[360/PS3] Dragon's Dogma - Dark Arisen out!

[Doopri]

ya i would MO - it sounds like that thing has been systematically steering you wrong every step of the way

i dont know what i may or may not have missed, but i havent had nearly as many problems "getting the game to work" as it were.  or even if you dont restart - wander more, guide less - and kick it for me while youre at it because i know i HATE being locked out of quests / story too!

edit: r!

[metallicorphan]

ya i would MO - it sounds like that thing has been systematically steering you wrong every step of the way

i dont know what i may or may not have missed, but i havent had nearly as many problems "getting the game to work" as it were.  or even if you dont restart - wander more, guide less - and kick it for me while your at it because i know i HATE being locked out of quests / story too!

I have been doing a lot of wondering,i have pretty much most of the map uncovered(north west-end game isn't and neither is past the drawing on the hill of the man)


22hrs down the drain anyway

[Autistic Angel]

Tom Chick...um...weighs in?

Speaking of that capital city, we have some name suggestions from our lore department. The ones you’re using are just going to sound ridiculous. We have some leftover names from Kingdoms of Amalur you can use. Melissa, be a dear and print out those leftover names. Okay, moving on. Where is the gear churn? Jared, how long have you been wearing that same red leather armor?

For at least ten levels.

Jared, do you have a +1 bow yet?

The regular bow is still fine.

That won’t do. Gear churn means DLC and retail incentives. Basically, we need more gear, more stuff, more magic stuff. Why so stingy? Now I’m not saying you’re not doing some great things. Jared loved the big monster fights. What was the name of that Lord of the Rings movie, Jared, the one with the troll you were telling me about?

Fellowship of the Ring. They have a cave troll.

He gives it a 4 / 5 stars at the end which is good because, otherwise, I honestly wouldn't have any idea what he thought of the game.  The text focuses exclusively on the idea that Dragon's Dogma makes several design decisions that are different from what EA might have done, without offering any direct opinion on how well those choices worked out.  It's all framed as a conversation between three imaginary characters conversing about what the game is not, and based on their fictional credentials, they'd all be predisposed to dislike it regardless.

At the risk of outing myself as painfully obtuse, it strikes me as one the strangest and least informative reviews of anything I can remember.

-Autistic Angel

[CeeKay]

so, anyone else having a blast with the livestock?

[Ralph-Wiggum]

"Fought" a dragon tonight. Spent about a minute on his head wailing away on it's neck and achieved exactly zero damage. In retrospect, imbuing my weapons with fire might not have been the best idea.

[EngineNo9]

so, anyone else having a blast with the livestock?

Heh, yes, but clearly not as much "fun" as you.    I jumped on top of a wild buffalo last night and rode him around the field as he got increasingly agitated.

[metallicorphan]

Level 10!!! woohooo 

[Harkonis]

I missed plenty of quests, but had a blast playing through the game organically.  You can always grab ones you miss during NG+.  Starting over after 22 hours just seems silly and over thinking it.   Bummer

[metallicorphan]

I missed plenty of quests, but had a blast playing through the game organically.  You can always grab ones you miss during NG+.  Starting over after 22 hours just seems silly and over thinking it.   Bummer

yeah i knew about that,But if i do play NG+ it will be awhile away,i usually never replay a game straight away

[The Grue]

I missed plenty of quests, but had a blast playing through the game organically.  You can always grab ones you miss during NG+.  Starting over after 22 hours just seems silly and over thinking it.   Bummer

yeah i knew about that,But if i do play NG+ it will be awhile away,i usually never replay a game straight away

How about this, then?  The quests aren't that great that you can't miss some of them.  I wouldn't start over, either.  Of course, I wouldn't play a game with a guide sitting open while I play it.  I'd just play the game and have fun with whatever content comes my way.

[Gratch]

I'm feeling a strong forum effect pull with this one and may pick it up to play this weekend.  It looks interesting enough, but the lack of a story really concerns me, as do the "extreme difficulty spikes" (according to one review).

However, I'm confused by those who said it has a Nier vibe.  Nier's strong suit was fantastic character development, a strong story, and unique gameplay elements...but from the reviews I've read, Dragon's Dogma doesn't seem to have any of that and it's more in the Syrim vein of "big open world".  Maybe I'm just misunderstanding the reviews.

[WorkingMike]

I around level 29 and my fighter is still using the same gear he bought at the shop in Gran Soren (with the exception of some bronze greaves i think). I just rented a level 32 Warrior and he's tricked out, which leads me to believe that I need to venture further afield. My mage has a sweet staff though, Thunderclap or some such.

Oh, and I figured out that sprinting in the capitol doesn't use stamina. And you can sell right from storage (which is saving me a bit of running back and forth now).

Regarding gifting, can we not send anything below the "other" tab home with a pawn? I wanted to send a sweet ring I found, but it didn't show up, so I sent a ferrystone instead.

[Gratch]

Also, do you have to have an XBL Gold subscription to access the online features?  That might put me "out"...

[WorkingMike]

Think of it more as Nier (in terms of style) meets Monster Hunter (in terms of gameplay). The game is basically you venturing out to kill monsters. The quests are about on par with an MMO (at least most of the ones i've done so far). Character development is almost nil. I have no emotional investment in my character at all.

If, however, you want the gaming equivalent to the most awesome action scenes from the LoTR films, then look no further.  

I'm feeling a strong forum effect pull with this one and may pick it up to play this weekend.  It looks interesting enough, but the lack of a story really concerns me, as do the "extreme difficulty spikes" (according to one review).

However, I'm confused by those who said it has a Nier vibe.  Nier's strong suit was fantastic character development, a strong story, and unique gameplay elements...but from the reviews I've read, Dragon's Dogma doesn't seem to have any of that and it's more in the Syrim vein of "big open world".  Maybe I'm just misunderstanding the reviews.

[metallicorphan]

I missed plenty of quests, but had a blast playing through the game organically.  You can always grab ones you miss during NG+.  Starting over after 22 hours just seems silly and over thinking it.  Bummer

yeah i knew about that,But if i do play NG+ it will be awhile away,i usually never replay a game straight away

How about this, then?  The quests aren't that great that you can't miss some of them.  I wouldn't start over, either.  Of course, I wouldn't play a game with a guide sitting open while I play it.  I'd just play the game and have fun with whatever content comes my way.

it's one thing the quests getting locked out,its another thing that the quest that get locked out are quests that open other quests and they do sound good

and i don't play my games like that with the guide,i read up on side quests and look before hand if i need to do anything special,if i don't need to do anything special then i play normally and don't worry about things and do things my way,if i do need to do something special i remember it

when a game is first released,and i have a guide for it,and especially when i am pumped for the game then that guide becomes my reading material when i go to bed for the next few weeks(no 40 Year Old Virgin jokes please )

not to worry anyway,on my way to Gran Soren now with Mercedes in my new game

I'm feeling a strong forum effect pull with this one and may pick it up to play this weekend.  It looks interesting enough, but the lack of a story really concerns me, as do the "extreme difficulty spikes" (according to one review).

However, I'm confused by those who said it has a Nier vibe.  Nier's strong suit was fantastic character development, a strong story, and unique gameplay elements...but from the reviews I've read, Dragon's Dogma doesn't seem to have any of that and it's more in the Syrim vein of "big open world".  Maybe I'm just misunderstanding the reviews.

TBH the gameworld is not massive,it just seems a lot bigger because there is no fast travel(i mean there are only 2 towns in the whole game which isn't much when comparing to other games),it is a positive,because before long you get to know your way around very easily and as other have said you start taking seriously your preparations when setting out

Also, do you have to have an XBL Gold subscription to access the online features?  That might put me "out"...

Nope

[Gratch]

Thanks.  I think I'm intrigued enough to give this a shot...assuming I can pull myself away from Diablo 3 long enough. 

[Lockdown]

I have some questions regarding the pawn system if someone would indulge me  (using Kato as an example to make things simple):

1) I saw it mentioned that pawns (other than your main, created pawn) don't level up.  So my question is, if I go to the screen where I can "shop" my friends pawns, will I get multiple level versions of each of them, or just where that pawn currently stands in terms of level?  To make it clearer, say I want Kato's pawn:  Do I get an option of Kato's pawn when she was level 5, 10, 15, 20.... or just the current version of Kato's pawn, who may by now may be much higher level than me as I start the game?

2) If I'm understanding correctly, I can sit down with (or level up) my main pawn and influence his skills and how he acts in battle.  Do I have this same level of customization with Kato's "rented" pawn?  Or is her behavior 'hard-coded' by the way Kato made her to be in his game?

3) When "shopping" through my friends pawns, will it be obvious what their strengths, weaknesses, styles of combat, etc... are?  Is this made clear to the player somehow as he shops around for a pawn he would like to add to his party?

4) What if someone didn't have any xbox friends who play the game?  Does the game offer them a wide assortment of pawns to choose from to add to his adventuring party?

Thanks.

[metallicorphan]

1)I think its just the current level,i think its to make you shop around and use other pawns

2)I know the Knowledge chair is only for the Pawn you made and not hired,the changing skills i think is also for just the made pawn(but i am not 100% certain of this)

3)when you have the pawns summoned in the rift,you can press RB and LB to scroll through information under their name,and when summoning pawns you can search for the kind of pawn you want and level etc

4)yes,from the people connected to the game who aren't on your list,and also i believe there are developers pawns in there(maybe under the special pawns)

for example i have 3 friends on my xbox list who plays this game,you can only make 1 pawn,so that's 3 pawns..yet i can search through 100's in the rift,you can have up to 100 favoured so you can always keep an eye on the pawn you love easily

[Autistic Angel]

Standing in stark relief to Tom Chick's review, Michael Barnes really knocks it out of the park over at No High Scores:

And oh, that fighting. Eschewing the sludgy tank battles of the Bethesda titles, the ersatz Gears of War pop-and-shoot of Mass Effect, and the ever-present MMORPG cooldown ability trope, the combat system is brutal, complex, and completely successful. It’s not tactical or measure like in the Souls or Witcher games. It’s much closer to the Japanese brawler idiom and it’s a better game for it- there’s combos, juggling, charge attacks, and more. Swinging a sword, slinging a spell, or blasting a goblin with ten flaming arrows is completely satisfying and all actions are tied to stamina, weight, speed, strength, and other traits. Classes, abilities, and specializations are strict- the trend toward characters that can do whatever in the name of accessibility is here refuted.

There's no numerical grade, but it doesn't need one.  It's the single best analysis of the game's highs and lows that I've found so far.

-Autistic Angel

[Ralph-Wiggum]

Is there a way to tell your pawns to stand their ground (or, rather, not rush to attack the enemies)? More than once I've found a spot high on a cliff where I could pick off the monsters below me, but as soon as I fire that first arrow all my pawns jump down the cliff and start fighting. Their battle tactics leave something to be desired....

[Enigma]

At the risk of outing myself as painfully obtuse, it strikes me as one the strangest and least informative reviews of anything I can remember.

-Autistic Angel

I agree completely.  

[metallicorphan]

Is there a way to tell your pawns to stand their ground (or, rather, not rush to attack the enemies)? More than once I've found a spot high on a cliff where I could pick off the monsters below me, but as soon as I fire that first arrow all my pawns jump down the cliff and start fighting. Their battle tactics leave something to be desired....

It wouldn't be the Lizards down the Well would it?,because that is exactly what happened to me and they all died

[Ralph-Wiggum]

Is there a way to tell your pawns to stand their ground (or, rather, not rush to attack the enemies)? More than once I've found a spot high on a cliff where I could pick off the monsters below me, but as soon as I fire that first arrow all my pawns jump down the cliff and start fighting. Their battle tactics leave something to be desired....

It wouldn't be the Lizards down the Well would it?,because that is exactly what happened to me and they all died

That was one of the places. The other place also involved lizards, though.

[Roguetad]

Last night I switched from Mystic Knight to Magick Archer for a change of pace (and because I was getting tired of casting weapon enchants...and shield enchants...and weapon enchants).  I decided I would launch out from the capital and head NE, pushing a little inland.  My goal was to explore some of the map, and to get a couple of vocation levels trying out Magick Archer.  2+ hours later, I returned from an incredibly fun patrol fighting all manner of creatures and monsters.  In game time, the patrol spanned 2 nights, with the party returning on the morning of the 3rd day.  As geeky as it may sound, I actually felt like we were salty vets returning from the bush when we jogged past the guards headed back into the capital.  And I had no quest...just a patrol route in mind. 

I ended up completing a few dynamic ambush quests (Defeat all Enemies!) during the patrol, including one where we were fighting a cyclops while dire wolves were circling and attacking us.  The multi-day patrol enemy kill tally included: 2 cyclops, 2 camps of bandits, 1 very large camp of cultists/bandits that included a dynamic quest, lots and lots of dire wolves, hobgloblins, snow harpies, and the walking dead.  I never felt bad that I wasn't working on a quest, it was just fun (and tense at times).           

[EngineNo9]

I ended up completing a few dynamic ambush quests (Defeat all Enemies!) during the patrol, including one where we were fighting a cyclops while dire wolves were circling and attacking us.  The multi-day patrol enemy kill tally included: 2 cyclops, 2 camps of bandits, 1 very large camp of cultists/bandits that included a dynamic quest, lots and lots of dire wolves, hobgloblins, snow harpies, and the walking dead.  I never felt bad that I wasn't working on a quest, it was just fun (and tense at times).           

Aah, I saw one of these the other day and wasn't sure what happened, the quest just popped up and I killed the cyclops and wolves but had no idea what quest it was for.  Nice to know that there are dynamic quests like that.

I feel like I have been moving much, much slower than the rest of you.  I need to speed up and finish quests faster and explore more areas.  My normal inclination is to take my time and explore every corner of the map, but with enemies that respawn so quickly that means I don't make a lot of forward progress all the time.

[TiLT]

1) I saw it mentioned that pawns (other than your main, created pawn) don't level up.  So my question is, if I go to the screen where I can "shop" my friends pawns, will I get multiple level versions of each of them, or just where that pawn currently stands in terms of level?  To make it clearer, say I want Kato's pawn:  Do I get an option of Kato's pawn when she was level 5, 10, 15, 20.... or just the current version of Kato's pawn, who may by now may be much higher level than me as I start the game?

You've just got the current version of their pawn. If you want pawns of different levels, use the Rift to search for them. It's really painless.

2) If I'm understanding correctly, I can sit down with (or level up) my main pawn and influence his skills and how he acts in battle.  Do I have this same level of customization with Kato's "rented" pawn?  Or is her behavior 'hard-coded' by the way Kato made her to be in his game?

Those pawns have been trained by their own masters. You have no control over their personalities. It's one of the risks you take while hiring pawns. If you find they behave in a way that doesn't work for you, go back and hire someone else.

3) When "shopping" through my friends pawns, will it be obvious what their strengths, weaknesses, styles of combat, etc... are?  Is this made clear to the player somehow as he shops around for a pawn he would like to add to his party?

There's a large amount of stats available for pawns before you hire them, including vocation, basic stats, knowledge, weapons and enchantments, and so on. You can also look at their character model to determine further effects you might want to keep in mind (yes, even the looks of a pawn has an impact on the game). What you will NOT see when hiring a pawn is his personality. You could hire a pawn that looks almost perfect, but once you venture into the field you discover that he's acting in a way that is completely opposite of what you want him to do. This adds to the fun for me. It's like hiring workers by looking at their CVs. You'll know their skills and their abilities, but you won't really know if they're the kind of people you truly want to work with until you actually work with them.

4) What if someone didn't have any xbox friends who play the game?  Does the game offer them a wide assortment of pawns to choose from to add to his adventuring party?

The game has an assortment of pre-made pawns, and it seems they keep adding new ones.

[Lockdown]

Thanks mo and tilt.  I think I'm taking the plunge today.  Sounds too fun to pass up.

[Bullwinkle]

Thanks mo and tilt.  I think I'm taking the plunge today.  Sounds too fun to pass up.

The nice thing is that everyone's pawns will be so far ahead of you it's like a major boost when you get them.

[Lockdown]

Actually, that brings up another question I have.  Can I "control" the difficulty of the game in a way by choosing higher or lower level pawns?  Or does the game limit me to a range either way for balance sake?

[USMC Kato]

Actually, that brings up another question I have.  Can I "control" the difficulty of the game in a way by choosing higher or lower level pawns?  Or does the game limit me to a range either way for balance sake?

Yeah, its up to you whether or not you want a four man party or two. Hiring pawns around your same level is free, pawns that are significantly higher in level than you will have a higher rift crystal cost.
If you hit the wall wirh a difficult quest that you can't do yourself, by all means hire a super-pawn to help you out or come back later when you have a few more levels and better gear.

[Bullwinkle]

Actually, that brings up another question I have.  Can I "control" the difficulty of the game in a way by choosing higher or lower level pawns?  Or does the game limit me to a range either way for balance sake?

Yeah, its up to you whether or not you want a four man party or two. Hiring pawns around your same level is free, pawns that are significantly higher in level than you will have a higher rift crystal cost.
If you hit the wall wirh a difficult quest that you can't do yourself, by all means hire a super-pawn to help you out or come back later when you have a few more levels and better gear.

However, I was able to get my choice of friends' pawns for free, most of which were about 30 levels higher than me.

[Jarrodhk]

I hate you all.

I dreamed I bought the game.

I now own the game.

[USMC Kato]

I hate you all.

I dreamed I bought the game.

I now own the game.

Welcome to the club!!! Now go make a pawn so I can kil...I mean use him

[Caine]

One question, do hired pawns level up without visiting an inn?  I noticed that Kato's pawn was stol casting heal spells instead of being the sorceror I thought he'd be.  I really should have checked his class but didn't spend much time in town the last time I was there and concentrated on my own pawn.  She is a ranger now if anyone wants to take a ranged helper.

I changed from fighter to assassin and am glad I did.  You get to keep most of your skills and open up some very useful ranged attacks.  

[The Grue]

One question, do hired pawns level up without visiting an inn?  I noticed that Kato's pawn was stol casting heal spells instead of being the sorceror I thought he'd be.  I really should have checked his class but didn't spend much time in town the last time I was there and concentrated on my own pawn.  She is a ranger now if anyone wants to take a ranged helper.

I changed from fighter to assassin and am glad I did.  You get to keep most of your skills and open up some very useful ranged attacks.  

Hired pawns don't level up at all unless you release them and go get the same pawn again and that pawn's owner has leveled them up since the last time you took them.

[Jarrodhk]

I hate you all.

I dreamed I bought the game.

I now own the game.

Welcome to the club!!! Now go make a pawn so I can kil...I mean use him

I made one, but, she is only level 11 right now.

Harkonis and The Grey love to vacuum loot. If it isn't nailed down, it gets grabbed.

Also they appear to own pry bars.   

[Harkonis]

The Grey got switched back to Mage at some point, you're not going crazy Caine 

[Razgon]

Oh - Kato, I'm sorry you had Darian while he was in the process of being levelled as Sorceror. I am very much going to switch him back to mage, since he's way more effective there.

Also - people liked him back then - He has netted me 180.000 rift crystals by now!

[Harkonis]

Harkonis will be undergoing vocation changes, I would avoid rehiring him during this process.  Just keep him as you have him 

[Ralph-Wiggum]

Can Sorcerors not cast healing spells? That would be a bummer since my pawn is a healing machine. Turning him into a Sorceror would, in effect, cause me to replace one of the fighter pawns I use with a mage. Blah.