Capcom Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen

[Gerrard]

DMC4 is not good.

 

[deuxhero]

I'm vaugely intrested, but C(r)apcom=On disc DLC and other shit.

 

[funkadelik]

Why do we get all these shitty Devil May Cry games on the PC but not the fantastic Monster Hunter games?

 

[praetor]

demo's out on the xbawks and (only jap for now.. eu/na update should be out today some time) psn

 

[felipepepe]

demo's out on the xbawks and (only jap for now.. eu/na update should be out today some time) psn

Now just wait 5 hours until I get home and play this....

 

[praetor]

ok.. so i dl'd the demo through the jap store (still no sign of it on the EU/NA )

first impressions:
1. there's 3 things you can do in the demo: a) prologue quest, b) countryside quest, c) char edit. unfortunately, you cannot use you characters in the 2 quests (but you will be able to import them in the full game, apparently)
2. the prologue quest has you fighting as a fighter. there's some goblins and harpies before the boss fight with the manticore. it's fairly short and linear and disappointingly easy. the graphics are really nice, the animations superb (say what you want about the japs, but imho they're the best animators around) and the lighting is really atmospheric. shame about the low-res console textures
3. the conutryside quest is the one we've seen in half a dozen trailers so far. it's the battle vs the griffin outside a city. and there's a bunch of goblins to warm you up and get familiar a bit with the strider. like the first, this was also disappointingly easy
4. the character customization (your PC and your pawn) is pretty detailed, but (at least in the demo) purely cosmetic
5. there's options to turn off select parts of the hud (party subtitles, minimap, the button menu in the lower right corner etc...)

i really hope there'll be some kind of difficulty setting in the full game, or at least significantly more difficult battles. i still had more fun with this demo than the hours i've put in skyrim

 

[felipepepe]

the prologue quest has you fighting as a fighter.

I'm confused, do you create your bro or just play a pre-made fighter? Also, I was scared about this game being easy too, can you dismiss the party members and go solo? That would ramp up difficulty...

And thanks for the news.

 

[praetor]

no idea about dismissing party members. seems to be unpossible in the demo :p (it's also very very short).

you play both quests with a premade character (fighter in the prologue, strider in the countryside), but there's a character editor in so you can create your main char and your pawnbro now and import them in the full game later. apparently

edit: here's a video of the whole thing

 

[Captain Shrek]

The combat mechanics is good. This is a pleasant surprise. Although the difficulty seems to be age 3 and below. They could have done better.

EDIT: The idiot does not know what a Chimera is.

EDIT: Somebody needs to play it to find out how QTE laden it is.

 

[praetor]

The combat mechanics is good. This is a pleasant surprise. Although the difficulty seems to be age 3 and below. They could have done better.

EDIT: The idiot does not know what a Chimera is.

EDIT: Somebody needs to play it to find out how QTE laden it is.

derp. i had a brainfart. my apologies

from the couple of hours of live streams i've watched of the game i haven't seen a single QTE

 

[Captain Shrek]

So this holding on to the mosters does not involve repeatedly mashing stuff????? (Don't confuse with attacking).

What a fucking great incline!

 

[felipepepe]

from the couple of hours of live streams i've watched of the game i haven't seen a single QTE

From the videos I saw, there are no proper QTE, but very specific moments where you can grab on a dragon and smash the button to stab him, like in Shadow of the Colossus....

 

[praetor]

from the couple of hours of live streams i've watched of the game i haven't seen a single QTE

From the videos I saw, there are no proper QTE, but very specific moments where you can grab on a dragon and smash the button to stab him, like in Shadow of the Colossus....

yeah, but it's not really "moments" (as in "time") but "locations" (even in the demo to do the most damage in the shortest possible time to the chimera you have to first kill the snake tail, than the goat and finally the lion. you can still damage it by attacking the lion first, but it'll take a looong time to do it this way) so again i don't really see where this QTE notion comes into play... QTEs are "press X when there's a screen prompt or you fail" and from what i saw there's nothing resembling that in DD. if you want QTEs get that colossal piece of shit that was Asura's Derp

 

[felipepepe]

You guys are playing on the PS3? I've tried to download the demo in my Xbox, but there is only trailers available, no matter the region...what's weird is that they have an "try Dragon's Dogma" ad at the demo section, so probably is just some delay...

 

[deuxhero]

The combat mechanics is good. This is a pleasant surprise. Although the difficulty seems to be age 3 and below. They could have done better.

EDIT: The idiot does not know what a Chimera is.

EDIT: Somebody needs to play it to find out how QTE laden it is.

Apparently the demo is of a level 20 party of 4 (Allies beyond the first require payment for temporary service), doing an early quest, so it may not be representative of the actual product.

 

[Average Manatee]

All those constant slowdowns of gameplay to focus on A-A-Awesome is going to be really annoying. Looks like an NPC party is part of the game (along with constant inane chatter). Not really seeing the good combat part. Hard to judge from such a short segment though, could just be tutorial stuff. Even DMC3's first few stages are nothing but you spamming one combo over and over until you unlock stuff.

 

[deuxhero]

Wait, DMC3 eventually stops being shit? I gave up bothering after the tower guarding boss just wouldn't die (Every other boss fighter in existance that relies on uncovering a weak spot makes you do it 3 times, not 7 something, for a reason) and there were absolutely no check points. I love hard games, but DMC3 was dull. Odd camera and combos dependent upon if enemies spawn in your view.

The party members aren't NPCs or forced. Your first "pawn" is created by the player and past the first one (outside of the demo) you hire other player's "pawns" and from what I've heard, you can just kill your pawn and never revive him.

 

[RPGMaster]

Demo was too short to form a conclusive opinion. I spent more time creating my characters than using them.

 

[Metro]

Stopped reading at 'Capcom.'

 

[Average Manatee]

Wait, DMC3 eventually stops being shit? I gave up bothering after the tower guarding boss just wouldn't die and there were absolutely no check points.

You mean Cerberus on the third stage? There's a checkpoint right before him as long as you are playing the SE version and not the original (ass-rape-me) version.

 

[deuxhero]

I was playing the special edition, no check point (unless it is dependent upon buying a finite use gold orb).

 

[praetor]

huh? didin't every "time statue" (there's one before every boss battle iirc) in the SE act as a checkpoint? i remember dying to every boss dozens of times (except maybe cerberus) but i definitely don't remember replaying whole levels dozens of times

 

[deuxhero]

Nope, activated it and I didn't return.

Haven't tried in forever though.

 

[Average Manatee]

SE gives you the option to use the new save system or the old when you first start the game. New = can always use checkpoints, gold orbs let you respawn with full health right where you die and keep fighting. Old system = checkpoints are unusable unless you spend gold orb. You must have chosen the wrong one.

3rd stage is the point where you finally start getting new weapons and stuff and can start doing awesome things. Should definitely give it a retry. I actually gave up myself at first at the same point, then came back a few months later and it the game really does improve as soon as you can mix up weapons.

 

[Cynic]

Will download and try the demo out on PS3 tonight.