Dragon's Dogma strongly influenced by Devil May Cry

The Dragon's Dogma team sports a number of Devil May Cry veterans, explaining the action RPG's emphasis on brawling.

In an interview with Siliconera, the game's producer, Hiroyuki Kobayashi, said that of his past projects, his work on Devil May Cry 4 is having the most influence on Dragon's Dogma.

"The core design team came from Devil May Cry 4, including the director, Hideaki Itsuno," he said.

"The influences from that game are pretty strong in here. We didn’t want to just take the Devil May Cry system and throw it in this game. We wanted to take the influence of that game."

Kobayashi said the game's controls will feel familiar to Devil May Cry players, and noted in particular the game's in-your-face combat.

"We looked at what we did in Devil May Cry, for example the way Dante and Nero interact with the enemies. We took what’s good about fighting enemies up close and personal and tried to put that in Dragon’s Dogma," he said.

The producer noted that blending Capcom's traditional action gameplay with an open world fantasy setting had been challenging, but explained that some of the mechanics - particularly the "grab" system - were inspired by the unusual setting.

"The fact that you have an open world and the main character can go and do whatever he wants in this world, it gave birth to the idea that he’s fighting enemies and he should be able to fight them in anyway that he wants and so we came up with the idea of the grab mechanic," he said.

"He can climb on these enemies and fight them how ever he chooses. I think the freedom which you can fight creatures is one of the main selling points of Dragon’s Dogma. We wanted it to feel like you’re the hero in a movie and you can do whatever you want while fighting."

Kobayashi let slip that the game's character customisation is quite extensive, but wouldn't give details as Capcom wants it to be a "surprise". He did explain something of the class system - there are three primary classes, and three prestige specialisation for each. Players can mix and match from several classes to find a character which suits them.

Capcom is yet to fully online features for Dragon's Dogma, although players can trade AI companions. The game is due on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in early 2012.