Dragon's Dogma II - "They’re masterworks, all – you can’t go wrong"

[deuxhero]

After putting few more hours into it I can confirm this feels one of the most half-baked sequels I've seen in a while.

Then again, according to this thread the game lists roughly 1/4 of the developers as credited for working on the game compared to other recent Capcom productions.
https://www.reddit.com/r/DragonsDogma/comments/1bveu14/dragons_dogma_2_had_around_14_of_the_people/

And damn if it doesn't show.

It doesn't matter how many people worked on it. What matters is Capcom actively made it worse with malware and character creation limits.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

It doesn't matter how many people worked on it. What matters is Capcom actively made it worse with malware and character creation limits.

I can agree that some of their decisions have been puzzlingly stupid regardless of budget and manpower available.
Few other, on the other hand, can be fully explained with it. Like the baffling lack in enemy variety or the sloppy map design.

 

[Zariusz]

Some of these pawn looking but not really npc (you know, those who travel in groups of 3-4 and are quite unfriendly) jumped into the oxcart when i was crossing the border. I know that you can learn from npc's about this way to get past Battahl border checkpoint but i didnt expect this would be such common knowledge, hah!

 

[Zariusz]

I think they could be one of those false arisen with false pawn groups, i read that apparently they give lots of exp after death.

 

[Cheesedragon117]

Welp, was having a decent amount of fun with the game, made it halfway to the capital, got jumped by a Troll and died three times, things weren't going great so I decided to click "Load from last Inn Rest" to start from the last time I set up camp, hoping to get different monster spawns. Since surely with game isn't stupid and would let me start from there, right?

It brought me back to the first, free Inn rest at the beginning of the game. 30 hours of progress lost...

I think you guys might have been right about his DD2. Who the fuck designs a save system like that??? Yes, Dark Souls uses a similar system, your decisions are final, but you don't have to worry about something like this happening. It's going to be a week or two before I feel like giving the game another look...

 

[toro]

Welp, was having a decent amount of fun with the game, made it halfway to the capital, got jumped by a Troll and died three times, things weren't going great so I decided to click "Load from last Inn Rest" to start from the last time I set up camp, hoping to get different monster spawns. Since surely with game isn't stupid and would let me start from there, right?

It brought me back to the first, free Inn rest at the beginning of the game. 30 hours of progress lost...

I think you guys might have been right about his DD2. Who the fuck designs a save system like that??? Yes, Dark Souls uses a similar system, your decisions are final, but you don't have to worry about something like this happening. It's going to be a week or two before I feel like giving the game another look...

Learn to read labels before pressing like a monkey

 

[Zariusz]

Welp, was having a decent amount of fun with the game, made it halfway to the capital, got jumped by a Troll and died three times, things weren't going great so I decided to click "Load from last Inn Rest" to start from the last time I set up camp, hoping to get different monster spawns. Since surely with game isn't stupid and would let me start from there, right?

It brought me back to the first, free Inn rest at the beginning of the game. 30 hours of progress lost...

I think you guys might have been right about his DD2. Who the fuck designs a save system like that??? Yes, Dark Souls uses a similar system, your decisions are final, but you don't have to worry about something like this happening. It's going to be a week or two before I feel like giving the game another look...

If you didnt move long enough to create new autosave maybe you still have it on steam cloud? Lately my local and steam saves have weird difference of many hours, you could check it, maybe you could have some luck.
https://store.steampowered.com/account/remotestorage

 

[Cheesedragon117]

Welp, was having a decent amount of fun with the game, made it halfway to the capital, got jumped by a Troll and died three times, things weren't going great so I decided to click "Load from last Inn Rest" to start from the last time I set up camp, hoping to get different monster spawns. Since surely with game isn't stupid and would let me start from there, right?

It brought me back to the first, free Inn rest at the beginning of the game. 30 hours of progress lost...

I think you guys might have been right about his DD2. Who the fuck designs a save system like that??? Yes, Dark Souls uses a similar system, your decisions are final, but you don't have to worry about something like this happening. It's going to be a week or two before I feel like giving the game another look...

If you didnt move long enough to create new autosave maybe you still have it on steam cloud? Lately my local and steam saves have weird difference of many hours, you could check it, maybe you could have some luck.
https://store.steampowered.com/account/remotestorage

I'm on Xbox, mate. Any ideas? I already overwrote the autosave by spazzing around in a rage.

If not, I'll just have to start over tomorrow...

 

[Reinhardt]

gave ring to she-goat. beloved is maximillian.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Some of these pawn looking but not really npc (you know, those who travel in groups of 3-4 and are quite unfriendly) jumped into the oxcart when i was crossing the border. I know that you can learn from npc's about this way to get past Battahl border checkpoint but i didnt expect this would be such common knowledge, hah!

Goddamn Mexicans!

 

[DJOGamer PT]

Well I wish I didn't, but it's best this way as I'll enjoy the game better
Will unnistall DD2 from my laptop (which is for work, not play) and will resume my playthrough when I get a new desktop (4 months at earliest, or 7 at latest)

Had quite a few adventures this weekend:

weekend exploits

Explored the entirity of the Ultramarine Waterfall cave - didn't wake the Chimera and got rekt by the Lich so I'll come back some other time - also TOTAL ASP DEATH
Apparentely Ser Gregor hadn't left so I did his quest - the mountain passage is a cool location, I dunno but there's something about this game's more natural enviroments, that despite not being as "artistic" as something like Skyrim or Witcher 3, still feel quite charming - the Cyclopls on the river blockade acidentely killed himself, I got it off balance near the "rockslide dam" and he fell face first in it, procceding to break it, I only didn't get swept away and drowned by the current because I was standing on top of the cyclopds back, using him as a raft
After which I rode the Oxcart to Vernworth
Surprisingly I didn't take as big of a FPS hit as I expected - I ran the games on 45-55 fps in the open world, 60 in dungeons and Vernworth only dropped to 30-35, nice
Bought new gear (at last, was tired of using the same sword and shield for 15 hours)

Next day, did a quick tour of Vernworth
The city is far smaller than Gran Soren - the downside to this is obviously the fact it might not feel as grand a location, but the upside is that the city is far more pratical and quick to do your buiseness, also the city feels more lively as the amount and density of NPCs is more adequate (Gran Soren was way to empty specially outside central square) - and I like its aesthetics, no kinding the comercial district reminded me of Vizima from Witcher 1 and the Noble district reminds me of Oxenfurt
Still since I don't want to be so soon I left the city via oxcart - did courier letter quest to Ser Lennart, got his Maister Skill (pretty powerful from what I can tell)
Also gave a flower bush to Ultrika and gained the Max Affinity achivement - lol, is it this easy for every other NPC?
Explored the few places in the Northwest region I still hadn't check out - only 1 dungeon remaining, the Ancestral Chamber near Melve, but I can't reach it
Killed another cyclops as part of a Pawn quest
Finnished Ser Beren's quest - unfortunately I lost the fight because I got out of the ring by distraction (a shame that you can't repeat the match)

Also I think the Adaptive Difficulty might simply be the game replacing enemies with stronger variants, or larger groups, once the player reaches a certain level
Because I went to a couple of spots I had cleared of goblins and now I had to contend with the green-skinned guerrila gobbos, sneaky little bastards

storytime part 2

After that I tried to explore the mountain pass road and got faced with an unexpected situation
You see the Griffon near Vernworth decided to follow me to Northwestern region
There were a few times his shadow suddently passed over me and scared the shit out me
But he never attacked, I assumed because there was no good spot for him to land there
But the bastard had no such troubles in the mountain pass, so he suddentely attacked me near the Gathering of Beast Ruins
I ran like hell and when I got to the spot where river Cyclops was drowned, now in his place stood a minotaur which started to charge towards me
Fortunately my support pawn took the hit for me, flew some 50 meters and nearly died

So there I stood between the 2 beasts
I decided to hide in the Gathering of Beast Ruins as there I could protect myself from them
Again I ran like hell (1 Harspud for Stamina recovery) and just I was nearing the Ruins, my Main Pawn told of a cave she had learned in her Rift travels
I told her to lead the way
By the time I got near the entrance, the Minotaur had given up the chase but the Griffon persisted
The entrance was reachable only a ladder, so I tossed my Pawn over
We got inside the cave just in time, as the Griffon outside retreated (though he remained in the area) the Bandits inside advanced
We killed them all
And just as the battle music faded away, I heard some groaning noise
Ordered my Pawns to wait while I went to check it out
As I neared the source of the comotion, I turned of the lantern (dunno if there's a sneaking system)
It was an Ogre
"Oh ffs"
I got the hell out of there
Fortunately the Griffon had left the are by then

After that I headed back to Melve
Discovered a Statue on hill the way there
Got some cool pics
Returned to Melve, managed my inventory, dissmissed my hired Archer and slept at the inn
Went outside to take him the game's sight for one last time
That's when I spot the Griffon in the distance
I observed his flight pattern
At one time he stopped to rest near the big tree on the other side of the waterfall in Melve
A light bulb went up in my head
I climbed the watchtower
All way up to the top
To the Ballista
Lined up the perfect shot (a bit of a hassle without 3 people, so I had to manually turn the ballista before I could aim)
Pulled all the way back
Fired the projectile
The Griffon got deleted out of the game kek
Immediate level-up for me and my Pawn
"Yup... now I can unnistall this game with no regrets."

I'll post some pics I took, either here or on the Screenshot thread
Aside from that I'll try to keep away from here - though I may still post occasionally, specially regarding mods or game update


EDIT:

For more pics: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/screenshot-thread.72409/page-1435#post-8953309

 

[mediocrepoet]

Also I think the Adaptive Difficulty might simply be the game replacing enemies with stronger variants, or larger groups, once the player reaches a certain level
Because I went to a couple of spots I had cleared of goblins and now I had to contend with the green-skinned guerrila gobbos, sneaky little bastards

Some of this happens just with the base game, depending on progression. Some of it seems to be tied to MQ progression, but some of it also seems to be tied to character level. No idea what the mod does since I'm playing a blind completionist, no mod run. (I almost never mod games anyway, usually when I do, I find the results to be awful with few exceptions.)

 

[Fargus]

 

[Non-Edgy Gamer]

lol at him throwing the black guard off a cliff.

 

[Alfgart]

2 minutes in and that retard said literally that DD:DA had "amazing combat but almost everything else is complete shit". Yeah no need to waste time watching the rest of that video. What a dumbfuck

 

[Lord_Potato]

2 minutes in and that retard said literally that DD:DA had "amazing combat but almost everything else is complete shit". Yeah no need to waste time watching the rest of that video. What a dumbfuck

I'm playing DD:DA right now and have to agree that except combat and character progression that are fine, there's not much in this game.

While exploration is fun, 90% of the time it's not very rewarding in terms of good and unique loot (maybe outside BBI, haven't visited it yet).

Worldbuilding is thin as paper, the whole duchy is just one empty castle town, one coastal village and a few decrepit fortresses here and there, divided by emptieness. There are no farms, no fields, just a few pastures where cattle feeds.

Quests are mostly of fetch and kill variety. Since there are no dialogue options you just hear what other people have to say and act on it.

Plot is a meh generic fantasy storyline.

I'm still playing it for the battles with bosses, because the regular enemies lack variety: its wolves, goblins, saurians and bandits everywhere. I'm sure bandits constitute the majority of the population of Gransys, which makes you ask, who are they stealing from to survive?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

which makes you ask, who are they stealing from to survive?

The goblins of course.

 

[Lord_Potato]

As for boss fights I hope the game introduces some new ones fast. I'm getting bored with exterminating the cyclops and chimera populations of Gransys.

I fought the griffin but he escaped after receiving some hits. The wyrm from the lake is still kicking my butt though.

 

[Haplo]

As for boss fights I hope the game introduces some new ones fast. I'm getting bored with exterminating the cyclops and chimera populations of Gransys.

I fought the griffin but he escaped after receiving some hits. The wyrm from the lake is still kicking my butt though.

Not a whole lot of variety, I'm afraid.
That said, if you're looking for (new) bosses to slay, BBI is where its at...

 

[DJOGamer PT]

No idea what the mod does

I didn't use any mods, except a ReShade (which for some reason automatically installed REFramework...)

It's more of a reboot really

 

[mediocrepoet]

No idea what the mod does

I didn't use any mods, except a ReShade (which for some reason automatically installed REFramework...)

Oh I get what you meant now. I had mixed up your mention of "adaptive difficulty" with that rebalance mod that was mentioned earlier in the thread.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

I fought the griffin but he escaped after receiving some hits. The wyrm from the lake is still kicking my butt though.

Oh, you fought the Griffin?

Me too!

...a dozen time already, give or take.

 

[Stoned Ape]

So, I've now maxed out Fighter, Archer, and Thief vocations. I've also got Warrior at Rank 4.

Thief seems much stronger than the other classes while Warrior doesn't seem very good against 'normal' enemies because of the slow windup times and lack of manoeuvrability but is decent against bosses. (Thief has a way to deal with everything I've encountered (skull splitter is still stupidly strong) and I haven't even tried formless feint yet, the basic dodge gets me out of trouble 95% of the time and I tend to use up stamina more quickly than I lose health anyway).

Fighter is almost as flexible as Thief but does less damage and has heavier equipment which impacts carry load. Blitz for long distance closing, whatever the leaping attack is for swatting Harpies/hitting Ogres in the head, advanced Shield Bash for mid-distance, and Full Moon Slash for clearing an area is my standard layout and it seems to work pretty well (just not as well as Thief). I should probably go an pick up the meister skill and try that out. Overall, I think this is my favourite melee vocation that I've played so far, it doesn't roflstomp everything like Thief, but it's far less frustrating than lumbering around as a Warrior.

Archer is decent, a nice change of pace from the melee vocations. I think I overall prefer the Archer playstyle in DD2 to Ranger in DDDA, Ranger with full machine gun volleys was a bit too strong in my opinion. I really like the aimed shot/shoot from the hip choice this time around, too. I think this is my second favourite of the vocations I've tried.

Thief is just too good at everything. It's a bit like being an untouchable anime ninja and the game is easy enough without putting training wheels on IMO.

I've just gone back to Warrior to work towards max-rank there. I didn't enjoy it much last time I tried it, maybe I'll get on with it better this time around.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

while Warrior doesn't seem very good against 'normal' enemies because of the slow windup times

I found the combo hitting with warrior MUCH faster this time around. Way better than the last game.

 

[Yosharian]

People playing DDDA should install Everfall