[1] The music, led by Tadayoshi Makino and including contributions from Israeli-American composer Inon Zur, used a full orchestra and focused on ambiance.

Dragon's Dogma is an action role-playing game set in an open world environment and played from a third-person perspective.

The player can select between various vocations: Fighter, Strider, Mage, Warrior, Ranger, Sorcerer, Mystic Knight, Assassin and Magic Archer.

[4] The pawns are vocal, yelling out useful hints and strategies, which are often vitally important to surviving tough boss encounters and dungeons.

[5] Although Dragon's Dogma does not feature a direct multiplayer mode, the developers have revealed that players can compete online with asynchronous encounters called Events via Xbox Live or the PlayStation Network.

During their quest, the Arisen finds aid from a former Arisen dubbed the Dragonforged; investigates an underground tower dubbed the Everfall by the local Pawn guild; confronts Salvation, a nihilistic cult led by a man named Elysion that seeks the Dragon's victory; and learns of Mercedes's role as a token ally as other nations have come to fear Gransys becoming too powerful should the Duke defeat a second Dragon.

Upon defeating the Dragon, the Arisen and all those connected to the Dragon—including the Duke and the Dragonforged—lose their immortality, and the Everfall becomes a bottomless pit that swallows part of Gran Soren.

Passing into a higher plane after opening a portal within the Everfall, the Arisen faces the Seneschal, the being which sustains the world and the current form of the knight Savan.

The main concept was an RPG based primarily on single-player but with casual multiplayer elements similar to watching a bulletin board system.

[13] The public reveal of Dragon's Dogma was planned for the 2010 Tokyo Game Show alongside DmC: Devil May Cry, but the visual quality of the title at the time was thought lacking so the announcement was delayed.

[26][27][28]: 2  Ikeno was an established Capcom artist noted for his work on the Street Fighter series, Devil May Cry 3 and the first two Onimusha titles.

The final design emulated the "simple yet powerful" dragons of folklore, but with the main aim being to make the fantastical creature as realistic as possible.

The art team tried not to stray too far from traditional imagery grounded in ancient legends and iconography; this approach was influenced by Mike Mignola's Hellboy comics and the manga Berserk by Kentaro Miura.

[29] The aim for the developers was, rather than using Japanese role-playing traditions, to emulate Western RPGs including Fallout 3, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Fable II.

According to the programmer Taro Yahagi, who was in charge of work for the engine, Dragon's Dogma was the most difficult project as MT Framework required a large number of adjustments.

[25] According to producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi, the team's previous experience creating Devil May Cry 4 helped with development as they both carried over technology and had familiarity with the planned platforms.

[11] The limited scope of online elements was a compromise which both fulfilled with gameplay goals of the team while avoiding many of the problems of full multiplayer.

[37][38] According to Makino, the team hired 82 voice actors; the recording took place in North America between two studios over fifteen weeks, with two audio directors supervising the process.

Makino's team created samples, matched them against prototype promotional videos, and then consulted sound staff at Capcom to blend the ethnic, orchestral, and rock elements.

The first completed track, the game's main theme, was favorably received by Kobayashi and Makino used the fusion of elements for the entire score.

[51] When creating his plan for the music, Makino decided to move away from the typical harsh-sounding action soundtracks Capcom games were known for, which used many high and low-pitched notes.

[51][52] The recording was supervised by Thomas Böcker and his company Merregnon Studios, who were brought aboard the project by Harmonics International based on their previous collaborations on Symphonic Fantasies concerts.

[60] Despite moving away from the style of the main game, Makino wanted to ensure the new music remained thematically in tune with the rest of the soundtrack.

[69][87] Famitsu gave it a "Hall of Fame: Gold" award, praising "the game's variety in combat, the effectiveness of working together with Pawns, the exceptionally fun sidequests, and the uniqueness of each vocation.

"[72] Eurogamer Italy said that "Dragon's Dogma is a great fantasy game, where the lack of a multiplayer experience is compensated from an impressive single player.

The review praised the "fantastic combat encounters," one of "the best boss fights in any role-playing game," atmospheric touches, and "striking choices" that lead to "an unforgettable ending."

The review also notes that while the boss battles are "epic", in the sense they allow players to climb up enemy monsters, the game itself lacks an adequate fast-travel system.

[93][92][91] IGN scored the PC version 8.9/10, calling it a "thoroughly great action RPG" and stating "it has near perfect fluidity and all the epic feel of the Xbox 360/PS3 edition" and is a "valid alternative to The Witcher 3 or Dark Souls, if one can withstand graphics that are not really on par with today's standards.

[106] In April 2020, IGN listed Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen as one of the best modern role-playing games, placing at number 9.

IGN Staff cited, "It may be built off the massive open world RPG foundation of games like The Elder Scrolls and The Witcher, but there's still nothing quite like Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen.