Dragon's Dogma

Andy

Andy

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Sep 11, 2013
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Just getting around to this game. I never did play it, back when it released in 2012 (I think). I was preoccupied with other games, didn't like the demo, and thought the title sounded dopey. I picked it up for $20 or so, as a part of trying to eek the last bits of life from my 360. And I did hear good things about it, so I thought I should give it a chance.


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I'm about 5 hours in, just reached Gran Soren. Combat is fun. Lots of hacky slashy and cool magic effects. I'm not exactly the master of my domain yet, but I'm gradually getting a feel for it.

I'm sticking to the main roads for now and avoiding travelling at night, so I haven't seen much of the environments. I love exploring in RPGs, so I plan to go off the beaten path soon. I just wanted to get to Gran Soren before it got too dark. I've heard bad stories.

I'm playing as a fighter but will likely shift classes later on, since I've heard the game allows that. I've heard Mage and Strider are fun, and there may be mix & match classes, too.

I like the pawns, although their dialog crowds the screen (one of the busiest HUDs I've seen). If I turn it off, I feel like I'm going to miss something important, so I'm leaving it on for now.

I'm finding a mute main character kind of strange, especially in combination with these soul-less "pawns." It makes me feel kind of detached, like I don't have a personality and my companions are just interchangeable game pieces. I expect that combat and exploration will be the main attractions here, rather than story or character, which fits what I read about the game beforehand, so no real surprise there.

My main character's name is Dickhead, so they wouldn't let me online. I guess I'll have to change it. What, they don't think a guy named Dickhead can save the world? That's narrow minded. Never fear, Dickhead is here.

I'm progressing along the main path, not worrying about the sidequests much. I did one of them, about the medicinal flowers, but the others I've gotten from the notice boards seem too routine to bother with. I think I've accomplished several of them just by travelling around in the world, doing the main quest stuff.

I got the Dark Arisen version. I don't plan to play that segment (Bitterblack Isle), based on what I've heard (too hard), but I was glad to get the slightly upgraded visuals and the fast travel options.
 
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Lol @ your character's name. Anderson, you don't strike me as someone who would have a sense humor like that.
 
Oh yeah, I am a weird mix of serious/intellectual and stupidly immature. :laugh: All kinds of things will make me laugh.
 
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Never played this game myself, but had a couple friends who talked it up quite a bit a little while after it came out.
 
It's a great great game. I loved every minute of it. There's a lot to it as well. I never got around to finishing it.
 
Love the encounters in this game. End game is great, too.
 
I played a few hours and passed on it. Not a bad game at all, just didn't hold my attention at the time.
 
I loved this game, was obsessed with it for a few months! My husband is playing it now, had to talk him into to trying it and he is now obsessed with it! Nothing wrong with the name Dickhead, there was a guy running for congress years ago in NH with the name "Dick Swett"! Ha ha!!
 
Viktor said:
Uggh thanks for reminding me of yet another game on my backlog.
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You're welcome.

My backlog is getting pretty thin. GTA 5 and Guardian of Light (free off XBL today), but after that, there isn't much left. AC4, but I'm going to wait for next gen to play that.
 
I have DD: Dark Arisen (thnxPS+) in my waiting to be downloaded que on PS3. I'm so looking forward to playing this, it looks great.
 
Anderson said:
You're welcome.

My backlog is getting pretty thin. GTA 5 and Guardian of Light (free off XBL today), but after that, there isn't much left. AC4, but I'm going to wait for next gen to play that.
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Consider yourself lucky.
 
I did with this game what I had not done with a game in geological ages: I SNAPPED the disc in two. After spending over an hour and a half trying to defeat some stupid Bitterblack boss with my 100+ LVL character I decided that I 'd had enough aggravation. And you know what? It felt GOOD.
 
I just started playing the game again with a level 77 character and was 1 hit killed within 5 minutes of time within BBI. I even took some 100+ level pawns with me with the same result. :(
 
Mua'dib said:
I did with this game what I had not done with a game in geological ages: I SNAPPED the disc in two. After spending over an hour and a half trying to defeat some stupid Bitterblack boss with my 100+ LVL character I decided that I 'd had enough aggravation. And you know what? It felt GOOD.
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I've broken plenty of controllers in my day but never a disc. I have the digital version of this game so hopefully it doesn't anger me to destroy the console.
 
Mua'dib said:
I did with this game what I had not done with a game in geological ages: I SNAPPED the disc in two. After spending over an hour and a half trying to defeat some stupid Bitterblack boss with my 100+ LVL character I decided that I 'd had enough aggravation. And you know what? It felt GOOD.
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Yeah, I'm not planning on doing the BBI portion. I've heard that beyond the first third, it becomes stupidly difficult.
 
Anderson said:
Yeah, I'm not planning on doing the BBI portion. I've heard that beyond the first third, it becomes stupidly difficult.
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BBI is the best part of the game to me. Loved that section. It is quite tough if you are 50-80 levels. Most likely you'll zoom toward 100 pretty quickly since you're fighting tough enemies, i know i did.
 
This game is sitting on my PS3 hard drive courtesy of PSN+. I do want to play it but I've got a backlog of about 50 games on Steam.
 
It's perhaps my favorite game of the generation and I have played it for over 200 hours easily. Yes you can switch classes very easily and it's almost necessary since you can use the bonuses from each class to build a super character. I played a mage/sorcerer/magic archer and used augments from each class.

When you finish the main story you can start a new game plus, but the enemies are of the same strength. However, it is a blast to blow through the same content when you are three times as powerful.

Bitterblack Isle is for characters 75 and up. I finished BBI at level 90 and it wasn't too difficult but the enemies that you face have a ton of hit points. You can replay BBI and it is much harder but the rewards are better.

Don't forget to level a fighter for a little bit so that you can get the augment "Sinew". It allows you to carry more stuff and it's incredibly useful.
 
Good choice in getting around to playing Dragon's Dogma. It's one of last gen's gems. No doubt about it. Just another great game that got lost in an ocean of great games.
 
I bought this game and got busy doing other things and forgot about it. Need to pick it back up.

I thought it was a great start for a new IP.
 
MasterMama said:
I loved this game, was obsessed with it for a few months! My husband is playing it now, had to talk him into to trying it and he is now obsessed with it! Nothing wrong with the name Dickhead, there was a guy running for congress years ago in NH with the name "Dick Swett"! Ha ha!!
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I remember a coach from when I was at a football camp. His name was Dick Pierce...

Mua'dib said:
I did with this game what I had not done with a game in geological ages: I SNAPPED the disc in two. After spending over an hour and a half trying to defeat some stupid Bitterblack boss with my 100+ LVL character I decided that I 'd had enough aggravation. And you know what? It felt GOOD.
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The ONLY disc I can remember breaking was Samurai Shodown on 3D0. It just pushed my buttons! I just wanted to win, but no! I swear it cheated or something. It was a long time ago.

Anyway, I actually never finished Dragon's Dogma. I put a lot of hours into it though. I think they turned me off a bit when they wanted me to re-buy the entire game to get the DLC. That and no PC version...

I will say that I enjoyed what I played, and I'll probably finish it later.
 
What kills this game is the dumb A.I and the lack of ability to issue even the most basic commands. I'm not asking to turn the game into an RTS. But when your mages keep charging headlong into battle instead of ussing support or healing magic and your warrior is nothing but cannon fodder then you have a problem.

Capcom,if you ever make a sequel please address these A.I issues and PLEASE let us create our whole party from scratch.
 
Mua'dib said:
What kills this game is the dumb A.I and the lack of ability to issue even the most basic commands. I'm not asking to turn the game into an RTS. But when your mages keep charging headlong into battle instead of ussing support or healing magic and your warrior is nothing but cannon fodder then you have a problem.

Capcom,if you ever make a sequel please address these A.I issues and PLEASE let us create our whole party from scratch.
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Haven't played this in a while, I do remember you having the ability to tell ranged characters to keep their distance when attacking. Likewise you could tell melee characters to rush in. I found them to be responsive enough that it never gave me issue.
 
^ That bit starts around 6:00, for those interested. It seems like he's ranting mostly about the pawns babbling incessantly, rather than not being able to command them in battle -- unless he rants about that later (I can only listen to so much ranting before 8:00 a.m.).
 
Mua'dib said:
What kills this game is the dumb A.I and the lack of ability to issue even the most basic commands. I'm not asking to turn the game into an RTS. But when your mages keep charging headlong into battle instead of ussing support or healing magic and your warrior is nothing but cannon fodder then you have a problem.

Capcom,if you ever make a sequel please address these A.I issues and PLEASE let us create our whole party from scratch.
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You have to use elixirs to change the behavior of the AI. At the pawn encampment (frist place you go after leaving your home town) you can pick elixirs to do that. The game doesn't make that clear, I know. Each elixir uses rift crystals but it's not too expensive. The crazy thing is that your pawns will change behavior depending on what you do, even if you don't want them to act that way.
 
I'm about 10 hours in now, picking up quests in Gran Soren. I've had a couple of problems with my pawns. In one case, my main pawn fell into the water while I was trying to complete a quest far from the castle. She says, "I was clumsy" and disappears, and I am told I need to be near a riftstone to retrieve her. Great. So that means I have to trek all the way back to the castle to revive her.

And in another instance, when I was running up the staircase in Everfall, my pawns kept engaging the serpent heads and dying, even though they were telling me a moment ago it was hopeless to fight and we should just run (which I was trying to do, except now I had to go back and rescue them every 5 seconds). I would've died, had I not eventually just said "F*ck it, you guys are on your own, I'm out of here," and just left them behind. When I get to the top, they materialize somehow, which means all my backtracking to save them wasn't really necessary. Kind of annoying. Almost got me killed.

On the upside, I like exploring outside Gran Soren. There's a sense of adventure there, especially knowing that you have to be back before nightfall. Days are pretty gloomy so far, though, and there's no clock I can find on the menus, so it's hard to tell what's mid-morning and what's late afternoon.

The city landscape is awfully grey and dull. They used very few colors besides greyish brown, and the architecture all looks the same, with buildings blending into each other. Hopefully other cities are more interesting to look at.

The combat feels good, as others have said. I'm hoping to get out in the countryside and explore more.
 
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