Here be spoilers.

Dragon's Dogma is one of the better RPGs produced in recent years. However as a game that can easily last over 100 hours, a 7-episode series didn't even stand a chance at adapting the story. This anime instead took the basic setup and elements of the ending, along with monsters, spells and aesthetics, and did something different. As an adaptation it's definitely worth tempering your expectations if you wanted an anime covering everything from the game, though I do think the show works -slightly- better if you have experienced the source material as certain things aren't given much, or any, context in the show and rely on outside knowledge.

The anime is very squarely focused on the worst parts of humanity. It's interested in telling stories of sin and selfish desire rather than simple heroism and that alone sets it apart from most fantasy anime produced. A hero that gradually loses his humanity and a blank pawn that gradually gains hers hunt down a dragon, running into several more individual encounters on the way all focused around one of the seven sins.

The show's writing is inconsistent in quality and that's really its biggest failing. There are a couple of real gems that do something interesting with the sin the episode is titled after, but a couple of others are incredibly simple and bring the show down, especially 'Gluttony' and its simple 'Corrupt leaders are bad' message, though that particularly weak episode is placed early on and at least serves as a simple introduction to the style of adventure and action present in the show. Most concerningly of all, the subtlety of the better episodes has clearly been lost on some people based on other reviews I've read. 'Sloth', for example, focuses on a town that produces drugs, but deftly avoids being a simple drugs are bad message by showing that the real sloth is the inability people have to make meaningful change in their lives out of fear and, of course, laziness and is ultimately unrelated to the drug operation. Other episodes rely on audiences to make their own decisions and judgements rather than shoving everything in your face, something I personally appreciate.

The show's full CGI, but very smooth and expressive. Only real rough area is a few of the monster models but it's made up for by the sheer smoothness of it all. In addition, there are tons of creative and beautiful shots owing to great direction and some really nice action scenes. With a little more use of heavy lighting and slightly better monster models, this'd be some of the better recent CGI in anime series. All of the voice acting and music is solid, but unremarkable.

Those in the market for something edgy, fun, gory and decently original will have a good time with this series.