Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen

OrangeRakoon wrote:

Won't it cost a million RC points because they'll be much higher level?

Nope, if they're your friends I think you can use them for free. I was using Joe Skrebels' endgame pawn for the whole game!

o:

Well that changes things!

I've completely misinterpreted this game: for some reason I thought it was procgen. Now I've looked at what it actually is... Colour me intrigued, fellas!

Not only do you write off perfectly good games for having procedural generation, now you're throwing games that dont even have it under the bus!

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Postgame stuff is stupid hard so Im putting this down for a bit. Everything up to the first ending is gold though.

Balla

I'm 30+ hours in now, level 38. I'm supposed to go see the Duke but it warns me my current quests will be cancelled so I'm exploring the world and ticking those off first (seems super early for a progress gate though!)

You play games weird.

My completion was like 40 hours/ level 40 . . .

no YOU play games weird!!

I'm assuming I have plenty of story left because I've only done a handful of story quests, game would be super quick for just the main route otherwise...?

Depends which meeting the duke you're talking about . . .

I think the story actually is pretty short, but theres no way youd be high enough level that way

The first meeting, when you go to the castle for the first time.

I'm past there now anyway! The quest warning was a little misleading, he only meant his specific (four) quests would be cancelled. Unlocked loads more now, but having explored seemingly the whole map it's quicker for me to jump between objectives B)

I'm in the postgame now and it is happily substantial! I'm even reluctant to call it "postgame" as there is so much to it.

To summarise the game in terms of others, it's something halfway between Skyrim and Dark Souls with Monster Hunter influence, and the questing/NPC routines/day-night systems remind me a lot of Xenoblade Chronicles.

It 100% sounds right up my alley. Was it as janky as some gameplay videos have made it appear, though?

I really didnt find it Janky at all. It was obtuse at times but thr various systems generally worked well and the combat, once you unlock all your moves, is very Monster Hunter.

Performance wise it runs great on Switch. Mechanically it plays well too. There is some janky design, but you pretty much end up ignoring it - basically using any consumables from your inventory is really awkward, especially tools like throwing knives or special arrow types, so you just don't.

They added "hotkeys" which are stupidly obtuse and awkward to use (you have to assign to the d-pad from the inventory and they can only be applied to certain items, and then hold both L and R together to use them on the d-pad, when L and R are also used to get into a battle stance/ready skills for primary and secondary weapons) and that was weird as hell to work out and get used to, but I ended up just having my lamp on up and healing items on left/right, so I never had to go into the inventory to use items as they are really the only things you need to use.

Some of the class skills can feel a bit "janky" compared to games where they are just standard mechanics but only because they are genuinely interesting and diverse skills - you can unlock double jump, roll dodge, sprinting, jumping off shields, kicking off people for a high jump, all as specific class skills! There is even a cancel as an unlockable skill, which I have equipped all the time because you can use it to skip the animation for equipping/unequipping the lantern, and that's obtuse and undoubtedly some level of janky but entirely of my own choice as a non-standard mechanic.

Basically the depth of systems and mechanics more than makes up for how obtuse and awkward some of them are, but the core game systems don't suffer from the same complaints so you can choose how deep to engage with things. It's no worse than the wiki diving that happens when you get really into Dark Souls, for example.

Aye, I was thinking that all of that reminded me of some of the jankier/obtuse moments in Dark Souls, so your closing comparison makes perfect sense. I love the sound of the different class abilities though - that genuinely sounds like great fun.

Still playing through this! (Won't post in "what are you playing" because, if I'm the only one, it's not a good conversation piece). I am liking the world, and am using a plan of "binning off" my 2 guests every 5 levels, and just giving everyone 5 stars for everything. Telling that 90% of pawns are female! Oh gamers...

My pawn was essentially me . . . Because my character was female

Yeah, I always play a female in an RPG which I'm doing in Greedfall at the moment.

Anyone watched the anime on Netflix yet?

No, but thanks for reminding me about it!

Don't take my word for it, because I've not seen it, and can't be arsed to watch things in general, but the one review I saw suggested they've removed any fragments of joy that could be found in the game, and made it miserable as anything.

I was worried that might happen. Most of DD's fun comes from weird, esoteric game stuff and side characters. The main plot is fairly grim.

Hmmm... oh - on that subject: is there ever a time where there isn't a clear specific "main" quest? I've got to Grando Centralo or whatever the capital city's called; I'm just off to do a job for the Wyrm hunt, but that was one of many I could've chosen, and that's pretty much the only quest I have that might be related to my plight.

Double post! Keeping the Dogma-chat alive baby
I see now that that list of things was the main list of quests. Cool. Also, I've learned to make sure that one of your rent-a-buds is a healer. Actually having to find herbs and use them (or get out of the way of being hit even) is a pain.

Ah! i wondered what you were on about. Yeah, it doesn't always make a clear distinction between key quests and side missions, but to be honest you should try to do everything anyway to be nice and strong.

I just had all three of my pawns as killing machines, but also I like dodging and weaving and fighting. And I think my wizard had one or two healing spells.

1. Has Balla started?

2. This is £6 on Xbox at the moment, I'm very tempted but do have lots to play

Anyone want to convince me either way on it? As at the moment I'm going that's cheap & I've never played while the other side is going you won't get around to playing it.

Nope! As mentioned elsewhere it's on my wishlist until I finish one of my currently active six games. (Probably Creaks or Yoku.)