Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen Catch-All

Very encouraging info - thanks for the share! Always cool to see magic systems extending beyond the generic projectile and healing stuff.

Also: "Flayed by Lightning" is the official title of my latest wailing-harmonized-guitars hum-of-improv.

This just hit my radar, and there's a demo?!?! Looks like I've suddenly got a plan for the evening.

The trailer gave me the same "Dark Souls meets KoA: Reckoning" vibe others have mentioned. Which idea makes me giddy.

If only it had co-op, it would be the best concept ever!

Does Monster Hunter have co-op? Yes, right?

Yes, I've only played MH Tri but it's fantastic co-op. Put 100 hours into it. ONly stopped because it missions are ranked according to level, too low and you can't go.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

This just hit my radar, and there's a demo?!?! Looks like I've suddenly got a plan for the evening.

The trailer gave me the same "Dark Souls meets KoA: Reckoning" vibe others have mentioned. Which idea makes me giddy.

If only it had co-op, it would be the best concept ever!

Does Monster Hunter have co-op? Yes, right?

Yeah, MH has co-op. I'd say it's actually the focus of the games. Unfortunately a lot of them don't have easily accessed online play (PSP games are set up for local co-op or PS3 ad-hoc party business).

I'm okay with DD not having co-op, really. It's not that I wouldn't like it, but if Skyrim doesn't need MP I don't see why this game does.

Definitely try the demo, I found the whole thing to be great, but the tone/look isn't for everyone, probably.

I love the tone and look, as I do with Dark Souls. I played the Prologue level of the demo tonight. Short gaming night, what with the Castle season finale.

A couple things were off-putting:

1) I couldn't tell what the hell was going on half the time. My pawns would spot (and attack, and probably kill) the goblins way before me. Also, there came a time when I needed a health potion, and I noticed the ability to give them to my pawns. Let me get this straight: They will race ahead of me to bad guys and get most of the fun, triggering repetitive "cinematic camera" sequences where I'm generously saved the killing blow so as to have SOME part in the battle, but I have to micro-manage their health? I'd rather they just die and let me play the game.

2) Also along the lines of not being able to tell what was going on, I couldn't see the treasure chests. They were boxes of brown on a sea of brown. I had to trip on them to notice them. I'm sure I missed some. I think not spotting the goblins was a similar issue. The coloring made it hard as hell. I started just looking for their health bars.

This could still be a fantastic game, and I love the concept and art direction, but I've cooled now that I've demoed. I'll play the rest and see how that is.

Well, you can take as many or few pawns with you as you like. I can say from experience that the chimera fight with just one pawn is a lot harder than with three. Also, you can turn off those little cinematic prompts I believe. Combat is definitely busy, though.

From what I've read in previews, your pawns will also take potions off enemies and use them automatically as necessary, so I wouldn't say you *need* to micromanage them. You just can if you'd like.

Yeah, I'd imagine if you had just one Pawn then you'd actually need to use the inventory screen for more than "turn lantern on".

Give the Griffin one a try. I found myself having a greater part in that. It could be that the prologue is just your typical "easy first introduction level to let you learn the basics of the game".

I must say, I'm getting a bit antsy about the upcoming release.

Put in my pre-order for the X360 version over at Amazon.com.

LobsterMobster wrote:

Put in my pre-order for the X360 version over at Amazon.com. :D

I preordered it at Gamestop (I have credit, and am on a budget), and the guy said "Itching to play Resident Evil: 6 too, huh?"

Blind_Evil wrote:
LobsterMobster wrote:

Put in my pre-order for the X360 version over at Amazon.com. :D

I preordered it at Gamestop (I have credit, and am on a budget), and the guy said "Itching to play Resident Evil: 6 too, huh?"

:?

I totally forgot about that.

My response would have been "Why would I want to witness Capcom pissing on their own franchise again?" Or something.

Actually probably wouldn't have been.

Still, a bit depressing that the game could simply sell for no better reason than that.

ccesarano wrote:
Blind_Evil wrote:
LobsterMobster wrote:

Put in my pre-order for the X360 version over at Amazon.com. :D

I preordered it at Gamestop (I have credit, and am on a budget), and the guy said "Itching to play Resident Evil: 6 too, huh?"

:?

I totally forgot about that.

That's what I actually said, cuz I had.

But, I'm not gonna lie, I will be playing RE6 before the year is out, assuming I have the money. RE5 was pretty dumb, but so was every game in the franchise, really. *shrug*

RE5 was indeed pretty dumb, but I've still played through it more than nearly any other game and I'll still return to it now and then when I feel like shooting stuff and upgrading guns (my fastest clear time is 3 hours). I'm looking forward to RE6.

It cannot be denied that, despite the emphasis on action over suspense, the Resident Evil games are well designed. But RE5 was still a step down from RE4, and Capcom is being a big conglomerate of stupidity for thinking they can hope to make a dent in the 6.5 million sales in the latest Call of Duty.

I've never understood why a company wants to convince customers away from a successful product instead of trying to fill a niche. Resident Evil 5 had co-op because shooting games with co-op is the thing.

But, they COULD be filling a niche with Dragon's Dogma by providing a fantasy co-op adventure, a real virtual simulation of D&D for a change (instead of some resource-mining MMO pretending to simulate it), and they don't.

It's mind-boggling.

Even so, I imagine Dragon's Dogma will be similar to Resident Evil. Despite trying to ape the Western market, it'll still have that unique design and style that'll set it apart and make it rock.

There is going to be a dragon so large and powerful that every willing Dragon's Dogma player will contribute to its death.

JC Fletcher, Joystiq wrote:

Dragon's Dogma will feature a dragon so big, so dogmatic (why not) that it'll take the collective efforts of everyone playing to kill it. The "Ur-Dragon" is an event in which every player party will be able to fight the giant beast in their own games, with all damage dealt to it worldwide contributing to the depletion of its health.

The person to strike the final, decisive blow will get the "maximum reward," but players who cause damage will also receive item drops. Of course, if hacking away at a big old dragon weren't rewarding enough on its own, nobody would ever play Dragon's Dogma.

I don't know how awesome this will be, but it will be some degree of awesome.

I think I've heard about this being done once before, in Infinity Blade 2. iOS games don't count though, f*ck 'em!

So it's going to be like a WoW raid where you don't see anyone else, or have to talk to them?

Interesting.

ccesarano wrote:

So it's going to be like a WoW raid where you don't see anyone else, or have to talk to them?

Interesting.

This has potential.

Knowing Capcom, they'll probably save co-op for a sequel. They'll have had enough feedback from early showings to know what's what people want.

I played the Griffin scene twice last night, so I've seen the whole demo. It wasn't bad, but I'd prefer a more open demo. I also changed my controls a little.

I'm still somewhat interested, but definitely waiting for the Goodjer reviews to pour in.

Nuh uh, UR dragon. UR MOM's dragon!

Aristophan wrote:
ccesarano wrote:

So it's going to be like a WoW raid where you don't see anyone else, or have to talk to them?

Interesting.

This has potential.

In Monster Hunter, there are two ways to defeat an elder dragon. Either you kill it, or you damage it enough that you chase it off and the next time it shows up it'll still be injured. I see this as less of a multiplayer beat-down and more like everyone gets the same solo mission but it's narratively the same monster.

So, If I come to this game late will the dragon be dead already?

Sounds like a neat idea either way. I'm in the waiting for impressions group.

I'm sure it'll respawn after it's killed.

They'll probably also use it as a testing ground to see about other giant monster events in the future, getting increasingly harder and stronger.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

I played the Griffin scene twice last night, so I've seen the whole demo. It wasn't bad, but I'd prefer a more open demo. I also changed my controls a little.

I'm still somewhat interested, but definitely waiting for the Goodjer reviews to pour in.

I definitely see your point. The demo gives you the basics, but it's not even as good as a free sample at the grocery market. It's like "we made this bad ass pizza that you could buy today, but as a free sample you get to taste just the sauce".

But I liked the basics enough that I'll give it a chance.

Last time I had a pizza the sauce wasn't flavored like "clinging to a flying griffin's neck while repeatedly stabbing it." If it was, I would forgo the pizza and just eat the sauce, because that sauce is awesome. It is awesomesauce.

I may well Redbox this one for a day like I did Dark Souls.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

I may well Redbox this one for a day like I did Dark Souls.

That is an EXCELLENT idea.

Launch trailer.

Okay, I got tingles.

I played through the first part of the demo again, and it was better this time around. Seemed like there was a member of my party buffing my sword and shield by imbuing it with fire? That was pretty cool.

The trophies and achievements have been posted, for those of you concerned about those types of things. One of them requires you to play through a second time

"Dressed a male party member in women's clothing."