Capcom Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen

[sullynathan]

Did the cockatrice instagib anyone? They can be a nightmare or a total joke depending on your loadout.

everyone in my group survived even though he got me with petrification, but I have way too many potions for that to harm me. A few meteors dropping fucked him.

 

[sullynathan]

Quick question. Was this game hard on the ps3? Every review I saw said how hard the game was and compared it to demons/ dark souls and all I can think of that was hard were the beginning bandits.

Holy shit I'm at the final battle already at level 51 40 hours. Seems short, but I'm not gonna do the rest of these board quests because I already have 2 million gold.

Is this a good time to go to BBI?

 

[Hyperion]

2 million gold.

You're poor.

Is this a good time to go to BBI?

The entire game changes in the post-game. There's also another, easier dungeon than BBI. I guess it's recommended to do first, but I like to start BBI around level 50 and get some of the introductory gear before the final fight because

Spoiler

You get a full dragonforge set of every piece of gear you're currently wearing.

Quick question. Was this game hard on the ps3?

It's more JRPG than Dark Souls, so you can inflate stats, carry lots of items compared to Dark Souls. Monsters in the early game hit really fucking hard. A Saurian can 1 or 2 shot a low level character if he lands the jump strike on you. Which he shouldn't. Journos suck at games, it just wasn't such common knowledge in 2012.

 

[sullynathan]

I beat Grigori, it was a bit easy after all the QTE and scripted stuff was done. I was getting pissed that my pawns kept falling to their deaths so I reloaded the save a bunch which didn't matter anyway because she materialized for the finale.

Arguably the gayest thing in a video game happened. Grigori gave me a choice between saving a person or fighting, obviously I chose to fight. Do you know who the game chose as my closest person? Valmero. What would even lead the game to believe my character liked valmero? The game was ready to make my arisen kiss him and he now follows me.

Anyway, the ending is climatic to say the least.

 

[Wunderbar]

sullynathan keep playing, it's not the end.

Do you know who the game chose as my closest person? Valmero. What would even lead the game to believe my character liked valmero?

at least it wasn't Fournival.

 

[mogwaimon]

The original game on the 360 before Dark Arisen came out was pretty difficult, I recall having a lot of trouble just going through the bandit country in early levels and having trouble with the white wolves. At least for me, anyway. After it came out on PC and I played Dark Arisen for the first time, I felt like the game was a lot easier since I wasn't dying anywhere near as often as I did back in the day, at least not until I got to post-game. DA's base post-game felt harder than the original's post-game did.

Still, some of this can be discounted through me having played the game before, but before I played the PC port the last time I did DD was basically the first month or two after it came out, so it's a fairly significant gap of time.

 

[Mastermind]

The original game on the 360 before Dark Arisen came out was pretty difficult, I recall having a lot of trouble just going through the bandit country in early levels and having trouble with the white wolves. At least for me, anyway. After it came out on PC and I played Dark Arisen for the first time, I felt like the game was a lot easier since I wasn't dying anywhere near as often as I did back in the day, at least not until I got to post-game. DA's base post-game felt harder than the original's post-game did.

Still, some of this can be discounted through me having played the game before, but before I played the PC port the last time I did DD was basically the first month or two after it came out, so it's a fairly significant gap of time.

It's not unprecedented. Kingdoms of Amalur's demo was a lot harder than the actual game, retards complained, then the full game was made significantly easier.

Sometimes it works out well, IIRC Dragon Age 2 demo was full of hp bloated monstrousities, which they toned down a bit in the full game.

 

[Damned Registrations]

What would even lead the game to believe my character liked valmero?

You either talked to him a lot, gave him a bunch of gifts, or did a lot of quests for him, or some combination of the above. The game has a few waifus whose quest lines set them up pretty well to be your beloved, but people who grind a ton tend to get merchants.

Have fun with BBI. Should be some fun surprises for you in there, try not to get spoiled.

 

[PirateScum]

Do you know who the game chose as my closest person? Valmero.

Considering how early you can complete his quest and send him off to the mainland and how many potential waifus (e.g. Fournival) you can interact with before the fight with Grigori.
I'd say this is true love!

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Love the BBI combat music

 

[mogwaimon]

Love the BBI combat music

Spoiler

yea me too

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Arguably the gayest thing in a video game happened. Grigori gave me a choice between saving a person or fighting, obviously I chose to fight. Do you know who the game chose as my closest person? Valmero. What would even lead the game to believe my character liked valmero? The game was ready to make my arisen kiss him and he now follows me.

So you completed Valmiro's quest-line but couldn't be bothered to finish the quest-lines of Madeleine, Aelinore, or Quina (which guarantee you reach max affinity with them), or to raise your affinity with Selene or Mercedes?


Anyway, now that you're in the post-game, you can chase off Valmiro by punching him or throwing him into the sea, and replace him with someone else as your Arisen's Beloved for the game's true ending.

 

[sullynathan]

So you completed Valmiro's quest-line but couldn't be bothered to finish the quest-lines of Madeleine, Aelinore, or Quina (which guarantee you reach max affinity with them), or to raise your affinity with Selene or Mercedes?

don't know who aelinore is. The last time I saw Quina was in the witch woods quest, while I did the quest where I tailed some guy that met Madeleine. I didn't know there were extra quests for them and I even saw Madeleine multiple times.

Valmero's last quest was random. I was in the fishing village and just did it because I already had 3 of 4 items. I found the Ambrosial meat from a Griffon or Cockatrice afterwards.

 

[mogwaimon]

to be fair you can technically miss Aelinore if you ignore her maid upon first visit to the castle, but it's pretty rare. Lot of the sidequest chains can be pretty easy to miss, but Aelinore's questline is shoved right in your face so the beloved often ends up being her. If you somehow miss her then it's usually Fournival if you got him found innocent at the trial, but Valmiro is, well, pretty odd for a first time playthrough to have as the beloved.

It's gender neutral who the beloved is, Grigori just pulls whoever you happen to have the highest affinity with at the time. If you have max affinity with more than one person, I think it goes by whoever you spoke to last or, if you've obtained it, whomever you've given a certain ring to.

Oh, right, we probably should have told you especially since you're playing sorcerer, but there is a way to keep the Wyvernking Ring (sic) from that one quest. It gives a nice bonus to spellcasting, so it's neat, but being a key item....well, I'd suggest you look into the services of the man who sells DLC gear on your next run of the game if you want to keep it.

 

[Delterius]

So you completed Valmiro's quest-line but couldn't be bothered to finish the quest-lines of Madeleine, Aelinore, or Quina (which guarantee you reach max affinity with them), or to raise your affinity with Selene or Mercedes?

don't know who aelinore is. The last time I saw Quina was in the witch woods quest, while I did the quest where I tailed some guy that met Madeleine. I didn't know there were extra quests for them and I even saw Madeleine multiple times.

Valmero's last quest was random. I was in the fishing village and just did it because I already had 3 of 4 items. I found the Ambrosial meat from a Griffon or Cockatrice afterwards.

Madeleine's final quest happens when you go visit her shop prior to killing the dragon. Quina's second and final quests happen if you go to the charred woods chapel from the midgame onwards.

The opportunity windows open and close by main quest completion.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

It's gender neutral who the beloved is, Grigori just pulls whoever you happen to have the highest affinity with at the time. If you have max affinity with more than one person, I think it goes by whoever you spoke to last or, if you've obtained it, whomever you've given a certain ring to.

The Arisen's Bond raises the affinity of the recipient to the "max affinity" level, but it doesn't guarantee the recipient will be selected as the Arisen's Beloved.

don't know who aelinore is. The last time I saw Quina was in the witch woods quest, while I did the quest where I tailed some guy that met Madeleine. I didn't know there were extra quests for them and I even saw Madeleine multiple times.

Aelinore is the wife of Duke Edmund. As you are departing from the castle after your first audience with the Duke, Aelinore is automatically placed in the garden by the entrance and the camera briefly focuses on her to direct your attention. Even finishing this initial conversation with her raises her affinity to a high level, much less concluding her two quests.

Quina has a quest or two if you visit her in the Abbey later in the game. She departs Gransys after her last quest, but it's possible to complete this just before the part of the main quest where the Beloved is selected (as with Aelinore's final quest).

Madeleine has a final quest after she abandons her shop, which is triggered by reaching a certain point in the main quest. As with Quina and Aelinore, Madeleine disappears from the game after this quest (though she'll always reappear in the "post-game" stage, either in the Cassardis Inn or in the field inside Gran Soren), but also as with the other two her final quest can be completed just before the part of the main quest when the Beloved is selected, to minimize the risk of someone else being chosen.

Selene moves to the Arisen's house in Cassardis after the second quest involving her is completed.

Mercedes unfortunately leaves for her homeland after completion of a certain part of the main quest involving her, which means greater care must be taken for her to become the Arisen's Beloved.

 

[Hyperion]

don't know who aelinore

You didn't invade milady's privates? Or help the bleating she-goat? So many missed quests, so little time.

Also, don't listen to these heathens, Feste es waifu numero uno.

 

[sullynathan]

Went to BBI. I kicked some ass and got my ass kicked.

 

[sullynathan]

After maxing vocation for Sorcerer, I switched back to Assassin just due to greater control and to rack up level up points to later switch back to Sorcerer and get the rest of the spells I wanted. oh boy was that a bad idea.

So BBI is based on 8 different dungeons inside a big dungeon that is progressively unlocked through keys, correct?

So far, the first two floors have been regular enemies until the grim reaper appeared out of nowhere with 8 health bars, made my partners go to sleep fought for like 20 seconds and disappeared.

I guess this is the "hardcore" Dragon's Dogma, because I'm facing health sponge versions of just about every other base game enemy but with weaker versions of those enemies sprinkled here and there. Same thing has happened in the base game where nearly all enemies I've encountered have been buffed. Bigger goblins, more drakes are around now, the wolves have been changed to fire spitting hellhounds, harpies have become gargoyles.

BBI fucked me when I was inside and saw the cyclops chained to a wall, I went into a cave and came out and an undead dragon spawned with 9 health bars that I barely did any damage to, so I fleed. Too bad there was an "Elder Ogre" who is the same as a regular ogre but with 8 health bars and the twist of it going after male foes instead of females like regular ogres. This thing killed me so many times, it was embarassing.

The problem is that I have two sorcerer pawns and they're too dumb to use their OP magics even when I provide them with an opening. I really fucking hate when a pawn is casting a spell and just stops to start walking around the enemy. So the fight took a good 20 minutes or so, I left BBI, and just switched to a Sorcerer myself. In Gransys we came across a Drake and we killed the shit out of it, by me hitting it with too many spells for it to handle. Gicel is very effective against its heart.

 

[Damned Registrations]

I think it's mentioned in a loading screen tip or something like that, but there's actually a day/night cycle in BBI as well, even though it's not visually apparent. It'll influence which monsters show up. There's a lot of hidden stuff in the dungeon, and the later levels will have legit new enemies instead of just tankier old shit. The arena sections have a wide variety of stuff in them as well, if you feel like just murdering some random shit or need odd materials for gear upgrades.

 

[sullynathan]

I think it's mentioned in a loading screen tip or something like that, but there's actually a day/night cycle in BBI as well, even though it's not visually apparent. It'll influence which monsters show up. There's a lot of hidden stuff in the dungeon, and the later levels will have legit new enemies instead of just tankier old shit. The arena sections have a wide variety of stuff in them as well, if you feel like just murdering some random shit or need odd materials for gear upgrades.

There have been 2 or 3 new enemies. The reaper and this giant hog/pig/dog thing. They can spawn if you have this rare beast steak I found, but I removed it from my inventory. I don't know if it will change anything.

 

[DragoFireheart]

Meteors don't do shit. Gicel doesn't do shit.

git gud scrub

lrn 2 sorc

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

So BBI is based on 8 different dungeons inside a big dungeon that is progressively unlocked through keys, correct?

Bitterblack Isle is divided into three main sections, each of which contains a number of levels. You'll know when you've reached the "boss" fight at the end of each section.

BBI fucked me when I was inside and saw the cyclops chained to a wall, I went into a cave and came out and an undead dragon spawned with 9 health bars that I barely did any damage to, so I fleed. Too bad there was an "Elder Ogre" who is the same as a regular ogre but with 8 health bars and the twist of it going after male foes instead of females like regular ogres. This thing killed me so many times, it was embarassing.

If you haven't yet investigated the new Everfall, you should spend some time there fighting a nice variety of monsters and leveling up before returning to BBI. You can also find and/or purchase good weapons and armor there (though not as advanced as can be found in the later sections of BBI, of course).

They can spawn if you have this rare beast steak I found, but I removed it from my inventory. I don't know if it will change anything.

If you're thinking of rancid bait meat, that only works if you place it on the ground.

 

[Valky]

Magic archer in BBI is acid trip tier levels of insanity. Nothing beats its sheer level of fun.

 

[Damned Registrations]

The only problem with that is the gear is stupidly rare, which is why I didn't suggest it. Sorc is pretty viable, exequy is great for a lot of areas, and most of the spells have a niche to fill in there somewhere.

Don't worry about doing the everfall. It's a relatively boring setup where you basically grind through random encounters and get a million wakestones thrown at you which suck all the challenge out of the game. I think it has like 2 enemies you don't see anywhere else?