Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen - Nintendo Switch

Dragon's Dogma is a very unique game. This isn't a game like Dark Souls or Skyrim exactly, but has many elements similar to those titles. You won't find Skyrim's massive world or the Souls series' brutal difficulty, but what you will find is a game with a fantastic combat system, scads of options for classes, and a massive number of weapons and gear.You are the Arisen, a person who is destined to face the dragon and save the world. Pretty cliche RPG fare, right? You'd be right, but what differentiates this game from others is how engrossing it can get. There aren't tons of "dungeons" like Skyrim where you walk down a few corridors over and over, but instead there are a few very big and well made ones. Enemy variety isn't great, but you each encounter continues to be engaging no matter your level. I won't even mention the DLC content, but that's your real endgame, and what a blast that is.Classes are divided into your usual warrior/thief/wizard classes, but the twist on these is that upon leveling them you can elect to rank up to a stronger version, OR you can go for hybrid classes which combine the two. Magic Knight, Magick Archer, and so forth. In total there are 9 classes offering fairly varied gameplay. Add to that the ability to jump onto larger monsters and cling to them while you beat their faces in, and you're going to be having a good time in this game. In a normal playthrough without doing every last quest I clocked in over 70 hours, so for the price you are getting your money's worth without a doubt.

I've been a gamer since 1994 (shh, I'm only 35), and I can say, without exaggeration, that this is my favorite game. There are things I would change for sure, for example: I would definitely add horses or some way to travel faster in the game (though there are ways to fast travel that opens up more and more as you play). That said, it's nearly perfect. Everything I've ever wanted out of an action-rpg adventure is in this game for the most part. I played it for 128 hours on Steam PC, and I'm probably double that on the Switch by now.You can change classes as much as you want with a single character, so it's hard to get bored. There's also good reason to play all the classes, since some of the passive and active skills you learn in one class can be used in some or all of the others, leading to some extremely fun personalizing of your character's (and your pawn's) various builds over time. Speaking of the pawns (which are the 1-3 NPC's that make up the rest of your adventuring party), they have some of the best AI I've seen in a game. Well-trained and equipped pawns can rival the effectiveness of your character him/herself.There's also a lot to say about the gameplay. Fighting human-sized monsters is always fun, but fighting the giant monsters such as wyverns and ogres is a blast, especially because you can climb around on them and attack Shadow of the Colossus-style. Possibly one of the best things about the gameplay though is that there's many "end game" things to do. New game plus lets you play through the main campaign again (preferably in Hard Mode), keeping all of your items and character progress. Then there's Bitterblack Isle, a massive DLC dungeon that can take much longer than the main game to complete with tons of new systems to expand character customization even more. And there's also another endgame feature I won't talk about to avoid story spoilers.Long story short: If you liked games like Skyrim, Shadow of the Colossus, Kingdoms of Amalur, or Fable, you'll probably adore this game as much as I do.

If you like the RPG elements of Skyrim this is a great game. The colors are vibrant, the details in the city was amazing (it was huge) and there are just so many other things that make it one of my top two favorites. They aren’t the same, there’s a lot of trade-offs between the two but here are some things that I would have found useful to know before buying.1) fast travel is limited. Most of the adventure is on the road though so this isn’t a big factor.2) stamina is much more important3) looting your fallen enemies is not as fun and doesn’t give much4) the story is weaker, and some paces is a bit weird but the gameplay and open world elements are amazing and very detailed5) your map is much smaller than Skyrim. There’s only a few cities and towns, but this world still feels big and there is still a lot of ground to explore and learn about.This game is amazing like I said. I hope this list helps you make a decision. I just have not been able to put it down yet and I’ve already got over 45 hours in just on the side quests.

Great game, have it on ps3, ps4, and switch. All trophies and max level on all platforms. I may have a problem.

Bought this on ps3 when it first came out I was a young lad and it blew me away, playing it again it brings back that feeling 100% Great game

As a gamer whose catalog consists of 95% open-world games, this is my all-time favorite. It originally released around the time of Skyrim, and was unfairly overshadowed. The game world and character creation are beautiful and the combat is fluid hack n' slash. Characters can be grabbed and monsters can be climbed. There are hundreds of weapons, clothes, and armor pieces that can be mixed and matched and, whereas some games lock you into choosing one class, DD:DA allows you to change classes throughout the game, unlocking skills unique to each. There is plenty of replay value, as the game contains a New Game Plus feature that allows you to keep your inventory and character stats when moving into a new game, allowing you to complete any quests you missed the first time around, or just go back and continue exploring the country of Gransys. This is the fourth version of the game I have purchased and being able to explore a world this rich on the handheld makes all the difference. If you are a fan of open-worlds, sword and sorcery, or fantasy literature, do yourself a favor and pick this up today.