Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

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Winnow
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Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

Post by Winnow »

This is my kind of game. I was hoping this game would be cool in a Monster Hunter sort of way after seeing the big boss fights in videos, etc but it's turned out to be a great all around game. I haven't been this hooked on a game in a long time. With all the quality RPGs that have been released recently (Skyrim, Kingdoms of Amalur, Witcher 2), don't overlook this one. This is my favorite of the bunch

First of all, this game is challenging. The game constantly warns you to prepare before venturing forth. After the first few intro fights, you're gonna find the difficulty in this game will place it right after the Demon's Souls games. It's not as hard as that but it's a step above the three games I just mentioned.

Save your game a lot. You have one save and your game doesn't get saved typically unless entering or exiting cities, dungeons, etc. You'll have lots of encounters in the open world while traveling to your quest destinations. None of these are pushover fights (after the first hour or two). Also, as you fight, your HPs can be restored by a mage casting a heal spell but as you keep taking damage, your max HPs slowly decrease and keep decreasing. You can restore your own hps by taking potions but the Pawns (NPCs) with you don't seem to like to take potions, so unless you have expensive, heavy group heal potions, your party members HPs will keep going down through battle until you rest at an Inn. This is can be brutal on a long dungeon crawl or even long journey across the countryside. In one of the early dungeons I was really getting low, scrounging around looking for ingredients to make a group heal potion.

Graphics:

Anyone who's played the demo has seen the character generator. It's definitely good enough to make a decent looking character. The demo also starts you at level 20 so you can try out a fight or two. That's nice to get a feel for archer or fighter and battle but you don't get to try out the mage and don't get to experience everything else about the game.

I think the art style and animations are excellent. I've been impressed with the cut scenes and how well they integrate your character. The story isn't award winning but the voice acting is pretty good and the animations, facial expressions, etc during NPC encounters are all well done.

First thing in an RPG that's important to me is caring about my toon. Being able to customize it, having a story that's interesting, and feeling like I'm making a difference in what happens and not like I'm just watching a movie with a little action in between cut scenes. Dragon's Dogma manages to satisfy all of those needs.

A few things about the graphics/animation that struck me...first, the way your toon moves. Running, walking, climbing, etc all look great. The movement is excellent. It almost has an Assassins Creed feel to it. Your toon deftly slides down steep slopes, crawls up rocks, climbs up ledges and jumps around with very fluid motions. There is attention to detail. For example, when you have an empty flask and find a jar full of water , oil, etc, your character gets out the flask and fills it up if that's what you want it to do. You don't just get a, "ding!" and message that your flask is now full. Small things like your character losing balance, landing from a fall etc is all portrayed well.

The lighting is fantastic. It has the best night environment. The lighting from your lantern is just enough and the warm colors look like they should. There is great importance between night and day...so much so that you don't really want to be wandering around at night, especially at lower levels. When the shadows start to grow long, you make your way for the nearest castle/camp, etc. Things very close to the main city will kill you fairly easily...and that's during the day, night becomes more hazardous. I've never paid so much attention to the time of day in an RPG. (well except EQ and Kith forest!). If Im about to head out of the city and it's too late in the day, I'll head to the Inn and sleep until dawn. It can take a full day's light to get to your destination. You can certainly travel at night but it's something you're aware of.

Capcom also did a great job with equipment in the game. There is diversity and decisions to make. You have Clothes, Armor, Outfits, and Jewelry/Accessories. Clothes and Armor can stack and both provide stats. You can wear a tunic and then a robe over it, etc. You can wear belts over clothes. The flow of robes, etc is well done. Again, great animation in the game. An outfit replaces both clothes and armor. I've only found one outfit so far that comes close to a combo of clothes and armor but it still didn't beat it in stats. You may cross dress if that's your thing. The game is also pretty interactive. You can pick up random things, carry them around, break them, use them, throw them, etc.

Another thing about clothes. You don't swim in this game but you can be around water often. Most games ignore it when you go into the water but in this game, you get drenched...your clothes look wet, hair appears wet and you move slower until you dry yourself off. It took me awhile to figure out that clean cloth in your inventory can be used like a towel. I slushed around for awhile until I figured that out.

Scenery, to me, is as impressive as in Skyrim. When I get to a high lookout, I can see a long long ways...all the way back to the castle I left in the distance. The art direction is great. I've stopped many times during quests or journeying across the country to just admire the scenery. With quests being so hard in the beginning, I've also wandered around the city, and around the outside near the city, exploring and finding things. I don't feel rushed at all in the game but at the same time you can have several quest going on. The map is clear and updates when you discover things frequently.

The cities are pretty open as well. There are some locked doors here and there but on the whole, it's wide open and most places don't require loading screens between indoors and outdoors. It's so nice to open a door and not be hit immediately with a loading screen.

I mentioned the climbing earlier. You can monkey man it around by climbing up rooftops, etc. If you you choose a caster class, you can pick up levitation as one of your augments. You don't really levitate but it lets you give a little boost when you jump, and especially when you fall, you can click your jump button and safely float down.

Dungeons:

The open world is impressive in this game but the dungeons weren't ignored. I've only been through one proper dungeon, mostly because I get my ass kicked pretty much every where I go in the game. There is an early sewers type dungeon in your little village town that I did not experience which might help level you up some. Also, this is the kind of game you could spend an hour or two exploring a place, or be gone in five minutes. You are rewarded for exploring. Cities, the world, and dungeons are open enough that you will miss a shit ton of loot/drops if you rush through. I'm talking major stashes of coins, etc. I found one coin bag that more than doubled my entire bankroll and it wasn't the end loot boss mob chest or anything like that but you weren't going to find in unless you observed your surroundings and jumped/climbed your way to discovering it.

One of the early experiences has you suddenly fighting a very large mob (that's not a spoiler, there's a lot of big mobs) inside a camp. This wasn't just some static encounter. The huge mob was all over the place plowing through shit, wrecking stuff. By the end of that encounter, the place is pretty much wiped and it stays that way. You almost have a little God of War action thrown into that fight, going for weak points, etc. There's also an early escort mission that is pretty bad ass as well. It's a long escort and it's a relief when you get to the end...start early so the sun doesn't set! Biggest point I want to make about the quests are that they don't feel generic which is typically a big complaint for many RPG games. Very early, I did receive a "collect x flowers" type quest but I never finished it. I ran into too many other things while looking and got side tracked.

Pawns:

Your party contains 4 members. Yourself, your main pawn, and two other pawns. Pawns aren't human. They somehow magically fall out of the rift to help you. Early in the game you get to create your primary Pawn using the character generator and select their class, demeanor, etc. This pawn always stays with you so you care about their equipment, skill advancement, etc. The other two Pawns you "hire" from the rift. If offline (which I am until I can actually buy the game) you can hire Pawns that are the same level as you for free. If you chose to hire Pawns that are higher level, they cost progressively more "rift" points to hire. Hiring is a one time fee but they also don't advance so you wont' be keeping them typically for more than a few levels while your main Pawn advances with you. When you visit the rift to hire a Pawn, you enter a dreamscape area and the Pawns materialize. You can select from the 5 that appear or bring up a Pawn filter system and select the class/level, etc that you want and you'll get 100 results back of which you can select 5 to appear in front of you so you can choose the ones you like best. The gear is pretty random so there can be quite a difference in stats of same level Pawns. Their skills also vary so you need to check those to make sure they fit your play style. For the most part, I could hire Pawns a few levels higher than me without spending too many Rift Points. I started out level 4 and hired some level 6 Pawns. By the time my first adventure was over, I was level 11 and my pawns (except main pawn) were still level 6 so forking out for a few levels higher isn't a bad idea.

Pawns have same stats you do but also have ratings on how well they know about certain quest and areas so beyond their fighting skills, you might grab one that's familiar with a quest you're undertaking to get a few tips here and there. You can also find scrolls that teach your Pawns tactics on how to fight a certain mob...for example, I found one on Cyclops mobs so they know how best to fight that particular mob....doesn't meant they'll win but you have a better chance.

Pawns fight pretty well. I play a mage and I made my primary pawn a mage so and put it into a heal first mode so it can take care of the party while I blast shit and the fighter and ranger do their melee thing. For your primary Pawn, you can set up their primary and secondary skills (three each) in order to tailor them to server your needs. The other two pawns come as they are and you have to work with it. When able to access online, you can borrow anyone's primary pawns to help you fight so there should be some really good secondary pawns to hire. The pawn you create also gets hired out and there's nothing you can do about it (never when you're actually using them) but you usually get gifts in return for their use.

Pawns aren't that bright but they are very necessary. I mentioned how you can get drenched in the game by water but even though there's a perfectly good walkway I'm using, my Pawns will go all over the place, including running though the water and then complain that they're wet. You have basic commands, "go (attack), help, and "come on' (stop fighting and follow me as I run away like a scared little girl). They jibber jabber all the time and they loot/harvest/gather all the time as well. This is cool except they look good stuff too and if you're not paying attention, you may miss they they looted something you could use. Of course, grab all the inventory from them before giving them the boot for a fresh pawn. You can't take equipment that they came with. Also, if a pawn dies, you don't lose the loot on them, it goes to your warehouse...which, in a hard game like this, is a nice break. You don't get the pawn back again until you can make it to a rift and rehire them or someone else though.

Skllls:

Bad ass. There are some great effects in this game and some fun skills. Mages get an electric whip they can use at higher levels. One thing I really like are how some skills power up. For example, as a Mage, I have the skill "high ingle" which is basically a firebolt. What's cool about the spell/skill is that I can hold down the button and keep powering it up until it's max damage and release it. I can also release at any time before that at a lower damage level...but, I can also hold the button down past max power and refill the power bar in order to launch a triple firebolt that causes some serious damage. Now, it takes awhile for these skills to power up which is all good if the battle's going well and your front line is holding off the goons. But, since this game is hard and mages can get beat down fast and even one-shotted, when a mob is running at you and you're holding that button down, it can get intense as you know that mob is going to kill you if he hits you but you want to make sure your firebolt is strong enough to take it out. It's a blast (pun intended). Also, for smaller sized mobs, certain skills (like firebolt) will blast the holy fuck out of a mob so they go flying a long distance. That doesn't happen with the bigger mobs but the knockback sure helps in a close fight.

Nothing in the game I've experiences is a cakewalk...unless you choose to give a random peon a beat down in the street which you're welcome to do but it will have repercussions...the game isn't so strict that you can't accidentally smack someone and the guards all come running though. At the same time, I don't feel frustrated even though I've died quite a bit. The dungeons are excellent and long. I spent an hour or two in the one I finished. The open world is pretty big but that doesn't even account for the sizable "dungeons" so this game should keep peeps busy a long time. You will run (or die) sometimes. Even in the dungeon I completed, I had no chance of killing the final boss and had to run my ass off all the way back out of the dungeon with chaos happening all around me...lost a pawn in the process : (. It's also refreshing to not have the "seekrit exit" that seemed to be in every Skyrim dungeon, allowing you to get out quickly. I ran my ass off, healing pawns, ressing pawns and was rewarded at the very end with a nice cut scene. I'll give good marks for quests/dungeons not being generic as well as Capcom polishing them off as to making you finish them after you find what you're looking for at the "bottom". The world looks great with a lot of use of the Z axis.

There has been thought put into how mobs appear in "dungeons" as well. At times its like a horror show. One little cubby hole that had a chest all the sudden started spawning mass zombies...I killed them off, got the the chest but then more popped up and started grabbing my legs. While one of the main attractions are the big boss mob battles, they didn't ignore the smaller mobs, and didn't ignore placing some minor puzzles to make you think a little. There's also some "choose your poison" stuff. I could trap a big boss mob but would end up battling through a side passage full of skellies or face the boss...or both.

Everywhere I've ventured so far has impressed me in the game...from the scenery, the mobs, the animations and voice acting. It's all been great.

The crafting/enhancement portion of the game is also deep while managing to make things easy for you. If something in your inventory can be combined, there is a combine button, when selected bring up a window of anything else in your inventory that can be combined with that item. At first, it won't tell you want it will result in, but after the first combination, it will name the result before you combine. Same with weapon enhancement. If you have the stuff needed to + your weapon, it will tell you when you hit "enhance".

Leveling up feels paced right. Acquiring rift points pace feels right, and cash balance for buy's sells seems good as well. I've managed to spend hours just wandering and figuring out the crafting, etc. It's the sign of a good game when I don't feel the need to rush out and kill stuff all the time.

The game is great because I feel involved all the time. It's also challenging. I'm level 17 and am still getting waxed by random bandits, etc at times. It feels rewarding finishing a dungeon or even making it to your next destination. I have one early quest that I can't even make it to the entrance to start it.

If you are a fan of games like Skyrim, Amalur and Wither 2, this is well worth your time. If you are a power gamer and try to rush through games, this one might frustrate you because you need to build up your levels some. Attention to detail is everywhere in this game. CAPCOM managed to make a great "western" looking RPG.

Looking forward to starting fresh when this comes out Tuesday!
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

Post by Aslanna »

XBOX Magazine gave it a 6/10. Said it was kind of boring and generic looking.
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

Post by Winnow »

Aslanna wrote:XBOX Magazine gave it a 6/10. Said it was kind of boring and generic looking.
here's a better more varied location to find game reviews:

http://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-360/dragons-dogma

The game has it's issues, but I'm enjoying it more than Skyrim, Amalur and Witcher 2. Just stating my opinion above and that the demo doesn't really give you a good idea of the overall game. I'm having a great time. I think people that like the more hard core RPGs will take a liking to this game.
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

Post by miir »

It's getting pretty decent reviews... I was planning on grabbing it when I finish up Kingdoms of Amalur (which is fantastic)
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

Post by Winnow »

miir wrote:It's getting pretty decent reviews... I was planning on grabbing it when I finish up Kingdoms of Amalur (which is fantastic)
Everyone's different but I also enjoyed playing Amalur (more than Skyrim). I hope Dragon's Dogma does well and encourages CAPCOM and some other Asian developers to try their hand at more "Western" RPGs.
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

Post by Winnow »

Here's a twp page scanned review from OXM UK:
[Show]
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

Post by miir »

I'm enjoying Kingdoms of Amalur a lot more than Skyrim. The combat is way more fun and its less of a hassle to experiment with different character builds.... Uts also a lot more colourful.

This game looks like it's gonna be a ton of fun.
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

Post by Funkmasterr »

I've been planning on getting this since forever. Who knows when I'll have time for it though. I can't pull myself away from diablo, I'm also getting max Payne 3 and ghost recon, and I just started school. Lol.
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

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miir wrote:I'm enjoying Kingdoms of Amalur a lot more than Skyrim. . Uts also a lot more colourful.

This game looks like it's gonna be a ton of fun.

Yeah, I like the color pallet used on Amalur as well over the brownish/rust dull colors of Skyrim. Regarding colors, Dogma is in between those two.

This game is fantastically hard. I decided to go back from the Main city to the starting town and encountered battles every step of the way. I'm getting the hang of things now but this is going to be a fun game for those that don't mind dying. I started hiring Pawns that are about 3 or 4 levels above me and that's helped. I also just recently changed to Sorcerer from Mage (career change, back to rank one for new class, but your level stays same). I switched my group from Sorc (me) Mage (main Pawn healer) Ranger/Fighter to Sorc/Mage/Fighter/Warrior. The extra tank seems to work better for my style. The key is to keep yourself alive because its easy to res your pawns in battle but if you die it's back to last save spot. I end up blasting/stunning mobs out of the sky and then my tanks clean them up which takes care of the need for a ranger.

BTW, there's a sewer dungeon in the first town that doesn't show up (quest not available) until after you've received your main pawn, that you create with the character editor, a little later. Be sure to go back to your starting town and try dungeon. It's a bitch if you do it that low but lots of loot to get you started if you make it through.

Also...I mentioned group heals are huge:

Harspud Juice + Large Nut = Balmy Perfume
Harspud Sauce + Large Nut = Balmy Incense (improved variation of Balmy Perfume)

The balmy Perfume and Incense are group heals so save your nuts!

Nice thing about curative ingredients is that the stuff that makes up the potions etc, also cures health, stamina, poison, etc in smaller amounts so the stuff you harvest can be used right away or in emergencies if needed. You can also combine stuff anywhere so no need to go go some lame alchemy table.

Encumbrance is a big deal in this game so offloading crap to your pawns is a good idea (if your pawn dies or you get a new pawn, the stuff goes to your warehouse so you don't risk anything).

You can be very light, light, average, and heavy for encumbrance and your speed varies for each. I try to stay light but it's hard sometimes with all the things looted and I have a small character so they carry less.(but regain stamina faster) Also, keep some clean towels on hand to dry off after getting drenched.
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

Post by Winnow »

BTW, this game's online features are accessible with just a Silver account on Xbox Live. I know most of you have Gold but I don't atm and don't feel like buying it right now so this is good news.
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

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More game developers need to start doing that.
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

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MS probably wouldn't take kindly to that. That's the only reason people buy Gold for the most part. Other than those Netflix people.
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

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And don't forget about those people who use Facebook on their 360!
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

Post by Winnow »

I can confirm the Silver things works for Pawns.

The pawn selection is much better with on Live than the random Pawns you get offline.

I picked up the Strategy Guide As well. The only thing I can add atm is about weight.
Super Small and Small Characters: under 69 KGs - Stamina Restore 1.8x, Stamina Consumption .5x, Movement Speed 1.15x, Max Encumbrance 40 KG

Medium Weight 70-89 KGs - Stamina Restore 1x, Stamina Consumption 1x, Movement Speed 1x, Max Encumbrance 65 KG

Large and Extra Large: 90KG + Stamina Restore .6x, Stamina Consumption 2.0x, Movement Speed .8x, Max Encumbrance 100 KG KG
Heavy characters get penalized in three categories while small players benefit in three categories. As long as you can manage your inventory, small is the way to go unless you're maybe a warrior that needs full plate, etc. With stamina being a big deal for skills and sprinting, while movement is also important.

Along with this though, when you are encumbered you slow down so little characters with 40 KG start to get encumbered quickly which kinda defeats the 1.8 speed but you still get the 1/2 stamina consumption and 1.8 stam regen.

Image

I went with the small size for speed/stamina. Here's my newbie mage and Pawns. The lady in the dress is an NPC I'm escorting as part of a quest. The other character in the background in rags is my primary pawn, and the other two with shields are pawns I hired from Live. They tend to look better than the random/patchwork pawns you get offline.

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The nighttime lighting is great in this game.

Image

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I'm so small I fit inside a hydra's mouth! That's not a cut scene. It's part of the fight, although the I really like the quality of the cut scenes in this game. In this pic I was busy taking a screenshot so the Hydra was able to grab me.
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

Post by kyoukan »

I was just thinking the other day. "Wow, a video game Winnow is playing where he can't whack off to his pre-teen girl avatar." Whoops. Well some streaks can't be broken I guess.
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

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at least this one is wearing a burlap sack
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

Post by Winnow »

Right on schedule! What a dipshit. I'll give you four out of five pedobears for your latest comments. Come on loser! You can do better!

ImageImageImageImage


BTW, if you don't feel your character or pawn looks young enough after seeing my mad editing skills, you can change your appearance at the Rift Store:

http://dragonsdogma.wikia.com/wiki/Rift_Shop

Here's a pretty active forum discussing Dragon's Dogma:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/626514-dragons-dogma
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

Post by Winnow »

Hire my Pawn!

Mage/Healer Level 13 Her name is Dart

This Pawn stuff is pretty cool. I've made 4K + rift points from people hiring my pawn and that's while she was level 6 and in rags. I've smutted her up now and she's got some decent skills for her level.

First issue I've had with Dogma: The online servers seemed to be overwhelmed so sometimes when your Pawn is being updated, it can't access the server. My last save I was advised that two people had used my Pawn (tells you the XBox Live Name and how they rated you, comments, etc) but the serve crashed after telling my i had hauled in another 3K or so rift points. I tried to rest again to update but those points were lost due to the crash.

Each time you rest at an Inn the Pawn's stats are uploaded to the server. The Rift points come automatically if someone uses your pawn and depending on how long they use it but they also are prompted to rank your pawn as well as give you a gift (something from their inventory). Usually the gift is trivial. If your lucky, a healing herb, but usually rotten fruit or something. My Pawn's ranked 4/5 stars.

Kinda fun to use the semi advanced search features to find the Pawns you want to hire. Lots of filter options.
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

Post by kyoukan »

the sad part is that you think it is funny, that you have a very serious and very harmful sexual dysfunction. you need to seek immediate help in order to correct it before you do something tragic and irreversible to an innocent child.
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

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Oh shut the hell up drama queen. You're a fucking joke you loon. Sad part is you stressing over the way a toon looks. What a wound up tight dumbass. Get a life idiot.
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

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This game is awesome. I've spent 12-14 hours in the game and really haven't gotten anywhere except the newbie area (in between home city and capital city). That's a compliment to the game because it's a blast to play and I'm not worried about progression much. I did remake my chars after purchasing the game so I've gone over things twice and still am seeing new areas. I really went almost a completely different route exploring with my second batch of characters.

Here's a post from a forum giving another good summary of why the game might be enjoyable for you:
This game has the Aesthetics of a Jrpg but the look and concept of a Wrpg

What i mean is this,

JRPG Elements

-Attractive, and well designed character models. It isnt hard to make your character look easy on the eyes.

-Incredible Texturing

-Very well animated run and walk cycles, and most of all, combat animations are impressive.

-Very good structure, although the game is open world, it still feels like it maintains a linear structure, geometry wise.

-Stylized weapon attacks. Jrpgs/J-action always have over the top weapon attacks, this game seems to have a good balance of functional/situational skills, and not necessary, but cool looking skills. (i find blink strike to be a rather cartoony skill, its just like Dante's Stinger from DMC, but reguardless i love the skill)

-Very Good overall programming. ( i have yet to fall through the map or see my character bug out. every wrpg i managed to suffer one of these things often.)

WRPG Elements

-Sandbox style open world aspects

-Character models try to be designed to look like realistic people

-Weight Determines your inventory space/ interface seems westerny too

-Lots of things can be looted

-Large explorable landscapes

-Npcs are interactable, other then just being able to read their 1 or 2 recycled lines.

I feel that the game's intention was not just to make a awesome rpg, but to combine the best elements of both japanese, and western rpgs. This is my theory on why everyone is enjoying the game, it has a great sense of balance in game structure from both worlds. It's not too grindy,
yet its not too pointlessly open world. The music at times can kinda go both ways... that JROCK title screen music however does seem very misplaced lol.
Last edited by Winnow on May 24, 2012, 2:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

Post by Winnow »

More stuff:
Difficulty: PAY ATTENTION EA GAMES! If you are not prepared (equipment / healing items) you will die. If you go off the path at night you will die. If you don’t listen to your pawns advice you will die. If you fail to block / dodge you will die. If you think you can survive that fall off the cliff you will die. If you fail to have the right pawns for the situation you will die (Unless you are one of those awesome soloists and my hat is off to you). If you have never fought that monster before and you or your pawns don’t know its weakness you will die. If you are under leveled for the area you are in you will die (see my points on level scaling). All of these things that can and will kill you happen on simple fetch quests. I have actually played the game for about 15 hours but only successfully played 10 with all the restarts.

Combat: Every class feels different in combat and the possibilities are endless. The class skills look great and feel unique. I also found the pawn AI to be very useful in combat. Everybody is praising the combat so I don’t need to go into much detail. The best part about the combat is that it is challenging.

Level Scaling: Unlike some unnamed games about dragons the world does not revolve around you. If you craft 10 iron daggers with your smithing skill bandits don’t gain a level. When your character levels up they are more powerful which allows you to explore different areas. Classic RPG players love this.

Pawns: They are smart in combat and act appropriately in different situations. Some fighter pawns may stay close and guard you main character others may run off into battle and create aggro. Some pawns may go on ahead while others may hang back and explore the area around you for items. I wish there were more voices to choose from. They all sound the same after a while. The advice they tell you is useful but it can be annoying when they all shout it at once. Sharing pawns brings just the right amount of co-op into this game. To have another player in my game world would just be annoying for them. Nobody wants to watch me climb onto roofs to collect bricks. This game is single player for a reason.

Crafting / Items:

Monster hunter fans will like the crafting system. Killing rare monsters for their parts to create and upgrade weapons and armor. One of my favorite parts about this game is when my pawns go off and gather herbs that I later need because I was not fully prepared. There are 8 armor slots that all change the look of your character and you pawn. You also have a limited amount of weight that each party member can carry so you have to manage your inventory carefully.

If you loved old school rpgs that didn’t spoon feed you this game is for you.
some random attention to detail:
one of my pawns picked up a fallen pawn and carried her over to where I was and dropped her at my feet for healing. I thought that was awesome. I was sitting back sniping so having pawns show "human" initiative was pretty sweet.
My favorite moment so far is when I threw a goblin towards my pawn and he went all "batter up!" and smacked him off the cliff.
my tank pawn put her shield down while fighting a Griffon, she then said something like "come here to go sky high" I ran to her and she actually sent me flying to the griffon, wish I had vid capture for this
best moment in any RPG I've played since 1987 :)
It wasn't really an awesome pawn moment, more of a HOLY CRAP THAT JUST HAPPENED. I was doing the first quest with the pawn guild and while I was going down the spiral ramp I had picked up one of my pawns and threw them to the bottom. He lived so I had to rush down to save him, but in my way was an ogre. I jumped on the ogres arm and as he started to flail he fell off the platform to the bottom. IT WAS EPIC. I was able to save my pawn in the nick of time AND saved a good ten minutes descending the spiral.
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

Post by Winnow »

Been playing Dragon's Dogma all day.

Nothing's changed. This game rocks.


Each quest feels epic. Besides the game being challenging in general, they chose to not place all the loot/chest in obvious locations. I went back to the original dungeon I played before release and this time looked around the bottom. On a ledge around a corner that you had to jump to, a level up from the floor, there was a crapload of loot I missed the first time. I'd guess I found about 40% of the bags/chests, etc my first trip there. The game has almost platform-like jumping/climbing mechanics. I highly recommend you pick up the levitate augment if you play a mage/sorc.

It's great that they reward you for actually taking the time to look around. Also, the game is unforgiving in quests. There's a very early escort quest where you take Madeleine from your home town to a camp. At the end of the trip she asks you for 10K gold to help her travel to the Big city and setup a shop. First, it's early in the game when 10K is still a lot of coin and you may not even have that much on you at that point. Second. If you don't, or say no, you don't get another chance. Her shop, which includes nice items, it gone for the game and you just get her crap items. Another example is a quest to find the daughter of the mayer of your home town (if you even find that quest to begin with...quests aren't spoon fed to you). She's off in some part of the world that's a bitch to get to with bandits in the way. I tried and failed early on but once you get to the capital and complete a certain quest, the daughter rescue quest is voided.

My advice: give Madeleine the 10K (and don't escort her if you don't have the 10K on you). Not sure about how the Aqina daughter quest impacts anything later on or if it does.

Great fucking game. What seems like not much of a side quest turns into multiple hours in a cool dungeon. The design of the dungeons have been first rate with room to explore and unique designs. There always seems to be that "and one more thing" Steve Jobs type moment in dungeons where you get think you're about done and then get sidetracked, finding something more to do beyond the current quest. You can also use your brain a bit with multiple solutions to some quests.

Night is still spooky big time. I spent the whole (game) day finding a quest item that was out in the boonies. By the time I found the item the sun was going down and I had a long long way back to find an Inn or safe town/camp...well my lantern ran out and I had no more flasks of oil to charge it up (BTW, your lantern goes out when you get doused with water etc as it's should...which is kinda fun when your deep in a dungeon and mob knocks you back into some water and everything goes dark) So I'm sticking to the trail, trying to see it as best I can and wolves start attacking. At night, the monster count seems to quintuple and you get skellies, zombies, spirits, etc thrown in as well. My run through the forest was memorable. After you're attacked, it's too late to save the game so if it's been awhile since your last save, the stakes are higher. You can sprint for awhile but your stamina gives out and if no stamina pots, the mobs will catch you. The day/night cycle is just right in that you need to be aware of it. The cost to sleep at an Inn to fast forward to morning is inconsequential after the first few levels (and it fully heals you)...plus when you rest at an Inn, your Pawn's stats get updated so it's best to change your pawns equipment, buy new skills, etc for them before resting to their latest stats are uploaded to the database for hiring purposes.

The animation/effects in fights are outstanding. Some shit the pawns do is impressive. I'm currently in the catacombs and there were these exploding zombies behind a metal barred door. While I'm trying to figure out how to deal with them, one of my hired pawns grabs a powder key and takes it over the the door. My primary pawn ignites it with her fireball spell...it explodes and the zombies catch on fire and roast/explode. This all has to do with their hired experiences with other players. When your pawn gets hired, they keep the knowledge of their adventures so those pawns knew what to do since they had been there before. It adds another thing to consider when hiring pawns...check their knowledge list of mobs/quests/areas, etc. Quests in this game dont give hints except via pawns to it's not a bad idea to have one that will start babbling out some advice.

Pawns are addicting. Once you start getting familiar with various stats, you start to take more and more time filtering and reviewing pawns before hiring them. People put quite a bit of effort into enhancing their armor/weapons and choosing which skills are available for their pawns. At first, I put just a little effort into my healer pawn and I ended up getting around 15K rift points (2K =$1.00 on Live Market). I then started enhancing armor and weapons and have hauled in over 40K rift points which makes it easy for me to hire pawns that are much higher level than myself. Pawns your same level cost zero rift points...it then goes something like 25, 50, 100, 250, 600, 950, 1100, 1600, etc, with the cost increasing per level higher than your character.

My pawn is ranked about 1400th (not sure if that's good or bad but that's out of all pawns). Has 4/5 star review average from the people that hire her in Appearance, Battle Capabilities, and Helpfulness. When you hire a pawn, depending on how long you keep that pawn, the owner gets rift points. I've received 5K plus form a single hire and have been hired about 15 or so times. After you ditch the pawn, you are able to rank them (out of 5 stars) and gift them something from your inventory, as well as either leave a message from a drop down list of semi generic responses or write your own comment to the pawn owner. It's worth it to pay more attention to your pawn sometimes than your own character when doing initial upgrades, etc since that's your meal ticket for rift points which otherwise are pretty scarce if your pawn isn't hired.

Also, if you don't like your hired pawn, you can pick them up and throw them off a cliff out of frustration. Your own pawn pops right back up when you get to a rift stone. You need to hire a new pawns for the others! (all their inventory loot drops go to your warehouse automatically when they die so no worries)

It cost between 1000-1500 discipline points (those are separate from rift points) to change classes. Once you buy a new class, you don't have to pay to go back to your old one. Your character level is separate from your class rank so if you do switch classes, you start at rank one...but then again, you're hauling in much higher XP per kill so your rank goes up faster.

People that like stats will like Dogma. There's a lot so stats on your character, resistances, etc. There's also a complete history of the pawns you hired and which quests they were with you on, etc so you can visually (3D rotate) see your old hires by pulling up the options menu. You can favorite pawns, etc. There's full stats for all of your mob kills, etc.

You're going to like this game (I'm talking to the people that like the more challenging RPGS like Demon's Souls, etc)
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

Post by Funkmasterr »

Sounds cool. Definitely looking forward to trying it when my diablo addiction wanes a bit.
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

Post by Winnow »

Image

Image

Image

Nice thing about this game is even rings, etc show on your character. On my left hand you'll see some sort of finger thingy that's from a jewelry item I picked up. The chracter detail is great (check the hands which don't look like rectangles) My tank pawn hires are starting to look more the part as well.

My character is level 25 now. I woke up to 40K more rift points and have 120K from pawn hirings. Making a healing primary pawn was a good idea. I guess most don't do that. A ranger pawn is useless so I'd advise not making one of those if you want any rift points from hirings.

The "pawn in the thong" above was just a random pawn roaming the land. If you are online (on Live at least) you'll see random peoples pawns roaming around that you can hire if you wish...although you'll typically find much better offerings by grabbing them from the rift stones directly as most roamers will be about your same level in game which you don't want.

Like dragon shout in Skyrim, as a sorcerer, I can force blast pawns and watch them go flying as long as I'm not in a city. You can also pick up any wandering pawn although I haven't found a reason to yet. There is a lot of teamwork where you can launch yourself or a pawn into the air to hit a flying mob or onto a large mob. You'll see your pawns climbing up the backs of ogres etc (and you can too if a melee)

Day three of awesomeness in this game. I spent some time trying to sneak into the Duke's castle in order to steal some of his daughter's panties (lingerie) so I could equip them on my primary pawn. Guard caught me and sent me to jail (kyou must have ratted me out).

I've gotten my money's worth already out of this game. The rest is just gravy. DD really deserves to be a franchise. It's already the best RPG this year (IMO) and with the feedback they get from their first release it will be even better (unlike Dragon Age!)
Last edited by Winnow on May 26, 2012, 11:57 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

Post by kyoukan »

I hear it's super easy to get your money's worth out a game you stole because you are a fucking deadbeat.
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

Post by Winnow »

kyoukan wrote:I hear it's super easy to get your money's worth out a game you stole because you are a fucking deadbeat.
your reading comprehension = zero

I could use your help though. While I can dress up my pawn all slutty like and load it up with skills, I lack the knowledge of how you capture a dude's attention so they keep using my pawn. You can help me with this. What did you do? Did you find some guy in a bar, not too bright, maybe a second tier sport athlete that warms the bench, with just enough money to satisfy you but obviously not enough to afford decent bandwidth since you steal that from your neighbor. Did you wow this brainiac with some science talk about faster than light neutrinos you read in a tabloid that might sound really impressive to someone maybe hit in the head too many times from sports? That might be enough to get the ball rolling for a one nighter but knowing your personality, you must have done something to seal the deal or he would have dumped your ass the next day. Maybe you have a talent for sucking assholes or some other fetish that gives you an advantage over mortal women that won't suck assholes just to get enough money flowing to afford a few game releases a year and buy a box of wine. Since I kind of think of my pawn as a paycheck that gets paid to service, it sounds like my pawn and you share something similar.

Thanks for the tips. Maybe we can be buds.

----

My pawn is ranked 695 now. Up from ~1400 and that's without kyou's seekrits for making $$!

Don't neglect the fire element skills. You're going to need them for the Griffin.
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

Post by kyoukan »

what a sad little stream of consciousness... insult, I guess? were you like really impressed with yourself after writing that? did you sit back in your little computer chair you've had since grade 9 and congratulate yourself on such a great burn?

you're such a terrible person on so many levels.
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

Post by Winnow »

The spell effects in this game are amazing. As a sorcerer, you get Maelstrom which creates a monster tornado that sucks up all the mobs nearby (you area target while casting) Shit flies all over the place and it's hard to see if you cast it too close to yourself.

Here's a battle with a Cyclops using Maelstrom:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYd2TLow6M4

It does a lot of damage but really shines against hordes of smaller mobs. You'll see them getting sucked into the tornado and throw high in the air and at the end it deposits the pile of dead mobs in a nice pile for looting. It's another great part of this game. Casting big spells takes a long time...they do a lot of damage and last a long time.

It's almost overkill like when I posted a picture of a little motorboat that showed (Canadian Navy) on the side of it as a little joke and Kyoukan replied with pictures of burned kids in Vietnam. She's classy like that. Real fucked in the head. Unfortunately the loser is obsessed with having pedo fantasies about me for some reason. Pretty sick shit. She stalks me worse then cart ever stalked her with even worse one liners than his. I guess she's being ignored elsewhere.

My Pawn was ranked 421st when I logged off last night. Not bad for the entire game population and only level 26 with most of the high ranked pawns 40+ in level. Someone used my pawn for 22 hours. I think you get 1K rift points per hour they're used.

Such an awesome game. I've screwed up multiple quests and they're gone for the rest of the game. I'm learning about entire quest lines that I was never even able to touch. This game does not lead you around and guide you to each quest. Refreshingly, it could care less if you don't discover huge parts of the game that the developers put lots of time into. That's a nice sacrifice on the developer's part to give the player a feeling that they have choices and consequences, and a bit of their own unique story.
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

Post by Fairweather Pure »

Winnow wrote:Here's a battle with a Cyclops using Maelstrom:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYd2TLow6M4
Impressive bit of game play footage. That bumped up the game a bit for me. Looks engaging and action oriented. The lighting and distance blurring look great too. Man, these companies can really milk 7 year old hardware!
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

Post by Winnow »

My pawn is now ranked 218th in the country. Has over 600K rift crystals (about $300.00 if you bought them on X-Box Live)

She's maxed pretty much all her knowledge and battle tactics from people hiring her. In the span of just a few hours I received another 218K rift crystals from lots of people finally swapping her out after playing 10-20 hours with her.

For her inclinations I made her

primary: Guardian
secondary: Nexus (so she babbles a lot and give lots of quest hints)

I think I left her at just about the right level since many people probably couldn't play the game until the weekend and my Pawn, being around level 22-25 is perfect for those hitting level 15 after getting to the main city.

Loot chests are random and I've been getting warrior type gear so am hurting on weapons for both my Sorcerer and Mage so going forward, if I level much more without finding a decent weapon, people will probably find better options. I always enchant my items as high as I can.

BTW, first thing you should do in the game is turn off pawn chat text. You can hear what they say fine and the on screen text is annoying.
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

Post by Winnow »

Image

More of the fun Maelstrom spell. My crew sits around while I clean everything up!

Image

My pawn is ranked 118th overall now. Need to break the top 100 and she'll show up every time someone does a search for top ranked pawns. I lot of people dressed their healers up in the Dutchess' Lingerie but I stayed classy and gave her a Sailor Moon/Amazon kinda look. She's been hired 98 times, 750K Rift Crystals.

I'm still finding outstanding designed locations as I travel around. BTW, this game has the best kneecaps I've ever seen in a game. EVER! Check out my pawn's kneecaps in the pic above. They're perfect!

I'm 48 hours in and seem to be about half way through, although I am a slow gamer and search around a lot. I've also lost probably 4 or so hours to restarts where I died or screwed up a quest. 36 quests completed, 1,663 enemies slain.
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

Post by Winnow »

My pawn moved over the weekend from being ranked ~ 1,400 to being ranked 105th overall now. So close to the top 100!

This is fast becoming my favorite RPG. (not including Ultima III for nostalgia purposes)

There are a couple glitches on quests. I'll go over one now to hopefully save some hassle. At some point, you'll be fighting a griffin on a quest and there are gates you need to break and run through as the griffin pursues you. The last gate is too tough to be broken by your weapons. What eventually is supposed to happen is the griffin attacks you and bashes through the gate allowing you to continue. Well, I cranked up the all mighty meteor shower and blew the crap out of the griffin, killing it before it could break through the gate which cut me off from the end of the quest as there's no way to get to the end. I know some here also would probably kill the griffin if you have the firepower as it's not clear you're supposed to wait.
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

Post by Jice Virago »

The Good-
Environments and pacing better thought out than Skyrim.
Class and gear balance is spot on. Game is actually challenging.
Crafting system actually encourages running around exploring to gather materials.
Best feeling of exploration of any game I have played in years.
Combat feels fun and involved, not the KoA mashfest or Skyrim chopping wood thing.
Best boss fights in an action RPG in a long long time.
Party AI is reasonably well done.
Party does most of the tedious tradeskill harvesting for you.
Wide variety of environments and enemies to contend with.

The Bad-
High dependancy on having a healer in the group.
Some fights are just chain res fests.
Pawn system and health mechanics require constant trips to town.
Travel in this game is long and tedious unless you blow cash on TP stones.
The UI system needs a few shortcuts to things like the map.

The Ugly-
Lack of Hybrid class options for main pawn severely restricts what you can do with your main character. Specifically, someone HAS to be a tank and someone has to have healing. If your main pawn was a Mystic Knight, for example, you could cover those bases and be free to do what you wanted with your main (and not worry about constantly rotating in side pawns with the correct skills). Instead, since one role is definately not covered, you are forced to rely on side pawns (who are transitory and cannot be geared or leveled) to fill in one of those roles, if you do not do it yourself. Its a minor complaint, but I feel it really limited what I could do with my group build and locked me into the whole "Warrior/Rogue/Wizard/Healer" paradigm all the time.

The Pawn system, while an interesting idea, causes some issues if the people making their main pawns do stupid things with their pawns at certain levels. For example, on the PS3, the level range I am at is awash in pawns who are either severely undergeared tanks (useless) or mages who cannot heal (extremely useless), because thats what people have been running their main pawns as. This indirectly nerfs everyone else playing the game. I like the pawn system, but I think I would rather run my own guys and that would also solve the side issue I mentioned above. I understand it was a way to shoe horn online into the game in a new way and that people like Winnow (no insult meant here) get off on parading around their dolled up tart pawns to others. I just think that the design got in the way of the rest of the game.


Overall, I am really enjoying the game and have not touched D3 since I got it, if that tells you anything.
War is an option whose time has passed. Peace is the only option for the future. At present we occupy a treacherous no-man's-land between peace and war, a time of growing fear that our military might has expanded beyond our capacity to control it and our political differences widened beyond our ability to bridge them. . . .

Short of changing human nature, therefore, the only way to achieve a practical, livable peace in a world of competing nations is to take the profit out of war.
--RICHARD M. NIXON, "REAL PEACE" (1983)

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, represents, in the final analysis, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children."

Dwight Eisenhower
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

Post by Winnow »

Jice Virago wrote:
The Pawn system, while an interesting idea, causes some issues if the people making their main pawns do stupid things with their pawns at certain levels. For example, on the PS3, the level range I am at is awash in pawns who are either severely undergeared tanks (useless) or mages who cannot heal (extremely useless), because thats what people have been running their main pawns as. This indirectly nerfs everyone else playing the game. I like the pawn system, but I think I would rather run my own guys and that would also solve the side issue I mentioned above. I understand it was a way to shoe horn online into the game in a new way and that people like Winnow (no insult meant here) get off on parading around their dolled up tart pawns to others. I just think that the design got in the way of the rest of the game.


Overall, I am really enjoying the game and have not touched D3 since I got it, if that tells you anything.
Sucks you're on PS3. My Mage pawn is level 34 and ranked 74th (last time I checked) so she pops up on the top 100 pawn list now. I think it's only for 360 though. I pulled up other mage pawns her same level and my pawn (Name is Dart) has superior stats for the most part in offense and defense and i have her 6 skills well set to help heal as well as buff and do damage. I've been enhancing her equipment as I go.

I have 1.4 million Rift Points so far from hires!
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

Post by Jice Virago »

Yeah there is a gold mine to be made if your pawn is actually a competant healer. So many retardedly made pawns on PSN....
War is an option whose time has passed. Peace is the only option for the future. At present we occupy a treacherous no-man's-land between peace and war, a time of growing fear that our military might has expanded beyond our capacity to control it and our political differences widened beyond our ability to bridge them. . . .

Short of changing human nature, therefore, the only way to achieve a practical, livable peace in a world of competing nations is to take the profit out of war.
--RICHARD M. NIXON, "REAL PEACE" (1983)

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, represents, in the final analysis, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children."

Dwight Eisenhower
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

Post by Winnow »

Jice Virago wrote:Yeah there is a gold mine to be made if your pawn is actually a competant healer. So many retardedly made pawns on PSN....

I made close to 1 million rift crystals yesterday, taking me from 1.4 to 2.4M but I only moved from 74th overall to 64th so it looks like I'm not going to be moving much higher on the list.

My highest rift crystals from a single player was 54K which I believe means they used my pawn for 54 hours. I've had several in the 30-40K range. Some people tend to grab pawns and keep them a long time.

What sucks for pawns is if they die (fall off cliff, etc,) the user can't rank them so they end up with the standard default 3 stars. I had a pawn I liked die due to a bug so I couldn't rate it for the owner which blows. I would have givin it high marks.

Someone returned my pawn fully decked out in all new armor and weapons, including some enhancements. Unfortunately I was already beyond that armor level but that was extremely nice of them (unless they didn't realize if you equip pawns your items get returned with the pawn instead of to your warehouse if they are simply sitting in the pawns inventory when they die or are returned.
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

Post by Kaldaur »

I won't be able to play this one for months, so I'm stuck watching it on Twitch every lunch break. Great game and looks very addicting. Thanks for the write-ups, Winnow.
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

Post by Winnow »

Kaldaur wrote:I won't be able to play this one for months, so I'm stuck watching it on Twitch every lunch break. Great game and looks very addicting. Thanks for the write-ups, Winnow.
Thanks Kaldaur, I think you'll like it!

I haven't had a chance to play DD in the past two days but I logged on and checked my pawn's ranking. She's now ranked 59th overall on the 360. You typically don't get nice gifts from people that hire your pawn but a few have given me ferry stones which cost 20K each.

It looks like there's a major turn of events at the stage where I am (Jice is probably past it by now) so I logged out before saving so I can make sure I've done everything I want to before the "event". I'm guessing I'm about halfway through the game.
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

Post by Canelek »

Level 16 and just switched to assassin. Fun fucking game and yes, hard as fuckall in some encounters. I keep forgetting to save!!
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

Post by Winnow »

Canelek wrote:Level 16 and just switched to assassin. Fun fucking game and yes, hard as fuckall in some encounters. I keep forgetting to save!!
You playing on 360? I think there's a way I can let you rent my pawn for free. (Dart/Mage/Level 35)

I think if you friend me (SupineRain4) anyone on your friend's list can rent hire your pawns for free (zero Rift Crystals as if they were same level). I sent "Canelek" a friend request.

Dart is still ranked ~59th on top ranked pawns if you search for her. Should help with heals/quest/mob info/buffs/and some damage!
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

Post by Jice Virago »

Winnow wrote:It looks like there's a major turn of events at the stage where I am (Jice is probably past it by now) so I logged out before saving so I can make sure I've done everything I want to before the "event". I'm guessing I'm about halfway through the game.
I've been deliberately avoiding the main story as much as I can, in favor of exploring and filling out the map. There is a sort of point of no return once you do too much of the Dukes stuff, but I have only done quests for him on accident, ie found a dungeon that happened to be related to something in the main story. The big thing is the escort quests. The easiest things to miss are the better vendors and quest chains that get enabled by doing these escorts. I fucked up and got one guy killed (dragon AEed him), but did most of the rest. They also expired based on played time, not just story advancement, so don't leave them sitting on the boards undone too long, either.

I cannot say enough good things about this game. I think it blows Skyrim out of the water on all levels, but especially immersion. Playing the first 20 hours of this game was like starting EQ for the first time and wandering out into the common lands all over again. I don't think I have ever played something that captured the feel of exploration and fear in the same way since that time. I think that despite the minor bugs and gameplay limitations, this is probably the best RPG I have played in the last decade, with only the Tactics Ogre remake and Fallout 3 being more addictive to me, though this game has better combat and AI than the FO series. It's seriously that fucking good and I feel like I have not even scratched the surface of the game, despite having 40 hours played. I can't believe this is a Capcom game, because they did so much right with it in design and execution.

Anyhow, for those who are curious as to where I am at in the game, as of right now I have done about half the quests that lead to meeting the Duke and explored what I think is about 80% of the accessable territory leading to that point. I am maining as a Sorcerer (Currently L37) that specializes in tossing the big game breaking spells. The Meteor Swarm one (especially at night) is one of the most visually satisfying spells ever created in a game, but it does take forever to cast so it requires strategy in how you use it. My main pawn is a Warrior with the gold hammer thing maxed out from a quest, set up for AE swings and taunting (Guardian/Mendicant) skill use and she is getting used a lot now by other people (Jice is the pawns name), so I must be doing something right. I pretty much bring an agressive rogue pawn and a dedicated healer/fire buff mage as my rented help. Typically, I get rentapawns that are about 5 levels above me and keep them until I catch up to them in level. Having the right skills and disposition is much more important than raw stats, since so many monsters require special attacks to defeat. I might switch over to Mystic Knight later on, but for right now punding the crap out of large groups with Meteors is too much fun.

Last piece of advice is to always take a stab at an enemy. EQ style tactics really go a long way towards winning in this game, at least if you want to beat stuff early. I was able to drop my first Griffon at around level 22 by using the walls to avoid getting swooped. I was also able to tackle a dragon at around L29 by pulling him to a spot with some cover and raised platforms, but I don't think it would have been possible to beat it as anything other than a wizard main at that level (the Tremor spell raped him) and it still was like a 40 minute fight. There are just so many ways to play this game that I am already looking forward to a second playthrough.
War is an option whose time has passed. Peace is the only option for the future. At present we occupy a treacherous no-man's-land between peace and war, a time of growing fear that our military might has expanded beyond our capacity to control it and our political differences widened beyond our ability to bridge them. . . .

Short of changing human nature, therefore, the only way to achieve a practical, livable peace in a world of competing nations is to take the profit out of war.
--RICHARD M. NIXON, "REAL PEACE" (1983)

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, represents, in the final analysis, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children."

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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

Post by Funkmasterr »

Hurry up and accept my friend request so your pawn can power level me winnow :) I played to about level 11 today.
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

Post by Winnow »

Funkmasterr wrote:Hurry up and accept my friend request so your pawn can power level me winnow :) I played to about level 11 today.
Done!

Dart is #51 on top ranked list. She should help heal your party effectively up til level 35. I'm going to start leveling her again this weekend : )

I have six other friend requests pending but don't recognize them. Any of those VVers?
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

Post by Funkmasterr »

Thanks! I missed the aquina quest. I tried to do it before I went to gran Soren, but the bandits kept raping me so I gave up. That one went away when I finished the pawn guild dungeon in gran Soren.

I looked it up to see what it effected and decide if I needed to start over. There seem to be about a dozen or so quests in the game that you can miss if you don't do them in time/don't do them in the right order, but most of them don't really effect anything aside from them all counting towards the hero achievement, so I'm not going to concern myself with it.

Having fun so far, I'm playing as a strider and plan to go assassin and I'm really liking the fight mechanics. My main pawn is a healer and I've had another Mage an a warrior to make up my group, seems to work pretty well.

I'm not sure how my pawn heals because I don't see any heal spells listed for her, and I haven't seen any come up when I learn new skills, but I hope that changes soon cause her heals seem weak. I've already had a handful of people rent her out so far so that's cool.

Overall liking it a lot though, I agree with whoever said it kinda reminded them of EQ in some aspects, and I'd definitely say its better than skyrim.
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

Post by Winnow »

Funkmasterr wrote: I'm not sure how my pawn heals because I don't see any heal spells listed for her, and I haven't seen any come up when I learn new skills, but I hope that changes soon cause her heals seem weak. I've already had a handful of people rent her out so far so that's cool.

Overall liking it a lot though, I agree with whoever said it kinda reminded them of EQ in some aspects, and I'd definitely say its better than skyrim.

your pawn is a healer? You probably don't want to hire mine as you'd have two healers although mine would probably heal better a she's set up well for that with the higher level heal.
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

Post by Funkmasterr »

Well she is, but she has some good damage spells too. I have two mages that can heal in my party right now and it's been going well so far.
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

Post by Jice Virago »

Two healers is a waste, especially if both are mendicant. And the AI sucks at running Sorcerers. One Pawn Mage is all the magic you should be running in your party, especially with the idiotic way people set up their pawns.
War is an option whose time has passed. Peace is the only option for the future. At present we occupy a treacherous no-man's-land between peace and war, a time of growing fear that our military might has expanded beyond our capacity to control it and our political differences widened beyond our ability to bridge them. . . .

Short of changing human nature, therefore, the only way to achieve a practical, livable peace in a world of competing nations is to take the profit out of war.
--RICHARD M. NIXON, "REAL PEACE" (1983)

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, represents, in the final analysis, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children."

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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

Post by Winnow »

Jice Virago wrote:Two healers is a waste, especially if both are mendicant. And the AI sucks at running Sorcerers. One Pawn Mage is all the magic you should be running in your party, especially with the idiotic way people set up their pawns.
hey my pawn rocks for healing and it's not even "medicant", its guardian/nexus.

He just needs to make his pawn a damage dealer if he grabs my pawn. I have three casters in my group right now.

Im a sorcer, I hired a sorcerer, my pawn is healer/mage and I have a warrior as the tank banging on his shield for agro. I seem to be doing fine with that setup but may change. I like to try different combos.

also, my pawn is full star rated in pretty much everything for quest/mob/area knowledge after being hired so many times (6 million rift crystals and going up 500-800K/day) That may be why people like her as being "nexus" she babbles a lot giving out tips.
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Re: Dragon's Dogma 360/PS3

Post by Canelek »

I'm shelving this for a couple weeks since I am really enjoying the crap out of Diablo 3. Plus my DD guidebook is delayed for another week or so...

Pretty fucking cool game though! Beats Skyrim, imo. Also, it is nice not to have to pick 256 cabbages for a silly recipe.
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