Capcom Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen

[GrainWetski]

it has really spaced out autosaves, and you can save manually when you rest at an inn.

and no, the game is not like dark souls at all. the only thing they have in common is they are both fantasy worlds and made by japanese people.

You can save manually at any point in time.

 

[toroid]

how hot are the waifus

I'm going to play this with a mouse and keyboard.

I'm going to have soup for dinner on the 22nd of February 2019

 

[rbenchley]

And yet still no Demon's Souls port. A tragedy.

Definitely a bummer, but Sony owning the rights on that and Bloodborne meant that they were never coming over to the PC. On the bright side, PS3 emulation is proceeding nicely so it might be a moot point in a couple years.

 

[Krraloth]

Still better then Oblivion faces.

 

[Ninjerk]

Watch it get a worse port than Dark Souls.

 

[Rahdulan]

I don't think that's really possible considering the console version.

 

[dehimos]

Now on Steam http://store.steampowered.com/app/367500/

 

[Damned Registrations]

Pretty sure you need to be at an inn or one of those pawn summoning stones for a 'hard' save. You can stop playing whenever the fuck and won't lose your gear or xp iirc, but if

Watch it get a worse port than Dark Souls.

For all the flak Dark Souls port got, it ran pretty damned well on my ~7 year old computer. I honestly didn't expect it to run at all, let alone better than the console version.

 

[deuxhero]

Pretty sure you can force save via the menu, it's actually key in farming some stuff (save, open chest, kill youself if it isn't what you wanted). Hope they add multiple file support, because fuck setting up a new steam account+family sharing or manual save file cut/pastes for making a new character (it wasn't an issue in the console releases because making a new user profile is 4 button presses on XMB)

Now on Steam http://store.steampowered.com/app/367500/

Now that we have the app number, we can check the SteamDB page

https://steamdb.info/sub/66607/history/
https://steamdb.info/app/367500/graphs/
It has been in the works for 5+ months and has 8+ people (or possibly less given the pawn system would encourage faking multiple accounts) testing it

Curious if they'll port the demo. I know they released an updated demo for DA in Japan, but don't think that was ever released in English.

 

[Matalarata]

Great news, always wanted to try this, I also contemplated the idea of buying a PS3 just because... Glad I didn't!

 

[deuxhero]

BRs hacked DDO server, took (meh, mine was tied to a throwaway address and not even remotely secure. No idea why they'd want them, you can't trade anything anyways) so now they're actually enforcing the IP block

 

[80Maxwell08]

So I finally had a chance to really get into this game and now it's devouring my spare time. Didn't think much of it my first time a long time ago (only played for an hour or 2) but this time I was tossing enemies around with the fighter skills and having a blast.

A question about changing Vocations though. Should I wait until a certain point or do it as soon as possible? Also for my Pawn, who started as a Strider, what should I change her into?

 

[Damned Registrations]

If you want to min/max, changing into whatever gives you ideal stats ASAP is for the best. It's certainly not necessary though, even the hardest stuff in the game is doable with pretty much the worst stats.

As for Pawns... they are insanely complicated, far more so than one might imagine. They learn your behaviours, the behaviours of other pawns, and are influenced by many other things like which orders you frequently give or what abilities you use. I'm not at all qualified to give good advice on raising a good pawn- but again, even with shitty pawns, you can get through even the hardest parts of the game. Just prepare yourself for some facepalm worthy shit like the pawn taunting the monster into exactly the wrong position, or cowering in a corner for the entire fight.

 

[Metro]

So since it's coming to PC... how is this compared to Dark Souls? And is there an overload of weeaboo shit such that I'd find it unplayable?

 

[Krraloth]

So since it's coming to PC... how is this compared to Dark Souls? And is there an overload of weeaboo shit such that I'd find it unplayable?

You can't really compare the two. Two different beasts.
To start with, in Dragon's Dogma you're get to a party of 4 in half an hour of the game start. You get to make your own pawn and then recruit other 2 pawns from the internetz (other people's pawns). The gameplay is more actiony then Dark Souls specifically because your character has more movement options you can set up combos with your pawns.
For instance you you get downed by a wolf (and it will happen at the start cause they are quick fuckers who like to pound on you from outside of the camera view) and your pawn will kick it off you and pick you up. Hell you can pick up other pawns and carry them if you want.
Warrior vocation can use their shield as a trampoline for you or you can do it for a pawn (that is a skill), in a fight against a flying enemy if you haven't got a bow or magic you don't need to wait it out that way, just bounce off the shield of your bro and reach the bastard, then start slashing/punching its intestines till it can't fly no more, very satysfying.

The game can be hard (regardless of the difficulty setting) especially when you encounter new enemy types or if your pawns don't know well the enemy, or you get surrounded, or when you stay and fight when you should avoid it. You see there's a tiered system of knowledge for pawns based on stars, they get one star by encountering the enemy (if your pawn gets taken out by another player and encounters enemies he will retain the knowledge), second star is when they kill a set amount of them and thirs start (mastery) is wehn you discover casually effective ways to dispatch enemies.
The difference between 2 to 3 star is immense: once I picked up a Strider (daggers, bow-arrows agile climber) pawn that had 3 stars vs cyclops and she killed them so quickly that the first time I was like "what the fuck is she wielding? end game gear" instead it was that the AI knew how to exploit weak points and went to town.

Depending on the Vocation you choose the playstyle changes and it can be harder or easier vs different enemies. As a melee charcter fighting Death is not easy (semi-random night encounter) because you can't really grab onto the Grim Reaper as far as I know but as a ranged attacker is easier. Keeping enemies like ogres at range is hard because they are nimble fucker who like to target female characters and if your sword and shield pawn is female it's good cause they will focus them and you want that but if it's your sorcerer that is female.

I'd say Dark Souls is more slow paced an methodical overall, if anything because if you fuck up there there's no pawn to cover your ass but you can also get oneshotted by enemies if you don't know what you're doing.
Two different beasts.

 

[deuxhero]

What is everyone going to play in the PC port?

I never really went assassin previously. I guess I'll do that with a standard support pawn.

 

[Kem0sabe]

What is everyone going to play in the PC port?

I never really went assassin previously. I guess I'll do that with a standard support pawn.

you will end up playing a lot of different classes, take my favorite class, the Magick Archer, you need to level 3 other basic classes before unlocking it. quite overpowered class.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Well, you don't /need/ the other classes, but it's generally a good idea to level up a bunch of the vocations to unlock useful passive skills to set.

I wonder if they'll do any rebalancing for the PC release? Magick Archer and Sorceror are both OP as all hell lategame. Especially Magick Archer.

As a general rule, I think the pawns with the most potential are the rangers. If they learn the right habits and weaknesses of enemies, they can do obscene amounts of damage due to AI bullshit levels of accuracy in targeting weak points. But if you don't get their AI tweaked properly they'll be worthless morons climbing all over something doing no damage. Support pawns are always useful, even the retarded ones can at least be commanded to heal or buff you.

 

[Delterius]

A question about changing Vocations though. Should I wait until a certain point or do it as soon as possible? Also for my Pawn, who started as a Strider, what should I change her into?

There are two things you should consider when changing vocations.

First, vocation specific augments can be used with any job. So, for an instance, you can dip a few levels into Fighter for the increased carry capacity, or Sorcerer for quicker casting.

Second, stats grow differently for each vocation. A lot of people obsess over this fact, planning their character growth to maximize Magick or Strenght and achieve godhood, but then again Dragon's Dogma isn't that hard. If you really want to, say, play a Magick Archer you probably should try the whole journey as one, instead of wasting 100 levels as a Sorcerer.

All I say is just keep in mind that Red Vocations focus on Strenght and Health, that Blue Vocations gain Magick most of all and that Yellow Vocations are balanced, with a focus on Stamina, with Hybrids as a combination of the two.

That said, your pawn should be what you need the most. That means a specific Vocation but also specific Inclination. Since your Pawn has been a Strider, you should consider if you need more ranged firepower with a Ranger or if you enjoy that your pawn climbs enemies and wacks them you should keep a Strider.

I wonder if they'll do any rebalancing for the PC release? Magick Archer and Sorceror are both OP as all hell lategame. Especially Magick Archer.

Well, I first played a Sorcerer and I did think it was overpowered as all hell. Then I got to Bitterblack Isle and found out that all boss monsters had such high magic defenses that my ultimate spells didn't do a lot of damage and that I was better off just spamming Focused Bolt with the adequate buff. Afterward I played a Warrior and a Mystic Knight and I actually found them way stronger than the Sorcerer, at least prior to Dark Arisen content. I guess you can make a case for most classes having broken tools in DD but I don't think balance is the solution, really.

 

[GrainWetski]

Yeah, I wouldn't bother min-maxing vocations to any extent your first time through. Just play whatever floats your boat the most.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Well, the thing about lacking power to punch through defense is that it applies to everyone, just a matter of having a good enough weapon, or failing that, using the temporary stat buffs (which is why magick archer is the most OP- he gets a fucking /skill/ that gives him the temporary magic buff.) The ultimate spells are pretty awesome except against the final boss, he's just too fucking agile and aggressive. Lightning and maelstrom in particular are pretty much rapefests on a lot of the bitterblack stuff. And the death curse is awesome for quickly wiping out the trash. (Also one time I managed to use it to kill a beholder I couldn't really scratch otherwise, felt pretty awesome.)

I wasn't advocating balance, just to be clear. I agree the imbalanced shit is fun. But the devs might think otherwise (if so hopefully they simply unbalance some other shit instead.) They did nerf the shit out of those assassin passives when Dark Arisen came out, after all.

 

[Krraloth]

I started as Strider then switched to Fighter for the passives and then I feel in love with Warrior, climbing a chimera and fisting it in the back of his goat head never gets old. I agree that Ranger pawns are pretty fantastic especially at night. I don't see shit but I can hear Snow Harpies croak left and right.

 

[Ninjerk]

"[Ogres] get excited when they see females and will speed up their fury and attack faster the more women are in the party."

Apparently they drop Silk Panties if you steal from them.

 

[Machocruz]

I tried all the vocations except Ranger and Magick Archer on my first play, so if I get the PC version I'll go for those. Probably going to do the bare minimum of vanilla that will get me leveled for BBI. A lot of the vanilla quests are lame as hell and I've done everything there is to do in the base game anyway.

It is possible to just go to BBI as soon as possible and level there, but it requires some meta knowledge of equipment locations and how to deal with various encounters. Hint: explosive barrels are a low level scrub's friend.

 

[made]

Hope this turns out a positive surprise like DS because it looks pretty lame on videos (but so did DS).
I need to immerse myself in a meaty RPG in the coming months when the muslim hordes rape and pillage across my country.