Dragon's Dogma review

[Tobal]

i'm loving this even more now, taking it nice and slow, just found a lovely great hammer called the tripple tooth with nearly 900dmg.
some of the areas look ripped straight out of demon/dark souls like the soulflayer canyon especially in the dead of midlight with the lantern on the go, that place is instant death if you make one wrong turn.
fantastic stuff.

i got in to the canyon just and at night to so it couldn't see where the heck i was going for the final water slide part... luckly one of the 2nd pawns had done this quest always and shouted to follow him, so i got through the slide maze at night perfectly... i love it when it does stuff like that, also laughed my ass off burning up a cylopes left leg so he stumble off and over the bridge we where fighting on.

Changed up to SOC now with fire wall as my now go to spell, followed by the ice tentacles(i love how it arcs inthe air making it looks different everytime)

[elaniel]

A typical escort quest in Dogma. Makes most other games of this ilk feel tame by comparison. This is what your pawn gets upto Elan.

Wow, she doesn't seem to do much!

[Riskbreaker]

I think she holds her own buddy and I'm not being one shoted by bandits so I have no complaints.

[elaniel]

One thing I'm annoyed about is it seems Strider can hardly hold any items. I keep having to juggle around with the pawns constantly to ensure he doesn't go to HEAVY. Wish there was a perk like the Fighters have that allows you to hold more inventory.

[Riskbreaker]

Class doesn't affect it mate, it's about the weight you give your character when you create them. If you pick a small, slight character they have a small weight allowance but better stamina recovery and faster movement. Heavier characters are visa-versa.

http://dragonsdogma.wikia.com/wiki/Character_Weight

There is an item available from the Rift Crystal vendor that let's you change your character's appearance, might also let you put a bit of weight on them. Also, Striders have this ability:

http://dragonsdogma.wikia.com/wiki/Leg-Strength

"It renders your rank lighter for purpose of moving.

Example: Average -> Light. "

Might help.

[elaniel]

Yeah, I've already used that, I want there to be a second level of it

[jimtendo]

Ha ha, tell me about it. Was trying to do an escort quest for Adaro from Cassardis to some area half way across the map last night. Ended up under some waterfall in an underground temple, fought my way through the Saurians there, NPC in tow. Found a Cyclops, killed him as the NPC stood around watching. And then realised it was a dead end. Had to leave and work my way along towards Witchwood along bandit encroached roads and ended up with two options. Slowly fight my way through numerous bandit or short-cut through some Saurians only to come face-to-face with a Chimera. The bandit route turned out to be the longest but safest bringing me to a fort by the sea and as the sun was setting I was still only halfway to my destination.

When I finally struck upon the correct route I came to realise that in this game sometimes you have to pretend you're Aragorn escorting a couple of hobbits while staying hidden from Wraiths along dark roads. It pays dividends to be vigilant of you surroundings and skirt around enemies that you don't have to fight. Usually in these games the inclination is to kill everything in sight and if you can't kill all enemies on a particular path then it isn't feasible. Here you have enough room to outmaneuver monsters, picking your fights as you go, which in a gameworld where you're pushed to complete your journey while the sun is up makes alot of sense.

In the end, with some careful picking and choosing of battles, along with mixing road use and off-road to avoid fiends I had a very tense run through some dangerous areas. Finding a friendly camp to stop at as the sun started to set was easily akin to the relief of reaching a bonfire in Dark Souls.

So yeah the map is crap but I had a good adventure thanks to how ineffective it is

Therein lies the beauty (and torture) of Dragon's Dogma.
Loved that little anecdote of your travels, as it perfectly displayed the a Lord of the Rings-esque escort from the safety of Cassardis > traversing the unknown > and finally (via a few scenic routes) reaching your destination.

One thing I'm annoyed about is it seems Strider can hardly hold any items. I keep having to juggle around with the pawns constantly to ensure he doesn't go to HEAVY. Wish there was a perk like the Fighters have that allows you to hold more inventory.

You do realise that once you've unlocked that 'carry an extra 10kg' augment from Fighter class (vocation lvl. 5) and purchased it, you can use it for any class?

For those stuck with a lack of gold; even though the game does its best at throwing as much of it at you as possible, there is a nice little gold exploit that can be done at Cassardis:

->Open Spoiler<-

1. Unequip all your (and your pawns) gear so you're light as possible, including armour.
2. Buy as many carrots from Iola (old lass) and then go to the inn and rest for 3 days so the carrots become moldy
3. Sell > profit!
4. Repeat, rinse, dry.

Best to also sign out of PSN so it doesn't update to server everytime you take a rest at the inn.

[elaniel]

^^^ Thanks for that info. Is that the same with any of the support abilities? (IE: they can be used with any class if unlocked)

I haven't changed my class yet myself. Was still levelling up Strider.

[jimtendo]

Yup. Every augment, once purchased is yours to carry over to whichever your next class is. Though weapon skills is different, as only a few might carry over.

[elaniel]

Didn't know that. There's SO much to do in this game that it's difficult to figure everything out. I mean it's already crazy that you can climb literally anything and everything (including monsters).

I think I may change my strider to Fighter for a little while then. Do you lose a lot of your stats when you change class though? (As in strength, etc.) As I don't recall there being any particular stats for each job in the game and they seem more tied to your level than anything else.

[MisterBubbles]

Yes i liked Riskbreakers anecdotal story, but i was doing the same quest, and one hour later still trying to find the route for it, i run into a cyclops, it turns dark, a huge mob of wolves and then bandits mug us and all hell breaks loose, then the quest comes up as failed , then where all dead, so nearly 1 1/2 hours wasted cause the map sucks, i know some might say i wasn't prepared right or thats the game, but im unsure if i like it or not, the handling of the situation, not the game.

[Riskbreaker]

I found that if you use the map and switch to the most zoomed out view, it show roads you can't see on the zoomed in ones (no idea why). So I just tried to stick to where I thought that road was going. Even once I found the right route, I'd barely have called it a road.

[Tobal]

Finally found a 3rd wakestone piece so i can finish that quest fromthe start... holy heck, i brought 2 from the npc but been unable to find one since and in my exploration adventure to the south west i found one after falling down a cliff at night

that adventure at some point got me in to 2 nasty fights with a wyvern and goblin waves at night... even got me a dragon enchanced icon on my chest armour and then my first Golem fight which as a magic user took a full day cycle to kill him, luckly i have ice lance which must count as melee damage somehow was just about ticking 1 to 3mm's off his hpbar a cast while my stupid pawns having never fought one before couldn't aim for the gems... also the way it animated so differently to everything else made me feel i was watching stop motion out of jason and the argonauts. also leveled up enough to get malestorm which is basiclly a tornado that sucks everything up and drops them on there neck (similar to the neck drops from saint seiya), i just love sending my party in to stall them wile i cast this 10/15 second long spell.

[SUMIRE]

Still loving this. I just like wandering around exploring, the map is bad, but it sort of makes exploring more fun.
I wish you could output higher res shots though :P

My Pawn getting pwned!

[Zaki]

Hi guys, which version do you think is better? 360 or PS3? Does the 360 final release still have tearing (even on 720p)?

Cheers,

Zaki.