Monsters, too, take advantage of interactivity, and a player may find himself dragged into the air by a harpy's claws, bitten and held down by a wolf, or seized and crushed by the hands of a cyclops or ogre.

Magic also possesses a rarely seen physicality. Spells differ not only in elemental effects but also in how they manifest themselves, from a wall of flame, to a pillar of ice (which you can climb over), to a maelstrom sucking up smaller foes and flinging them.

You play as the Arisen – a hero destined to battle the Dragon. In a unique online component, you can be joined by up to three AI-controlled pawns – a main pawn that you create yourself, plus two others recruited from a pool of pawns created by other players (or randomly generated, if you're playing offline).

Pawns are drawn from six vocations (i.e. classes), each with access to a multitude of skills and categories of weapons with only some overlap, causing each vocation to play distinctly from the others. Rangers have a more powerful and further reaching bow but are less effective at melee than Striders; Sorcerers sacrifice some of the healing and support magic of Mages in exchange for powerful offensive spells; and Warriors hit harder than Fighters but are less defensive. The Arisen also has access to the hybrid vocations: Mystic Knights combine melee ability with magic spells, Assassins can mix the weapons of the Fighter and Strider vocations, and Magick Archers combine dagger-wielding with magical bow abilities.

There are interesting nuances in character creation. Unlike other games where appearance is purely cosmetic, in Dragon's Dogma the choices you make determine your height and weight class, which has tangible effects such as making heavier characters more difficult to knock down while smaller characters can fit through small openings.