To be blunt: one of my favourite games ever.
Dragons Dogma: Dark Arisen is one of the few games i could never grow tired off.

When you first start playing you will have a choice between three Vocations (Classes), Fighter, Strider and Mage.
However these are not all Vocations, there are more you can unlock while playing, there are 9 Classes in total.
You can level them how you want as you can switch how often you want, there are two types of level, Character Level and Vocation Level, Character Level goes up to 200 and is shared across your entire save, Vocation level on the other hand goes up to 10 and every Vocation level unlocks either a new Skill for purchase at the Vocation NPC or a new Passive, Passives are shared between all classes, resulting in the player being able to build their chosen Vocation how they want and giving the player more reason to level other Vocations, playing an Assassin and you feel like your damage is a bit low? level a warrior a bit and grab the damage boost Passives.
However when switching to one of these Vocations you will notice one major thing, Stats, every single time you level up with your Character Level you gain a stat boost according to your Class which is permanent, meaning mixing up different types of classes will result in you being rather weak.
To make it easier: you played 100 levels as Sorcerer but suddenly you want to play Warrior, the issue is your damage will be extremely low compared to someone who was playing physical classes all the time mainly because all your stats will be Magic Focused.
However there are the Hybrid Classes which profit from mixed stats such as the Magick Knight who profits from Physical Damage as well as Magic Damage.

The game has a unique feature known as "Pawns", these Pawns are basically companions, however these pawn come with different sets of skills, equipment etc. early on in the game you will be prompted to create a "Main Pawn" a Main Pawn is pretty much part of you, meaning you cant really get rid of your Main Pawn. You can equip your Main Pawn with Skills, Armor etc. pretty much everything your Main Character has, you can even change the Vocation of your Pawn, your pawns Vocations all work the same as your Main Characters, however your Pawn does not have access to Hybrid Classes like you do.

When playing on the Online mode your pawn gets uploaded/updated in the Rift every single time you rest in an Inn.
The Rift is a hub filled with Pawns, when offline its filled with random generated pawns and when online from other players, meaning once your Pawn is uploaded other players will be able to "rent" your pawn, meaning they have your pawn as a party member, you can do the same, you can have up to 3 Pawns in your Group, you can rent them by spending "Rift Crystals" which is a currency mainly used for renting pawns, you earn these when someone rents your pawn and by just playing the game.

There is one major issue people seem to have with Pawns, talking.
Pawns talk ALOT in this game especially when in combat, i personally dont mind it but some people have an issue with that and i do understand why, hearing " 'TIS WEAK TO FIRE" or "WOLVES HUNT IN PACKS" for the 100th time can get on ones nerves.
For that you can turn off Pawn chatter in the options, though i personally advise against it mainly because Pawns often give information based on your current location or generally the lore and sometimes even their own opinion on the Story.

The Combat in this game is as fluid as it can get, you have alot of freedom when in Combat, from literally grabbing your opponent and letting your Pawns club them to death to casting enormous spells, with absolutely devastating effects.
Wanna obliterate you Enemy? Why not summon a gigantic Tornado in their faces or summon a Meteor Shower.
When you are facing a bigger boss, you have the option to cling to them and actually climb them, once you are onto them you can attack them and in some cases use Skills.
Fighting a Big Cyclops? just climb towards his Eye and stab it.

Some people tend to compare this games Combat System with Dark Souls mainly because Enemies hit pretty hard in the beginning and your Attacks consume Stamina etc.
Others tend to compare it to Devil May Cry mainly cause you can combo your enemy to death and cause the Combat feels so fluid.
I personally say its neither of those or a hybrid at best.

What i personally love about this game the most is the fact that based on your Characters: Height, Weight and Muscle Mass you have different stats.
Meaning that if you have a small character, it results in you having less Power which results in you having less Carry Capacity but for that your Stamina Regeneration is higher.

The Story in this game is absolutely Amazing, when you first start it wont be very unique as it sounds like every other Fantasy RPG there is and once you progress a little you will be actually lost, as this game doesnt hold your hand like most RPGs do, no quest indicator or main story you can follow.
Do some random quests you find and at some point you will start to get a vague direction, which leads to a fully fledged storyline with an Ending which slightly changes when you go into New Game+ (Offline Mode)

Due to this being Dark Arisen there is a unique Isle in the game called "The Bitterblack Isle" which is an entire island full of challenges and a rather Dark and Emotional Story once you manage to get through it.
Bitterblack Isle is meant as a huge Challenge, meaning if you run in there low level you will most likely die in the first room.
However if you manage to survive and get through some bosses you will be richly rewarded with a ton of Rift Crystals, High end gear and lots of Gold.
Note: When you complete Bitterblack Isle once it will change into some sort of Hardmode, making it even more of a challenge as there are new Enemies, Better Loot and a changed Final boss.

Other than BBI (Bitterblack Isle) you can simply do Board quests, which involve a Hunting Board (Hunt a specific Monster/Hunt a specific amount of Monsters), Escort Quests (Simply Escort an NPC to the said Location) and Collect Quests (Collect a specific Item)
All Boards have a limited amount of Quests, some with Awesome Rewards and some with bad Rewards, however completing certain Board Quests unlock unique new ones with better rewards etc.
There are multiple Boards and every Board has different types of quests they offer, example: the board in the Main Capital only offers Escort Quests.

There is always something to do in Dragons Dogma, from BBI to Boards to simply perfecting your Class and your Main Pawn.

I just randomly decided to write this review and it is nowhere near perfect, however i felt like i had to write this due to my massive respect for this game.

Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen has its ups and downs, if you can get past its issues then you are in for an amazing experience.