Why the hell did nobody tell me Dragon's Dogma was so awesome?

[Krylo]

Originally Posted by Arcanum

Anyway, I'm curious to know what vocations those of you who have the game played as. I started off as a Strider, then switched to Magick Archer around level 25. I wasn't really a fan of the Magick Archer's skills so I went back to Strider for a while, then Warrior to boost my health and gain access to a few augments. After that I switched to Assassin and that has been my main vocation ever since. I love having both a sword and bow at my disposal, and I can always switch to daggers if I feel like mixing it up.

Assassin is fantastic. Clairvoyance is excellent against asshole two hander/sword and board skeletons/bandits/skeleton lords that are nigh-impossible to stagger with the rogue move set (other than implicate, but implicate just isn't quite as much fun for me, and unavailable to assassins), Dire Gouge is the best against large enemies, and that still leaves you one open sword slot. Then you can carry a pair of daggers around to switch off to if you need/want double jump for exploration, or dodge roll for some reason. And then there's lycean sight for the bow which is just fantastic in every way. I finish off entire groups of enemies before they even know I'm there, and have been since level 30.

Sorcerer is pretty great too, but only if you have at least one other sorcerer pawn and/or forged the wyrmking ring and then gave back the forgery instead of the original. It will reduce your casting times. And having the other pawn means that if you start casting the same spell next to them (or they next to you) that whomever started casting second starts their cast at the point where the earlier was. So if you see a pawn about to drop bolide you can run next to them, start casting, and cast almost immediately and drop two bolides, one from the pawn, one from you.

This was great against the dragon in NG+ as it was just dual gicel over and over again with me and my main pawn stun locking the dragon to death, once we managed to get one off.

However, it doesn't really fit my playstyle with all the casting times and stuff even with it shortened/dual'd up. So I stick with assassin for the most part.

Originally Posted by Arcanum

So I finally nailed down why I love this game so much. It puts the cinematic experience of quick time events into your own hands.

[. . .]

The dynamic potential of every fight is going to keep me playing this game for quite some time, and eagerly awaiting the sequel.

Oh man, yes. Let me tell you all a story, though I believe Grim and Greed already heard it.

See, I was exploring the lands just north of bloodwater beach/west of of the bandit stronghold over there. The sun had set and I was far enough away from any camp that I had decided to just forge ahead on what I was doing, as I found myself in this pitch black forest, unable to see anything beyond the small ring of my lantern light.

Then in the top right corner of my screen appears "AMBUSH! Slay your enemies!"

I start looking around, and can't see anything at all. Not even hear anything. Then as I turn to my left I see this giant lion head slowly come into the light of my lantern, and then it roared. My pawn, behind me, yells out "CHIMERA!" and then the monster jumped at me and I dodge rolled to the side (I was strider at the time), before jumping onto its back as it charged past. I managed to climb onto its tail, and started hacking away until I cut it off, unable to see where it was running as it dashed around, and then finished it off in similar fashion with the goat and lion heads.

When the fight was over I had no idea where I was. Had to check the map.

Originally Posted by Bells

is the "Fixed Monster Spawns" really a big issue against immersion in the game? That's been one of the major things i see people complaining about this game

There's a few goblin spawns you'll see a LOT that get annoying, but for the most part the fixed spawns are actually kind of a good thing, as it makes it easy/possible to hunt down large monsters or groups of smaller monsters that you want to fight for fun and profit.

It didn't really hurt immersion for me until really late into the game, and that's more than made up for by moments like the one above.

Originally Posted by Aerozord

Ok so while watching gameplay, especially against larger monsters I began thinking. "this reminds me of monster hunter"

How accurate is that, and I mean in the sense that fighting monsters is more about strategizing where and how you attack than just spamming it until its HP is gone

I've never played monster hunter but it's definitely more strategy than hack and slash. For instance, Ogres can only REALLY be hurt by attacks to their head. Even at ridiculously high levels body shots do next to nothing to them (I'm sitting at about 1.7k strength and using dire gouge on their torsos still doesn't do very much), so you have to either try to climb up to their heads, arrow their heads, or hack their legs out and then attack their heads. And they're one of the simpler enemies as far as strategy goes.

Cockatrice are a pain because you really can't just "PEW PEW PEW" them, or they will kill the shit out of you, and Griffins are likewise a pain, not because they'll kill you but because if you don't find a way to lock them down they'll run away as soon as you start doing decent damage (or they find their lunch).

[Arcanum]

Originally Posted by Bells

is the "Fixed Monster Spawns" really a big issue against immersion in the game? That's been one of the major things i see people complaining about this game

Not really. A lot of the fixed spawns actually make a lot of sense, like harpies nesting in the mountains, or Saurians (lizard men) chilling near rivers or lounging on rocks in the open sun (there are actually quite a few spots where they do this, and it kicked up the immersion a notch for me when I saw it) or bandits chilling at a camp or acting as scouts near their strongholds. Yet, like Krylo said, there are some things that are annoying like goblins or bandits always in the same "ambush" spots but it is a really minor thing.

Also, while most monsters respawn in a (ingame) day's time, certain ambush events and larger monsters take more so they are less frequent which helps you avoid thinking "oh great the goblins destroyed another wagon in the exact same spot."

Originally Posted by Aerozord

Ok so while watching gameplay, especially against larger monsters I began thinking. "this reminds me of monster hunter"

How accurate is that, and I mean in the sense that fighting monsters is more about strategizing where and how you attack than just spamming it until its HP is gone

There is definitely more strategy. Every large monster has a weakness or weak spot. A Hydra's scales are much tougher than it's squishy underbelly, but climbing up one of its necks brings the risk of that head smashing down to the ground to flatten you. You can also shoot one of its heads until it gets severed, but it takes less time for a head to regenerate than an entire neck, and if you cut off all of the Hydra's heads it collapses for a moment and your attacks ignore the Hydra's armor before all of its heads regrow at once.

Originally Posted by Krylo

Assassin is fantastic. Clairvoyance is excellent against asshole two hander/sword and board skeletons/bandits/skeleton lords that are nigh-impossible to stagger with the rogue move set (other than implicate, but implicate just isn't quite as much fun for me, and unavailable to assassins), Dire Gouge is the best against large enemies, and that still leaves you one open sword slot. Then you can carry a pair of daggers around to switch off to if you need/want double jump for exploration, or dodge roll for some reason. And then there's lycean sight for the bow which is just fantastic in every way. I finish off entire groups of enemies before they even know I'm there, and have been since level 30.

I've been using Burst Strike (to close distance), Dire Gouge, and Clairvoyance . I never really tried Lycean Sight because I figured with the shortbow's relatively short range (and the fact that the bow does more damage the closer you are), it wouldn't be as effective compared to if it were on a longbow. But then again I've tried nearly every other shortbow skill and found them lackluster (with the exception of fivefold flurry, which is absolutely amazing) so I guess I'll give it a try.

Sorcerer

[...]

However, it doesn't really fit my playstyle with all the casting times and stuff even with it shortened/dual'd up. So I stick with assassin for the most part.

Yeah I avoided mage/sorcerer for this reason. Usually I love magic classes, especially when there is no traditional mana bar involved, but the whole casting time thing turned me off. I will end up levelling my Sorcerer vocation once at least, if only to get the Suasion augment (I'm pretty sure that's sorcerer, it's one of the magic vocations, I know that much) so I can make a killer selling the shower of wakestones that you get in Everfall.

[Arcanum]

Just killed the Ur-Dragon for the second time in offline mode. The first time I got Ascalon (the holy sword), and this time I got Heaven's Key (the holy daggers) so I'm really happy. Plus 20 freaking wakestones per kill means 600K (or 800K when I finally switch to sorcerer long enough to unlock Suasion) in gold, so I can't complain. Currently using those funds to buy portcrystals so I can set up my fast travel network

[Krylo]

Originally Posted by Arcanum

I never really tried Lycean Sight because I figured with the shortbow's relatively short range (and the fact that the bow does more damage the closer you are), it wouldn't be as effective compared to if it were on a longbow

It basically reverses the distance to damage thing so you do more damage at long range than at close, and it has ridiculous range on it once you buy the upgrade. If something's in draw distance (other than a few flying enemies) it's in shoot in the face distance.

[Arcanum]

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that I grabbed it the other day and I totally regret not using it sooner.

[Solid Snake]

Originally Posted by Krylo

Grimpond, Greed, and I all have it on PS3.

...Shit, I'm going to have to buy this.

[Krylo]

And use my massively over-leveled sorcerer pawn.

[Shyria Dracnoir]

Alright, I'm convinced. Once I get some things squared with my bank account I'm picking this up.

[Krylo]

Shyria, you'll love it if for no other reason than the fact that the Dragon is the best character in the game.

[Arcanum]

Originally Posted by Krylo

Dragon > Mercedes > Everyone else.

Shyria, you'll love it if for no other reason than the fact that the Dragon is the best character in the game.

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