I bought Dragon's Dogma, but I'm bored out of my mind after playing for a while. Does it get better?

[ninja666]

!!! WARNING! THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS !!!


So, since I was waiting for Dragon's Dogma to come out for PC for quite some time, I bought it in a heartbeat when the day of the release came. After playing it for about 15 hours, I'm have to admit I'm not having as much fun with it as I would've expected to, given the overall positive feedback this game gained.

When I've seen people recommending this game, it was mostly recommended to people searching something akin to Dark Souls, as Dragon's Dogma was apparently something between an Elder Scrolls game and Dark Souls. While it certainly could be described as such, it doesn't really do that combination well. The combat itself is great and definitely "Dark Souls-y" - the weighty feel of the weapons really makes it stand out. However, where the game falls flat so far for me is the "like Elder Scrolls" part.

I haven't played an open world fantasy game in a really long time, so the exploration factor was charming and entertaining at first. For the first few hours I was running back and forth between Cassardis and The Encampment doing sidequests. It didn't bother me that most of them were just either fetch or escort quests because it was only the very beginning of the game and I was certain it'd change for the better in the near future, with the game opening up a bit more when it came to quest structure and variety. It didn't, though.

After getting my pawn, doing some fetch quests and escorting some people (the finest merchant in all of Gransys being one of them), I finally progressed with the story. I was told that the story is bad so I wasn't expecting good writing, but what I expected at least was good quest structure. So far, the game didn't deliver, flooding me with more and more generic, unimaginative fetch and escort quests. After killing the Hydra, you are given a quest to find the village chief's daughter. Turns out it's just another escort quest because she's looking for a witch and you have to lead her through the woods she came into. After completing it, I finally regrouped with Captain Mercedes. And guess what? Another escort quest, and a really boring one at that - go forward, kill some harpies, go forward, kill some more harpies, rinse and repeat till you get to the capitol.

By that point, I was losing my motivation to play more and more. It didn't help that the world so far consisted solely of corridors with small patches of grass around the roads in order to appear more massive than it actually is. And even if you go in a direction other than your quest objective, you'll just find more of the same. When I was told this game is "like Elder Scrolls" I was expecting the game world to be littered with caves, forts, outposts, catacombs and other shit to explore and experience cool adventures in. I was hoping that by the time I get to Gran Soren, "the real Dragon's Dogma" will begin and the game will show more variety both quest-wise and exploration-wise. And what do I get? More fetch and escort quests and even more empty grass patches. I got really bored and really can't get myself to play anymore at that point.

Is there a possibility I gave up at the wrong moment? Does it get better and more varied (in every aspect mentioned above) from that point onward? Will there be any interesting dungeons? Anything making this game worth playing?

 

[sXeth]

It's not gonna change drastically, no. As you proceed down some of the questlines, you do get a bit more story to it, and the monster variety will pick up a tad. But its definately not Elder Scrolls or particularly interesting in a random exploration sense.

I'd suggest giving it a go until you do the Griffin Hunt (I think its at the castle/duke after you do 2 or 3 of the optional quests? Its been a bit). That was one of the more interesting points, so you could measure it by then.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Is there a possibility I gave up at the wrong moment? Does it get better and more varied (in every aspect mentioned above) from that point onward? Will there be any interesting dungeons? Anything making this game worth playing?

No.

If it's not giving you what you want by now, it won't for the rest of its length. The biggest draw in this game is the combat and getting new skills.

And I don't know where these people were getting 'like Elder Scrolls' from, apart from that both are Fantasy, because Dragon's Dogma is as much an open-world as Twilight Princes. Which is to say 'Yes it is, but not at all'.

 

[sanquin]

The selling points of the game were the combat, class system and pawns you can share with others, and download from others. If those don't appeal to you, the game won't get any better for you either. When it first came out the combat was still pretty unique and good for an rpg.

I'd say the combat is still good and highly entertaining. But the world, questing, and story were just average to even sub-par. So yea...seems like you bought a game that wasn't really for you. I bought it when it first came out, though after about 8 hours became bored with it because of the lack luster questing/story and uninteresting characters.

 

[Zhukov]

Nope!

It stays exactly the same throughout. If you do the sidequests it'll keep sending you back to those same places too. You know that forest with the little witch in it? Yeah, there's at least two more quests that'll send you straight back. Oh, and the monsters will have respawned too, so you'll get to fight them all again! Same goes for every location in the game.

One's enjoyment of that game always lasts until one gets tired of the combat. There's nothing else to keep one's attention.

 

[DrownedAmmet]

I recommend ignoring the escort quests and just do the main quest bits. It's technically an open-world but Ive found the game works better if you focus on the main quests and have clear goals of go here, fight these mofos, go back and upgrade your equipment, then do the next quest

 

[LetalisK]

Probably not. I mean, I just got done with the four pre duke quests which I thought were fun, but I do get a certain MMO feel from the quests.

Though honestly, the combat feels closer to DA:I then Dark Souls. I say that as a good thing because I like the faster pace. It makes me think DA:I would have been better served by a resource based combat system rather than a cool down based system.

 

[Rebel_Raven]

... ... Oh, yeah, the escort quests. Not all that helpful, except the one with Mercedes... mmm Mercedes. Oh, and Madeleine... mmm Madeleine, er. Where was I? oh, yeah.
A lot of the board quests are optional. If you're just doing those then you're not necessarily advancing.

I mean some lead to actual rewards, like Mercedes giving you a decent shield, and some mission about tablets hidden around, but keep with the plot.

Maybe adjust your pawn to not talk too much. I renamed mine "captain obvious" after she shouted "Gublins!" for the billionth time after seeing goblins.

Advance, learn skills, do combat, fight assorted crazy monsters game plus, maybe unlock something neat between here and there. Enjoy the lore the flavor and the world. Assemble a neat team of Pawns. If you're a guy, wear women's clothing.
If you immerse yourself, the game is charming. The plot is ok. There's the Er Dragon to fight.

I mean the game is by no means perfect, but I enjoy it.

 

[Worgen]

I was pretty bored with it early on too, but it did start getting better for me. I started learning the game systems better and getting more into it.

 

[Fox12]

Playing as Guts and Casca held my attention for a little while, but once the novelty wore off I stopped caring. It had some really, really cool ideas, but nothing can stop the core game from feeling dull and lifeless.

 

[Lufia Erim]

No it gets worst and more tedious. I absolutely hated that game and i felt the same way you did. While there arw a few cool things about it, i definitely did not find what made people love this game

 

[Zhukov]

I renamed mine "captain obvious" after she shouted "Gublins!" for the billionth time after seeing goblins.

Did you know that wolves fight in packs?

No really, they totally do. They fight in packs.

Wolves fight in packs!

 

[Rebel_Raven]

I renamed mine "captain obvious" after she shouted "Gublins!" for the billionth time after seeing goblins.

Did you know that wolves fight in packs?

No really, they totally do. They fight in packs.

Wolves fight in packs!

Even in numbers, a weakling is a weakling still!

Luckily the pawn chatter is not repetitive enough to kill my interest in the game, and the triggers are predictable enough at times. it is annoying at times, but not present enough to be as annoying as it could be, and I really hate repetitive speech. The occasional flavor text is nice. Heck, at times it adds to the game. Something of a mixed bag.

 

[The_Blue_Rider]

Dragons Dogma is one of those titles where if you dont like it within a few hours, there probably wont be anything to hook you in later on. I got really hooked immediately since the combat was really fun, (one of the few games where you get to swing around a legitimate Big Fucking Sword). Dont feel bad if you cant really get into it, its not really for everyone. The Dark Arisen expansion area is fantastic though, and honestly if any part of the game is gonna be compared to Dark Souls, its that part. Trouble is the area is hard af and you need to be an extremely high level to stand a chance there

 

[DementedSheep]

Apart from the DA expansion area (you could give it a try since you can get there from the start but it's for higher level characters), no not really. The story actually dose get more interesting at the end but not enough to be worth muscling through a game you don't like for. The draw of this game is the combat, if that is't enough to hock you the rest of the game won't. The world itself for the most part is extremely boring.

Although once you start finding multiple portcystals the escorts become much much less tedious. You can just port them there rather than travel with them. The notice board escort quests are for boosting affinity, if you don't like them just don't do them.

 

[Zetatrain]

Unfortunately, no.

While the combat system is superb and is something I would like to see in other action RPGs the world that the game inhabits is boring as all hell and does not really change much. As much as I like the combat system its just not enough to last he length of an average RPG. It also doesn't help that the game has a very limited fast travel system which only makes the game even more tedious.

 

[Frostbyte666]

Aye you've probably got the scope of the game by now and trying to force more enjoyment out of it would be a waste of your time. Admittedly I enjoy it buts its something I pick up and play for a bit every couple of months. For the open world part, yeah it really isn't much of one and thank god I could place down 8 portacrystals in NG+. My only wish was if bethesda adopted their combat system for the next elder scrolls, I'd love being able to crawl up a giant and bash its head in while swinging from the eyebrows.

 

[DementedSheep]

Aye you've probably got the scope of the game by now and trying to force more enjoyment out of it would be a waste of your time. Admittedly I enjoy it buts its something I pick up and play for a bit every couple of months. For the open world part, yeah it really isn't much of one and thank god I could place down 8 portacrystals in NG+. My only wish was if bethesda adopted their combat system for the next elder scrolls, I'd love being able to crawl up a giant and bash its head in while swinging from the eyebrows.

Yeah, I don't really want a DD2. I would rather another developer like bethesda ripped them off lol.

 

[SmallHatLogan]

You've pretty much described the exact experience I had with the game. The reason Dragon's Dogma first came to my attention was because I was hearing a lot of recommendations from Dark Souls players (not recommending it to me specifically, more just Dark Souls fans talking about it a lot) saying that it was similar. I have to say I fail to see the similarities outside of being in the same genre and being harder than the average Action RPG.

After I got over the fact that it was different to Dark Souls I just found it kind of bland. I really wanted to like Dragon's Dogma and there are a lot of good ideas but overall it just kind of fell flat for me.