Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen

Hmmm... I still like roaming the land with my 3 chatty friends, and I'm actually contributing now; but (and I don't want to put Balla off completely with this one) there have been a few missions recently where you have to decide between two outcomes when clearly neither is the right one. But I'm going to continue, as I might actually be advancing the story still.

Interesting choices of quest resolution in an RPG is definitely a good thing and you're mad if you think otherwise

...I daresay I can look up a walkthrough when it gets to those bits.

OrangeRakoon wrote:

Interesting choices of quest resolution in an RPG is definitely a good thing and you're mad if you think otherwise

But it hinges on good writing and there being a reason why the characters go for a less than optimal solution, otherwise you're just sat there thinking "but why didn't I just do this?"

That said, I actually don't remember what scenes Jim's on about.

I can think of one where you can choose to side with either one group of bandits or another. It's not like there is an obvious optimal solution you can't do.

The one that came to mind for me was

Spoiler:

but I actually remembered that being really satisfying.

I have had to

Spoiler:

Oh, I was very keen to find him guilty because he's a gross landlord capitalist piece of shit. I wanted to run him through myself.

I mean yeah, that guy sucks.

Oh yeah, I agree - but he doesn't become "unguilty" because someone else likes him is my point.

I think its more of a meta thing. Is he guilty because hes a piece of shit or not guilty because you want cheap items?

Also, historically, I think it usually was just his word against yours so thats exactly how someone was unguilty!

I have finally picked this up.  I wasn't going to until I'd finished (with) Monster Hunter, because I didn't want two Capcom action games on the go at the same time; but it's half price right now.  Hopefully it feels sufficiently different!

EDIT: After the first half hour it feels a lot like Skyrim, except I can't play as a lizard.

Don't try and play it like Skyrim though - that's what I'd say. Don't expect to go off in a random direction and find a multitude of sidequests.

I mean, you can go off and find sidequests, but they're level-specific. If you're fighting something and it feels too tough, it probably is.

Also:

• Don't go out at night
  
• Lay down fast-travel stones at the big towns/ cities/ castles
  
• Do that before you try to escort anyone there; that way you can teleport them
  
• Invest in unlocking skills and moves and stuff, then play it like an action game. That's the big difference between this and Skyrim - this has combat.

Cheers folks, I will see how I get on. I think on that advice I'll stick to the path pretty strictly to start. This has always been a thread with really, er, 'cosy-feeling' discourse so I'm keen to be a part of that.

EDIT BY WAY OF REPOST: So far I'm just dossing about in the starting city, and I have a few queries about inventory management. Does weight have a big effect? I'm a bit of a hoarder, but I'm wondering whether I really need all the small rocks and ceramic jugs - but then I picked being a Strider and now I'm worried I'll need distraction tools. Will I? Or should I still be able to wade in?

I mean, obviously I was just getting stuck in the whole time. I would say you want to be light but I like being close to enemies and dodging and stuff.

Gents: I've bounced off this hard. I wanted to ask whether things change before I consign it to LGYDF, but right now that's where it's headed.

Granted, I'm only three hours in, and have just created my pawn (yes she was female) and done the pawn training tasks. That said, in most games I get on with there's normally something I like by the time I'm three hours in. Here, I'm finding the writing and voice-acting absolutely terrible, and not amusingly so. All bad am-dram Shakespeare-alike. The visuals feel dull and lifeless, with nothing of interest. I'm sure it's bugged out on me: when trying to get the night flower for the first sub-quest, I went to where it grows in the starting town at night, Rook said 'ooh a flower', and there was no flower.

The combat... I've come into this off MonHun Rise, and I'm sure it does get better as you learn more moves. That said, I didn't find the opening gambit against the chimera or the boss battle against the cyclops terribly exciting. At this early stage the combat's not only worse than MHR, it's worse than every 3D Zelda post-WW, Okami, and flaming Creature in the Well among other games. It's not good is what I'm saying.

Basically: does this all improve? I'm sure the combat does: does it get good? Does the writing get better? Is there anything interesting to look at? And how long does that all take? Or is this just another of my examples of so-called 'bad taste' that I'll have to live with?

I do think the game improves as you unlock more moves in combat, explore the systems and generally get deeper into it.

That said . . . I was already absolutely loving it by the time I killed the Cyclops.

I basically didn't feel most of what you're feeling so I can't help much.

What class did you go with?

I will admit that I often didn't see what my pawns saw - they just went off and did their thing, so it probably wasn't a bug, they just aren't good at signposting what they're verbally communicating. The writing is a bit better when you get the whole story - if maybe not the accents. But I agree that, as you deal with more complex enemies, and also add more moves to your repertoire, it gets more engaging and far less button-mashy. Having said that you'll probably want to run past stuff you've fought before, after a while, if you're like me and want to go a-splorin'.

So Jim, did it take you a while to get into as well? I'm not surprised that Buska got on with it straight away for some reason. My character's a Strider.

A little while but that was mostly overwhelmedness at a new big thing.

For what it's worth I felt similar things to you, I got to the big city at which point things start opening up a bit more I think and then I just kicked it to the curb. I'd love to see the latter part of the game when things are meant to get real, but there's way too much not fun times in the way of it.

Yes, I think that's where I'm landing too. It sounds like Jim didn't feel the same way about the game I did: I don't feel overwhelmed, quite the opposite in fact. So basically, for those that got on with the game in the end, there was at least something there earlier doors, which wasn't there for me - and I'm guessing wasn't there for you either Andy.

I think it's time to let go and get back to Capcom's other big Switch action-adventure.

Balladeer wrote:

I think it's time to let go and get back to Capcom's other big Switch action-adventure.

I was playing this to tide me over between Monhan games, you should definitely get back to Rise!