Capcom Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen

[Delterius]

Well, there are enemy Mystic Knights and Magick Archers here and there so I assumed/hoped that the human AI was universal for pawns and bandits.

Are there? I remember the Frenchie guy with a mace and shield but he doesn't use MK skills, and I don't recall seeing any enemies with a magic bow.

They are semi hidden and completely out of the way, in one of those random bandit camps out in the wilderness. Up north, before the mountain fort dominated by bandits.

 

[Ebonsword]

Well, there are enemy Mystic Knights and Magick Archers here and there so I assumed/hoped that the human AI was universal for pawns and bandits.

Are there? I remember the Frenchie guy with a mace and shield but he doesn't use MK skills, and I don't recall seeing any enemies with a magic bow.

I don't remember ever seeing a bandit MK, but there's definitely a bandit MA on the road to Bluemoon Tower.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Didn't know about bandit MA but there are corrupted pawns that use the MA skills. Dunno for the other hybrids.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Corrupted Pawns and Bandits can be Magick Archers but not the other two hybrid vocations. Some soldiers and undead are Mystic Knights, but there don't seem to be any NPC Assassins in the game whatsoever.

 

[Mozg]

I'd imagine that the problem with illegal pawn classes is that there are no AI packages for specific moves, like a Powder Charge or Immolate.

 

[Correct_Carlo]

Warriors are easier to play as, especially early game, but I find them boring. They are too slow. Fighter for first 10 levels (or strider, actually, would be fine too if you want to use more bows in the long run), into assassin for most of the game, is best. Then once you are in the highest levels, switch to a ranger and use long bows with 10-Fold Fury to destroy everything instantly. I'd actually prefer to switch to rangers sooner, but then your STR doesn't get as high and bows all depend on STR in this game. Shortbows are still pretty powerful, though.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Wrong Carlo is wrong again.

Warriors aren't very slow, their jump attack is quite adequate.

 

[Invictus]

I was wondering if anyone has any tips on wizarding things up correctly, or just how to have the most fun with the game?

Sorcerers and Warriors are my two favorite classes and they are somewhat similar. Both constantly seek an opening to super charge their most powerful attacks. That makes them simple enough. However, there are a couple of things to keep in mind to make sure you have the most fun:

The Sorcerer's cheesiest and most overpowered ability is actually Focused Bolt + Holy Enchantment on the Archistaff. Its instant, deals a fuck ton of damage of a kind few monsters can resist, breaks defenses and seems have to have near infinite range. Don't use it no matter what.

Spellcasters can chain cast. Meaning that if you charge the meteor shower spell and another Sorcerer does the same thing next to you, you'll both cast it faster.

Gicel, Frigor and the Sorcerer's Heavy Attack all deal physical damage. You'll know when you need that.

Great call on the holy; along with healing spell and the firewall spell (for crowd control and fighting bosses) they are vital for any spellcaster and yeah using a spell like meteor in a combo is so amazing and when your pawn learns to cast it when you do it is oh so satisfying

 

[Barnabas]

This is the only Japanese rpg that deserves to see the light of day

 

[Leechmonger]

This is the only Japanese rpg that deserves to see the light of day

That's a magnificently specific definition of "RPG" that includes Dragon's Dogma but excludes Dark Souls.

 

[Barnabas]

This is the only Japanese rpg that deserves to see the light of day

That's a magnificently specific definition of "RPG" that includes Dragon's Dogma but excludes Dark Souls.

Thanks for agreeing

 

[Rpgsaurus Rex]

Does this game have rewarding exploration - wandering off the beaten track, getting lost in dungeons, finding hidden loot (like in Morrowind, the good Gothics etc.)?

-60% on sale, tempting.

One more question - what's the most fun class to play (regardless of how strong, just the one with most gameplay variety and making you think/react quickly)?

 

[Mozg]

The exploration in the OC is really disappointing. It's extremely fun to run and jump around and climb stuff yet there's almost no reason to do it - they just had no idea how to do things like stick a neat item in that out-of-the-way scenic location you found like a Gothic would. The world is also deceptively small, and the loot system is stupid and unrewarding. The appeal is really about how fun and rewarding exploring and executing the combat systems is - you should just beeline through main quests, which end up sending you to almost everywhere in the world map anyway.

Especially avoid putting off main quest progression so you can putter around finding everything on the world map like you would in Gothic, because you'll just overlevel and ruin the game.

However, exploration in the Dark Arisen expansion stuff is very fun in general... except that they had to make it cheaply and the level geometry is heavily, heavily reused, so you end up finding the same hidden nook three different times.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Does this game have rewarding exploration - wandering off the beaten track, getting lost in dungeons, finding hidden loot (like in Morrowind, the good Gothics etc.)?

-60% on sale, tempting.

One more question - what's the most fun class to play (regardless of how strong, just the one with most gameplay variety and making you think/react quickly)?

Exploration isn't as strong as it could be. The game was originally intended to be Open World, but they cut it down to (supposedly) one-third the original planned size in the process of development. The Main Quest and a handful of important side quests will take you to every important location on the game, although there are a few points of interests (but no dungeons) that can be found in the remaining wilderness areas. You'll probably want to avoid wandering around for the fun of it, as you largely fight the same handful of trash mobs (and might end up overlevelling), although there are a few people who seem to enjoy this. The game has excellent combat but it works best against the larger, rarer enemies.

Each class is fun to play in its own way, with the possible exception of the ranger. At the start of the game, you're restricted to three vocations (i.e. classes) out of the nine: fighter, strider, and mage (strider is a bowman with daggers and a bonus to climbing monsters). Each of the three has an 'advanced' version that's better in some respects but worse than others: warrior deals more damage but is slower with no shield; ranger is better with the longbow but worse at melee; sorcerer gains powerful offensive spells but lacks healing. The three 'hybrid' vocations which are restricted to the player-character are generally considered to be overpowered relative to the others due to various powerful skills each one has: assassin is a mixture of fighter and strider, mystic knight is a mixture of fighter and mage; magick archer is a mixture of strider and mage. The mage and sorcerer vocations are dependent on timing your spells while placing your character in positions where he'll be out of danger for enough time to cast; although fun, I'd advise not playing one in your first game so that you can experience the joys of melee combat and monster-climbing, which these two classes don't partake of. You're able to switch vocations after reaching the main city, and over the course of one game (with a bit of time in the Dark Arisen dungeon to finish the first section of the three), you'll rise to Rank 9 in at least three vocations if you switch immediately after reaching this maximum rank. For example, in my three games on PS3 I went fighter --> warrior --> mystic knight, mage --> sorcerer, and strider --> assassin --> magick archer (and back to assassin).

After you start playing, take a bit of time to read about the Pawn inclination system, and if you're playing offline then download the mod that allows you to set the inclinations of the randomly-created pawns you recruit to fill out your party (you can directly set the inclinations of your Main Pawn by purchasing potions from a merchant who appears at the Encampment after a certain, early point in the main quest).

 

[Invictus]

For starting the game for the first time I would recommend a Strider and a mage pawn armed with healing magic, some fire spells and the holy weapon spell, that will make life easier since getting capable melee pawns is easily enough and that way you get a reliable healer with good offensive capabilities, the rest you can mix and match to your pleasure and still get to do the most fun combat stuff like climbing on monsters and some pretty cool combat abilities
The game is not very open world per see since most if the best locations are only accesible though quests but it is such a solid value and so much fun

 

[Emmanuel2]

Does this game have rewarding exploration - wandering off the beaten track, getting lost in dungeons, finding hidden loot (like in Morrowind, the good Gothics etc.)?

-60% on sale, tempting.

One more question - what's the most fun class to play (regardless of how strong, just the one with most gameplay variety and making you think/react quickly)?

The exploration in the game isn't really all that is cracked up to be. It's fun exploring due to how expansive it is but there's not much in the way on how meaningful it is just like how Gothic and Morrowind did it. It's just explore to explore/sightsee.

Fun and skill-based: Maybe Assassin for a versatile class while still being more than strong and is only as strong as the skill level of the player using it. Counters, blocks, ranged attacks, etc.

Strongest and most versatile: A Magick Archer is the most versatile one. You won't need to stack explosive arrows to solo clear Hard Daimon in 2 minutes and you still have plenty of options for just about everything. Closed, tight areas? Use ricochet arrows. Open areas and tons of enemies? Seeker bolt. Large enemy with a single weak point? Explosive Rivet. No light? Magickal Gleam. Want to support your allies by making them resist debilitations and stagger? Ward and Bracer arrows. You have tons options from most of the vocations without any of the weaknesses apart from HP.

Broken: Ranger with tenfold flurry + blast arrows. Kill anything that isn't a golem within 7-10 seconds even the DLC final boss.

These are based on my solo hard playthroughs with predetermined levelling paths for min-maxing stats. I also don't recommend predetermining your levelling path although it will still be fun regardless IMHO.

 

[Rpgsaurus Rex]

Thanks for the info bros, I caved in and bought.

Is it more rewarding to just play the main story straight (I keep hearing side quests will just over-level/over-gear you)?

 

[Mozg]

Real sidequests are OK, but I'd skip the bulletin board "kill 10 zombies" type of MMO sidequests.

 

[GrainWetski]

Might as well pick them up, but don't go out of your way to do them.

 

[Mozg]

I think they're somewhat destructive even without going out of your way for them. It's a lot of extra money and XP for no reason.

Also play on normal, that hasn't been said on this page I don't think. Hard mode isn't properly designed for various reasons.

 

[Matalarata]

I had really hoped for a balanced hard mode mod to come out, but obviously 8 mods out of 10 are different nude textures. Why? I mean, DD cannot hope to compete with Skyrim and loverslab when it comes to vidjaporn...

 

[Emmanuel2]

I just want Hard Mode without all the bonuses and shit and without having to resort to solo-ing for a decent challenge.

 

[Invictus]

I have not tried it on Hard and frankly it doesn't appear to me in the least, this is not a game that is supposed to be hard and it is enjoyable as it, for extra challenge you can use fewer pawns or no pawns at all

 

[SerratedBiz]

I'm pretty sure there's a mod that rebalances xp requirements at higher levels to make leveling harder.

 

[Smashing Axe]

I've just started playing this after picking it up for the Christmas sale. Got my ass kicked in the well with a level 7 strider and two starting pawns. There just seems no end to those lizards. I'm either really bad at this type of game or merely underleveled. It's been fun so far.

smashing_axe if anyone's still playing.