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Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen |OT| deep down darkness

Lach

Member
Probably licensing :(

Also, finally got the 360 version of this. Holy shit, I didnt think the performance would THAT much better (as a whole of course). Even the tearing was greatly exaggerated. ..

Yeah...I started DA on PS3 as I got it for free. I couldn't believe the stuttering. I'm thinking of getting DA for 360 just to have smoother gameplay....
 
Just beat
Grigori
. Really enjoyed the game. I may do the Everfall and finish off the post game quests, then blast through on new game plus and start BBI then. I missed a few early quests and want to get the trophy, and I don't mind holding off BBI for a while longer.
 
What sidequests should I be doing in post game/which are the important ones to do? Will I need to do things like get another gold and silver idol for Madeline and Caxton or will the ones I gave to them on my first playthough still carry over?

I'm thinking of doing:
Madeline's quests.
Fournival and Symone's quests.
Get the Silver Idol.
Selene's quests.
Quina's quests.
Valmiro's quests.
The second option for both Thieves quests (kill 10 members of the opposite thief group).
Open up the Ancient Quarry for Alon's shop.
Aelionre's quests and An Innocent Man.
The post game sidequest.

This way I'll deal with all of the important NPC's quests, get both idols, and get quest knowledge on the Thieves quests. How does Reynard work though; he
leaves Gransys
when you complete Search Party, but if you don't complete it (and even if you do) does he
still show up in post game?
 
What sidequests should I be doing in post game/which are the important ones to do? Will I need to do things like get another gold and silver idol for Madeline and Caxton or will the ones I gave to them on my first playthough still carry over?

I'm thinking of doing:
Madeline's quests.
Fournival and Symone's quests.
Get the Silver Idol.
Selene's quests.
Quina's quests.
Valmiro's quests.
The second option for both Thieves quests (kill 10 members of the opposite thief group).
Open up the Ancient Quarry for Alon's shop.
Aelionre's quests and An Innocent Man.
The post game sidequest.

This way I'll deal with all of the important NPC's quests, get both idols, and get quest knowledge on the Thieves quests. How does Reynard work though; he
leaves Gransys
when you complete Search Party, but if you don't complete it (and even if you do) does he
still show up in post game?

Quests carry over to NG+ so in theory you could only finish the ones you missed in your first playthrough. But because you can fuck up and miss some stupid quest AGAIN I recommend playing with a guide and doing all of them again - it's easier that way. The one on playstationtrophies.org or something like that (it's a forum topic) is great and very easy to follow.

I unlocked The Hero doing all the quests again in NG+, every single one of them. NG+ flies very fast because:

1) you are so overpowered
2) you have portcrystals all over the world
 
Quests carry over to NG+ so in theory you could only finish the ones you missed in your first playthrough. But because you can fuck up and miss some stupid quest AGAIN I recommend playing with a guide and doing all of them again - it's easier that way. The one on playstationtrophies.org or something like that (it's a forum topic) is great and very easy to follow.

I unlocked The Hero doing all the quests again in NG+, every single one of them. NG+ flies very fast because:

1) you are so overpowered
2) you have portcrystals all over the world

The only quests I've missed are 2 or 3 in Cassardis at the start, plus I missed the Pawn training at the Encampment because I started the main quest there.
I just want to replay the sidequests that deal with the important NPC's pretty much.

Just fought the Evil Eye in the Everfall, which took around a minute if that. I'm not really keen on the
aesthetics of post game
, but having stronger enemies to fight is great, because they give a lot of experience. I'm still not finding anything really challenging in post game yet, but as I said I've only just started the Everfall.
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
The Everfall sucks. Enemies aren't that hard (though sometimes there's an annoying combination, such as that room with like two gorechimeras and tons of wights), the level design is abysmally bad, and the loot system is garbage. I suggest you buy some good weapons from one of those vendors if you can, dragonforge them by trying to spawn the frostwyrm (he's easy), then head to Bitterblack Isle for actually fun dungeons and encounters and forget the Everfall asap. ^^
 
The Everfall sucks. Enemies aren't that hard (though sometimes there's an annoying combination, such as that room with like two gorechimeras and tons of wights), the level design is abysmally bad, and the loot system is garbage. I suggest you buy some good weapons from one of those vendors if you can, dragonforge them by trying to spawn the frostwyrm (he's easy), then head to Bitterblack Isle for actually fun dungeons and encounters and forget the Everfall asap. ^^

Yeah, it does feel pretty gimmicky at the moment. I'll have a look round it first to see what I uncover, then once I get back to this point in new game + I'll head to BBI then. I'm looking forward to that.

Is the Archistaff you get from beating
Grigori in the Final Battle
good/worth getting, or will I find better ones in the Everfall/BBI? I figure I may as well get another weapon from him in new game +, but I don't know if I should get an Archistaff for my main pawn, or get the sword for my Mystic Knight class (I've been using mace).
 
Right, I have 20 Wakestones and have only bothered with two Everfall areas up to now; one area with a vendor called Joye I think and a Golem/Armoured Cyclops combo, and area with a dragon and then a Chimera, Gorechimera, and a Wight that summons Hellhounds, which is so cheap and frustrating.

I've been given the option to presumably go to
the point of no return
now, but I'll wait 'til tomorrow before I continue/presumably conclude the game.
 
well, my kingdoms of amalur save got hit with a shitty bug and i don't really feel like starting over, so fuck it. i'm going back to dark arisen and i'm going to beat the final final final boss. let me finally recruit all the pawns i took from you guys lol.
 
Doing a 2nd BBI run now because I did not kill Death yet and I discovered on Dragon's Dogma Wiki that Daimon has a 2nd, more powerful form.

Man, the BBI is pretty crazy now with Cursed Dragons, Gorechimeras, Death, Drakes, Wyrms etc. around every corner. I opened 3 Moonbeam doors for the 3 best pieces of equipment available there (IMO):

- that Assassin Bow
- that Mage Coat that *rapidly* restores life to my party
- that Saurian Sage Shirt which is better on LVL0 than my Silver Rarified Dragon Leather Vest

I am in serious lack of Rift Crystals, though :( They are found in such shitty amounts like 400, 2000 etc.

I love this game. It's everything I've ever wanted from a 3D Diablo game and it has monsters ripped straight out of AD&D book.

Best CAPCOM title since Resident Evil 4.

Also hot damn how powerful you get with higher levels (110 now) and better gear. Gorechimeras lose 1 bar of health with my 1 Pendat Shot. I kill them on sight now. Cursed Dragons lose about 3-4 bars of health when Dire Gouging them with a full Stamina bar. Kerrrrrrrrazy.
 
Been a while since I posted here. In New Game+ currently just fucking around, hilarious (in a good way) that I am still finding a bunch of stuff I missed from the original game. Currently doing those "From a Different Sky" Quests because get this, I missed the notice board during my entire 1st playthrough smh. Glad to see others still enjoying the game.
 
Been a while since I posted here. In New Game+ currently just fucking around, hilarious (in a good way) that I am still finding a bunch of stuff I missed from the original game. Currently doing those "From a Different Sky" Quests because get this, I missed the notice board during my entire 1st playthrough smh. Glad to see others still enjoying the game.

I knew the notice board was there but forgot about it. I decided to add a few to my quest list just before Deny Salvation but didn't get round to doing it before I went to New Game +.
 
Jeez... can the Pawns AI be any more stupid during Death encounters? He has only two attacks! Just run the fuck out of the way!

Funny how I can kill the Devilfire Grove Drake in under 1 minute now yet the BBI Fire Drakes take 30-40 minutes to down... and I have almost maxed out Ascalon and Dragon's Ire :(
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
Jeez... can the Pawns AI be any more stupid during Death encounters? He has only two attacks! Just run the fuck out of the way!

Funny how I can kill the Devilfire Grove Drake in under 1 minute now yet the BBI Fire Drakes take 30-40 minutes to down... and I have almost maxed out Ascalon and Dragon's Ire :(
Hah yeah Death is cheap, it's like it's there to almost auto-kill your pawns so that Rifstones become useful again. In the normal game I almost never visited Rifstones but you have little choice in the BBI.

Ascalon is sadly very outdated for BBI, especially the fire drakes, they have very high defense and HP. You need at least lv. 2 BBI cursed weapons, upgraded as high as possible. With lv. 3 weapons they go down fairly fast.
 
BBI got hard as fuck post-daimon
DhXKv93.gif
 
I've just got back from holiday and have spent the last two nights getting reacquainted with this. Close to finishing all the missions for The Hero trophy, and then it's pretty much just a straight run to the end and into NG++ for the last few and the Platinum.
 
BBI got hard as fuck post-daimon
DhXKv93.gif

Ya, it is quite challenging. Dat small room in the Helix Tower with a Metal Golem, dozen of Succubi, Strigoi and fucking DEATH on top of it all... what a mess it was. Didn't even notice when all of my Pawns died.

I am post Bishop now so not much left till I face Daimon again.
 
DogmaGaf, about to get a week break from college, played this but figured the scope was too much for me to handle, with the amount of assignments that I had and stuff. Gonna give this a go from the start. Any pointers for a, what I would call,newcomer?
 
Cannot get Death to drop Lvl 3 Weapon, ugh. Tried 10 times so far. Also Daimon 2 kicks my ass :(

the real DD begins now! i remember downing him with my bow+lots of buffs from items.

DogmaGaf, about to get a week break from college, played this but figured the scope was too much for me to handle, with the amount of assignments that I had and stuff. Gonna give this a go from the start. Any pointers for a, what I would call,newcomer?

uhm, always have pawns close to your level and enjoy.
 
Thanks for the tips guys. Now that I have some down time I'm going to try and sink my teeth into it. All the systems and stuff, so that I can keep on playing when school starts again aha.
 

Hung Wei Lo

Member
Doing a 2nd BBI run now because I did not kill Death yet and I discovered on Dragon's Dogma Wiki that Daimon has a 2nd, more powerful form.

Didn't know this at the time I read this and have now been drawn back in ...thanks! (don't know if it's a good thing or bad thing yet though)

Jeez... can the Pawns AI be any more stupid during Death encounters? He has only two attacks! Just run the fuck out of the way!

Funny how I can kill the Devilfire Grove Drake in under 1 minute now yet the BBI Fire Drakes take 30-40 minutes to down... and I have almost maxed out Ascalon and Dragon's Ire :(

I hear you on the dumb pawns. I'm stuck fighting two Wyrms(? ) and my idiot pawn won't cast High Silentium to stop their spellcasting..I'm literally getting bounced everywhere :(
 
DogmaGaf, about to get a week break from college, played this but figured the scope was too much for me to handle, with the amount of assignments that I had and stuff. Gonna give this a go from the start. Any pointers for a, what I would call,newcomer?

Firstly, if you intend to complete it this week, bear in mind that you're probably looking at 40-50 hours for a fairly straight run. There's well over twice that much content if you're really thorough and do a lot of the endgame content. Also, give these posts a read:

I'll bullet point to make it easier to read. If you've already started then some of these tips will be redundant:
  • Don't be afraid to try out all the classes.
  • Getting 6 Discipline points in the Fighter class gives you an augment that increases your carrying capacity.
  • Certain abilities transfer between classes, i.e. the Mystic Knight can use some of the Mage's spells.
  • All augments can be used by all classes.
  • If you have more than one Sorcerer, they can dual/triple/quad cast spells to increase damage and reduce charge time for them.
  • You don't need to keep Rook around with you. He becomes redundant once you hit his level basically.
  • You don't need to win the boss fight during the prologue, so don't worry.
  • While you can use Pawns to assist you that are higher levelled than you are, you need to pay Rift Crystals to get them. Rift Crystals are hard to come by, and it's not worth it.
  • However, if you have friends or other Gaffers added that have the game you can use their main Pawn for free, no matter their level. This'll probably take out all the challenge though depending on the level of their Pawn.
  • Make sure you have a lantern and spare oil on you at all times. Give your Pawns lanterns too. Nighttime is dangerous.
  • This link gives you a list of all the side quests, along with when you should complete them. It contains some spoilers, mostly mission names, but it's useful in making sure you don't miss anything out, as failing to do some side quests can completely lock characters and services out of the game.
  • Your income will be very slow to start off with. Once you start the main missions that you get in the capital you'll start earning a lot more money.
  • Don't worry if your Pawn's die/become forfeit. The only penalty is that you'll be a Pawn or 3 short until you can get back to a Rift Stone/re-hire them/hire new ones.
  • If you have Dark Arisen there is a purple icon on the map in the starting village. That's the Dark Arisen exclusive content, and should only be attempted when you're a much higher level.
  • Avoid using weapons in the capital city, as there's a chance, if not a guarantee, that you'll be thrown in jail.
  • You need to use items to fast travel, and aside from a few locations you'll need to place another item down to make a waypoint. Aside from far reaching locations it'll be cheaper to walk everywhere.
  • Save often. If you see a strong monster in the distance, save the game. It's up to you then if you want to challenge it or retreat. Save when you beat it too.
  • There's an area in some hills close to the starting town that has some pretty tough enemies that you're required to go through to complete an early side quest. This is probably one of the most dangerous areas you'll have to pass through.

I've not finished the game yet, but these are the things I've picked up on during my playthrough.

Ugh, you made my one tip look very pathetic by comparison!

Just to add a few now I've got a bit more time:

  • Make your pawn look good, that way they're more likely to be hired. You're rewarded with Rift Crystals, which are used to hire other pawns or in purifying items when you get to Bitterblack Isle. Save them for Bitterblack.
  • It's a good idea to get in the habit of upgrading pawns regularly, so they're always at the same level as you. You can search for pawns by level at any Rift Gate.
  • The Dragon's Dogma wiki is really invaluable. I'd say explore the environment yourself, but if you get stuck on a particular enemy or trying to find a item, for example, then take a look for some advice.
  • If you find any Portcrystals, they are used as fast-travel points, and with Dark Arisen you get an Infinite Ferrystone which is the other item needed to fast travel. Portcrystals can be put down and then picked back up to use elsewhere, and I would recommend laying them down at the far reaches of the map to save on travel time.
  • It's a good idea to use your pawns as packhorses to carry lots of items, but bear in mind that if the two additional pawns die and aren't revived in time they'll be returned to the rift, and your items will go back to storage.
  • Speaking of which, storage is accessed from inns or rest camps. Get into the habit of dropping off extra items every time you rest.
  • It costs 50 gold to rest in Cassardis and 500 gold to rest at the capital, Gran Soren. If you're out and about and need to rest, it's a good idea to Ferrystone over to Cassardis and rest there.
  • Don't worry about chasing Achievements first time through. Most of them will come in the course of play, and then you can focus on Achievement requirements during New Game +.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

I'm close to the Platinum on my NG+ run-through as well. Done about half of the quest requirements for The Hero trophy and once that's done I'll move on to the others and finish the main story.

The ones I still need to get are:
Solitude
Servitude
The Hero
The Captain
Well Equipped
Into the Manse
The Ever-Turning Wheel
The Coin Collector
And obviously the Platinum, The True Arisen

Once I've got The Hero I'll concentrate on Well Equipped; getting 350 different pieces of weapons of weapons and armour, and then sell it all to try and get 10,000,000 gold. The others should be relatively simple to get.

Finally got The Hero a little while ago. I'll complete it again tomorrow night (literally right at the end now) and then try to get 350 unique pieces of armour/equipment. The other Trophies will be straightforward to come by.
 
What vocation are you using?

Level 119 Assassin, 3100 HP, 2100 Attack, 800 Defense with 0 pieces of Bitterblack Armor because of my bad luck. Gold rarified Ascalon and Silver Rarified Dragon's Ire.

I beat him in the end though :)

I used Periapts for the first form to down it quickly in 2 minutes yet lo & behold the first form still managed to rift away one of my pawns (The Healer).

The 2nd form... well I had no Periapts left. And he disposed the rest of my Pawns pretty quickly. My pentad shot did fuck damage to him soooo... it took me 2 *real time* hours clipping at his toe nails with Ascalon. It was intense as fuck dodging all of his attacks especially the spikes coming up from the ground and meteors raining down from the sky. I used 45 Harspud Sauces and 12 Wakestones in the end to finish him.

150+ hours to really "100%" it. What a fantastic and amazing game.

Once again: I beat the last, toughest boss of the game clipping away at his toe nails for 2 hours :| Yay, I guess...
 

Jon Armdog

Member
Pathetic frustration post:

E3 is history now...where is my Dragon's Dogma 2 news? Where is my PC version of Dark Arisen? <grumble, complain, etc.>
 
Level 119 Assassin, 3100 HP, 2100 Attack, 800 Defense with 0 pieces of Bitterblack Armor because of my bad luck. Gold rarified Ascalon and Silver Rarified Dragon's Ire.

Yeah; I was the same with Bitterblack cursed item drops. I beat a bunch of tougher enemies (Gazer, Cursed Dragons, Dark Bishop) and I continually got Bitterblack Novelty items. One time I got a piece of armour, but that's probably one time out of 10 different occasions of killing massive enemies or finding cursed items in chests.

Well done for wrapping up, by the way. I hope to be there myself soon, maybe a week or so. I'm level 111 at the moment and working on maxxing vocations while finishing off the story second time around for the Platinum trophy. I'll then return to Bitterblack and face off with Death and Daimon.
 
Firstly, if you intend to complete it this week, bear in mind that you're probably looking at 40-50 hours for a fairly straight run. There's well over twice that much content if you're really thorough and do a lot of the endgame content. Also, give these posts a read:





Hope this helps. Good luck!



Finally got The Hero a little while ago. I'll complete it again tomorrow night (literally right at the end now) and then try to get 350 unique pieces of armour/equipment. The other Trophies will be straightforward to come by.

Great post thanks a lot. I'm loving it so far, I'm still finding my way through the game. I'm the type of person that gets overwhelmed when he sees a bunch of exclamation marks with different missions to do aha. I try to do them all and I end up not progressing much for a good while.
 
Great post thanks a lot. I'm loving it so far, I'm still finding my way through the game. I'm the type of person that gets overwhelmed when he sees a bunch of exclamation marks with different missions to do aha. I try to do them all and I end up not progressing much for a good while.

Glad you're enjoying it. I've adored the whole thing, but I'll talk about it in depth when I'm finished altogether. Someone mentioned earlier that it's Capcom's best game since Resi 4. I'm not sure I'd rank it higher than Okami, but it's certainly their best game this generation.

Regarding missions, I'd say try to do them one at a time as some missions are time sensitive, and some cancel others out. There's a trophy/achievement for doing all main story missions, but don't worry about that until your second play through. Just enjoy it first time around, and then if you want to come back for trophies get a guide and do it with laser-focus in NG+.
 
Even after beating the game I still do not understand the weapon damage system. Let me explain:

- Ascalon gives me total 1800 Damage + 1000 Magic Damage
- I finally got a "replacement" for it - Cursed Bite which gives me 2800 Damage + 0 Magic Damage

The total is the same yet with Cursed Bite I am finally dealing visible damage to Eliminators and Elder Ogres! Like I can stand next to them and whack them and see the health bar going down, without using Dire Gouge. With my maxed out Ascalon the damage is pitiful. But the totals are the same... what gives?

I need that Devilsbane... best Assassin sword in the game, damn.
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
It's probably similar to the Souls games, in that split damage types (magic/physical) has to go through two sets of defensive stats, whereas pure physical (or pure magical) has to only go through one defense stat. Eliminators and Elder Ogres might be resistant to holy damage, which is what Ascalon has IIRC. I'm really not sure about this, though... because I thought Eliminators were weak vs magic and resistant to physical. I know Elder Ogres are weak vs lightning at least.

But your stats and augments might also affect this. If your augments increase your physical attack power, I imagine a purely physical weapon will be better than one with a magic enchantment.
 
You get way better stuff in the BBI. All the best gear of the game is in there.

Not since Dark Arisen. The weapons you get from Grigori used to be 2nd best to what you could find in the Everfall; now, they have all been buffed to do at least 100dmg above the best Everfall weapons.

Even after beating the game I still do not understand the weapon damage system. Let me explain:

- Ascalon gives me total 1800 Damage + 1000 Magic Damage
- I finally got a "replacement" for it - Cursed Bite which gives me 2800 Damage + 0 Magic Damage

The total is the same yet with Cursed Bite I am finally dealing visible damage to Eliminators and Elder Ogres! Like I can stand next to them and whack them and see the health bar going down, without using Dire Gouge. With my maxed out Ascalon the damage is pitiful. But the totals are the same... what gives?

I need that Devilsbane... best Assassin sword in the game, damn.

As I understand it, enemies have a damage threshold and anything under that threshold hardly does any damage to them. Say an Eliminator has a physical damage threshold of 2000, any physical attack that does less than 2000dmg is basically doing nothing; but once you have a weapon that gives you over 2000 attack strength, you break through and the attack counts for full force.

I don't know if that's actually how it works, but that's what it seems like to me.

----

If you want quick and easy lvl3 weapons, armor, and gear/novelty: go get the Dragon's Glaze heavy bow from the Moonbeam door and get it to Silver rarified, at least. Then, as a Ranger, sleep at Gran Soren until its dark and use Autonomy, Bloodlust, Tenfold Flurry, and x4 Conqueror's Periapts to take down both of Daimon's forms in just a minute or two. You could also use Blast Arrows for even faster results.

You can just run by everything on your way to him, kill him, collect from the chests and his drops (he can drop any lvl3 cursed item), and repeat until you have 5-10 of what you want. So, if you want Devilsbane: switch both you and your pawn to Fighters when purifying so it will only pull from the Fighter/Warrior/Mystic Knight pool of equipment.

If you're on PS3 I can do some runs with your pawn to get you some Rift Crystals, my PSN is the same as my GAF name.
 
Eliminators and Elder Ogres might be resistant to holy damage, which is what Ascalon has IIRC. I'm really not sure about this, though... because I thought Eliminators were weak vs magic and resistant to physical. I know Elder Ogres are weak vs lightning at least.

I thought the same - Eliminators are undead after all - but silver rarified Cursed Bite cuts through them like hot knife through butter. Hell, I can melee Chained Gorecyclopes now - something unheard of before I got this weapon.

I cannot stop playing this game. I am trying to do all the BBI Quest Board quests like "kill 5 Elder Ogres", "kill 2 Living Armors in the Catacombs" etc. and crave that BBI Level 3/4 (Hellfire/ Oblivion/ Carrion) gear. Got Carrion Veil for my Mage Pawn as the first and only item so far.

Post-BBI is pure crack like Diablo.

Side note: I saw some YT video where an Assassin was soloing Daimon LVL2 on Hard Mode. The player had 9999 HP (how?) and was barely taking any damage from Daimon's attacks i.e. the Bolide did 100-200 points of damage to him. How is that possible? The fight took over 20 minutes so it could not be periapts.
 
I just meleed an Elder Ogre to death. Cursed Bite + Thunder Enhancement + normal square button mashing (no special skills) = he was getting staggered and falling down all the time. There wasn't even any animation where he goes into the "bloodlust" state @ 30% HP left.

Wow.

Upgrade/ change your weapons, dudes. It makes all the difference in the world.
 
Loving this game so far! Question:

I am leveling up fighter to get the extra carrying capacity, what skills transfer to other vocations....core skills?

I am just farming Grand Soren's area and have no idea where or what I am doing. Quest log is crowning...anyone have advice on which way to go to get some quests done and level up a bit? I am currently 16.
 
Loving this game so far! Question:

I am leveling up fighter to get the extra carrying capacity, what skills transfer to other vocations....core skills?

I am just farming Grand Soren's area and have no idea where or what I am doing. Quest log is crowning...anyone have advice on which way to go to get some quests done and level up a bit? I am currently 16.

Every single augment can be used by every single class, although some classes obviously have little to no use for certain augments. Unless I'm mistaken core skills carry over to classes that share the same weapon; for example I went Mage(staff)>Sorcerer(archistaff)>Warrior(longsowrd)>Fighter(sword and shield)>Mystic Knight(staff/sword/mace and shield), so by the time I reached Mystic Knight I could use both the staff and sword and shield core skills from the get go.

As well as core skills, a lot of your abilities will transfer between classes that use the same weapon. However, not all of them will. For example, the Mage vocation can learn healing spells, but other vocations that can use the staff can't learn them/use them.

Quest wise I'd make sure to do:
Lost and Found (Received from the Chief in Cassardis. He's the old man)
This quest will be unavailable once you complete the second quest in Gran Soren; the first quest is just going to a place, then the second one is going into said place. Once you finish that second mission and leave this side quest will be unavailable, and will remove at least one important NPC from the game, as well as block off a part of the map completely.

Chasing Shadows (Received from Mason in Gran Soren)
This is only available after you do the second quest in Gran Soren. Completing this adds a merchant/shop in Gran Soren, and not completing this removes said merchant from the game.

Land of Opportunity, and Escort Duty (Both received from Fournival)
The first quest is available as soon as you get to Gran Soren, and the second one is available a bit later. Just keep checking with him until it's available. These deal with another important NPC, and the second quest gets you a useful item. However, I'd recommend looking at an FAQ for Escort Duty, because the mission is apparently very awkward in how specific you need to be to complete it.

Of course, I'd recommend doing all/as many side quests as you can, but these are the main ones you should complete.

Edit: Also, your level doesn't matter really. You're the same level if not 1 level higher than I was at that point. If you want to level up though your safest route is to just walk through that canyon that connects Gran Soren to the Encampment, and fight the Goblins, Harpies, Bandits, and Wolves on your way there. The cows in the fields outside Gran Soren are apparently a good way to raise Discipline Points without levelling up, but I never bothered with it.
 
Every single augment can be used by every single class, although some classes obviously have little to no use for certain augments. Unless I'm mistaken core skills carry over to classes that share the same weapon; for example I went Mage(staff)>Sorcerer(archistaff)>Warrior(longsowrd)>Fighter(sword and shield)>Mystic Knight(staff/sword/mace and shield), so by the time I reached Mystic Knight I could use both the staff and sword and shield core skills from the get go.

As well as core skills, a lot of your abilities will transfer between classes that use the same weapon. However, not all of them will. For example, the Mage vocation can learn healing spells, but other vocations that can use the staff can't learn them/use them.

Quest wise I'd make sure to do:
Lost and Found (Received from the Chief in Cassardis. He's the old man)
This quest will be unavailable once you complete the second quest in Gran Soren; the first quest is just going to a place, then the second one is going into said place. Once you finish that second mission and leave this side quest will be unavailable, and will remove at least one important NPC from the game, as well as block off a part of the map completely.

Chasing Shadows (Received from Mason in Gran Soren)
This is only available after you do the second quest in Gran Soren. Completing this adds a merchant/shop in Gran Soren, and not completing this removes said merchant from the game.

Land of Opportunity, and Escort Duty (Both received from Fournival)
The first quest is available as soon as you get to Gran Soren, and the second one is available a bit later. Just keep checking with him until it's available. These deal with another important NPC, and the second quest gets you a useful item. However, I'd recommend looking at an FAQ for Escort Duty, because the mission is apparently very awkward in how specific you need to be to complete it.

Of course, I'd recommend doing all/as many side quests as you can, but these are the main ones you should complete.

Edit: Also, your level doesn't matter really. You're the same level if not 1 level higher than I was at that point. If you want to level up though your safest route is to just walk through that canyon that connects Gran Soren to the Encampment, and fight the Goblins, Harpies, Bandits, and Wolves on your way there. The cows in the fields outside Gran Soren are apparently a good way to raise Discipline Points without levelling up, but I never bothered with it.

Wow! Thank you so much. I will utilize this advice to its full extent.

Man, I don't think I have ever been this overwhelmed by a game and I've got 350+ hrs logged in DS2. I have a feeling something similar will happen here too :/.
 
I'm close to the Platinum on my NG+ run-through as well. Done about half of the quest requirements for The Hero trophy and once that's done I'll move on to the others and finish the main story.

The ones I still need to get are:
Solitude
Servitude
The Hero
The Captain
Well Equipped
Into the Manse
The Ever-Turning Wheel
The Coin Collector
And obviously the Platinum, The True Arisen

Completed the game a second time now, and I've just got to get the last few trophies for the Platinum. It took me bloody ages to get Servitude, as I didn't have the Godsbane blade with me and the Seneschal's attacks were doing very little damage. He was walking around and only attacking very infrequently; probably about only once every 30 seconds. I also fought the Ur Dragon and was surprised to be doing very little damage, and then I realised I was online. Promptly Ferrystoned out of there and changed my status to offiline before having another crack at it. It took two visits and probably about 15 minutes, but aside from some camera issues it went down pretty easily. My pawns were useless so I think next time I'll throw them off an edge and take it on alone for more EXP. I'll then head back to Bitterblack and at least try to complete everything once.
 
Completed the game a second time now, and I've just got to get the last few trophies for the Platinum. It took me bloody ages to get Servitude, as I didn't have the Godsbane blade with me and the Seneschal's attacks were doing very little damage. He was walking around and only attacking very infrequently; probably about only once every 30 seconds. I also fought the Ur Dragon and was surprised to be doing very little damage, and then I realised I was online. Promptly Ferrystoned out of there and changed my status to offiline before having another crack at it. It took two visits and probably about 15 minutes, but aside from some camera issues it went down pretty easily. My pawns were useless so I think next time I'll throw them off an edge and take it on alone for more EXP. I'll then head back to Bitterblack and at least try to complete everything once.

The Seneschal has a one hit kill move doesn't he? Or at least an attack that takes off a huge chunk of your health.

If you beat him and get him to the point where your Pawn is grabbing him, if you let him break free he'll start to charge up an attack that'll outright kill you pretty much. He used it against me when I fought him for the first time and killed me in one hit from like 1600+ Health if I remember correctly.
 
The Seneschal has a one hit kill move doesn't he? Or at least an attack that takes off a huge chunk of your health.

If you beat him and get him to the point where your Pawn is grabbing him, if you let him break free he'll start to charge up an attack that'll outright kill you pretty much. He used it against me when I fought him for the first time and killed me in one hit from like 1600+ Health if I remember correctly.

I got the trophy on the first round, when it was just the two of us. Couldn't honestly recall how the battle went and I didn't want to miss the trophy, so I just ran around until he beat me.
 
Finally got the Platinum this morning. Decided to stop pissing around and I went and sold a bunch of items for the coin collector trophy, and then counted the number of unique items stored in the inventory and used that nice chunk of money to buy the remaining 40-odd pieces of armour and weapons that I needed.

I'm also half way through battling the Ur Dragon again, but Magick Archer is useless for targeting its wings so I think I'll change to the Assassin to finish it, and then I'm returning to Bitterblack to finish off that accursed place. Once I've gathered some more Rancid Meat Bait I'm going to try and attract some Cursed Dragons in Duskmoon Tower to try and get some level 2 cursed weapons. I don't want to be chipping away at Daimon's health for 2 or 3 hours with my Dragonforged Ascalon! Tried out Ricochet Hunter which was pretty damn successful at taking down Eliminators and Elder Ogres in small areas, but in wide-open spaces it wasn't much use. At one point I did manage to trap two Ogres in a very thin corridor and the knockdown effect was incredibly damaging to them. Need to build up my magic skills a bit though, as I've been archer or melee throughout the whole game.
 
I need to do only two things to put this game back on shelf and start FFXIII-3:

- kill those 2 Drakes in Everfall
- kill 4 more Elder Ogres (*yawn*)

2 hours needed yet I cannot force myself to do this now.
 
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