With Dragon’s Dogma around the corner, it’s about time we start boning up on the facts. In the coming months, we’ll be taking a look at each of the playable classes, complete with insider info from Director Itsuno (famous for the Devi May Cry series) and extended gameplay videos exclusive to Unity.

For today, you can check out the first two classes—Strider and Fighter—after the jump. Be aware that the enemies in the gameplay videos have been made invincible so we could thoroughly showcase the variety of moves and applications for each class. 

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Strider

Wielding dual daggers and a shortbow, Striders deal damage with quick speed and deadly accuracy.  Striders also have trap abilities and trick arrows that allow them to confuse and disorient enemies.

Striders are skilled in ranged attacks, and can deliver damage more quickly than other classes, moving swiftly around the battlefield with speed and agility, striking at enemies with their dual daggers. The trade-off, however, is that their attacks power is relatively low.

Thanks to their many bow skills, Striders are able to rain down arrows on enemies from long distances and can shoot down airborne enemies with ease.

The Striders also excel in acrobatics, and are able to grapple and climb large enemies longer than any other class, allowing them to freely strike at an enemy’s weakest areas. They are quite nimble from the start, with evasive maneuvers and high stamina. With growth, they can learn a variety of skills, such as thievery and multi-part attacks that deal several strikes at once. Focusing on developing attack power could result in a remarkably well-balanced Strider.

Primary Weapon:

Daggers

Secondary Weapon:

Bow

Skills

- Ensnare – Casts cords to snare lightweight foes, knocking them to the ground to incapacitate them .

- Scarlet Kisses  – Concentrates a flurry of slashes on a single point, easily shredding foes with meager endurance.

- Cloudburst Volley – Sends a wall of arrows skyward to rain down on a broad area.

Most effective against: Cyclopes, harpies, griffins

Least effective against: Saurians, phantoms, skeletons

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Fighter

Equipped with a sword and shield, Fighters offer a good balance of offense and defense and serve on the party’s front lines. Equipped with a one-handed sword and shield, they excel at both offense and defense. Fighters possess a variety of deadly sword skills, ranging from dashing attacks that allow fighters to quickly close the gap on an enemy, to skills that allow them to skewer enemies from safely behind their shields.

Defensively, Fighters offer a variety of abilities that allow them to serve as a veritable “tank” for the party, letting ranged and offensive classes deal damage from a safe distance. They are able to quickly switch between defense and offense thanks to their sword/shield combo, and indeed, mastery of the Fighter’s defensive maneuvers is key to using this class effectively.

Fighters are able to launch allies into the air to grab flying enemies, making them invaluable when fighting winged opponents.

To their disadvantage, however, they are not particularly hard nor nimble hitters, and they cannot cast any elemental attacks, though their weapons can be imbued with elemental status if accompanied by a mage or other class capable of elementals.

Primary Weapon

One-handed Sword

Secondary Weapon

Shield 

Skills

- Shield Strike – Strikes a foe with the shield, causing little damage but forcing the target to drop his or her guard.

- Flesh Skewer – Thrusts the blade into the target’s body, pinning target in place and proceeding to rain down further blows.

- Blink Strike – Rushes to the target and delivers a powerful blow.

Most effective against: Chimeras, wolves, saurians.

Least effective against: Undead, phantoms, evil eyes, and other magical foes.