Capcom Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen

[sser]

If you don't have access to online play, do you just play with you and one other NPC or can you still get a full party going?

 

[SuicideBunny]

there's a bunch of pre-made pawns for offline players.

 

[20 Eyes]

any comments on the competence/knowledge/whatever system for pawns?

I haven't played enough to really discern how useful it is, but it's pretty cool. When I'm out exploring or questing, the pawns I'm with say they've learned this or that. Also, if a pawn is familiar with an enemy, he might shout out his weakness. This might get annoying for some, but you can turn the text part off and just listen to them. Also, you can tell your pawn to be less chatty. When a pawn leaves your service, you can fill out a little review on him and leave one of a few dozen comments for his master.

Another cool thing about them is they seem to have personalities. When you make a pawn, the game asks you a few questions about he/she would react to certain situations. There are items that encourage/discourage certain pawn behavior. The behavior thing probably has close to a dozen different stats. I have no idea how it works yet.

If you don't have access to online play, do you just play with you and one other NPC or can you still get a full party going?

Like SuicideBunny said. They're scattered around the world. You can bump into one on the road. When you summon other player's pawns, you go into some sort of pocket dimension and a few around your level are standing around.

 

[Ebonsword]

I had a tough time with the cave under the starting village too. I found it helped to have two mages in my group so we could keep hitting them with either fire-, ice-, or lightning-enchanted weapons. Ice and lightning work really well since the creatures hang out in the water. Fire works pretty well because it causes them to start rolling on their backs in the water, exposing their soft underbelly. Also, be careful about jumping in the water, which will cause your lantern to go out (side note: the way the game handles light and darkness is fucking awesome. You know how we always whine about games like Skyrim not having dark enough dungeons? Dragon's Dogma totally understands how to make a dark cave scary). Finally, make sure you're rolling with some current-level pawns to make your life easier.

What level were you when you did the quest in the well? I was level 7 and got totally pwned.

(Of course, the fact that I haven't purchased any abilities beyond the starting ones might have something to do with that...)

So, I rerolled as a Strider and went from liking the game to *loving* it.

I orginally went Fighter because my plan was to become a Mystic Knight, but, the Fighter's "tanky" playstyle just wasn't doing it for me. I much prefer my light, nimble Strider who is climbing up on monsters and stabbing them in the face.

With my new PC, I was able to facestomp those saurians in the well (it probably helped that I actually had upgraded equipment this time).

I also agree that it helps to have higher-level pawns with you. What I've been doing is hiring pawns two-levels above me and then dumping them when our levels even out. This doesn't cost very many RCs, and seems to be working well.

 

[Ebonsword]

any comments on the competence/knowledge/whatever system for pawns?

I haven't played enough to really discern how useful it is, but it's pretty cool. When I'm out exploring or questing, the pawns I'm with say they've learned this or that. Also, if a pawn is familiar with an enemy, he might shout out his weakness. This might get annoying for some, but you can turn the text part off and just listen to them. Also, you can tell your pawn to be less chatty. When a pawn leaves your service, you can fill out a little review on him and leave one of a few dozen comments for his master.

Something else I've noticed is that, if you get someone's pawn who has done a particular quest before, they will lead you to where you need to go. For example, when I reached the first city, I had a quest to find the Pawn's Guild. I had a pawn with me who had, apparently, already done this quest, so she took off saying "follow me" and ran right to it.

When you summon other player's pawns, you go into some sort of pocket dimension and a few around your level are standing around.

What I think is especially cool is that there's a search function. So, if you're looking for a 15th level mage, you can get a list of available pawns that meet that criteria.

 

[20 Eyes]

So, I rerolled as a Strider and went from liking the game to *loving* it.

I orginally went Fighter because my plan was to become a Mystic Knight, but, the Fighter's "tanky" playstyle just wasn't doing it for me. I much prefer my light, nimble Strider who is climbing up on monsters and stabbing them in the face.

Strider does seem cool. I went with Fighter and I'm not regretting it, I like being in the front and smashing the fuck out of everything. I plan to go Assassin eventually, which to the uninitiated is a strider-fighter hybrid. My only gripe about Assassin is the augments don't seem as useful since most of them only activate at night, so I'm trying to get some decent ones before I switch.

Mystic Knight seems kinda lame. The fact that they switch their shield from their back to the hand so much (from the gameplay videos I've seen) would drive me crazy because it looks ridiculous. The mage classes seem like a slower-paced game, maybe it's more strategic but it seems a little boring.

One thing I like is that none of the classes are direct upgrades of the others. Sorcerer is an advanced mage, but he loses a lot of the mage's support abilities. Fighter to Assassin seems like the clearest upgrade, but you still lose a lot of the fighter's HP/Defense gains when you level. Choices and consequences, man.

 

[sea]

Looks really neat. Too bad the story stuff sucks and there doesn't seem to be much to do other than fight, but man the combat looks like a ton of fun. I just kind of wish there was a bit more to it. Kudos to Japan for really starting to make some mechanically deep and interesting, non-traditional RPGs these last couple of years. I'd probably buy this game in a heartbeat if it came to the PC.

 

[whitemithrandir]

The AI in this game is some of the best I've seen.

Some shit that went down:

During a goblin fight, I saw their chieftain was low on health so I charged him. A smaller goblin intercepted me mid charge and shoulder checked me into the wall. Then the chieftain buried a hammer into the back of my skull.

While fighting an armored cyclops, my fighter pawn yelled "I'll distract it!" He then proceeded to climb onto its back. The ranger then said "Its helmet is protecting its eye!" The fighter pawn then somehow knocked his helmet off, the ranger pawn nocked an arrow, and the sorcerer pawn went "if they hate fire, they'll LOATHE this!" Split second later - fire arrow straight into the fucking eye. 'twas beautiful.

While fighting a bunch of lizards, the fighter pawn rapped his shield twice and got the lizard to attack it, at which point the ranger circled behind the thing and chopped its tail off.

I was ambushed in a cave by a bunch of bandits. Got pretty low on health. A bandit assassin started rushing me. My ranger pawn said "Protect the arisen!" and pinned the assassin to the wall with an arrow. AWESOME.

Anyway - check out my ranger pawn on Playstation 3. PSN name is whitemithrandir.

She's got 5 cyclops kills under her belt and is a blast to play with. Once in a while, you'll hear a TWANG and see some poor fucker get launched into low orbit. That longbow of hers is pretty swag, and I've trained her to snipe enemy spellcasters/archers.

 

[felipepepe]

While fighting an armored cyclops, my fighter pawn yelled "I'll distract it!" He then proceeded to climb onto its back. The ranger then said "Its helmet is protecting its eye!" The fighter pawn then somehow knocked his helmet off, the ranger pawn nocked an arrow, and the sorcerer pawn went "if they hate fire, they'll LOATHE this!" Split second later - fire arrow straight into the fucking eye. 'twas beautiful.

Sounds cool, but isn't a bit lame that you didn't do anything, all the awesome came from NPCs fighting NPCs? It's an honest question, from what I played in the demo sometimes you feel like useless....

 

[Average Manatee]

So, there are now 3 games worth playing on this generation of consoles? My ownership of a PS3 is almost justifiable now.

 

[Jasede]

If you're a giant weeaboo faggot like me you can also look forward to Persona 5, possibly another SMT game like Nocturne and, if you liked SotC/ICO, The Last Guardian.

 

[felipepepe]

Dynasty Warriors 7: Extreme Legends alone made me butthurt of getting an Xbox instead of a PS3...also, Disgaea 3 & 4....

 

[Jasede]

Dude, I just had the most mouth-watering idea:

Etrian Odyssey... on the PS3.

 

[whitemithrandir]

While fighting an armored cyclops, my fighter pawn yelled "I'll distract it!" He then proceeded to climb onto its back. The ranger then said "Its helmet is protecting its eye!" The fighter pawn then somehow knocked his helmet off, the ranger pawn nocked an arrow, and the sorcerer pawn went "if they hate fire, they'll LOATHE this!" Split second later - fire arrow straight into the fucking eye. 'twas beautiful.

Sounds cool, but isn't a bit lame that you didn't do anything, all the awesome came from NPCs fighting NPCs? It's an honest question, from what I played in the demo sometimes you feel like useless....

The first time I fought a cyclops my pawns didn't know anything, so it took me something like 5 tries to get it done. But after every fight, the pawns learn a new trick or two, and now I can take on two of them without much of a problem.

The game is definitely challenging, and sometimes it feels a bit unfair (took me an entire afternoon to take down my first ogre) but it definitely takes a lot of work to get your pawns to the point where they can cooperate with each other (and you) seamlessly. It's very satisfying when that happens, but takes hard work on your part to get there. And then, 5 minutes later, it's always a new challenge and a new enemy to learn and figure out.

 

[felipepepe]

Dude, I just had the most mouth-watering idea:

Etrian Odyssey... on the PS3.

OMG, ITZ HEAVAN!

Then again, it's not really a title that needs more graphic or processing power....besides, I'm still waiting for fucking Pokemon on any decent console since 1998...

 

[The Ticktockman]

While fighting an armored cyclops, my fighter pawn yelled "I'll distract it!" He then proceeded to climb onto its back. The ranger then said "Its helmet is protecting its eye!" The fighter pawn then somehow knocked his helmet off, the ranger pawn nocked an arrow, and the sorcerer pawn went "if they hate fire, they'll LOATHE this!" Split second later - fire arrow straight into the fucking eye. 'twas beautiful.

Sounds cool, but isn't a bit lame that you didn't do anything, all the awesome came from NPCs fighting NPCs? It's an honest question, from what I played in the demo sometimes you feel like useless....

I would say that the pawns wouldn't stand a chance without your participation. When I fight cyclopes (I had to look up the plural of cyclops for this post), I usually take the role of dude-who-jumps-on-cyclops'-face, bust off hist helmet, cut his tusks off (need those for crafting I think) and cut his eye out. I can do that role better than a pawn can usually. And keep in mind that while I'm doing that I'm relying on my pawns to either stun the cyclops with lightning, burn it with fire, knock it's club out of its hand, or just generally distract and hurt it. The creatures are designed to really require multiple people doing different things to do well. That's not even mentioning the fact that you usually encounter enemies in groups of 4-8, meaning there's plenty of action to go around.

I actually had an awesome experience today with an escort mission. Thankfully, the escortee is pretty resilient so I didn't need to babysit him. Anyway, we set out from the main city in the morning and on the way to the destination we encountered around 8-10 skirmishes with either wolves, bandits, a cyclops, harpies, skeletons, lizard creatures, or, in one unlucky situation, both a cyclops and some bandits. It took me several tries to get through the whole mission, and I eventually made it through the last stretch in the pitch-black night while sprinting past skeleton mages and harpies harassing us. Basically, even though my group wasn't quite strong enough to take on the mission, we squeaked our way through and completed the mission, netting me a reward worth more than all the other rewards I had earned before that point combined.

So, it's awesome is the point I'm trying to make here.

 

[whitemithrandir]

This game REALLY doesn't scale to your level.

 

[20 Eyes]

This game is awesome. It's one of those rare games that makes the hours melt away even for someone as jaded as myself. This game really makes you feel like you're going on adventures when you take missions. It's a shame that the unpaid reviewers seem to be trashing it.

This game REALLY doesn't scale to your level.

It really doesn't. I ran through the early areas today and slaughtered the shit out of everything in my path. It's so satisfying.

Too bad the story stuff sucks and there doesn't seem to be much to do other than fight, but man the combat looks like a ton of fun.

Exploring and building your character and his pawn are almost as fun as the combat. The dungeons are pretty huge for a game in 2012.

I actually had an awesome experience today with an escort mission. Thankfully, the escortee is pretty resilient so I didn't need to babysit him. Anyway, we set out from the main city in the morning and on the way to the destination we encountered around 8-10 skirmishes with either wolves, bandits, a cyclops, harpies, skeletons, lizard creatures, or, in one unlucky situation, both a cyclops and some bandits. It took me several tries to get through the whole mission, and I eventually made it through the last stretch in the pitch-black night while sprinting past skeleton mages and harpies harassing us. Basically, even though my group wasn't quite strong enough to take on the mission, we squeaked our way through and completed the mission, netting me a reward worth more than all the other rewards I had earned before that point combined.

I had a similarly awesome escort mission (surprisingly). I almost didn't want to take it when I realized how far I'd have to trek, the world seems massive so far. Anyway, we got close to the destination when we encountered a goblin camp with siege weapons and fortifications and all of that. We slaughtered them, but when we pressed on we discovered a couple of giants were blocking out path. It was starting to get dark (bad news in this game if you haven't played). I went back to the camp and discovered I could actually use the siege weapons. So I used what little daylight was left to shoot one of the cyclops (I think that's what they were) with the siege weapon. It gets dark by the time I drop the first one, so I switched to explosive arrows with the ballista and used the light from the explosions to target the other one. Just for kicks I tried shooting down one of the camp's walls and was shocked when it actually exploded into a burst of wooden poles, dirt, and splinters.

Sounds cool, but isn't a bit lame that you didn't do anything, all the awesome came from NPCs fighting NPCs? It's an honest question, from what I played in the demo sometimes you feel like useless....

I've heard the demo isn't a good indication of the game, but I didn't play it so I can't vouch for that (I wasn't that interested in this game, it really caught me off guard). But as a fighter, I've never felt useless. The pawns can handle trash mobs pretty easily. Ranged fighters have a much easier time than I do with some mobs (fliers, for one). Same for my main pawn, who is a fire mage/cleric. But I've never felt like there wasn't anything to do or that the battles are automated. I'd say I'm usually the MVP of the party.

 

[The Ticktockman]

The demo was quite a bit easier than the game has been so far.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Played for a bit, had a blast so far. Playing as a strider. Not being able to block is rather challenging, I'll need to get some pawns more inclined to distract enemies I think. I have 2 fighter pawns but my custom one is a mage, which is supposed to protect me but realistically takes too long charging anything to intercept fuck all.

Dagger skills = sexy. Archery is fun too. Lantern getting put out by water is annoying as fuck, but in a good way, same with poison.

 

[SuicideBunny]

quick question, can you switch to the other two basic vocations?

 

[The Ticktockman]

quick question, can you switch to the other two basic vocations?

Once you reach the main city (about 2-4 hours in), you can switch to any other vocation, including the other two basic ones.

 

[Ebonsword]

Wow, my party did the awesomest combo last night!

We were fighting bandits, and my Strider used the Ensare skill to yank a bandit off his feet and pull him towards her. (Ensnare is turning out to be *way* more useful than I expected, BTW.)

Then the party's other Strider intercepted the target as he was being pulled towards Strider #1 and launched him into the air using Toss and Trigger.

Finally, the party mage nailed the bandit in mid-air with multuple fire balls from High Ingle.

He dropped dead to the ground, a blackened husk.

It totally ruled.


Damn, this game is fun!

 

[Mortmal]

It will be ported on pc , if theres enough requests, so start by asking for it on capcom forums , apparently they do read it. Now if they really port it, dont expect it on pc before 6months-1 more year. Those kind of games like dark souls would really benifits of a pc port of course , far superior hardware, higher rez , better framerates, alas there's probably so much piracy its not deemed profitable unless they cover their cost by selling consoles version first. Cant blame them.

 

[praetor]

^piracy is not a good argument. the numbers are notoriously made up and skewed in favour of the "anti-piracy" side, and even stuff like Alan Wake paid for its porting costs in something like 24h

anyway, all these awesome stories made me took the plunge and i ordered the thing for ps3... now i'll have to live on bread and water for the next 3-4 weeks