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[Kacho]

The same, bbi becomes available after fighting off the hydra.

Sorry I botched that. I meant hard mode.

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

Sorry I botched that. I meant hard mode.

Hard mode was dlc in the original, not dark arisen exclusive.
Switching to hard mode reset the game to the start, but you didn't lose anything, it was essentially forcing a ng+ run; you could switch back to normal whenever you wanted without resetting the game, but switching back to hard would always bring you back to the start.

 

[Yerd]

One downside of warfarer is no master moves are available. I have been running around in the early area but haven't tested myself with this class yet.

Not sure I know how best to use it yet. It's nice to have a bow and a sword and shield and a mage staff. I went through all my gear and used the lowest weight/highest DEF gear and mixed it up. It's surprising how much defense is in the robes. Heavy armor doesn't add that much.


My pawn keeps bringing up the fact that she was a mage and thinks I wasn't pleased with her performance. I've been using her as a thief and really liked that combo with my warrior. I will eventually give her the mage staff that lets her revive herself.

 

[fallingdove]

Allow me to summarise the issue here and why this is an obvious example of how and why they made that portcrystal a microtransaction (if they didn't think people would buy it then they wouldn't have it available for sale):

• This is a game that encourages exploration and creativity (that we can all agree on)
• I picked up a side-quest that required me to speak to someone in Battahl. Upon reaching checkpoint rest town, unless you have progressed the main quest far enough then you will get cockblocked when you attempt to go through the gate/border to Battahl.
• So there's me thinking there must be another way around, look at the map and I can see the river goes around the town and will take you through to the southern area of the map - I go to check it out
• The river is shallow enough to be traverasable so I rest up at the inn overnight and prepare for the journey
• The path along the river, through some caves and then on to a main path to Battahl is Hard, there are tons of hard enemies, bosses and a dragon along the path but I press on.
• To make matters worse along this journey my main pawn dies along the way because they got thrown off a cliff by a boss and I couldn't get down to revive them in time, with that my camping kit is gone, and night falls.
• As you can imagine, EVEN MORE hard bosses come out to play and at this point I'm simply running for my life trying to survive because I can see on the map I've got less distance to cover to get to Battahl than what's gone before. My other two pawns die along the way.
• I've travelled through the night, it's now daytime and I eventually make it to Battahl.
• The journey took me 3 hours of playtime and pretty much all of the curables and potions I had in my possession.

Sounds great right, but did I find it rewarding? No, not in the slightest, in fact it felt like a slap in the face once I reached Battahl and found out there was no port Crystal. One of the motivations to stay the course during that trip was me thinking there will be a portcrystal at Battahl and I would be stupid to go that far and not eventually unlock it. Well, the jokes on me.

To make matters worse, the oxcarts are out of service (again, I've since discovered you need to have progressed the main quest far enough to have them operational in this region) and despite me finding a guy near Battahl who will sell me a portcrystal in exchange for some dragon materials I can't even get that because I don't have enough of those.

At this point I can 100% see what they are trying to do with selling that portcrystal and I suspect it's at this point most people who have purchased it will have done so out of exasperation. I'm left with the following options:

• Find a dragon (or 2) in the region to kill so I can get the materials to give to the guy who is selling the portcrystal
• Or get back to Vernworth, especially making the 3 hour trip that I should have been able to look back on fondly worthless and a waste of time.

That's the last time I'm doing a big trip/adventure in this game without having a spare portcrystal in my possession, and that's a shame because you should be free to be able to explore far and wide without fear that it's going to make your life more difficult.

I just completed the same trek and had a very different experience.

I reach Battahl, the game says

"here's a big gate, you probably don't have the right tools to explore this area, you should probably turn back"

"Oh, you insist? There is a little creek you can follow to bypass this gate. It's out of the way and little bit tricky to navigate but have it your way…"

"Are you sure you want to travel this path? There are enemies in this cave that can 1-shot kill you. We are ramping the difficulty, in case you didn't notice. Turn back."

"You must really be a glutton for punishment. You are underleveled for this area… You are encountering boss beasts more frequently now…"

I too am now out of curatives but I have an incredible battle with a drake that I narrowly survive.

My play session ends after 1am and I have work the next day — my pawns are dead, Ive used everything in my inventory, but I finish with the defeat of Medusa, the game rewarding me with trophies, wyrmcrystals, a Medusa head, and a bow that gives me 4x experience to make my next journey to Battahl a little easier.

The game has as many issues as it does moments of greatness but I can't think a series that has such sustained moments of intensity. Elden Ring et Soulsborne may have higher difficulty spikes but also a bunch of autopilot once you get past the initial learning curve.

 

[FoxMcChief]

My Ciri is stacked.

Looking

 

[FoxMcChief]

HOLY SHIT

Spoiler

Just went to Melve via cart for a different quest, the village was under attack by a fucking puss-dragon with 8 health bars lol.

Managed to drive it down to 4 and then it flew away ..

Was not expecting this encounter.

Did you talk to the bro to get the Mystic Spearhand vocation after that fight?

 

[Yerd]

Does Medusa and the lesser Dragon respawn?

 

[adamsapple]

Did you talk to the bro to get the Mystic Spearhand vocation after that fight?

I forget, do you get an item which allows unlocking that vocation?

Honestly I've stuck with Fighter so far for my main and it's been working out great for me.

edit: I went back there and apparently it started another side quest, i googled and looked at the NPC who should give you the vocation, but he isn't anywhere in the town sigh. Looks like I missed him

 

[FoxMcChief]

I forget, do you get an item which allows unlocking that vocation?

Honestly I've stuck with Fighter so far for my main and it's been working out great for me.

edit: I went back there and apparently it started another side quest, i googled and looked at the NPC who should give you the vocation, but he isn't anywhere in the town sigh. Looks like I missed him

Man. You need to branch out. Try some other vocations. Unlock augments.

 

[Kacho]

Man. You need to branch out. Try some other vocations. Unlock augments.

Don't listen to him adamsapple . There's no going back to Fighter after getting a taste of other classes.

 

[adamsapple]

Found Sigurd, FoxMcChief , he's the guy who unlocks that vocation.

PSA for anyone whose looking for him and couldn't find him in the first village, he is found in Harve in the coastal hut to the very east of the town.

 

[FoxMcChief]

Don't listen to him adamsapple . There's no going back to Fighter after getting a taste of other classes.

 

[DavidGzz]

May be the best QoL mod so far. Scarlet Witch rizzing me up while providing vocation switching and my full storage on the go. Hnnnnng. Also, my cold buff essentially lasts all day. My very own moonlight greatsword in DD2.

 

[adamsapple]

So I moved over to Mystic Spearhand and it is a freaking powerhouse. I miss my gouging skewer skill and hope there's something similar here, the lack of a shield to block / parry will also take a little getting used to.

--


But now I've taken on a quest which requires me to be an Archer, so that sucks. Gonna put Spearhand on hold for that, then do some night hunting to gain vocation points quicker and level it up a bit.

 

[DavidGzz]

After maxing all vocations, fighter is my favorite. I just love his flavor of skills. Blocking, hindsight slash for a dodge, jumping and slashing harpies out of the air, etc. I want my sword and board class in D4 damnit!

 

[thief183]

I don'understand what is the problem with the portcristals, I got 8 around the map at this point and an infinite amount of ferrystones cause every vendor as at least 1.... are we playing a different game? I took my time to explore every single road in the map and the amount of stuff I've found is overwhelming.

Also during the sphinx fight give her the port crystal.

 

[Johnny Concrete]

So I bought this game pretty much blind, only saw a few snippets of combat and it looked cool. Never played the first game either.

It was kinda rough to get into it in the first few hours. Lots of explaining and not that interesting of an opening. I chewed through that and now I am about 13 hours in I would describe it as a mix between The Witcher and Monster Hunter in a Fellowship of the Ring setting. I'm kind of falling in love with this game, it is quite beautiful and the combat can be amazingly chaotic.

I sometimes find the quests hard to understand, though. I'm all for letting the player find things out on his own, but I often have no clue where to start looking for answers.
For instance: A quest starts to find a boy who was dragged off by wolves. I had to talk to people in the town to get more info. Fine, there are about 30 or more people walking around, but I talked to everyone of them and 3 of them responded to the quest, eventually giving me a map marker where to look for the dude. I go there, but there's nothing and the marker disappeared as well. I asked my pawns and they tell me to get more information. But there's nothing else to gain in the town it seems.
Maybe the quest got bugged in this case, but I happen to leave some of these side quests because I have no clue at some point what to do.

Incredible game so far, though.

 

[thief183]

So I bought this game pretty much blind, only saw a few snippets of combat and it looked cool. Never played the first game either.

It was kinda rough to get into it in the first few hours. Lots of explaining and not that interesting of an opening. I chewed through that and now I am about 13 hours in I would describe it as a mix between The Witcher and Monster Hunter in a Fellowship of the Ring setting. I'm kind of falling in love with this game, it is quite beautiful and the combat can be amazingly chaotic.

I sometimes find the quests hard to understand, though. I'm all for letting the player find things out on his own, but I often have no clue where to start looking for answers.
For instance: A quest starts to find a boy who was dragged off by wolves. I had to talk to people in the town to get more info. Fine, there are about 30 or more people walking around, but I talked to everyone of them and 3 of them responded to the quest, eventually giving me a map marker where to look for the dude. I go there, but there's nothing and the marker disappeared as well. I asked my pawns and they tell me to get more information. But there's nothing else to gain in the town it seems.
Maybe the quest got bugged in this case, but I happen to leave some of these side quests because I have no clue at some point what to do.

Incredible game so far, though.

One of the person you spoke should have tell you that the boy loved some type of flower, follow the trail of flower until you find a cave

 

[GHG]

I feel like you maybe just made bad decisions in your journey here. To me it sounds like you're just not playing the game in a, I won't say wrong, but it's kinda wrong, a not cohesive way.

I did sort of the same journey you did, but I was level 20 or 30ish at the time. I had a pretty good grasp of the game mechanics. I was annoyed the same way, when I searched probably a half hour for a portcrystal in the only city in battahl. But, I sucked it up, went back to other areas and once I found a portcrystal, I pledged it to battahl. I have since received maybe 3 more portcrystals and have permanently placed one at the elf town and battahl and the dragonforged. I only just bought the one from the dragonforged and have that for any new places.

I have explored so much, I have more ferrystones than I can use. I buy them when I see them. I'm pretty sure every town sells at least one. There is one for sale in bakbattahl, probably the vendor next to the armorer.

It sounds like I have probably used more ferrystones than anyone in this thread. I have ferrystoned my heart out.

To be clear, I have no issue with the journey itself or the challenges it presented. I was level 32 btw and was having no issues difficulty wise until my pawns started dying on me (my main pawn dying with the camping kit is really what set off the death spiral for the rest of my party because it meant traversal at night).

What I take issue with is the blatant removal of a portcrystal in a major city/hub in the game, and having gone through the journey to get there it's obvious why they've done it and why that portcrystal is available for sale.

It's not unreasonable for the player to expect there to be a portcrystal in a city that the game has made clear is a major one. It's also not right that a game which is focused on freedom and exploration (in the developers own words) would do such a thing in the name of making some extra money.

I don't have an issue with the game being exploration focused (in fact I love that aspect), I don't have an issue with the ferrystones, what I take issue with is a blatant world design alteration that has been done in the name of monetisation.

I just completed the same trek and had a very different experience.

I reach Battahl, the game says

"here's a big gate, you probably don't have the right tools to explore this area, you should probably turn back"

"Oh, you insist? There is a little creek you can follow to bypass this gate. It's out of the way and little bit tricky to navigate but have it your way…"

"Are you sure you want to travel this path? There are enemies in this cave that can 1-shot kill you. We are ramping the difficulty, in case you didn't notice. Turn back."

"You must really be a glutton for punishment. You are underleveled for this area… You are encountering boss beasts more frequently now…"

I too am now out of curatives but I have an incredible battle with a drake that I narrowly survive.

My play session ends after 1am and I have work the next day — my pawns are dead, Ive used everything in my inventory, but I finish with the defeat of Medusa, the game rewarding me with trophies, wyrmcrystals, a Medusa head, and a bow that gives me 4x experience to make my next journey to Battahl a little easier.

The game has as many issues as it does moments of greatness but I can't think a series that has such sustained moments of intensity. Elden Ring et Soulsborne may have higher difficulty spikes but also a bunch of autopilot once you get past the initial learning curve.

See above. Your experience has a lot of parallels to mine, similar story and one I would have looked back upon fondly had there have been a portcrystal once I arrived in the city.

Love the game but this is an area where they've taken the piss.

Edit:

Looking at the reviews for the portcrystal on Steam it seems me and SlimySnake are not the only once who can see this for what it is:

I can get over other places not having portcrystals and I'm fine with the ox art system (there should be a way to use griffins as mounts, but that's for another discussion) but Vermund and Battahl are the two places that should have them. End of story.

 

[TintoConCasera]

To be clear, I have no issue with the journey itself or the challenges it presented. I was level 32 btw and was having no issues difficulty wise until my pawns started dying on me (my main pawn dying with the camping kit is really what set off the death spiral for the rest of my party because it meant traversal at night).

What I take issue with is the blatant removal of a portcrystal in a major city/hub in the game, and having gone through the journey to get there it's obvious why they've done it and why that portcrystal is available for sale.

It's not unreasonable for the player to expect there to be a portcrystal in a city that the game has made clear is a major one. It's also not right that a game which is focused on freedom and exploration (in the developers own words) would do such a thing in the name of making some extra money.

I don't have an issue with the game being exploration focused (in fact I love that aspect), I don't have an issue with the ferrystones, what I take issue with is a blatant world design alteration that has been done in the name of monetisation.



See above. Your experience has a lot of parallels to mine, similar story and one I would have looked back upon fondly had there have been a portcrystal once I arrived in the city.

Love the game but this is an area where they've taken the piss.

Edit:

Looking at the reviews for the portcrystal on Steam it seems me and SlimySnake are not the only once who can see this for what it is:

I can get over other places not having portcrystals and I'm fine with the ox art system (there should be a way to use griffins as mounts, but that's for another discussion) but Vermund and Battahl are the two places that should have them. End of story.

Ferrystone to Vermund.
Oxcart to Bordertown.
Oxcart to Bak Batthal.
Problem solved.

 

[FoxMcChief]

Ferrystone to Vermund.
Oxcart to Bordertown.
Oxcart to Bak Batthal.
Problem solved.

Yeah. I'm not sure what the issue is. Maybe he's wondered too far too soon?

 

[thief183]

Yeah. I'm not sure what the issue is. Maybe he's wondered too far too soon?

If he skipped the main quest he still can't pass the main gate, so if he didn't have a crystal ( not even the one from the main quest you are supposed to use in batthal) he pretty much fooled himself...

 

[TintoConCasera]

Yeah. I'm not sure what the issue is. Maybe he's wondered too far too soon?

If he skipped the main quest he still can't pass the main gate, so if he didn't have a crystal ( not even the one from the main quest you are supposed to use in batthal) he pretty much fooled himself...

Even then, there's a portcrystal for sale (and quite cheap) on a coastal cave near the city.

Honestly I didn't have any trouble with the portcrystals, always had one or two on my inventory to spare.

 

[Methos#1975]

Im in the endgame now and does the gear and such really not stay with you if you die? I get all the quest being restarted but items and gear you acquired being lost is a bit BS.

 

[TintoConCasera]

Im in the endgame now and does the gear and such really not stay with you if you die? I get all the quest being restarted but items and gear you acquired being lost is a bit BS.

I think you can save by resting at an inn, but it's tricky because that will make the fog advance too.

 

[GHG]

Ferrystone to Vermund.
Oxcart to Bordertown.
Oxcart to Bak Batthal.
Problem solved.

I've outlined this already, can't oxcart from too
and from bodertown to Battahl.

Yeah. I'm not sure what the issue is. Maybe he's wondered too far too soon?

If he skipped the main quest he still can't pass the main gate, so if he didn't have a crystal ( not even the one from the main quest you are supposed to use in batthal) he pretty much fooled himself...

Ah yes guys, the game where the devs told us you "explore everything, embrace the freedom, go nuts, that's how we designed it".

Now it's like "no, not like that".

How about maybe they simply shouldn't have removed the portcrystal from Battahl and put it up for sale as a microtransaction.

 

[Methos#1975]

I think you can save by resting at an inn, but it's tricky because that will make the fog advance too.

This is just really a bad design idea on Capcom's part. What's really the point of opening up the world more and adding new gear if you cannot really explore it at leisure and collect it. Quest progress should be the only thing that is restarted.

 

[TintoConCasera]

I've outlined this already, can't oxcart from too and from bodertown to Battahl.

Oh, that sucks, guess the route doesn't open if you don't have the papers to cross the border?

Ah yes guys, the game where the devs told us you "explore everything, embrace the freedom, go nuts, that's how we designed it".

Now it's like "no, not like that".

How about maybe they simply shouldn't have removed the portcrystal from Battahl and put it up for sale as a microtransaction.

By exploring you'd find a store selling a portcrystal 2 minutes away from the city.

There are only 3 ways of entering Batthal, one of them is going very close to that store and the other one is the main quest which I think gives you a portcrystal. Those people must have been very unlucky if they went through the route that doesn't give you a portcrystal while also not having found any other one prior to entering Batthal.

This is just really a bad design idea on Capcom's part. What's really the point of opening up the world more and adding new gear if you cannot really explore it at leisure and collect it. Quest progress should be the only thing that is restarted.

Yeah it's fucked up. I like the roguelike component but the game should have a tutorial for all the postgame shenanigans, but it doesn't.

 

[Portugeezer]

What's the best vocation?

I selected archer but it doesn't feel as good as DD1, might change it.

 

[thief183]

I've outlined this already, can't oxcart from too
and from bodertown to Battahl.




Ah yes guys, the game where the devs told us you "explore everything, embrace the freedom, go nuts, that's how we designed it".

Now it's like "no, not like that".

How about maybe they simply shouldn't have removed the portcrystal from Battahl and put it up for sale as a microtransaction.

I probably used the wrong wording, but I did the same thing with the difference that half the way there ( right after I managed to go down the high cliff) I thought... "what if there is no crystal?" Thing is that I had already 2 spare so I reached batthal placed 1 and got back for the main quest ( I had 1 from the helves quest, 1 from the sphinx, 1 from somewhere I don't remember... maybe the "secret" store)

I agree tho that they could have placed 1 crystal in batthal,.

 

[TintoConCasera]

What's the best vocation?

The most OP seem to be Thief and Mystic Spearhand, but since the game's not hard at all, I'd say the best vocation is the one that's most fun to you.

 

[GHG]

Oh, that sucks, guess the route doesn't open if you don't have the papers to cross the border?

Apparently not.

By exploring you'd find a store selling a portcrystal 2 minutes away from the city.

I found him but don't have enough of the materials, so time to go dragon hunting. I've only come across one dragon in the area so far but he flew away as I was attacking it (might have been well above my current level). I've picked up a few other quests in the area but some require me to go back to Vermund in order to progress them, which I'm determined to not do until I've placed a portcrystal in Battahl so I'm just doing other stuff there and exploring the area around the town for now.

I'm not having that 3 hour journey I made there be in vain.

I wouldn't say it's "unlucky" either. I picked up a quest about sculptures in Vermund very early on and he told me the guy I need to speak to is in Battahl. I actually put off going there for a long time until I'd done a bunch of other stuff around the vermund/rest town/harve areas.

 

[SCB3]

I took my time to explore every single road in the map and the amount of stuff I've found is overwhelming

And that there highlights a point, you shouldn't need to do that in a game just to make the fast travel tolerable, its poor design and something stuck in 2012, I'm not even asking for much other than place the Portcrystals in each major town, theres only what 5 of them? Make it a reward for finding the town

 

[GHG]

And that there highlights a point, you shouldn't need to do that in a game just to make the fast travel tolerable, its poor design and something stuck in 2012, I'm not even asking for much other than place the Portcrystals in each major town, theres only what 5 of them? Make it a reward for finding the town

And they put one in Harve but not Battahl.

 

[GymWolf]

What's the best vocation?

I selected archer but it doesn't feel as good as DD1, might change it.

Magic archer, sorcerer, mystic spearhand, thief, trickster and warrior are all broken so you can chose any of these depends on what playstyle you prefer.

Like someone else said, the game is not really hard so you can play whatever class you want, it's a power fantasy type of experience.

 

[TintoConCasera]

So just beat the game!

Enjoyed the post game a lot, gave me the chance to fight a bunch of Dullahans, which imo must be the coolest looking boss in the game. Seeing them approach from afar by teleporting sure is terrifying.
Also holy shit that Wyrm boss! Very cool, glad they put some new actual bosses in the postgame.

Now, about that ending... Man, I wished we could have fought that dragon at the end.
Still, pretty cool sequence, our pawn is a total dude for sure. Enjoyed it a lot and nice touch at the end by ranking your top friends and your top pawns.

Also! Just came across this mod:

Custom Difficulty Tweaks

Create the hard mode difficulty Capcom forgot to include in the base game.

www.nexusmods.com

It lets you customize exp gains, damage taken and even stagger values, so boss enemies might not be turned into a punching bag so easily.
I've asked around and it seems to be a great improvement even with the mod's default values, so it might be worth a shot specially on a NG+.

 

[Clear]

Magic archer, sorcerer, mystic spearhand, thief, trickster and warrior are all broken so you can chose any of these depends on what playstyle you prefer.

Like someone else said, the game is not really hard so you can play whatever class you want, it's a power fantasy type of experience.

People are sleeping on how good ranger is by mid-game. Its very versatile but if you use it early on the weight/encumberance limits can make it seem like hard work. Special arrows are absolutely devastating and it really makes short work of any sort of flying enemy.

 

[IAmRei]

Folks. Give me some starter tips as I am delving into this now.

What's everyone's preferred starting class? I'm thinking of being the vanilla bitch and starting a warrior class equivalent and keeping my main pawn or two as a mage.

Also, how easy are rift crystals to come across? I have absolutely no shame in spending $2.99 to get more rift crystals to be able to summon better pawns earlier

I am warrior max, then switch to fighter, mystic spears are unlocked, but its not my style as i am roleplaying as goblin slayer now : ))

500-1000 RC comes naturally when you progress 30% from start. By the time arrives at first time fighting dragon, i already had 1500. Also pawn quest add more rc

 

[Draugoth]

The most OP seem to be Thief and Mystic Spearhand, but since the game's not hard at all, I'd say the best vocation is the one that's most fun to you.

Everything in the game becomes a joke once you hit level 50 and NG doesnt increase difficulty. Makes me wonder if no one at Capcom bothered to test this game on this regard.

 

[thief183]

And that there highlights a point, you shouldn't need to do that in a game just to make the fast travel tolerable, its poor design and something stuck in 2012, I'm not even asking for much other than place the Portcrystals in each major town, theres only what 5 of them? Make it a reward for finding the town

That is true if you are not having fun.

I had (and still have ) a lot of fun doing it, I'm not in a rush to finish the game as fast as possible, I'm enjoying my time with, and this game in particular made me realise that I was playing everything like it was a speed run.

When I'll get bored I'll just stop, as for now I'm having a blast, I'm level 71 (I think) and after a while that you don't have a challenge something clicks is and the amount of multi boss encounters rump up incredibly... Still too easy at this point. A drake barely last 10 seconds under the rain of arrow a magic archer can shoot.

Edit: as for the port crystal, we'll yes you could say that it would have been better, still I'm not sure if it is done to sell mtx or not.

 

[MagiusNecros]

Every vocation is OP just like 1st game based on how you build your characters. Classes like Spearhand or Thief can make things trivial if you use certain skills or mechanics.

Feint on Thief is one of the most busted skills to the point with high density enemy fights you auto dodge everything and it's like a highspeed DBZ fight happening in real time.

Currently having a blast with the Seeker Missiles Voc- I mean Magick Archer. High HP enemies I've found that most of them are suspectible to Frostbite and can be frozen.

Might end up doing a Warfarer build With MA, Thief and maybe Warrior for a Debilitation build. Frostbite via Frostseeker and Blighted when it procs through Spite Daggers is very strong.

Though Magick Archer Arrow tracking paired with Sorcerer's Augural Flare could probably be used to great effect.

 

[Exentryk]

You can have some amazing moments in the game. Was just exploring and cleaned out a random cave. At the end I was thinking the loot was pretty bad in this cave. And then the pawns go:

Pawn 1: This is a poor remuneration for our efforts
Pawn 2: Rarely have I felt so empty

Lol. Amazing!

 

[SCB3]

Ooo magick archer sounds fun, just looking at how to unlock the other vocations and I'm only (of fucking course seeing as I'm an archer now) missing this, so now need to travel quite a distance to it, I have been there before and at level 40 I'm a lot stronger, so thats todays task after finishing the Archer quest in the Elven section

 

[SilentSpecter]

Love fighting at night.

 

[adamsapple]

Raised the Mystic Spearhand to level 5, it's fantastic for killing enemies rapidly. The skill where you can put a small bubble shield around your party for a few seconds, which blocks any attack, is lovely. I've used it during a big boss fight just as they're winding for a big attack and it blocks literally everything.

Managed to get my first portcrystal as well (griffon nest). I think I've put the main quest way on the backburner lol, maybe I'm overleveling too much for the main narrative but who gives a shit.

 

[TintoConCasera]

140 hours in, game beaten and I'm getting the urge to do it all over again.

Everything in the game becomes a joke once you hit level 50 and NG doesnt increase difficulty. Makes me wonder if no one at Capcom bothered to test this game on this regard.

yeah, the game feels just as unfinished as the first one did, which is kind of tragic.

At least it's really fun to play, just like the first one was too.

 

[Kacho]

What's the best vocation?

I selected archer but it doesn't feel as good as DD1, might change it.

I'm playing Archer now and not feeling it... hoping it clicks soon.

Thief is by far the most fun IMO. I enjoy holding the Y/Triangle button to grab enemies and then shank them.

Warrior is fun too but really slow. Once you learn how to use them effectively you'll hyper armor through everything and knock down big monsters with ease.

Fighter is cool but feels impotent compared to other classes. I think their resistance knockdown needs a buff.

Haven't tried the others yet.

 

[Kacho]

Man, I wished we could have fought that dragon at the end.

Felt a little anti climatic for sure. I spent a few minutes preparing myself for the dragon and it was a cutscene. Was laughing my ass off.

The cutscene was hype though.

 

[GymWolf]

People are sleeping on how good ranger is by mid-game. Its very versatile but if you use it early on the weight/encumberance limits can make it seem like hard work. Special arrows are absolutely devastating and it really makes short work of any sort of flying enemy.

I haven't tried the archer but i heard that like half of its skills are based on consumable special arrows and that is a no go to me.

I would try the class just to try the kick move to kick mofos off cliffs

Btw i must be one of the few who really doesn't give a fuck about the grabbing\climbing monster mechanic...it is just super boring to me to just grab on enemies, reaching their weak point and just mashing a button over fighting in the traditional way with good positioning, using skills, mixing normal attacks, jump attacks etc.
I know they slightly expanded what you can do while being on the monster but it just feel too safe and boring as a playstyle even if it look epic sometimes, i tried one time in this one and one time in dd1 and never tried again.

I always have a thief in my group so he can do all the grabbing

 

[LaughingStock]

Regarding Bakbattahl there are three ways to get there that I know of:

Spoiler

- Go to checkpoint town and when the gate opens for a carriage, run for it. That's considered a crime and soldiers will attack you. You gain an achievement for doing that.

- There's a cave east of checkpoint town. I was actually looking for the missing kid. Entered the wrong cave and ended up in bakbattahl. That's no easy path and you will struggle if you're not well prepared. Unfortunately for the kid, my trip took too long and wolves ate him.

- Just keep doing the quests for captain Brant. Eventually he will give you a permit and a PORTCRYSTAL.