Finally! Dragon's Dogma 2

[Stg-Flame]

Trailer on YouTube and more information for those who speak Japanese:

Dragon's Dogma 2 on Steam

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a single player, narrative driven action-RPG that challenges the players to choose their own experience – from the appearance of their Arisen, their vocation, their party, how to approach different situations and more - in a truly immersive fantasy world.

store.steampowered.com

I've likely sunk over a thousand hours into Dragon's Dogma/Dark Arisen on the PS3 and around 350 more on the Steam version and after it was announced years ago that the official DD2 was going to be an MMO/Japan-only release, the fans were let down. However, it looks like Capcom is coming back to the roots and making an actual sequel to the game. No release date yet and the details are scarce at the moment, but this is likely to be the game where I might break my "no pre-order" rule.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Picked up DD in the winter sale and plan to sit down with it when I have some open time. Capcom has been doing good work listening to fan feedback and keeping the pulse of their core gaming demographic, I figure DD2 will likely be a solid entry into the franchise (having never even played the first one).

 

[WhiteNoise]

DD is a solid game. They really improved it a lot over the years. DD2 is on my radar for sure. Thanks!

 

[rstrohkirch]

The original is on sale right now for $5 on Steam

 

[Stg-Flame]

Picked up DD in the winter sale and plan to sit down with it when I have some open time.

There's a lot of nuance to the game and I highly suggest you grab the expansion Dark Arisen as well since it adds a ton of end-game content. It's a little slower than other action RPGs but the game is incredible.

 

[rstrohkirch]

There's a lot of nuance to the game and I highly suggest you grab the expansion Dark Arisen as well since it adds a ton of end-game content. It's a little slower than other action RPGs but the game is incredible.

You can't actually buy the original version on Steam anymore, only the game + Dark Arisen. So it's probably the version he already has.

 

[Stg-Flame]

You can't actually buy the original version on Steam anymore, only the game + Dark Arisen. So it's probably the version he already has.

Even better. I've actually been wanting to load up my game and see how my pawn has been doing since I last played. She had pretty much perfect stats and the best primary, secondary, and tertiary alignments and would get hired all the time but it's been quite a few years since I last played.

The last time I was playing, I was talking to a few people who were trying to make a randomizer mod for the game, but they stopped working on it after a few months. Which was a real shame because that was going to be the mod that kept me playing the game - being able to run into a Gore Cyclops out in the wild or finding any kind of gear in chests would provide a really fun challenge. Guess the game never garnered enough attention to attract a good modding community.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

You can't actually buy the original version on Steam anymore, only the game + Dark Arisen. So it's probably the version he already has.

-Yep, have the edition where it's all packed in. Good stuff.

 

[Stg-Flame]

-Yep, have the edition where it's all packed in. Good stuff.

Hit me up when you get around to firing it up. I can take your pawn on a nice field trip for some quick bonuses or vice versa.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Hit me up when you get around to firing it up. I can take your pawn on a nice field trip for some quick bonuses or vice versa.

Blood And Wine before anything else though, so it'll be a while

 

[Stg-Flame]

Edit: Base game is less than $5 on steam right now. If the game looks even remotely fun to you (it is incredibly fun for an action RPG) then I highly suggest anyone pick it up.

New look at some gameplay footage from Capcom. Looks like there's new weapons, vocations, and a lot more added to the game that we've asked for many years ago with the first one but whether or not this is just pre-1.0 footage fluff remains to be seen. Either way, it looks good so far.

For some reason Youtube isn't linking at the correct time for me, so if it's wonky, DD2 starts at 20:29.

 

[Stg-Flame]

RELEASE DATE SET FOR March 22, 2024.

NEW TRAILER

Edit: For those of you who enjoy couch games, the developers have stated this is going to be very similar to the first game in that they built it with a controller in mind, but keyboard/mouse will have the same functionality as the first game when it was ported to Steam (ie. better aiming and hotkeys). I'll likely play this one with a controller just because of how easy the first game played with a controller, but I did enjoy being able to manually aim my Magic Archer with a mouse and having extra hotkeys.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

FYI everyone the character creation tool is available on Steam. You'll be able to port your character into the game when it launches.

 

[Stg-Flame]

For anyone who likes trailers or gameplay reveal videos, this is for you. I won't be watching it but I know I'm in the vast minority with how I treat media. So far it has received widespread praise so I'm guessing it's good.

 

[Artorias]

For anyone who likes trailers or gameplay reveal videos, this is for you. I won't be watching it but I know I'm in the vast minority with how I treat media. So far it has received widespread praise so I'm guessing it's good.

Ian McShane is a fu*****g treasure.

 

[Stg-Flame]

Ian McShane is a fu*****g treasure.

Yeah, the fact he was presenting/narrating the video, it couldn't really go wrong. Even if the video was shit, I feel like he'd at least make it worth the watch. With new Rimworld DLC, DD2, and Stalker 2 coming out this year, it's going to be very difficult for me to not break my "no day one purchase" rule, especially considering how good the first Dragon's Dogma and Stalker games were.

 

[rstrohkirch]

I want to buy it now, but I'm going to wait a month or two for patches.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Just started the first one, have a half dozen hours in it and its tons of fun even in the starting area. Really enjoying the sort of party composition meta that has to happen. Pawns are fun companions, sort of skirting that line between braindead AI and legitimately helpful.

Its been a while since I've played anything made by a Japanese dev either, strong nostalgia vibes with the faux euro setting + general story/character jank etc.

I definitely won't even start entertaining the thought of picking up the second until we get our GOTY edition and the thing is patched to the gills for $10 or less, but even if they essentially give us the same game but actually finished with some QOL stuff then I'll consider it a win.

 

[sze5003]

Another game I'm gonna get on Friday and have no idea how to play it lol. I'm horrible in these types of games but the mystic spear hand type character looks like what I would want to try.

 

[Stg-Flame]

Just started the first one, have a half dozen hours in it and its tons of fun even in the starting area. Really enjoying the sort of party composition meta that has to happen.

The pawn system was really unique and I hope they kept it in the sequel. The only issue I had with it was the hidden tertiary trait that could be the difference between a mage that would buff and heal your party constantly and a mage that would continually start climbing every goddamn cyclops and gryphon your party came across.

I definitely won't even start entertaining the thought of picking up the second until we get our GOTY edition and the thing is patched to the gills for $10 or less, but even if they essentially give us the same game but actually finished with some QOL stuff then I'll consider it a win.

If it's the same team, they took a ton of feedback from their community when they were creating the Bitterblack Isles expansion and even left in some cheesy exploits because the community agreed that after you beat the game a few times, leveling a new character to 200 was a bit of a slog. This is one game where it'll be incredibly difficult for me to stay away from just because of how many thousands of hours I sunk into the first game.

 

[Stg-Flame]

Alright, normally I steer far away from reviews and discussion pages on launch day, but this has been popping up all over Reddit in the past few hours to the point I can't block enough subs to stop seeing this. It seems like the major complains are performance issues (expected on launch) and the barrage of microtransactions that suddenly popped up today for the launch. Now, I'm not going to scream and whine because a game added microtransactions when they are merely a convenience and it's definitely too early to tell whether or not the accusations that certain enemy spawn rates are encouraging MTXs because in the first game, some enemies were just rare. I wouldn't expect people to have a good grasp on metrics in under 24 hours for spawn rates for rare monsters.

For now, this just seems like yet another good reason to never buy games on launch but it could very well be the "instant gratification crowd" getting pissy over the smallest things. The first game wasn't overly difficult, but it definitely didn't hold your hand and you could easily get your ass handed to you if you weren't prepared and considering most of the MTXs on the Steam page are purely convenience items, I think most of these complaints are unjustified from an outside perspective.

Oh, and I'm still buying this game the moment it goes on sale next year. I don't care about the negative reviews in the slightest because I've waited too long for this sequel for some negative reviews to stand in my way.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Alright, normally I steer far away from reviews and discussion pages on launch day, but this has been popping up all over Reddit in the past few hours to the point I can't block enough subs to stop seeing this. It seems like the major complains are performance issues (expected on launch) and the barrage of microtransactions that suddenly popped up today for the launch. Now, I'm not going to scream and whine because a game added microtransactions when they are merely a convenience and it's definitely too early to tell whether or not the accusations that certain enemy spawn rates are encouraging MTXs because in the first game, some enemies were just rare. I wouldn't expect people to have a good grasp on metrics in under 24 hours for spawn rates for rare monsters.

For now, this just seems like yet another good reason to never buy games on launch but it could very well be the "instant gratification crowd" getting pissy over the smallest things. The first game wasn't overly difficult, but it definitely didn't hold your hand and you could easily get your ass handed to you if you weren't prepared and considering most of the MTXs on the Steam page are purely convenience items, I think most of these complaints are unjustified from an outside perspective.

Oh, and I'm still buying this game the moment it goes on sale next year. I don't care about the negative reviews in the slightest because I've waited too long for this sequel for some negative reviews to stand in my way.

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-Yep, every game needs essentially another year in the proverbial oven after it has been released nowadays.

A year of patches, price drops, and a "complete edition" have become the minimum entry point for me in just about anything I'll play.

Another issue with cult games like DD is that after 12 years if waiting a lot of the early adopters and whales can get hyper fixated on their wishlist that was never going to make it into the game rather than judging the game on its own merrits.

Also, a really... Uh... Distressing amount of negative commentary has been put out there about being unable to make "short / childlike" characters in the CC anymore...

 

[sze5003]

Never understoood micro transactions in any game. I don't know why they don't bother me but I would never pay for any item in game whether it's cosmetic or not. So I'll never understand why it bothers others..just don't buy them I guess? It is a crappy mechanic for a single player game but again, as long as it doesn't prevent you from playing the game I don't see the big deal with them.

I just saw a thread where people were complaining that they are selling a fast travel marker. I haven't played the first game but I read that this was also the case there too. From what I read these markers can be obtained in game also they are just rare.

 

[Stg-Flame]

Distressing amount of negative commentary has been put out there about being unable to make "short / childlike" characters in the CC anymore...

Going through the Rift in the first game and seeing other people's pawns they made that you could hire was either the largest giant imaginable or children. Any in-betweens were a rare sight.

I haven't played the first game but I read that this was also the case there too. From what I read these markers can be obtained in game also they are just rare.

They were limited and very rare but once you obtained them, they were infinite use. You also had to walk to where you wanted to place your markers so there was a fair bit of traveling around by foot - something I never minded because traversing the countryside for long distances meant you would be outside at night and that was when the really bad monsters came out. It was part of the game, but I don't see most of these complaints as legitimate reasons to give a bad review.

 

[rstrohkirch]

I glanced at some of the reviews and I think people are just bandwagoning the MTX. There is a lack of knowledge and obvious regurgitation of this info, like the Portcrystals. The poor performance is an issue for me though. So I'll be waiting until they either get it fixed, or it's the best it's going to be.