Dragon's Dogma II - "They’re masterworks, all – you can’t go wrong"

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Encountered a griffin shortly after setting forth from the city and had knocked its health down to less than one full bar when it flew away. Much later in my journey, a griffin appeared in the sky and dived down to attack my party, and it turned out to be the same griffin with the same health remaining as when it had flown away. Result: my first dead griffin.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

Turns out if you do that, you will stamp whoever you have grabbed against the wall, hurting them.

Yeah the game has a "wall splatting" mechanic (common to 3D figthing games)
And you can do that even by poise breaking an enemy near a wall - once died to gobbos because they broke my PC's poise which resulted in him being slammed against a tree and falling down, the gobbos proceeded to savegely hack me on the ground...

 

[Zariusz]

Just found out about a new move you can do. I grabbed an NPC to try and see if there was any interesting interaction if I took her and carry her where other NPC was. I wasn't paying attention so I sprinted into a wall. Turns out if you do that, you will stamp whoever you have grabbed against the wall, hurting them. I was playing as Mage so it wasn't even a Figher or Warrior thing only.

I accidentaly did this to my pawn twice and she started to blush after, lol.

 

[Reinhardt]

so duke's wife is sitting in my bedroom, quina was last before seneschal and madeleine greeted at the beach...
great hero must fuck many women, i guess?

 

[DJOGamer PT]

This game achieves higher heights than Skyrim

Spoiler

The power behind a Golem's punch:



VS

Skyrim's manlet giants:

Flying into FREEE!

 

[Zero CHAR]

An excellent review from our beloved youtube creator

Whatever you do, you’ll never be able to fully avoid many excessively long hikes. Towns are spaced out to where traveling between them can take at least twenty minutes, and it won’t be time spent eventfully. The awful map is merely a web of noodly paths that respawn enemies and traps in the same place every time you’re backtracking through them which you’ll spend 75% of your playtime doing.

Oh, and because this game can’t hate its audience enough, Dragon’s Dogma decided stamina should drain out of combat, and should do quickly, which means you can’t even keep sprinting.

I’ve been playing Rise of Ronin at the same time as this, and the difference is night and day.

Not only does Ronin have free fast travel, but its warp points are liberally and conveniently placed. On top of that, you get a horse, a glider, a grappling hook, and infinite stamina when exploring. I once found myself hesitant to pick up a crafting material, then remembered I wasn’t playing Dragon’s Dogma 2 where you can become too heavy if you pick up enough feathers. Then I laughed, laughed, laughed.

Rise of Ronin was developed with the thought that people playing it shouldn’t have their time treated as valueless. Every part of Dragon’s Dogma 2 seems to be designed with a very different thought in mind:

"Fuck you."

https://www.thejimquisition.com/post/dragon-s-dogma-2-dragon-on-on-on-review

Fags (in this case, literally) that treat games as a thing to min max your time in and finish them as fast as possible to move to the next thing disgusts me.

 

[Alienman]

Encountered a griffin shortly after setting forth from the city and had knocked its health down to less than one full bar when it flew away. Much later in my journey, a griffin appeared in the sky and dived down to attack my party, and it turned out to be the same griffin with the same health remaining as when it had flown away. Result: my first dead griffin.

That is why man wins over nature. Health potions.

 

[Matador]

This game reminds me of Wizardry 8. Cool combat and more well done things, but barely any real dungeon (aside from the best opening ever: The Monastery). The overworld is a bit empty, and struggles to sustain the pace of the game without varied thematic dungeons.

I don´t like Elden Ring much, but you have to recognize that when you arrived to a legacy Dungeon you were in for a real cool time and great designed level. That´s the main ER advantage over DD2.

 

[Reinhardt]

started ng+ mage. my first dress wearer in dd. arisen is smol witch, pawn is 2m barbarian woman in chainmail bikini dragon's crown-style.
surprisingly, both look kinda ok. guess i learned something after all from making in first playthrough.

 

[Cyberarmy]

This game achieves higher heights than Skyrim

Spoiler

The power behind a Golem's punch:

Flying into FREEE!

Best part is the minimap

 

[Reinhardt]

wait, wizurd pigdogs have autoaim?

 

[Stoned Ape]

Just bought this with a 33% discount from CDkeys.

I enjoyed DDDA except for the Grigori fight, the cutscenes were great but the battle was boring as hell. My character was a Mystic Knight at that point and I couldn't climb him or get in range to use the cannon thing, and every time I got to the ballista he'd just hover then burn it after I took one shot.

The Ranger and Strider pawns I'd recruited were lower level than me (I was around level 44 or so, they were 38-40) but both had Dragonforged bows with around 1k attack power and ended up shooting him to death while I wandered about hopelessly trying to get close enough to even hit him. Most boring boss battle I've ever played, post game and BBI were so much better.

So, is Mystic Spearhand any more mobile than Mystic Knight was or am I better off aiming for Thief as my final vocation this time?

 

[Anonona]

So, is Mystic Spearhand any more mobile than Mystic Knight was or am I better off aiming for Thief as my final vocation this time?

Mystic Spearhand is probably the most mobile class in the game, perhaps tied with thief. It has a teleport and with the right actions can even chain attacks in the air. In terms of overall power, Thief is probably better though, it is kind of busted as of now compered to Mystic Spearhand, but I think the latter has more mobility.

 

[Artyoan]

More random thoughts:

52 hours in and still going strong. Found a path through a cave system into the southern beastren lands, bypassing the checkpoint. Starting to kill drakes but they are giving me variable amounts of trouble depending on the pawns and vocation I'm using. I've been switching both my own vocation and my pawns after maxing one out to keep it fresh and it is working well. I'm now 'done' with mage, sorcerer, archer, and almost done with the warrior.

The fast travel system is the best one I've seen in any game. There are a few base options like the oxcarts that are cheap to use. Portcrystals are few in number and so areas of value should be chosen. Ferrystones are also expensive and not that numerous so decisions should be made as to when to use them. The world feels quite large as a result, as it should. Choosing to physically travel a long distance has still resulted in some entertaining griffin/drake fights, token finds, and pawns leading me to missed treasures that I would not have found if I had used another ferrystone.

Gold is staying relevant. Armor/weapons in Battahl are expensive and I blew through over 160k to buy a house and some goodies on arrival. Figured I might have conquered money issues until that happened. I always check pawns for pawn quests for 10k and usually hire based on that. I set my own for 10k gold rewards as well and she is hired one to three times a day.

Only the sphinx has been a memorable character. None of the others rise to the level of even being memes so far. The most memorable side quest (aside from the sphinx) has been the little girl from the slums being used as a decoy for the noble boy. Depressing ending.

If I couldn't heal at zero health while still being thrown, I'd have died a handful more times than I have. I suppose that only saves me wakestones though, not necessarily a gameover screen.

If after making it to Battahl or reaching level 35-ish, some of the upgraded minotaurs/cyclops/ogres and bands of the harder knacker goblins started to spawn in Vermund, most of my complaints about difficulty might be alleviated in the normal game. NG+ still needs to scale up for everything and be genuinely hard.

I've been impressed with pawn AI. I've lost maybe 7 or 8 pawns to them just falling into the brine or falling long distances but I've gone along the coast lines and up mountains this entire time. To only have that many after 50+ hours is good. Riftstones aren't that hard to find so a setback has rarely been detrimental. Most pawn's being rendered into that revivable death state have been to big enemies putting them there. Especially drake meteor showers.

I've yet to find the trickster, magic archer, and warfarer. It's not something I'm wanting to look up but I was surprised that the magic archer wasn't to be found in the elven village unless I just missed it. I've only found the mystic spearhand and that was bizarre as I just wandered into a shack and found a random guy who just gave me access to it. I suppose that accentuates the 'anything can happen' element to what this game has to offer, which is nice.

 

[Fedora Master]

That Gigantus fight huh? What the fuck was that.

e: I got classically Dragon's Dogma'd when the Dragon held my "beloved" - some rando elf I gave a bow to once

 

[Zariusz]

Only the sphinx has been a memorable character. None of the others rise to the level of even being memes so far. The most memorable side quest (aside from the sphinx) has been the little girl from the slums being used as a decoy for the noble boy. Depressing ending.

Yeah this is so far one of the biggest problems of DD2, can you really remember any non pawn quote from the game? Any stuff like "I would never violate milord's privacy while he violates milady's privates" or "Why am i speaking instead, with a bleating she-goat mocked even by her own men?" or even stuff that's just ingrained itself in our heads thanks to repetition like the quote that we have in the title of this thread? I don't know about anyone of you but nothing comes to my mind here..
Like Artyoan said only Sphinx is memorable, but how much of that is thanks to her practically being the face of DD2 marketing (and massive tiddies ofc)? Even waifus arent really memorable, only Ulrika somewhat comes to mind but only because she's practically frontloaded on you since the start of the game and before the release, maybe also slightly that elf girl since we save her from being OGRED. This one DD1 cutscene so far has more character than the entire cast of DD2


Quests so far arent worse or that much better than DD1 quests but without any interesting characters what does it matters really? Maybe it will change later after i start exploring Battahl but i dont expect this to happen.

 

[Anonona]

Maybe it will change later after i start exploring Battahl but i dont expect this.

I would say that not really, Battahl's characters are just as bland if not more so. The game just doesn't give enough time to NPCs to truly get you to like them. Also it may be me, but I find the voice acting to be either worse or more bland, and the writing in general not as memorable (I think the story may actually be better, but told even worse than DD1). I think this may be in part due to the translation team, I'm not sure if they are the same people, but seeing as how they changed a very important term from the first game going into the second, they may be different.

 

[abija]

Mystic Spearhand is probably the most mobile class in the game, perhaps tied with thief. It has a teleport and with the right actions can even chain attacks in the air. In terms of overall power, Thief is probably better though, it is kind of busted as of now compered to Mystic Spearhand, but I think the latter has more mobility.

The shield lets your crew manup against anything.

 

[VerSacrum]

Only the sphinx has been a memorable character. None of the others rise to the level of even being memes so far. The most memorable side quest (aside from the sphinx) has been the little girl from the slums being used as a decoy for the noble boy. Depressing ending.

Yeah this is so far one of the biggest problems of DD2, can you really remember any non pawn quote from the game? Any stuff like "I would never violate milord's privacy while he violates milady's privates" or "Why am i speaking instead, with a bleating she-goat mocked even by her own men?" or even stuff that's just ingrained itself in our heads thanks to repetition like the quote that we have in the title of this thread? I don't know about anyone of you but nothing comes to my mind here..
Like Artyoan said only Sphinx is memorable, but how much of that is thanks to her practically being the face of DD2 marketing (and massive tiddies ofc)? Even waifus arent really memorable, only Ulrika somewhat comes to mind but only because she's practically frontloaded on you since the start of the game and before the release, maybe also slightly that elf girl since we save her from being OGRED. This one DD1 cutscene so far has more character than the entire cast of DD2


Quests so far arent worse or that much better than DD1 quests but without any interesting characters what does it matters really? Maybe it will change later after i start exploring Battahl but i dont expect this to happen.

It's also missing a place like Cassardis. I guess you're supposed to be from that village with the dragon flashback early on but I didn't really feel a connection to it the way I did back in DD1.

 

[Echo Mirage]

Mystic Spearhand is probably the most mobile class in the game, perhaps tied with thief. It has a teleport and with the right actions can even chain attacks in the air. In terms of overall power, Thief is probably better though, it is kind of busted as of now compered to Mystic Spearhand, but I think the latter has more mobility.

The shield lets your crew manup against anything.

Mystic Spearhand was fun and interesting with the use of a shield for the party. But Thief is something else entirely. Its like a paper shredder able to kill entire groups of enemies before my Warrior pawn is able to even swing her sword sometimes.

 

[Artyoan]

Mystic Spearhand is probably the most mobile class in the game, perhaps tied with thief. It has a teleport and with the right actions can even chain attacks in the air. In terms of overall power, Thief is probably better though, it is kind of busted as of now compered to Mystic Spearhand, but I think the latter has more mobility.

The shield lets your crew manup against anything.

Mystic Spearhand was fun and interesting with the use of a shield for the party. But Thief is something else entirely. Its like a paper shredder able to kill entire groups of enemies before my Warrior pawn is able to even swing her sword sometimes.

The warrior class still has its moments:

Spoiler

 

[H. P. Lovecraft's Cat]

This game achieves higher heights than Skyrim

Spoiler

The power behind a Golem's punch:

ooooo that could work as a really good fast travel method

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

I enjoyed DDDA except for the Grigori fight, the cutscenes were great but the battle was boring as hell. My character was a Mystic Knight at that point and I couldn't climb him or get in range to use the cannon thing, and every time I got to the ballista he'd just hover then burn it after I took one shot.

Mystic Knight is one of the better vocations to use against Grigori, since you can fire the magick/great cannon, use your shield abilities to enchant dark on you and your pawns, cast dark/abyssal anguish to improve your own weapon and its reach, climb better than the warrior albeit less well than strider/ranger/assassin to strike the dragon's heart, cast perilous/ruinous sigil underneath the dragon, combine perilous/ruinous sigil with magick/great cannon, and so forth. Lots of fun beating Grigori as a Mystic Knight.

 

[Modron]

Or you can just Arrows go Brrrrr.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

If I couldn't heal at zero health while still being thrown, I'd have died a handful more times than I have

I've been playing without using menu item and so far there are plenty of moments the game will kick you ass for playing efficiently
They should've gotten rid of pause healing, made the inventory during combat unavailable
If the player wanted to use any items during combat, he would have to assign them to the D-Pad item list (and make it able to use diagonal keys to increase the slots from 4 to 8)