POSSIBLE SPOILERS….
Soooooo,
I picked up Dragon’s Dogma last Friday, and have been playing it over the weekend ( till this morning 06/19 since I am at work now..boooo!)
I have never been on such a mission to play a game since one of our very own 1up reviewers gave what I considered to be a HORRIBLE NEWBIE type review.
Why did I feel this way?
Because I was almost tempted to NOT buy this game and because of the interesting verbiage he used.
Trust me.. look up the Dragon’s Dogma review on 1up.com and you will be rightly confused.
So I bought it and popped it in, and was whisked into an interesting Tutorial world.
CURRENTLY - I am more than 30+ hrs into the game.. level 27 Mystic Archer and my PAWN is a 27 Ranger.
But let me digress…
The tutorial was pretty cool, it showed me that lighting is everything and that NPC’s sure like to talk a lot. Capcom has made it apparent that their NPC called PAWNS can hold conversations, share information about locations and quest, or just speak their minds at any given time.
The idea is sound and fun, but the execution is not the most solid.. You will come to find that there are certain areas, and spaces that TRIGGER your pawn to say something. If you go back and forth over these areas then your PAWN (PWN) will nicely repeat their scripted phrase over and over.
This is just an observance, as it does not take away from the game experience, but will cause you at times to tell your PWN in RL to “Shet the F@#k up!!”
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I started with the Character Creation and I will admit that this was a little fun.
I made a:
- black
- short,
- portly,
- purple eyed,
- white haired,
- elf eared guy
That was just what I wanted.. Though the voice selection could have been more expansive, I am very satisfied with the outcome. This creation menu rivals most major games out there, and I would say that it is on par with Skyrim /Oblivion. Though the big boys still win because you can choose a different race, but it will be interesting to see if Capcom with include this later on in either DLC, or a possible Sequel.
After you make your character you then need to choose class, or Vocation:
I chose Strider since I am still on the Bow and Arrow kick from Skyrim. Thus my adventure began.
To make sure, for the newer readers: I am not here to give intimate spoilers, but there may be some given. My objective is to CHRONICLE my daily activities and give you a personal stance on what I have encountered. I will simply tell you like it is, no one is lining my pockets with loot for nice words, so there may or may not be any hehehe.
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With my Chubby Strider on the prowl, I set off for the world..
The premise of DD is simple – there is a Dragon, and he basically took your heart (literally) and you are not dead for some reason. You know wish to get your heart back, and people now see you as this magical being called the Arisen.. see… EASY.
Getting the hang of the controls took a little bit of time. You can run or walk, and there is the standard RPG system that makes you have to talk to people to find out things.
Though Capcom has simplified this; The NPC’s who you need to speak with who have quest or needed information are easily identifiable (Little ‘?’ above their heads). However, you will have to search for them and that can be easy in some towns and a chore in major cities. Unlike Kingdoms of Amalur, they are not displayed on the map making it too easy for you.. You actually have to put in a little effort ( or be obnoxiously meticulous like I am at times hehe)
NOW the prelims are over, and I have learned:
- How to equip my character.
- I have chosen a vocation (Strider) and I am ready for some adventure.
I started getting familiar with the menus and saw that they did hold my hand for the very first quest (marked with a very big – come hither type circled area of the city.) In any grand fashion I completely went the other way and explored the city to my heart’s content. This was the smartest thing I could have done.
DD is an open world adventure meaning that you are not tied to following a linear path. DD does have a set goal in mind, but how you achieve it is all in how you choose to play the game. I will elaborate more on this a little later.
I found a few quest, and learned how to navigate the lay of the land (within the city). I learned that certain quest need a start and a finish, and others just need to be completed.. meaning that you don’t have to return to the quest giver/ quest board.. AWESOME!
I exhausted the quest in the city (I think, hehe) and proceeded to the ‘Come hither!’ spot.
This where you get introduced to PAWNS (PWN’s), yay..
PWN’s are essentially beings that exist in your world, but they are not completely human. Think of the androids from the Alien movie franchise and you will get a human like being who is expressly loyal, interchangeable, and practically without a soul (DD likes to say they don’t have a will or they are emotionless). They are specific to you (the Arisen) thus they put their lives in your capable hands.
I came to find that having a PWN was quite useful. Now experienced with the basic commands to tell him either to Help, come here, or go (as in go fight that big ass thing I don’t want to deal with, heheh) is nice. They will automatically search out places that hold possible loot, and will then start talking, and talking, and talking, and talking..etc…
By now I have realized a few game reviewer points: DAY 1
- Capcom lives to make boxes and crates that you need to destroy in order to find things.
- Looting is not looked upon negatively.. You can go anywhere and take what you want and no one will say anything. I guess this was not something they wanted to incorporate in the game, unlike Skyrim, where the Moral code comes into play.. I am a little torn that I can come up in someone’s house and take any and everything that is accessible to me.
- PWN’sthat talk, and keep talking… hearing the same thing over and over will get on your nerves. It doesn’t kill the game play and you will eventually learn to tune it out when needed, but it will come in hand as an early warning system.
- Time is immemorial – I love that phrase, but seriously… The day to night changes are cool. The NPC’s are governed by a day and night system ( I can’t say 24hr system because you never have to sleep if you don’t want, or need to). They conduct their businesses and their lives according to the time. If it is night time, then the shops and doors will be closed, and they will all be open in the morning. The essence of time is not too apparent except when you are NEEDED to do something at night, no one (as of yet) has told me that they need something done within 3 days time…So that is a big difference from the scheduled time frame of Skyrim and other like it.
I will update on Day 2 next
~jink
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