Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen

So i'm not a huge fan of Dark Souls neither Skyrim, so always looked for the middle ground. This is it. Has its flaws like generic story and dialogue, sometimes you can feel lost, but it is so unique in all the pieces that compose it that is a masterpiece that slipped under the radar. Just because it was not hyped like the other i mentioned it doesn't mean it is not superb. The soundtrack doesn't overwhelm you but when its needed rises and inspires, the graphics are not last gen but have details that will leave you in awe, the combat is varied and polished like a swiss watch. Tons of possibilities in crafting , equipmet, character creation and even always switchable classes make every playthrough unique. Everything in this was thought out for immersion and sense of adventure in the likes of Lord of the Rings but hard like Dark Souls with an almost Morrowind like freedom, because you have to look to find and it only holds your hand if you enable options to do so. This is the quintessential piece of RPGs made to fill a gap and in the end created a podium just of its own. 10/10

The pawn rental system doesn't work on GOG which is detrimental as that is a major part of the game

The game is amazing. Combat is fun and rpg elements aren't bad either. The graphics are nice too, old looking but runs fast. However, my problem wqith this game is that if I want to play the game in full, I need multiple playthroughs. A quest failed while I was on another unrelated quest (I'm not even sure why. it was the Quina Witchwood quest). I was unaware until a few hours later. That would've been fine except for the fact that a section of the game world is cut off until a second playthrough because you can't load a save unless it's a checkpoint. I fear this will happen often. I'm a one playthrough kind of guy. Also, for some stupid reason I lost a days progress even after the game saved everywhere I went. There is no way in hell I am spending maybe 100 hours exploring and completing the game just so I can play it again, just without the game scewing itself up along the way (and thats a maybe on the game not screwing up). I'm deleting the game untill I forget about my progress. Then it'll be "What's Old is New Again" for me.

This is the best 3rd person action-RPG combat gets, still. There are caveats though. 1: The story is barely there, and kinda bad honestly (if totally insane) until the Bitter Black Isle, where the story is much better and delivered much better. 2: The leveling system is convoluted, in a bad way. It's a good idea on paper, but in practice the optimal way to play a Magic Archer is essentially 3 full playthroughs (or a fair amount of dedicated grinding) as a Sorcerer. Less than ideal. 3: Pawns (your NPC companions) are really quite stupid unless their player has specifically gone out of the way to teach them not to be stupid, which is quite rare (and somewhat involved) 4: Items are *broken.* You can pause and use them at any time with no use delays or rate limit or anything, so it's quite easy to become outright impervious to anything that doesn't kill you in a single hit. However, having said all of that? None of it matters. All of those problems except for the story are problems with workarounds in game (and mods make getting around the leveling problem even easier,) and the story being bad is mostly irrelivant because it mostly doesn't get in the way. The combat and class systems are just *so good* as to completely override all those complaints.

I Love Dragons Dogma, Great gameplay Great mix of action and versatile battle! BUT THE DARN SERVER IS DOWN! You know whats it like to hire other player's Pawn? and Go on an Adventure!? Its too Good better than Pizza that'll Slap Your Momma! I'm crazy now because I'm Pissed Off....But getting back to my sane side, Do you realize what an amazing game it'll be? If everytime we go on and suddenly found out that our pawn has gone beyond the rift and went on an adventure else where? acquiring all kinds of loot? Crappy Loots, Good Loots, Sexy Armors and shit!? And having Other players say Shit about your Pawn!? What Joy can it Be to be suprised at random times as you Play!? BUT YOUR DARN SERVER DON"T WORK!! Thats why I'm givin it 3 Stars! I want to give it a 5! BuT NO WAY....I'm gonna drink my water, eat my burgers and fries...and JUST CHILL...because I am still going to play this Beautiful Fun Game by myself....HOPING till the Day I die....that the servers perhaps if my prayers are being heard, could be fixed....OUT!