I just recently finish playing Dragons Dogma - DD myself (main game, not bitterblack) and while I enjoye my time with it for the most part, the game is very up and down.

There are parts of the game I think are bad; the voice acting, the inventory stuff, the uninspired characters, world and story thread, the presentation as a whole, the quests/quest log to name but a few.

But there are also a few things that the game does that I think a lot of other games could take cues from. The party system - why don't more games have party's????!!! The combat - amongst the best I've played, the interaction with larger monsters brilliant. The pawn system - absolute genius. Having your pawn learn things by questin with other users is great, and I know a lot of people dislike the repetitive nature of what the pawns yell out, I actually really liked it, they often would provide me with relevant information regarding the quest/enemy I was dealing with. I would definatly love I see this whole pawn idea expanded on and even implemented into other games.

@gtcknight said:

Bitterblack Island will definitely give you a challenge. Even at Lv 100+ the enemies in the latter parts can kick your ass. You could also bump it up to hard so they can really kick your ass.

I really liked DD vanilla, but I absolutely loved the DA content. A brilliant expansion(complete game rerelease)that also makes the vanilla portion much less tedious. And if want a challenge in your arpg this is your content. Even at lvl 200 w/2 lvl 200 pawns, you will run for your life in the Fallen City right before Damien. Just crazy and exhilarating stuff. Reminded me so much of Dark Souls...and in a very good way. Can't recommend the second version with the DA expansion enough. GOTY? Honestly haven't played anything better this year.

Just got back into this this week. I keep thinking there's something I'm forgetting in the combat. When your pawns hold someone and call for you, is there a special attack you should employ? Or just wail away? I

@mithrilmojo: Just run up on them and wail on the enemy. Not too sure about the damage increase, but it's pretty significant.