Side quests. Walkthrough of Dragon's Dogma Dragons dogma task call without

With a bonus in the form of Japanese voice acting and a new island, where they make it clear that you are nobody, don’t know how to fight, and your charges are better off herding cows and picking up the cakes that fall out of them.

It is not recommended to visit Bitterblack Island until you have reached at least level 50 and completed the game. The meeting committee will eat and not choke. What can I say, supermen of the hundredth level and above can be driven into the ancient walls of the catacombs with one blow of a tail flashing from the shadows.

In general, everything reminds me a lot of. Ominous dark labyrinths, some kind of slurry squishes under your feet, the echoing silence is diluted by someone’s moans and growls. Mighty fiends of the underworld, who do not care about your equipment, self-esteem and past achievements, easily sweep away the fragile figures of your pawn partners from the game board of this labyrinth of death. Cheap tricks are used everywhere, such as shelling paths or crowds of magicians covering the team with volleys of spells.

Pawns... Well, the pawns remained pawns. With voices full of sincere sympathy, they scream about the need to go to the rear, boringly comment on the finds and die heroically, crushed by the carcass of a creature for which it is difficult to come up with a censored name.

The claim is not new, but in light (or rather, in its absence) of adventures on the island, the AI ​​of the companions is not the most brilliant, their slowness and waywardness begin to evoke a burning desire to kill their charges with their own hands. Preferably something like a chainsaw.

The local fauna has no concept of hygiene, so so many harmful creatures live on the fangs and claws of underground creatures that most missed blows lead to poisoning, blindness and other tetanus. You get into a rage, driving the sword into the boss’s neck over and over again; the magician makes a difficult face and declares that he is in control of the situation; The robber carefully saws through the monster's tendons. And then - bam - everyone dies.

Additionally, the male Death follows the team through the maze and tests his agricultural arsenal on them. The poisoned four, looking like paralytics under anesthesia, are unsuccessfully trying to fight off the giant wolves that have flooded the room, and then this cross between a Nazgûl and a Dementor arrives and finishes what they started. Emotions run high, often finding the most bizarre expressions.

You try to correct the situation by summoning more powerful pawns, but there aren’t enough crystals for everything. Crystals are used to open portals and identify items found. You give up on passing and start stupidly swinging on the reviving monsters, cherishing sweet pictures of revenge. The saga of a hero in search of a dragon turns into a run-of-the-mill Diabloid. Okay, not exactly run-of-the-mill. With wanderings through the gloomy galleries and echoing halls of the ancient island. With devilishly strong and dangerous creatures as opponents. With re-traversal of already familiar areas in search of unnoticed chests and unfinished monsters.

Diagnosis

Dark Arisen is designed for Dragons Dogma professionals. Others simply won’t appreciate this crazy swing on the new island. Well, or if you suddenly missed the original for the most valid reasons, then you have an excellent chance to complete this wonderful game. And forget about the island. It is for the elite.

Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen- an open-world RPG game with slasher elements Devil May Cry And Dark Souls created by Capcom developers. The game was released on May 22, 2012 on Xbox 360 and PS3. On PC, Dragon’s Dogma with exclusive additions was released on January 15, 2016.

Game development

The game was developed jointly by Capcom employees who had a hand in the games in the series Resident Evil, DMC And Breath of Fire. According to some rumors, Capcom plans to develop a continuation of the successful RPG project immediately after the release of the PC game, but a port to the new generation consoles XONE and PS4 is not excluded.

Game Features

In the game Dragon's Dogma, the player is given a choice between character classes, such as Fighter, Warrior, Paladin, Assassins and others, we will try to discuss each of them, if possible, in our guide. The gameplay of each class is radically different from each other. One of the features of the game is the distribution of roles and the issuance of commands at any time in the game. Yes, you will be able to give orders to one of your squad members - NPCs controlled by AI, we could see a similar system in Dragon Age.

The game also has a capture function, which is widely presented to us in the game Shadow of Colossus and in the not yet released Last Guardian. It features an advanced battle with massive bosses, in which you will have to climb onto a huge body to find a pressure point on it. Once you make a few hits, you will have to find a few more points on other parts of the boss's body.

Dragon's Dogma boasts a breadth of open world that is in no way inferior to such mastodons as TES: Skyrim And Fallout. In addition to this, the cities and paths along which you have to go are not empty; there are about 300 NPCs in the game with their own dialogues and a bunch of different functions. The player can learn useful information from NPCs, sell and buy equipment, receive rewards, and complete quests. The game has a permanent world system in which you will have to fight off monsters at night.

The game is made in such a way that an ordinary player with not very strong knowledge of the RPG genre can understand it. It is for such players that there is an opportunity to hire strong NPCs to allow them to fight in their place, and the players will only have to monitor the conduct of the battle by giving orders left and right. To complete the entire game you will need about 120 hours; this includes a story campaign for 40-50 hours, as well as more than 80 hours for completing side quests.

Our guides

In this guide you will find:

1. Walkthroughs of the main storyline with step-by-step explanations.
2. Tactics and boss battles.
3. Character classes
4. Location of NPCs with side quests and completing them.
5. A detailed Bestiary that will help you in the fight against certain monsters.
6. The location of Armor and Weapons in Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen, as well as the discovery of exclusive content intended for the PC version of the game.
7. Tips for beginners, in which everyone can share their experience of completing Dragon’s Dogma.

First of all, familiarize yourself with the controls. The W, S, A, D keys are used for movement. Left mouse button – light attack, right mouse button – heavy attack. The Esc key opens the pause menu. Press the I key to open your inventory.

Follow forward until you see a huge Dragon. Fight several goblins, follow the companion and jump down by pressing the Space button. Get closer to the large stone with the design and press the E key. Two more characters will appear who will help you on your journey.

Move on. Use the F1, F2, F3 keys to give commands to your teammates. Kill a few more goblins. To run, use the SHIFT key. Next you will see a flying creature. Attack him with standard attacks. Or hold down the left CTRL and, without releasing it, click on the left mouse button. Your hero will swing his sword, covering himself with a shield.

Fight with Chimera (first boss)

The fight is pretty simple. You must constantly be on the move and attack the Chimera either from below or from above. Approach the enemy from the side and press the F key to grab onto his hair. Now use the keys that are responsible for the movement of the character to climb onto the back of the Chimera. After that, attack.

Please note that at the top of the screen there is an enemy health bar. In addition to the purple line, there are two purple dots. This is the number of lives. When you empty the entire scale, one of the purple dots will go out. The scale will fill up again and you will have to empty it again. Then, when both dots go out, you will need to empty the purple gauge of the Chimera's health one last time. After this, the first mission will be completed.

Harbinger of Destruction

Just attack the Dragon until it throws the main character aside. Watch the cutscene.

Newborn

After the cutscene, go to the table near the wall near where the weapon lies. Select your character's hero class. After this, leave the room through the passage nearby. Watch the cutscene and leave the house.

Walk along the street in the direction of the marker, which is depicted as an orange circle. When you find yourself in place, near the gate to the city, an elderly man will speak to you. A new quest will begin.

Pawn

Approach the gate and press the E key to leave the city. You need to get to the camp to which the path leads. You are now on the right path. Just run along the path until you see three goblins attacking a civilian. Deal with the ghouls and continue along the path. At the gate to the camp, press the E key.

Newborn challenge

Move forward behind Rook, go to the indicated tent and activate the ancient stone. After talking with him, you will have to inspect the location.

Move in the opposite direction, to the gate through which you came. In the cut-scene you will be shown a small squad of soldiers running. Follow Rook and leave the camp through the gate where he will stop.

The events of the game will unfold in yet another fictional world, which is already overpopulated with monsters of all kinds. At the beginning of the game you have to meet an incredibly strong dragon, who immediately declares the hero (heroine) the chosen one and at the same time rips the heart out of your chest. It would seem that with the loss of a vital organ and history, the end has come, but in Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen this is only the beginning of all the adventures that await you ahead. Take on the role of a heartless hero and go fight monsters!

Completing the game will take a lot of time, because you will have to take part in many heroic battles, each of which is difficult in its own way. In a battle with any enemy, you need to have not only good tactics, but also know your weak points, but that’s not all. On the large gaming portal "" you can find a complete and detailed walkthrough of the game, which is based on your own experience. Moreover, here you will find not only the appropriate tactics for each enemy, but also simply useful tips for the game!

"Prologue"

The game begins with a quest called "The End at the Beginning". You are a man named Sawan. At this stage of the passage, you will have a companion named Seld with you, so move along the gorge in the company of this character. At some point, on one of the cliffs you will notice a dragon, and it will attack you, so you will have to defend yourself. To make a block, press the next key - “Alt”. After a successful defense, continue to walk along the gorge on the right side and kill a couple of enemies along the way, using regular attacks using the LMB and RMB keys.

At some point, you have to jump into a cave and touch a stone that shines amazingly (this stone is called “Rift stone”). What does this stone do? Thanks to the glowing stone, you will be able to summon two additional companions who will help you during the passage. The first companion will be an archer named Queens, and the second will be Morganna. But that's not all, because I also recommend that you learn three special lines that are designed to make it easier to manage a group:

1 - the first cue is “Go!” (the “F1” key is responsible for it) and with its help you can order your allies to go ahead of you, while fighting with enemies.

2 - the second cue is “Come” (the “F2” key is responsible for it) and with this cue you order your allies to follow you.

3 - the third, final replica is “Help” (the “F3” key is responsible for it) and with the help of this replica you can call your allies to you.

Once you have learned how to properly command and control your group, move on. As soon as you reach the hall, get ready for battle, because there you will have to fight goblins. After a small skirmish, go into the corridor and move further along it until you kill all the goblins along the way, because at the end it turns out that you saved a knight with whom you will need to talk for further passage.

As soon as after the conversation you find yourself in the hall, then it’s time to go down to the first floor, face the goblins there and, in the end, kill them! By the way, don’t forget to pick up the little thing from the chest under the bridge, which you can look into using the “E” key. And keep in mind that as soon as you pick up the item specified on the assignment, your group will immediately be attacked by aggressive birds, which only archers and magicians can kill. In any case, try to cover ranged fighters.

Was the battle successful? Then it’s time to go into the next corridor, where you will meet a group of knights, led by a certain Sir Palotti. When they start escorting you further along the storyline, try not to miss the chest on the corner.

Boss - Chimera

It's time to enter the location called the “Grand Hall” (aka “Grand Hall”), where the fight with your first Boss will begin. The monster will have the head of a lion, a snake and a goat. Yes, this is the same Himmera from myths and legends. In fact, the battle with the monster is simple, because you can either take an active part in the battle, or a passive one, because your allies themselves are able to jump on the back of the monster and, thus, kill it. However, you can do this too. In any case, adhere to the following recommendations: it is best to attack the Himmera from the side and it is also better to stay on the side. Remember: standing in front, a lion can attack, and standing behind, a snake can attack. If things are bad, then remember about your magician, because he is able to heal you and your allies (as well as himself) with clots of light, entering which restores health.

If the battle ends in success, then it’s time to go out of the gate and thereby end the story branch called “Prologue”, but if not, well, it’s time to replay the battle! Just try to strictly follow the above recommendations.

Village "Cassardis"

Your new task will be: “Harbinger of Detrustion”. Moreover, the new part of the storyline will begin, as usual, with a splash screen in which you can watch the dragon awaken and fly over the water. Immediately after the splash screen you will have to create your first character. And as soon as you create it, the main character’s village will be attacked by the same dragon that previously awakened in the intro. You don't think you have to drive him away, do you? There's a fight to be had, so approach him from behind and hit his paw several times with your sword. Because the young hero dared to resist, the dragon eats his fiery heart and immediately flies away. And although the dragon devoured the heart of the main character, he does not die, but on the contrary, continues to live. Moreover, it also establishes some kind of mysterious and unknown connection with the dragon.

After stealing the heart, the main character falls unconscious and a cutscene begins. He wakes up at home, where he receives a new task: “Newly Arisen”. Having taken the sword, it’s time to choose a class for yourself, of which there are only three: mage, trickster and warrior. After you decide on your destiny, take the green plant in the same room in which you woke up and leave the house to listen to what the girl and the old man tell you.

Before you move on, I recommend doing the following: go around all the buildings, collect all the healing plants, bottles of potions, food and many other things. Don't forget to visit the shore, because on the right side there is a location called "Starfall Bay", in the gorges of which you can find two chests with useful things. And by the way, there are also chests on the roofs of the houses of the settlement in which you are located, and this is not to mention the fact that the chests are even located on the slopes of the mountains.

In any case, it's time to go to the western exit from the village. Before you are about to go through the gate, you will be approached by an assistant (aka "pawn") named Rock. He will turn to you for a reason, because he will invite you along with him on a hike to a neighboring fortress called “Encampment”. That's why you get the task: “Make for the Encampment”. So, immediately after the conversation, you can safely leave through the gate and go to the indicated place.

By the way, when you move along the road, then in the forest to the left and right on the coast along the way you can search chests with items - don’t miss them. But the most important thing is that sooner or later you will meet a traveling merchant named Reynard. And he will be in trouble because goblins will attack him, so I recommend that you save him in order to get a good cloak for saving him.

Fortress "Encampment"

When you receive the “Heed the Voice” quest in the fortress, go to the “Riftstone” (aka “Riftstone”) in the large tent. Your communication in this place will be unexpectedly interrupted by an alarmed guard who comes running. It turns out that right now there is a battle going on outside the fortress wall, so you are asked to help. To get out of the fortress, go through the northwestern gate straight to the location called “Drive Off the Threat”.

Boss - Cyclops

A new serious fight begins. The first thing you need to know in battle: the eye is the most vulnerable spot, and the monster itself is vulnerable to the “Tornado” spell (aka “Thunder”), which can be mastered by any magician. Since you will arrive at the moment when the local brave warriors have removed almost half of the Cyclops’ health, you will simply have to put an end to him. But before you attack the monster, kill a couple of goblins that are hanging around here, and then switch directly to the Boss himself. If you are a fan of magicians and archers, then you will have to hit Cyclops from afar and constantly aim at the eye. If you play as a warrior, then your task becomes a little more difficult due to the fact that you have to climb on the monster, get to the head and hit it in the eye. This is done using the “F” key.

However, if you succeed and gouge out Cyclok's eye, then after victory, collect the treasures and return back to your quest giver. Go to the "Breach Stone". What needs to be done here? You need to create a character who will become your main assistant. This character will become your most important and important “pawn”; moreover, he will gain experience, thereby increasing his level. And keep in mind that this main pawn cannot be exchanged for another “pawn”. In any case, after creating the main “pawn”, choose two more (secondary). Take your pawn selection seriously because it is very important to build your party in such a way that each character complements the other character. Although even if something in these last two characters does not suit you, you can always change them in the “Breach Stone”.

The next story quest will be a quest called: “Strength in Numbers”. So after you have assembled a team that consists of four heroes, go to a character named Sir Bern. What needs to be done? It's simple - complete the training! Training is that you need to rehearse command orders and actions again. In addition, all tests taken will be limited in time, so you just need to be careful.

The essence of the first test is that you need to move 4 boxes. The most interesting thing is that the “pawns” also take part in moving boxes from one point to another, so you just need to look where they are going and then just follow them to take the remaining box and move it to the specified place. You can take the box using the “F” key. Since there are three tests in total, there are two more tests left to complete. The essence of the second is even simpler - to destroy the indicated dummies. As for the third test, it is almost the same as the second, only the red dummies need to be destroyed only with physical attacks, and the blue dummies with magic. After which the task will be completed and the short training will come to an end.

Don’t go far, because in the same “Encampment” fortress, near a small tent, you can talk to a girl named Mercedes and receive the task: “A Rude Awakening”. Because soon the village is attacked by a huge and multi-headed monster - Hydra.

Boss - Hydra

The Hydra's biggest weakness is that it is vulnerable to cutting weapons. In addition, you won’t have to overcome the monster entirely; you just need to cut off one head. Again, if you are playing as a warrior, then you will have to climb on the monster and kill it, having first “ridden it”. Playing as an archer or a mage will be a little more difficult, because you need to try to focus on a certain head so as not to waste time on the second, and then switch to the third. In general, try to shoot at one head.

In any case, as soon as the monster loses one head, it will quickly “dump” from the camp. In the meantime, Mercedes will give you a bunch of thanks and immediately publish the next task - to take the head as a trophy to the capital. And by the way, try to do additional tasks in this location before you go further, because some of the additional tasks will not be available upon arrival in the capital.

The story task related to the head is called: “Off with its Head”. So when you are finally ready to take on this task, leave the fortress and move further along the northern road, but when you get to the bridge, immediately go up to the hill on the left side in front of it. It is in this place that a caravan will be waiting for you, which is intended to transport the head of the hydra to the capital.

So as soon as you set off, try to move ahead of the caravan to kill all the enemies that you encounter along the way. This applies mainly to: harpies, evil goblins, wild beasts, bandits and even the undead, but provided that you move at night (which is highly not recommended). And a typical rule for accompanying caravans in games: if you move too far, the cart with the trophy will stop. So watch your distance and don't lose your cargo.

When you get to the fork, first move in a northerly direction and along the way clear the bandits’ house, which is located on the hill. Next is another very important point: before you start moving along the road on the right, keep in mind that the road lies in a narrow canyon and so that you don’t get killed there (more precisely, a caravan), because some will throw off stones, you must do this in advance personally, so that later an extra stone doesn’t hit you on the head.

Eventually, along the way you will have to open the gate using a lever. The lever is located on the left side. So after opening the gate, get to the castle in the capital and take the reward for cutting off Hydra's head and successfully delivering it to the specified location.

No matter how many times Dragon's Dogma is re-released, one thing remains the same: it's weird. I really want to summarize all my impressions in this way, without going into a tedious analysis of all the gears, because the game will still go against any expectations. It's strange - and you have to try it yourself to understand it.

Yes, it's an RPG. No, forget about the plot. It exists, but in a primitive form and with a clear lack of understanding of how to make a good story out of a banal premise. Enjoy another interpretation of the trick with the hillbilly, who, in the midst of haymaking, becomes the chosen one and runs to save the world: an invincible dragon flew in, you know, made our hero immortal, swore in his own language and sits somewhere there, threatening humanity, for which he must be killed . This, in general, is the whole essence of the local mess, and only someone who has never seen high-quality fantasy can be intrigued by it.

To be fair, a similar idea is used by many colleagues in the genre - take, for example, Dragon Age: Origins, to which the above is more suitable than we would like. The difference is that other projects carefully play with the hackneyed motif, masking it with interesting details and branches, but Dragon’s Dogma offers nothing. There is only a dry and flat concept here: you are cooler and smarter than everyone else, and evil evil will not destroy itself. As an excuse for everything that’s happening, it’s all right, but it definitely doesn’t deserve close attention. The situation improves a little towards the end, and even then thanks to the curious lore, which practically does not show itself until the epilogue.

The game generally doesn’t care much about the usual RPG values. A world worked out to the smallest detail, carefully drawn characters, dialogues with literary flourishes - who needs them? Only the key characters, of which there are at most ten, have similar characters, and only they are able to more or less fully communicate with the hero. The rest of the NPCs are cardboard fools, wandering around absolutely sterile locations and giving the same routine line. The degree of interest in the conversations here still exceeds the levels of Dead Rising, but this is hardly something to be proud of.

Food supplies tend to spoil right in your pockets, and therefore it is better to send them for treatment as soon as possible.

Obviously, in unfavorable conditions, exploring the surrounding area loses all meaning. Despite the decent size of the map, the game simply has nothing to encourage pioneers - at best, a long journey will delight you with a modest camp on the outskirts, where the most intelligent creature will be a merchant. However, you don’t have to look far for examples of the criminal emptiness of the environment: just get to the only major city and appreciate the beauty of its lifeless labyrinths connecting rare functional points like a black market or a hotel. No fresh gossip on the streets, no colorful townspeople, no spontaneous incidents - even, scary to say, Morrowind portrayed civilization much more convincingly. After this, you once again thank the developers for improving the fast travel system, it really comes in handy here.

Sometimes, however, you can find a quest or two in vacant lots and finally fall into despair. As part of the plot, we are spoiled with full-fledged tasks with set-up and clear activities, but the side activities are almost entirely borrowed from the worst MMOs about killing 45 birds with one stone and collecting 15 herbs. Only if the latter try to sweeten the pill with at least a couple of lines of an accompanying mini-story, Dark Arisen shamelessly pushes the routine without comments or motivation - that’s it, they say, that’s all. Such orders don’t even have a “customer” - they are taken on the notice board and completed on their own, remotely.

It’s all the more offensive that the claim to something more is still noticeable. Single sidequests are accompanied by unique dialogues, characters and events, and a couple even flirt with the non-linearity of the passage and the consequences of decisions - but there are so few of them that they do not have any impact on the roleplaying. And it’s difficult to call them exciting, again, due to the lack of work on the game world: looking for, say, the protagonist’s girlfriend would be much more interesting if the authors spent a little time on their relationship.

Epic shots go especially well with the Lord of the Rings soundtrack - the game music is good, but it sounds rarely and not always accurately.

The game prefers to really shine in the gameplay field. This is what makes you forget about all the troubles and mistakes of designers. Dragon's Dogma is like a sort of lite version of Dark Souls, in which the player is also hanging out somewhere at the bottom of the food chain, but has a slightly better chance of survival among goblins with dimensionless life bars.

First of all, the combat system is of interest. It, unlike From Software's creation, is not too keen on deep tactics and is generally quite arcade-like, which from time to time reminds one of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, which is as beautiful as it is old. You don’t need to be a master of lunges or have a black belt in rolling to successfully fight back against the local bestiary - you just need to timely alternate basic attacks and special techniques, the arsenal of which is constantly expanding, and not expose yourself to attacks from particularly large opponents. Of course, this is not on the level of Devil May Cry, with which the fan community is increasingly drawn to comparisons, but the combat instantly captivates with the dynamics of what is happening, ease of learning and diversity not inherent in RPGs.

This doesn't mean the battles lack depth, however. On the contrary, subtleties emerge one after another, especially when facing bosses. Battles with them are a separate source of fun and challenge in Dragon’s Dogma. Each member of the menagerie has its own vulnerabilities, the search and exploitation of which lies the purpose of such skirmishes. Some weaknesses, like, say, the glowing stones in the golem’s body, are immediately visible, while others must be discovered experimentally, setting fire to the griffin’s feathers and firing dark magic at the dragon. Class differences also influence the approach to the boss: if a robber with a bow has no difficulty in finishing off a Cyclops from a long distance, then some paladin will have to literally climb over the giant’s body and stab his eye with a sword.

There's a surprising amount of equipment here. You can’t try everything in one sitting.

Fortunately, the game allows you to try everything at once, because next on the list of its merits is the wonderful leveling of the character. Initially, there are only three mediocre professions to choose from, and the introductory chapters force you to play as a warrior, robber or mage - but soon after this the opportunity opens up to change your specialization to any other without losing progress. This is an incredibly cool find, giving extreme flexibility to builds, introducing total variability into the process and leaving a loophole for players who are disappointed in the chosen direction. Moreover, periodically juggling profiles is even useful, since they determine the proportions of growth of certain characteristics. To put it simply, if you suddenly need to expand the stamina reserves of your mage, it would be better to become a ranger by at least a few levels, because the increase in this parameter is many times higher. They are also encouraged to experiment by the presence of unique perks, which are unlocked only by leveling up a certain class, but are universal in use.

And to make you feel less lonely, Dragon’s Dogma has introduced an unusual pawn system. This offensive nickname is used here for companions, of which there can be no more than three in your team: you create one yourself, the remaining two you catch from the network database of freaks raised by other players. All of them are absolutely faceless as actors, but are infinitely effective and independent in battle. They grab small enemies, distract the attention of particularly ferocious individuals, climb onto the manes of large creatures and generally act in harmony without any orders. Even though the AI’s work cannot be called flawless, it quite successfully simulates the team interaction necessary when facing serious opponents. The possibility of complete control is lacking only in the most critical moments - when the magician forgets to cure a mortal wound, all that remains is to press the “Help” button.

However, you shouldn’t get attached to your partners. Of the entire booth, only your personal pawn rises up the career ladder with you - guests from other worlds are always static and maintain the level they reached at the time of hiring. This is another plus in favor of the variability of gameplay: the party can be easily customized and adjusted to the needs of a specific situation.

Another interesting feature of pawns is their constant negotiations. Fortunately for many who played on consoles, the PC version finally added the option to disable the voice acting of companions, and yet the fact is remarkable. Despite the lack of character, they actively comment on what is happening, but they do it like complete autists, over and over again jabbering obvious and, without exaggeration, stupid speeches. For those who didn’t catch it the first 76 times, they will definitely repeat that wolves hunt in packs, and on a long hike they will kindly remind you of the map in your pocket. In addition, a dialogue icon may suddenly pop up above one of the idiots, hinting at the presence of important thoughts about the recent triumph. “The quest is completed, master,” is the most weighty thought you can count on.

And everything would be fine, only Dragon’s Dogma explains in the worst possible way how to play all this. The tutorial here is an unreasonably long contextual presentation on the topic “100 things that are done here in the same way as in all other games,” while a lot of more significant questions remain behind the scenes. You have to use trial and error to figure out what quests look like and what the essence of pawns is, to discover completely unexplained crafting and upgrade systems, to find out after creating a character that his height and weight affect some characteristics, at the end of the passage to accidentally read, that NPCs have daily routines and hidden love interests, and much more. The introduction to party management is absolutely enchanting: you learn how to select pawns correctly on a training ground with wooden dummies that can be easily broken without really understanding what was discussed. The coach will still pat you on the shoulder approvingly and say: “You see how important the choice of pawns is!” It’s not that we need to be led by the hand through all the hardships of adaptation, but understanding the mechanics here is extremely boring and uncomfortable, and it’s easy to miss a lot at the right moment and frankly ruin your further passage.

Thanks to this, the first two or three hours of Dragon’s Dogma are a hurricane of wandering around the corners of a few villages in the hope of insight. In our case, getting to know the game went something like this. Having first thrown the village healer off the cliff, we followed the only road and saw how the guards were easily killing the monster that we were supposed to defeat. After throwing the guards off another cliff, we returned to the village and met a charismatic black man named gg. Having thrown gg off a new cliff, we realized that it was actually a pawn of another player (we should have guessed earlier, huh?), and for about forty minutes a plot character had been waiting for us, hiding in the darkest tent and not marked in any way on the map. Around the same time, the action began to acquire the beginnings of meaning and the picture described in this article emerged on the horizon, although there were a few more cliffs. In general, it was a difficult journey.

As for the features of porting to PC, everything is relatively in order. Capcom swore with all their hadoukens that “stunning visuals” awaited us and backed up their promises with quite decent screenshots - in the end, as expected, age took its toll. Even in 2012, the game did not look cutting-edge, inferior in beauty to Oblivion, which had celebrated its five-year anniversary by that time, and now modest graphical changes cannot make it look like candy. If anything can knock you off your feet, it’s the unforgivably ugly sprites, shamefully scaled fonts and goblins that appear a meter away from the main character. Of course, they added a wide range of settings and support for sky-high resolutions, but in the era of adequate ports this is no longer surprising.

But on the controls, by golly, they could have spent a little longer and redesigned the archaic interface, which takes away half the fun from the game with its terrible design. Keyboard workers were given an exclusive function of binding items to hotkeys, as if apologizing for the fact that there is still no direct access to the map, quest log and equipment - all these functions need to be picked out from the pause menu, which in reality is much worse than in words . Even holding a gamepad in your hands doesn’t make it more intuitive, although it definitely muffles the discomfort.

But the main thing is that Dragon’s Dogma makes you want to return. At first you swear for a long time, saying that everything is crooked and askew, you wonder how it even plays correctly, you scream at the quirks of Japanese game design and leave the game with a feeling of extreme satiety, and then you still catch yourself thinking that it would be nice to finish it off tomorrow evening griffin and save up for a nice helmet. Naturally, new opponents come to take the place of the feathered beast, the equipment becomes better and better, and the time spent in the game goes beyond all limits of decent. And this is good.