Dragon's Dogma (From the director of DMC3)

PozerWolf · May 31, 2012, 9:23pm

kjf;kdsjf;ksljj;sf;lks

Damnitt, how do I escort this bitch?
Oh well, need to explore!!

rayndeon · May 31, 2012, 9:31pm

Where are you supposed to go?

TheBladeItself · May 31, 2012, 9:34pm

Troll finishing school.

Oh, you meant for the quest, not PozerWolf himself.

Sent from my HTC Thunderbolt using SRK Technology.

Gren · May 31, 2012, 9:40pm

I hired yours. Let’s see how well having two archer-based characters goes. I’m hoping we blot out the sun.

My pawn just came back last night with 21,000 RC from one guy. And he gifted me a better set of Fighter armor than I currently had. Really nice of him.

EDIT: I notice that my main pawn’s second inclination will occasionally change from Pioneer to Guardian (Scather is always first). He’s a Fighter w/ Warrior augments, so I want that bastard on the front line at all times. The only command I ever give is “GO!” Maybe I’ll experiment with elixirs to see what makes him RTSD. I wonder if Scather as primary & Mitigator as secondary would cancel one another out, or if that would make him go completely Rambo.

kitsunisan · May 31, 2012, 9:58pm

I love my little archer, I’ll see a bandit charging me then BAM, they go flying back from one of her arrows. She’s been a beast for me with chimeras, first thing I do is jump on and start on the goat head, hit the help command and she’s right up on the snake tail hacking away. Hope she’s good support for you.

PozerWolf · May 31, 2012, 10:02pm

Gawh, I forget the name of the location, but it’s behind the swallowing gay cave or something.

Once I’m back on, I’ll give the name.
All I know is that it’s the escorting mission I took at the Inn in Gran Soren and that chic came out and was like "Let’s go!"
I’ll have to get back to my game and find out where exactly she needs to go.

BIGWORM · May 31, 2012, 10:30pm

A favor I ask all of those on XBL: Can you guys grab my mage Marquis and runs some quests with him? I keep getting mowed down in this game by freaking random bandits, and it’s been pretty disheartening. I haven’t played this game in two days because soon as I step foot out Gran Soren, I’m being collected into a body bag.

Biggzy · May 31, 2012, 10:51pm

I’ll add you Bigworm, I need a Mage. Whats your gamertag again? Nickapplesee?

I have a Strider at Lv.18 he’s decent. I’m not nearly as buffed up as most of the people here. Only have about 6 hours or so into the game.

BIGWORM · May 31, 2012, 10:55pm

Yeah, GT = NickAppleese

Rabbit2k7 · May 31, 2012, 10:58pm

Okay, so my thoughts on the game since I just beat it recently. There are some spoilers so,

[details=Spoiler]Dragon’s Dogma is pretty ambitious project. It attempts to bridge a gap that many gamers have rightly perceived; lack of good combat in an RPG. True real-time, fun, and engaging third-person combat in an open world RPG has not been commonly employed. Sure, you’ve got the isometric combat a la Baldur’s Gate, but many gamers want the sheer physicality of being able to beat an enemy’s face in with a mace or slash them apart with a sword.

Dragon’s Dogma attempts to do this by drawing on design elements players will recognize from Capcom’s own Devil May Cry series and Monster Hunter, as well as marrying it to an open world experience. How does this succeed? In one aspect, it is a phenomenal success. In another perspective, it is a phenomenal failure. I will explain how below.

Before we get to what I believe are the many strengths of Dragon’s Dogma, it’s important we get the biggest problem with Dragon’s Dogma out of the way first: the story. The story is not exactly presently in an entirely sensible or coherent fashion. The player will frequently go through long stretches without an inkling as how the quests they are doing are at all related to the main quest. After getting your heart taken and traveling to Gran Soren, you are made a member of the Wyrm Hunt, where your duties include seemingly unrelated tasks such as routing a monster infestation or killing a Griffin that is terrorizing the countryside. The relation to the main storyline is tenuous at best.

Entire plotlines appear to disappear and characters enter and leave without any understanding or explanation. For example, it is never clearly explained or hinted at to whom the Mason is (an agent of the Duke? Who knows). Exposition is vague and there is no coherent strand connecting any of the quest lines. Even the Elder Scrolls series, which also had poor and uninteresting characters and storyline, had far more coherent main quest lines. The entire point of the journey is not really explained until the very end, when the player slays the red dragon and then meets Savan.

There is no real sense of permanence in the game. The character can be jailed, only to walk away, right in front of the guards in fact, with no consequence. In one quest line, you approach the Duchess’ bedroom, are caught redhanded, and sent to the dungeons. You can literally walk outside and no one seems to even remember. You can even talk to the Duke later and it’s as though the game erased the incident from the collective memory of Gransys.

It is in this aspect the game must be considered a phenomenal failure; the story is bland and largely incoherent and while the final plotline is quite interesting, it’s too little, too late.

One compliment of the story I can give however is that the end truly was quite interesting and that the moral decisions, while few and far between, always seemed rather significant.

However, I believe Dragon’s Dogma has other strengths that more than make for this deficit. By and large, in RPGs, there has existed a triad of sorts, 3 cornerstones to a successful RPG:

Gameplay: This includes combat, interacting with the world, and what not

Exploration: This includes trekking the game world, interacting with the world, whether from spelunking in caves or traversing vast countrysides

Story: The plot lines, the characters, the coherence of exposition, making the story and characters matter to the player.

There is of course graphics and audio quality, but this is a given in many games, and often, excellent gameplay can make up for relatively sparse graphical quality. Most RPGs succeed in only one or two of these cornerstones.

Consider the Elder Scrolls series. They are utter paragons of succeeding at the Exploration aspect, allowing the player to trek across an entire country, interact with hundreds of NPCs, make actions that have real consequences, craft items, go anywhere they please, etc. However, everyone is painfully aware how repetitive and dull the combat is and the story is typically throwaway and the characters rarely memorable.

Or consider a game like Final Fantasy (take your pick of which). Many of them feature engaging, memorable characters and situations, but in so doing, they give up the exploration aspects that are prized by Western developers. The combat is also fairly typical standard turn-based fare and becomes repetitive before too long. How many times can you cast Ultima or summon Shiva before it becomes dull?

Or consider a game like Dark Souls. It absolutely excels in both gameplay and exploration, giving the gamer a tense experience of survival and consequence in a world that is absolutely out to get you. This particular game was very highly rated and favored. And yet, it features almost nothing in the way of story. It is exceedingly minimal in the way of exposition.

It is these latter two aspects that I feel Dragon’s Dogma is a resounding success. I quite honestly believe, alongside the combat in Dark Souls and in Mount & Blade, Dragon’s Dogma gameplay stands among the best of any RPG in gaming. They were hardly the first game to consider action-adventure elements in an RPG. The concept goes back a while, perhaps most notably in Secret of Mana, and later on with third-person action RPGs like Vagrant Story, Brave Fencer Musashi, Kingdom Hearts, Dark Messiah, etc.

But just about none of them truly captured the essence of combat and physicality to the extent I believe that Dark Souls, Mount & Blade, and now, Dragon’s Dogma has. There is nothing quite like being out in the middle of the wilderness at night, barely able to see 15 meters in front of you, when a Chimera assaults your party. And then once you scale the beast and get to work on it, and finally killing the thing - that experience never gets old. The grab command is a phenomenal addition to an RPG, arguably on a greater level of importance than say the Gravity Gun in Half-Life 2.

Combat feel powerful and visceral. The player is given a wide plethora of offensive and defensive choices presented to them. However, you can only set up to 6 different abilities at an inn. You can do anything from a massive overhead sword swing to catapulting your allies to the air with the flat of your blade or with a shield. The sheer number of options in combat is quite large, from grabbing enemies so your ally can finish them off, to creating ice pillars you can vault off of, to summoning down tornadoes, to shooting a rain of arrows, to - Look, just give it a try. The game must be played to believed.

Dragon’s Dogma features 9 different classes, each with about 20 or more (much more in the case of the hybrid vocations) unique abilities, up to which 6 can set. Moreover, there are a variety of augments available to each class. The player is able to switch at will, at the Gran Soren inn, between any of these classes. Feel like playing a mage, but started as a fighter? Then just buy the mage class and get to blasting off fireballs or raising pillars of ice. This ability to fool around with each of the different classes, and not be constrained by stereotypical class choices is a crucial part of Dragon’s Dogma’s charm.

The pawn system is also well done. You can tweak your main pawns inclination, whether it be to defend you or pick off the weaker monsters. Your pawn gains the same class choices you do, except the hybrid vocations, and can switch as easily as you do. You can pick one main pawn and up to 2 support pawns. Pawns are reasonably intelligent and have knowledge of different aspects from monsters, to areas, to quests. Uncertain of how to get to the Stone of the Southwest? Then hire a pawn who is knowledgeable of the area and they can easily guide you along the main roads. Pawns with high understanding of certain monsters will effectively fight against them, whether it be from buffing your part with holy power when against undead, to wielding lightning against a cyclops.

Just as impressive is the ability to hire support pawns online. Your own pawn, a copy of them anyway, will be hired on for another player’s quests, and then come back with items and experience when you rest. This allows them to gain valuable knowledge of quests and areas you might not have even played through yet.

The crafting system is also well done. The combinations are largely logical and in some cases, surprising in the level of thought Capcom put into the game. For instance, if you want a torch, just hold a piece of kindling and stand next to a torch. Voila, instant light source. The sheer number of combinations seems massive thus far. There is even the ability to forge and duplicate items, at a price. You can even duplicate quest items, although this may have certain consequences…

The game emphasizes proper preparation, because you cannot easily fell larger monsters until well into the later levels. Running through Cyclops country? Then better have a mage with either the ability to cast lightning or enchant your weapons with it. Running through an area above your level with just about no curatives. Expect to die a lot. At one point, during an unrelated quest, I ran across a Dragon at level 30 and only lived to tell the tale because I had bought nearly 40 potions for the road. I ended up using all of them and it took me a day (of in game time) to kill the thing.

Dragon’s Dogma is not afraid to kick your ass a bit. It doesn’t handhold and if you trek through an unfamiliar area without being properly leveled or prepared, you will die. The difficulty does even out later as you become just about unstoppably strong, but the difficulty takes a significant spike towards the end, giving even relatively high level players a challenge.

Moreover, given the plethora of items, classes, and a new game plus, this game holds a quite decent amount of replay value.

In conclusion, I think Dragon’s Dogma is a fantastic RPG. I hope it becomes another highly successful IP for Capcom. The only thing that detracts from the experience is the poor story, but even highly acclaimed RPGs like Skyrim and Dark Souls featured minimal or poor stories. I think the game deserves at least an 8 or 9 out of 10, for the sheer quality of its gameplay and exploration.[/details]

Dark Souls has one of the most original, and best told stories of this generation.

wyze · May 31, 2012, 11:00pm

srk pawn list of everybody who had posted thus far, for those interested. post up if you want your info edited/added or just copy/paste it if you like. i may update or repost it every so often. if the list becomes too large i’ll repost it in spoiler tags.

XBL

SRK: wyze
GT: mymymaichun
main pawn: Peorth

SRK: FurryCurry
GT: FurryKing
main pawn: Apollo

SRK: BIGWORM
GT: NickAppleese
main pawn: [S]Rogue[/S], Marquis

SRK: viren
GT: CA viren
main pawn: Cassandra

SRK: Biggzy
GT: Biggzy
main pawn:

SRK: Spooty Whiteboy
GT: Spootz
main pawn: Rhaegal

PSN

SRK: Sano
ID: SRKSANO
main pawn: casca

SRK: Shadowcuz
ID: JTCuz
main pawn: Buzz

SRK: kitsunisan
ID: kitsunisan
main pawn: Lynn

SRK: Lion__JAK
ID: Tr4gicLi0n_
main pawn: Jackson

SRK: TheBladeItself
ID: Sites008
main pawn: Slyght L’ic

SRK: Rabbit2k7
ID: Rabbit2ndG
main pawn: Kid

SRK: Gren
ID: AllUCan
main pawn: Arthur

SRK: Divinus
ID: Fefe41
main pawn: Raia

Lucretz · May 31, 2012, 11:05pm

Almost have max rank as a Strider now. Initially, it seemed like Strider was a really weak, poo poo baby. Now that I have some leveled up skills and items it’s pretty fun though. I like the fact that you have a ton of different approaches and tools with the different bow skills, and the dagger ones for close up with the roll, plus all the trick arrows. I was actually shocked that the trick arrows even work on boss monsters. Hitting a Chimaera with sleeper arrows, actually does put it to sleep.

Kind of disappointed that you can’t use hybrid classes for your main pawn though. I wanted by fighter bro Golga to be a Mystic Knight. : / Warrior seems kind of boring. They seem to do a ton of damage with their huge weapons, but I wanted something different for my main pawn.

I did a ton of exploring to the west of the Encampment and fought a couple bosses. Golem took a long ass time, it turned to night while I was fighting it and had to try killing it by lantern light. Same thing with these two Cyclops in a canyon. Fighting the Chimaera is probably the most fun right now. I also ran into some kind of Dragon in a forest, but was completely incapable to damaging it. Saving often seems really important in this game, since you never know what you’re going to run into, or even what level enemies like Bandits will be at.

I still haven’t done that Everfall quest at the Pawn Union, I guess that’s the next main story quest, maybe I’ll try that tonight.

Lion_Jak · May 31, 2012, 11:26pm

Oh main pawn: Jackson/Ranger

Just got to Gran Soren and changed my main character into a Magick Archer and my pawn into Ranger. I love the fact that the arrows can lock-on enemies, even multiple enemies. Going back to the encampment just so I can go off the different paths and make my map more than just a small trail from that first village to the capital. I leave Gran Soren and next thing I know a Griffin attacks this guys caravan. Luckily these lock-on arrows stay locked on the damn Griffin cause it keeps going back in the air trying to run off like a bitch.

BIGWORM · June 1, 2012, 12:08am

Wow, FINALLY made it to the bottom of Everfall and back. What side quest should I go on to from here?

TheBladeItself · June 1, 2012, 12:12am

If you have levitate, hit up the Water God’s Temple.

viren · June 1, 2012, 12:29am

That’s pretty much the same situation with me. Currently Lv.40+ and as far as story is concerned, I’ve just reached the bottom of Everfalls for the first time after delivering the Hydra head. Pretty much after reaching Gran Soren I decided I’d complete all the sidequests. At first there was only a few but then I’d receive more as I’d clear them. I never do the sidequests for the experience points, it’s just that I’m a completionist and I have to have things done before I progress further. If you wanna crank up the difficulty try bringing less pawns or maybe consider not using any curatives/items.

I really wouldn’t compare sidequests to a difficulty button. I mean, with that comparison following the main story would be the equivalent of playing the game on normal. Basically you’re progressing through the game as the developers intended, you will always have access to appropriately leveled items/equipment in order to complete the next given story quest involving appropriately leveled enemies. The game has to be designed so that the parts a player is required to do are suitable for your average gamer to complete. Now sidequests are where the game can be more liberal, especially in this game lol, you really don’t know the kinda sh*t you’re getting into when you accept one. Imho, I think it’s pretty fun completing the sidequests as you receive them. I mean, as far as difficulty is concerned, worst possible scenario you end up too op for the main story but then again are main story quests ever really that difficult, we’re talking about an rpg here…

Also, PROTIP: you can cancel escort quests after you accept them by talking to any notice board again. I know kinda trivial but taking the Shadowfort and healing springs escorts at lower levels can be pretty challenging.

Gren · June 1, 2012, 1:50am

Thanks for the list.

SRK: Gren
ID: AllUCan
main pawn: Arthur

BIGWORM · June 1, 2012, 4:12am

My main character is a Fighter. My pawn is a mage. =/ I did clear out the temple and made 50k+ just pillaging.

TheBladeItself · June 1, 2012, 4:13am

How do you do that, with a fighter?

I had to levitate over pits.

Rabbit2k7 · June 1, 2012, 4:33am

Levitate is for queers.

Run and jump. Like a man.