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[bati]

Unfortunately the game is a bit of a slow burn at the start. You aren't going to see much of what makes Dragon's Dogma great in the first hour. Maybe not even in the first five hours if you don't know what you're doing.

So what makes the game so great? I'd genuinely like to know, because while I'm enjoying the game I'm starting to think the combat is too shallow and spammy. Fire enchant works wonders versus pretty much every mook, knockdown/stun abilities are king, most mobs have a gimmick that you can exploit - but don't need to, since you can just bruteforce most fights versus regular enemies anyway. It kinda comes down to enemies being too easy and being limited to 3 abilities per weapon type.

Climbable monsters have their own set of issues. First, they're too easy, at least the ones I've fought so far - ogres, cyclops, chimera. At some point I fought 2 ogres at once with a level ~14 party and won, it's ridiculous (I was playing a melee character). Second, the fights take a relatively long time and you always jump through the same hoops to whittle them down - make them take off their helmet, cut off the snake tail, beat up the goat head, etc.

Don't get me wrong, I could just as easily make arguments for what makes the game a real joy to play - hitboxes are very good, combat has animation cancelling and is fast and responsive in general - all the things that usually lack in western AAA combat systems. But between the repetitive and shallow combat and the respawns I find myself physically tired and wanting to play something else after 1-2h with the game. I think I'd be having more fun on hard (I'm on normal thanks to all the "hurrrr durrr, game's supposed to be played on normal" people) but I've already put in too many hours and I just cbfa to restart at this point.

 

[MichaelFassbender]

Perhaps I shouldn't have taken the Bitterblack Isle challenge at level 27. Perhaps.

 

[ant_]

I'm having a lot of trouble. Got to the main castle and no matter where I'm going theres always a large group of bandits where the archers destroy me.

Quick questions

Spoiler

1. Should I worry about weight? Where do I store things?
2. Is there an easier way to take potions?
3. How much should I care about the crafting system?
4. Does cast speed ever increase?

[/spoiler]

 

[Morrigan Stark]

At some point I fought 2 ogres at once with a level ~14 party and won

This is how I know you are not playing on Hard, lol

I'm having a lot of trouble. Got to the main castle and no matter where I'm going theres always a large group of bandits where the archers destroy me.

Quick questions

Spoiler

1. Should I worry about weight? Where do I store things?
2. Is there an easier way to take potions?
3. How much should I care about the crafting system?
4. Does cast speed ever increase?

[/spoiler]

1. Yes. Store things at the inn, encampment, etc. any place that lets you send items to storage.
2. Hotkeys. You can bind numeral keys to items. Select the item you want to bind and press 1, 2, 3, etc. and if you press this key at any time and have the bound item in your inventory, it will use it (if not it'll say "no item"). I recommend 1 for the lantern, and >2 for curatives.
3. Not that much. You can make some slightly better potions and some useful items like skeleton keys, but it's not a big deal to skip it I think...
4. I.... don't remember. I think a mage or sorcerer Augment helps with that, maybe? But other than that, I don't think so.

 

[bati]

This is how I know you are not playing on Hard, lol

Or you could've finished reading my post where I even pointed that out.

 

[RyanardoDaVinci]

I am quickly learning that there is only one answer to every single threat in this game:

Helm Splitter.

Yeah, that works well, too; the lvl3 version, Brain Splitter, is crazy strong.

 

[Dre_G_Writer]

Hells yea. Max out my Fighter vocation so I moved over to Warrior. Smashing these fools.

 

[Noray]

Fuck, I just found out I missed out on the entire Witch quest line. Is this a major deal? All this content being arbitrary locked off past certain points really galls me. It's my biggest complaint about this game (and the fact that every quest that doesn't revolve around killing shit sucks, like, a lot).

Also, I know for a fact friends have used and released my pawn, but I'm not getting anything. Is this a known issue?

 

[Morrigan Stark]

Or you could've finished reading my post where I even pointed that out.

I did, I just pointed out that this is where I knew before continuing. I thought the ogres weren't pushovers even on Normal though, but I haven't played on Normal in years so I don't remember much.

Also you can't spam climbing on ogres, they'll punish you with that drop (it'll likely OHKO you on Hard unless you're massively overlevelled). You have to be really careful when climbing ogres.

Fuck, I just found out I missed out on the entire Witch quest line. Is this a major deal? All this content being arbitrary locked off past certain points really galls me. It's my biggest complaint about this game (and the fact that every quest that doesn't revolve around killing shit sucks, like, a lot).

Also, I know for a fact friends have used and released my pawn, but I'm not getting anything. Is this a known issue?

No, yes (it happens to everyone, I don't know if Capcom knows though 'cause it hasn't been patched yet -_-).

 

[Dre_G_Writer]

geezus

 

[bananafactory]

OK I just spent a half hour fighting an ogre and then died on the first mission in Grand Soren (where you descend deep down that spiral pathway)

Am I doing something wrong? My attacks to it do like no damage. Guessing it has a weakness or something?

 

[Ullus]

OK I just spent a half hour fighting an ogre and then died on the first mission in Grand Soren (where you descend deep down that spiral pathway)

Am I doing something wrong? My attacks to it do like no damage. Guessing it has a weakness or something?

Either get a good fire mage or just run past it. It's weak to fire and gets excited by women.

 

[Steel]

OK I just spent a half hour fighting an ogre and then died on the first mission in Grand Soren (where you descend deep down that spiral pathway)

Am I doing something wrong? My attacks to it do like no damage. Guessing it has a weakness or something?

Weak to fire.

My suggestion: Throw a flask of oil at it, then light it on fire. Make sure you have a mage with a fire enchantment ability in the party.

Additionally, use explosive barrels.

 

[Dre_G_Writer]

"I've learned new techniques against that foe."

Bull's eye........I mean...............Troll's eye

 

[Moff]

4. Does cast speed ever increase?

there is a sorcerer augment at vocation level 7 or 8
and there is also a ring you can get later in the game (you need to return it to finish the quest, but you can forge it at the black cat, a store in the city, and turn in the forgery to keep the actual ring
both is very important for a sorcerer imo

 

[bananafactory]

Weak to fire.

My suggestion: Throw a flask of oil at it, then light it on fire. Make sure you have a mage with a fire enchantment ability in the party.

Can you issue commands to your party members?

 

[silva1991]

Cockatrice liqour

Give them a Secret Softener and they will use it to cure themselves, unless it's too late (then they'll die "permanently", as in they can't be revived by hitting the button next to them, but you can find them again in the Rift of course), or use a Cockatrice Liquor which removes Petrify from the whole party.

I didn't have any of those. good thing I had seism to one shot everything

 

[Noray]

No, yes (it happens to everyone, I don't know if Capcom knows though 'cause it hasn't been patched yet -_-).

Cheers.

Re; Ogre in Everfall: I ran back up and it fell off to its death at some point.

 

[Gattsu25]

Hells yea. Max out my Fighter vocation so I moved over to Warrior. Smashing these fools.

What software are you using to save the game recordings?

 

[Zafir]

What the hell is this..the game was made for multiple playthroughs in mind, you are going to fail quests on your first playthrough, especially since a bunch of them have different outcomes depending on how you handle them.

And lost and found doesn't open up shit, you can go wherever you like in the game whenever you feel like it.
There's a total of 3 quests that open up an area, 2 of them being main quest related, and the 3rd one closes after that quest anyway.

Just play the game instead of worrying what you "missed", gameplay wise and storywise you should be doing multiple playthroughs anyway.

*sigh*

Yeah, I'll be honest, trying to 100% everything on the first playthrough isn't the right way to approach the game, Zafir is doing himself and the game a disservice by playing the way he is.

It's a game for repeated playthroughs, not for restarting once a quest didn't go your way.

Sorry, but I'm not someone who does multiple playthroughs, like ever.

I don't know why you're being an ass about it. God forbid not everyone wants to play something the same way.

I don't mind missing quests, I don't mind getting different outcomes. I just played Xenoblade Chronicles X and that has many quests which can turn out bad, and I put 170hours into that game. You know what that game didn't do? Lock you out of quests because of the quests outcome. It found some way of continuing the quest line onwards. Which I was extremely grateful for.

Considering how many people this seems to happen to, and how many people seem to complain about it. I'd put that entire thing pretty squarely under not so good design choices. It failing at that point, after all, adds nothing to the game.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

there is a sorcerer augment at vocation level 7 or 8
and there is also a ring you can get later in the game (you need to return it to finish the quest, but you can forge it at the black cat, a store in the city, and turn in the forgery to keep the actual ring
both is very important for a sorcerer imo

Oh yeah that ring, forgot about it. Good call. Turning in the forgery

Spoiler

has hilarious side effects too

.

 

[Steel]

Can you issue commands to your party members?

Sort-of. D-pad does it. For mages, if you use the help command, it'll force them to buff you with a weapon enchant if you're fully healed. If you want to get your pawns out of dodge, use the follow command, if you want them to charge in, use the go command.

 

[silva1991]

Hells yea. Max out my Fighter vocation so I moved over to Warrior. Smashing these fools.

I see freeze monster

if I threw a water fl;ask on an enemy does it increase the chances of freezing them with ice spells?

 

[Noray]

I'd put that entire thing pretty squarely under not so good design choices. It failing at that point, after all, adds nothing to the game.

I agree. The bizarre thing is they explicitly warn you about it with the Wyrm Hunt quest but after that for whatever reason decided "nah we're just gonna arbitrarily gate certain quests without warning" which just sucks. It feels super shitty.

Anyway; BBI, what level should I think about being before I go there? How does it slot into a first playthrough?

 

[Steel]

I see freeze monster

if I threw a water fl;ask on an enemy does it increase the chances of freezing them with ice spells?

Yes. Also decreases their resistance to frost and lightning.

 

[Necromanti]

Well, the Lost and Found one seems pretty important because it opens up a second area, along with a follow up quest. :/

I guess on the plus side I've managed to get doing all the start quests down to a fine art. -.-

Oh, god damnit. I didn't know I missed a major quest and missed out on a lot. I was wondering why the chief never brought up Quina. Talk about putting a damper on everything after having just lost a ton of progress due to the weird autosaving, too.

 

[MikeyB]

So what makes the game so great?

Flexibility of skills, bigger monster fights and the Everfall and BBI is what kept me coming back. The "main" quest line outside of a few fights now seems like filler.

 

[silva1991]

Yes. Also decreases their resistance to frost and lightning.

Nice, can't wait to face that lion again and show it whose boss.

 

[Steel]

Oh, god damnit. I didn't know I missed a major quest and missed out on a lot. I was wondering why the chief never brought up Quina. Talk about putting a damper on everything after having just lost a ton of progress due to the weird autosaving, too.

It's not a huge deal(just a side thing). If, for some weird reason, like the poster you're quoting, you decide to restart the game for it, there's a way to keep all your current levels and equipment: Switch the game to hard mode. It'll boot you back to the beginning but keep your character intact(you'll go through character creation again, but you'll have all your stuff when you get back into the game). Then you can turn it back down to normal difficulty afterwards without restarting.

 

[AlanOC91]

What are the benefits of maxing out a vocation? I switched a while ago but didn't max out my old one.

 

[JoeyJungle]

Geralt, what are you doing?



Killing Monsters

My Triss is a beast now, whooping these bosses with big ass spells. No fucks given

Is your pawn named Triss Merri? I borrowed her for a while and saw her walking around the city, too!

 

[Steel]

What are the benefits of maxing out a vocation? I switched a while ago but didn't max out my old one.

Every vocation level unlocks new abilities to buy with discipline points. So, when you max out a vocation, you can get all the abilities and augments they have.

 

[ezekial45]

What are the benefits of maxing out a vocation? I switched a while ago but didn't max out my old one.

You'll get access to some neat augments from the class you max out, which can be used for other classes.

 

[Cannon Goose]

Bandits are no match for my Ranger Pawn.
https://my.mixtape.moe/hqufii.webm

 

[bananafactory]

OK I also can't beat this tentacle monster

They keep coming back, just spent another half hour fighting it before dying. Man I am bad at this game lol. Even playing on easy

 

[The Silver]

What are the benefits of maxing out a vocation? I switched a while ago but didn't max out my old one.

Access to all their skills/augments that can be used with other classes

 

[Admiral Woofington]

Is your pawn named Triss Merri? I borrowed her for a while and saw her walking around the city, too!

Might be a different Triss, you can see her in one of the pics above, she'd the red haired pawn. Mine is called Triss M.gold. Keeping her in regular clothing because Triss can't wear no mages robes, fuck that shit. Plus still good defense.

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

Sorry, but I'm not someone who does multiple playthroughs, like ever.

I don't know why you're being an ass about it. God forbid not everyone wants to play something the same way.

I don't mind missing quests, I don't mind getting different outcomes. I just played Xenoblade Chronicles X and that has many quests which can turn out bad, and I put 170hours into that game. You know what that game didn't do? Lock you out of quests because of the quests outcome. It found some way of continuing the quest line onwards. Which I was extremely grateful for.

Considering how many people this seems to happen to, and how many people seem to complain about it. I'd put that entire thing pretty squarely under not so good design choices. It failing at that point, after all, adds nothing to the game.

Well then you are playing the wrong game honestly, it was made for multiple playthroughs, gameplay and storywise.
And locking out of other quests only happens if it's a questline, which there are many more of in the game. There is literally no way to 100% the game in the first playthrough, even main quests have unique rewards depending on your choice.

Heck even

Spoiler

the dark arisen area BBI

requires 2 playthroughs at the very least.

 

[Steel]

OK I also can't beat this tentacle monster

They keep coming back, just spent another half hour fighting it before dying. Man I am bad at this game lol. Even playing on easy

You should leave pawn chatter on, if you had then they'd be telling you you can't beat it and to run.

 

[IMACOMPUTA]

Would that be my pawn? She's awesome

If she's an 8ft tall 500lbs woman that saves my ass continuously, yes!

 

[silva1991]

maelstrom is a beast of a spell.

 

[Necromanti]

It's not a huge deal(just a side thing). If, for some weird reason, like the poster you're quoting, you decide to restart the game for it, there's a way to keep all your current levels and equipment: Switch the game to hard mode. It'll boot you back to the beginning but keep your character intact(you'll go through character creation again, but you'll have all your stuff when you get back into the game). Then you can turn it back down to normal difficulty afterwards without restarting.

I'll just pretend it didn't happen and hope I don't miss out on anything cool with the questlines and area that got locked off. I don't think I'd have it in me to redo the quests all over again. Maybe someone will find a way to fix it through the Cheat Engine thing.

You should leave pawn chatter on, if you had then they'd be telling you you can't beat it and to run.

When I did it, my pawns only said that the tendrils kept growing back but said nothing about running away. I grew bored after a (long) while and thought the main body of the beast was hiding higher up, so I kept running until it triggered a cutscene.

 

[Dre_G_Writer]

What software are you using to save the game recordings?

The Nvidia ShadowPlay. It works exactly the same way as the Playstations share button. I press a single button on my controller(PS button) and the software automatically saves the last 5 minutes of gameplay footage from any video game I play. I dont have to turn on the software or anything.

So if anything amazing happens, I just hit the PS button, pause the game, locate the video, make a gif of it and post it. That whole process is like five minutes.

 

[Dre_G_Writer]

Bandits are no match for my Ranger Pawn.
https://my.mixtape.moe/hqufii.webm

 

[Golnei]

More than the repetitiveness of pawn dialogue, I think it's the lack of variety in the actual pawn voices which gets to me, especially since you're supposed to be swapping them out a lot.

Of course, given the amount of dialogue the pawns have, providing more varied voices would be incredibly expensive if they all were implemented like the current pawns. Maybe they could have gotten away with keeping the current options for your avatar and main pawn, then having other pawns (with the expanded set of additional options) only actually speak in combat, with the rest of their dialogue being unvoiced? What voice your pawn has in other player's games could be set separately from their main one, like their moniker and actual name.

 

[bananafactory]

You should leave pawn chatter on, if you had then they'd be telling you you can't beat it and to run.

Ah, I have it on but I guess I wasn't paying attention to that.

So I'm not bad, just dumb. Heh

Thanks!

 

[Zafir]

Well then you are playing the wrong game honestly, it was made for multiple playthroughs, gameplay and storywise.
And locking out of other quests only happens if it's a questline, which there are many more of in the game. There is literally no way to 100% the game in the first playthrough, even main quests have unique rewards depending on your choice.

Heck even

Spoiler

the dark arisen area BBI

requires 2 playthroughs at the very least.

I already mentioned I don't really mind choices. Honestly I wouldn't mind the locking of content if it gave a valid reason. Like you made a choice and obviously you can't do it because of the story.

The problem with that example is really just that it's so damn arbitrary in when it locked you out.

 

[Mad Season]

how do we know what quests are within our level to do?

 

[Rhaknar]

how do we know what quests are within our level to do?

you dont.

These quests from the guide, do you naturally go to these places? I havent been to any of these places and the guide lists them as "Stage 2" quests

Spoiler

Of Merchants and Monsters -Ancient Quarry- Talk with Alon, by the northern quarry entrance.
No Honor Among Thieves -Ruins of Aernst Castle- Talk to Maul (An Uninvited Guest is required for an alternative outcome).
Thick as Thieves -Ruins of Heavenspeak Fort- Talk to Betiah, near the main gate as a woman or a man dressed like a woman.

 

[arts&crafts]

Holy crap this game needs a horse or easier fast travel. I have 2 of those ferrystones but I mean the game is huge and you run out of stamina after 10 seconds of running.