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

Well I tried resigning a US save to a PAL one...I just need to wait for my game now to see if it worked or not. I hope it did.
Game shipped at 4.53AM this morning but I won't probably get it before the week of the 6th May :(
 

FlyinJ

Douchebag. Yes, me.
I'm a bit confused about weapons in this game.

I loaded up my save game, I think I stopped playing a little before the mid-way point. I'm level 36. I noticed that the vendor at the black cat or whatever has all these extremely expensive high-end weapons. However, when I compare their stats with the kind of generic sword my MK is using, they are hundreds of strength below my current weapon. What gives? Am I missing something that's amazing about these weapons?
 

Kyoufu

Member
Watch the video I posted. He says that going that path (Strider--> Assassin --> MK), your Magick attack gains for Mystic Knight will be more than enough for that stat, if he ever desires to start using a staff, he could.

Fair enough. I like the versatility of builds in this game.
 

Skilletor

Member
I was just running around and got an error that said my game data was corrupted, turn off the game and delete it. :/

Started the game back up and everything worked fine, but really scared me. Don't want to lose a bunch of progress.
 
So, how many new skills have been added and how do you get to them?

Not sure how many there are but they work strangely; they're not actually new skills that you equip like normal, they're rings that you wear to augment whatever skill they affect. I've found rings for Burst Strike, Powder Blast, Downpour Volley; haven't tried them myself but my pawn is using the Burst Strike one, haven't really noticed a difference, though.

So since the enemies in Bitterblack scale to your level it would be pointless to grid right?

I don't think anyone is sure what exactly happens, but there has to be some sort of scaling.

I'm lvl200 and can smite everything in pre/post game -- hell, I even beat a Drake to death with my fists, once -- but Bargs, Elder Ogres, Black Bandits, Living Armors, and the goddamn GoreCyclopes still slap my shit all over.

It's nice that thing don't die at the mere sight of me anymore, but I would like fights to not last 20-30min all the time. Maybe if you Rarefy your best equipment and weapons you can deal decent damage?

I'm a bit confused about weapons in this game.

I loaded up my save game, I think I stopped playing a little before the mid-way point. I'm level 36. I noticed that the vendor at the black cat or whatever has all these extremely expensive high-end weapons. However, when I compare their stats with the kind of generic sword my MK is using, they are hundreds of strength below my current weapon. What gives? Am I missing something that's amazing about these weapons?

The guy at the Black Cat mainly sells the DLC stuff, which are all less powerful than everything you can find in the game but have special attributes.

The armorer, Caxton, is who you should be seeing for new weapons; but to get the best stuff from him, you have to give him the Gold Idol when it's time.
 

ironcreed

Banned
This is just getting stupid, at first the "oh, im actually dying in dd now, this is fun!" was kind of cool, but fighting that necro-dragon is awful. I have 2k hp, every swipe hits me for 800-1000 damage. Pawns are useless to the point where all you can do is laugh(keep casting those spells that take 20 seconds to set off in front of the enemies face.) And most importantly, the pitiful damage that bosses take, earlier someone said that it took him 40 minutes to kill the dragon, awful. I had the dragon down to 2 bars after 20 minutes and failed to evade a swipe that ended up killing me. So even though I had complete control for 19 minutes and grew bored of the fight, one mistake ruined everything. The bosses would have been much more interesting if they were designed to be ~10-15 minutes long.

As much as I love the game itself, they just went overboard with how long it takes to kill some of these enemies in the new content. I love a challenge, but when it takes nearly an hour for one fight and your pawns are rendered null and void, it kind of unbalances the mechanics of the game to a rather large degree. It leaves you spamming healing items and whittling down 10 health bars, while your party gets wiped out in one or two shots every time you revive them. Even the Souls series does not approach the troll-worthy levels of absurdity on display here. Long battles can be epic, but some of this crosses into pure tedium that makes you feel weak as piss.
 

emag

Member
I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing on Bitterblack (low 60s).

Go in, cut through wolves and goblins like a hot knife through butter.
Death
appears, so we hightail it to the next room. Eventually get to the hub and the cutscene, then go through an arbitrary door.
Prisoner Cyclops
has a billion bars of health and I'm doing negligible damage (Mystic Knight, spamming Grand Cannon, also tried slashing at its feet with Abyssal Anguish as well as climbing it) while my pawns just get themselves killed while doing nothing productive. So I climb up to the top of the room, taking out the easy-peasy other enemies along the way and grab a few treasure chests.

Now what? There's no way I'm going to be able to kill that creature. Is doing so required to complete whatever mission I'm on? Is there any point to continuing through Bitterblack if all the mobs are cake and the bosses are impossible? What am I supposed to be doing down there, anyway? Collecting McGuffins, grinding/looting or just exploring? For what it's worth, I loved the arena-style layout of the endgame (
Everfall
), but I don't grok Bitterblack at all.
 
So my order will be arriving one of these days, but I have no idea what class I should take on my first playthrough.

Knowing myself I'll probably only play it once and I'm having doubts between a mage and a strider. Anyone has some advice to give or idea on how both classes play?

Edit: watching the video above and it is quite applicable to my situation :D

magic is VERY powerful and cool looking in this game, the best ever IMO for the highest level ones BUT they balanced by having long cast times for the higher level spells. so in that sense, its a less active class.

advantage of strider/assassin/ranger is you can mix both melee and ranged for variety

however, you can always learn any job at any time so its hard to "ruin" your character, you'll just be left with the stat gains of levelling up (based on the class you were at the level up point in time)
 

Anteater

Member
Just started the game, I'm now a nun.

dragonsdogma_darkaris5nezg.jpg

dragonsdogma_darkaris69czp.jpg
 

ironcreed

Banned
I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing on Bitterblack (low 60s).

Go in, cut through wolves and goblins like a hot knife through butter.
Death
appears, so we hightail it to the next room. Eventually get to the hub and the cutscene, then go through an arbitrary door.
Prisoner Cyclops
has a billion bars of health and I'm doing negligible damage (Mystic Knight, spamming Grand Cannon, also tried slashing at its feet with Abyssal Anguish as well as climbing it) while my pawns just get themselves killed while doing nothing productive. So I climb up to the top of the room, taking out the easy-peasy other enemies along the way and grab a few treasure chests.

Now what? There's no way I'm going to be able to kill that creature. Is doing so required to complete whatever mission I'm on? Is there any point to continuing through Bitterblack if all the mobs are cake and the bosses are impossible? What am I supposed to be doing down there, anyway? Collecting McGuffins, grinding/looting or just exploring? For what it's worth, I loved the arena-style layout of the endgame (
Everfall
), but I don't grok Bitterblack at all.

Get The Void Key at the top of the catwalks, go back out to the courtyard and find the door with bars. Your purple marker should show you the way.
 
I bought 2000 RC with some MS points and they haven't been added to character it seems. So I still I have the same amount of RC before I paid for more. In addition, I thought you got an RC pack when you buy DA (I'm new to the series).
 

Dynamic3

Member
Only played about an hour last night, but is it normal that my basic arrow attack (as a strider) does almost no damage?

Also, another thing that for some reason is really bothering me is that the movement of my character seemed to change from the opening gryphon fight to when I began with my own character. The character they give you at the start has weight to his movement (changing direction requires him to actually turn around), whereas my character has zero weight and changes direction instantaneously. Am I crazy?
 

Skilletor

Member
Only played about an hour last night, but is it normal that my basic arrow attack (as a strider) does almost no damage?

Also, another thing that for some reason is really bothering me is that the movement of my character seemed to change from the opening gryphon fight to when I began with my own character. The character they give you at the start has weight to his movement (changing direction requires him to actually turn around), whereas my character has zero weight and changes direction instantaneously. Am I crazy?

The amount of stuff you have equipped changes your movement speed. More weight = slower movement.
 

I'm an expert

Formerly worldrevolution. The only reason I am nice to anyone else is to avoid being banned.
I usually don't play ranged classes, but I'm enjoying Magick Archer too much.

This thing never stood a chance.

oh shit..this screenshot alone is giving me demons flashbacks..maybe i should go archer.. so attacking as an archer is based on active aiming and not lockon?
 
They either lied, or it only applies to Bitterblack Isle. So far they are just as annoying as they were in vanilla.
Serious questions: Do wolves hunt in packs? It's a rumor I've heard, and do Goblins hate fire? Can't confirm.

They didn't lie. Random Pawn talk is reduced .. the problem is that there is still numerous cases where the triggers for a talk are activated in quick sucession. This make the changes obvious only in some situations.

And you're right in a way. The pawns talk a lot less in the island (less environmental triggers ) but those changes are also present in the vanilla game.
 

ixix

Exists in a perpetual state of Quantum Crotch Uncertainty.
oh shit..this screenshot alone is giving me demons flashbacks..maybe i should go archer.. so attacking as an archer is based on active aiming and not lockon?

Magick Archers use a lock-on system similar to Mages and Sorcerers. Striders, Rangers, and Assassins use a free aim system similar to the one in Demon's Souls and Dark Souls.
 

Kyoufu

Member
oh shit..this screenshot alone is giving me demons flashbacks..maybe i should go archer.. so attacking as an archer is based on active aiming and not lockon?

I don't know about Ranger but Magick Archer is mostly lock on. You charge the shot then aim the reticule to lock on a certain area of the enemy.

edit: what ixix said^^
 

I'm an expert

Formerly worldrevolution. The only reason I am nice to anyone else is to avoid being banned.
Magick Archers use a lock-on system similar to Mages and Sorcerers. Striders, Rangers, and Assassins use a free aim system similar to the one in Demon's Souls and Dark Souls.

ohhhhhhh shiiiiittttttttttttt...maybe I'll restart..
 

sublimit

Banned
I don't think anyone is sure what exactly happens, but there has to be some sort of scaling.

I'm lvl200 and can smite everything in pre/post game -- hell, I even beat a Drake to death with my fists, once -- but Bargs, Elder Ogres, Black Bandits, Living Armors, and the goddamn GoreCyclopes still slap my shit all over.

It's nice that thing don't die at the mere sight of me anymore, but I would like fights to not last 20-30min all the time. Maybe if you Rarefy your best equipment and weapons you can deal decent damage?

I see thanks.I was affraid that at level 130 i'd have nothing to challenge me but on the other hand this sounds more like an unbalanced chore than a satisfying challenge.

Do you know if the difficulty settings have any effects on the expansion area?
 

GorillaJu

Member
Could anyone do me a huge favor and just transfer your DD:DA save file to a USB drive (as a normal back up), then tell me what the name of the folder containing the save file is called?

Should be under

(letter of USB Drive):\PS3\SAVEDATA\

Should be 4 letters followed by 6 numbers.

Would really appreciate this...
 

dubq

Member
So what's the clarification for the equipment DLC from the original game? I bought it all.. and all of my copies were in my storage inventory for my saved character. BUT when I started a new one on DA.. nothing in my storage and ONLY at the Black Cat for sale for lots of gold.. which is weird.. because you would have copies in your storage even with a new character in original DD.. ;(
 

Ledsen

Member
I know people are saying the frame rate on 360 is better than in the previous game, but how much? To give you an idea of how sensitive I am, I traded in the original after playing for only an hour because I couldn't stand the frame rate. I REALLY REALLY wanted to play the game but I just couldn't :(
 

Chairhome

Member
I usually don't play ranged classes, but I'm enjoying Magick Archer too much.

This thing never stood a chance.
Man, I love Magick Archer so much.

I bought 2000 RC with some MS points and they haven't been added to character it seems. So I still I have the same amount of RC before I paid for more. In addition, I thought you got an RC pack when you buy DA (I'm new to the series).

Might want to restart the game if you bought it while in game. The RC pack when you buy DA is only for those with old save files, I believe. In any case, I never really used Rift Crystals in my original run through, stuck with Pawns that were the same level as me.
 

ixix

Exists in a perpetual state of Quantum Crotch Uncertainty.
Might want to restart the game if you bought it while in game. The RC pack when you buy DA is only for those with old save files, I believe. In any case, I never really used Rift Crystals in my original run through, stuck with Pawns that were the same level as me.

Rift Crystals in Dark Arisen are used as a form of currency on Bitterblack on top of their function of buying things from Johnathan and hiring higher-level pawns from the original game.

You're gonna burn through a lot of them mama jammas if you want to uncurse items and rarefy equipment.

That's probably why they added the option to buy them for cash monies.
 

Not Spaceghost

Spaceghost
Fuck it, I'm going to try some magic archer tonight when I get home.

I'm thinking about doing the same, even if it makes no sense progression wise for my character who went, fighter -> maxed out warrior -> finished maxing out fighter -> now I guess time to shoot magick arrows?
 
Man, I love Magick Archer so much.



Might want to restart the game if you bought it while in game. The RC pack when you buy DA is only for those with old save files, I believe. In any case, I never really used Rift Crystals in my original run through, stuck with Pawns that were the same level as me.

Restart? I'm like 10 hours in. UGh, this game is getting on my nerves. I need RC to by Elixirs to alter the stupidity of my pawn. In order to do that I have to rent him out. No one is buying him partly because his primary is guardian and has no secondary. Ugh, this game is really become a cycle of frustration for me. I want to love it, and I can, but it's stuff like this that prevents me from actually enjoying it more.
 

GorillaJu

Member
That save reassigner thing worked! I switched my region from JP to US, and now I can access my main character/pawn from DD in DA. Thank god. Spent way too much time and effort getting every single Online Ur-Dragon drop...
 

dubq

Member
I bought 2000 RC with some MS points and they haven't been added to character it seems. So I still I have the same amount of RC before I paid for more. In addition, I thought you got an RC pack when you buy DA (I'm new to the series).

You only get the 100,000RC with DA if you have a DO save file on your console.

As far as the other 2000RC you bought.. did you buy it through the marketplace/psn or in the game itself through Olra? IF you bought it on the store/marketplace, then you bought the pack that is only compatible with the original DO game. You can only buy RC for DA through the in-game store that Olra has as a part of her menu.
 
Well, time to hop back in it. I've been doing mainline quests again on my NG+ walkthrough to get a bit higher level before I try and tackle Bitterblack Isle again... though I think I might go back again for a bit.
 

Skilletor

Member
I'm thinking about doing the same, even if it makes no sense progression wise for my character who went, fighter -> maxed out warrior -> finished maxing out fighter -> now I guess time to shoot magick arrows?

I'm a lvl...25? sorceror, there abouts. Haven't played any melee class.

Not really worried about character progression. Magic Archer skills just look too damn hype.
 

Jobbs

Banned
I don't know how I feel about them not seeming to add any items to old world content. It seems they added a new dungeon, with all the new content in that dungeon, that's top level, hardest stuff in the game, and put all the new gear in there.

But it sorta feels like -- why? What am I going to do with all the gear I got there, since there's nothing left to do after that dungeon?

Gear acquisition is meaningful when you still have challenges ahead.
 

FlyinJ

Douchebag. Yes, me.
Why would you buy rift crystals for real money?

I have so many rift crystals it's absurd... like 200,000+. I never use them, I just get pawns that are my level I meet walking around, and they are all free. Is there some other use for rift crystals I'm not seeing?
 
You only get the 100,000RC with DA if you have a DO save file on your console.

As far as the other 2000RC you bought.. did you buy it through the marketplace/psn or in the game itself through Olra? IF you bought it on the store/marketplace, then you bought the pack that is only compatible with the original DO game. You can only buy RC for DA through the in-game store that Olra has as a part of her menu.

I bought it on the marketplace...sigh. I think I'm just gonna put this game down for a while and figure out my pawn situation. This game is getting to me.
 

ixix

Exists in a perpetual state of Quantum Crotch Uncertainty.
Why would you buy rift crystals for real money?

I have so many rift crystals it's absurd... like 200,000+. I never use them, I just get pawns that are my level I meet walking around, and they are all free. Is there some other use for rift crystals I'm not seeing?

I've spent around 150,000 rift crystals on Bitterblack so far, and I haven't even started rarefying stuff.

You can go through them with a quickness in Dark Arisen.
 

Moodmon

Neo Member
Magic Archer is ace. Managed to take my level 85 guy through Biiterblack with relatively few problems. Giant angry ogre in a narrow corridor? Ricochet arrows ruin his day. Large cyclops? Hunter arrows to lock onto all the hit points. Not even mentioning grand scension for the dagger. Well, at least I thought that till
undead dragon and his sorcerer buddy.

Kept trying, kept getting a malestrom in my face to one shot me. Could not take them down fast enough. So I end up doing what all Dogma players end up doing. Go assassin, stick on nighttime augments and stab his face off.

I am quite liking the toughness of this island. It must scale if some of you 100+ guys are having same issues but I am having to think about how I will go prepare. Not sure on a few of the areas being so compact with a tough enemy or two in them. I am loving some of the nice touches though, the moonlight piercing through a patchy roof and illuminating some of the areas looks amazing.

Right up until death appears to ruin your day.

[spoiler
 
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