Top 10 Games Like Dragons Dogma: Dark Arisen

While Dragon’s Dogma offers a lot of content, and a great reply value, some may want to experience something new while still getting that Dragon’s Dogma feel. Unfortunately, the game brings such a unique air to its gameplay, that it can be quite difficult to find something similar. I’ve curated this list from games I’ve experienced first-hand, that will try and scratch the Dragon’s Dogma itch.

10. Pokemon Arceus (Nintendo Switch)

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Pokemon Arceus is the latest Pokemon title that brings a new experience to the series by creating an open world. It introduces a new mechanic for capturing and battling with your monster friends, by having the character see and interact with the wild creatures. Explore the Hisui region with your colorful companions, and discover the mysteries throughout the land.

Last in the top 10, yet still making the cut, pokemon Arceus may seem like a bit of a far cry from Dragon’s Dogma. However, with this pokemon title, in particular, you explore a land that is mostly devoid of human life, battling all types of creatures while relying on your allies (Pokemon) to get you through the journey. Sound familiar? While the combat may be quite different, the Japanese roots from both games will inspire a nostalgic feeling while playing.

9. New Assassin Creed Games (PlayStation, Xbox, Microsoft Windows)

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From Assassins Creed Odessy to the most recent, Valhalla, the series has implemented a much more RPG-based system. Exploring large maps while completing missions and leveling up. Each game takes place in a different time period and location allowing each of the titles to have its own theme, while still utilizing most of the same mechanics.

You will mostly fight against humans in the game, but the Assassins Creed series has also made a habit of allowing some supernatural creatures and elements bleed into their games. Some of the epic creature boss battles can feel extremely similar to DD (Dragon’s Dogma). Compared to DD, however, the AC games are far more developed and offer many more quests and optional story elements.

8. The Witcher Series (PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, Microsoft Windows)

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The Witcher Series is another open-world RPG in which your hunt and slay monsters of all varieties. You play the character, Geralt of Rivia, who is one of the last monster slayers. Utilize magic, traps, and skill with a sword, to defeat or overcome the diverse bestiary you will come across. This world is also not a set story, allowing you to make choices and changes to the world and characters around you.

Slaying monsters is the obvious comparison to the games, but also the setting. Set in a typical medieval-based high fantasy, while also giving a dark grimace to the setting, that makes both titles feel more realistic and unique. While the combat is different in both series, the solitude in the Witcher series makes it a very different feel, than getting to fight with your pawns in DD.

7. Way Of the Samurai Series (PlayStation, Microsoft Windows)

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The way of the samurai is a semi-realistic hardcore RPG. The game is set in different times throughout mostly the feudal era of Japan, allowing the players to have their character be anyone. With its punishing yet exploitable combat and completely missable story, the game gives an odd and mysterious ambiance.

While DD may not be as punishing and has a much more fantastical fantasy setting compared to the Way of the Samurai series, it is difficult not to compare the two. Often in both games, you will just wander into the story rather than be told a cohesive one. You will also find yourself against foes that you are not meant to face, and must master the free combat system of both games if you wish to escape with your life.

6. Dark Souls Series (PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows)

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The namesake for incredibly difficult games, the Souls series has always drawn those who love dark fantasy and punishing gameplay. In today’s age, we are offered many titles that are soul-like however there is no replacing the original, which brings forth brilliant combat and a world teeming with backstory if you have the eye for the details.

Often times DD is compared with the souls series. While being quite different from each other, the story and world of both games are melancholy and gripping. Both titles are difficult in their own style, and both offer boss fights that you will never forget. Essentially the Dark Souls series is just one long Bitter Black Isle from DD.

5. Elden Ring (PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X and Series S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Microsoft Windows)

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The inheritor of the Souls Series, Elden Ring takes everything that was loved from Dark Souls and made it bigger. This open-world, Fromsoft title, broke into the presses filled with praise and accolades. Venture into the unforgiving, yet beautiful world to battle against demigods and monsters.

Much like Drak Souls, Elden Ring is another title that shares its bruting and gorgeous atmosphere. However, Elden Ring is simply more similar to DD based on its open world. “The roads are safer than the brush, but still we’d best stay wary”.

4. Shadow of Mordor/War (PlayStation 4, Xbox One, iOS, Microsoft Windows)

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Set in the Lord of the Rings universe, this two-game series offers a fun insight into the world, while also allowing the player to have fun battling against hordes of Orcs and Uruk-hai. Playing quite similarly to the aforementioned title of the Assassin’s Creed Games. Scale structures, utilize stealth, battle against forts, and strongholds filled with recruitable foes.

The series often involves a much more coherent story and mechanic system than DD, however, the love of having customizable and recruitable allies is somehow so rare in games, that this title gets its place on the Top 10 list. The hype of the Shadow of War castle sieges compares directly to the thrill of fighting along with your pawns against a boss whose engagement will scorch the battlefield you fight on. This bond lingers and grows as you play through the game with your favorite orc/pawn.

3. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo Switch, Wii U)

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Offering legend of Zelda fans an experience they either always wanted, or simply something for them to enjoy. This title brings the game series from a pseudo-open world to one that is fully actualized. Explore the dilapidated world of Hyrule, after Ganon had emerged and ravaged the land. Find rare weapons and armor, discover pockets of civilization, and stomp out this imposing threat.

If DD was a bit too dark for your taste, the light-hearted yet still intimidating world of Hyrule may suit your fancy. While unable to customize your character besides what armor you wear. Its rigorous item and weapon management will bring you back to your days of trekking through Gransys. Through DD, it can feel extremely lonely even with your pawns, but in Breath of the wild finding those safe bastions through the corrupted world, really feels like a reassuring presence.

2. Monster Hunter Series (PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows)

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A 20+ game series, stretching back to the early 2000s, over many different console generations, dwells the Monster Hunter series. A game where the one and only goal is to hunt deadly creatures of nightmarish proportions. Craft weapons and armor from defeated foes, only to allow you to best even stronger ones. Play the style of your choice and ally with friends to feel these great beasts.

If what inspired you to play DD, was the manga/anime Berserk. Then nothing encapsulates the essence of going against hulking monstrosities, than the Monster Hunter series. While the series may not fit the tone you’re looking for, all you have to do is play some of your favorite music, and slay some monsters with weapons that could only be used as such. Even the titular Dark Souls series can’t quite complete the feel that this game gives when you mount and gouge into the gargantuan adversary.

1. Shadow of the Colossus (PlayStation 4, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3)

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The Granddaddy of cult classic games, Shadow of the Colossus. Its name, just as towering as the enemies you encounter within it. The goal of the game is to slay the massive colossi within the game, empty and oppressive landscape. Your only solace in the game is your horse and your sword, the rest is up to your tenacity and wit, to fell these god-like creatures.

Shadow of the Colossus is not the most similar in gameplay or world. What it does, is it takes the feeling you feel in DD, and ramps it up to a dream-like level. You are in a world that is beyond your comprehension, and you, a mere human, must do battle for a reason that is foreign to you. You are chosen, and you must accomplish this prophetical task.

August 3, 2022 0

5 Ways to Actually Make Your Horror Story Spine-chilling

It can be quite difficult to write something truly horrifying. Even in most horror movies, with the added benefit of being able to visibly show their chilling tales, they suffer from cheap jump scares in order to actually scare anyone. So as a horror writer, what are you to do? In this article, we will discuss the basis of fear and what elements you can incorporate into your story to not only make it grimmer but a better story in general.

Creative Characters

Too often in horror are we told the story for the sake of the monster, killer, or threat. The story is functionally written around the antagonist, not the protagonist and thus we are “gifted” with bland, hollow characters that many readers, by the end of the story, wish would just meet their end.

This way of writing is not only a detriment to that character and the story, but also to the villain. If we, as the reader, are going to follow a character through their journey, filled with trials and tribulations, then we must connect with them. We need to hope that they make it through whatever situation they find themselves in, not just watch them go through it.

So now you need to decide what makes a good character, and how do I get people to care? This is not a teen drama book, with boring self insert characters, create someone who has interests of their own, someone who has flaws and their own personal morals.

Create a character who also isn’t just a stereotype or a troupe. If the reader is able to pinpoint a character’s interests and political persuasion just based on what they are wearing or after they speak for the first time. Then it is obvious that though did not go into the making of this person, and they are simply there as another casualty.

While readers may not always agree with the character in the story, it will help to humanize them, making their possible gruesome end far more morbid. Which is great for horror!

Being Alone

Humans are biologically social creatures, and many people fear isolation. Many have even gone insane from types of solitary confinement, so introducing this with the added horror of whatever the story is about, creates another layer of fear and dread within the viewer.

This will also force you as the writer to not incorporate throw-away characters, just to show how scary the threat can be. If you wish to show off whatever your menace will be, do so by having it actually brutally harm your character, or by giving the internal dialogue of how terrified the character is, and by what specifically.

This trope also works great for unique and strange settings. If your threat is of the world or location itself, having your character tepidly explore the ominous environment alone, puts the reader on edge throughout the entire journey. This tactic is great for fluid world and character building.

Famous fiction is built off solitude, and a character’s survival or downfall of it. Often times characters are added, so that the main character can show off their own personality by speaking with them or more prominently, to add to the body count. In many of H.P. Lovecraft’s stories, his characters are reciting their inner thoughts or noting them in a personal diary. Showing that other characters are unnecessary to do so. This also plays into his ever-present anthology of madness and its slow progression throughout the narrative.

Fate Worse than Death

Perhaps it is the dark Millennial/ Gen Z humor that has made death not as bleak or scary. Or perhaps it is due to the emergence of horror as a genre of its own, that makes a character’s death seem like just another Tuesday. Whatever the cause, death in horror is a given, and is harder to make it seem as dark a subject as it does within other genres. So what is a writer to do?

Sometimes in horror fiction, the writer will pose a twisted question of a given fate, such as: if you were to turn into one of the mindless walking dead, featured constantly within the genre. Does your character truly die? Are their minds trapped behind their now blistering grotesque form? Do humans truly have souls and if so, could they be made to suffer even worse than our living existence?

This is the type of threat that keeps the genre fresh and interesting. By having your character try to escape damnation or corruption, the threat is no longer a sweet release but infinite pain. This theme is not just present within zombie fiction, much of what Cronenburg has created are horrid abominations that are far from just being mindless. Instead, they are altered physically and mentally, creating a bastardization of the person or being they were before.

If you do choose to have death be the end-all of the story, then describe the injuries in detail. Gruesome injuries should be written as such and not glanced past. The actual death itself can also be tear-jerking and terrifying if you write death as it truly is, something prolonged, painful, and haunting.

Style and Ambiance

Your verbiage as a writer as well as how you describe things are some of the fundamentals when it comes to creative writing. Many will struggle to use a voice that is not their usual one, but if you are using a type of narration from your character’s perspective, you must learn how to alter your written words to compliment the mood.

Whichever style of narration you end up choosing, you must remember that this book is about something. Try and match the colorful imagery with the era or location that you are writing about. For example, if your work is about Jack the Ripper, you would write in a more fanciful English tone, with descriptions of the damp streets, with a hazy fog that covers the cobblestone buildings. If you were to write in a dialect that is obviously not era-appropriate, it may take the reader out of the immersion.

Creating the book’s specific style will also help in developing the ambiance and overall tone you are setting. If you were to aim for a thriller, you won’t want to use melancholic language, because you want to keep the reader in suspense!

Uniqueness

Ghosts, slashers, and zombies litter the genre, and while some may be successful, there are a hundred more that are just cookie-cutter copies of something someone else has already done. Even creating a new interesting monster isn’t enough, it simply gets clumped into the creature feature category. Many writers will simply put a new spin on one of these constant themes. This may work for some, but truly it is the skill of the writer that makes them successful not the small new detail or twist.

To make something with a recognizable name, something that actually scares someone instead of just using a creative idea from someone in the 18th century, you have to look at the big picture. Is your Big Bad in danger of becoming just another trope? For example, Stephen King’s “It” was extremely popular, one reason was that his creature would be out in broad daylight, leaving the reader realizing the characters are never truly safe.

So does the horror in your writing do something the readers would not expect? Does its desire confound the mind? The reader should not be able to finish writing your story for you, you should always strive to progress the genre not copy it.

Like other genres you must think about the world and characters, and what helps shape what they are. Creating some monster that lives in Nevada is far less interesting than creating a creature that functions off the strange ecosystem of its own alien environment. This helps set the scene and makes the story more believable while still being fiction.

Understanding these concepts and being able to implement them, are some of the foundations of not only horror but also proficient writing in general. While some may be vague concepts, it is up to the creative mind of the writer to flesh them out. These ways to make your story spine-chilling, often flow together, setting the tone for your narrative, and helping to set the scene and the characters. Pushing to develop the plot, and the ideas of the story moving forward.

Horror is the least developed major genre, yet it is the one with the most flexibility. You can incorporate it, into almost any other genre and still have it be a success. However, it can also be one of the hardest to get right, and not everyone will always be scared of the same thing. You must look deeper into humanity than its romance or its comedy, you have to understand human desire and their animalistic fear to actually affect the reader. To have the simple written words on a page, actually, send a shiver from the neck to the spine. That is successful horror.

July 8, 2022 0

Top 15 Games I refuse to Play because They are too Scary

I love horror, in films, in aesthetics, and even in real life. When It comes to horror games I just cant handle it. So here are my top 15 horror games/series that I just cant play.

15) Silent Hill Games

Of this list, this is one of the rare few that I actually attempted. Specifically silent hill 2. The creepy sound effects, the enemies that just won’t stay down, and the impossible controls just freak me out, way too much to finish this title. (The movies on the other hand are decent, they could be a lot scarier, however.)

14) Bioshock 1 & 2

This seems like a cool game with an awesome setting, with gameplay similar to Dishonored. However with its creepy, twitching, laughing enemies around dark corners. That is going to have to be a no from me. A lovely game that I will most likely watch a playthrough of.

13) Dying light (at Night)

This one is a bit of cheating. I actually somehow managed to get through and beat all of the first Dying Light. However I absolutely panicked during the nighttime missions, and never of my own accord ventured out at night. Cool side quest with an awesome reward that needs me to go out at night, nope not doing.

12) Left 4 Dead

Now I can play this game if I have friends, however, if I am alone I will not touch this game. Zombies freak me out and I just can’t do it. On the other hand, zombie movies are an old past-time that I will gladly watch alone in the dark.

11) SOMA

I have seen a playthrough of this game, and absolutely loved the story and the cool underwater atmosphere. However, its shambling and corrupted, screeching enemies, have halted me from even attempting a playthrough. Plus I’ve already seen the story so there’s really no need right? Right?!

10) Subnautica

I’m not even sure if Subnautica is technically even a horror game. However, I do know that there are horrible things that lurk in the dark. I don’t even have that bad of fear of deep water and ancient leviathans that may inhabit it. Though I do fear that I will see one, so for that, I’m out.

9) Any VR horror game

The budget could have been 5 dollars to make whatever playdoh like design, but if you put in creepy music, and anything that chases me. I will be too scared and will throw something (most likely the headset).

8) Amnesia

The games that have the monster always creeping around somewhere, get me the worst. I’ll never take a breath my heart will pound the entire time and I will not be able to play it for longer than 10 minutes otherwise ill have a heart attack.

7) Five Nights at Freddie’s

Any of the games in the series are too scary. Not only do the mechanics seem almost luck-based with their insufficient resource management, but the fact that they will just come at you at random reminds me of a long drawn-out jack-in-the-box.

6) Alien Isolation

The Alien movie is an absolute classic, that I have seen countless times. Though, much like in amnesia, if I know that it is constantly chasing me at all times. I’d rather just die and get it over with. I believe when I attempted to play it, and the creature was chasing me I sat the controller down and accepted my fate, and then never touched it again.

5) Old Resident Evil games

Combine zombies mixed with horrible controls and you get yet another game I don’t ever want to play. While there are remakes that make the controls more manageable, I still won’t do it.

4) New Resident Evil games

It’s almost ironic that the resident evil movies are not even horror, yet Resident Evil 7 is what it is. This may be the game that I would want to play the least. It’s claustrophobic, it has a mix of jump scares, as well as looming horror, with the graphics to enhance the experience.

3) Fatal Frame Series

What’s worse than seeing some horrible abomination meandering towards you? Well knowing that there is something there, but being unable to see it. Unseen horror is prominent within the genre and the Fatal Frame series does it to a great extent, so much so that I will never even try any title in the series.

2) DreadOut

Extremely similar to the last title, this game is a Japanese horror where there are a plethora of eerie phantoms, constantly all around you. Even better dealing with these yokai-esk spirits, isn’t a simple or even possible task. Horror games love to make you feel powerless.

1) Dead Space Games

Dead Space was the first horror game I was ever introduced to. I was a child and a fan of the Halo series. So when I saw the title Dead space I was ecstatic that I had found another space shooter. I was so horribly wrong, and now Dead Space will have a special place in my heart. I still won’t play it though.

June 8, 2022 0

How to Make the Perfect Vampire the Masquerade Film

There are countless vampire films, well at least I’m not going to count them all. Though within the vampire genre, there is the cult classic franchise of “Vampire: the Masquerade” by White Wolf Publishing. This Goth-punk franchise has spanned video games, novels, comics, and its original RPG tabletop game. Rumors have spread of a possible TV show set in the World of Darkness setting. So let’s discuss, if we receive a Masquerade show or film, what it needs to succeed.

The essence of this multi-monstered universe is that of an eerie melancholy with exciting hidden secrets in its darkest alleys. It’s a world that is controlled by shadowy puppet masters that are controlled by something even more ancient, but the world you see as the viewer must be that of the lowest level. The reason for this is due to the fact that this world thrives on ghostly secrecy. It helps the world feel so much wonderous when there are things to uncover.

The setting is almost always that of a city, not necessarily a major one, but there has to be at least one nightclub for the Camarilla to prowl. Whilst being a large city it must also feel slightly empty and decrepit, to give nuance of that grunge feel. Having a strong nightlife is imperative in anything that incorporates vampires, because if it’s a vampire in the suburbs that just becomes boring. Lastly throwing in some nice mist/haze along with some color-toned filters will give the film its needed crimson style.

Something that the world of Darkness excels at, that most other supernatural society TV series or movies do not incorporate. Is a type of living and believable power or government system. It is not a masquerade film if they don’t incorporate the masquerade and the different factions within the story. These vampires are composed of new and ancient characters, that should reflect this in their interactions. Sure you may be a vampire with impressive powers, but what can you do against someone who has lifetimes of knowledge, power, and political sway. The film would need to show the differences in the lives of these creatures from the homeless Nosferatu, to the elegant Toreador.

There are many routes they could choose for whatever story they wish to utilize. The main features that would give this story a strong presence would be following several different characters that occasionally interact. This would give the viewer a wide view of the world. It would need to have a complex political power struggle element, aligned with a sinister supernatural power. This power would shift the world, without the populace aware of its manipulation.

The final picture would be enhanced with superior filmography that heightens the scene. Creating gorgeous visual lighting and effects paired with stylized camera angles would give the noir feel that follows the story.

Many fans of the masquerade will most likely view this new film (series), but I have no doubt that the producers will most likely try and gather a new audience with its arrival as well. As fans of the series, we must hope that they hold true to the essence and not lose that special touch that made us all fall in love with this universe.

May 23, 2022 0

Are Games getting Worse?

The year was 2007, the Great Recession was kicking off, couch co-op was at its peak, and Halo 3 had just released. Many of us remember this time with nostalgia, especially gamers. Though, was it a better era in gaming than it is now?

Currently, Elden Ring, the Fromsoft title, is taking the gaming community by storm. Flush with raving reviews from the public, as well as prominent video game news companies; such as IGN, Metacritic, and Gamespot. So with all the praise for a recently released game, that would give you an obvious answer to the articles question, would it not? Not quite.

Games currently have features that have been progressively getting better, such as graphics, complex mechanics, and scale. However it appears, that once important features have fallen by the wayside for many game studios. One of those features is free games with live service. What that means is instead of paying the universal 60$, for a AAA game. You instead get it for free, depending on what subscriptions you have, for a game that isn’t quite finished. Sometimes these features would be game-breaking, but with the game being a “live service,” this is allowed.

In 2007 if your game wasn’t finished and you sent it out, that would be a disaster, because at that point not everyone was using online services and would not be able to receive the update, that would hopefully fix this game-breaking glitch. Though like I stated, the game came out for free, so why should it matter if it works or not? Well, although not all of them are free, it also breeds the creation that began with mobile games. That’s right, pay to win or more currently loot box mechanics all under the hated name of microtransactions.

You can see how some issues can create a type of domino effect, that creates more. Pay to win, released unfinished games, only online multiplayer, microtransactions, and games only working if connected online. None of these issues were around back in the day, which has created this belief that gaming was better years ago.

Though, the advancement that we have with games now, vs back then is immense. The creation and development of Virtual Reality and motion tracking have come so far from the days when the Wii, by Nintendo, was first released with its “game-changing” controller tracking. This was something we could only dream about not so long ago. VR is still in its infancy, however, this is what is truly advancing gaming for many people.

Truthfully there is no correct answer to an opinionated question, but I can see two different paths the gaming industry can take that will either send it to collapse or bring it into the limelight that will cause people of every age and upbringing to be playing them.

We can either see these schemes and ploys to gauge money from players while also abusing the company’s workers. That will cause many to fall back on the games in the past that they loved, and no longer indulge the companies’ greedy ambitions.

Or we can see an outcry of users to these new gimmicks, forcing companies who wish to keep their reputation from doing them, while also developing fun and engaging new ways to play games that will broaden their customer base. Only time will tell…

May 12, 2022 0