Anyone else excited about Dragons Dogma and the upcoming Dragons Dogma 2 game?
I am trying to get some people who want to talk about either Dragon’s Dogma game to join the Lemmy version group in the Fediverse. I am currently playing through the first game on my Linux gaming PC. We can share news there. We can share pawns too, if anyone is interested.
I fuckin love Dragon’s Dogma. I love NPC companion systems in general in games, and DDDA was one of the only games I’ve seen where you can have a party of NPCs that autonomously interact with the world. They’ll engage in fights of their own volition, buff or heal you on their own, will open chests, destroy boxes, and loot on their own, and the ways you can modify their behavior by teaching them is very interesting.
Granted, they were never smart enough about buffing or healing, which often made me want to go Mage because I could do the job far better than them, but playing a game where I can play support and healer for an NPC party is another thing I love about DDDA that you don’t often see in other games.
Very stoked for the sequel.
You had to train them quite a bit to make them effective at magic, there were some good pawns you could find from time to time
They learn how to react. Some were more guarding you, or more aggressive, or will pick up and mine stuff, etc. You can pay to retrain them if you don’t like their behavior.
Sometimes, but casting has a lot of run up in DD, and sometimes the pawn might know to cast the right thing, but not have the forethought to cast it at the right time, or they’d give you a buff that was good in a current fight, then weak against the next monster, but because you can’t dismiss a buff you have, you’d just be stuck weak like that.
Little things like that compounded and because I could always just do all of it myself better, instead of incentivizing me to spend a lot of time retraining a pawn without very much feedback on where their tendencies were, it was far easier and immediately gratifying in so many ways to just become mage and do it myself.
I’m hoping DD 2 will have much more transparency in the pawn behaviors and personalities, and allow even more customization of what abilities they use and when, but I do still want it to retain some of that organic learning feel, I’m definitely not advocating for a Final Fantasy 12 programmed AI routine, as much as that’s cool in its own right, the organic feeling that your pawn is learning is part of the charm of DDDA.
I know pawns will learn the best way to fight a monster by being shown by you, have another pawn show them, or knowledge scrolls you can use on your pawn. You can check their knowledge on a monster and it ranges from 1 to 3 stars.
I will end up on a sorcerer and my pawn will end up a mage for healing. And I will hire fighter and ranger pawns then.
Fighting hydras when it goes right is just so damn satisfying.
Yea and the hydra is really the first boss. It is an easier hydra.
It was an easy hydra but you have no idea it is the first time the cutscene starts, felt very dark-soulsey there confronting you at low levels with a boss that fills the screen.
Agreed. I think it swallowed my pawn the first time.
I am certainly interested in the 2nd game. Should I play the 1st game before then? I heard mostly good things about DD1.
Yea, the first game is great. I am replaying it now.
They are separate universes based on the common theme apparently, so there’s no need to play 1 to enjoy 2, technically. However, 1 is fucking great so you lose nothing. It’s a monster hunter with dark souls theme in a hard medieval setting. If that didn’t sell you on the franchise nothing will :)
The game is great. It on sale a lot too, but worth $30 because you get the game and the expansion for that price.
I haven’t actually finished DD1 but that’s 100% on my attention span, it’s an amazing game and I’m super excited for the sequel! Never played anything quite like it, the way you explore and how dark and terrifying nighttime is will always stick with me. I started on that hard difficulty setting way back when, forgot what it’s called, and it was a really fun ride right up to the point I suddenly stopped playing for no particular reason I can recall.
Oh and it’s got some of the coolest spells I’ve ever seen in a game. Take something like the tornado spell. Most games would hand you a moderately sized green wind burst or something and call it a day, DD actually gives you what feels like a city destroying one you take ages to cast lol. Most of the ones I remember are like that and I love them so much.
Yea, I love the spells and the difference classes abilities. I play on hard because of the big bags of money the pop out of regular mobs make up for the difficulty.
And I love the pawn system. How the pawns can be hired by other players and they learn how to fight better or about a quest-all learned by adventuring with another player.
The pawn system was my favorite feature of the first game.
Me as well. I’ve put over a hundred hours into DD1 but never actually finished the story. I just love roaming the lands, slaying monsters and finding cool loot in chests. Absolutely love the game, and I’m more excited for DD2 than anything GTA.
You shouldn’t buy capcom games.
Why not? They seem to offer a lot of value to the Capcom games I have played.
I bought dragon’s dogma: dark arisen for the switch a year or two ago. It’s pretty fun and the pawn system is a good innovation over npc party members in other games. I liked the voice lines they’d rattle off every so often… “goblins ill like fire!”
I’m currently working my way through Elden ring on PC, which is a lot more punishing combat-wise, but definitely has superior level design. I’ll come back to DD to finish the story at some point.
I always thought of the repetitive dialogue was kind of a part of the pawn existence, they’re… not really people, so them acting wooden and repetitive fits well.
I liked it too.
Makes most of the endings very satisfying. Can’t wait till 2 goes on sale to learn more about pawn culture.
Agreed. The story of the pawns and NG+ is great.
Elden Ring is a long and very fun game. I got the platinum on the ps5.
I just bought the switch port but I haven’t started it yet. I have been looking for a good fantasy RPG tho.
I like it a lot, but the pawn system is a bit of an hassle. You have to invest some time planning out and spec-ing and searching pawns, which makes it a bit complex.
I tried the first one when someone told me it was like Dark Souls with better coop. Felt more like Monster Hunter than Dark Souls tho. While not bad, it wasn’t what I was looking for.
I got stuck in the first game where a boss would just utterly destroy my team. I tried a few times and never got close to winning. Maybe I’ll give it another shot
The hydra at the beginning?
No, not at the beginning. I’m trying to remember but I’m getting two memories mixed together so I’m not quite sure now which spot it was.
Monster hunter with a dark souls theme and a hard medieval setting. Need I say more?
