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Dragon's Dogma Demo Impressions

W

web01

Member
Not impressed at all, the combat is very janky especially playing as as the sword character.

The daggers style is better but still far from perfect.

People comparing the combat system to Dark Souls need to stop because it is simply not as smooth or good.
 
A

AwesomeSauce

MagsMoonshine
During the kill cam of the Chimera, i was jump slashing it to death.

Awesome.

I also like the impact of attacks. Has nice feedback or feel to it.
 
M

MagicWithEarvin

Member
Just finished the Prologue quest in the 360 demo. 360v certainly seems to have the edge in overall visual fidelity, but I noticed screen tearing more often here than the PS3v. Looks like 360v for me - I just like the textures and lighting better. Plus, the optional install to HDD will undoubtedly boost performance.
 
X

Xater

Member
I don't think this demo was particularly convincing. It was way too short, the combat was uninteresting and climbing on enemies looks and feels wonky.
 
D

duckroll

Member
I played the Prologue Quest. Seems like a pretty bad game. There's garbage UI all over the screen, which I think you can turn off, but its on by default, making it look even more annoying than Skyward Sword's first hour. Pretty bad sign right off the bat. The combat feels loose and kinda iffy, the camera seems bad, I never know what my allies are doing, unless they start shouting something or the camera automatically shifts. There isn't even a proper tutorial for combat or what combo strings there are or what special attacks do. The entire thing was just confusing and random. General presentation is awful, graphics seem pretty bad, and when I killed the Chimera boss the cam zoomed right into a corner right through the monster model and got stuck there. Didn't have a good time at all.
 
J

JohnnytheFuture

Member
The character creation is actually pretty neat. They force you to pick from a limited number of character-types, then you may choose to go into more detail. I was able to make a decent looking lady with no issue.

The interface, on the other hand, is vomit-worthy. If you have a full squad of pawns their speech bubbles crowd the UI. Having your buttons down at the bottom-right of the UI is necessary for those starting out I'm sure, but it's regrettable that it exists there constantly.

The abilities you have are pretty cool, but I really wish there was some sort of lock-on mechanic.

While running the Countryside quest (out in the open) it got dark while trying to kill the gryphon. Even with my lantern, there was no possible way for me to see the gryphon. I know darkness plays a big role in this game, but man, let me have some fun while I'm playing this game. (as opposed to running around in the dark like a fool)

The Prologue quest (in the castle?) was easy enough to get through, but wasn't much instructive. (Just some text prompts at the bottom of the display telling you what you could do) Killing the Chimaera was no trouble at all, and they do a pretty decent job of making you feel cool. (The controls did feel a bit loose, wish they were tighter)

I guess I need to spend some more time with this demo. While I was very hyped to buy this game, the demo has changed my mind. I think I'll wait until this is discounted.
 
E

Eusis

Member
Now that I think about it, I wonder if FPS issues could be a lot more serious? This is a game from someone who traditionally made 60 FPS action games, they may be more at home designing combat for a 60 FPS game rather than a sub-30 one.

Though, I imagine the full game's a lot better once we can really mess with inventory, weapons, and whatnot. I was kinda hoping the demo would let us run around town at least.
 
M

MagicWithEarvin

Member
Just turn off Pawn subtitles if the constant texts on screen are bothersome. I turned off Pawn subtitles, mini map display, and health for party + enemies. Looks cleaner that way.
 
B

Beelzeboss

Member
Is there a reason why they make us choose two names for a character?

It said something about parental stuff but this game isn't online right?
 
K

Kuren

Member
Demo was awesome. It's the E3 demo pretty much from the last year or the year before then?...

Day one purchase for me! May 22nd can't come soon enough!
 
D

Delio

Member
Was okay for what It was. Although I wish I could try out a mage. Was the Griffin supposed to be this easy? I kinda had It locked on the ground stabbing it's face in. (Was pretty nice watching his face turn all bloody over time though). I'm still interested In grabbing this.
 
B

brickface

Member
Beelzeboss said:
Is there a reason why they make us choose two names for a character?

It said something about parental stuff but this game isn't online right?
Click to expand...

It's so no one has to put up with hilarious people calling their pawns B*ttf*cker or something. So the second name is the one that people see when hiring your pawn
 
A

Anteater

Member
Delio said:
Was okay for what It was. Although I wish I could try out a mage. Was the Griffin supposed to be this easy? I kinda had It locked on the ground stabbing it's face in. (Was pretty nice watching his face turn all bloody over time though). I'm still interested In grabbing this.
Click to expand...

Probably just a level thing, the Griffin isn't particular that interesting too since it's kind of full of weaknesses and not many attacks. I hope that's not what all you fight the entire game

Cool, character editor allow you to edit the character you already saved!
 
D

Domcorleone

Member
duckroll said:
I played the Prologue Quest. Seems like a pretty bad game. There's garbage UI all over the screen, which I think you can turn off, but its on by default, making it look even more annoying than Skyward Sword's first hour. Pretty bad sign right off the bat. The combat feels loose and kinda iffy, the camera seems bad, I never know what my allies are doing, unless they start shouting something or the camera automatically shifts. There isn't even a proper tutorial for combat or what combo strings there are or what special attacks do. The entire thing was just confusing and random. General presentation is awful, graphics seem pretty bad, and when I killed the Chimera boss the cam zoomed right into a corner right through the monster model and got stuck there. Didn't have a good time at all.
Click to expand...

damn... disappointing since I was hyped for this game... I guess ill wait for the 720p 30 FPS PC version. :-(
 
P

Parfait

Member
I spent about half an hour making my character and pawn alone. I was plesantly surprised to be able to play them in the Griffon demo. Some of the combinations are absolutely ridiculous and hilarious. Those lips, man...

I enter the griffon demo, but wait there's no griffon? just a bunch of namby pamby goblins laughing at me. I shut them up with my bow but one of them toots a horn and a griffon lands on me tearing me in half. After i healed i proceeded to jump directly onto it's face and have it make out with my knife. It didn't like it so it knocked me off then flew up.

It went back and forth like this for a while, me trying to shoot it down until it lands, munching on a companion while i try to kill it and it flying off. I was lucky enough to be on it when it took off once and oh my god. Just oh my god.

Also it became night by the time i killed it. It was honestly brilliant and spooky as fuck, I didnt use the lantern for like 5 minutes because I totally forgot about it and instead, I couldn't see my character or much of anything. So I ended up having to somewhat LISTEN for the thing. I started doing that as it landed right next to me giving me the biggest 'holy shit' moment of the year. I proceeded to jump on it and stabstabstab. At some point here my companions decided that this was a great chance to light it on fire even though i was on it. I didnt care, I kept stabbing because it was ALMOST DEAD.

And then it died, at last. And I had all of 4 hp and no consumables left.

Day One.
 
E

Eusis

Member
brickface said:
It's so no one has to put up with hilarious people calling their pawns B*ttf*cker or something. So the second name is the one that people see when hiring your pawn
Click to expand...
Well, it'll completely block out bad words for names (I tested with shit) rather than selectively censoring words, but I imagine it's meant to be a safety net so basically no one can complain. If you straight up try to use a curseword/slur it simply can't happen, and if you try to be creative and dodge it than people actually worried about that can block it based on parental controls and STILL not worry.

Though the concern seems kind of silly, I guess for a crazy subset of parents who don't mind their kids playing M/D/whatever rated games but don't want them to see bad words. Then again SLURS I can better unterstand as that could probably still be a poisonous influence to hear over and over, at least in making them seem to be ok to say.
 
C

Cannon Goose

Member
The screen tearing is totally there, but the framerate is definitely smoother in the 360 version compared to the PS3 one. I think I'll go with the PS3 version though, because I prefer the controller and I've already got that version pre-ordered and paid in full.
 
Dwight Schrute

Dwight Schrute

Member
So....

I was very exited about this game, really.
But this demo was like a bucket of cold water.


- HUD way to invasive (particularly pawns little talk)
- Not that pretty (seemed amazing in video)
- Black bars
- Flying ennemies like harpies are just a pain
- Killcam id disruptive
- Pawns all over the pace, damn confusing, who does what ?


MAY be linked to your level in the demo, but :

- You can take massive damage
- Little to no strategy in boss fight
- Common foes are so bad it's not even interesting to fight them, mainly disturbance
- complete lack of challenge
 
J

JJD

Member
Kinda torn on the game.

I've been looking forward to it since it was announced, played the demo right now and while I will still get it day 1, it felt like the combat was coming short to what it could be.

I don't know how to explain it, but someone said earlier that it isn't as smooth as Demon's/Dark Souls and I kinda agree. There's too much going on, people looks like they're running around aimless, and it seems like there's no strategy to it just hit the monster until it drops.

Managed to beat the two scenarios without dying in my first play through, but my pawns got killed in the griffon one.

Still the settings and ideas in this game are great and deserve recognition.

It's just a small sample but I think they could have handled the demo better. They should have thrown a city scenario in it instead of 2 fighting ones.

I also loved the character customization! If I play as a rogue I'm going with the default character slightly adjusted. If I play a knight I'll used that old grey bearded badass!

The game still has promise, and I hope it performs well just to reward Capcom experimentation. Looking forward to the full release.

This game could get seriously fucking awesome in a second episode, but I'm afraid we might not see that.
 
M

monome

Member
duckroll said:
I played the Prologue Quest. Seems like a pretty bad game. There's garbage UI all over the screen, which I think you can turn off, but its on by default, making it look even more annoying than Skyward Sword's first hour. Pretty bad sign right off the bat. The combat feels loose and kinda iffy, the camera seems bad, I never know what my allies are doing, unless they start shouting something or the camera automatically shifts. There isn't even a proper tutorial for combat or what combo strings there are or what special attacks do. The entire thing was just confusing and random. General presentation is awful, graphics seem pretty bad, and when I killed the Chimera boss the cam zoomed right into a corner right through the monster model and got stuck there. Didn't have a good time at all.
Click to expand...

May I say it's just a demo, and te game being a long one, its pretty safe to asume you'll get use to the commands?

As for the graphics, I haven't heard of bullstreams, and the numerous ones we got should have given you a pretty good idea, no?

I'm not expecting Bayonetta levels of control over action, but the videos I saw were encouraging, and an action heavy RPG not controlling as swiftly as a pure action game wouldn't surprise me much.

What does this Dark souls vs Dragon's dogma controlls mean?
I have to wait a few more hours to play it but the remarks seem both worrisome and laughable at once...
Anyway, I don't mind the action being not so strategic, I'm in for the fight and plunging swords into giant beasts' hearts.
 
B

brickface

Member
That was awesome! But short and easy due to the level you're at and it being a demo. I'll have to do it again - I didn't even look at the abilities of the fighter. But when I was fighting the gryphon one of my pawns said they'd launch me at it, and she did so I stabbed it in the face. Brilliant! Also how good does the Helm Splitter move look? Can't wait for the full game to see what else every class can do.
 
P

Pie and Beans

Look for me on the local news, I'll be the guy arrested for trying to burn down a Nintendo exec's house.
Prologue was naff, Countryside Quest was the real taste of the game. Its worth mentioning this Griffin fight demo is presumably the same one thats been at trade shows for so long and made me think the game looked a bit naff. Needed a slightly more heftier quest I think to convince people.

But playing a Ranger with their speed and arrow tricks is awesome. Experience like that in no other game, raining arrows down upon the beast from the sky, grabbing on and slashing its wings to shit in seconds. Good stuff, excited for the game but wouldnt recommend the demo to friends due to jank that probably isnt in the final thing (HUD customisation for one hopefully)
 
R

Red Arremer

Member
Game seems alright. I don't think I will get it at release, to be honest, because it seems too bland to pay full price for it.
The HUD is really disruptive, especially the NPC talk, and what's even worse are the random camera pans when one of your allies does a special attack/spell or you kill something. Totally unnecessary.

I really didn't get along with the swordsman, when fighting the chimera, it seemed like I was hitting it with a sheet of paper instead of a sword, and other than the mage, my allies seemed to do jackshit. Otherwise, prologue mission was alright.
The open area mission was cool - archer with daggers and bows seems to be much more fun than sword guy, and you actually can see how you deal damage to the enemy (and the gryphon boss). Tho that mission was too fucking short, I would've liked to explore a the area a little more.

Finally, character customization is OK. I can make myself look like a Vulcan, which is pretty badass. Otherwise, I've seen better, but also worse - it is a Japanese character creator, after all.
Also, I like how there's random Capcom character names in the moniker section. Lol'd at the likes of Rockman, M. Bison and Blues.

JonStark said:
- Flying ennemies like harpies are just a pain
Click to expand...

You only fight them while being the sword dude, and only then they're a pain; in the Riverside quest you seem to play an archer type, shit is much easier then.

- Pawns all over the pace, damn confusing, who does what ?
Click to expand...

I gathered blue ones are mages, yellow ones are archers and red ones are tanks (who also grab shit so you can hit it).
 
A

Anteater

Member
duckroll said:
I played the Prologue Quest. Seems like a pretty bad game. There's garbage UI all over the screen, which I think you can turn off, but its on by default, making it look even more annoying than Skyward Sword's first hour. Pretty bad sign right off the bat. The combat feels loose and kinda iffy, the camera seems bad, I never know what my allies are doing, unless they start shouting something or the camera automatically shifts. There isn't even a proper tutorial for combat or what combo strings there are or what special attacks do. The entire thing was just confusing and random. General presentation is awful, graphics seem pretty bad, and when I killed the Chimera boss the cam zoomed right into a corner right through the monster model and got stuck there. Didn't have a good time at all.
Click to expand...

Isn't that how most demos are like? I'm not sure if the dmc4 demo tells you what combos do and the combo strings it has, I think el shaddai demo was like that too and the vesperia demo, just pretty much make you press some buttons and look at the screen to figure it out.

Do games usually tell you individually what special attacks do? I think the skills menu was missing though so you can't read the description like other rpg demos.
 
sublimit

sublimit

Banned
Hmm..am i the only one who had some trouble with the controls?It seems that if i move the left stick a bit more forcefull than usual my character ends up giving commands at pawns or doing an attack i didn't want...

I'll play again (obviously) to see if i can get the hang of it...
 
A

Anteater

Member
sublimit said:
Hmm..am i the only one who had some trouble with the controls?It seems that if i move the left stick a bit more forcefull than usual my character ends up giving commands at pawns or doing an attack i didn't want...

I'll play again (obviously) to see if i can get the hang of it...
Click to expand...

No, sounds like a bug lol, I don't think my character ever do commands on her own, I'll try later
 
F

Feindflug

Member
=GabrielKnight= said:
Thanks :(

So I think that this happens with the MT framework when the video output of the console doesn't match the game resolution.

Dead Rising and RE5 where 720p, while Dragon's Dogma is sub-hd, so there's no way to get rid of the tearing...
Click to expand...

DD is sub-HD? so it's the first MT Framework game that isn't running at 720p...and the stupid bug on the 360 version is still there? yep that doesn't sound good.

Hopefully RE6 won't have this stupid upscaling bug.
 
A

Anteater

Member
Red Arremer said:
By the way, am I the only one who thought the camera controls are a bit wonky?
Click to expand...

The camera is kind of bad if you're in a tight spot, and it's a bit zoomed in if your have your weapons sheathed, but other than that it seems ok to me, you could change the camera movement speed in the options though


Feindflug said:
DD is sub-HD? so it's the first MT Framework game that isn't running at 720p...and the stupid bug on the 360 version is still there? yep that doesn't sound good.

Hopefully RE6 won't have this stupid upscaling bug.
Click to expand...

DD isn't upscaled, it just have the top and bottom portion cut off as far as I know (due to letterbox), it's still lower resolution, so it's sub HD, I don't know for sure though!
 
A

anddo0

Member
I enjoyed the demo. It's more MH than DS that's for sure. It's like MH with a story. I felt right at home with the controls.. Though the camera was a bit wonky and panned a little too much for my liking.. Graphically it was alright, wasn't expecting it to shine in that department. The enemy AI is what I expected for a game with this scope. The boss fights, while challenging, took very little strategy.

I'd like to purchase this game. The demo certainly was fun. I just don't know if it's day one.
 
F

Feindflug

Member
Anteater said:
The camera is kind of bad if you're in a tight spot, and it's a bit zoomed in if your have your weapons sheathed, but other than that it seems ok to me, you could change the camera movement speed in the options though

DD isn't upscaled, it just have the top and bottom portion cut off as far as I know (due to letterbox), it's still lower resolution, so it's sub HD, I don't know for sure though!
Click to expand...

Didn't know about the black boarders, so the upscaling is not the cause of tearing? weird that Capcom didn't managed to maintain 30fps at sub-HD resolution since the previous MT Framework games on the 360 run fine.

I guess it's because it's their first game with such a big world on this engine...really curious to play the demo now.
 
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