Dragon's Dogma 2

[Dreiko]

So I played a good 5-6 hours more and the game totally clicked, it really comes to life once you start experimenting with different classes. I finally unlocked warrior so two-handing is agogo and man is it epic. There's tons of charged moves but also a lot of timing involved for getting the most out of your build, and the class is legit built to power through attacks rather than block or avoid them. There's little that's more epic than clashing with a cyclops' massive club and beating it back with your greatsword.


Also yeah you totally have like no landmarks or ugly yellow paint over everything, and the closest thing to fast travel is using this cart that is drawn by buffaloes that goes between certain set locations, it's hype. You gotta actually keep your eyes open and explore the environment properly.


I'm still doing minor quests in the first big city you reach but just traveling at night from one place to the next is like a huge ordeal, it's pitch-black and you gotta have a lantern but those attract ghosts and other hard enemies that only show up at night, but some quests are time-sensitive so you don't wanna always sleep till morning as soon as it goes dark, so there's this tension always afoot.


As for your carry weight, your equipped stuff always affects it yeah, you wanna offload your loot to your pawn as much as possible, though having it at Average is good enough for a warrior. It's not like you will be moving around a lot and you're not meant to block or evade hits, you're meant to face them head-on and beat them back or just soak em.

Kinda agree, I'm just glad it seems like they mostly stuck to what made the first one work rather than change it to become more normal (only like 2 hour in atm so will need to judge it later). I'm getting decent FPS with mid range PC atm, not amazing but perfectly playable.

Yeah the game has a unique feel for sure, but that's a good thing. I think this idea of how a "normal" game plays is bad for creativity and innovation. This game retaining its identity is how every game should be treated.

 

[BrawlMan]

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[FakeSympathy]

I did two main quests that had me infiltrate the palace back to back. Because the quest giver both times warned me about the necessity to sneak in the middle of the night and how I should avoid being caught, I thought about using the cloaking ability as a thief, but the game gave me the guard armorset which let me complete the quest without getting caught. The second quest was for me to speak to one of the prisoners at the dungeon, which again let me use the guard armorset to walts right in.

I feel like both quests would've been a bit more great if I had to find the armorset on my own initiative, whether buying them from the armorer or stealing them from the guardhouse, use the cloaking ability, or find a hidden path. Really would've been cool to have multiple ways to complete both mission.

I am also coming across some quests that lead me to dead ends, and the quest logs just telling me "find the person/object". I was annoyed at first, but then I realized I had become way too accustomed to quest markers telling me exactly where to go. I actually have to explore or do some detective work to find my objectives. I can also use the internet to look up information on the quest, but I feel even that can count towards investigation.

 

[meiam]

I did two main quests that had me infiltrate the palace back to back. Because the quest giver both times warned me about the necessity to sneak in the middle of the night and how I should avoid being caught, I thought about using the cloaking ability as a thief, but the game gave me the guard armorset which let me complete the quest without getting caught. The second quest was for me to speak to one of the prisoners at the dungeon, which again let me use the guard armorset to walts right in.

I feel like both quests would've been a bit more great if I had to find the armorset on my own initiative, whether buying them from the armorer or stealing them from the guardhouse, use the cloaking ability, or find a hidden path. Really would've been cool to have multiple ways to complete both mission.

I am also coming across some quests that lead me to dead ends, and the quest logs just telling me "find the person/object". I was annoyed at first, but then I realized I had become way too accustomed to quest markers telling me exactly where to go. I actually have to explore or do some detective work to find my objectives. I can also use the internet to look up information on the quest, but I feel even that can count towards investigation.

You don't automatically get the guard armor set, at least not from just accepting the job, and you can buy it from the shop in town (item shop).

 

[Dreiko]

I did two main quests that had me infiltrate the palace back to back. Because the quest giver both times warned me about the necessity to sneak in the middle of the night and how I should avoid being caught, I thought about using the cloaking ability as a thief, but the game gave me the guard armorset which let me complete the quest without getting caught. The second quest was for me to speak to one of the prisoners at the dungeon, which again let me use the guard armorset to walts right in.

I feel like both quests would've been a bit more great if I had to find the armorset on my own initiative, whether buying them from the armorer or stealing them from the guardhouse, use the cloaking ability, or find a hidden path. Really would've been cool to have multiple ways to complete both mission.

I am also coming across some quests that lead me to dead ends, and the quest logs just telling me "find the person/object". I was annoyed at first, but then I realized I had become way too accustomed to quest markers telling me exactly where to go. I actually have to explore or do some detective work to find my objectives. I can also use the internet to look up information on the quest, but I feel even that can count towards investigation.

There's a pattern with some quests where you gotta ask people for information in a general area and then use it and find what you're looking for. It feels quite refreshing to actually have to be in the world that way, much more immersive than just following a quest marker.

I was doing this one quest where a boy got kidnapped by wolves as he was gathering these blue flowers and you get to the place where they grow but then the quest marker totally vanishes. Turns out there was a very long trail of petals that eventually leads you to the wolve's den that you're meant to follow. It helps that they shine at night too, but for a while I was just looking around in the area that was highlighted by the quest before finally trying to do something different.

 

[BrawlMan]

Here we go....

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[Phoenixmgs]

I haven't been able to play the game yet because it looks like the version of WDDM that my desktop has isn't high enough to play the game. The error is that my video card is not supported, but I know it is (It's a RX 6650 XT) and searching for that error leads to the WDDM version being not high enough. It looks like the only way to upgrade that is through freaking Windows updates and I have all that shit turned off. I'll image my Windows partition (so I can restore it if updating doesn't work) and update Windows 10 to see if that allows me to actually play the game. If not, I might just end up buying a PS5 to play the game because it's looks so fucking awesome.

In actuality, this is a very positive review and pretty funny overall. I love the fact you actually have to figure out quests yourself vs just being told where everything is, it feels like the game is very organic in that sense. And the monster fights just look so freaking epic, looks like there's more big monsters than the first game and the fact that you can have fights with multiple large monsters is awesome.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Wow look at these last two videos.
The reception to this game is the most fun I've had following games media in a while.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

*…It does something(s) different!*

but

*…it runs like shit and will shit on you too!*


Or something like that.

 

[CriticalGaming]

Sometimes players just like to be abused by a game. It's not bad game design, it's just unforgiving. It's not jank, it's a learning curve.

 

[BrawlMan]

Wow look at these last two videos.
The reception to this game is the most fun I've had following games media in a while.

*…It does something(s) different!*

but

*…it runs like shit and will shit on you too!*


Or something like that.

Short version: Sterling is not impressed with a microtransactions and calls it out as such like he always did before. I don't like the micro transactions Capcom has been doing in their single player games for a long while now. I called it out with Resident Evil (adding those micro transactions after launch in RE4R) SF6, and DMC 5, and Sterling is not wrong to call it out here. The fact that they're literally selling you fast travel is ridiculous. I'm not trying to rain on anybody enjoying this game; they can enjoy it however they want, I just hate practices that prey on kids who are you too young to know what to do with their money/don't understand the full concept of money, or people with money spending trouble or addictive tendencies. Something this industry has been doing for a long time exploding of either kind. He'll have the actual review up sometime later, but this is him calling out the crap cat com has been doing for a while. I may be a fan, but I'll be more than happy to call out the bull crap as well. I call them out because I want them to do better and be better. I don't want them to go through the same dork age, or worse, they went back during 7th generation and half of generation 8.

 

[CaitSeith]

If you want to play the game but don't want to support Capcom, either buy the game used or, you know, put on the eye patch and the hat with the skull and crossbones and do the thing...

Short version: Sterling is not impressed with a microtransactions and calls it out as such like he always did before.

He doesn't like inconvenience mechanics for inconvenience sake either (which is also in brand for him).

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

If you want to play the game but don't want to support Capcom, either buy the game used or, you know, put on the eye patch and the hat with the skull and crossbones and do the thing...

I think it's important to separate judging companies vs consumers.

Personally all I ask for is honesty and why I use AssCreed as the example- I pay money for it, but the mtx is crap. Totally crap, and wrong. I pay for freaking Amazon Prime even though I fantasize about that company imploding. "No ethical consumption" blah blah... we don't have slip down a slope to call out crap. It's the defending of mtx in Capcom games in some corners of the 'net we're making fun of.

 

[FakeSympathy]

Yeah, this game is THE definition of chaotic neutral. While the core gameplay is great, there are so many things Capcom fumbled with optimization and MTX.

It looks like they are addressing some of the complaints though.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

> It looks like they are addressing some of the complaints though.
Yeah.
This game looks like it's gonna be awesome to play in like 3- 5 years after release, when there's some GOTY edition and some discount.
Kind of like the first DD. I feel like I been hearing about how "criminally underrated" and "lesser known" and "underappreciated" Dragon's Dogma has been for like 8 years- which of course means it is NOT underappreciated, just that it took a few years which is FINE.. or it would be fine if we didn't live in a social-media fueled hyper-take culture.

 

[Dreiko]

Nah the game is amazing right now, they have a new class with a dual spear that plays kinda like a Jedi of all things and it's so awesome, way better Jedi-like gameplay than any actual SW game that's for sure. It's like a magic/physical hybrid class but the magic stuff is nothing like the mage spells, no elemental nukes, instead it's all basically various force powers like push and levitation and stun, and you can cast it normally or channel it through your lance, so you can do the Damnachi thing against the minotaur where you stab em and then cast magic through your spear and explode them from the inside, it's nuts!

Oh and you learn the subclass by fighting a smaller dragon, cause yeah, there's more dragons beyond the final boss one this time around. So epic lmao.

 

[Phoenixmgs]

> It looks like they are addressing some of the complaints though.
Yeah.
This game looks like it's gonna be awesome to play in like 3- 5 years after release, when there's some GOTY edition and some discount.
Kind of like the first DD. I feel like I been hearing about how "criminally underrated" and "lesser known" and "underappreciated" Dragon's Dogma has been for like 8 years- which of course means it is NOT underappreciated, just that it took a few years which is FINE.. or it would be fine if we didn't live in a social-media fueled hyper-take culture.

The 1st game is by no means great, the combat system is great but that was about it. The story was very very very B-movie, the questing wasn't anything to right home about, even the world wasn't that interesting to explore. It was the combat system that was freaking awesome, but in most RPGs nowadays, the thing you do most is fight enemies so the fact that combat was awesome made the game. For example, something like the hydra fight blows stuff like the Dark Souls fight out of the water, you could get the hydra heads to swallow explosive barrels and you and your pawns could get eaten by the hydras, and the heads would also grow back eventually. That is why people praise the game.

 

[meiam]

I haven't been able to play the game yet because it looks like the version of WDDM that my desktop has isn't high enough to play the game. The error is that my video card is not supported, but I know it is (It's a RX 6650 XT) and searching for that error leads to the WDDM version being not high enough. It looks like the only way to upgrade that is through freaking Windows updates and I have all that shit turned off. I'll image my Windows partition (so I can restore it if updating doesn't work) and update Windows 10 to see if that allows me to actually play the game. If not, I might just end up buying a PS5 to play the game because it's looks so fucking awesome.

In actuality, this is a very positive review and pretty funny overall. I love the fact you actually have to figure out quests yourself vs just being told where everything is, it feels like the game is very organic in that sense. And the monster fights just look so freaking epic, looks like there's more big monsters than the first game and the fact that you can have fights with multiple large monsters is awesome.

I got an RX 6650 XT and I didn't get any problem playing the game. Performance are fine-ish too, I did some tweaking of setting and I can get most things to max (but without raytracing or any super fancy stuff) and on 2560x1440 I can maintain between 30 (city and dense forest) and 60 (everything else) FPS pretty consistently. I's not amazing, but for a computer that cost less than 1000 USD thats pretty good, an definitely not the case that you need a 4000$ rig to play it.

Game is great if you like exploration for exploration sake (lots of stuff to discover if you like doing some platforming) with some great battle (I saw a lot of complaint about poor enemy variety, maybe true for small fry but there's a ton of giant monster and some can ambush you anywhere, just got attack by a Dullahan out of nowhere).

BUT the game has one major flaw that a massive step back from DD1, you can only equip 4 active skill (whereas almost all class could do 6 in DD1, which was already limiting), thats a shame cause there's plenty of skill that would be fun to use but just aren't worth sacrificing one of your limited slot. It's an especially big problem for one of the class whose whole shtick is that it can equip every weapon and use every skill, except you need to use one of the skill slot for an ability to switch weapon mid fight, meaning at best you could only have skills for 3 of the weapon (and only one each). I really hope a mod come out to fix that asap.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Nah the game is amazing right now, they have a new class with a dual spear that plays kinda like a Jedi of all things and it's so awesome, way better Jedi-like gameplay than any actual SW game that's for sure. It's like a magic/physical hybrid class but the magic stuff is nothing like the mage spells, no elemental nukes, instead it's all basically various force powers like push and levitation and stun, and you can cast it normally or channel it through your lance, so you can do the Damnachi thing against the minotaur where you stab em and then cast magic through your spear and explode them from the inside, it's nuts!

Oh and you learn the subclass by fighting a smaller dragon, cause yeah, there's more dragons beyond the final boss one this time around. So epic lmao.

The double spear thing was definitely the thing that caught my eye the most in the trailers and reviews.

 

[Dreiko]

The double spear thing was definitely the thing that caught my eye the most in the trailers and reviews.

I didn't watch any cause spoilers so it caught me by surprise haha. When you enchant it with electricity from your mage the spear blades look a lot more like a dual lightsaber too. Also there's this new move I got where you do like a classic ff dragoon Jump move, but it has a dodge effect to it, so if you time it to an enemy attack the hit becomes way stronger, and you can even do it in the air too, you leap off of a magical surface and stab downwards. Can't go wrong with this sort of stuff.