[Sigfried1977]

I wouldn't exactly call it post game. It's after all where the game's story finally picks up. It's more like Final Fantasy XIII's Grand Pulse really - a drastic change.

[Cornsnake]

I guess I'll find out when I get to Gran Soren. If I can make it there alive...

[Sigfried1977]

What level are you?

[3dcgi]

I wish NPCs I escort would be a little smarter about staying out of trouble. I find it hard to keep them alive unless I do nothing but ranged attacks. As soon as I use a melee weapon they follow me into battle?

Has anyone needed to use the magic archer skill that provides a single shot/kill arrow at the expense of a pawn's life? I haven't needed it so far.

[Cornsnake]

Originally Posted by Sigfried1977

What level are you?

Level 59. I'm just happy I switched back to Magic Archer before the last quest. It might be easier during the day, but I'm curious to see what the game will throw at me.

Originally Posted by 3dcgi

I wish NPCs I escort would be a little smarter about staying out of trouble. I find it hard to keep them alive unless I do nothing but ranged attacks. As soon as I use a melee weapon they follow me into battle?

Has anyone needed to use the magic archer skill that provides a single shot/kill arrow at the expense of a pawn's life? I haven't needed it so far.

The escorts are a bit stupid. The Mystic Knight can put down a sigil that blows away any small enemies that enter it. But the escort will still follow you instead of staying in it.

I haven't used that Magic archer skill. I consider my pawns more valuable than killing a single enemy.

[Sigfried1977]

Well, you are even more overleveled than I was at this point, so you shouldn't have too many problems. Make sure to bring Secret Softeners when yo enter the Everfall.

[Cornsnake]

I got completely destroyed last night just outside the Encampment. But now I've changed my party and skills, and it's a lot easier. Especially when it became daylight again. I killed the wyvern on my way to Gran Soren. Or should I have let it fly to Bluemoon Tower, like the griffin before it.

[Sigfried1977]

Nah, different Wyvern I believe. The one on top of the tower is bigger. They all respawn anyway.

[Cornsnake]

The framerate really goes to shit when there are a bunch of mages around. It doesn't happen often, but when it happens the game becomes unplayable. It's making it very difficult to defeat one particular mini boss.

[Cornsnake]

The game has once again thrown up one of it's "warning if you proceed beyond this point you can't go back" messages. So I want to do a bit more exploring before moving on. I still can't do the Token of Esteem side quest. I guess the bandits still don't like me after all this time.

I playing as a Ranger now. Very nice vocation, has good range and can easily knock enemies down. I am starting feel a bit overpowered though, although the difficulty can vary a lot between enemies. I one shotted a cyclops, but a pack of wolves can still cause some trouble. I'm not strong enough to hurt the Ur-dragon though.

About the Everfall after the big twist. Is that a randomly generated dungeon? Or are there simply that many different rooms because I'm struggling to find the ones I visited before.

[patsu]

I saw a couple of you playing this game when I signed on to PSN for the past few weeks. I assume it should be good ?

[Sigfried1977]

It's not random, just a pain in the ass to navigate. The entrance way to the Ur Dragon is unique though, so it's rather easy to tell apart from the ones leading to the many other rooms. If you fought the Ur Dragon online it's perfectly normal to do pitiful damage by the way. You are not taking him on by yourself after all. He's just there for about 10 minutes until he flies away, so just do as much damage as you can. (so far I managed half a health bar) The nice thing is that you don't just get loot by delivering the killing blow (which has another benefit: It dragon forges everything you're wearing at the time). You'll be rewarded for your efforts as long as you made a contribution.

[Cornsnake]

Originally Posted by Sigfried1977

It's not random, just a pain in the ass to navigate. The entrance way to the Ur Dragon is unique though, so it's rather easy to tell apart from the ones leading to the many other rooms. If you fought the Ur Dragon online it's perfectly normal to do pitiful damage by the way. You are not taking him on by yourself after all. He's just there for about 10 minutes until he flies away, so just do as much damage as you can. (so far I managed half a health bar) The nice thing is that you don't just get loot by delivering the killing blow (which has another benefit: It dragon forges everything you're wearing at the time). You'll be rewarded for your efforts as long as you made a contribution.

The other entrances look similar, so I wonder how many I've missed. There were some good boss fights in there that I haven't found anywhere else. I wouldn't mind repeating some of those if I can find them.

It hear the best way to fight the Ur-dragon is to start when it's nearly dead. Might take too long otherwise.

[Cornsnake]

Originally Posted by patsu

I saw a couple of you playing this game when I signed on to PSN for the past few weeks. I assume it should be good ?

It's great. In some ways it's like Dark Souls. There isn't a lot of story, and what there is requires the player to make some effort to get the most out of it. The game doesn't hold you by the hand. You have to figure out where to go next, with the possibly to miss some things if you aren't looking. The gameplay can also be quite challenging if you venture out at night or too far into unknown territory.

The combat is a lot faster than Dark Souls though. It's a good mix between some strategy from choosing your party and which skills you want to take into battle, and twitch gameplay, how well you can use your combat skills. The boss fights are quite spectacular. Very reminiscent of SotC. You can climb on them and target specific spots for various effects. A lot of bosses can be found just roaming the open world.

You should definitely try the demo. It's a bit short, but you get to fight a Chimera and a Griffin.

[Cornsnake]

I'll just quote myself.

Originally Posted by Cornsnake

These should give you a good idea of what Dragon's Dogma is all about.

Gameplay.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrCiV4LOYk4

Pawn guide.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEsVm...feature=relmfu

Classes and Skills guide.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_c8kr...feature=relmfu

[patsu]

Excellent ! 8^D

Will pick it up to play later.

[Cornsnake]

On to the Fighter vocation. I knew the bow was going to be sorely missed so I brought along an extra Ranger pawn and a Mage with the proper spells. I got into a fight with a bunch of harpy's and some wolves. That Ranger never shot even a single harpy down, and that Mage never managed to cast a single spell. I sent them both immediately back home with a rotten egg. That should make the message clear.

I wish people would setup their pawns a little better. There's no point in giving a Mage a guardian inclination, it causes them to follow you into close combat and they just end up getting destroyed. Dragon's Dogma also suffers from LBP's little problem. When it comes to the community rating the work of others they'll like anything and everything. So even the crappy-est pawns get a 4 star rating.

Although it is partly the game's fault for not explaining pawn inclination better. The Knowledge Chair is unnecessarily difficult to use, and those potions that alter your pawns inclinations can only be bought in the Encampment.

[Sigfried1977]

Blame that on the crappy A.I. system. Regardless of their initial inclination, pawns will change their behavior over time according to how your Arisen behaves. I used to set up my sorceress as someone who took out the weaker enemies first, but after an hour or so her main inclination always switched back to "guardian" regardless. As for rangers: unless you unequip their daggers first, they hardly ever seem to use ranged weaponry.

[Cornsnake]

Damn dragons, won't even let me enjoy a casual game of boar toss. It needs to have all attention to itself.

Originally Posted by Sigfried1977

Blame that on the crappy A.I. system. Regardless of their initial inclination, pawns will change their behavior over time according to how your Arisen behaves. I used to set up my sorceress as someone who took out the weaker enemies first, but after an hour or so her main inclination always switched back to "guardian" regardless. As for rangers: unless you unequip their daggers first, they hardly ever seem to use ranged weaponry.

I've hired Ranger that uses her bow or daggers correctly in most given situations. Her primary inclination is Utilitarian, and her secondary is Pioneer. She's been a great help.

The wiki says that using the help command causes your main pawn to go towards Guardian. My main pawn is still a Warrior, making that less of an issue. I wonder if it's possible to make inclinations stronger by giving your main pawn multiple of the same potions. When I created my pawn each inclination had a bar next to it that could increase or decrease depending how I set my pawn. That way it might take longer for pawns return to the Guardian inclination.

[Cornsnake]

How long does it take for the Ur-Dragon to return after it flies off? He was literally only about 30 seconds on the ground the last time I tried to fight him, before flying off.

I'm using the Warrior vocation now. I like it. It has some nice range with that enormous sword. I can hit a Cyclops in the face if I want to.

[Cornsnake]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...ipments-top-1m

Capcom has promised to release more Dragon's Dogma games.

The news comes as Capcom announced total global shipments of one million for Dragon's Dogma. That's shipments, not sales, but impressive for a new intellectual property nonetheless.

Buoyed by that success, Capcom said it plans to "develop this entirely new brand into a major franchise".

[Shifty Geezer]

Yet KoA sold a million and more, but got dropped. It's not easy being a games developer.

[Cornsnake]

So a 110 hours later I've beaten the game. The story isn't all that good, and the cutscenes are very poor. But I love how crazy it gets, and how well it's managed to work gameplay elements into it. I like how the game sometimes simply just suggests things, showing you something but leaving up to the player if they want to go through with. Most games would force you through it's story, and have you make choices through dialog trees. Instead Dragon's Dogma leaves it mostly within gameplay and feels a lot more natural because of it. The story also has a good sense of progression with significant changes happening in the world, and the NPC's responding accordingly.

Gameplay is excellent. I've played as 7 out of the 9 vocations, only leaving the Mage and Sorcerer. There is some good variety in gameplay styles between them, but I still like ones best suited to climbing the most. The boss fights are truly something else in this game. So many ways to fight them, so many things they can do that you have be careful of.

Capcom should be applauded for making a big budget game that's this uncompromising in doing it's own thing, instead of the usual following popular trends, dumbed down so everyone can play, made to have it appeal as wide as possible invariably leading to it becoming incredibly bland, way of AAA game design that currently seems to be infesting everything.

[Cornsnake]

My pawn mentioned there was another way to Gran Soren instead of going through the Way Castle. Wanting to change my vocation I figured I might go through the Ancient Quarry. Arriving at the gate of Gran Soren the guards tell me they won't open it and let me in because of the dragon. Apparently the dragon also has to use the same gate if it wants get to the city.

I may have just dodged a bullet. NG+ spoiler. At the real ending Asalam showed up as the love interest, even though I had given the Arisen's Bond to the Duchess. The game can be a bit weird in determining your love interest. And because the love interest stays in your house in Cassardis, that can really be a problem it's the wrong person. Asalam is the innkeeper of Gran Soren, if he's in my house I won't be able to use the item storage in Gran Soren, or sleep there, or change vocations there. Thankfully that hasn't happened. Maybe it's because NG+ put all the characters back where the start out. If this had happened during the encounter with the dragon it would have been bad.

[Sigfried1977]

I drew a little comic strip about Dragon's Dogma for our website. It's in German, but it should be rather self explanatory even with the language barrier.