Capcom Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen

[someone else]

Big monsters grab me and eat me before I can escape even with egression skill.
Does stats help?
Is it because the game is initially for console and controllers are faster at button mashing than keyboard?
Or I just slow? I mash the mouse as well.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Finished BBI and now I can't muster any desire to fire up the game again. The only progression that remains is farming the top BBI gear, which feels kinda pointless.

Did you go through BBI twice or just once? The second run unlocks some more encounters (especially in the arena rooms, stuff like multiple dragons at once and shit) and a second form of the final boss.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Big monsters grab me and eat me before I can escape even with egression skill.
Does stats help?
Is it because the game is initially for console and controllers are faster at button mashing than keyboard?
Or I just slow? I mash the mouse as well.

I think some of the grabs are pretty much just way too hard to break, like they initially wanted them to be breakable but changed their minds by just cranking the timer way up instead of removing the mechanic. Though maybe I'm wrong and you could pull it off with the right gear/skill and mashing technique. Character size/weight might have an impact as well, I know it has a lot of subtle effects in the game.

 

[Mozg]

I saw someone saying somewhere that any input counts towards the mash, not just A D (which sounds right from Capcom fighting game mashes). I *think* stuff I used to consider inescapable was doable if I hit ASDE and L/R mouse buttons.

I am also done with BBI and I wanna play more but I don't really know what. I don't particularly like the mage stuff and I already played warrior -> assassin (which is basically all the red and yellow classes in one run). I messed around with mystic knight (magic cannon is an awesome idea) but the long charge up times and animations on most of their skills makes me play them as a fighter with a mace (also they seem to do no damage compared to normal chains because the character has just about the lowest magic attack possible). Stone Grove takes like legit 6-7 seconds.

 

[Damned Registrations]

On console the mashing icon is whirling the analog, I've no idea if other buttons count or what the keyboard equivalent is.

I am also done with BBI and I wanna play more but I don't really know what.

Try out magic archer. It's like being a mage without all the obnoxious casting times. Also you get to do fancy magic knife attacks like Ascension and the explodey jumping attack. Oh, and the cool vacuum arrow. And other awesome utility shit. Also their strongest attack is hilariously strong against anything that isn't some BBI ubermonster, it's basically cheatmode. And in BBI their ricochet arrow becomes like 50x better because you're always in tiny hallways.

Magic Archers got ALL the cool shit.

 

[DDZ]

Killed the boss dude, am level 49 now.

Been looking around in post-game, trying to decide if I want to finish it up and just go BBI somewhere in the NG+ or hang around post-game and then go to BBI.

 

[Dreaad]

This has a slight chance of improving butthurt I approve!

What sort of pawn are you using Dreaad? I suppose since you're going physical it's a support healbot like mine?


Edit: My pawn finished the game before me she already knows about all the end game quests

Using a useless sorcerer pawn who turned into a scather. Playing on hard, used to have a full party but it got to the point where I could just run around reviving my pawns and they would win all the fights eventually so I got rid them. Now it's just me and my useless pawn :D lvl 39, have yet to kill the griffin.

 

[Matalarata]

Then make her utilitarian, give her all the buffs, high voidspell and a single attack spell and turn her into a moving buff machine! She'll rarely contribute to direct combat and you'll always have the right enchants, once she gets to know monsters better.
If you ever feel like trying to go full party again, PM me and try my support pawn! I must be doing something right cause I got like 300.000 crystals by level 40 :D, and lately each time I sleep she comes back from 4-5 rentals.

I start feeling like a cuck pimp...

 

[Puukko]

Elder ogres are god damn sponges on hard mode.

Time to see if I can beat this dragon + undead mage combo.

 

[Puukko]

Ah, the true BBI experience. Enter the room with the 2 chained gorecyclops > kill a few pawns > worgs spawn > manage to kill them one by one while constantly getting blinded > cyclops breaks free in the process > my sorcerer uses an ice spell that breaks the other free as well > run around reviving my pawns while eventually realizing I have no chance of beating two cyclops and reload.

 

[Zombra]

Ah, the true BBI experience. Enter the room with the 2 chained gorecyclops > kill a few pawns > worgs spawn > manage to kill them one by one while constantly getting blinded > cyclops breaks free in the process > my sorcerer uses an ice spell that breaks the other free as well > run around reviving my pawns while eventually realizing I have no chance of beating two cyclops and reload.

Sounds like quitter talk to me!

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

I've just experienced idiotic pawn behavior the likes of which I had never seen in three playthroughs on PS3. During the confrontation with the Dragon, at the point in which

Spoiler

you run from the Dragon through a long hallway as it chases you while breathing fire, the pawns as usual had run ahead of my character --- except this time a mage pawn (not my own) decided it would be a wonderful idea to run back towards my character and the Dragon, getting instantly killed when the Dragon caught up with her. And since the hallway is blocked by the Dragon, I had no possible way of reaching and reviving her.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Spoiler

Maybe the zealot's speech got to the pawn.

 

[DDZ]

I can't hire male pawns!

All is good and fine in the rift, build ok and he doesn't look or sound retarded.

Then as soon as we leave the rift his voice will get high pitched like he took a hit of helium, and it stays like this.

Unplayable.

 

[Matalarata]

DDZ Happened to me too... Thought it was a bug and Googled for a fix. Turns out 97% of human beings are just retards with a shitty pawn. Keep trying, you'll find one with a decent voice.

 

[Haba]

So... I just did the Ur-Dragon.

Yeah that was bullshit.

 

[someone else]

So far I have met goblins, harpies, wolves, bandits and saurians and their upgrades in daytime and undead at night. Wiki also show few trash mobs. I'm sad, will llike more variety.

 

[nimateb]

Great youtube series from the guy that developed Volgarr the Viking:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pr3BglAXM8g&list=PLPpgEXhxLRZgqZm_i5rHkBzfVetkvIlS4

He certainly makes normal mode w/ restrictions look much more fun than hard mode. I could never knock over a troll in hard mode with anything less than super endgame shit.

I started this as a mage, let's see whats up. The beginning is really fun so far.

 

[Zombra]

Switched to level 1 Mage to try to get the levitation spell to get a couple impossible to reach collectibles. Attacked by a griffon within 2 minutes of leaving Gran Soren.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Switched to level 1 Mage to try to get the levitation spell to get a couple impossible to reach collectibles. Attacked by a griffon within 2 minutes of leaving Gran Soren.

Hope your pawns were good at running interference for you. lol

I don't really "get" the appeal of playing a mage or sorceror in this game. Like, the effects are cool and such, but I find it all to be basically:

1. Stand somewhere where you hopefully won't get smacked/blown over.
1a. Swear a lot when the fuckhuge dragon/whatever knocks you around like a bag of crap anyway and you spend 5 minutes running around in circles trying to find a place to get a single spell off.
2. Watch win bar fill up then release awesome button.
3. Unleash hell and watch everything explode. (This actually can be kind of fun.)
4. Repeat as necessary.

On a similar note, I don't totally get the appeal of Magic Archer. Maybe because I haven't spent enough time as one, but it's sort of like... you shoot your spells instead of casting them and the bow mechanics involve both seeking and a huge aiming reticule, so it feels like archery for guys who hate aiming and just sort of want to fire in the same direction as the monster. YMMV.

Still, I've always loved the game - even more so than the Souls series. It's one of the only titles I've ever triple-dipped on (PS3 original, PS3 DA, PC DA). It kind of blows my mind that when WotC is talking about providing a D&D experience, though not necessarily the ruleset, we get shit like SCL but Dragon's Dogma only got some Japan only MMO and no proper sequel. More to the point, if the setting is too weird to really have a follow up due to the cycles thing, a licensed D&D world and classes/abilities would be amazing in a similar game. Oh well, at least it finally came out on PC so I could finish it. I have this weird thing about console games, where I'll buy them and then basically never play them since it would involve getting off the computer to turn the console on instead. Always seems like a hassle or something.

 

[Mozg]

Explosive rivet is cool (you basically put sticky explosives on terrain or an enemy that you then have to set off with a melee attack). Helps that it stuns the shit out of stuff and does damage to enemies you couldn't otherwise scratch yet.

 

[Damned Registrations]

The utility arrows are awesome too, vacuum is obviously amazing for crowds, the one that protects against status effects is godly too. Shame you can only have 3 magic bow skills at once.

 

[Zombra]

Shit, my pawn changed to Guardian, where are those damn potions I keep hearing about?

 

[Heresiarch]

So far I have met goblins, harpies, wolves, bandits and saurians and their upgrades in daytime and undead at night. Wiki also show few trash mobs. I'm sad, will llike more variety.

Yeah...just killed the dragon and I am disappointed by the serious lack of enemy variety.

Now I think about it, the game looked great on paper, and in fact I have played over 60 hours already, but lacked in depth on almost every aspect. Probably not the most popular opinion in this thread?

For example:

- While the world looks huge and gorgeous, in practice there are very little truly unique or interesting locations to visit. I haven't even traveled to the south-western part of the map; and when I checked on wiki what I have missed, apparently there's only some chests and unique flowers there. No story, no plot, nothing.

- The cities look huge and populous, but 80% of the places and NPCs are just for show.

- The game hands out two epic boss fights in the first hour of playing, creating the illusion that the game is brimmed with exciting and unique boss fights after boss fights - and the illusion do maintain well for 30 hours - but in the end it's just the same cyclops after chimera after cyclops after chimera. The uniqueness can only get so far.

- Too little mobs, and too many recycled/reskinned. I can count literally a handful of variety of normal monsters: wolves, goblins, bandits, harpies, saurians, skeletons, zombies, phantoms. That's...very few for a game in which you are supposed to travel around a lot and explore and fight with all kinds of fancy moves/spells.

- I know this game is not praised for its plot, and its post-dragon story is quite interesting, but still the majority of the pre-dragon plot is just way too stupid. The "romance" plot in particular is so shoehorned and shallow that it's not even funny. It is a shame because otherwise the world setting and design are no less interesting than the Souls games.

I do not think that the game is bad. But as someone who has played about two thousand of hours in monster hunter and souls games, I WISH that they have as much variety as monster hunter and a tactical combat like Souls game and truly epic boss fights that each last for half an hour instead of within two minutes and hand-crafted exploration with unique stories and treasures instead of just hidden chests which have only foreign knives or potent greenwarishes...

 

[Delterius]

I don't really "get" the appeal of playing a mage or sorceror in this game. Like, the effects are cool and such, but I find it all to be basically:

I do agree that spellcasting is much less interactive than the alternatives, especially if you make good use of terrain. However, the 'fun part' when you trigger the spells is when it is so satisfying. Much like melee, there's a weight to spellcasting not seen in other popular Action RPGs. Being a mage in Skyrim suddenly feels much more akin to a many coloured peashooter.

Spoiler

First time I fought the Dragon I didn't even know it was weak to dark, all I had with me was Gicel for decent damage. Plus I was underlevelled. When I was about to die (and I make a point of using no curatives) I made a gamble. I stood behind a rock and charged High Gicel, hoping that the rock would withstand dragon fire long enough. The Gicel went off just as Grigori cleared the rock for me, finishing him. Its not much but it was pretty cool.