Dragon's Dogma

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Scrustle
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Re: Dragon's Dogma and Dark Arisen

Post by Scrustle »

Ah yes that reminds me of something else I was thinking of mentioning. The draw distance in the game is pretty great. You can see locations really far off in the distance in pretty good detail, and I think it does give a sense of place to the world. Like you see a big ruin on the horizon, dramatically jutting out on the cliffside, and that's a place you'll eventually be able to go, without any loading screens or segmented world sections. I really liked that aspect. I think the small world size allowed them to do stuff like that. To make the entire world feel like it was designed to look evocative, but also functional. There's dramatic scenery, but it's not just a background texture. It's real.

Also, I think the texture pack in Dark Arisen doesn't actually make the game look any better. I looked it up a while ago, and it seems that the way they did the Dark Arisen content was really weird. You can play the game, with the extra Dark Arisen content, just from the first disc. It's all on there. But that disc is missing some things, like the DLC content, and the actual textures for the entire game. The first disc has low res textures instead. Or rather, even more low res textures. I've never seen what it looks like though. But anyway, the "HD" texture pack is just the normal game textures. They just couldn't fit them on the first disc, because they put all the Dark Arisen content on there instead. For some reason you can also download the HD texture pack from the marketplace for free too. I guess that was for people who somehow managed to get hold of Dark Arisen without the second disc.

I feel like Dark Arisen does perform a little better though. Maybe a slightly more stable frame rate, and with better draw distance on foliage. But I might be just imagining that. If there is a difference, it's only very small.
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JaySevenZero
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Re: Dragon's Dogma and Dark Arisen

Post by JaySevenZero »

RoboticMonk3y wrote:Out of curiosity Jay, what version of the game are you playing? I picked up the "dark arisen" version, which came with a texture pack and a language pack, so everyone is speaking in Japanese (I don't remember what the texture pack was for though...
I'm playing 'Dark Arisen' as that's the version they gave with Plus a couple of months ago.
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JaySevenZero
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Re: Dragon's Dogma and Dark Arisen

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Scrustle wrote:Ah yes that reminds me of something else I was thinking of mentioning. The draw distance in the game is pretty great. You can see locations really far off in the distance in pretty good detail, and I think it does give a sense of place to the world. Like you see a big ruin on the horizon, dramatically jutting out on the cliffside, and that's a place you'll eventually be able to go, without any loading screens or segmented world sections. I really liked that aspect. I think the small world size allowed them to do stuff like that. To make the entire world feel like it was designed to look evocative, but also functional. There's dramatic scenery, but it's not just a background texture. It's real.
This is the thing that I love the most, it's the reason I prefer Dark Souls world over that of Demon's Souls - the fact that you can be stood in Ash Lake and see the bridge above you where you encountered that crimson dragon does so much to give the world a sense of place and is something that has really stood out to me about Dogma. I think that whilst the world is comparatively smaller than what we've come to expect these days, the changes that occur when it goes from day to night and the confrontations you have with all the different creatures certainly goes quite some way to compensate for its overall size too.
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JaySevenZero
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Re: Dragon's Dogma and Dark Arisen

Post by JaySevenZero »

So I've been playing the hell out of this over the last week or so and yesterday I decided to throw caution to the wind and take on the dragon. Eventually, after a rather epic fight I beat it and then figured I go would go to Gran Soren and that would be that - job done.

How wrong could I have been?! The game has suddenly gone and turned everything up several notches. I was in no way expecting things to go the way they have done and I have to admit I'm loving the fact that it has.
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RoboticMonk3y
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Re: Dragon's Dogma and Dark Arisen

Post by RoboticMonk3y »

The game does that a few times. There's some really good story that opens up later on in the game
adwild1982

Re: Dragon's Dogma and Dark Arisen

Post by adwild1982 »

I have had this game in my collection for a number of months and have decided that its the next game for me to crack on with. Any hints or tips would be great as a new to this type of game and want to make the most of my experience paying it. Thanks
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Re: Dragon's Dogma and Dark Arisen

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adwild1982 wrote:I have had this game in my collection for a number of months and have decided that its the next game for me to crack on with. Any hints or tips would be great as a new to this type of game and want to make the most of my experience paying it. Thanks
Yeah, use my pawn 'Rin' a level 63 mage that focuses on healing the team along with some powerful magic attacks. Don't worry about using high level pawns early in the game either, to some degree they'll follow your lead and I was using a level 83 warrior from the very beginning and it didn't feel that it unbalanced the game. I would say definitely make your team a mix of classes (I'm a mystic knight and use a mage, ranger and warrior) it diversifies the combat and covers more bases where enemy types are concerned.

One other thing, avoid going to Bitterblack Island until you're sufficiently leveled up as it'll kick your ass!
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Scrustle
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Re: Dragon's Dogma and Dark Arisen

Post by Scrustle »

I would have thought it would be far too expensive to summon a pawn of that high a level that early in the game. If you go far beyond your own level, it starts getting to the tens or hundreds of thousands in RC quite quickly. How did you manage summoning a level 83 right from the start?

Also, if we're pimping pawns, mine is pretty good too. Female mage called Sakuya. I think she's around level 74 or so. Brilliant for support. Can cure almost any status effect, has strong healing spells, and a good variety of elemental offensive spells too. Also has a lightning enchantment skill.

This all depends on what platform you're on of course. I'm on 360. I think most other people here are on PS3.
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JaySevenZero
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Re: Dragon's Dogma and Dark Arisen

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Scrustle wrote:I would have thought it would be far too expensive to summon a pawn of that high a level that early in the game. If you go far beyond your own level, it starts getting to the tens or hundreds of thousands in RC quite quickly. How did you manage summoning a level 83 right from the start?

Also, if we're pimping pawns, mine is pretty good too. Female mage called Sakuya. I think she's around level 74 or so. Brilliant for support. Can cure almost any status effect, has strong healing spells, and a good variety of elemental offensive spells too. Also has a lightning enchantment skill.

This all depends on what platform you're on of course. I'm on 360. I think most other people here are on PS3.
All my pawns are from people on my friends list and they appeared as soon as I entered the Rift (as long as you have your search settings to show Friends only), otherwise it seems to only show pawns that are of a comparable level. Also, and I don't know if this is because of them being on my friends list, but none of those pawns cost anything to enlist them.
adwild1982

Re: Dragon's Dogma and Dark Arisen

Post by adwild1982 »

Thanks guys I will most defiantly be doing this when I get home had a quick go on it last night and it looked like one hell of a game that's going to take some time to really get in to.
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Flabyo
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Re: Dragon's Dogma and Dark Arisen

Post by Flabyo »

There's no cost to hiring a pawn from someone on your friends list (at least on the 360 versions anyway).

My tips would just be to take it slow. You can't easily survive off the main route until you reach the game's big city, up till then you're best just following the main plot.
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RoboticMonk3y
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Re: Dragon's Dogma and Dark Arisen

Post by RoboticMonk3y »

the bigger issue with using a super high level pawn is that your experience gained will be reduced, so unless you're going to head off and do some serious grinding later in the game, you can screw yourself over when you get to some of the bosses later on in the game.

Also like flabyo says, take it slow, soak up the scenery and don't be worries about legging it away from a fight if you're struggling.
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Scrustle
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Re: Dragon's Dogma and Dark Arisen

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JaySevenZero wrote: All my pawns are from people on my friends list and they appeared as soon as I entered the Rift (as long as you have your search settings to show Friends only), otherwise it seems to only show pawns that are of a comparable level. Also, and I don't know if this is because of them being on my friends list, but none of those pawns cost anything to enlist them.
I looked it up and you're right. Pawns from friends are free, no matter the level. I've never done that though, since all the pawns from my friends have always been way lower level than me. The highest one right now is only level 31.
adwild1982

Re: Dragon's Dogma and Dark Arisen

Post by adwild1982 »

Sounds like I need to added a few frineds who have the game to my PS3 friends list. Any suggestions of class to play with and am I reading it right focus on the main story for a but get levelled up then explore the world more?
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JaySevenZero
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Re: Dragon's Dogma and Dark Arisen

Post by JaySevenZero »

I wouldn't worry about how you should play - just go with however you want to play. I wouldn't say you need to be so powered up for most of the story leading up to the confrontation with the Dragon, but post-Dragon could be a ordeal if you're not 40 or above (you'll most likely be beyond that the time you get to the showdown anyway). For myself, most of the enjoyment I've gleaned from this game is from the exploration and discovery of side missions and little secret chests holding rare loot.
adwild1982

Re: Dragon's Dogma and Dark Arisen

Post by adwild1982 »

Also have you guys done a podcast on this game yet? if not I think it should be added to the list
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JaySevenZero
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Re: Dragon's Dogma and Dark Arisen

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adwild1982 wrote:Also have you guys done a podcast on this game yet? if not I think it should be added to the list
We haven't but it's on the list.
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Re: Dragon's Dogma and Dark Arisen

Post by ratsoalbion »

If you ever want to find if we've done a podcast on a particular game alls ya need to do is go to the homepage and enter the name of the game into the search box, top right: http://caneandrinse.com/
adwild1982

Re: Dragon's Dogma and Dark Arisen

Post by adwild1982 »

Am really looking forward to getting in to this game now. Been looking for something to replace Skyrim as my go to game.
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Re: Dragon's Dogma and Dark Arisen

Post by JaySevenZero »

Finally decided to finish off my first playthrough (since I'm currently level 91 and didn't think I was gonna have much in the way of trouble with anything in the main game at this stage) and I have to say I really enjoyed the game immensely. I've started a NG+ in order to catch some of those missions I missed the first time through and to soak up feeling like an absolute badass utterly destroying everything that decides it wants to rumble. Surprisingly though, even at this level some parts of Bitterblack Isle are still proving way more of a challenge than I would have anticipated (particularly that flooded basement area with the Phantoms, giant Saurians, Eliminator and Undead Mages) but I'm determined to see it through to the end.
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