Capcom Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen

[Zed Duke of Banville]

God, that intro sequence makes me want to blow my brains out when you have to repeat it to change some customization option or whatever.

Yeah, it is annoying to have to go through all of that again when you realize that you made your Arisen's face look messed up from certain angles or something.

The merchant at the Encampment near Cassardis who sells items for Rift Crystals has one item that lets you alter your character's appearance (and pawn's appearance) a single time and another item that lets you change appearance an unlimited number of times. Though the latter unfortunately isn't available until the final stage of the game.

 

[duanth123]

Well, if you were hoping for something atmospheric with solid lore and plot, yeah, this ain't the game. This is pretty much straight up gameplay as the attraction, but it's got that in spades. The little tutorial section has you play as the most boring character possible, unfortunately, and the game takes a while to open up properly (once you get to the city and can access the hybrid vocations basically) but it'll probably take about that long to get used to a lot of the mechanics/controls anyways, it's paced pretty well imo.

the game actually has a great story, full of subtlety and meaningful characterization. To the extent the game's narrative could be considered a tragedy in the classical sense. People slag off the game same as the Souls series because they simply never figured it out. Or didn't care to give the game a chance, like young Morgoth

 

[Damned Registrations]

Nah, the story is dumb and cheesy. There are some subtle parts, but there's also shit like the retarded cult with the cringeworthy villain, or the blatantly evil knight, the duke, etc. The bad outweighs the good, by a lot, where the story is concerned. But the story is totally made up for by the gameplay.

 

[duanth123]

Nah, the story is dumb and cheesy. There are some subtle parts, but there's also shit like the retarded cult with the cringeworthy villain, or the blatantly evil knight, the duke, etc. The bad outweighs the good, by a lot, where the story is concerned. But the story is totally made up for by the gameplay.

The duke is far more than evil

Did you not realize that

Spoiler

he was essentially too weak-willed to kill the dragon and instead sacrificed the only person he'd ever loved in exchange for an immortality that was meaningless without her? And that his attempts to thwart you are the product of a craven, very human fear, rather than some stereotypical mustache-twirling reason?

Or what about Daimon's story? Which, if you completed BBI, you would know is utterly heartbreaking.

The whole game concerns how ordinary people react when thrust into a world-defining, heroic role. And more specifically how, unlike in typical heroic narratives, many of them crumble before their responsibilities and choose the easier path.

The whole game is run through with the narrative.

And, btw, the knight is not evil. He has a very sensical reason for his actions, which is that

Spoiler

He realizes Gransys is ruled by an insane leader and that the fate of his own country and possibly that of the world requires that he attempt to replace the duke with a ruler who will actually respond to the Dragon rather than ignore it, even if by force and subterfuge

You must have played a different game.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Nah, you're just easily impressed. The Duke's story is old hat; been seen plenty of times before and the game isn't subtle about it at all. Likewise for the knight (you've a very lax sense of what constitutes evil that would excuse many iconic villains.)

Dark Souls had much better tragic characters, told more subtly and in more original ways. Onion bro alone has a better story than anything in DD. Daimon's story is among the best the game has to offer, and I'd say it's barely above average.

 

[duanth123]

Nah, you're just easily impressed.

Case closed.

The Duke's story is old hat; been seen plenty of times before and the game isn't subtle about it at all.

Includes themes that have been used before in the history of fiction = banal.shit.boring.

Likewise for the knight (you've a very lax sense of what constitutes evil that would excuse many iconic villains.)

Use your D&D, son.

It's called lawful evil or perhaps even lawful neutral, which is a far more complex cry from your original characterization of

the blatantly evil knight,

Daimon's story is among the best the game has to offer, and I'd say it's barely above average.

I'll take solace in the fact that you've come down off of "dumb and cheesy" to "barely above average."

A real KKK victory in my book.

 

[Anthony Davis]

Pawn Rental

To rent pawns in the game it costs Rift Crystals - which can sometimes be slow to come by at first. You also need Rift Crystals to purchase some items.

Regardless, the best way to get around this is to have friends who make competent pawns so that you can rent them for free. On the consoles, this meant PSN friends or XBOX live friends.

Now with the PC release, this means Steam Friends.

If you are getting the game, and you want to use my pawn for free, add me:

Rogue Zombie

 

[Lyre Mors]

Sent a request in anticipation to use your dirty pawn for free.

I am very excited to play this. It's kinda weird. I just forgot about the game because I figured it'd never hit the PC, but in comes the incline again.

 

[Invictus]

It is superb, I was feeling kind of guilty over replaying this while I have so many "incline" games waiting but this is the equivalent of an ice cream and fudge covered brownie; there are probably better desserts but this one always does it for me.
Just tried a mage char and while it definetly takes a bit to get used to (especialy not beign in the middle of the frey or climbing that cyclops) the magic effects look great and bring the pain to the bosses big time.
While I like throwing the big thunderbolt the thing that most impressed me was buffing my pawns, looking for a rock to levitate to and start droping some healings and dark magic shit on their heads. It was glorious taking on a group of bandits 3 or 4 levels higher than my group (outnumbered us too) and winning with some good strategies and luck
This is the definition of fun to me, beign deep and all is giod but I have not have plain old fun with an action rpg since probably Amalur

 

[Dreaad]

I don't know why I do these types of experiments since I highly doubt anyone cares. But I always used to get frustrated myself when I did searches online for other games back in the day and found nothing. Dragon's Dogma pc version works fine on windows xp, 2gb ram, 512mb video card, a few frame drops here and there but nothing worse than say, the Dark Souls port. Also no over heating issue. Tested on a Hasee laptop from 2008. That being said of course, don't expect support and I can't promise that at some point the game won't die, you also may have to restart the game every time an area loads due to the low ram.

Carry on men.

 

[SerratedBiz]

To rent pawns in the game it costs Rift Crystals - which can sometimes be slow to come by at first. You also need Rift Crystals to purchase some items.

Technically it only costs RC to rent pawns that are a higher level than you. Though you're right that you can rent friends' pawns for free regardless of level.

Then again it's good business to rent between friends since you might get more RC out of it.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

 

[vean]

Question to those who've played it before: it seems very casual compared to Dark Souls?

 

[Invictus]

Not at all, in fact the Dark Arisen expansion seems to have been heavily inspired by Dark Souls. They are different games, one slow and methodical the other faster paced and more tradictional but great games in their own right.

 

[Delterius]

Question to those who've played it before: it seems very casual compared to Dark Souls?

I can't really speak for everyone and, to be fair, on the mainstream it seems that DD is regarded as a difficult game, but I wouldn't call it hard when compared to, say, Demon's Souls. They are very different games however.

 

[vean]

Does it get hard later? I only got to the pawn stone where you can get two more followers. I guess it's still the tutorial. But the DS tutorial wasn't this easy.

 

[Damned Registrations]

It's paced very gradually. Levels and equipment also matter quite a bit, just like in the souls games, so how difficult things get will depend on how much you prepare before progressing to more difficult enemies. Technically you can go straight to bitterblack isle right off the bat, where you'll basically die in one hit and be unable to injure anything except via explosives. If you find some OP weapon there it'd make most of the normal game an embarassing cakewalk. OTOH if you try to speedrun the main quest things will get difficult very quickly.

 

[Invictus]

Funny how even though Dragons Dogma seems to be the more arcadey and action based of the two, but in reality it is more grindy and system focused while Dark Souls can be beat by a level 1 character with upgrades and mad player skillz. Just watched a couple if days ago a guy running around with a soup hanndle and completing Dark Souls ffs :D

 

[Raghar]

Question to those who've played it before: it seems very casual compared to Dark Souls?

It's RPG like Risen, but with a party. It's incomparable to "you play as a CHOSEN UNDEAD" in DS.

 

[Perkel]

Question to those who've played it before: it seems very casual compared to Dark Souls?

Two entirely different types of game

DS put focus on technique of combat (positioning, counters, frametime etc)
DD put focus on beat em up games like combat (fun actions, options, stats)

Also HP pools are completely different. Killing something in DS can take 5 minutes max.
Killing dragon in DD can take half an hour.

Though game feels imo more like Monster Hunter than your traditional party 3D RPG aka you fighting huge monsters with your puny weapons chipping away their health so it isn't bad from obscene pool of hp standpoint.

Game isn't easy. Sure opening 2-3 hours are easy but later you can easily get overwhelmed.

 

[Delterius]

I wonder. What classes are people on this thread trying out? Which of you are first timers?

 

[Puukko]

Two days. Two days!

I wonder. What classes are people on this thread trying out? Which of you are first timers?

My first run was strider -> archer -> magick archer -> sorcerer for BBI so this time around I think I'll go with fighter -> assassin. What I'm wondering is whether I should bother with hard mode this time around.

 

[Martius]

I will probably try fighter and then warrior or assassin, maybe later strider or ranger. So far I am not interested in magic clases, I will probably save them for last if anything.

 

[Invictus]

Magic is interesting and fun if you can "get" how to play as a mage. It takes away some of the fun of climbing on top of beasts and beign in the middle of the battles, plus it makes you rely a lot on your pawn to be a capable fighter.
I have liked it so far, but you have to be the main buffet and healer since the pawns are not too smart
I have this weird idea of trying out to have my main char and pawn to be magic users one the healer buffer type and the other the combat mage style or even a mystic knight build too
That is the great thing about this game beign able to play with so many options so its lack of mutiple char saves is even more baffling

 

[Delterius]

I have liked it so far, but you have to be the main buffet and healer since the pawns are not too smart

That's unnecessary. A Mage Pawn with the correct abilities and Inclination is a favorite for support. If you are interested in Magic I really recommend being a Sorcerer if you haven't yet.