Dragon's Dogma

[Stanshall]

I've been gradually chipping away at it myself. I love the hazy, bloomy, PS3 era mulchy palette. I mean it. It seems to somehow have an indefinable personality and there's a soulfulness to it in the same way that Skyrim feels like much more than the sum of its parts. I know that's really just some high-minded waffle which means 'I like it' but I really like it. It does feel like there's something special there. Now I just need about a month off to properly play it. It's not one for a half hour sesh at the end of the day. It's a Sunday morning on a Bank Holiday weekend game.

[James]

Yeah, getting that feeling from it myself. Will definitely set aside 1-2 hours at a time for it, and save shorter sessions for other games, I think.

[Chopper]

I'm playing as a female, brunette strider called Carter, but with the moniker 'Chun-Li', whose main pawn is a female, blonde mage called Comma, with the moniker 'Cammy'. I'm not exactly blessed with a creative mind, sadly.

I created a very Aryan-looking female pawn and called her Chicken Wolf (after the 19th-century baseball player, sadly), and this set of features made her massively popular with other players, for some reason. That was on PS3 so I doubt she's still around.

I wasn't crazy about the game myself.

[Alex79]

Only ever played a couple of hours of this on PS3 when it was on Plus, and for some reason bounced off it (despite loving the Souls series, Elder Scrolls and Witcher etc). No idea why, but I do know I plan to give it another try on Switch when I get round to it. Although, I'm genuinely having thoughts recently that I'm just not going to have time to play everything I want to play before I die*.

*I'm not ill, thought I better clarify that. Just feel like I'm getting older and am never going to find time to do everything I want to do. I almost wish they'd stop making games for five years to give me a chance to catch up.

Well, after Cyberpunk, Death Stranding, TLoU 2 and the next Fromsoft games come out, of course.

[Chopper]

Well, after Cyberpunk, Death Stranding, TLoU 2 and the next Fromsoft games come out, of course.

By the looks of that video, you’ll be able to skip Death Stranding so there’s 40 or 50 hours for you.

[Scrustle]

I always like to see this game getting some more love. I've been thinking about going back to it myself recently too. Maybe not right now, because I started up Infinite Undiscovery lately. Although I doubt I'll stick with it to the end.

But something that stopped me from picking it back up already is that I can't decide how I want to play it. I can either carry on with my NG+ file that I started the last time I was playing this, with my warrior character that I had already built up, or I can start a new file with a different character all together. I haven't been able to decide what class I want to go for in that case either. Either a roguish or mage type character, since I've done the knight/warrior thing before many times. Despite how much praise I've heard about the magic system in this game, I've never used it much myself. And the idea of going to a fast attacking character instead of my current slow one sounds appealing too. But I do tend to enjoy that knight/warrior type the most, and I've already got the stats and gear built up...

[Simonsloth]

Well, after Cyberpunk, Death Stranding, TLoU 2 and the next Fromsoft games come out, of course.

By the looks of that video, you’ll be able to skip Death Stranding so there’s 40 or 50 hours for you.

Controversial. I’ve ordered plastic baby in jar version contrary to pretty much everyone I know’s advice.

Or Is that to taunt Ksub who has sworn death stranding trailer celibacy?

[Chopper]

I wanted to get a dig in, in general, but didn’t want to stink up the Death Stranding thread as everyone was so enthusiastic in there!

Also I thought this was the Whatcha Been Playing thread, sorry for going off topic

[James]

Ooft! I'm about 10 hours in now, and am struggling to find a hook that'll keep me going, sadly. The combat feels very mashy and weightless, plus I feel I'm relying on my pawns to carry me through the tougher confrontations. The traversal is pretty frustrating, with incredibly-slow stamina regen, and that's compounded by the fast travel system, which I understand is vastly improved in Dark Arisen, but still.

I'd hoped the story would have grabbed me, but it's painfully run-of-the-mill chosen one stuff thus far. I've met the Dragonforged and am currently assaulting the Shadowfort. Last thing that happened was a cyclops turfed me off the top of the wall I'm trying to breach. I died, restarted, and ran back up to the top of the wall only for the exact same thing to happen again.

We'll see how I feel in the morning, but I'm currently not that enthused about going back to it. A real shame, given I've heard so many good things about the game.

[Alex79]

Oh man that's disappointing, always sucks not to be in to a game you were expecting to enjoy. Harder still when everyone else raves about it! It's happened to me loads of times, but always a disappointment when it happens.

[Scrustle]

The combat feels very mashy and weightless,

I really can't understand this perspective at all. One of the biggest reasons this game gets praised so much is because it's so good at that sort of thing. There's loads of hit-pause and it has really chunky sound design. It's one of the best in the genre when it comes to that sort of thing. As for mashy, I can't really picture that either. Every class gets loads of interesting and diverse skills to use. In the time you've played you must have got at least a decent array of stuff to play with. Maybe the class you're playing has something to do with it, but like I said, from what I've seen all of them are pretty good at this stuff.

As for the story, I don't think anyone really defends it as being particularly good. It brings up some interesting concepts at the very end of the game, but by that point there's no time to explore them in any meaningful way. And for the vast majority of the game it's pretty uninspired fantasy fare. Inoffensive, but it feels like an afterthought that exists for little other reason than to give you a goal to move towards.

[James]

Yeah, really frustrating, Alex79uk.

Sorry, Scrustle! I can only say that the dagger abilities I have mostly seem to come down to holding R1 and a face button to initiate, and then mashing an attack button to continue the move. I either stagger the enemies by continuing to mash or risk my attack being interrupted if I try to mix it up. I'm sure I'm doing something wrong, but without a block or viable dodge, I'm loathe to ever let an enemy escape hit-stun and counter me. So, it's kinda rinse and repeat with an initiating dash-slice, and then a flurry attack to follow up.

As for not feeling the impact during combat, a lot of it comes down to the animation and feedback, I think. If not in a juggle state, the enemies rarely seem to be affected by my arrows or daggers. This is certainly, in part, due to my daggers damage output, as the vast majority of damage is being done by pawns whilst I feel like I'm tickling the enemies to distract them.

As I say, I'm sure it's me, but I guess the best comparison I can give is to another game praised for its combat, but which I find lacklustre within its genre: God Of War (2005). My limited experience with that game was one of frustration at the feel of the combat. I'm sure I'm out on a limb here, but I'm just not feeling it at all.

Anyway, I don't know if that helps with understanding where I'm coming from. I imagine not, but I gave it the old college try at explaining what's bothering me.

[Scrustle]

Maybe you would have a better time with a different class. The Fighter class definitely feel like they're making an impact, and you have a shield to block and parry with too. There's a really good variety with the R1/L1 moves as well. Lots of different sword attacks that do different things, like a lunge, sweeping and AoE moves, launchers that work against airborne enemies too. You can even use the shield to launch your pawns up in the air to grab enemies. The Mystic Knight class is very fun too. It carries over a lot of the stuff from the Fighter class, but you get a lot of magic stuff to play with on top of that. You get a limited spells that act like the mage classes, but you can also enchant your weapon and shield. Parrying enemies with an enchanted shield has some really cool effects. You can fire off some powerful and explosive stuff with that. The Warrior class is very fun as well, and packs the heaviest punch, but it might feel a bit slow and limited compared to those other two classes. You get massively damaging moves that feel like you're cracking the earth open with them, but you need to charge them up, and don't get access to as many moves at one time.

[Simonsloth]

Hi everyone, I’m giving this a whirl for the first time and am absolutely loving it. It’s mainly the bizarre online features which are luring me in.

I’m genuinely getting affection towards my pawns and when I outlevel them and they become redundant I’m really sad to have to “trade” them in.

I was sad until I saw Jay Seven Zero standing there and joined my crew. It’s odd that Jay’s pawn is level 63 and able to join my party for free. My son Noah is a huge fan of mythical creatures so seeing chimeras, hydras and griffins on screen is capturing his imagination. He is now a huge fan of Jay, Ricky and Bob the pawns who have joined our team! The other pawns have fallen by the wayside but Jay at level 63 has stuck around. It’s weird to hear Noah come out of school saying he has been telling everyone what I’ve been playing (oops) and that Jay Seven Zero is the ultimate hero haha!

If anyone else has played this on the PS4 and has a half decent Pawn (preferably with a stupid name or costume) post your psn ID and I’ll add you.

[Jon Cheetham]

If anyone else has played this on the PS4 and has a half decent Pawn (preferably with a stupid name or costume) post your psn ID and I’ll add you.

Glad you are enjoying one of my favourite games of all time!

If you want to add me on RunTheJewels1 you can take my pawn with you, he is the max level 200 and has completed every quest so will be able to help out with pretty much anything. He is called Tarka Mally and is a sorcerer. Will be dressed sharply.

Next time I'm on I'll hire your pawn too and send them back with some useful items!

[Simonsloth]

Nice! Thanks Jon. Between you and Jay I think I’ll be able to plough in quite nicely!

[JaySevenZero]

I love this game! Which reminds me that I never fully completed my PS4 playthrough.

[Jon Cheetham]

You guys are making me want to dive back in.

The Bitterblack Isle, it calls to me!

[Simonsloth]

You guys are making me want to dive back in.

The Bitterblack Isle, it calls to me!

I hear it’s hard. Really hard!!

[Jon Cheetham]

You guys are making me want to dive back in.

The Bitterblack Isle, it calls to me!

I hear it’s hard. Really hard!!

One of my favourite dungeons in any game. It is definitely endgame level in terms of difficulty, there are some gnarly encounters.

Just sent Gerald off with some presents, hope they're helpful!