BitSnark

Right up until the actual announcement of this game at Capcom’s Captivate event, fans were convinced that Dragon’s Dogma was a reboot or continuation of Capcom’s much loved Breath of Fire series.

It turns out that it wasn’t.

At all.

Instead, Dragon’s Dogma is a spanking brand new action RPG from the house that built Devil May Cry and appears to be a cross between Monster Hunter and Bioware’s Dragon Age.

Coming from the folks who brought us Resi 4 and Devil May Cry 4, Dragon’s Dogma is a dark fantasy action RPG that boasts a fairly complex real-time combat system. The system itself allows the player to strike any part of a foe’s body and also includes a number of interesting micro-management elements to the ballet of violence that you can unleash.

Everything from the weight of your weapon, to the material of your armour and even the length of your legs(!) apparently play a role in how your battles are fought; allowing players to truly customise the manner in which the murder and maim the bad folk which includes goblins, ogres, griffins and wait for it… dragons.

In addition to the versatile combat system, Dragon’s Dogma also boasts a fully open sandbox world, ripe for exploration and packed with hundreds upon hundreds of fully voiced NPCs who are all very eager to hand out side-quests and loot pending your success. It also doesn’t hurt that the whole experience is being rendered on Capcom’s MT Framework 2.0 engine, the very same middleware which powered the stunning looking visuals seen in Devil May Cry 4, Resident Evil 5 and Lost Planet 2.

I do have to say at this early juncture, the game looks very promising indeed and if Capcom can successfully pull off the delicate micro-management and extensive customisation of the combat system and balance it with a solid story, compelling characters and exciting quests, then they could have quite the little hit on their hands.

Have a peek at the rather epic trailer below: