Capcom Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen

[sullynathan]

What's the consensus on this game though? I'm tempted to buy it on steam.

Buy it. As a recently player who doesn't believe it is paricularly great, it is still rather fun and unique amongst action rpgs. Give Capcom the money I didn't so they can consider making a sequel.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Dragon's Dogma has the best action-based combat of any party-based RPG, and even among single-character RPGs is rivaled only by Demon's/Dark Souls. Although very much a combat-focused game, it has good exploration and decent character-related elements, as well as an entertaining narrative and even a bit of C&C.

The game is superficially Open World, and there are a few people who seem to gain enjoyment by treating it like one, but really that's deceptive since the main quests and a handful of important side quests will take you to every notable location. You should be pursuing the main quest and side quests, while for the noticeboard quests you should accept the "kill x of monster type y" ones that eventually complete themselves while avoiding the escort quests unless they have a reward you covet.

The pawn system is quite innovative, but the pawn inclinations that guide their actions is poorly explained in the game, so it's wise to consult the wiki about this issue. Also, there's a mod that allows you to set the inclinations of procedurally-generated pawns, but you won't need this if you're playing online and using pawns created by other players. This isn't an issue for the "main pawn" that you create, since before long you'll be able to set their inclinations by purchasing potions from a merchant who appears in the Encampment once a certain point in the main quest is reached.

The Dark Arisen expansion made some improvements to the base game and added a vast dungeon with many new monsters to fight (mostly at higher levels, by which time you should have reached the final stage of the main quest).

Not only is it tremendous fun to play through the game once, but the nine vocations (i.e. character classes) are sufficiently different from each other that it will fun to play at least three times: once as a fighter-type, once as a strider-type, and once as a mage-type. I myself have played through Dragon's Dogma six times, three on PS3 and three on PC.

 

[Black]

 

[TheHeroOfTime]

Any tips regarding combat in this game? It feels so random for me sometimes. Once and again I fight a troll and I kill him easily, then five minutes later I fight another one in the same cave and I struggle to kill him with the same pawns and stuff. I guess is related to using their weak points and stuff, but Im sure there's something Im missing. Does the strikes from behind inflict extra damage?

 

[Black]

To get a better feel for combat I suggest ditching pawns and going solo for a bit. Combat becomes way more predictable.

 

[sullynathan]

Any tips regarding combat in this game? It feels so random for me sometimes. Once and again I fight a troll and I kill him easily, then five minutes later I fight another one in the same cave and I struggle to kill him with the same pawns and stuff. I guess is related to using their weak points and stuff, but Im sure there's something Im missing. Does the strikes from behind inflict extra damage?

Find specific spell weaknesses, attack specific areas and know what variation of the enemy type you're fighting. The shit can be random, but it's not that random iirc. Pawns are dumbasses so you can be caught off guard

 

[TheHeroOfTime]

It is viable playing solo? Does the enemies scalate their hp or damage depending of your group size?

 

[Damned Registrations]

Any tips regarding combat in this game? It feels so random for me sometimes. Once and again I fight a troll and I kill him easily, then five minutes later I fight another one in the same cave and I struggle to kill him with the same pawns and stuff. I guess is related to using their weak points and stuff, but Im sure there's something Im missing. Does the strikes from behind inflict extra damage?

Find specific spell weaknesses, attack specific areas and know what variation of the enemy type you're fighting. The shit can be random, but it's not that random iirc. Pawns are dumbasses so you can be caught off guard

Also trying out various skills and even just basic attacks. The damage/armor mechanics are rather strange, so a seemingly minor difference can make you do 1 damage instead of like 50 or something.

 

[sullynathan]

It is viable playing solo? Does the enemies scalate their hp or damage depending of your group size?

I don't think so, amount of HP earned is divided by party size. Regardless of what level you eventually become, when you get your pawn back, the game will very quickly make them level up by increasing how much xp they earn.

 

[Damned Registrations]

There are some passives you can get that only work when you're solo. But then you wouldn't be able to cast Great Sacrifice, which is objectively the best spell in the game.

 

[Kitchen Utensil]

It is viable playing solo? Does the enemies scalate their hp or damage depending of your group size?

Absolutely viable and imo more fun. You could try taking your main pawn only first before going completely solo.
Some classes are obviously better than others for solo, but even solo Sorcerer or Fighter are managable. Easiest is probably Magick Archer.

 

[sullynathan]

Magick archer has very low drops for magick bow

 

[Kitchen Utensil]

That's true, early and mid game (pre BBI to be more precise), good magick bows are quite scarce, but that can be mitigated to a degree by using Magick Rebalancer. And end game BBI, Magick Archer can handle pretty much everything solo; but then again it gets boring rather quickly...

 

[Damned Registrations]

Magick Archer has the biggest variance in dps, with a bad weapon and no buffs or elemental advantage you'll tickle things. With those things (and you can buff yourself) you'll be able to wipe shit out from a mile away without even aiming.

If you want to use it in BBI I recommend killing the dragon with it, so you get a magick bow as your endgame starter weapon.

Or just use Great Sacrifice, which gives no fucks about stats anyways and just kills everything.

 

[Fishy]

The only magic my Ranger uses is Conqueror's Periapts, Liquid Vim, Blast Arrows and Tenfold Flurry. For when you can't be bothered putting in any effort and just want that loot.

"And with strange aeons, even Death may die in less than a second."

 

[Alphard]

I recently finished DD. I enjoyed it a lot, despite several aspects that bugged me .

First of all how the damage is calculated, by subtracting defense to attack. This is one of the most moronic damage formula i have ever seen. If you are below damage treeshold you do 0 damage.

This is especially obvious in BBI where all enemies are defense sponge and i had to farm bb weapon level 1 because dragon weapons were not enough to proceed through the game. If you don't have enough damage you can't go further. It's just a clash of numbers instead of making your skill matter.

On the other hand some skills are really broken. I played as ranger most of the time and through BBI and since i was doing pitiful damage with tenfold flurry because of the ratarded damage formula (damage is divided per arrow, each go through defense subtraction), i decided to use 4 demon periapts plus
blast arrows on daemon second form. Terrible idea: he exploded in 10 seconds. I felt no satisfaction, just disappointment like if i cheated.

Another thing i didn't like it's how much they reused the same rooms and enemies. i understand they had to cut they edge but this surpasses the limit.

By the way it was one of the few games that gave me a lot of fun. The combat is spectacular and if they manage to fix the mentioned flaws (plus the retarded romance system that makes you romance people of the same sex and children) DD2 will be a masterpiece

 

[Black]

plus the retarded romance system that makes you romance people of the same sex and children

It's called progress, bigot. Love is love.

 

[Alphard]

plus the retarded romance system that makes you romance people of the same sex and children

It's called progress, bigot. Love is love.

so i guess you can make sex with a horse or a corpse. You can love everything after all

 

[anvi]

I tried this game, I don't get the hype? I played as a mage and all you do is press 2 buttons and the world explodes? Is that it?

 

[Alphard]

I tried this game, I don't get the hype? I played as a mage and all you do is press 2 buttons and the world explodes? Is that it?

From what i gathered mage (and especially sorcerer) relies much on positioning since your major spell have long cast animation so you want to find the right time and place to start casting. Also you can recruit pawns with same spell to synchro cast .
It's a class to play if you enjoy preparing strong abilities and wait for that sweet moment your build up pays off.
If you want a combat with less downtime (if casting can be considered such) play other classes (except warrior)

 

[Black]

I tried this game, I don't get the hype? I played as a mage and all you do is press 2 buttons and the world explodes? Is that it?

Mage is imo the worst and most boring class in the game, literally everything else is miles better. If you wanna cast big boom spells just wait til you're level 10 and switch to sorcerer, not mage.

 

[anvi]

I don't like the big boom thing, it seems too boring. I like to do mind control and damage over time and whatnot.

 

[Black]

Sorcerer has poison, silence, petrification, "instant" death, slow and other spells besides big booms. The only thing mages have over sorcerer's is healing and later in the game you're better off healing with consumables. I spit on pawns that have high or god forbid grand anodyne.

 

[Damned Registrations]

I think mages also get a buff unique to them thats really good, but I forget what it is. Barrier or something. Anyways most status effects are honestly pretty crap in this, aside from the elemental ones. By which I mean ice and lightning because burn is a joke. Well, it cripples wolves I guess.

If you wanted to subtley influence the diplomacy check with a 40 foot tall monster using your leet magicks I think you might be playing the wrong game.

 

[anvi]

I found something more fun but it is about 20 years older and uglier :/ Can't have it both ways I guess.