Your question about Dragons Dogma, yes it is recommend (from me at least). I played it for a DKS break while I was waiting on DLC and it is an excellent game.
I think they are going to make a hard mode for DLC sometime soon so you might want to wait for that, but regardless it is well worth some time. It does a few things I would love DKS to do and the boss fights, albeit not hard like DKS, are just outstanding. It's like a more relaxed style of gameplay than DKS though it's not going to insult you with hand holding, and some parts of the game can be a pretty good challenge. Aesthetically it is a very pleasing game as well.
I think they are going to make a hard mode for DLC sometime soon so you might want to wait for that, but regardless it is well worth some time. It does a few things I would love DKS to do and the boss fights, albeit not hard like DKS, are just outstanding. It's like a more relaxed style of gameplay than DKS though it's not going to insult you with hand holding, and some parts of the game can be a pretty good challenge. Aesthetically it is a very pleasing game as well.