When I started it, Dragon’s Dogma was easily one of the worst RPGs I’ve ever played. In many ways it still is. After fighting through a dizzying amount of content, though, it actually became surprisingly enjoyable. Still, the beginning and several points after it are truly painful and awkward and backward even after you finish the game and carry your character over into new game +, where your stats and equipment remain intact. The lack of a convenient Fast Travel option is especially egregious, necessitating long treks through the same groups of enemies you’ve fought through dozens of times before, and the replacement system the game uses which requires placing rare crystals to create your own fast travel points simply doesn’t work without advance knowledge of where the most important quest areas are. That means that despite the game eventually becoming fairly entertaining, it’s just not a good game. It’s far too flawed, with far too much filler before you get to the “good part,” which itself is only really decent at best thanks to combat often relying on annoying QTE sections and awkward combat mechanics.