Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen Catch-All

Played a little today - pretty much just up past when you can recruit pawns. Started as a warrior, but obviously I'll try the other classes out once I get the opportunity. I'm liking what I'm seeing so far.

Questions: I assume for purposes of game balance I shouldn't be hiring the level 50+ pawns from people on my friends list, even though it lets me do it for free?

Also, I accidentally skipped past the tutorial mission about commanding pawns. Is there anything non-obvious (that is, beyond just press d-pad to give simple commands) that I might have missed?

Personally I always assumed that hiring overleved pawns would mess with balance so I never even tried it. and no; the only commands you can give your pawns are the ones the d-pad has.

I don't think the game balances based on the level of your pawns, but I could be wrong. I think I had over-leveled and under-leveled pawns at different times because I liked using GWJer pawns too much.

I've been playing more over the past few days. I still don't feel like I'm that far in (for reference, I'm at the point where the main quest line splits into a laundry list of sub-quests) but I think I might be in love. The game captures the feeling of exploring a hostile and unknown wilderness as well as almost any other I've played. I love having to scout and make judgments about whether a particular fight is worth the risk or if I should try to avoid it, and how a couple of mistakes can cause a combat to spiral out of control. And I like how distinct and different the classes play.

It's not perfect - some encounters feel like they spawn too many enemies (wolf packs in the wild, especially) and so go on for too long. And inventory management is a pain. But overall, this is a great experience.

4dSwissCheese wrote:

I still don't feel like I'm that far in (for reference, I'm at the point where the main quest line splits into a laundry list of sub-quests) but I think I might be in love. The game captures the feeling of exploring a hostile and unknown wilderness as well as almost any other I've played.

Yeah, that's still pretty early days. For reference, I finished at around 60h and left a lot of side-quests on the table.
The exploration and danger are really a big draw, unfortunately that wanes a bit as you progress - only to come back in the so-called "post game". At that point I was just aiming for the end (which is btw pretty awesome), so I didn't get too much out of it. Wish it came much earlier!
So my "pro-tip" would be: don't min-max and stick mostly to the main story quests until you hit post-game (unless you want to play for well over 100h). I received pretty much the same advice before I started and in hindsight I wish I'd followed it!

Why not min-max?

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Why not min-max?

I realize I wasn't very clear when I wrote that.

What I meant was that you'll very quickly reduce the challenge if you min-max (and by that I mean taking a lot of sidequests in addition to optimising your build), since the game introduces very few new enemies and the difficulty doesn't adjust to your level at all. So after a 5-10 hours of enjoyable high-stakes fights you'll end up steamrolling every enemy until you hit post-game (which took me about 40h). It's a blast the first time you kill a Cyclops in 10 seconds, but by the tenth it's just an annoying stop along the way to the next demented story section.
Plus you'll probably limit yourself in your class and skill choices, making the game less interesting to play.

I don't mean to be too down on the game, it's still one of my faves for 2012. I just wish they would have added more enemies and/or triggered post-game much earlier, but the combat is so satisfying and crunchy that it doesn't fall apart in spite of this.

Must have missed this awhile ago, but an expansion has been announced coming in 2013: http://www.joystiq.com/2012/09/21/dragons-dogma-gets-dark-arisen-expansion-in-2013/

ooh...expansion and hard mode? awesome. just awesome. I didn't know they were even still working on this game anymore. If I remember right wasn't a squeal already announced?

Hey, I'm planning on picking this up soon - possibly in next qeek's Amazon sale - but I just read an old IGN review that said that the 360 version suffers from crippling slowdown (or did at launch, I assume).

Can anyone speak to bugs, and possibly to differences between the 360 and PS3 versions?

The only bit of slowdown I remember (I haven't played in a few months) is that it sometimes takes NPCs a few seconds to load in the main city. Other than that theres nothing else I can think of.

I've only played on the 360. It's been months, but I don't remember any problematic slowdown or bug issues jumping out at me. There's that stupid split in the inventory system, sure, but that's a design problem, not a bug or platform-specific implementation issue.

EDIT: I'm now tempted to load this up again. I can hear the title song burning into my brain already...

ianunderhill wrote:

I've only played on the 360. It's been months, but I don't remember any problematic slowdown or bug issues jumping out at me. There's that stupid split in the inventory system, sure, but that's a design problem, not a bug or platform-specific implementation issue.

EDIT: I'm now tempted to load this up again. I can hear the title song burning into my brain already...

You absolutely should play again. Your mage pawn was a very convenient companion but now I've out-levelled it significantly, and don't have any other mages on my friends list, so I'm left searching for randoms. Which are fine, but I'd prefer to use ones of my friends list. (Also, of course, you should play more because it is a fun and rewarding game...)

And I also haven't noticed any significant slowdown or bugs on 360.

4dSwissCheese wrote:
ianunderhill wrote:

I've only played on the 360. It's been months, but I don't remember any problematic slowdown or bug issues jumping out at me. There's that stupid split in the inventory system, sure, but that's a design problem, not a bug or platform-specific implementation issue.

EDIT: I'm now tempted to load this up again. I can hear the title song burning into my brain already...

You absolutely should play again. Your mage pawn was a very convenient companion but now I've out-levelled it significantly, and don't have any other mages on my friends list, so I'm left searching for randoms. Which are fine, but I'd prefer to use ones of my friends list. (Also, of course, you should play more because it is a fun and rewarding game...)

And I also haven't noticed any significant slowdown or bugs on 360.

I can pop on and switch my pawn to a Mage or Sorcerer if you'd like. She's max rank with each.

Blind_Evil wrote:

I can pop on and switch my pawn to a Mage or Sorcerer if you'd like. She's max rank with each.

I suppose that would also work, too, though it does not push Ian into picking up the game again, which was the primary goal of my comment.

Not sure if other people have figured this out yet but I just stumbled across a way to have a second save game. Make a local save on your hard drive and then you can make a completely different save on the cloud. Again this seems like something other people knew about I just figured I'd mention it.

I'm not sure if it was someone here, or some random who used him, but I noticed Khardan came back the other day with an amazing sword. So whoever did that, thanks a lot.

Okay, I picked up the 360 version in yesterday's Amazon Lightning Deal sale. It arrives tomorrow! I am excite!

Trust me, Fed, you're gonna love it.

Okay, I fired it up last night! Running around the starting village right now. Please deluge me with tips and Pawn suggestions. I'm on 360, playing a Fighter because the melee combat feels great.

One question: The game opens with the demo level, then a cutscene, then starts fresh? Huh? Is the game a flashback? Was that the previous Arisen? Can this question be answered without spoilers?

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Okay, I fired it up last night! Running around the starting village right now. Please deluge me with tips and Pawn suggestions. I'm on 360, playing a Fighter because the melee combat feels great.

One question: The game opens with the demo level, then a cutscene, then starts fresh? Huh? Is the game a flashback? Was that the previous Arisen? Can this question be answered without spoilers?

You mean the fight on the beach? With the dragon?

Yeah - demo, cutscene of dragon fighting harpies, cutscene of peaceful village, then dragon attacks.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Yeah - demo, cutscene of dragon fighting harpies, cutscene of peaceful village, then dragon attacks.

Oh yeah, the first guy...I *think* he's a prior Arisen, but not necessarily the one right before you.

Seems weird to have a tutorial like that, and have the setting/players unexplained. And like, what happened to that dragon after eating multiple harpies. Unless that's the dragon I encounter? Who knows. Weird.

Of course, we're talking about weird Japanese action-RPGs already, so...:lol:

Wish the action was quicker to follow after creating my character. I don't want to run around talking to people and stealing brooms for an hour after creating my dude. Want to fight!

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Seems weird to have a tutorial like that, and have the setting/players unexplained. And like, what happened to that dragon after eating multiple harpies. Unless that's the dragon I encounter? Who knows. Weird.

Of course, we're talking about weird Japanese action-RPGs already, so...:lol:

You're probably not going to understand what's going on at all until you get to the end of the game. It'll make sense eventually, but the game's pretty light on exposition.

muttonchop wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:

Seems weird to have a tutorial like that, and have the setting/players unexplained. And like, what happened to that dragon after eating multiple harpies. Unless that's the dragon I encounter? Who knows. Weird.

Of course, we're talking about weird Japanese action-RPGs already, so...:lol:

You're probably not going to understand what's going on at all until you get to the end of the game. It'll make sense eventually, but the game's pretty light on exposition.

Okay, I can roll with that.

Basic tip: don't accept escort quests, unless you plan on taking a long (long) journey. Also, in the first town and first fort, look around for boards to pick up some "Kill x" type of quests.

Aristophan wrote:

Basic tip: don't accept escort quests, unless you plan on taking a long (long) journey. Also, in the first town and first fort, look around for boards to pick up some "Kill x" type of quests.

Great tip about escorts. They take a long time and can close future questlines if you fail (which you will if you don't know where you're headed and/or what you will face). So I would suggest waiting with them until you recognize the name of the place you're supposed to go.

BUT bear in mind that some sidequests (including escorts) auto-fail after you pass certain main story missions. I think it's awesome, since it gives a proper sense that certain things happen with or without you, but if you want to make sure you don't miss out check this page on the wiki. It tells you when certain sidequests become unavailable.

Also the "kill x" and "pick up x" quests are great to pick up as soon as available, since they just automatically tick towards completion as you play, without you having to turn them in.

As for the prologue and nature of the dragon... it's all explained at the end, and ties together in a pretty awesome/absurd way. You might be able to see it coming as you progress and some backstory is revealed.

I have had this game in shrink wrap for some time. I pulled Dark Souls out of the PS3 and I will be loading up it up tonight. Any advice for a die hard Dark Souls fan moving to this new rpg system? A magic archer sounds cool and I want my pawn to be able to heal and add buffs as I fire from range. Is that possible?

heavyfeul wrote:

A magic archer sounds cool and I want my pawn to be able to heal and add buffs as I fire from range. Is that possible?

Absolutely. General rule of thumb: if you can imagine an approach to fantasy combat, Dragon's Dogma can do it, and do it slicker than most games.

You also get two other pawns, but they aren't of your design. You pick random ones from other people online, generic ones the game generates, or ones from your friend list.