A few hours in, I realized the "story" wouldn't go anywhere soon. I do not want to go and collect 10 cat teeth, so I decide to do escort a guy across the land, hoping to see interesting people or places. 45 minutes, 2 dead ends, 0 loot drops and 50 dead volves later, I meet a giant troll. Wow so big, finally something interesting in this dull world. I find out fighting it requires little more than spamming my only useful spell, the fireball one. The troll doesn't do much, and can go for minutes wthout attacking. Wow, even the volves were more fun than this. 15 minutes later I've finally chipped away most of it's 3 health bars by standing in place and spamming 1 spell. At 10%, my pawns decide to disengage and the troll begins to run back - ugh, some kind of wierd bug? Looks like it is about to reset or something, so I run after it. Then it turns around, charges and kills me in 1 hit from 2/3 health. Really unfun experience right there, so I decide that I perhaps don't need to play more of it. I'm no stranger to bad or dull games but this one takes the cake. Better luck next time, Capcom. If you are going to hire 400 people to work on a game, you might as well hire a director who has some kind of vision.

It sounds like you got...

...Trolled.

YEEEEEEAAAHH!

I liked it.

Something about climbing on big enemies, I think.

No need to thank me, Child of Earth.

* Levitates into beam of light with chorus voices *

I decided against playing it as soon as I heard there was no fast travel because I knew that shit would happen constantly.

@MariachiMacabre said:

I decided against playing it as soon as I heard there was no fast travel because I knew that shit would happen constantly.

There is a fast travel.

And it sounds like you picked the wrong class. Maybe try Fighter or Strider?

I haven't played the game myself yet, but from what I've seen/heard it seems like one of those games you need to go into with the right state of mind. If you want an epic directed adventure it's just gonna disappoint, however if you just want a big fantasy world to roam around in and explore it's just perfect.

@StarvingGamer said:

It sounds like you got...

...Trolled.

I guess you could say that. Ha ! Ha !

Stabbing big dudes is quite fun in this game.

i liked it.

its shadow of the colossus meets dragon age origin. yes some parts are a bit dull like the lack of a decent fast travel but still

@Klei said:

No need to thank me, Child of Earth.

* Levitates into beam of light with chorus voices *

Well this thread can't possibly get any better now

Man that sucks that you wasted your time. Oh well, at least I enjoyed it.

that's too bad, the game is better than it's first few hours.

Uh, well Dragon's Dogma only gives back to you what you put in. I've put in over 200 hours in it and feel completely justified. Once you feel out the quirks that the game has it is a massively fun game.

The game gets better and requires some tactical sense as you progress. You clearly weren't strong enough to fight the troll and spamming didn't keep him from crushing you.

@Ares42 said:

If you want an epic directed adventure it's just gonna disappoint, however if you just want a big fantasy world to roam around in and explore it's just perfect.

Mostly This. The game is old school in the sense you actually have to discover things for yourself. The story is better than people give it credit for, but you have to stick with it till end for the pay off.

I loved the crap out of this game.

You aren't alone. I borrowed it from my friend, got about 10 hours in and just quit. The lack of fast travel, the letterboxing on a wide-screen aspect ratio, the story completely devoid of any noticeable direction or plot... I get the appeal in the combat, but nah, man. Not for me.

its an rpg. If you have to chip away for 15 minutes and then it one shots you, maybe you should run away and level up? Thats kinda how rpgs work

Having not played it yet (hopefully soon), it sounds like a Japanese version of Morrowind with better combat, which I'm all for.

I really like it so far (I'm actually nearing in getting the trophies). But having said that it does have a tonne of problems with it. Nothing particularly offensive but it could've been so much better. It's got heart but it lacks in other areas. It's probably the reason why I'm still playing it. I want to like a lot more but it's just not letting me. The announcement of a sequel has me excited though.

But if there's one word to describe this game, it's "Expensive".

For me it was the performance, had shocking frame rate issues to the point I kept thinking I had hardware issues. Like what it tried to do, but it as some very serious issues.

Still, amazed it went on to sell as well as it did. Hopefully they'll learn from this and make the sequel better.

I played over 50 hours of it and enjoyed it. Yeah, the story is paper thin and there are some enemies you can just cheese, but I was able to look past it. Not for everybody, of course.

I'm not really a loot kind of guy, but I feel like this game would have benefited from way more random loot drops.

Fantastic combat though.

@BraveToaster said:

The game gets better and requires some tactical sense as you progress. You clearly weren't strong enough to fight the trollBraveToaster and spamming didn't keep him from crushing you.

Ha ! Ha !

@phrali said:

its an rpg. If you have to chip away for 15 minutes and then it one shots you, maybe you should run away and level up? Thats kinda how rpgs work

Yeah maybe you're right, man. Perhaps I should have collected more cat teeth but that seemed really boring.

@Slag said:

Mostly This. The game is old school in the sense you actually have to discover things for yourself.

Wow, love that shit, like in Dark Souls, where you know something terrifying or a valuable treasure could be hidden anywhere. The only thing I found here was a cave with lizardmen and a chest with 5000 gold ugh. With neither random (Diablo) nor special (Dark Souls) loot, there is little joy of discovery. Also, I feel as if I've seen most of the big monsters already. Do the fights change at all at later levels?

@aurahack said:

The lack of fast travel

Yeah, that can be a bitch. What if I had made the trip? Should I have stayed in the new town and collected rat teeth or gone all the way back, fighting the same enemies?

Also, the lack of costumization sucks a giant dick I think, unless I haven't seen it yet. No points to assign on stats or in skill trees.

@Grissefar said:

@BraveToaster said:

The game gets better and requires some tactical sense as you progress. You clearly weren't strong enough to fight the trollBraveToaster and spamming didn't keep him from crushing you.

Ha ! Ha !

Huh?

@StarvingGamer said:

It sounds like you got...

...Trolled.

Oh god.

@Grissefar: To be fair, if you stick with it, there will be more interesting things to fight.

But yeah, the story in this game is non-existant until the last 90 minutes. Other than the thrill of combat, which is quite good throughout the game, there's literally nothing urging you to continue through the rest of the game. It's the game's biggest fault.

Also, skip all the board quests and go straight to the story quests. You will gain more experience just getting from place to place rather than through the rewards of those inane things.

To me, those escort quests are the worst part of Dragon's Dogma, by far. I don't remember the cat teeth quest you are talking about, but that kinda sounds like a quest that you don't exactly go out to do. Instead, you should just end up getting them while doing other quests.

Of course, I can't guarantee you will like the game more if you switch classes, or put some more time in it, but I enjoyed my time with it.

@Mesoian said:

Also, skip all the board quests and go straight to the story quests. You will gain more experience just getting from place to place rather than through the rewards of those inane things.

I wouldn't say skip them all. Most of the gather ones, or kill so many enemies or whatever are completed without even trying. Some of them aren't really worth doing, but no real reason not to take the ones that you would complete through normal play anyway.

Love Dragons Dogma and it shall love you back.

@Grissefar:

Wow, love that shit, like in Dark Souls, where you know something terrifying or a valuable treasure could be hidden anywhere. The only thing I found here was a cave with lizardmen and a chest with 5000 gold ugh. With neither random (Diablo) nor special (Dark Souls) loot, there is little joy of discovery. Also, I feel as if I've seen most of the big monsters already. Do the fights change at all at later levels?

By unexplained, I meant some of the game's core mechanics moreso than the loot.

The loot is pretty rare, but some of the later Quests have some pretty good stuff. Most of the good stuff you can buy and use materials you find to upgrade them. And once you get to post game it becomes a loot fest.

I don't believe you could have possibly seen most of the big monsters yet unless you are speedrunning. What you are calling a Troll I believe is more likely the cyclops. Trolls I didn't find for some time. The big monster fights definitely are really fun. Especially if you use a Strider based class.

As progress through major story checkpoints the random encounters and such, the enemy mix does get tougher, noticeably so at endgame. Many will be palette swaps with new abilities and greater stats. I do wish there had been greater variety. That is a shortcoming of the game. And once you are as high level as my character is now it gets really easy. But I doubt you'd put in as many hours I have based off what you've said so far.

You can actually burn though Dragon's Dogma pretty quickly if you skip the notice board quests, you will probably be underleveled for endgame/postgame but you ccan make that up. That will let you experience the parts it sounds like you like while not worry about the fetch quests as much. Although the world is pretty big it isn't so big that the handicapped fast travel isn't a big deal.

RE: customization-stat growth is based on class. So make sure you pick a class that benefits stats you like.