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. Gender choice and appearance settings are also available.[2] The vocation, or class system, changes gameplay and tactical options available to the player. For example, the Fighter has abilities that focus on hack and slash combat and the Strider is skilled at climbing large enemies.[3] The game was designed to be playable even by those who are not skilled at action games.[4]
One of the game's main innovations is the "pawn" system.[3] While the player's party is exploring the world, the three party members who accompany the main character are controlled by artificial intelligence, but the player can issue orders to them, including "go", "help" and "come". One of the party members is a non-playable character (NPC) and belongs to the main character's world, while the other two party members are NPCs borrowed from other players by connecting online or are locally generated by the game.[4] The party members, referred to as pawns,[3] can talk, seek the main character's help, and provide information about enemies.[2] The player must work on strengthening the main character and the party members.[4] The pawns are vocal, yelling out useful hints and strategies, which are often vitally important to surviving tough boss encounters and dungeons. The pawn system also features social networking features.[3]
The game features a "grab" action, where the main character can grab or cling to enemies, objects, or NPCs. The player can use this feature for more advanced attacks. For example, the main character can either grab onto a griffin's legs and attack it directly, or climb up to reach its head for a more lethal blow.[2] "In a lot of action games, with big enemies the tendency is just to have you hacking away at the shins. You don't get the full effect of fighting a giant boss," Hideaki Itsuno, the director of Dragon's Dogma, said. "With this game, you can climb all over it. If it has a body part, you can attack it."[5]