It depends on which ending you got. There’s one where the player becomes the next dragon, so they could certainly start from there. Or there could be something else going on, the lore is pretty batshit.
To me the essence of Dragon Dogma is:
- A “gothic” like map, with caves, setllements, bandits camps, secrets, no-go places.
- Squad gameplay; you don’t play alone, you play with a entire group of npcs.
- BIG stakes evil story where you are after a evil super powerfull creature, so you must grown in power to overtake it.
- This weird japanese companion system where your companions are somewhat… souls? clones? magical entities?, they are not entirelly people and don’t really have a agenda by themselves, they just help people.
pawns?
I enjoyed the crap out of the first one on two platforms, so I really hope the belated sequel is as good if not better
I liked the pawn system. I even benifited when my mage was used by other people. Great concept. Easily better than Elden Rings system.
I appreciate any RPG that lets me build my own support characters and bring them along, and DD is just about the best implementation of that idea I’ve ever seen.
I’d add:
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The “oomph” behind the spells and abilities; casting spells felt REALLY like you’re about to open a can of whoopass on the higher level stuff. If your pawns knew the spell and could cast it, you could get some chain casting going, for even more powerful effects. Impractical, yeah. But awesome nonetheless.
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Climbable / grabbable monsters. This feels SO DAMN GOOD. Goblin getting on your nerves? Your character is big and strong? GRAB THAT §“$”§$! and toss him over a cliff. Or toss him into his buddies. Or just carry him around a bit for shit and giggles.
And the big ones? Climb that cyclops! STAB HIM IN THE EYE!!! Monster Hunter and the Souls combat never really felt good after that revelation.
Sailing to the ground on a burning griffin that my pawns shot out of the sky (while I was hanging on to that mofo downing stamina potions like my life depended on…well, it did!) will forever be my favorite non-scripted combat event. -
The ability to actually outlevel stuff I had trouble beating at first. Yeah, being overleveled made things a bit too easy if you didn’t take care. But you know what? Sometimes plowing through a horde of goblins with their pet cyclops like a hot chainsaw through butter is fun.
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Some actually unpredictable plot twists. This one is subjective, but the narrative had a few nice “nope, not following the tropes today” moments going for it. Sure, second time around you’re aware, but by design or by happy accident, I was surprised. More than once.
And yes, the wierd-ass metaphysics of the game world were totally my jam. Inject that wierd shit right here into my veins. -
The batshit insane romance system. Mostly for the hilarious results.
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The pawns grew on me. They also do some rather heartwrenching takes if you die and leave them alone. Yes. They’re idiots. Yes, their dialogue tends to repeat and they talk a lot. No, they’re MY beloved idiots, and we’re off to kill the Wizard. Together.
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It’s basically an unlicensed Berserk game - Build your own character style. IIRC there also was some actual licensed gear from Berserk, but by the time I got the game the license had run out, so I never saw it.
The original was such a rabbit hole to go down, but once you did it was amazing. One of those games that got better every time you played it. Looking forward to this.
Right? A whole game of stabbing monsters in the ankles is pretty hard to take seriously after climbing up a hydra and cutting its (*^&# head off. Most fun monster killing ever.
I last played DD six or seven years ago. I just loaded it up and I have a level 35 assassin but I remember very little about how to play or where I am in the game. I thought I’d just create a new character and start over at level 1 to learn things again and then go back to my original character later. But apparently, you can only have one character at a time and one save so I guess I’ll just wait for the sequel instead.
There is a nexus mod for that. You can also just make copies of your save folder and re-label it for backup when you want to start a new character.
You could also just switch your class to something you haven’t leveled much yet and run through early areas to get your feet wet, land softly, etc.
I feel like I need to give this game another chance. I never got far into it.
Me too. It’s receiving serious next game consideration after I just finished Prey and Mooncrash six years after it came out.
You can also pick people up and carry them or throw them. That’s so much more fun than the average escort quest.
Truth!
It all just adds up to a game that’s more than the sum of its parts, and don’t even get me started on Bitterblack Isle.
Maybe it’s time for a replay, it has been quite awhile…
That or a version of it works for a lot of games.
Well I’ve gotten as far as 61.2% of other players, and then the game takes the fun away by gating its content behind a gate inside the cave!
Also the visuals in this game have not aged well, anyone suggest any mods?
It’s not you (Dragon’s Dogma Dark Arisen) its me.
Maybe I’ll just go back to playing Witcher 3 for my monster slaying needs. :(
It’s been a long time bit different parts of that cave are gated for different quests, as I recall. What brought you there?
Happened upon it while looking for 10 wolves to kill. :)
Ah. Well, you can’t get in yet because it’s a quest location (actually, a location for several quests). Once it’s open it’s open, though.
As for graphics the standard back when I played was Resonant ENB: Resonant ENB at Dragons Dogma Dark Arisen Nexus - Mods and community
There are some other graphics mods on Nexus as well but I’ve not tried them so can’t speak to them.