Dragon's Dogma

I'll preface by saying I'm a huge fan of the game, and I cannot help but approach the show in a manner that reflects that bias.

Dragon's Dogma, the game that is, is classical kind of fantasy. Adventurer's home is besieged by a dragon, he goes on a mission to slay it and many more monsters along the way, save his love, etc. Kind of boiler plate plot wise but lifted up by some interesting characters, fantastic dialogue, cool lore, and second to none gameplay.

When I heard of the show I was... skeptical, but hopeful that they could capture the mostly upbeat action romp adventure the game was. I was disappointed in that way. Besides the titular Dragon, there were absolutely 0 characters which made it to the show from the game. The Netflix adaptation of Dragon's Dogma takes itself far too seriously. Where there were once silly asides of being paraded around in a jester's cap, there's now a protagonist fueled by rage and brooding. In all honesty Ethan seems like the sort of character a 15 year old would role play in his D&D game. I know because I did the same thing. With such little resemblance it's a wonder why it bares the same name at all, it may as well just be called "Dragon Slayer."

For a show with several seasons planned apparently it also has a serious problem of telling, not showing, it's plot to you. Ethan's tragic backstory eluded to in a couple of glimpses but is ultimately told to the audience by some unnamed kids. The show attempts to provide an ending to the first season with some kind of philosophical malarkey about 'human nature' and the various sins for which the episodes are named after, but it comes across as extraordinarily forced and just plain nonsensical.

More minor complaints include the fact than several monster's models, including the dragon itself, are not textured very well at all. In fact they may have looked better just being copied and pasted from the game itself. Lighting is lacking, and many animations are stiff and floaty, very much unlike other cg animations like Beastars.

Unfortunately it turned out to be a show based on a great story, but not capturing the spirit of it at all, and I can't imagine people seeing it as anything more than your average power-fantasy.

Animation is very slow, like watching a movie in slow motion. So i suppose they simply slow down the CGI to get 32 minutes per episode but render only 16 minutes. This technique is very old and used for lousy productions. It is very lame, and you can clearly count each frame sometimes.

The story, the dialogue, the characters ... are pfffff forgettable at best.

And the most important: D.R.A.G.O.N.S Dogma DRRRAAGGGOONNNNS You know what ? It is the most horrible, awful animated, ugliest dragon i ever seen -_- How is that possible to give us something like that when you get so many incredible dragons this last years in Game of thrones or Lord of the Rings ... My god, a correct dragon in 3d cost at most 600 $ GODDAM IT and looks like Game of Throne in real time !

And the animation... sometimes it is very good! MOST of the time looks like automate. In 2020 this is very bad. The rendering (aspect, pictures) is good, but sometimes and 100% when a dragon is on screen it is very very bad. The colors do not even match the backgrounds. Seriously guys ... i can do better by myself !!

Hey NETFLIX, put your money into The old Guards II or Castlevania, but please forget this awful thing. Total waste of money for you, total waste of time for me.

BAD animated TV show.

The show doesn't allow the viewer to get to know the characters. The characters' reactions to unexpected and tragic things that happen around them feel absurd and alien. The side-characters introduced are unmemorable. This all leads to the story feeling bland and almost pointless. If I don't care about the character why would I care about what happens to that character? I like the theme and the art style but this show could be much MUCH better with some solid writing.

I'm not a fan of this cheap-looking 3d animation that tries to capture the marvel of 2d, but I can overlook it. I only made it through half of one episode, so I cannot judge the story, I just couldn't handle the horrible voice acting. I just had to turn it off.

Between the style changes (between 2D and 3D animation) throughout the series and the bad monster 3D models, it's hard to believe Capcom green light this for even the seven episodes it had.

This is a fan fiction at its worst.

Just play the game, it has a plot.