Mature role-playing adventure with action, blood, and gore.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 18+?
Any Positive Content?
Sex, Romance & Nudity
a lot
The game has some partial nudity, including topless women (harpies), plus there is some suggestive dialogue with references to having sex, accessing someone's "privates," and bedding someone's wife. If you choose to play as a woman, you will have a same-sex love interest.
Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.
DRAGON'S DOGMA is quite bloody and gory, as the character takes on various enemies throughout the game. You can use swords, a bow, and magic attacks (such as fireballs) to kill humans and creatures. It's possible to dismember an enemy, plus some cut-scene sequences are gory, like a dragon taking your heart out and eating it, or a man strangling a woman.
Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.
Capcom is using this game to advertise for other upcoming games.
Ease of Play
some
Despite some camera issues that can plague your view, the game is fairly easy to control -- especially for those who've played other third-person Capcom games. The game eases you in slowly, though, and teaches you the core mechanics before the action intensifies.
Positive Messages
very little
This role-playing game is about defeating evil -- and while that sounds noble and "positive," there is so much violence, blood, and gore in the game, along with other mature themes and imagery, that it doesn't have a positive message overall. Note: it's possible to kill civilians, but you're penalized with lower "charisma" levels.
Positive Role Models
very little
Not much is known about the protagonist but you play as Glynn, a warrior on a quest to kill an evil dragon that is ravaging the lands and killing innocent people. You can customize your character in a number of different ways to tweak the look and abilities of the hero. You can also play as a woman, which makes your female love interest a same-sex relationship. There is no option to play as a woman and have a male love interest.
Educational Value
very little
Dragon's Dogma wasn't created with educational intent, and we don't recommend it for learning.
Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Dragon's Dogma is a role-playing game designed for mature players, primarily because of the intense action, blood, and gore. Both the in-game and cinematic scenes can be very violent, including limb dismemberment, impaling, and even a dragon who can rip your heart out and eat it. Players use all kinds of weapons and magic spells to kill enemies, some of which are human; it's possible to kill unarmed civilians but there are repercussions for doing so. Some scenes also have partial nudity and have sexually suggestive dialogue in some of the sequences.
The character creator isn't as in depth as a few other games I play, for example Black Desert Online. Yes there is cursing, tobacco use, blood and mild gore and some supernatural themes and some PG-13 level nudity when it comes to some monsters like harpies. This game isn't for children. I know too many people who are under the impression that all video games are for children. Then you have parents who willingly let their 10 year old's play COD Black Ops 3 or GTA V. Use your heads and if a game has the MA rating do not let your kids play it or do not complain when they start picking up foul language.
Very violent heads being shot of by arrows with tons of blood and gore as well as slicing and dicing enymies (in gory ways)as well as you can kill innocent people language is quite strong it includes b*st*rd b***er goddamn damn bloody hell hell as well as lots of drinking but it's an amazing game completely underrated highly recommend it if ur not squirming to voilence and language
What’s It About?
An all-new franchise, Capcom's DRAGON'S DOGMA is an action-heavy role-playing game (RPG) set in a huge and expansive open world. The single-player adventure has you venture out to find and destroy an ancient dragon that has awakened, and along the way you will meet friends and foes, overcome obstacles, use might and magic to defeat baddies, and \"level up\" your character over time and experience. Unlike most other single-player RPGs, this game employs a \"pawn\" system, where you're adventuring with a party of three A.I. (artificial intelligence) characters, who fight independently of you, and they can be created by other players and downloaded to your console.
While far from perfect, Dragon's Dogma is a compelling fusion between RPG and hack-and-slash action games. The stylized fighting is reminiscent of other third-person Capcom games, like Resident Evil and Devil May Cry games, but with a fantasy RPG backdrop, leveling up mechanic, and an interesting pawn system to help defeat enemies (including the option to download a friend's pawns). While the combat is quite fun, albeit very tough at times, three cornerstones of a good RPG -- story, characters, and dialogue -- are all lacking terribly in this game. All three are uninteresting, to say the least, so hopefully future versions of this game will make you care more about the world and its inhabitants (like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim or the Mass Effect franchise). But the open-ended world, intense action, and clever pawn system make this an interesting pick for fans of Japanese RPGs.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how Capcom has added "pawns," or companions -- and the ability to upload and download ones from other characters -- to give this single-player role-playing game (RPG) a bit of what makes massively multiplayer online (MMO) RPGs so compelling. Does this system work? Is it a good idea?
ESRB rating:
M for Blood and Gore, Partial Nudity, Suggestive Themes, Violence
Last updated:
September 30, 2021
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Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.
By Marc Saltzman
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