Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen Catch-All

Keep up the impressions!

Also Polygon has their review up. It's in line with the others - 7/10.

Gametrailers review. They seem to like it a lot.

The critical split means that I'm more interested in what YOU guys have to say than the press. Fill my brain cavern with analytical goodness!

farley3k wrote:

Gametrailers review. They seem to like it a lot.

Yeah I just watched the review, and it made the game look like really fun to play. Of course seeing how I only play pc all I can do is sit and moan. I'd hope it would come to pc but the odds of that are slim to none. Ah well.

Started tonight, and the after-prologue is a bit strange jumping into. Very much feels like a Western RPG though, except for the title screen music emphasizing how Japanese this game is by taking music seriously.

Jumping down to fewer combat options at level one is a bit strange, but gives me an idea of what to expect at least.

First impression - a twenty page manual! I shouldn't be impressed, but I am.

I'm starting out as a Mage, even though strider (aka Legolas) is mighty tempting. I understand you can change vocations later.

I'm digging it so far. A truly open game, I jumped down a well and promptly got my ass kicked by alligator men. Can't wait to go back there when I'm a bit tougher. I'm on xbla as Certis and my pawn is named Apsalar. She's a pretty kick ass fighter.

Certis wrote:

I'm digging it so far. A truly open game, I jumped down a well and promptly got my ass kicked by alligator men. Can't wait to go back there when I'm a bit tougher. I'm on xbla as Certis and my pawn is named Apsalar. She's a pretty kick ass fighter.

Same thing happened to me, and I reacted the same way.

My pawn is a gigantic Amazonian mage (I plan to make her a healer/tank down the line, if such a thing is possible). Her name is Puffin.

I didn't get nearly so much time with this as I wanted yesterday. Hardly any, in fact. That shall be remedied after breakfast.

Started as a Strider, because I know I like it, but looking to try mage as soon as I have the ability to switch at will.

I started with a strider because I like speed and slashing. The bow and arrow seems a bit weak for the start, wondering if it will become some seriously over-powered weapon later.

During the tutorial it specifically called shields and bows out as "secondary weapons for support," so I don't think it'll be the primary damage source.

LobsterMobster wrote:
Certis wrote:

I'm digging it so far. A truly open game, I jumped down a well and promptly got my ass kicked by alligator men. Can't wait to go back there when I'm a bit tougher. I'm on xbla as Certis and my pawn is named Apsalar. She's a pretty kick ass fighter.

Same thing happened to me, and I reacted the same way.

My pawn is a gigantic Amazonian mage (I plan to make her a healer/tank down the line, if such a thing is possible). Her name is Puffin. :D

She was real chatty. I sent her back to you with a pie.

Certis wrote:
LobsterMobster wrote:
Certis wrote:

I'm digging it so far. A truly open game, I jumped down a well and promptly got my ass kicked by alligator men. Can't wait to go back there when I'm a bit tougher. I'm on xbla as Certis and my pawn is named Apsalar. She's a pretty kick ass fighter.

Same thing happened to me, and I reacted the same way.

My pawn is a gigantic Amazonian mage (I plan to make her a healer/tank down the line, if such a thing is possible). Her name is Puffin. :D

She was real chatty. I sent her back to you with a pie.

That girl gets plenty of pie as it is! She better share with Rook and Sir Pwnsalot.

Certis: I took your lady friend on adventures.

We moved boxes for a soldier. Your lady friend put her back into it!

We guarded a friendly traveling merchant whilst she walked a dangerous road. Your lady friend restrained goblins while I shot them in the face with arrows.

We explored a dark cave beneath a well and discovered that lizard men are assholes. However, thanks to my lady friend we also discovered that lizard men die really fast when you make your weapons cold, hold them down, and shoot them in the face with arrows.

We encountered a hydra. I shot it in the face with arrows, and then we both climbed up its back and cut off its head together.

And in the end when it was time to retire from adventuring, I gave your lady friend human skull as a gift. I think she was pleased.

I can't wait for my Viewtiful Joe pawn. Hopefully he's not paid DLC.

Seriously, though, the lizard men are seemingly your first lesson that you will NEED to bring the right tools to a fight. At first they seem nearly invincible, but then my pawn used her newly learned "cold boon" (or whatever that spell is called) spell and the things melted under rapid fire (or whatever that skill is called) from my bow.

I only took my own pawn and Rook along so I decided to defer the box-moving training exercise, but then once I hired Sir Pwnsalot I couldn't find the training area again. I followed my map to the indicator and there was nothing to do there. And then suddenly there was a hydra so I stabbed one of its heads off.

I was playing pretty early yesterday so I couldn't find any Goodjer pawns to recruit.

zeroKFE wrote:

Certis: I took your lady friend on adventures.

We moved boxes for a soldier. Your lady friend put her back into it!

We guarded a friendly traveling merchant whilst she walked a dangerous road. Your lady friend restrained goblins while I shot them in the face with arrows.

We explored a dark cave beneath a well and discovered that lizard men are assholes. However, thanks to my lady friend we also discovered that lizard men die really fast when you make your weapons cold, hold them down, and shoot them in the face with arrows.

We encountered a hydra. I shot it in the face with arrows, and then we both climbed up its back and cut off its head together.

And in the end when it was time to retire from adventuring, I gave your lady friend human skull as a gift. I think she was pleased.

It's the greatest love story ever told.

So I'm on PS3 with this game. Anyone else?

Some itemized thoughts after having played for about 4 hrs yesterday.

1. The split between inventory / equipping things is a terrible idea. That part of the UI really could have been made a lot user friendly. Prepare to spend a lot of time moving between screens in the UI.
2. The world looks great. The inhabitants fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down.
3. The split between the safe(r) day time and more dangerous night time is a great idea. The night is Demons Souls light scary. You have your little lantern, but the world is dark, scary and full of things that want to eat you. Great fun.
4. Combat is chaotic, hectic and fun. Battles often start and end abruptly. Feels violent and dangerous. Died more than once being careless. When the game tells you to make sure you stock up on stuff before venturing out into the world, listen to it.
5. The pawn system is great fun. If you are playing on PS3, hit me up (theskarstedts) for some pawn swapping. I also really like that you can design your pawns yourself and that you can make everything from skinny little runts to big, fat, people.
6. I really like how the AI / pawns can take care of themselves and even find stuff for you as you move around in the world and I even like their chatter with you. I like how they suggest where to go and how to defeat bad guys.
7. Story (so far) is all over the place but I hope it ties together eventually.

Hopefully when I get into this game there will be people still around to hire my pawns so they don't wind up unemployed and homeless!

Liking the strider class less now. There's no target lock, which is fine, but combat positioning is important and the basic quick attack has way too much forward motion. I find it hard to focus on one enemy at a time on anything that isn't huge.

Also, the strider has no party maintenance abilities that I know of, which means I'm relying on AI to keep us up. I could keep aggro and block to mitigate damage as a fighter, and keep everyone healed better as a mage.

I think I'll be switching at first opportunity.

Farscry wrote:

Hopefully when I get into this game there will be people still around to hire my pawns so they don't wind up unemployed and homeless! :D

Hope the same. Would be an impulse buy if I hadn't already spent my gaming budget on Magic Online this month!

Blind_Evil wrote:

During the tutorial it specifically called shields and bows out as "secondary weapons for support," so I don't think it'll be the primary damage source.

I think I spoke too soon here, the Ranger and Mystic Archer advanced classes seem to be centered on bow damage. You probably are sacrificing some dagger business for it, though.

The pawn system is a lot cooler and more nuanced than I'd imagined. Don't be a dick and send your pawn out naked, though.

Heard on a podcast and in a few reviews a complaint that is just the writers not understanding the pawn system, so I feel I should clear it up here.

Sometimes Pawns do seemingly silly things, like cast ice spells on fire-weak enemies. This is because that Pawn hasn't learned that enemy well enough yet. In each Pawn's status screen is a rather long list of all the enemies/quests they have encountered, and their mastery of each. So if you find your pawns have been doing wrong in battle, go trade them in for some that are more experienced.

Related, you want your main pawn to go into other peoples' games to learn new things so he/she will be more experienced when they get back. I'm unsure, but I think they may get Discipline points (the game's most important currency, IMO) to spend on abilities when they get back.

So do you have to dismiss and rehire a pawn to get a leveled up version (assuming their owner has uploaded a higher level version, of course), or will the game automatically bring in updates at some point?

The pawns you get from others don't level with you, so you have to switch them out. It's how they encourage people not just sticking with the same ones for the entire game, which is counter to the devs' agenda (the community becoming stronger collectively over time). Your main pawn is almost as flexible as your character. The difference is only the Arisen has access to the three hybrid classes.

It should be noted this is handled in the game world, not in some divorced menu. You find a rift stone, load into the Rift (the Pawn dimension!), and others' pawns at your level begin shuffling about. You talk to them to form a bond, examine their skills and equipment, or dismiss them. You can also use a menu to search for other pawns to spawn in, sorting by gender, class, quest knowledge, etc. As you play you acquire Rift Crystals, and you can recruit higher level pawns by expending some crystals.

Blind_Evil wrote:

It should be noted this is handled in the game world, not in some divorced menu. You find a rift stone, load into the Rift (the Pawn dimension!), and others' pawns at your level begin shuffling about. You talk to them to form a bond, examine their skills and equipment, or dismiss them. You can also use a menu to search for other pawns to spawn in, sorting by gender, class, quest knowledge, etc. As you play you acquire Rift Crystals, and you can recruit higher level pawns by expending some crystals.

Thanks so much for the clarification. This has not been made obvious enough yet, and I'd been wondering if the game had just judged me as some homebody sour-puss undeserving of others' pawns or what the crap.

ianunderhill wrote:
Blind_Evil wrote:

It should be noted this is handled in the game world, not in some divorced menu. You find a rift stone, load into the Rift (the Pawn dimension!), and others' pawns at your level begin shuffling about. You talk to them to form a bond, examine their skills and equipment, or dismiss them. You can also use a menu to search for other pawns to spawn in, sorting by gender, class, quest knowledge, etc. As you play you acquire Rift Crystals, and you can recruit higher level pawns by expending some crystals.

Thanks so much for the clarification. This has not been made obvious enough yet, and I'd been wondering if the game had just judged me as some homebody sour-puss undeserving of others' pawns or what the crap.

The first Rift Stone you'll find is the the goal of quest you get as soon as you wake up after the intro fights. There are then stones in all the other major towns.

I would recommend finishing a bit of the main story before going off the rails and into the open world. AFAIK you don't get access to advanced classes until you get to Gran Soren (the capitol). This is probably two hours in at a leisurely pace.

Also, in my experience the other classes aren't so much advanced as they are alternate. Rangers are stronger with bows than Striders, but they sacrifice some mobility and close-range skills. Warriors are the advanced versions of fighters, but aren't able to equip shields, only two-handed weapons.

There really is a lot to the combat and character development.

I'm Aristophan on PS3. I'm still figuring out the pawn system. If you want to find someone's pawn, do you search by PSN ID? Do they need to be your friend? I also saw something in the manual about making pawns public.

In other words, work has been really busy this week, and I'm trying to figure this out late at night, so I may not be thinking straight.

Aristophan wrote:

I'm Aristophan on PS3. I'm still figuring out the pawn system. If you want to find someone's pawn, do you search by PSN ID? Do they need to be your friend? I also saw something in the manual about making pawns public.

I assume it's the same as XBLA, the pawn search options are:

-By level
-Favorites list
-Friend List
-Past Summons
-Pawns your Main Pawn Knows (if your pawn has been in someone else's game)
-Pawns by Gamertag

Once you run a search you can narrow results by gender, class, and primary/secondary skills.

There's also a top-level option for Highest ranked. When you dismiss a pawn it asks you to rank it on appearance, helpfulness, and combat effectiveness, 1 to 5 stars each.

Blind_Evil wrote:

The first Rift Stone you'll find is the the goal of quest you get as soon as you wake up after the intro fights. There are then stones in all the other major towns.

I found the one in the first town, where I gained a pawn called Rook and got the spiel about what pawns are, and then a second one at the encampment down the road, where I gained the pawn I created in the demo (Serfiriel). Didn't see the shuffling pawn dimension, though. I haven't gotten to play again since the wee hours right after I got the game. So do you figure I'm missing something, or was I just playing too early?