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I've been following the development of Dragon's Dogma 2 for some time, and lately I've been pondering if I should buy it or not. Let me try to summarize below what I learned about the game so far and what does those details mean to me as a player.
I've tried Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen, and while I like the exploration and combat part, the writing was what put me off after a short while. Not the content or the story, but the actual writing. It looked like it was machine translated to English from another language. But, I'm assuming with a long development period and a lot more money put into it, this will be improved in DD2.
Now, just as a heads-up clarification - if you'll find some of the things written below as a criticism to the game, it's not. It's rather concern of a player that got used to handholding and quality of life features in modern open world games, who almost forgot how to play old school games. With that set, let me list what I know/read already.
And what are your thoughts about Dragon's Dogma 2? Anyone excited about it?
I've tried Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen, and while I like the exploration and combat part, the writing was what put me off after a short while. Not the content or the story, but the actual writing. It looked like it was machine translated to English from another language. But, I'm assuming with a long development period and a lot more money put into it, this will be improved in DD2.
Now, just as a heads-up clarification - if you'll find some of the things written below as a criticism to the game, it's not. It's rather concern of a player that got used to handholding and quality of life features in modern open world games, who almost forgot how to play old school games. With that set, let me list what I know/read already.
- Vocations (classes) - a pretty standard set up of 4 basic vocations (Fighter, Thief, Mage, Archer), where fighter is a one-handed weapon/shield tank, thief is a dual-wield dagger type of assassin, archer is your dps dealer and mage is kind of more of a support/healer (although with a chunk of offensive powers too), 2 advanced vocations (Warrior and Sorcerer) and 4 hybrid vocations (Magick Archer, Mystic Spearhand, Trickster and Warfarer). Warrior is a two-hand weapon version of a fighter, with supposedly the highest dps potential of all vocations and sorcerer is a more offensive oriented version of a mage. Both basic and advanced vocations can also be taken by pawns (later about pawns in the next bullet point). Magick Archer seems to be a mix of archer with a mage, with more support options than regular archer, Mystic Spearhand looks like a double-edge lightsaber wielding Jedi, that hits with insane speed and grace, Trickster being a kind of illusionist who tricks enemies into kill themselves or each other or distracts them and Wayfarer looks like a jack of all trades, a little bit of every basic vocation. Just glancing on the list, I kind of miss an advanced version of thief and archer. A proper assassin would be nice. But all in all, I can see myself playing almost every vocation out there, which is a good sign.
- Pawns - I played too little of DD1 to fully assess the whole Pawn system, but I try to gather my thought about it. What seems to be cool is that you can basically recruit pawns from a pool of those created by other players. I believe it's something unique to Dragon's Dogma, as I haven't seen such a feature in other games. What concerns me is that their behaviour is AI generated, which means they won't be like a regular companions know from other games and interactions with them would be on a more basic level (no deep bonding possible). It's kind of a bummer, because I find companion interaction a vital part of any computer rpg. They will comment a lot about events in the game, giving hints about quests, places etc., but it won't be as "deep" as for normally written characters. Plus, your main character is like a "master" for them, so this relation would be more of a master-subject, rather than a typical friendship. But, on the bright side, from what I've seen on Youtube so far, the party feels like an actual tabletop rpg group, teaming up tightly to survive in combats. It looks fun and dynamic, the cooperation between pawns and your main character seems vital to your success.
- Exploration - I'm having a strong Skyrim vibes, after watching the latest introduction, narrated by Ian McShane, and I mean it in a good way. Exploration was IMO the strongest part of Skyrim and I can sense it could be also a strong part of DD2, especially since it's apparently huge (around 4 times bigger than DD1).
- Time based quests - this is apparently a very common sight in DD2. I am not a fan of time base quest, especially if the game doesn't give you the slightest hint that the quest you have active is time based. I don't mind this time pressure, if it's logical and hinted in journal entries, dialogues or by pawn comments. What worries me specifically is that it's not only finish the quest, that's time based, but also simply accepting them. From what I understood, if you don't take some of the quests in time, they could be locked, because of NPCs death or other reason. I'm not sure if this means, accepting the quest *after* learning about them, or simply just not talking with a quest giver long enough. If it's the former, I can accept that, but if it's the latter, this isn't so good. The fact that a lot of quests are time based, means that you shouldn't take too many quests at once. This is a good thing, as it urges you to take a more methodical approach when it comes to questing. And it's more natural and immersive.
- No quest markers - I admit, I've gone softly lately and this scares me a bit. This means, the game requires the full attention and shouldn't be played casually, if you want to avoid failing quests, because you spent too much time going in circles, not knowing where to go and what to do next. You need to read everything carefully and listen to pawn comments, as they often give hints what you should do. It's a very old school approach, and I'm worried, I may have lost patience for old school approach. On the other hand, I hope DD2 reignites this spark of enjoying to not being held by hand for a change.
- Fast travel - it's scarce in DD2. From what I understand, there are just two ways of fast travel. First is using an ox cart, which can only take you from one major settlement to the other. The second is using a ferrystone, which is a pretty rare consumable teleport stone, that should be used wisely. This lack of free fast travel gives me a strong Morrowind vibes, where you travelled a lot on foot, using road signs and landmarks as a navigation points. Again, gives this old school feeling, this time less concerning than lack of quest markers.
- Only one save slot - and I really mean just one. You can save manually, but the game autosaves very often, overwriting your manual save. So, unfortunately, no save scumming guys. Every decision counts, so if I screw something, I screw something. Again, immersive approach, but scary as hell.
- The game is unforgiving - this could be either be a showstopper for me or something exhilarating. From what read, planning your treks is crucial here. If you venture unprepared on a long journey, you may end up finding yourself with a low health and stamina in a hostile environment, without the way to reach to a safe location. Even camping in the open is dangerous, as nights are pitch black and all kinds of undead waking up to haunt you. Again, sounds very immersive, reminding me of an actual tabletop adventures, where you have to be prepared, or your DM will come after you.
And what are your thoughts about Dragon's Dogma 2? Anyone excited about it?