Dragon's Dogma is a great game, tho I only came to play it a year or so after its release. I played DD: Dark Arisen which is the base game + the "expansion"/"DLC" or whatever one would prefer to call it. I'm glad I did since I think the additions made a difference between an "interesting" game and a great one. It addressed many shortfalls and added interesting new features, not the least of which is the Bitterblack Isle dungeon and higher level gear.
I loved that it had an NG+ and that it supported so much theorycrafting, tho I didn't spend too much time worrying about that. I played Magic Archer mostly, though it was practically an entire playthru before I came to that since getting the right stats involved a few levels of sorcerer, warrior, ranger, etc. I wanted to unlock all the skills I could for other classes, level my pawn well too to make her a great tank (I decided she'd take that role leaving me free to pursue any other).
Magic Archer is a great class with only one downside...the inability to fight metal golems. Pawns aren't smart enough to target all the medallions and the magic archer has no way to reach some of the higher medallions in the one or two times you encounter them.
Jason Rayes said:
I actually quite like it though as people have pointed out the pawn AI is kind of retarded and also they tend to repeat the same lines of dialogue ad nauseam.
The dialogue I'll grant, but the AI isn't that bad. The issue is that pawns other than the players own pawn have a *fixed AI* and doesn't change. A player's pawn's AI changes depending on conversations with them in the "chair" and orders issued to them. They have a primary behaviour, secondary and tertiary behaviour (called "Inclinations") from one of the following: Scather, Medicant, Mitigator, Challenger, Utilitarian, Guardian, Nexus, Pioneer, Acquisitior. They all have different effects on the pawn's behaviour.
To reiterate, the behaviour of hired pawns never changes. Now the different inclinations are things like "Target strongest opponents first", "Target ranged opponents first", "heal" or "pick up loot". Depending on if they're the primary, secondary or tertiary inclination will have different effects on the behaviour. F.ex a pawn with Aquisitor primary, and Medicant secondary will always pick up loot before doing anything else. If there is no loot then it will heal whomever is injured, no matter how minor the injury. Only if there is a) no loot and b) no injuries at all, will it move on to actually hitting something (depending on its tertiary behaviour).
The main issue players face is that the *overwhelming majority* of pawns for hire are Guardian or Nexus primary. These are the most useless Inclinations, causing a pawn to do absolutely nothing whatsoever until the PC is hit (in the first instance) or another pawn is hit (in the second). This behaviour can't be altered on hired pawns. It is because of laziness on the pawns' owners' parts, spamming commands that cause their pawns to become primary guardians, pioneers or nexuses.
I ensured that my main pawn has good gear and the best inclinations to behave like a tank. I can't remember exactly but it was something like Scather primary, Utilitarian secondary and Acquisitor tertiary. Extra effort had to be made (using elixirs) to ensure they were just so and if they changed through gameplay, I'd ensure to change them back. Good pawns with the right inclinations are hard to find but the only ones worth hiring. Guardian and Nexus pawns are almost completely useless.
Jason Rayes said:
Dark Arisen is the sequel correct? Have you played the original game and if so, what improvements have you noticed?
While I never played the original, I know the improvements Dark Arisen brought. It wasn't a sequel so much as a massive expansion to the base game, later released as a standalone title. It's basically like The Witcher 1/2 and the Enhanced Editions in a way. Same game, but with extra content, bug fixing, polish and gameplay tweaks. First, it included all previously released DLCs, including quests, armour/weapons and cosmetic items. Second, an addition was the "quick travel" system with the *very* expensive teleportation stones (port crystals) that the player could place anywhere they choose (up to 11 IIRC). New, static ones were added around Gransys and the player could place their own as they liked.
Thirdly, equipment could be improved beyond Dragonforged, up to Goldforged. There was a ton of new equipment added, including many high level items found in the new area...Bitterblack Isle. It's a massive dungeon with very tough, scaled enemies. The boss at the end of it is very tough and beating him lets the player redo the dungeon in a harder difficulty mode. Rewards include "cursed" items that can have the curse lifted to become high level weapons or armour.
There are some really powerful new items including an eternal ferrystone (infinite, as the name suggests, only for players who own the base version), a new, "elite" lantern, obviously high level weapon and armour sets. There are also a dozen or so new augments available for player and pawn and, with rings from BBI, skills could go up to level 3, one level higher than the base game. There were like two or so rings for each class that each improved a couple of skills by one level. A sorcerer's Gicel or Bolide enhanced to "Grand" level were apocalyptic.
