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• Batman

  

  • 342 posts
   

  May 25, 2012 7:29 AM EDT

  *****SPOILER WARNING******* cause you know there might be stuff you want to see on your own so venture forth bold traveler at your own risk
  

  Dragon’s Dogma

  The Dragon has returned to the world, choosing a person of a certain worth, the dragon rips out their heart and devours it. For some reason known only to the dragon the person survives and is then known as the Arisen by the people. They are the chosen by the dragon to go on a journey to seek it out for unknown reasons.

  The Story so Far

  After playing the tutorial/prologue and spending what seemed like forever making my Arisen (I enjoyed every minute) I was promptly given a movie that had the dragon attacking our village and me picking up a sword to attack its ankles, much to the effect of a mouse with a stick of wheat taking on the house cat. Like said mouse, I was quickly pinned and the dragon gobbled up my heart with me quickly blacking out. Surprise, surprise I was up and about in no time and thoroughly freaking out the villagers. Things calmed down though and I had a quick look about the place, I decided to head out of the village and at the gate came across a Pawn. We decided to join forces and headed for the nearest encampment to find out what is going on. Several things followed in sort order

  • Me and Rook (Pawns name) took on a Cyclops with a bunch of guards, I managed to get on its back and hack out its eye :D (Blood thirsty thing aren’t I?)
  • We found a rift stone in the camp and it spat out my Main pawn (the one that can’t leave me)
  • The camp got an early wakeup call from a Hydra that wanted to party but turned tail and ran after getting one of its heads hacked off.
  • The guard captain decided they wanted to take the bloody thing to the Duke as a present so we got roped into escort duty.
  • After that long journey we arrived in Gran Soren (the capital) and I was left to my own devices while we wait for the audience with the WrymKing

  Gameplay

  Besides the Pawn, one of the main draw cards for this game is the grab feature. You can pick up and put down most things (pots, rocks, crates, dazed enemies) you can also grab enemies and hold them in place for your pawns to pummel (or vice versa) or for the really big ones (like aforementioned Cyclops) you can scaled them and poke them with your stabby sticks.

  Pawns – If I had to describe them in one sentence? Over-excitable puppies with lemming tendencies but with the capacity to learn. (they gleefully run around the place picking up everything that isn’t bolted down.)
      As the Arisen you’ll have access to these warrior companions unfortunately without someone to guide them they can be as dumb as bricks, this is where you come in. As you adventure forth you’ll find these rocks with swirly patterns (better known as a rift stone) this is where the pawns come from. Finding the first of these will set you with a task, which after completing will grant you your very own pawn to keep (much like Pokémon *cough*)
     This is known as your Main Pawn you get to change/edit them pretty much the same as you did yourself, answer a few questions give them a name and a vocation and you’re almost ready to take on the world. Your main pawn will stay with you throughout the entire game so choose what their role in your party is going to be something to complement your own vocation is best. The main pawn differs from other pawns in the fact that they are in every way like you (except that besides the basic orders you can’t control them) they’ll level with you, you can upgrade their gear and choose what skills they learn.
     Pawns – the normal pawns come from the rift and are made by other players (using other peoples pawns grants them extra exp (I’m not going to bring up the Pokémon similarity again :P) or you can find them around towns and camps and hire them to your party. These pawns won’t level beyond the level you picked them up (so it’s a good idea to swap them out every few levels) you can have up to 2 pawns in your party (not including your main) so it’s a good idea to get a good mix to balance your skills.

  Vocations (Roles) to start off there are 3 main roles
  Fighter your typical hack and slash sword and shield fighter they act as a tank of sorts for the party but they doesn’t mean they can’t pack a punch
  Strider a quick and nimble fighter with daggers and a bow as secondary. Striders are manly quick burst or rapid fire attacks and rogue like tactics.
  Mage an all-round magic class they only use a staff but can empower your weapons with elemental power or blast that same power at your foes, they also act as healer.

  There are many more classes that form as Hybrids that you gain access to the further along you level up such as a mage knight or assassin.

  Charlie’s tips to survival

  • Try to keep your party balanced; some enemies will just bowl you over if you aren’t prepared.
  • Always take the opportunity to learn new skills; it can turn the tide in your fights(don’t forget to do this for your Main pawn also.
  • Try to avoid travelling at night at lower levels as the monsters are stronger and bolder and will attack you in greater numbers.
  • Gathered items like (berries and apples and some flowers) are perishables and will go bad (roughly a day or so after picking) and then made useless (unless you know how to make poisons from them). Do not horde these use them as soon as you need them, instead stock up on nuts, herbs, potions and empty flasks at every chance.
  • You have 3 other party members, spread the loot around and lighten your load.
  • If it looks like it can crush you, it probably can.
  • You don’t have to fight everything, running away isn’t shameful :P
  • Listen to your pawns, they soak up knowledge like a shamwow and can give you advice about lots of things.
  • do not go into deep water, you will be eaten.
  • Save often, I mean “a lot” often, the auto-save takes you back to the last inn whereas retry will take you back to the last time you saved (just don’t save in the same spot you took out a group of enemies they will re-spawn on you.

  Things I like about this game so far

  • Pawns learn and are actually helpful in a fight (like holding your enemy so you can stab it in the gut) they will learn the enemies’ tactics and adjust their fighting to suit unless you tell them otherwise.
  • The gear is decent looking and the girls don’t have to wear scantly gear ….though I did find a pair of silk lingerie
  • The character creation is extensive with almost every body part being able to be customised singly  and most cosmetic options having up to 50 choices (including body scars, make up and  1970’s porn moustaches ) my only complaint is the women looking a little too butch at times.
  • The gear looks great, though the gender lines have blurred a little (what it looks like on the guys it will look like on the girls (even if it is a halter leather top :P)
  • Combat is easy to navigate once you learn the controls and as soon as you have a few tricks under your belt really, really fun.

  I can’t think of anymore at the moment, if you guys have any questions please ask away I’ll try and answer them :)

  Kere (Strider) and her Main Pawn Acheron (Fighter)

  sorry about the bad res shot

• Kynareth

  

  • 140 posts
   

  May 25, 2012 7:46 AM EDT

  So is this fairly quest driven, or is there an opportunity for some freestyle roaming?  Does your main pawn eventually develop a personality, or are they just for commanding and battle support?  Do you have the opportunity to try and figure out what happened to you as the main character through other NPC's, books, etc?  

  This is an awesome review, and I really appreciate all the effort you are placing into these reviews.  It really helps  me sort out gaming priorities and wishlists!

• Batman

  

  • 342 posts
   

  May 25, 2012 8:15 AM EDT

  haha okies hmm which question first.
  its fairly quest driven, you can free roam but there isn't much point unless its to obtain materials etc
  you can talk to your pawns but besides the odd advice and quest help they don't really say much (so far)
  in the opening movie it tells you that the dragon has tasked you to seek him out, I haven't gone too far into the game but I think there might be more info on both the origins of the Arisen and the pawns and their connections to each other and to that of the dragon in the Pawn Guild Hall, but i haven't found it yet.

  Thank you kindly Kyn feed back is always nice, and I'm glad I could help :) if you have a game you think you might like but aren't sure post it as a suggest on my main Let's Talk Games discussion and I'll check it out for you if I can.

• Guy Corbett

  

  • 426 posts
   

  May 25, 2012 9:15 AM EDT

  Excellent review Charlie. I did download the demo to this and played through. I thought that it did look good but the whole companion aspect really put me off. I trhink the element that turned me off the most was a mechanical thing. The camera just didn't work for me at all and I found myself running all over the place lol The monsters looked great and I really digged the lantern on the hip as a light source. I think if I get desperate for a fantasy injection I will get a copy but with Skyrim and Witcher 2 Im good at the min lol.

  How does the levelling system work?

• Batman

  

  • 342 posts
   

  May 25, 2012 9:24 AM EDT

  hahah yeah the camera can get a bit hyper when you have quite a few mobs in close quarters

  hmm I think that you gain exp from killing stuff and quests as usual and that levels you up and automatically increases all your stats i'm not sure about this part but I think the more you use your job based skills you gain a different sort of exp for that and you go up a rank (wasn't really paying attention just saw the odd notice or two saying i had gained a rank) and i guess that increases your power with those skills.

  All of this gains you Discipline points which you spend at the inn to buy your job related skills, core abilities(related to your job) and augments (e.g increased health, ability to fall greater distance without injur,y being able to cast spells quicker etc also job based)

• Guy Corbett

  

  • 426 posts
   

  May 25, 2012 9:43 AM EDT

  Ahhh so there isnt a development tree for the different skills of perk lists like in Skyrim. Does it feel quite linear? I was expecting Witcher to be much more free roaming but it is quite story led. I think we have all been spoilt by Skyrim and the depth of play you can have from it lol

• Batman

  

  • 342 posts
   

  May 25, 2012 9:47 AM EDT

  hmm you buy basic skills and that unlocks greater versions of those skills etc as far as I can tell   well like I said to Kyn its mostly quest based but you can free roam there just isn't much point to go anywhere though unless you have a quest cause seriously after running into your third or fourth boss monster you'd really want there to be something worth it on the other side. there is a Main quest and then a bunch of other quests you can pick up from people or from the notice boards posted in the taverns (I suspect its cause only really really drunk people would be bra*coughstupidcough*ve to take on some of them.

• Tygravius

  

  • 577 posts
   

  May 25, 2012 10:09 AM EDT

  Does the game breathe much? From what I've seen, and it's purly advertising, is always these 'epic' battles. Like travelling from point A to point B will it require these 'epic' battles multiple times? I did like how you stated that you don't always actually have to fight and can avoid the situation. You know like in Skyrim there will be smaller foe's (wolves, mudcrabs, etc,) Is that the case with DD, or is there a slew of Cyclopses one after the other?

  I heard also it's good to plan accordingly to daytime. Nightime seems to really bring out the evil. I take it you can't 'wait' or if you can, it's at only certain checkpoints. Idk, I saw a couple videos and the player was trying to time it so that he would get to his destination in the morning. Have you done this and recommend it?

  I heard also there's no real Lore, books or codex to read up on. Is this true? The only infor you get is from NPC's?

  Thank Charlie! I'm still on the fence about this game....think I'll wait a little longer. Your review is encouraging though

• Tygravius

  

  • 577 posts
   

  May 25, 2012 10:18 AM EDT

  Another question. lol Has to do with the Pawns. Since the game has been out for a few days, I assume there are some pretty badass pawns available, say at lvl 38. Can you pick that pawn from the get go? Seems he/she would have all the knowledge you'd need for the rest, if not a large part of the game. Is there a window that you can only use certain pawns. Maybe ones equal to your level?

• Batman

  

  • 342 posts
   

  May 25, 2012 10:21 AM EDT

  i don't know by what you breathe but about the monsters yeah there are tons of hard ones not litterally one after another after another some areas of the map are harder then other and have greater foes, from what I've gathered so far from running around (and getting into a zone way too high for me) is that they have a 'patrol' area cross the line and if they spot you its ARGH i try eat you now ARGH! as soon as you move far enough away from them they go all URGH I wanted sit down meal not fast food .

  there are heaps of normal monsters though, wolves like you mentioned and harpies bandits camp out near the settlement and in some of the ruins.

  ooo yes you really need to plan your questing you don't want to be in the middle of nowhere when it gets dark unless you play an assassin i heard some of their skills only work at night. when you rest at inns (the only place i've found that you can rest) you can choose to set off in the morning or the evening. I would not reccomand being out at night in your low levels (I kept running into hordes of sorcerers(they promptly kicked my ass) and undead.

  Sorry i don't know anything about lore books at this time.

  thanks for reading :)

• Shannon

  

  • 668 posts
   

  May 25, 2012 10:26 AM EDT

  Matt wants this game so bad but after playing the demo, I was all ehhhh. It didn's seem all that wonderful to me. It sounds like you are enjoying it though so maybe I will give it a try. I am so desperate for something good to play. I still want to play the new Silent Hill game. All the reviews say it is AWESOME AMAZING.

• Batman

  

  • 342 posts
   

  May 25, 2012 10:26 AM EDT

  haha the game only came out on thursday as far as i know but then again in game world that is plently of time for some one to make a lvl 38 or higher. as far as i can tell when you enter the rift (the place you hire the pawns) only ones around your level and the current party ones (excluding your main, that one never leaves you and levels with you anyway) are in there.

  again as far as I can tell the pawn stays with you until you end the contract and it returns to the rift. there are some 'special' pawns out there but i don't know yet where to get those.

• Tygravius

  

  • 577 posts
   

  May 25, 2012 10:29 AM EDT

  What I meant by 'breathe' is, you know how you can walk in Skyrim forever without seeing an enemy sometimes. Not always be burden by foes. Time to take in vistas, etc. Or is it one Giant camp after another? Like 40 yards from each other. Like imagine walking across the Whiterun plains and there was a 100 Giant camps. lol Not much time to "breathe", just one battle after another.

• Batman

  

  • 342 posts
   

  May 25, 2012 10:31 AM EDT

  its been pretty awesome so far, except for the past half hour i think i chose a quest too far out for my level and now i have to fight my way back through the mobs again.

  the only i can think its missing at the moment is either mounts or fast travel i heard there was something like way-stones that you can place where you've been and teleport between them still looking into that. all i can say is stay close to the capital for a while and level up.

  though i did end up finding this epic bow i won't need to replace for ages (almost doubled my current power >: D time to suffer bandits!!!!)

  urgh sorry i can't help with Silent hill ever since i saw my brother play the first one and the nurse started turning dead and dripping blood i freaked and haven't looked at anything to do with that title since... plus the radio noise freaked me out a lot *whimpy charlie is whimpy*

• Shannon

  

  • 668 posts
   

  May 25, 2012 10:37 AM EDT

  LOLOL, poor Charles. Yes, the Silent Hill games can scare the crap out of you for sure. The game is over so fast that I don't ever spend the $60 on them. I wait until they come down a little. They're always pretty short.

  I'll keep that in mind in DD. I am playing ME2 right now anyways.

• Batman

  

  • 342 posts
   

  May 25, 2012 10:37 AM EDT

  aaah yeah i get ya, hmm i guess it depends on where you are sometimes you can go for ages and run into nothing other times its like your in a mosh pit.

  one thing you've got to be careful of in the quiet areas though is it might not be all it seems, i was walking through this valley the other saw nothing for ages all of a sudden these huge ass boulders start careening down the path at us, luckily we were able to find an alcove and dodge them other wise we would have been pancakes. turns out there was a bandit camp 200 odd meters up the cliff and they liked to toss boulders at people.

• William Laforce

  

  • 132 posts
   

  May 25, 2012 10:40 AM EDT

  I'll answer that one. It depends how far you go away from the starting town, the epic monsters I mean. In the area around there, it's all goblins, wolves and bandits in a certain area, though the bandits can actually be ridiculously difficult early on.

  But anyways, once you start getting far enough from towns and cities, especially into forests, you'll run into large monsters. The game doesn't actually force you to fight them, as the world is open enough for you to avoid them most of the time, which I recommend until at least level 16, as they will annihilate you with only a couple hits until then. Be aware though, because avoiding one monster can sometimes cause more problems than it solves. I remember one time when I left the road to avoid a cyclops and got jumped by a chimera, which is worse in many ways.

  That said, there are points where fighting is unavoidable. After finally sneaking past the chimera and the army of bandits, you come to a path on a cliff. On it is a cyclops and bandit ambush group, and the ledge is too small to avoid them. Fortunately, you have tactics on your side: you aren't the only thing in the game that takes fall damage. If you're lucky (and a strider...sorry warriors and mages, you have advantages elsewhere), you can knock the cyclops off the mountain from 30 feet away by shooting it in the shoulder, causing it to stumble right off the cliff.

  This is the genius of Dragon's Dogma, there are so many ways to fight. Holding the cyclop's leg pins it in one spot. Shooting it in the eye temporarily blinds it, leaving it swinging blindly in one spot. Shooting it in the hand will make it drop its club, dramatically weakening it. Breaking its tusk will send it into a wild frenzy, which can be extremely dangerous but useful as well. There is no single way to fight an enemy, and each class has their own. I've only played as a strider, so I am only really familiar with its advantages, but it's always fun.

  Back to the actual question, yes getting to point A to point B will involve at least seeing lots of monsters. (Those escort quests on the board? If you haven't been there before, don't take it. It only makes for frustration if you're forced into difficult areas you aren't ready for. No, it isn't just large monsters, the vast majority of stuff you fight will be humansized or smaller. Nighttime is indeed much more dangerous, not the least of which is the inability to see more than a few metres in front of you, even with the lantern. The monsters increase in strength and numbers as well. You know those Revenant things in Dragon age, the ones that can pretty easily slaughter your whole party unless you're almost max level? The equivalent are regular enemies in some forests at night. Advice, if it starts getting dark, haul ass to the nearest inn. And lore, yeah, not that much. Honestly you're too busy to notice, though.

• William Laforce

  

  • 132 posts
   

  May 25, 2012 10:45 AM EDT

  You can hire pawns way higher level than you, but it costs Rift crystals, which you can either buy or you get in small amounts from having your pawn hired. Just enter the rift, then activate the riftstone and search pawns. There are a number of criteria, but anyways search by level. The cost in rift crystals is calculated by how much higher in level they are than you. Special pawns don't appear to be ready yet.

• Batman

  

  • 342 posts
   

  May 25, 2012 10:45 AM EDT

  :D thanks William I knew I forgot a few things.

  heh speaking of that cliff with the bandits and Cyclops...I'm stuck on it atm coming back from that escort :P

• William Laforce

  

  • 132 posts
   

  May 25, 2012 10:49 AM EDT

  The one to that big castle on the cliff? Yup, that was the first noticeboard quest I took lol, not doing that again for a bit. As I said, try to attract the cyclops away from the bandits with your bow, then shoot it in the should facing away from the cliff, which has a chance of causing it to stumble, which potentially could 1hitKO it. The bandits, if you can't kill them just run away lol, it's the only thing that's saved me from getting stranded.

• Batman

  

  • 342 posts
   

  May 25, 2012 10:55 AM EDT

  I think the quest was called the Peddler's Petition, it was okay i guess getting up there pass 3 cyclops 2 chimera's and 4 bandit camps (good times there) then came to the cliff pass and actually manged to knock the cyclops' club out and then got on his back and stabbed the crap out of him (i found a spot to sit where he couldn't grab me) and manged to down him eventually by tripping him up and down the cliff side he went, yeah i just ran past the bandits scary spell casters those are. not to mention the lake with harpies and another chimera (managed to sneak past that one)  did i mention the fact i was only level 11 at the time with only my MP and a level 6 pawn to boot? hahahah yeah once i get back to the capital i'm sticking to the quests close to base before trying a stunt like that again

• William Laforce

  

  • 132 posts
   

  May 25, 2012 11:15 AM EDT

  I am indeed impressed, my pawns always seem to get their asses kicked at that time...it's probably worse since I never use items :P Try running past an army of skeleton mages in the middle of the night while full magical healing only brings you up to 300... god it was epic but terrifying :P My party successfully beat about 3 skeleton mages, but I saw they were still in combat stance so I climbed a nearby hill to the unwelcome sight of about a dozen casting circles. The fortress was just across the plain, so I'm just like screw this, I just ran past all of them. I make it to the base, finish the quest, pat myself on the back, and then think... now I have to get back

• Batman

  

  • 342 posts
   

  May 25, 2012 11:19 AM EDT

  yeah the hp system erks me a bit i wish it was a bit more lenient i'm always running out of herbs can magic can only give back so much.

  hahaa gargh night time totally freaks me atm one cause of the lack of light its hard to avoid mobs and two the amount of difficult mobs in the small areas.

  hehe the return trip is always fun :P but a bit easier if you know the spawn points and can work around them

• ScarTheKhajiit

  

  • 57 posts
   

  May 25, 2012 12:47 PM EDT

  I1m enjoying the game too. Its a bit hard especially the SPOILER The Everfall

• William Laforce

  

  • 132 posts
   

  May 25, 2012 2:58 PM EDT

  Oh and you forgot one thing charlie...Dragon's dogma has the greatest title screen music ever :D