Fire the starter pistol because I'm off! I've cleared the prologue tutorial, futzed around with the Character Creator with the help of my partners, lost my heart in Cape Cassardis, and I've juuuust started roaming around Cassardis after picking the Strider vocation.
This is maybe attempt #5 at this game for me between PS3 & Switch, with the furthest I've ever gotten being the first foray into Gran Soren, so everything is still familiar thus far. Combat is clicking nicely back into place for me, and I'm gelling with the vibe.
Based on the things I've heard avid DDog fans say before, I decided to start my run by listening to the original theme, Into Free ~Dangan~ by B'z, for the first time. What an all-time banger, can't believe I had never heard it sooner. It pumped me up with that bardic energy~
Last thing I'll note is that if I had a nickel for every time a JRPG Club game this year had a Quina in it, I'd have 2 nickels, which isn't a lot, but still interesting that it happened twice between FF9 & this.
More later! Sleep (for me) now.
Yay!
I got back after my first escort quest, almost as arduous, one of my pawns got thrown down the mountain by a cyclops, whoops! I sprinted down to revive them but drew the ire of 10+ bandits on the way.
The next two escort quests went much more smoothly, one to a castle and another to a beach. It helped that I’d already opened up the quarry shortcut. The next escort quest is to the healing spring which should be a piece of cake.
I seem to remember there is some kind of fast travel? Also, there’s a dragon roaming near the healing spring. Obviously it’s not THE dragon but it can certainly kill me easily enough. Is there any background story as to what it’s doing there and if you’re meant to defeat it?
I changed my class from strider to assassin since I’m not using bows much. So I can now use swords but I did just buy a nice new set of daggers for 30k and fully upgraded them with a misshapen eye. My pawn is now a sorcerer but now I’m lacking a healing spell. So I might need to switch out one of my other pawns. But I presumed it would have been a waste to just leave them as a mage.
Fast travel is done with ferry stones and port crystals. Some places already have port crystals, but port crystals are items you can find and place wherever you want... Including the end location for escort missions - yes that means you can place one, start the mission, them teleport directly to the end. In the original game (before Dark Arisen), ferry stones were rare to find and you saved them for emergencies. DA gave you a new item, Eternal Ferrystone - it does not get consumed. Works almost everywhere.
All dragons are meant to be killed and all dragon deaths have a percentage chance to upgrade your weapons further than 3 stars by making them "Dragon forged". It doesn't need to be 3 stars to jump up. There are multiple dragons hidden in the map and more later on as the game progresses. If you care, they respawn after 7 in-game days.
Mage is better than sorcerer in MOST cases for pawns because sorcerers do not get any support abilities (except elemental boons) and their spells have insanely long cast times. Add to that their spells can miss if the enemy moves around a lot
Gaming time has been sparse given work being neverending lately, but I finally got some more DDog time in. I've made it to the Encampment (made my main pawn a big burly fighter), secured the hydra head for delivery, made a trip back to Cassardis for side quests, got my rear handed to me in the abandoned well (in retrospect, I should swap one of my borrowed mages for another fighter), escorted the flighty merchant to the Encampment, and I saved right at the entrance of the Witchwood.
Doing well enough to really acclimate to the game's terms of how it is to be played. I keep thinking to myself, "Am I really allowed to spam my dagger flurry like this?", and the answer is "Yes, but that alone won't save you from the hordes". Hoping I can rack up some more vocation/skill points to broaden out the movesets of my pawn and I, because I can see potential synergies just waiting for me.
A grand ol' time is being had, eager to get to play some more!
Checking back in and wishing I had internalized the dialogue about Ferrystones (& their Eternal variety, which was just hanging out in my Storage inventory when I checked later on) before going as far as I did.
I arrived in Gran Soren, made myself known to the Pawn Guild & the Wyrm Hunt, and took on the first of the Wyrm Hunt quests that called to me, which called for clearing the Shadow Fort. After some map exploration & game overs (including finding that Healing Spring & dragon mentioned by Mr. GT Chris), I found the fort and cleared it, picking up some cyclopes-slaying experience along the way. Before the quest was through, I found a portcrystal hidden away in a chest. Then as a quest reward, I was given my first standard Ferrystones, which I used to blast back to Gran Soren for level ups & acquisitions.
Now I'm trying to knock out some of those escort quests before taking a crack at another Wyrm Hunt quest, and I pick the one that takes you back to the Shadow Fort. However, now that I've died twice trying to return to the fort (first by bandits, second by a freaking gryphon(!)), I'm kinda wishing I had the foresight to have set that portcrystal at the fort.
But in my defense, I had forgotten where the escort missions were targeted, and also, I didn't know where my next portcrystal would come from, what if I needed it later?
Still having a wonderful time now that I'm the furthest I've ever been in this game, enjoying the journey along the way~
Thanks for all that info. I’ve switched my pawn back to Mage and it’s nice to have auto healing again. I’d just found a badass Mage staff anyway.
The last escort quest is done, of course I first went to the healing spring in the complete opposite direction which was dumb. Also I now recall making the exact same mistake on a previous play through. Check that quest marker! Now I’m just uncovering all the accessible areas of the map while completing the occasional bounty quest. Once I’ve done that, I’ll strategically decide where I want to put the Ferrystones I’ve collected so far.
Checking back in and wishing I had internalized the dialogue about Ferrystones (& their Eternal variety, which was just hanging out in my Storage inventory when I checked later on) before going as far as I did.
I arrived in Gran Soren, made myself known to the Pawn Guild & the Wyrm Hunt, and took on the first of the Wyrm Hunt quests that called to me, which called for clearing the Shadow Fort. After some map exploration & game overs (including finding that Healing Spring & dragon mentioned by Mr. GT Chris), I found the fort and cleared it, picking up some cyclopes-slaying experience along the way. Before the quest was through, I found a portcrystal hidden away in a chest. Then as a quest reward, I was given my first standard Ferrystones, which I used to blast back to Gran Soren for level ups & acquisitions.
Now I'm trying to knock out some of those escort quests before taking a crack at another Wyrm Hunt quest, and I pick the one that takes you back to the Shadow Fort. However, now that I've died twice trying to return to the fort (first by bandits, second by a freaking gryphon(!)), I'm kinda wishing I had the foresight to have set that portcrystal at the fort.
But in my defense, I had forgotten where the escort missions were targeted, and also, I didn't know where my next portcrystal would come from, what if I needed it later?
Still having a wonderful time now that I'm the furthest I've ever been in this game, enjoying the journey along the way~
Are you taking the quarry shortcut? That makes the trip from Gran Soren to the Shadow Fort pretty smooth. Just have to kill or run past some goblins and lizardmen I think.
Are you taking the quarry shortcut? That makes the trip from Gran Soren to the Shadow Fort pretty smooth. Just have to kill or run past some goblins and lizardmen I think.
It would seem I'm not - I've been going the long way around (or at least the way that's evident via the minimap I've charted thus far), going from Gran Soren in the direction of the Encampment, then curving off onto the Manamia Trail before traipsing through the Vestad Hills and beyond towards the fort. Although taking a cursory glance at some Wiki deets, I may try going from West to East through the Quarry on my return journey for the experience & treasure. Many thanks for pointing me in this direction!
No problem! Fighting through it the first time is a little arduous, there are some ogres for example, but, once you complete the quest it becomes a “safe zone” and you can sprint through it in less than a minute (without using stamina). Some of the resources even respawn.
Alrighty, I just finished up DDog with ~23 hours on the clock. I did use a few mods on PC that, in particular, made it so I had infinite stamina for running, and infinite carry weight, both of which made for a much more pleasant experience. Really looking forward to DDog 2 now.
I’ve mapped out the overworld and accessible areas of the Catacombs, Bluemoon Tower and Soul Flayer Canyon (cool area that one). Now time to clear the quest list!
Congrats merphle! I'll get you leveled up.
Checking back in after finally getting some more time in over my weekend!
Firstly, big shout-out to Mr GT Chris for the quarry shortcut recc. That ended up helping a lot, both in terms of leveling up & clearing the escort mission. I still had to restart the ogre encounters a couple times due to my escort dying along the way (first by an aggro'd ogre, second by a glitch that stuck them into a wall and then registered them as dead), but along the way came some good ogre slaying experience and a treasure trove of mineable veins.
Since last logging, I've completed all of the initial Wyrm Hunt quests & all escort missions, and I've now met The Duke (do I remember correctly in that I heard someone refer to the Duke as an Arisen as well?). Along the way, I've maxed out the starting vocations of myself (Strider) & my pawn (Fighter). I've left the pawn as is because the fighter makes for a good tank, and I've since started down the Assassin path. I didn't realize that I'd get to carry all of my earned augments over from class to class, but it's made my beginnings as an Assassin breezier than anticipated as I get to keep my double-jump & my weight class reduction traits that put the Stride in Strider.
Also, weapon/armor enhancement & crafting make brain go brrrrrrrr, meaning I spend forever on return trips to Gran Soren sorting through my big storage full of materials to see what can be combined this time. Favorite basic discovery thus far has been nuts & harspud products to make perfumes/incenses for group heals, or the basic ore/monster drop + rotten beast meat to make backfat oil, which has, fittingly enough, saved my ass while up on the back of a cyclops frequently.
Last save left me at Lvl 31, so I feel like I'm making a good stride, maybe even a tad overleveled. I'm enjoying the grind thoroughly and I'm eager to keep chomping away at this delicious banquet.
Lastly, some plotty plot thoughts:
- Dear god this jester is horrendous, what a gremlin. Everyone in my apartment saw his face and recoiled.
- The existence of the Dragonforged (the ancient Arisen) throws a wrench into my prior formulations that Arisen are gradually turned into dragons (based off the fact that I saw that one Healing Spring dragon we talked about earlier possess one of my pawns, which resulted in a game over by way of lightning bolts), so I need to slow down and chew some more before I swallow.
Til next time, fellow Arisens!
I finally started this weekend in earnest. Created a Strider and have been picking up every quest I see. Like Merphle, I've got a few mods installed that smooth out some of the experience. I was able to pick up a friend's level 115 pawn, and she's been murdering everything we come across so far. Not sure if I want to keep that experience or not, but it let me venture into some places I otherwise probably wasn't supposed to visit yet.
Still getting my head around gear, upgrading, and the general flow of the game. But I'm level 11 or so, haven't gotten to Gran Soren yet, and am having a generally good time so far.
Just cleared the Witchwood/Selene quest you can access after meeting the Duke for the first time, and now have a fresh (spoilery) formulation that many factors are pointing me towards:
I think the real Duke is dead/missing, and current standing Duke is the Duke's pawn. Pawns reportedly grow to take on the visage of their Arisen, but are still soulless (save for special exceptions like Selene) and are incapable of making their own decisions. From the moment you meet the Duke, his words are shallow/surface-level, and everyone around him comments on how "the Duke is unwell".
Last thing I'll leave off on: Currently undertaking the Gryphon hunt, and pursuing the Gryphon to its secondary location. Upon finding the blustery corridors of wind that are difficult to traverse, I found glee in organically finding the solve of picking up my big beefy tank of a pawn, thus raising my weight high enough to give me solid footing against the wind.
Gosh, what a good game~
Apologies for the double-post, but for those interested who haven't hopped on board as of yet, Dragon's Dogma has once again gone on sale on Switch for USD $4.99 until August 21st.
Hop aboard! Shoot me your friend code if you do and let my Fighter pawn shield you from harm.
Finally did one of the Wyrm Hunt quests, the Water God's altar. Pretty straight forward since I'd mapped it out earlier. I also found a couple more escort quests back at your home village and another quest board at the encampment that I somehow completely missed. So much for clearing out all the quests! I also had the random griffin encounter, was leaving Gran Soren and a wagon was being attacked by goblins. Then the griffin suddenly swooped in. It didn't actually do much and we were burning it with fire-based attacks. I'd climbed on but after the griffin took off I wisely hopped off and just watched it fly off into the distance. I started another quest, evicting these poor people from some rich dude's land. Seemed like an odd thing for the Arisen to be doing and then one of my pawn's suggested I just pay the guy off. 80k later, quest finished.
Hot dang, you did all of that mapping before tackling the Wyrm Hunt quests? More power to you, I'll wager that'll make the rest of the game going forward a bit breezier for you (hopefully you've been placing some Portcrystals in the distant corners)! I only just got through Bluemoon Tower for a MSQ, heck of a location.
Also, thank you for the reminder to check the Encampment bulletin board, I remembered to check Cassardis but not the Encampment.
Apologies for the double-post, but for those interested who haven't hopped on board as of yet, Dragon's Dogma has once again gone on sale on Switch for USD $4.99 until August 21st.
Hop aboard! Shoot me your friend code if you do and let my Fighter pawn shield you from harm.
Only $4 on PC again. Steam version from Fanatical.
Sounds like there's some good mods, so if I'm going to buy it again leaning towards PC
Hot dang, you did all of that mapping before tackling the Wyrm Hunt quests? More power to you, I'll wager that'll make the rest of the game going forward a bit breezier for you (hopefully you've been placing some Portcrystals in the distant corners)! I only just got through Bluemoon Tower for a MSQ, heck of a location.
Also, thank you for the reminder to check the Encampment bulletin board, I remembered to check Cassardis but not the Encampment.
I find it kind of meditative to do that kind of task in games, especially if I enjoy the gameplay loop. Unfortunately I only had 2 Portcrystals until just recently. I also somehow took a strangely long time to rediscover the Black Cat store where you can buy more ferrystones so I was trying to conserve what I had. Anyway, I finished two more Wyrm Hunt quests, and A Fortress Besieged gave me one more Portcrystal to bring me up to 3! That just leaves Seeking Salvation.
I finished the first 12 "From a Different Sky" quests, but then was reminded that they just keep coming. So, I'll see how long it is before I lose interest.
I think I've managed to clear through all of my involved side-quests (everything that's not "Slay X Ogres" or "Collect 20 Seeker Tokens") up to where I'm at, so I've been chipping away at the MSQs, currently on the second set of Royal Orders quests. Those side-quests ranged from mild to "oh my god I can't believe what I'm seeing" in terms of intensity. Great stuff so far, excited for my weekend to go whole hog on this banquet.
I've gotten my Arisen nearly ranked all the way up through Assassin, and I'm contemplating on if I want to try my hand at Magick Archer once I've had my Assassin fill. On one hand, more skills and magick bows, but on the other hand, I'm approaching Lvl 40 and I've had no magick training whatsoever, and the stat gains I get from leveling up are slowing down now that leveling up is a more arduous task. It may benefit me to stick on my current path, the way of the DPS.
Meanwhile, my pawn has now gone from Fighter to Warrior, and he's looking sick as hell in his Cyclops Veil. The fits in this game are dope. Add in that my dodge roll costs me no stamina to roll forever and Dark Souls can eat its heart out.
(I'm sorry Dark Souls I didn't mean that you know I love ya)
This is definitely a game where you start with one goal, then do a bunch of other things for 3 hours before signing off, never having completed your original goal in the first place.
There are two different escort quests available to me that both need to go to the Shadow Fort. I of course don't know where this is, so i accepted one, saw where it was on the map, then reloaded my last checkpoint to see about getting to the area first so I can drop a ferrystone and teleport there like folks here recommend.
What followed was a delightful period of filling in the map, finding treasure, encountering my first real dungeons, and slaughtering a handful of ogres.
The first dungeon I encountered was the Water God's Altar. This had a lot of water I couldn't enter, with ladders leading down but me being unable to descend. One pawn deleted herself by falling in. A cyclops, and several treasure chests, awaited me on the far side. I left having been unable to figure out how to make the water go down. I'll make a note to remember it if I encounter any more quests.
After teleporting back to Gran Soren, I was asked to track a mysterious man coming out of the Noble District at night. That led to some curious cutscenes.
I decided to try another direction to find the Shadow Fort. It proved incorrect, but i stumbled across the Ancient Quarry, which was full of bandits, undead, goblins, and women-crazed ogres. Those things were tough, but I managed to prevail, and now I have a new shortcut between the north and south sections of the map.
I'm around level 25, and have one last point before maxing Strider out (not counting the various skills and augments still available). I'll be looking into switching to something else soon.
Never did find the Shadow Fort, but I look forward to continuing to look. In the meantime, I have a flower to deliver to a witch. I'm thoroughly enjoying this wacky game.
I'm around level 25, and have one last point before maxing Strider out (not counting the various skills and augments still available). I'll be looking into switching to something else soon.
Never did find the Shadow Fort, but I look forward to continuing to look. In the meantime, I have a flower to deliver to a witch. I'm thoroughly enjoying this wacky game.
Make sure you get that last Rank in Strider, it gets you an Augment that allows you to move as if you're one weight class lighter (so if you've an Average load, you move at Light load speeds, or if Light, you move at Very Light speeds). It's fantastic and has been a boon for me.
Also, be careful not to get too lost in those woods when looking for the Shadow Fort, the woods are dark & full of terrors.
I've been making some good progress in the main story. I'm also halfway through leveling the Ranger vocation. I miss some of Strider's ranged abilities though. Depending on how long Ranger takes to level, I might end up switching to Magic Archer just to keep mixing things up. Not sure how feasible that is.
I've done two Wyrm Hunt quests so far, and am in the midst of a third. I did find a quest guide that I think I'll take a harder look at as I go. I'm bummed I couldn't even find a mod to put quests on the map somehow so you know when one is available.
I'm playing with a no-carry-weight mod, and while I'm glad I'm doing so, I think now that I have a better understanding of the game, if I were to replay in the future I would leave it off. Making interesting inventory choices seems like something that would feel meaningful. I can't imagine playing the original version of the game without the Eternal Ferrystone, though. I get what they were going for, and giving everything a "survival" feel is a neat choice for an RPG. But then they're missing stuff, like tents you find in the wild that you can't use for sleeping overnight to regain health or whatever. I'm very curious to see how DD2 will evolve the formula. Will they sand all the rough edges off, or will they keep the distinctive difficulty?
I'm playing with a no-carry-weight mod, and while I'm glad I'm doing so, I think now that I have a better understanding of the game, if I were to replay in the future I would leave it off. Making interesting inventory choices seems like something that would feel meaningful. I can't imagine playing the original version of the game without the Eternal Ferrystone, though. I get what they were going for, and giving everything a "survival" feel is a neat choice for an RPG. But then they're missing stuff, like tents you find in the wild that you can't use for sleeping overnight to regain health or whatever. I'm very curious to see how DD2 will evolve the formula. Will they sand all the rough edges off, or will they keep the distinctive difficulty?
What I'll say w/r/t carry weights & inventory management is that while I feel it makes some things in the game more dynamic (for instance, carrying a heavy thing to stand steady against gusty winds is cool to me, or that I found maxing out Strider a worthwhile endeavor for that load-reduction augment), I can't say it impacted my inventory choices in any way more than spending a good chunk of time doing more inventory management (i.e. I never opted to ignore any mining spots or gathering spots to spare my carry weight, I'd just spend more time in menus off-loading my materials onto my pawns when my load got too heavy).
However, it all blends together for me in a way that helps define the game in my mind with that survival feel you mentioned. It reminds me of a good hiking/backpacking trip, making sure you're fully stocked on supplies before you take the long trek & back into the wilderness (something I'm sure the original non-eternal ferrystone system helped to accentuate), taking into account the reduction of your load as you work through your supplies on the journey, as well as the time the journey will take given the increased risks come nightfall. And sure, DDog doesn't have tents in name, but it does have items that work in a similar capacity (although it would be nice if those Incenses/Perfumes/Ales that function like tents as group-healing items were a tad easier to source, though there are means of acquisition). I'll welcome any quality-of-life updated Capcom tosses into the mix w/ DDog 2, but I hope they keep that Scouts-like essence of preparedness & the rugged outdoors.
In other news, last night, after about 59 hours of play over the last month, I rolled credits on the True Ending of Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen, and I've set it down before being tempted into a Magic-focused New Game +. Did the bulk (if not all) of the character/companion sidequests, and beat at least the first boss of Bitterblack Isle. First spoiler tag here has my final credits end-of-game stats:
Non-spoilery thoughts: Hot damn, I understand why the people who love this game won't shut up about this game. Strong action gameplay that I only dipped my toes into when I consider how many other vocations I never tried. I found the things that I loved about Monster Hunter in here, which ate up quite a few hours. The story wrapped strong for me, but I'll put more of those thoughts into the next spoiler tag. But suffice to say, the final turns of the game's story were exactly my kind of sh*t. Last I'll say of it outside the tag is that I'll be curious as to if anyone is wrapping up their time with the game after the first ending, but before digging into the post-game & the true ending. If so, what was your experience? B/c the true end feels like required reading to me, but I can understand being ready to wrap up after finishing the main deal, it's a meaty game.
As for spoilery thoughts:
So the DDog wiki spoiled the origin of Dragons for me, and knowing there was a big ending of note in the true ending from what I'd ethereally heard about the game, I figured that was gonna be the big spoiler. I didn't end up organically encountering that knowledge in my playthrough because I beat the Seneschal on the first try, but I did get to organically solve the final Godsbane twist, and it was sick as sh*t.
The meta-layer of the Seneschal's final reveals are what I refer to as "exactly my kind of shiz". The world of Gransys lives as a video game world, and the Seneschal you meet knows this truth in his own terms of existence. Without the "volition" or agency of the Arisen the player exacts upon the world, the regular humans of Gransys mill about lifelessly in their NPC walk routines. I love a "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead" kind of story about characters trapped within narrative, and the true ending provided that in spades for me.
To close out on some popcorn-y thoughts, I'm glad my beloved ended up being Quina instead of Aelinore. I've been incredibly salty w/r/t to Aelinore after taking lashes in the dungeon for her, but glad she got to live. Also, yay for my pawn, they deserve their life~. Also, I was way wrong on my theory about the Duke actually being the Duke's pawn, because that dude shriveled up like a raisin when the Dragon went down. Regardless, he can eat it.
So that's time for me! If folks find themselves in need of an absolute banquet of a game at a fraction of retail cost, I can now safely recommend Dragon's Dogma with high praise. Now, after 2 consecutive JRPG Club banquet-size games, I am gonna have a tasty lil sandwich w/ soup sort of game.
Congrats, TheMostRad!
I've played through a couple spectacular dungeons in recent days. The first was in a canyon with a lot of verticality. Of course there were a ton of harpies there, along with a Gargoyle to take out. That quest that took me there ended with a curious choice. I'll be interested to see if that has any effects later.
The other one was the main story dungeon for the Griffon. That whole experience was pretty cool.
Luring it out, fighting on the hillside, the traipsing all the way out to the Tower it retreated to. It felt like an actually epic journey. Then fighting through the tower, running from the Griffon as the tower collapses. I lost two pawns along the way. Then finally confronting it in the arena, only for that rando guy to show up with his magic book that I found for him earlier! Just a really cool experience all around.
I don't have any other notable side quests open so I'll just continue mainlining the story for now. I did get Selene's affinity up enough for her to move into my house, and I now have 5 port crystals to play around with. I've also managed to get 3 different shops upgraded. Things are going well.
Fun anecdote from my run re: your Griffon quest:
So I also did the Salomet's Grimoire quest for that mage strolling around Gran Soren, but before finishing it, I had a forgery of the Grimoire made at The Black Cat and passed off the forgery, worrying that the mage was gonna do something craven & power-hungry if he got the real deal.
Imagine my surprise/horror when he showed up at the Griffon showdown atop Bluemoon Tower to help, only to find the magic won't cast from his Grimoire & gosh darn it, he just can't figure out why - surely the Arisen brought back the true Grimoire, right?
Ended up using the Grimoire myself against the Griffon anyways, too. I could've saved the forgery money if I had known it was gonna play out like this, but alas!
That's incredible 
Aaaand done!
Didn't set foot in Bitterblack Isle as I was ready to see it done. Sounds like it's a great place to go if you're eager for more either before the point of no return, or in new game plus.
I see why this game is such a cult hit. The combat, while a little wonky, is really satisfying. I did find myself wishing there was a bit more growth in each vocation, but letting you swap to any vocation at will is a great alternative. There's a ton of reactivity to what the player does. It's just that a lot of it is hidden, or at the very least obfuscated. I also love the progression where you go from feeling like you're in this incredibly hostile, dangerous world, to casually taking a quick detour to ruin a Chimera's day. I didn't engage with the world after The Final Battle too much, but encountering the harder enemies and seeing how much harder they hit was a bracing experience.
It really does feel like the true ending is required to get the most out of the narrative. If you stopped playing after the quest The Final Battle, take 3 hours and wrap up the story, as it fully explains the role of the Arisen and how this world really works.
Congratulations, beanman! Well-played on only 4 deaths your entire run. Also, the experience of coming around that power curve is real. Once Chimeras were something to be feared, and by the end they became casual rodeo fare.
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