Capcom Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen

the world map is a bit monotonous at times , but that's not the game strong point. the game focus is on fantastic combat ,( the best of all open world rpg) and mounting mechanic , enemy design ( i just love how "classic fantasy" and masterfully designed enemies are, bosses especially) classes and character building and customization. the pawn system is ( once you get how the different personality trait affect ai ) the cherry on top of this great game.
Skill and items unbalance, map and mobs recycling, the retard romance system somewhat detract from an overall great action rpg unique among modern aaa equivalent crap.
if i compare DD to crap like twitcher and skyrim , dd is a masterpiece

 

to further make my point, i feel this game nails perfectly classes identity. playing ranger make you feel like your ideal fantasy archer. few things are so satisfying as landing a great gamble in a cyclope eye or headshotting with a perfectly timed brutal arrows the minotaur that is decimating your team.
same for other vocation. sorcerer incarnate the mage fantasy perfectly, conjouring and unleashing powerful spell to annhilate "dumb enemies" . the warrior feel so impactful and "warriory" with arc of deliverance, etc.
no game i have tried managed to recreate the classic fantasy classe stereotype so well

 

Lol at replying to anvi

 

Are you kidding? That's the best romance system ever! I mean, is there any other game where a plot twist like this can happen?



I rest my case.

 

in my case my waifu was a nigga ( no racism) . i didnt understand if it was the shop owner or the dude that you help kill the cultists. well at least it wasnt symone

 

just install the no stamina consumption while running mod, or hack and go straight to BBI, the expansion, which is just dungeon crawling.
base game sucks major dick outside of grigori tbh.

 

Thanks I will try that sometime. The base game does indeed suck.

 

Dragon's Dogma is only superficially an Open World game; the designers might have initially wanted this, but limited resources forced them to drastically reduce the size of the world from what was originally intended, and the final result is that all major locations are covered by the main quest and a handful of important side quests that are difficult to miss accidentally. If you spend hours wandering around the countryside not doing anything in particular other than defeating random mobs of weaker enemies, then you might come to the erroneous conclusion that the game is just "massive amounts of running around a pretty boring world", but really the fault is yours for wasting time rather than following up on the main quest and side quests.

As it is, Dragon's Dogma is the best of all CRPGs in action-based combat with a party, and a contender for best action-based combat in CRPGs generally. Monster design --- at least for the larger, more powerful enemies --- is superb, and the pawn system works wonderfully in creating meaningful interaction between your characters and the enemies in combat that is satisfyingly tactile. Moreover, although Dragon's Dogma is focused on combat, it also has decent exploration, character customization, itemization, and even a bit of "choice & consequences".

 

I think a lot of problems with the open world aspect of the game stem from the board quest. If you tackle board quest like most other RPG's the open world becomes a monotonous slog pain in the ass. But here's the thing...you aren't meant to do them like that. You aren't meant to go out of your way to kill some Lizardman or whatever because that out of the way location won't be out of the way if you're just progressing through the game like normal. Board Quest are so not things you should be actively doing, (outside of escort missions) that the game should have made like 90% of them non-selectable quest the game just tells you you've done once you've done it; maybe your Pawn tells you when you're near one like they grabbed it off the notice board for you. It isn't even like the game doesn't already do this too because that's how killing giant monsters works, you kill some Chimera out in the wilderness or whatever and you'll just randomly get a Quest Complete message.

I remember when I discovered this is how the board quest were meant to be done. It was my second try at playing the game after not finished the first and being pretty mixed on the whole thing. I took an escort mission in the first town but also decided to just take every board quest too. And it turned out in the process of doing that escort mission I basically also finished off every board quest I'd selected too. It was at that point I was like: Oh, Ok, I'd been playing the game completely wrong before.

The good thing about the open world, (which far outweighs any of its negatives) and this game does it better than anything is the day and night cycle. I remember reading some Witcher 2 interview where one of the developers there was talking about how they wanted the player to have to really think about how they approached missions and what items they use before fights, well, they failed in that but this game totally nails it. For most of the game you actually need to think about when you go do something because of the monsters that come out at night, and even if you did leave during the day for some dungeon off somewhere there's times you'll exist and it's like: Oh shit, it's night.

 

Board quests are just bounties to get extra XP and money while you do more important missions. It's usual to get board quests completed in the course of missions while you are not even trying. I think they got that from their Monster Hunter games.

It's beyond me why "Hardcore" RPG players find this confusing or annoying. Maybe OCD problems.

Also the side quests in this game are often very good with interesting stories and some minor C&C.

 

Also I'd recommend looking up the optimal portcrystal locations so you can drop them there and have an easier time travelling in the future.

 

The what now

 

Locations that you'll be returning to because of main or side quests.

 

Just spread them out and you'll be fine. You get plenty in the PC version and you can pick them back up.

 

It doesn't matter how many you get because you can only have 10 at a time in the world.

 

It's also handy to have some at hand for escort mission. Go to the destination spot, drop portcrystal, port to town, pick up escort mission NPC, port to crystal: done!

That's one more point for DD I guess: best taxi missions ever, where if you're able to teleport, it's not forbidden for some mysterious reason. You have toys, and the game is happy with you abusing them.

 

It also requires prior knowledge of each quest's route, not something a first time player has. Unless you're a faggot reading guides.

 

After having done one blind that had me escort a braindead NPC all the way to the Shadow Fort, I call it "pretending to have a chat with the NPC about the destination before committing". My game, my rules.

 

Take the NPC at the tavern's notice board, see the point on a map, get back to the notice board and cancel the quest. Then travel to the destination point, drop a crytal, get back to the tavern and take the quest again -> Voila!

 

That doesn't count as a failed quest with it disappearing until NG+? Can't remember, it's been a while.

 

All that time wasted when you could've just taken the NPC to the destination.

 

No, just interact with the notice board again after learning the destination, the quest will return to the notice board

 

And see my favourite mentally challenged girl Mercedes getting oneshot by griffin/drake/whatever, or just straight up suicide jumping from the nearest cliff?

 

Or eaten by wolves. I have it on good authority that wolves hunt in packs.

 

But frankly that's about it. The difficulty to keep her alive. It's one of hardest stuff which would make you hate her for being completely retarded and running into dangerous areas.