And Capcom is only 56 months late in fixing the Inflection bug introduced with the release of Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen on PS3 in April 2013.
Not sure mage is best to start. Sure they are usefull. Particularly Sorcerors have some big guns and work well with other Sorc pawns, with which they can synchro-cast the big spells. But cast time of the big spells is long and often you need to avoid engagement. You end up using staff autoattack a lot (which admittedly can be very potent if infused with holy, but also rather boring).
Don't expect this to be like Dark Souls. It's quite different, but a great game in its own right.
Try all vocations whenever you feel like it (augments carry over between them), use and experiment with items, don't spoil your first playthrough by using a wiki too much; everything you might miss can be easily rectified in ng+. Don't start with hard difficulty! It makes the early game, which isn't that easy to begin with, even harder, and you'll be overpowered and filthy rich even earlier. If you feel like the game's too easy, consider playing with your main pawn only or even solo.
Have fun and keep us posted.
All 9 vocations are fun to play. At the start, you choose between fighter, mage, and strider, but you can change vocations via the innkeeper in Gran Soren (or the person who stands outside the Bitterblack Isle expansion dungeon). Even though I enjoy playing as a mage/sorcerer, I'd recommend against it for a first playthrough, since you'll miss out on the melee combat and climbing mechanics. Although you'll want to avoid spoilers, I recommend looking at information about Pawn Inclinations, because these are explained only poorly within the game, and they're vital to the efficacy of your Main Pawn and support Pawns.
