling in the back of carts, can come under attack by ambushes who will destroy the transport if you let them, and might even murder the drivers too! There's this curious sense of a world simulation happening around you that not many games manage to properly convey, not even those that apparently go specifically for it. (Starfield comes to mind.) I was struck silly when rocking up to the Hot Springs on the otherside of the world from Vernworth, where I bumped into Sven the Regentkin- on his way back from a vacation of his own. Those little moments enforce the fiction of the breathing world, and they alone are what makes a world like this feel so special and alive on the most important level- the inconsequential one! 

Beyond the NPCs are the heroes and heroines you'll meet through side questlines and get to know, and of these we have a much more interesting slate to work with. Characters like Ulrika and Menella actually have places of import that shift throughout the world, and the amount you interact with them can ultimately decide their fates in the endgame. Character writing is far from this team's strong suit, however, and none of the cast are what I would call 'fully rounded individuals'. Brant, the captain with which you'll interact the most, is easily the most boring out of this cast. But engage with the game on it's level and you'll find some rudimentarily evolved relationships to tie your Arisen to the world around them- all important steps to making the themes of the game take root- particularly in the post-game sections.

The quests of Dragon's Dogma 2 are their own curious blend of freeform 'figure out where you need to go' mixed with slightly disguised fetch objectives. The actual fun of a lot of these quests are the expectation of scouring the world and listening to clues, or the directions of hired pawns who have already played these quests in their host worlds and want to guide you, to find waypoints not marked on your map. The team knew to feed back into their exploration loop and that results in a lot less quests than a typical fantasy RPG would boast, but a lot more infused with their own dynamic stories you carve simply by travelling their beaten path. It's an interesting way of sprucing up otherwise rather rudimentary quest lines. Yet there's little hiding the fact that many of these quests are pretty bare bones when you look at them objectively and unless you've already brought into the flow of the game and how it expects you to engage with it's world- you'll likely find most largely dissatisfying. And also- stealth missions are a total joke- I have no idea why this game even has one, let alone several! 

Dragon's Dogma 2's story was where I was the most curious to see how the team had evolved, given how the original game's narrative was largely bland and unmemorable whilst Dark Arisen was grand and complex. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but Dragon's Dogma 2 seems to have mixed both storytelling tools and come out with something disappointingly straightfaced on the surface with a pleasing amount of background depth if you actively try and engage with the world. The quest to depose the false Sovran should never have been the main drive of the plot, for how weak of a draw it is given that 'king-ship' is a mere side effect of being the dragon-slaying Arisen- but peeling back the layers of the story to peer at the world beneath by listening to the context clues of the right bizarre NPCs, or interpreting the silent ruins conveying non-obvious information: you'll see there's something here, just not anything the team were confident enough to commit to. It's rather disappointing we don't get the massive exploratory environmentally-explicit narrative story it seemed we were building towards from Dark Arisen. Now I have to hope we get another giant expansion re-release in the future to see that height of story out of this franchise again!

                                

And just as the original has, Dragon's Dogma 2 does boast a robust post-game that- I am happy to say- greatly outshadows the original's. Dragon's Dogma's post-game, tied to it's 'secret ending'- (Which is so not-secret I stumbled into it accidentally) is essentially the garnish to the dish you've been building unconsciously the entire game. It's where consequences come to fruition and what you've learned throughout the game really comes into play in a world where the stakes are finally somewhat real. I love the idea they went with, leaning a bit into the world building of Souls-Likes without slipping into being just another copy- my sadistic ass just wish they went even further in some regards! Again, though, I think the team missed a huge trick buy not having a final boss! It seems unthinkable that there's no blow-out post game fight against, I dunno, the Ur Dragon or something? Anything to cap off that genius concept of a post-game! Seriously, it's like the game keeps hopping around all the obvious routes to greatness and I can't even conceive of why!

Conclusion

Dragon's Dogma is as ever itself, which is what we kept the original in our hearts so long to preserve. It's less than average way of handling basic gameplay concepts, a world built around explorative navigation often without explicit waypoints in even the most obscure quests, dynamic world bosses with unique character traits and quirks you'll intrinsically learn how to exploit and inexplicably meaningful world interactions- are all uniquely clever in a way only this franchise can boast. But the game still holds a lot of the hang-ups from the original, in largely risk-lacking storytelling and a frustratingly lacking pool of enemies and bosses- which can often undermine the long journey of 12 years we've gone on waiting for this game. In some ways the game is every bit what it use to be, which is comforting, yet in other ways that is so frustrating it makes you want to tear your hair out! At least the core gameplay has undergone such significant bounds that this feels like a genuine revival for the action RPG genre outside of the Souls-Like sub-genre that every Action RPG has felt obliged towards.

I have enjoyed my time with Dragon's Dogma to the point of light addiction, which is probably why I feel comfortable giving the game my 'Brilliant but with room to improve' 'grade of A-'. In many ways it's the game I wanted, but in many more not the game I think this could have been. Still, Dragon's Dogma 2 achieves just enough that I think with one giant blow out expansion this could easily become a game lovingly referenced for the next 12 years hence. (And look at that, I didn't even mention the word 'Microtransaction.' Guess they truly are utterly impact-less on the title.)

Oh right...Wasn't Dragon's Dogma 2 announced?

What do ya know?

With all this slobbering and drolling I've been doing over the prospective remake for Metal Gear Solid  it really feels like I've let something slip me by... Not just something, as if I'm talking about some passing breeze which blew through the curtains, nah I'm talking about a real thing. Some fundamental part of my gaming tastes which flew up, boxed me on the nose and then disappeared like some thief in the night. Oh right, Dragon's Dogma 2! (It was in the title, obviously.) To be fair, it wasn't a total shock, we knew this game was coming for an age and a half and I at least was kind of hoping that after all this faffing around we'd at least get an announcement with a release date attached, but what do I know? Still... perhaps it's time to brush off my excitement and really come to terms with the fact that my favourite underrated game is getting a sequel. Hell yeah.

Now, you may not have heard of Dragon's Dogma. If that is the case: https://store.steampowered.com/app/367500/Dragons_Dogma_Dark_Arisen/. Come back when you're done. No, I ain't kidding. Do your damn duty, get the game and play it. Right now. When the tutorial is over, you're cleared to continue. Done? Good. Now; god am I excited that we're finally going to see more of this RPG world unlike any other! Of course, it's a bit of a stranger title for a lot of people out there, it wears the janky nature on it's sleeve and jutting out from under it's shawl in a clearly unconvincing manner; those without an eye to see beauty in imperfection have found it easy to write the game off over the years as another lukewarm or even an average euro-medieval action RPG from Japan but they would be so very wrong. There's no action RPG that plays with the rules and conditions that Dragon's Dogma did in the way that it did.

For one, Dragon's Dogma places an obnoxious about of emphasis on the power of the journey. And I'm not talking about the progression of the narrative. From fishing village to military camp to grand city to wall patrol; the game often tasks players with the simple task of delivery across vast distances because the actual gameplay of surviving the rigors of a dangerous fantasy travel-route is a key gameplay pillar! Learning what provisions certain routes through the forest might require because they may lead you past a known basilisk den, knowing when to stop off somewhere safe to sleep for the night because the dark is inevitably a dangerous travel partner-  And learning how to withstand the nattering of your pawns with is incessant and unforgiving in it's own. Most see only the tedium, but honestly- you genuinely come to terms with the peaceable wonder of hitting the world on large sprawling journeys. All the original game was missing was more varied locations to keep such trips visually engaging- which is where a sequel can come in!

Of course, combat is the other central pillar and Dragon's Dogma had some great systems to play with there as well! Traditional fantasy creatures brought to life with accurate vulnerabilities and strengths that need to be learned and exploited in order to prevail, scrambling over enemies and locational crippling systems for strategic takedowns, and the online interactive pawn system, having players share custom built companions between one another that would share their remembered insights on dealing with certain monsters and quests and travel complications from their own journeys. Like living chronicles of adventure and strife. I yearn for an experience with so many curiosities to it's systems as Dragon's Dogma had!

Dragon's Dogma 2 had already teased us with a snippet of gameplay which mostly exists as a proof of life. We know that the game is real, that it's going to maintain the monster climbing and the pawn system and the classic European monster influence- and there's practically nothing else of value to learn about the thing. Okay, that's no entirely true. We also know that there's an entirely fresh race of lion people Khajitt types who absolutely did not exist in the original game. There was never any indication of any race other than humans and even though the character creator held options of elf ears, there weren't even technically any elfs in the narrative. These beings really have popped out of nowhere, but their fate seems somehow important enough for them to make the front cover art- so I guess this new generic fantasy beast race at least isn't going to be throw-away.

Of course the game looks a cut above what the original had going on, what with the new entry being rendered by the stunning RE Engine, such that we can finally look on Dragon's Dogma gameplay like it's of the... well... of the current generation might be a bit of a stretch... Look, even with the RE Engine powering it, there's no pretending that Dragon's Dogma doesn't look jank- but I guess that really is some of the latent charm of the games, isn't it? We expect them to look kind of silly with slightly cartoonish character models and a few over-exposed colour bursts in outdoor scenes. It would actually be a little disconcerting is this game looked as stunning as Resident Evil 4- as if the game were adopting a pretence of something that it's not. Dragon's Dogma doesn't have to be a looker, it just needs to be fun!

I'm also loving some of the more interactive elements we're seeing with the pawn player which can either be indicative of vastly improved AI or perhaps even some multiplayer inclusions. One scene presents a party member being launched off another's shield so that they can grabble onto a monster's face to get some slashes in; another shows us a troll dynamically destroying a wooden footbridge to drop you off of it- this is the kind of stuff which makes the perilous journeys of the DD game loop into exciting death-defying adventures that you keep coming back to relive! And the magic appears to be getting a bit of a face lift too, which is nice considering the magic of the original was powerful but oh-so un-flashy. Now we literally see meteors being summoned out of the sky to burn our foes alive! That's what I'm talking about!

I know it's a bit of a cult title, but I don't care- Dragon's Dogma brings me back to those days of staying up late into the night watching livestreams on my giant laptop from the top of my bunk bed- wondering about the possibility of what you could do in a game that looked as tactile as that original did. Dragon's Dogma 2 has yet to impress me with how much new stuff it has cooking up, and I really do think there's some significant areas in which a sequel could improve (more biomes please! Ice and desert are all I want.) I'm honestly going to get the game even if it just slaps a fresh coat of texture over the old map and calls it a day because I've been waiting for this sequel way too long to sweat any of that small stuff. Thank you for holding that candle all these years Itsuo-san, you really are a trooper!

Dragon's Dogma 2 is confirmed

 Get in!

It takes something very special to have me writing in stereotypical football hooligan slang; and Capcom popping out a Dragon's Dogma sequel is certainly something 'very' and 'special'. That is a game which is easily one of the most underappreciated role playing games of all time, and I do not use that term lightly or often, because it means a lot to me. For something to be 'underappreciated' by my standards, it needs to be deprived of an interest it should have gained because of factors outside of its own control. That doesn't mean it should have been the biggest game ever made, or that it launched in a broken mess and lost momentum before it was patched back into a working state, I'm talking about a game that was fit and primed to be a moderate hit before a tiny game called Skyrim rolled around and totally robbed all the air from the Role Playing community room. Any game that launched back then should be asking for it's marketing money back from Bethesda.

From day one Dragon's Dogma was doing things that no other RPG of the time was doing and what few dare to do even now, such as actually making the act of travelling from A to B a gruelling proposition due to the vast dangers and scale of the road, climbing and scaling huge terrifying beasts for the bonus of locational damage spots and having a companion system that is designed and maintained entirely by the online community. And these weren't just half-assed experiments that tried a few cool things and ultimately didn't amount to much; Dragon's Dogma cohesively and successfully pulled of so many interesting mechanics in its body that the rest of the world just refuses to acknowledge thanks to the slight oddness of the package itself. It's graphics look dated, it's world seems bland and largely flat, the monsters are traditional European fantasy beasts instead of wild fantastical originals; and apparently that's grounds to write the whole game off. Well I say 'nay' to that, good sir! Nay!

Because everything that makes Dragon's Dogma seem like another generic stone on the road is merely freckles on the face of a unique masterpiece in its own right, a game which plays like no other RPG I've played before or since; and I'll stand by that. The enemies based off of European fantasy: that's unique in a space that so often borrows those vague names and attaches them to hardly representative derivatives, Dragon's Dogma is the only game that takes them right from the storybook and devises ways that their storied characteristics can be utilised in a gaming formula. That world of mostly flat greenlands, serves as plains from which to exemplify the scale of the journeys you embark on so that at any point the player can look back or forward and take in the distance they've gone or the road they have left. And the dated graphics are just indicative of the time. Dragon's Dogma doesn't have a megalomaniac game director rereleasing it every four years, it's had to make do.

Where Dragon's Dogma excels for me in the places that matter the most for an action RPG games; such as the combat and levelling. It's split into a comprehensive job system that takes the basic classes we're all used to and gives them vastly different playstyles, unique equipment, evolutions and even advanced hybrid classes so that you can make a character who is in themselves unique, but still at the top of their game. Something I'd love a Bethesda game to be able to commit to, instead of their forever march towards character hegemony that their late game dichotomy always demands. Which is something I'm even hopeful that upcoming Action RPG games learn from, such as Avowed. (Looking at Starfield's levelling system, I figure they're already long past such an evolution.)

And then there's the Pawn system which to my eyes lacks an equal in the entire genre. Essentially players are tasked with hand designing their own personal side kick to roam the country side with, and to fill out their party with other player's personal side kicks. And when you aren't playing the game, your sidekick will travel with other players and learn from them. That's not just lip service either, they actually learn! Which is to say that as they fight new enemies or complete quests, that companion will remember the weaknesses of those foes or the locations needed for that quest and chime in to help the other players or yourself when they return and are put in those situations again. Admittedly, this learning system is the only flagship feature that feels a little experimental and maybe not utilised to its fullest potential especially on the quest department. (Given that most quests are excessively straightforward) But with a sequel who knows what could happen with systems like these!

What I'm hoping for, if I let me imagination run wild, is actually decently robust. (I've had a long time to think about this.) First I want a new location to explore, one where the central city is as much a playground for action as the wilds because I know there could be an incredible dragon set-piece battle set in a city, and I would love to see it. And I want to see a completely new dimension bought to the combat theatre, which in my mind could be the water. There's so many cool European fantasy monsters who live and dwell exclusively under the depths, and the ability to interact and battle them in a meaningful fashion would be awesome. I can just imagine grapping onto the scales of a some fast-moving aquatic abomination and holding tight as it torpedoes through the waves, all the while thrashing and flailing as it tries to shake me off- That's how you push this series further forward.

Additionally, from a narrative standpoint I hope the team learns from the mistakes of the first game, namely in how reductively vague and non-committing the core narrative was. Everything that happened after the wrap of the main story, including the epilogue and Dark Arisen, were absolutely great fertile grounds to build a franchise off of; but the main story felt so generic that people who value great and challenging stories were immediately turned away from the project. So I encourage the writing team to lean into the darker elements, explore the nature of the Dogma more, and maybe give the player a chance to flesh out the personality of their main character if that isn't asking for too much. (Although it definitely might be given how some JRPG protagonists act. Looking hard at the Dragon's Quest rooster here.)

Last but by no means least, the music. I feel like this goes without saying, but maybe it doesn't; the main theme that Dragon's Dogma launched with was trash. Dark Arisen reintro-ed the game with a perfectly apt track that evolved from a medieval old English ditty into a sweeping adventure orchestral love song to epic fantasy. You don't need to break it down piece by piece, especially when I've already done that whilst talking about my love of the game in the past. So whatever Dragon's Dogma 2 brings to us, let it be more in tune with that second song rather than the first, let us know that this new game will be firing on every cylinder. All of which is to say I'm ecstatic that Dragon's Dogma is back after it's extended exclusive stay in China and I just know that this time the game can go that extra distance to establish itself in the history books that exact same way which circumstance denied the first game from doing... unless history repeats itself and this game lands at the exact same time as Avowed... Please God, don't let that happen.

Dragon's Dogma Netflix Episode 4: Sloth

 Ah! Where gone those days,

Coming back to Dragon's Dogma Netflix edition is a lot more appealing now that we've put the goblin episode behind us, although as we move into the final handful of episodes the question really is whether or not the show will focus up and get to start making it's ultimate points. And to that end I think that yes, the show has begun to tickle the prospect off paying off those set-ups, albeit with about two or three episodes left to go. Heck, maybe by the end of this there'll actually be a fully competent reason why the episodes are themed after the seven deadly sins, because so far it's feeling a little arbitrary. If I didn't already know that Capcom and Dragon's Dogma's creator hadn't gotten themselves involved with the project I might have accused the anime makers of not having actually experienced the game themselves just for employing such a core central thematic device. But I'm no bore, I'll give them the chance to win me over. (Spoilers, by the way.)

This episode is entitled 'Sloth', one of my favourite of the deadly sins to see represented due to the not-exactly obvious nature of the sin leading to quite some diversity in the ways we can see some one can depict the idea of slothfulness. It's like the old-ball sin next to the odd-ball Horseman of the Apocalypse 'Pestilence'. And how do they represent it in this series? With drugs. Yeah, this is the drug episode everybody! The anime uses psychedelic moss and the stupor it sends it's users on as a metaphor for disassociation and ignoring one's problems, which is totally valid on it's face even if it's simultaneously a bit shallow. Were this a greater length series which was taking a greater look at the concept of 'Sloth', rather than 20 minutes of an anime episode, I might chide this display as situationally reductive; but the episode doesn't linger on the topic too much, so the drug-addiction short-hand works well enough.

As I mentioned before, in the show's attempt to be subversive and therefore unpredictable with it's hard view on morality and karmic retribution, the show does wobble close to predictability for the mere fact that you know something untoward is going to happen to otherwise underserving people. Last episode it was the twist double homicide at the end, this time it was Lennie, wife of the drugged out adulterer, being munched on by a Hydra, if anything the only part of this episode that did honestly surprise me was the fact that Lennie actually survived inside the beast's belly! Although she did lose her eyesight. (There's the typical fatalism I was missing for a scant second! I almost had a hope for a second! Perish the thought.) Aside from that the raw body of the episode was fairly generic to the series' own standards and that would typically dampen the amount of enjoyment I could see out of it, and yet I did end up liking this episode more than the last one.

Part of that comes down to the beast of this episode, the aforementioned Hydra. The fight against this beast is straightforward in choreography, but stands out for the talent of the animation. I've said it before, but in action this show visually sings and that has proven no less true against a beast as large and somewhat iconic as this one, (It's the first proper monster you fight in the game, so I'd call that pretty iconic) if only the action writing and combat staging could match that level of quality then this show could be an excellent action anime. For example, the show remembers enough lore to show us the 'Hydra heads regenerate' thing play out, very cool, but then they totally neglect the whole 'unless you set the wound on fire' caveat which the game touts. It would have fit into the narrative neatly too, as Olivia seem to do nothing else but shoot fire magic about the place, but they wanted a wholly more contrived finale to the encounter which, though narratively significant, kind of diminished the sort of tangible deathly threat that a Hydra should pose. (His Berserker rage could have made him more clever in order to solve the fight, rather than just '/kill' it.)

It was the glimmer of character work being introduced to our character which made this episode really stand out for me for it's decent set-up and execution. Already we'd had it established that our view-finder, Ethan, is something of a typically heroic protagonist, driven to try and solve every problem he comes across and to see the strength in the belittled man. Each episode has shown Ethan be punished for his naiveté, where the people he sought to help end up worse than before or the 'little man' brings about their own destruction. This is the episode where those lessons actually start to take hold, and we're lucky enough to see the shift happen real time over the course of this episode alone. And it's actually this sort of 'answer-response' writing which I think can be the most effective when displaying a journey of character growth, so I definitely appreciated seeing it here.

At the start of his journey to slay the Hydra, Ethan and his pawn Olivia discuss the futility of Lennie' struggles in her hoping that her drug addled husband will magically snap back to normal once the dragon had been slain and structure was restored. Ethan is his typical optimistic self whilst Olivia is stoic on the matter, rather unable to connect to the humanity of the situation. (Being a pawn and all.) After the events of the episode however, with Lennie being briefly vored and the mine camp being all-but destroyed, Ethan and Olivia walk the exact same stretch of land and have an almost identical conversation only with their perspectives utterly reversed. Of course, the key switching moment was when Ethan thought he'd lost Olivia, before learning that Pawns don't die like humans do, and went all red-eye berserk for a time. And I like the interesting implications this opens up for where this series is going.

We know that part of the journey of a Pawn is to attach to it's arisen and leech of their personality and knowledge to eventually morph into a copy of them once their arisen ascends to either Seneschal-hood or Dragon-hood, so seeing Olivia start to cotton onto the 'wonders' of the human spirit is fully in-keeping with that journey. Ethan losing his faith in humanity, however, to the point where he even refers to 'humans' as separate from himself, is atypical to the Arisen destiny. Perhaps we could see this as a consequence of being separated from his heart, but only if we accept the classical biological mythology that the heart is the font of emotion and humanity, and despite seeming to a standard medieval fantasy world in appearance I've never felt that particular concept as being present in the Dragon's Dogma setting before. What's more likely is that we're seeing the slow descent of Ethan, through grounded human stumbling, into the state of a Dark Arisen, perhaps the most fascinating current chunk of Dogma lore which was only ever touched on by the game's first and last DLC.

What on it's face is a rather standard episode of Dragon's Dogma, shapes up as the beginning of the fulfilment of this series' purpose, and that alone made it a more interesting episode for me. I still lament the action and wish a bit more structure could be introduced to how the fights play out, but the visuals are robust enough to keep my attention as it is. (I just think there could be a lot more to it.) I wasn't a fan of the individual story of this episode, doing a 'drugs = laziness' plot feels dangerously close to a cop-out and it's only the wider narrative of the series that saved it, but only just. Ultimately, I think this was a  decidedly average episode of the show with the hope of something more. But I'm going to knock down a mark for the resolution of the action, which was just lazy, so it's a flat C Grade. I have faith that things are going to start getting more interesting from here...

Dragon's Dogma Netflix Episode 3: Envy

 And watered blight

That's right! I don't make promises lightly! (Unless that promise is to continue that damned XCOM Blog, that one is going to take a while longer) After months of 'being on break' I've finally dragged myself back around to seeing the next episode of Netflix's Dragon's Dogma anime, which is something that a Dragon's Dogma super fan like myself should be heavily invested in. In the time off I've actually taken the time to freshen up my memory with a full playthrough of Dragon's Dogma the game, and so I'm much more up to date on things that snuck around me last time, like how this adaptation is absolutely using the rough framework of the game to make it's own world. Ethan looks like the prequel Arisen, but he isn't. Cassardis shares the same name as the sea-adjacent fishing village from the game, but it's clearly meant to be something else entirely here. I'm not personally sure how I feel about an adaptation playing things this fast and loose, but Dragon's Dogma's chief-most strength was never in the robust nature of it's world so I'm not heartbroken or anything. (I just don't know why they needed to pinch concepts like that, it felt a bit like leading me on.)

I'll be honest with you all, I was avoiding watching this episode for quite a bit, and that's because I already sort of knew what was coming in it. Not the broader strokes of the narrative, but the introduction of some creatures that act rather differently than they did in the games. Rape goblins. I knew they were coming. Why is it that Japan are obsessed with the idea of little green goblin men being vicious sex fiends? Heck, there was an entire Manga turned Anime based off that very concept with Goblin Slayer! (Okay, Goblin Slayer is about a little more than just the aggressive sexual proclivities of goblins, but I digress!) I feel like in the West we take this almost piteous view on the Goblin kind, maybe influenced by DnD which constantly tries to hammer home how these are some of the most pathetic creatures to walk the earth. They seem downtrodden, beaten, even cute in a utterly ugly way. But in the East? No, that ugliness spreads a lot deeper than just the surface, it burrows right down to the soul!

But yes, Envy begins with a small retainer of two guards, a noble's son and his wife being overwhelmed by Goblins (someone tell those guards to hand in their badges, damn.) and the wife falling into a decidedly rape-y scenario before Ethan swoops in to spare us from this becoming a much darker Anime then it already seems to be edging at. Once more the animation and general movement of the show is the standout for me, with the action scenes looking like they were extracted right from the game with a little more stylistic flair giving to the shading and flourishes. I think the only thing holding it back, and this might just stretch towards the show in general, is a lack of grand direction. The Goblin chopping sequence was fine but it could have exciting and fast, showing off the sheer numbers of the foes and how clever strategy can overwhelm. Instead they just slay a few and the rest scatter, it almost feels like a waste of a scene. (Maybe Jojo has ruined my expectations.)

As was the case with the previous, almost anthology like, episodes, this one introduces to a few new characters and motivations, just not for the main cast. The soldiers weren't very interesting and I can't remember their faces, but the cowardly husband and his wife did ring a bell. In fact, if I squinted, it almost seemed as though the wife character was based on Madeleine in some vague twisted fashion, although if that is the case then it's easily one of the lesser examples of concept borrowing from the main game. (They aren't overly similar) Funnily enough those two characters were probably the only stand outs from this episode, given that own two main leads are currently Hannah, a pawn characterised by a lack of emotion and desire, and Ethan, who just seems to be angrily hunting this dragon down for something he hasn't even hammered out yet. I suppose vengeance- but to what end? His family is good and dead. At least the husband and wife have an arc this episode.

Although on that note, I am starting to wonder if the cynical tone of the show is starting to edge events into predictability, because I figured out the ending before our hero even popped up on screen. Essentially we have a fairly prototypical setup, with a weak and scared husband character who's so pathetic he can't deal with Goblins (Seriously dude, you live in a world with Hydras; you've got to learn how to deal with footlongs) and his flighty wife who seems a little bit... shall we say, friendly, with old Ethan after he steps in to save her life. (Too bad for her that Ethan is currently in the middle of his descent into a revenge fuelled misanthropy, not really the kind of mood fit for a quick night-time dalliance.) The stage is set for a redemption story, but the precedent of the narrative paves way for a subversion, so the episode really lays itself bare.

One slight irk that rocked me was Ethan and trying to come to terms with his competence, an important part of any characterisation, I believe. We've been given hints that Ethan was much more than just a farmer in his past life, with his combat prowess alone indicating he was something of a solider before. That's evident, and yet he spots a griffin and turns into toddler mode asking "What's that?" One of the most common plains creature in your world? How can you not know what a Griffin is? Plus there was the odd faffing about with Hannah at the climax of the episode where she was readying her fire-bow shot for all of 3 minutes. Not sure what that was about. Actually, it sort of felt like an artificially constructed tension point where she had to be 'defended' whilst aiming her shot like she's some kind of freakin' robot hacking a door. Again, animation great-underlying intention behind that movement, not so much.

The big twist at the end of this episode, and where it earns it's place in the seven deadly sins, is wherein the husband is forced to save his wife from the return of the rape goblins whilst everyone else is busy on the Griffin. He massacres them all, becomes the man he could have always been, and then turns around and stabs his wife too. Turns out the guy didn't want to lose her and thought that this would be the way they could stay together, his envy bubbled up and drove him more than a little crazy, it would seem. A dour ending to extinguish a vaguely triumphant moment and another rung on this Anime's journey to drive something home that is slightly evading me thusfar. The cynicism has already grown predictable, so I'm just riding on there being some sort of satisfying payoff bubbling in the background somewhere. Either that or a finale spectacle which redeems this cursed world just a tiny bit.

Once more another middle of road sort of episode from the Dragon's Dogma anime for many of the reason that I've laid out. Ethan and Hannah aren't making for the most scene grabbing protagonists and the overall arching story is just 'follow the dragon', I'm sure there must be more coming eventually but I'm not sure how far this show is capable of dragging me along until we get there. I appreciate the odd skewered narrative shift, but right now it's feeling like without those this would be a fairly standard fantasy show, and I know Dragon's Dogma as a license is capable of more than that. I just need to see that represented in this show. With all that in mind, I can't really give this episode any mark higher than a C, but I did like the action of this episode a bit more than the last on so I'll bump that up to a C+. It can definitely get better from here, I have hope.

Dragon's Dogma Netflix Episode 2: Gluttony

Cross loamless plains

So it's been a decent chunk of time since I last touched on this review-esque blog type, such to the point where I'm starting to feel like a tardy delinquent, so it's about time I got around to fixing that. In my defence, it was because even watching Dragon's Dogma spurred me on to start the game once more and power through to the end over the space of about a week, so now I've just got a bunch of completely refreshed memories about what that game was really about. I know the dragon was actually Grigori, as opposed to whom I though it was last blog, I know that the Arisen from the prologue, Savan, is not the guy portrayed in this anime despite the similarities that they share. I also remember a whole lot that the Arisen is supposed to be put up against, and I'm unsure of how the Netflix series is going to handle it. Ethan had his entire life burned away in the first episode, which sort of comes at odd with the traditional Arisen journey. I won't raise my specific concerns right now, but rather wait and see if they solve themselves. In the meanwhile, let me get back into the show itself.

So Episode 2 is entitled 'Gluttony', and it was here that I realised we were doing the Seven Deadly Sins with this. Somehow the first episode entitled 'Wrath' didn't tip me off, I know... Still, I both get excited and concerned when I see a story that wears it's convictions and lessons so freely on it's sleeve. On one hand it shows straight-up that there's a direction and purpose behind the stories being presented, so I can take solace that the show isn't just going to waste time until the Dragon pops up. On the otherhand going this route does portend exactly what to expect from the story and also opens up some hefty expectations that need to be met. "How is this story going to portray the concept of Gluttony to it's fullest; what are it's lessons, examples, resolutions" etc. Heck, even looking back I feel like they could have leaned heavier into the concept of Wrath, perhaps during the moments before the dragon showed up. (They could have switched up the pointless wolfhunt for something more thematically appropriate, for example) Because otherwise the show is invoking the name of 'Wrath' in it's most bland and boring sense, anger. When I feel like the sin aspect could open up the consequence of wrath and vengeance overtaking justice. And yes, you could argue how that's the story the entire series is telling, but then why not call the last episode 'Wrath'? Why not call the whole series 'Wrath'? Am I getting caught up in insignificant topics again? I am; onto the episode. 

Gluttony begins by scoring immediate rapport with fans of the game like myself, by showing our Pawn make her way through the rift in search of the newly arisen. Perfect lifting of concepts from the game, nailed the sound, look, presentation; everything. What they didn't nail, however, was the city which was burnt down around our protagonist. Is that meant to be Cassardis? I think it is. But Cassardis is a fishing village in the games, built atop the slope of a hill that effects the shape of the whole location and makes it stand out as weirdly unique. There aren't a great many towns that slope down a hill in such awkward fashion, afterall, so that serves as kind of it's instant visual flair. Not sure why the Netflix show decided to turn it into a flat pancake generic city. I didn't even see a single fishing boat or anything. Again, you may argue 'Small details.' But those are the details that make the world breath. Without that we've haven't got a world, just a backdrop, and the show's starting to feel like its in front of a backdrop right now.

Our Pawn lady picks up unconscious Ethan, tucks him into bed and then is there in the morning to tell him all about what he is, as an arisen, and set him on his merry way. To which I must say, my Pawn never carried me to bed after a stressful day! How supremely courteous, I wish my pawn thought enough about me give a piggyback ride every now and then, it would save me some back-ache that's for sure. I also thought it was funny that, after hearing all this exposition, Ethan suddenly hears the voice of the dragon out of freakin' nowhere explaining all the important details he glossed over last night. "Oh yeah- crap- listen dude; you kinda should hunt me down and beat me if you want your heart back or something. No pressure and all but, it's sort of your duty. Nuts, the Seneschal is going kill me!" Didn't know that the Dragon could use long-distance mind phone to call you up. That's a new one.

That night Ethan is camping in the woods and ends up having a heart-to-heart with his Pawn where he discovers that she doesn't have a name. Touching on a curious topic I never really thought about where Pawns aren't just given their personalities by their masters, but their identities too. It's a wonder that some can still persist after their master's death. It also makes me wonder how Pawn's both observe the wider world and seem oblivious to it, where they can identify character traits of monsters but don't know what the concept of 'kidding' is. (Maybe that's just the script trying to have its cake and eat it at the same time) Ethan calls her Hannah, after the child he would have had with Olivia, which I suppose creates a parent and child bond with this woman of the same age that's going to become his murder-buddy over the course of this journey. Not sure I understood what was supposed to be thematically appropriate about that, but there it is. It isn't long, however, before the plot rears its head and gets our story focused once again.

A cyclops is getting ready to chow down on a woman who's been tied to a rock, rather obviously deliberately and Ethan decides he's not about that thus  he thrusts himself into the hero role like any good generic protagonist would. (Hannah almost seemed reluctant to get involved. Odd detail to throw in there, wonder if it'll pay of.) From here on the themes start to stand out in the plot, but in very plain and simple definitions, kind of how they did with 'Wrath'. The Cyclops is a hungry monster that the villagers need to feed every year with sacrifices. The local town (which is unnammed and doesn't relate to any location in the game) has a system where they elect out their own children to be eaten so that the family who 'donates' will be given extra rations. The leader of the town hoards all of the food to himself and divvies it out sparingly in order to keep the starving populace desperate. It's all very surface level hunger-related topics which is certainly fitting in a story named 'gluttony', but once again; there's more to the concept than it's face value.

There's no real surprises in the narrative to speak of. Ethan and Hannah go to hunt down the cyclops and free the town of the sacrificial ritual, during which they learn that the town's mayor is in contract with the cyclops to feed it villagers. (Not really sure how that works, given that cyclops' are incapable of higher thought) The pair showcase uncanny levels of teamwork considering they just started fighting together, and manage to fell the Cyclops with a bit of elemental magic ("Take my fire!") and a stab directly in the eye. Which killed it, oddly, instead of just sending it swinging blindly like what happens in the game. The Mayor storyline also manages to wrap itself up in the same fight, because apparently this show is on speed mode to do one story an episode on a 24 minute constraint. (Not wise.) The only twist, and I'm glad this angle was addressed, is that when Ethan shows the people their Mayor for what he is, the starving masses store his citadel and tear each other apart to get at his food. Showing desperation mixed with greed and human folly. Yes, it isn't the most unique message in the world, but it just about saved this episode from narrative mediocrity.

I actually enjoyed this episode a lot more than the first one, with the actual task of travelling the world and becoming the Arisen taking centre stage. I will bemoan that the villain was painfully cliched and obvious in this episode, and the dialogue (Are we sure that this was written in English first?) feels like it was sleep-written, it's so by-the-numbers. But the action was fun, the story has a point, and I'm actually coming around to liking one of the main characters. I mean, that character I like is actually Hannah rather than Ethan, because she wields that bow like a god, but at least there's someone I find interesting. Ethan lacks huge amounts of character, but that is in keeping with the game so I can't deride him too hard for that. Given that this is only the second episode, and nothing outside of the animation stood out as exemplary, I'm only comfortable rating this episode with a C. Better than the intro, still not enough to make this series shine like it absolutely can do.

Dragon's Dogma Netflix Episode 1: Wrath

'Neath a faulted sky

Okay, now this isn't suddenly an Anime review blog, (and if it was you could expect my comprehensive review of all 152 episodes of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure anytime now, so count your lucky stars) and if you've been around here you'll know why I'm covering this here show right away. Dragon's Dogma is a game that I positively adore, and one which is unfairly shafted far too often in conversations about action RPGs. Did it have it problems, yes, but the execution, man-v-goliath gameplay, unfailing epic music, ponderously paced exploration, weighty movement, and everything else made it a game so brilliant, in my eyes, it's a damn shame it never got the recognition it deserved. (My gorge rises at it) There was but a unique China-only online spin-off (which I can only assume is non-canonical) an expansion rerelease which fixed the core game's biggest issue, a lackluster story, handily and that was it. Or at least it was, until September 2020 when out of nowhere Capcom decided to announce their very own anime collaboration with Netflix to bring Dragon's Dogma back from the dead. I cannot rightfully explain to you how confused that announcement made me. (Although you can read about my reaction right here)  Long story short, I was worried about what they might make of a series I'm literally desperate to see revived, and so I ignored it.

And yet, even in my intentional ignorance I heard little snippets here and there. A lukewarm reception, (makes sense considering the actual game suffered from the same) full 3D animation that doesn't look like the devil spawn (wish they'd taught 'Speed Racer: The Next Generation' such a valuable secret craft) and next to no news on a season 2. (Again, just the luck of Dragon's Dogma fans) But stolen opinions of others hardly make for a clear picture, and so I finally got around to watching this anime myself, reasoning that if I keep up watching Golden Wind in-between I can't feasibly get too disappointed, right? Still, it must be said that I am no vast expert on the wide world of Anime, I just like what I like, so bare that in mind as I make my impressions. Now that's out the way, how do I feel after coming out of the first episode?

Meh. Yeah, that pretty sums up my feeling to a tee. Nothing awful just yet but nothing which had exploded out to me in surprise. Now to be fair, it's difficult to go and judge one's feelings off of one episode so I could very come back here and laugh at my pedestrian understanding of a masterpiece. And yet, I do recall the very first time I watched Jojo and the way instantly become intrigued in what was going on and where these character's would go. And that's before 'Sono Chi no Sadame' was even first played, so you know my interest was piqued by the quality of the show. Dragon's Dogma hasn't done that so far, and in fact I spent a lot of the first episode rather bored and hoping that the thing would wrap up a little quicker. Although, the place they left it does hold promise for the future, I just wish that the storytellers took a leaf out of the game's books and started there. Kay, those are my spoiler free thoughts, now I'll go into specifics that'll be spoiler soaked.

For the narrative the very first episode made the bold choice of screwing about with pointless backstory for it's runtime. Now know that I'm not the sort of person who lives and breathes action and complains when an episode of his favourite show doesn't have story progression every two minutes, but there's a difference between taking your time to explore the world and your characters and just wasting time. Ethan, our protagonist, is just some guy who has a pregnant wife and appears to be pseudo-adopting the neighbour boy. He has a dream about the Dragon showing up, which is odd because no mystical link should exist before he's been inducted into the Dogma but I guess we're making up new rules now. (Great). Ethan decides to go hunting with his annoying kinda-but-not-officially adopted son and comes across some of the castle's knights who have been situated in town in case of a Dragon attack. But that's redundant, I'd say, considering a Dragon attack hasn't happened in 100 years. And yes, that is the exact topic of conversation they strike up in the few moments we have with them, because apparently foreshadowing and subtly attend different schools.

Their impromptu hunting trip is cut short when Ethan bags a deer only for it be jumped on by some terrifying beastie from the woods. Oh, I remember thinking, what classic beast could this be? Goblins? Saurians? Heck, maybe a Chimera? Nah it's wolves. Just... just wolves. They weren't even dire wolves. I know that Dragon's Dogma is often criticised for it's rather classic cast of monsters, but they do have cool ones in the rooster. They do. Then, and bare with me because this makes literally no sense to me even with several hours of after thought, Ethan sends the kid running home. Fair enough, makes sense, they can't outrun this pack of wolves and Ethan thinks he can take them, but that isn't why he sends the kid off. He tells him to warn the town. About the wolves. The huge town with walls. Ethan wants them warned about a small band of wild wolves. As if these pack of animals who typically avoid hubs of activity are going to single-handily wipe out the town. (At best this warrants a caution in the hunter's lodge, not a full blown city alarm.)

The kid with the annoying voice, accent and face sets off the guard into a tizzy about the terribly intimidating pack of wild animals that's apparently meant to be a true menace worthy of this order of knights sent here to watch for dragons, (Glad to know the capital sent their best) and then something turns up to really warrant their fears. Yep, it's the dragon. That big titular lizard who the show should have started with, apparently it took the scenic route to get here but she snuck in before the credits thankfully. What follows is the summary destruction of a town who's name I never learned, all the crack dragon-soldiers being useless, and Ethan returning from his wolf slaughter just in time to watch annoying kid get eaten (Yay!) and pregnant wife be burned to a crisp. (Not so yay. In fact, rather horrible.) After which the Dragon seems to size up Ethan as perhaps being a solid next Seneschal, nabs his heart and eats it. Although, and this upset me, it's not in the same way as it was in the game. In the game the dragon literally stabs one giant claw into your chest and pulls out your heart on the tip of it with ludicrous precision, whereas here he just used stupid magic. Not nearly as fun.

The next morning Ethan wakes up, in bed bizarrely, (I guess the Dragon tucked him in after the day's events?) and walks out to survey the carnage of his home. Behind him pops up an odd blonde lady who soon reveals herself to be his very first Pawn, and so the cycle of the Arisen starts anew. Or rather, does starts a-old. Because I realised, pretty much the second we saw pregnant Olivia, that this isn't an adaption of the events of the game. Rather, and this should have occurred to me much sooner, it's telling the story of Ethan; an Arisen not unlike the one you play as in the prologue of Dragon's Dogma on your very first playthrough, making this series a prequel I suppose. I'm not sure what potential difference that could offer to the story, or what revelations the lore might be treated to consequentially, but I'm interested to find out. Plus, I wonder if this series will go all-the-way, so to speak, as if I recall the events of the game well enough, the Arisen journey has a tendency of going really south for a few candidates. But I heavily digress, I can talk more about all that when I get there.

First I want to start with the writing and performances I endured in this episode, because I sincerely hope none of these are indicative of the whole series. To start, Netflix insisted to me that the original language of this show was English, thus that's what I watched it in, despite every line reading and sounding like it was created from a painfully rudimentary translation job. All of the characters I met felt empty and/or annoying, to the point where I didn't really care if anyone lived or died, and the kid's English accent hurt me. The only character who sounds like his voice actor was dedicating themselves significantly to their performance was Ethan, which makes sense as he is the main character and only survivor out of episode 1. (Okay, Olivia's actress was actually pretty good as well, but I found her dialogue super generic and jarring so it made it hard to notice.) Again, I'm mostly critiquing side characters here but that is the sort of stuff that tends to worm under my skin and throw me out of the world. Additionally, and this may be a bad point thrown towards the script, they threw in old English really sporadically and ineffectively, it actually made the Dragon's speech grate a little with how ineloquently it was constructed. So overall, I found the performances and script in episode 1 to be just below average.

The Animation, however, was certainly a lot more positive, and this is probably a point I'll be able to carry on for the breadth of the series because I can't imagine them getting too crazy with things over the course of these handful of episodes. The 3d models go for this smoothed style that really responds well to humans and making them look breathing and alive, I can see this really being a solid foundation for the series to come. (Though it doesn't blow my mind or anything) In movement, however, I did notice a few moments of stiffness in moments that were outside of action. Character's walking in a way that looks like their arms have locked up, or subtle hand movements that look more laboured than they needed to. (The action scenes were both very lively, if not all that exciting given the stakes) I did, however, have one problem with the art in that, though the style works well on humans, I didn't really like the effect it had on the Dragon. I recognise that it matches incredibly well with the dragon's appearance in the game, but the smoothed surface made the creature look oddly flat against his 3d background. In the game that question of depth is solved by the player's interaction with the world, they can essentially feel the size and weight of this dragon, (And even then it's not my favourite design in the game by a long shot) but in the show I just didn't like how it ended up. Finally, and I understand this is a slightly separate concern but I think it makes just enough sense to stick it on the end of this section, the shot of Ethan and that child having a back and forth with some drunk guards was composed genuinely badly. The shots were too split, it looked like they were being filmed at separate locations, which I shouldn't ever feel considering we're talking about an animated show that's rendered, not filmed. Despite all those issues, however, I did like the 3d aesthetic and think it was above average for what shows of this calibre typically can produce.

Finally, and if you read my blog on how I feel about Dragon's Dogma ya'll knew this was coming, we've got to talk about the intro. What. The. Hell. Now I recognise that I'm coming from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, an anime literally renowned for somehow having at least 8 fantastic openings. (Haven't reached Traitor's Requiem yet, but I'm pretty sure it'll be great too.) I'm spoiled in that department, I realise this. But Dragon's Dogma (specifically the Dark Arisen rerelease) had a truly brilliant opening theme which was so fast paced and diverse that it could have easily served as an anime opening! It's range complimented the exemplar scope of the game, it bought both an orchestra and a choir into the mix and it had lyrics! You have to give your anime intro lyrics, Netflix, what's wrong with you? (Just wait until I find out Castlevania, which I also haven't watched, doesn't have lyrics in it's intro.) The intro they settled on is boring. Forgettable. I've forgotten it already. I had to watch Fighting Gold again to remind me what excitement felt like. Terrible job. 0/10. I want my subscription money back, Netflix.

Pardon me, I tend to get animated when talking about Dragon's Dogma. I don't really want my money back (besides, it's a shared account; that'd make for an awkward conversation with the account owner) and it's not really a 0/10 just because of the intro. (Though I'm close.) It might have sounded like I really hated this, but I understand how sometimes you need a little momentum to get things going so I'm reserving ultimate judgement. However, I was less than impressed with what I've seen so far. Overall I just wish that this show had the good graces to start as the game did, with the moment the dragon creates the Arisen, so that we could have gotten into the meat faster. I feel like too much effort was put into a lazy backstory that was ultimately useless because it was all hollow come paydirt. That being said, the action looked more lively than I expected and the story seems like it's finally getting started so I'll see where things go. This episode still gets an overall D though, really hope things step up in the future. (Don't you go making a mockery of my Dragon's Dogma now!)