Dragon's Dogma : Dark Arisen for PC

[Post]

This game looked amazing, then I played it and realized I hated it.

[Lime]

To be fair, the beginning of the game is the worst part, even though that's the cliche answer for every game these days. It's definitely not for everyone, though. And if you play Warrior or Mage, it's very likely you won't enjoy the game.

[WarpedAcorn]

To be fair, the beginning of the game is the worst part, even though that's the cliche answer for every game these days. It's definitely not for everyone, though. And if you play Warrior or Mage, it's very likely you won't enjoy the game.

I thought they did the beginning well. They introduced big monsters super fast. You got to see the Dragon right off the bat and attempt to fight it. Then you get to fight a Chimera with a leveled up character, and shortly thereafter a Hydra with your own character. As far as an introduction to what the game is about, I'd say they did a pretty good job.

Also, I'm not sure about the Warrior (Fighter) dis. I'm assuming you meant Fighter, but Fighter is still pretty good with its dash attacks and skyward slashes. I was surprised and really enjoyed the Fighter. I do agree with Mage since Mage is more of a support class that lends itself to working better as a Pawn. That being said, I did initially pick Strider. But all of the attacks animate really well and execute in a satisfying manner.

[Lime]

I thought they did the beginning well. They introduced big monsters super fast. You got to see the Dragon right off the bat and attempt to fight it. Then you get to fight a Chimera with a leveled up character, and shortly thereafter a Hydra with your own character. As far as an introduction to what the game is about, I'd say they did a pretty good job.

Also, I'm not sure about the Warrior (Fighter) dis. I'm assuming you meant Fighter, but Fighter is still pretty good with its dash attacks and skyward slashes. I was surprised and really enjoyed the Fighter. I do agree with Mage since Mage is more of a support class that lends itself to working better as a Pawn. That being said, I did initially pick Strider. But all of the attacks animate really well and execute in a satisfying manner.

The intro is solid, I'm speaking of afterwards up until you get to Gran Soren and from that point it lasts quite a bit where you just run from one side of the map to the other just killing bandits and goblins for your side quests. There are a few highpoints during those segments, but there's a lot of downtime where you're just killing bandits. Then you have Hard Mode which is a trainwreck at lower levels. Bandits will constantly 1 shot you and they have mountains of HP. it's something that people, myself included can enjoy, but at the same time I can see why many get bored of the game at this point.

And I meant Warrior - the two handed class. It's a very slow class and forces you to have to rely on pawns for quite a few situations. And Pawn AI is pretty bad, even with the right inclinations. It just runs into the same issue as Mage - when it can do it's job (Pretty much killing anything that can be chain stunned by your attacks aka "melee trash mobs") , it'll do it well, but there's too many issues with it. It deals low damage to bosses, even with the Arc abilities, compared to other classes. And there are a few bosses off the top of my head which would cause you to pull your hair out.

Strider, Fighter, Ranger, Magick Archer (both pure physical and pure magicks builds), Assassin, Mystic Knight, and Sorcerer are the only classes I ever recommend my friends to play for that reason. Those classes just have far fewer weaknesses due to enemy mechanics. I'm not saying that you can't enjoy it as Warrior or Mage, just that if you end up hating the class, it wouldn't surprise anyone.

[WarpedAcorn]

Gotcha. I just finished maxing out Warrior and am about 4 Ranks into Assassin. Warrior felt solid to me, but the speed I could definitely see being an issue. The Arc abilities are definitely tough to pull off, but they are satisfying to land so that makes a nice risk/reward system. As for the rest of the skills, I basically just used regular swings and the Whirlwind Slash. The stagger and hyper armor trivialized normal enemies, and the bosses I did fight (admittedly not many) seemed to take plenty of damage.

Right now though, I like the versatility of the Assassin, having the widest selection of potential weapons. I tried, but didn't care for, Mystic Knight so I'm thinking I will feel similarly about the Magick Archer.

[Vogyn]

Beat the game... or thought I did. Then a certain sequence of events happen which I won't spoil. And quite frankly I got to that part and just stopped playing. Loved it, some issues here and there, kind of expected something different but was pleasantly surprised. Unfortunately the replayability wasn't there so I never tried to overlevel, look at different scenarios, or do that Island DLC area. For me anyway.

[Lime]

Gotcha. I just finished maxing out Warrior and am about 4 Ranks into Assassin. Warrior felt solid to me, but the speed I could definitely see being an issue. The Arc abilities are definitely tough to pull off, but they are satisfying to land so that makes a nice risk/reward system. As for the rest of the skills, I basically just used regular swings and the Whirlwind Slash. The stagger and hyper armor trivialized normal enemies, and the bosses I did fight (admittedly not many) seemed to take plenty of damage.

Right now though, I like the versatility of the Assassin, having the widest selection of potential weapons. I tried, but didn't care for, Mystic Knight so I'm thinking I will feel similarly about the Magick Archer.

If I don't know which class a friend will probably like, I almost always recommend Assassin for that very reason. You get to take advantage of solid regular melee combat, grappled melee combat, ranged combat, and even some tanking if used correctly. It lets you experience so many different angles the game offers. My rule of thumb is that the less you have to rely on pawns, the better, which is what Assassin brings to the table. There isn't a whole lot that hard-counters them.

That last sentence applies to MA and MK as well, but there's always at least 1 hard-counter out there, regardless of class and build.

[WarpedAcorn]

If I don't know which class a friend will probably like, I almost always recommend Assassin for that very reason. You get to take advantage of solid regular melee combat, grappled melee combat, ranged combat, and even some tanking if used correctly. It lets you experience so many different angles the game offers. My rule of thumb is that the less you have to rely on pawns, the better, which is what Assassin brings to the table. There isn't a whole lot that hard-counters them.

That last sentence applies to MA and MK as well, but there's always at least 1 hard-counter out there, regardless of class and build.

Regarding not relying on Pawns...never have I agreed more than I did last night. I am in Bitterblack Isle and I *think* I'm not supposed to be there at this point (level 50 or so), and its been a tough run. But I got to the Dark Bishop and Cursed Dragon boss which I banged my head on for about 3 hours. What was killing me was the incredibly high damage and the literal 1-shot when the Bishop possessed the Dragon. The only reason I didn't quit was because one the 4th try I got the Bishop to about 1-combo's amount of health left before getting killed.

What made me so angry at the Pawns was that one of the guys I had at the time was a Sorcerer who had the ability to cast that big black tornado which would knock the Bishop to the ground....except the dude would NEVER cast it. He used it maybe 1 out of 10 tries, and NEVER twice in the same fight. The other was when the boss would use status effects like Petrification and the other Mage would refuse to use her spell that would cure it, forcing me to waste a Cockatrice Potion.

Fortunately, I did manage to finally beat the boss just before 2AM (stayed up way past my bedtime) by swapping out the worthless Sorcerer with a Fighter and changing my own pawn from a Warrior to a Ranger. I'm glad too, because the reward was having a lot of equipment upgraded to Wyrm level, which upped my damage almost by double!

[Deleted]

I began my first playthrough as a mage and hated it. It's super slow-paced. altough what they lack in fast play they gain in awesome looking endgame skills.
I deleted that character and went with the Strider class and instantly liked the combat a lot more. I plan on going the magick archer route after a long while but my character is only in the level 60's atm I think.

[Lime]

Regarding not relying on Pawns...never have I agreed more than I did last night. I am in Bitterblack Isle and I *think* I'm not supposed to be there at this point (level 50 or so), and its been a tough run. But I got to the Dark Bishop and Cursed Dragon boss which I banged my head on for about 3 hours. What was killing me was the incredibly high damage and the literal 1-shot when the Bishop possessed the Dragon. The only reason I didn't quit was because one the 4th try I got the Bishop to about 1-combo's amount of health left before getting killed.

What made me so angry at the Pawns was that one of the guys I had at the time was a Sorcerer who had the ability to cast that big black tornado which would knock the Bishop to the ground....except the dude would NEVER cast it. He used it maybe 1 out of 10 tries, and NEVER twice in the same fight. The other was when the boss would use status effects like Petrification and the other Mage would refuse to use her spell that would cure it, forcing me to waste a Cockatrice Potion.

Fortunately, I did manage to finally beat the boss just before 2AM (stayed up way past my bedtime) by swapping out the worthless Sorcerer with a Fighter and changing my own pawn from a Warrior to a Ranger. I'm glad too, because the reward was having a lot of equipment upgraded to Wyrm level, which upped my damage almost by double!

Yeah, BBI is kinda brutal at first. If you're playing on Normal, level 50 ish is fine. There are certainly bosses which are out of your league, but you don't have to fight most of them, unless you want the insane exp they give.

Dark Bishop is probably the first wall players run in to in that dungeon, but at least you managed to get him down.

And Pawn AI will frustrate everyone, especially Sorcerers and to a slightly lesser extent, Rangers. It's like a coin toss if they decide to do their job or not. Sorcerers have a lot of problems because they can't judge when it's safe to cast and a lot of the time when they're casting, a pebble will land next to them and they'll try to dodge it and interrupt the cast. They also seem to not be capable of judging range either. But man, when they do their job right, it really shows, more-so than other pawns.

I will say that Sorcerer pawns are god-tier in an all Sorcerer party. Not only is it unlikely that an enemy will interrupt all 4 casters, but there's a fast cast mechanic where if a Sorcerer is channeling a nuke, any other Sorcerer who tries to cast the spell will match the cast time so that the spells go off at the same time.

- - - Updated - - -

I began my first playthrough as a mage and hated it. It's super slow-paced. altough what they lack in fast play they gain in awesome looking endgame skills.

I assume you mean Sorcerer? Sorcerer can be a very fast playstyle if used optimally. Most of your damage doesn't come from the super long casts, but rather an ability you get where you can charge your basic attack. When infused with holy, that ability becomes insanely strong and what's better is that you can charge (which is already a fast cast) while running around at full speed. In addition to the damage, it also has insane tracking, powerful knockdown, and can go through walls.

However, all that being said, it can get boring as you're relying on 1 "spell" 90% of the time.

[Deleted]

Yeah, BBI is kinda brutal at first. If you're playing on Normal, level 50 ish is fine. There are certainly bosses which are out of your league, but you don't have to fight most of them, unless you want the insane exp they give.

Dark Bishop is probably the first wall players run in to in that dungeon, but at least you managed to get him down.

And Pawn AI will frustrate everyone, especially Sorcerers and to a slightly lesser extent, Rangers. It's like a coin toss if they decide to do their job or not. Sorcerers have a lot of problems because they can't judge when it's safe to cast and a lot of the time when they're casting, a pebble will land next to them and they'll try to dodge it and interrupt the cast. They also seem to not be capable of judging range either. But man, when they do their job right, it really shows, more-so than other pawns.

I will say that Sorcerer pawns are god-tier in an all Sorcerer party. Not only is it unlikely that an enemy will interrupt all 4 casters, but there's a fast cast mechanic where if a Sorcerer is channeling a nuke, any other Sorcerer who tries to cast the spell will match the cast time so that the spells go off at the same time.

- - - Updated - - -



I assume you mean Sorcerer? Sorcerer can be a very fast playstyle if used optimally. Most of your damage doesn't come from the super long casts, but rather an ability you get where you can charge your basic attack. When infused with holy, that ability becomes insanely strong and what's better is that you can charge (which is already a fast cast) while running around at full speed. In addition to the damage, it also has insane tracking, powerful knockdown, and can go through walls.

However, all that being said, it can get boring as you're relying on 1 "spell" 90% of the time.

no, mage. the starting vocation

never even got to a good sorcerer build because I gave up too fast.

[Lime]

no, mage. the starting vocation

never even got to a good sorcerer build because I gave up too fast.

I just assumed Sorcerer because you said "awesome looking endgame skills", but I guess Mage has a few cool looking spells too.

[Deleted]

I just assumed Sorcerer because you said "awesome looking endgame skills", but I guess Mage has a few cool looking spells too.

i meant sorcerer with the skills. I just watched a video on youtube

[WarpedAcorn]

Dark Bishop is probably the first wall players run in to in that dungeon, but at least you managed to get him down.

It looks like the last wall is the final boss. I told myself I wouldn't spend another night banging my head on the wall, so I clocked out after about an hour working on him. He looked doable, but is definitely no pushover. So now I'm rerunning the whole thing for more treasure and to farm some XP and Rift Crystals to unlock more cursed gear.

Its funny because the last couple of levels in Bitterblack are REALLY good. The town has one of the best ambiances in the game, and I immediately wanted to use it in one of my D&D games. I tip-toed through it very nervously, and it felt the creepiest of all the areas on the Isle. Also, although I know they sprinkle lore in there, the dialogue during the final boss in there seemed like a really big lore dump. I appreciated it, and it made me actually start to care about the fight from more than a mechanical standpoint.

[Lime]

So you haven't killed the final boss, at all? I'm going to avoid saying something if you haven't.

[WarpedAcorn]

So you haven't killed the final boss, at all? I'm going to avoid saying something if you haven't.

I haven't beaten the final boss of the main story (I have the mission "The Final Battle"), but I also haven't beaten the final boss of Bitterblack Isle either. I did stab him in the head for a minute before he burn knuckled me to the ground. =)

[Trifle]

What made me so angry at the Pawns was that one of the guys I had at the time was a Sorcerer who had the ability to cast that big black tornado which would knock the Bishop to the ground....except the dude would NEVER cast it. He used it maybe 1 out of 10 tries, and NEVER twice in the same fight. The other was when the boss would use status effects like Petrification and the other Mage would refuse to use her spell that would cure it, forcing me to waste a Cockatrice Potion.

You can give them commands which help out with that a bit... one of the commands should be 'help me out' or 'protect me' or something (I forget exactly), which should make them use heal/status cure abilities. That being said, the point of the pawn system is that their AI is actually teachable (to an extent) and you need to train them to behave properly, which can be hard work sometimes.

[WarpedAcorn]

You can give them commands which help out with that a bit... one of the commands should be 'help me out' or 'protect me' or something (I forget exactly), which should make them use heal/status cure abilities. That being said, the point of the pawn system is that their AI is actually teachable (to an extent) and you need to train them to behave properly, which can be hard work sometimes.

Is there a way to teach them not to jump off of cliffs for no reason? ^_^