Capcom Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen

[Black Angel]

If the quest you just failed involves Quina and the Witchwood, you'll miss out on substantial, albeit optional, content related to the main quest.

It's fine. I can take it. There's always NG+/fresh NG.

 

[Shackleton]

Dammit, all the activity in this thread has made me re-install DD for about the fifth time! I never did finish Everfall, or get that far in BBI even. Burned out after doing the MQ and dropped it for something shinier. Time to remedy that.

 

[HoboForEternity]

So far the capcom leak has been more or less accurate including MH rise coming to steam. Here's hoping the bits about DD 2 is accurate too.

 

[Nutmeg]

it wouldn't need to be super deep or anything, but I could easily see Dragon's Dogma where you own the mine and after clearing it out you're able to open it back up for work to collect money while also upgrading the passage to for greater use and rent out space for shops to come in and you can upgrade the roads to make them safer and shops to get better stuff.

Terranigma was like that. By the guys who made Actraiser which had "simcity" segments.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

So far the capcom leak has been more or less accurate including MH rise coming to steam. Here's hoping the bits about DD 2 is accurate too.

Yeah, maybe it'll be revealed this year at E3 or whatever is happening in its place. Right now Resident Evil Village, Monster Hunter Rise, Stories 2, and to a lesser extent Ghost 'n Goblins Resurrection are Capcom's focus. I don't know when Stories 2 comes out (other than this year) but everything else will be released by May, so in the summer we should be seeing more stuff from that leak list being shown.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

Huh... I almost started a new thread on Dragon's Dogma in the General RPG section since I couldn't find it there... not sure why this is considered a jRPG (yes, I know it's made in Japan, but I think Final Fantasy gameplay when I think jRPG).

Anyway, last time I played I defeated Grigori at level 45 after a hard battle and quit at the Everfall since I felt that portion of the game was tedious at my character's level. In the end the duchess ended up being my love interest throughout, mostly because I played too far along and missed out on a bunch of quests. Since I found out I missed a lot of content and that the Everfall isn't so bad at a higher level, I decided to make another go at this.

This time I decided to try and do every side quest, so I looked up walkthroughs for when the side quests would become unavailable and made it a point not to progress too far until I completed them. I did almost all of the side quests (had to fight the female bandits since I was male and not a cross-dresser); I only did a few of the escort quests (because fuck escort quests in this game) and didn't get all of the DLC badges. I ran into an odd situation though. Since I did everyone's side quests, this led me to have Mercedes happily accept my Arisen ring (and a lot of Cloudwine) which I guess meant we were engaged, but I also slept with the Duchess at the end of her quest, had Selene living with me, had Quina as my beloved that the dragon stole and she decided to live with me and Selene (kinky), and then ended up with Madeleine helping my pawn up at the end game after I defeated the Senechal. Basically, my level 65 fighter/assassin really got around.

I noticed that unlike Skyrim I really had a hard time putting this game down. Yeah, walking around was always a fucking chore and it seemed sometimes that I was just ceaselessly mowing down wave after wave of enemies to get down a road or trail, but the better combat made it more fun. I'm trying to understand why I feel this way, though. Skyrim's world is larger, more populated with diverse enemies and friendly settlements, and visually better. But I think Skyrim's shit combat really hurts it. Skyrim has more lore, but the relationships you build in Dragon's Dogma seem more personal. The feeling of mystery is also better in Dragon's Dogma and the final battle with the dragon blows Skyrim's final dragon battle away. I know I can't quantify it, and I'm not trying to make a pun on the game, but it seems like for all of its limitations when compared to Skyrim, Dragon's Dogma just has more heart and soul put into it.

 

[Eisen]

Dragon's Dogma in the General RPG section

They whine about Dragon's Dogma in GRPG section

 

[Delterius]

but I think Final Fantasy gameplay when I think jRPG

(traditional) final fantasy is just a blobber so lets move all wizardry down here

 

[Citizen]

Stop bumping the thread for no reason

 

[Perkel]

Citizen Capcom got hacked lately and DD2 is set for end of 2022. "But how do we know it is true ?!". From same hack we got MH Rise release date and that there will be PC version which was just confirmed.

So yeah DD2 is in the works with end of 2022 release date if it won't slip.

 

[Anonona]

Citizen Capcom got hacked lately and DD2 is set for end of 2022. "But how do we know it is true ?!". From same hack we got MH Rise release date and that there will be PC version which was just confirmed.

So yeah DD2 is in the works with end of 2022 release date if it won't slip.

Now what worries me if the game will suffer from Capcom stand on political correctness and mass appeal. The leaks showed that a lot of the most polemical decisions when it came to Capcom's design of characters and games in general was to appeal to Western audiences in topics of "sexualization" of characters and avoiding any offensive content. Which worries me specifically because the original DD allowed you to make any kind of character and dress it in all kind of armors, which easily lets you make young teenager characters. The worst that could happen is for them to actually limit the character creator and take away one of the most beloved features of the original; the deep character customization with actual impact on gameplay. Basically I fear they will do just like Xenoblade Chronicles X, which allowed you to customize your female character breast size, but such feature was removed in the western release, meaning that all female character created by the player had the same breast size. Presumably it was to avoid the player for making children character, as the game has both regular and skimpy armor, young looking faces and height slider. Of course, many more thing were censored in the game, like the religious references, changes on names with significance for the plot, and changes on certain armors, as well as censoring the armors on one of the main character that was a minor.

I fear that the could try to nerf character customization for a similar reason, fucking over both those that didn't care for young characters and those who did. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if they added races as was originally planned in the original DD and use it as a "cover" of shorts to justify certain limits on character customization, like height or breast size. So if anyone complaints, they could simply say "if you want a short character, play Dwarf". And if this hypothetical case came to pass, then one has to wonder what else were they willing to change or remove in order to be more "appealing to the general public", just like the did with XBX.

Of course, I may being to negative and worrying about anything. Less trust that Itsuno and his teams make good to the original and it end up, if not better, at least as good as the original.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

but I think Final Fantasy gameplay when I think jRPG

(traditional) final fantasy is just a blobber so lets move all wizardry down here

wiz8 and WoX can stay, rest can be moved

 

[Zombra]

I noticed that unlike Skyrim I really had a hard time putting this game down. I'm trying to understand why I feel this way.

It's not a mystery to me. Dogma has substance, in its gameplay, its encounter design, its environment. I liked Skyrim but its sense of shallowness is undeniable. With the possible exception of dragons, Skyrim combat is always the same. Every combat is repeating one maneuver ("left click"), over and over. Its environments all feel the same. You've seen one cave, you've seen them all. Super convenient fast travel begs you to skip the world. Missions are repetitive infodumps where an NPC will explain what you are going to do, and then you go do it. Etc. There's just no sense of wonder or challenge. Even high difficulties just mean "bigger bags of hit points".

Dogma suffers from none of this, with distinct environments and the satisfaction of learning paths from one area to the next, what monsters live where, and of course how to fight different creatures from a huge palette of maneuvers to build your character from. Fighting always feels substantial, using a variety of hits with satisfying thwacks. Even low level encounters you've done a million times before keep you a little on edge as button mashing your way through is never a good idea. Not to mention the pawn system with weirdly evolving companion AI. The fast travel system is expensive and not to be used frivolously. Crazy magic spells with colossal effects that take a long time to cast, a striking contrast from "left click to throw fireball". And a much richer setting, with so much more character than Skyrim's largely generic fantasy. It's just so much more engaging.

 

[Fishy]

I noticed that unlike Skyrim I really had a hard time putting this game down. Yeah, walking around was always a fucking chore and it seemed sometimes that I was just ceaselessly mowing down wave after wave of enemies to get down a road or trail, but the better combat made it more fun. I'm trying to understand why I feel this way, though. Skyrim's world is larger, more populated with diverse enemies and friendly settlements, and visually better. But I think Skyrim's shit combat really hurts it. Skyrim has more lore, but the relationships you build in Dragon's Dogma seem more personal. The feeling of mystery is also better in Dragon's Dogma and the final battle with the dragon blows Skyrim's final dragon battle away. I know I can't quantify it, and I'm not trying to make a pun on the game, but it seems like for all of its limitations when compared to Skyrim, Dragon's Dogma just has more heart and soul put into it.

I'd say the scaling in Skyrim is a big factor. It's nowhere near as bad as Oblivion, but it still means that the game is wayyyy too easy right from the start. There is no rough start, there is no tense exploration. Right from the start, you go wherever you want, and you're good enough to wipe most monsters you'll face. In DD, you get thrown into actually dangerous fights, have to deal with a Hydra, then the fucking caravan escort to Gran Soren. It's rough, but it makes you feel like you earned it when you finally reach Gran Soren. And when you go back down that road later? You do feel mighty when you find out how easy it is now that you powered up. The game excels at that imho. It always pulls you into a new area or against a new foe that will challenge you only to become farming fodder later. Each new zone explored feels great, each new big monster defeated feels like a triumph. Those struggles are memorable, and Skyrim just avoids them through scaling.

I still remember the zombies at night in the forest, with only the belt lanterns lighting my way. I remember the harpies on that road north from Gran Soren, the bandits on the way to Selene's wood, the cyclops in that fucking mountain fortress you take the underground path to, with a wyvern in the woods on the way. The map design with its encounter levels really feels personal and rewarding. You don't get that with Skyrim, it's a bit too samey and too easy. I mean, I still spent ages on Skyrim and enjoyed it, but I'm with you, DD definitely has more heart and soul.

 

[fork]

Citizen Capcom got hacked lately and DD2 is set for end of 2022. "But how do we know it is true ?!". From same hack we got MH Rise release date and that there will be PC version which was just confirmed.

So yeah DD2 is in the works with end of 2022 release date if it won't slip.

Now what worries me if the game will suffer from Capcom stand on political correctness and mass appeal. The leaks showed that a lot of the most polemical decisions when it came to Capcom's design of characters and games in general was to appeal to Western audiences in topics of "sexualization" of characters and avoiding any offensive content. Which worries me specifically because the original DD allowed you to make any kind of character and dress it in all kind of armors, which easily lets you make young teenager characters. The worst that could happen is for them to actually limit the character creator and take away one of the most beloved features of the original; the deep character customization with actual impact on gameplay. Basically I fear they will do just like Xenoblade Chronicles X, which allowed you to customize your female character breast size, but such feature was removed in the western release, meaning that all female character created by the player had the same breast size. Presumably it was to avoid the player for making children character, as the game has both regular and skimpy armor, young looking faces and height slider. Of course, many more thing were censored in the game, like the religious references, changes on names with significance for the plot, and changes on certain armors, as well as censoring the armors on one of the main character that was a minor.

I fear that the could try to nerf character customization for a similar reason, fucking over both those that didn't care for young characters and those who did. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if they added races as was originally planned in the original DD and use it as a "cover" of shorts to justify certain limits on character customization, like height or breast size. So if anyone complaints, they could simply say "if you want a short character, play Dwarf". And if this hypothetical case came to pass, then one has to wonder what else were they willing to change or remove in order to be more "appealing to the general public", just like the did with XBX.

Of course, I may being to negative and worrying about anything. Less trust that Itsuno and his teams make good to the original and it end up, if not better, at least as good as the original.

Nah, you're not too negative. What you describe is fucking obviously true.
And all other systems will be dumbed down as well.

But Codex never learns. They have to buy and see the game first to believe what's set in stone already.

 

[Invictus]

Yup Dragons Dogma has a soul; the combat is fun, big monsters are engaging, NPCs are actually memorable and the gameworld although small is interesting and very well developed with a good variety of locations (too few but still) and overall it’s a better RPG clearly than Skyrim and 90% of the stuff done in the last decade

Deuce I would recommend playing a Magic User; they are tremendously fun to play and especially Sorcerers make you feel like you are unstoppable, if you develop your pawn to be a fighter type to cover your back it feels very rewarding

 

[Deuce Traveler]

Thanks for the advice! I have 10 levels as a fighter, 56 levels as an assassin, for a total of 66 levels. I'm on new game plus and if I continue to replay, I'll keep the character and get the character up to level 100 for the Strength bonuses before swapping over to either magic-user/sorcerer or strider/ranger. I heard you would want to dip in on each character class while building up to level 200.

 

[Fishy]

I heard you would want to dip in on each character class while building up to level 200.

It's a bit more complicated. You get class-dependent stat bonuses on level-up, with biggest numbers from 2-10, big numbers from 11-100 and smaller numbers from 101-200. So for 1-100 in particular, you want to take enough levels of some classes to round up your stats (assassin for attack, ranger for stamina, sorcerer for magic, etc.). Up to you to decide if you want to use that to min-max or to pump up neglected stats to a decent level. Say you You certainly don't need all classes. In fact, ideally, you would only level the ones that have the biggest numbers in the stats you want. Check out the table there: https://dragonsdogma.fandom.com/wiki/Stat_Growths

For a final note on stats too: unless you really really want to min-max, it's not that big a deal. I'd just round up stats by pumping a few pre-100 levels to pump those stats you have neglected so far, but I'm sure that you could even safely ignore it and not lose much. The reason for that is the BBI items. Once you start farming BBI and purifying the items from there, you'll find that they come with absolutely insane stat bonuses. So they'll be good enough to make you decent at any vocation even if you neglected its main stat.


Now this is only about the stats. The flip side now is vocations (classes). While it doesn't matter for stats, you do want to not only dip into every vocation but actually unlock everything from every vocation. And that's different from leveling. You want this because 1) there's no reason not to try and enjoy every vocation, it's part of the fun of the game, and 2) even if you hate the gameplay of a specific vocation, it has skills that can be used by others, so by unlocking them, you open up some great hybrid builds. I can't recommend this enough. If you stick to one vocation or two, you're missing out on a big chunk of the vocation system, and by extension, the game.

There's a specific spot where you can afk-grind all the vocation points you need:

Spoiler

Postgame, in the courtyard of the castle. Just jump on the high wall and stand there. Guards spawn infinitely to beeline at you and your pawns (you want a full party) will kill them easily, netting you the vocation points, you don't have to do anything, just go away and come back to a maxed vocation.

 

[Black]

I checked out the game and my years old save and my character somehow swapped sexes.

 

[Jenkem]

Japanese game designers focus on gameplay first and foremost.

Simple as.

 

[Black]

Japanese game designers focus on gameplay first and foremost.

Simple as.

Then why are jrpgs so bad at gameplay?

 

[Jenkem]

Japanese game designers focus on gameplay first and foremost.

Simple as.

Then why are jrpgs so bad at gameplay?

Because you only play shitty ones?

 

[Black]

Japanese game designers focus on gameplay first and foremost.

Simple as.

Then why are jrpgs so bad at gameplay?

Because you only play shitty ones?

Considering they supposedly focus on gameplay first the ratio of shitty ones to good ones is staggering.

 

[Anonona]

Japanese game designers focus on gameplay first and foremost.

Simple as.

Then why are jrpgs so bad at gameplay?

Because you only play shitty ones?

Considering they supposedly focus on gameplay first the ratio of shitty ones to good ones is staggering.

Great majority of anything sucks, just look at how many western games focus on storytelling and their writing fucking sucks. At the end of the day, regardless of what the trends are, there will always be a handful of good games hidden among vast amount of trash.

 

[sser]

Didn't most of JRPGs spawn out of Wizardry series? Like they got a taste of that style of gameplay and it's still immensely popular there.