So dumb they locked the Warrior vocation behind a seemingly random Greatsword that you can find on one of the first main storyline quests. I figured it was just junk and sold it to get my character a better sword. Now apparently you get locked out for quite some time since you can’t buy anything back from Vendors.
Yeah the whole locking classes is odd. Maybe have the missions to unlock it right away. Or just have backups to buy the weapons to unlock it elsewhere.
I picked this up after not really playing the first and I’ve been having a great time. It helped to find a class that was fun. I started as an archer but it didn’t play like I wanted and seemed weak. Plus it was passive as my pawns would do most of the killing. So I switched to a thief. That didn’t work either. It was too chaotic and technical for my liking. So I tried a warrior and it totally clicked. I’m just crushing dudes.
I’ve been seeing some stuff online about a mechanic in the game called dragonsplague. Is that something from the first game? I'm going to spoiler warning people’s complaints incase anyone wants to experience everything fresh.
People are complaining it’s too harsh and can completely brick your game by leading to entire towns being killed including all merchants and quest givers.
Anyone familiar with this?
I'm starting to hate griffons, and I think they don't like me either. Was traveling on a trolley cart up high and it decided I should learn about gravity. Quickly. Them immediately left. Probable laughing.
I picked this up after not really playing the first and I’ve been having a great time. It helped to find a class that was fun. I started as an archer but it didn’t play like I wanted and seemed weak. Plus it was passive as my pawns would do most of the killing. So I switched to a thief. That didn’t work either. It was too chaotic and technical for my liking. So I tried a warrior and it totally clicked. I’m just crushing dudes.
I’ve been seeing some stuff online about a mechanic in the game called dragonsplague. Is that something from the first game? I'm going to spoiler warning people’s complaints incase anyone wants to experience everything fresh.
Spoiler:People are complaining it’s too harsh and can completely brick your game by leading to entire towns being killed including all merchants and quest givers.
Anyone familiar with this?
It's not from the first game, and I haven't encountered it myself yet.
I did accidentally find my way to the sphinx and have done some of her riddles. They aren't really riddles though. She looks great in person.
The first one is obvious (the bottle), as is the one about your beloved (make sure they have high enough affinity that they start blushing when you talk to them). I haven't done that one yet because I don't know if who you set as your beloved will play a part in the main quest with the Dragon like it did in the first game, so I'm holding off declaring anyone as Beloved yet.
The one about parent and child require bringing any pawn named SphinxParent, SphinxMother, or SphinxFather with you, and carrying them up to the platform to present to her. There's a riftstone filter you can use from any pawn guild riftstone to only show pawns with special names like that (you need to have found, fixed, and activated that riftstone in the wild before you can use its filter at the pawn guild riftstone), and they can be found occasionally on the list of official pawns.
The one about handing over your most treasured item is just a test, it can be anything, and you'll get it back as well as a duplicate of it, so make sure it's something you want two of. I used a Portcrystal I had found so I have two of them placed now.
The seeker token one is just mean, and not even phrased as a riddle, just a request. You need to go to the spot you found your first seeker token at and there'll be a Finder's Token there now. Mine was right outside of Melve, but I did check a couple other spots near that first camp as well.
I'm starting to hate griffons, and I think they don't like me either. Was traveling on a trolley cart up high and it decided I should learn about gravity. Quickly. Them immediately left. Probable laughing.
Get revenge by setting griffins on fire, they hate being on fire.
So dumb they locked the Warrior vocation behind a seemingly random Greatsword that you can find on one of the first main storyline quests. I figured it was just junk and sold it to get my character a better sword. Now apparently you get locked out for quite some time since you can’t buy anything back from Vendors.
I did the same thing, my quests show that I collected a greatsword but I don't have it and I think I just sold it somewhere...
I think you should be able to by the greatsword in the towns to the west. Particular the checkpoint one. It's a big hike but its not a bad area and the gear is good too. I think you can even take an ox cart there.
Go to the midpoint where the game wants you to do something that's not obvious unless you've beat the first one. And even then. That said it'll force you to retry regardless.
Very curious what's next though.
edit - ah crap may have hosed my game...
Finally spent last evening running through the character creator trying to make my Arisen look like my metamour's cat. Wasn't a purrfect match, but we found something we were happy with.
I've had just enough time between beating DDog1 last year and revisiting it earlier this month in Darkhaund's wake to retain my core competencies, because playing this game feels like picking up an old instrument that's had tweaks & improvements added in. I spent a minute raving to my home about the revelation that is the D-pad Lantern & Healing Item shortcuts.
I've only just barely made it to the 1st encampment/riftstone before having to get ready for work, here's my spoilery plot thoughts thus far:
- Very curious to see how much truth is in the claim that our Arisen is a pawn? This might get cleared up super quickly, but it's a plot hook!
- What rhymes with plot hook? Pawn Rook! He's back, across dimensions, to serve as our first & swiftly-disposed-of pawn, chuckled as that dude Terminator-sank into the Brine.
- I'm calling my shot on the mysterious cloaked blue-eyed ghosty figure from the start being the Seneschal. If he's not, I'm curious to find out the answer.
I think I have my characters.
Main:
Pawn:
When I'll actually get to the game to take them out for a spin is anyone's guess.
FYI- When you're in Vernworth near the start of the game there is a point in time where a quest giver tells you to, "get your affairs in order before proceeding."
This does not mean what we have been conditioned to think it means as gamers. 
A few visual mods I've been using as well.
All require Fluffymod which is the mod manager. Drag and drop PAK models so it's super easy to use
4k fire and smoke (prettier fire and smoke)
Better Elements Icons (changes the elemental icons)
Better Item Categories (cleans up the category icons)
Better Map Icons (colors the map icons)
Better Vocation Icons (cleans up the vocation icons and adds more color)
Less Distractive Cursor (takes it down to just a box highlight)
No Lantern Model (removes the chunky lantern, light source still there when you turn on your lantern)
Over Shoulder Camera and wider POV (changes the camera angle. especially helpful with archer class)
Silver Soulsborne HUD (moves the HP and Stamina to the upper left corner and makes it a bit smaller)
I switched to Dragon's Dogma 2 from DD: Dark Arisen this weekend. I was determined not to, but couldn't resist it became clear that 2 was such a major improvement over the original.
And that decision has been vindicated. Everything is just that bit better. For example, the Harpies singing seems to act much more quickly here, which makes them much more dangerous. (Particularly to my Fighter until they unlocked Skyward Lash!)
And Pawns are genuinely effective in combat. The number of times I turn round to help them, only to discover that they've taken down all their enemies... This is a real contrast to other games like Guardians of the Galaxy where party companions feel like window dressing in fights.
I was surprised to discover that there were no difficulty settings, which I actually quite like. It's forced me to avoid and - in once case - abandon certain fights because I can't just bludgeon my way through on easy. (I'm looking forward to being higher level and better equipped, so that I can give that ogre in the sea cave a proper kicking!)
I also like the Pawn as Quest-Guide feature. It saves a lot of time that would otherwise be spent looking at the map AND getting lost anyway (the road and path systems is surprising and infuriatingly intricate). I had to clear our three monster infestations, and was able to simply follow Rook to each one.
The only thing I'm not enjoying much is the cost of hotel rooms. I've only recently made it to the capital, so money is quite tight. 2000 gold for a room feels like larceny. I can buy some armour for that price!
Actually, there is one more thing I'm not enjoying. I am still deeply ashamed to be murdering innocent wildlife for Discipline Points. On they way to one quest, I stooped so low as to kill someone's chicken for measly 4DP. If there's any justice, the game will find a way to punish me for abusing this system in this way.
I'm about 10 hours in and man, I'm really struggling hard to enjoy the game. I knew what I was getting into with the game after reading alot of the previews, trying out DD1 for a bit and watching the reviews. The game feels unpolished, unfinished and bland. On paper, the systems make sense but in-game they just seem clunky and convuluted. I'm really disappointed that I'm not in love with it like I was with Elden Ring and considering just trading it in soon if it doesn't click with me.
Here's an enraging but somewhat hilarious sequence of events at the end of my session last time (very minor gameplay spoilers).
-Left the southernmost city to escort an oxcart to another city northward. I need to visit this city anyway for a quest In trying to complete
-Less than a minute into the journey, we get attacked by a griffin.
-We start to fight the griffin, it immediately flies off and when I turn around the oxcart is gone. Hmm...
-We head north and find a cave. Start to walk towards the entrance and get attacked by A LOT of goblins. It doesn't go well but we barely survive.
-As my main pawn gives me a high five he gets clubbed by an cyclops to near death. Takes a few reloads but we eventually escape and all more have a sliver of permanent health.
-A pawn comes wandering by so I figure I'll swap it for one of mine since our health is wrecked and all is well (right?).
-We stumble into a campfire so I'm excited to heal everyone but we immediately get ambushed by werewolves. We fight them off luckily.
-I walk over to set up camp (finally!) and realize our only camping kit was being held by the pawn I dismissed. F*ck.
-Sun just went down.
-I see a fire in the distance and it's the same oxcart that vanished earlier (did it teleport?). It's suddenly under attack and a few NPCs die but we handle business.
-Hop on the oxcart, go to sleep and get attacked by a griffon - again (I guess they really like oxcarts).
-Fight it off after a few reloads and eventually make it to the city.
This ordeal took up most of the time I had to play so that's frustrating. I understand what the devs are trying to do but it's more annoying than fun at that point. Oh well...
I am sorry your not feeling it. It is a hard game to love sometimes.
Personally I like it but some of their choices are frustrating. I get that you need to explore the map but honestly even in medieval times they had maps. Make them expensive fine, make them hard to find, or requiring a quest fine. But obviously these people would have had maps of some kind.
Capcom announces upcoming patch
Dragon’s Dogma 2 future update patch notes:
Updates for all platforms (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, Steam)
Adding the option to start a new game when save data already exists
Changing the number of Art of Metamorphosis items available at Pawn Guilds in the game to 99
Making the quest that allows players to acquire their own dwelling (where they can save and rest) available earlier in the game
Miscellaneous text display fixes
Miscellaneous bug fixes
Updates for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S
Adding the option to switch motion blur on/off in options
Adding the option to switch ray tracing on/off in options
Adding the option to switch frame-rate to either variable or max 30fps in options
(These options will not affect the frame-rate significantly. Frame rate improvements are planned for future updates.)
Updates for Steam
Improving quality when DLSS Super Resolution is enabled
Fixing an issue where models appeared low-quality under some specific settings.
Here's an enraging but somewhat hilarious sequence of events at the end of my session last time (very minor gameplay spoilers).
-Left the southernmost city to escort an oxcart to another city northward. I need to visit this city anyway for a quest In trying to complete
-Less than a minute into the journey, we get attacked by a griffin.
-We start to fight the griffin, it immediately flies off and when I turn around the oxcart is gone. Hmm...
-We head north and find a cave. Start to walk towards the entrance and get attacked by A LOT of goblins. It doesn't go well but we barely survive.
-As my main pawn gives me a high five he gets clubbed by an cyclops to near death. Takes a few reloads but we eventually escape and all more have a sliver of permanent health.
-A pawn comes wandering by so I figure I'll swap it for one of mine since our health is wrecked and all is well (right?).
-We stumble into a campfire so I'm excited to heal everyone but we immediately get ambushed by werewolves. We fight them off luckily.
-I walk over to set up camp (finally!) and realize our only camping kit was being held by the pawn I dismissed. F*ck.
-Sun just went down.
-I see a fire in the distance and it's the same oxcart that vanished earlier (did it teleport?). It's suddenly under attack and a few NPCs die but we handle business.
-Hop on the oxcart, go to sleep and get attacked by a griffon - again (I guess they really like oxcarts).
-Fight it off after a few reloads and eventually make it to the city.
My condolences you didn't have a great time with that experience, but hot dang that sounds like a good ol' time to this sicko.
Dragon's Dogma is definitely as chaotic as your experience suggests!
And I think this sequel is made more chaotic by an interaction between scripted and 'emergent' encounters, which I think are more common in this game than DD1. I actually quite like it, as it feels like a real change of pace after Baldur's Gate 3, which was all conventionally scripted 'set pieces'.
I agree about it being comparatively unpolished. I don't think, for example, that the open world meets the standards of Red Dead Redemption 2 ("take a drink...")
On the disappearing oxcarts, something similar has happened to me. I hopped off of one, and went ahead with my party. When I retraced my steps... it was gone. I suspect that this might be decision made by the programmers to save memory. I remember the Cyberpunk 2077 was similarly strict about 'removing' assets (such as, cars and NPCs) from the game when they were out of vision.
I think calling it 'unfinished' is a tad harsh. They've had years to ponder and then make this... and this is what they've given us. We might like more of some things, and less of others, but it seems finished to me.
But I agree also on the 'bland'. I think that part of the problem is genre-related. There's only so much you can do with 'swords and sorcery', and so it looks and feels very familiar and unremarkable. When I enter a tavern I could easily be in a tavern in Baldur's Gate 3 or in Skyrim. They all kind of blend together for me.
The other part of the problem is that - thus far at least - the open world doesn't really convince as a place. It's geography doesn't feel 'true'. Instead, it feels like a checklist of 'sword and sorcery' environments. For example, the Trevo Mine (which you visit early on after arriving the capital) doesn't actually look or feel like a mine. It doesn't look or feel worked. It's really just a cave system.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 future update patch notes:
Updates for all platforms (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, Steam)
Adding the option to start a new game when save data already exists
Making the quest that allows players to acquire their own dwelling (where they can save and rest) available earlier in the game
Ha! I'm pleased to see the first one. I thought I was going mad when I couldn't see an option to start a new game.
And I'm delighted to be given an option to buy my own place at all. As 93_confirmed's post indicates, the only safe place to rest and heal is at an inn, and they're outrageously expensive early game.
One quick question for other players: when - if at all - does it make sense to begin enhancing items? At the moment, my Fighter is using their Trusty Sword (120 damage). A level 1 upgrade takes it to something like 136 damage, but buying an iron sword would seem to be a better decision (though more expensive). Is there a multiplier effect from enhancing weapons the full 3 levels? Should I just buy a sword? Or will the game give me a better sword shortly anyway?
One quick question for other players: when - if at all - does it make sense to begin enhancing items? At the moment, my Fighter is using their Trusty Sword (120 damage). A level 1 upgrade takes it to something like 136 damage, but buying an iron sword would seem to be a better decision (though more expensive). Is there a multiplier effect from enhancing weapons the full 3 levels? Should I just buy a sword? Or will the game give me a better sword shortly anyway?
I’m around level 30. I’ve found I’m acquiring a new weapon every 7-10 levels. So I’ve been enhancing them some if I have the money. I usually do the first level of enhancement because it’s generally just a little bit of gold. I haven’t been too worried about enhancing because I haven’t had much difficulty with the combat so I don’t urgently need the stat improvements.
Enhancing drops the weight of things which is the main draw for me. I’ve run out of money one time so far and a quick trip to the wilderness brought me back with plenty to spare.
On the quest comments I will agree that they feel bland and recycled. They should have put some of them on timers for availability because you can literally do the majority of the captain Brant quests in 20 minutes over the course of one night. This blandness is further compounded by the fact that they are all in basically the same location with the same requirements.
So money is fairly easy to come by, but you have to break yourself of the typical RPG hoarding habit. Selling monster parts in the material section of your inventory is expected. Keep some of each, sure, but you do not need 20+ goblin horns. Do not hold onto old weapons/armor to see if enhancing them makes them worth keeping. If you can find a better weapon/armor, buy it, and then enhance that as much as you can. It can be hard with the armor, as sometimes you'll greatly prefer the look of gear with worse stats, but it's worth it. Fashion is always an endgame concern anyways.
I wouldn't say the game is bland at all, but I do understand how it can appear to be if you just do the main quests and use a pawn guide each time. You really need to take the time to just explore the world without a particular destination. There are quite a few side quests you will never find if you don't go to different places at different times of day, and the game typically only gives you the barest of hints about them, which are easy to mistake for just npc chatter.
So about my game being hosed before. What I thought was me entering the midgame was me entering the postgame content. That wouldn't be so bad except that doing the side-quests and exploring I missed is not so sensible. Due to a mild spoiler that I imagine is going to cause very mixed opinions.
Postgame content is timed
I wasn't very found of that fact and that I couldn't really undo this since there was only one save. So I said whatever and that just means I'll have more stuff for new game plus. So I decided to relax and just finish the last few hurdles and see the ending.
Overall I enjoyed it a lot. It's better then the original in most ways except that original had an expansion as well. I hope we got that. Oh and I loved the ending of the original cause I thought it insane but cool. This time the overall story is better written and paced overall. If less mad.
I'm not going to start new game plus for a while. Cause the crashes were pretty awful. Over 20x times including after the ending. So I'll let it sit and probable beat it again. Which is a super strong endorsement for me.
How did you finish the main story so quick, is that really that short? Seems to be the sentiment in the Reddit sub. How many hours did it take?
How did you finish the main story so quick, is that really that short? Seems to be the sentiment in the Reddit sub. How many hours did it take?
A total of 28 hours. I did a decent amount of the side quests and exploring but not to my 90% I'd normally like to do. I looked online and I could easily seen myself exploring for another 10+ hours. Depending how thorough I got. One of the reasons I was annoyed about accidentally getting into post game. I was level 33 in postgame and beat it at 40.
I think part of it is the story is very similar to the first one but much more condensed. Which actually improves the narrative quite a bit but lowers the length substantially. Some parts in the first game it basically speedruns. I'd say a bit short for an open world game but still decent for a game on average. Though my view is anything 20+ hours is solid for a modern game.
I didn't know how good I had it. One of the complaints of the first game was the griffin was hard to come by and kept flying off. Now it's all over the place and killing me all the time.
I didn't know how good I had it. One of the complaints of the first game was the griffin was hard to come by and kept flying off. Now it's all over the place and killing me all the time. :)
I've named it Barry. Barry is a bastard.
Grenn wrote:I didn't know how good I had it. One of the complaints of the first game was the griffin was hard to come by and kept flying off. Now it's all over the place and killing me all the time. :)
I've named it Barry. Barry is a bastard.
I'm not alone. They hate everyone.
There's a lot of times where I get frustrated or just throw up my hands at an unfair moment but I'm loving this game! I bounced off of DD1 but I saw that there was something there and lots of people loved it. Reviews showed it being more accessible so I jumped in.
I constantly think there's stuff I'm missing, probably important stuff but I just keep going out and fighting because it's fun to cast spells and high five my pawns. I'm around level 22 and can reliably take down cyclops and minotaurs. I haven't encountered a griffin in a while so not sure if I'm there yet. I'm definitely not ready for a dragon.
JC wrote:Grenn wrote:I didn't know how good I had it. One of the complaints of the first game was the griffin was hard to come by and kept flying off. Now it's all over the place and killing me all the time. :)
I've named it Barry. Barry is a bastard.
I'm not alone. They hate everyone.
I haven’t had an up-close and personal encounter with him yet but I did see him flying around the foothills outside Vernworth and came within meters of nailing him with a bolt from that ballista on top of the tower. Unfortunately he flew away before I could ready another shot.
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