[OxBlood]

60hrs into Dragons Dogma. While far from perfect with the clunky menu-system and occasional technical problems (pop-ins, framerate-drops, etc.), this is still the best RPG I´ve played in the last few years.

The combat is fluid, the character-progression is immensly satisfying, the pawn-system is good, the story is inspired if poorly presented, the world is beautiful, the whole game immerses the player in a very world that is neither too dark, nor too japanese, it strikes a very good balance between western culture and japanese game systems.

You will find almost no humorous dialogue here, no silly out-of-place-people and the move to make the gameworld a simple Duchy instead of a Kingdom is simple but very effective, it makes the scale of the world and land feel more accurate (because let´s face it, Cyrodiil in Oblivion is no Province with no fricking Emperor, it´s a small valley with a few houses).

All of the classes have their own unique feel to it, the Magic Archer plays kind of like a Strider but not quite, same with the Mystic Knight and the Fighter, they all share certain moves and elements but they each different enough to warrant many class-changes or playthroughs with NG+

There´s a shitload of quests (you get the 100 DLC-Quest-Bullshit Capcom pulled for free, in Germany at least), there´s tons of places to wander to because there´s no real fast-travel system in place, at least not one the player can use all the time and the game has the most beautiful.

It combines the impactful combat of Amalur with the world and feel of Dark Souls without being as unforgiving, it throws big enemies at you at every corner, all of which require you to adapt your strategy (though a Tornado is always a viable answer to these problems).

And what´s important: Accomplishing something here FEELS like you actually accomplished something. Every piece of loot is something you worked for, every Class-up brings with it the want to get back to the city to get new and better skills but hey, you´re somewhere out in the mountains, fighting Harpies and on your way back you might encounter a Golem or you might not make it before nightfall and if you´re stuck in the woods by then, you can´t see a thing which means you also won´t see the Chimera behind the tree over there and HEY, Undead Warriors and Mages join the party...

You get my drift, I suppose. When you finally get back to the Castle, you feel like you really experienced something on your way home and you earned all those new skills and items you then improve at the Smithy.


All in all, this is my personal game of the year.