For me, the thing that made Dragons Dogma special was how raw it was. In a world of incredibly user-friendly high fantasy narratives and safe, padded RPG systems, this extremely unorthodox approach to design and Capcoms weird lil brand of combat behavior made for a surprisingly engaging experience (even when it kind of sucked). Something sort of accidentally brilliant, a diamond in the rough.

Things like user-sourced NPCs to populate the world and community-pooled boss fights are obviously avant garde on the network side, but I have a fondness for even the much-aligned Portcrystal system. Personalized fast travel means making decisions about where /you/ care about going and nesting in these parts of the game world. I would put Portcrystals inside tents next to merchants and it was almost like taking ownership of those places.

Really good, most peoples issues with this expansion is from not having the reading comprehension or attention span of an adult. like idk man expansions about poltical drama, rebellion, imperialism, how a systems flaws may not get better before or after occupation, and how broken systems raise broken families and broken people, and how evil is not born, but made as a product of its surroundings. All wrapped up in the tale of a man who lives for the thrill of facing someone who could give him a worthy fight, a fight for reclaiming ones homeland from occupation and raising a nation from slavery to freedom. To find ones culture and ways of life when its been removed from those people during occupation, and also to go fight an ancient superweapon and a powerful primal. Shits good!