@starvinggamer: Wow... I can't believe I've missed that after all the times I've gone down there :o

Nah, there are a bunch of new portcrystals. I'm not anywhere near the point of the Griffin quest yet and I've found three of them. As long as you explore a little bit you should be fine, I think they were all in critical path areas.

@rebgav: Huh, well... that's embarrassing. After looking up on the wiki there's apparently four, not counting the one you find at the top of that griffin tower, and two in particular are pretty deep in the game. I have to assume that Dark Arisen has added even more to be found in the world. I've mostly been playing the new Bitterblack Isles location, though, and haven't explored much of Dark Arisen's Gransys.

EDIT: Oh, waait. OK so those four I read are the ones that have been added to the game with Dark Arisen. It's just in the original there was only the one portcrystal to collect. I knew there couldn't have originally been one in Everfall, because I remember finding gold or something when I searched the glowy plate in the middle.

So, I've played a bunch of it now and killed the second boss on Bitterblack Isle. After reading the review on Gamespot I have to fully agree about the unfair balancing. They recommend level 50 for that area and I entered it at 88 (now 101) and I keep having the shit kicked out of me by the high volume of hard hitting enemies.

You can run to the boss, but you're missing out on all the chests/experience or you can stay and fight which in turn will summon another super monster in the area that will probably murder you. All of this in cramped, confined areas. on the big eyeball boss I got caught in an unfair loop where I'd get knocked down then tentacled then knocked down again for about three minutes before it killed me.

I have some of the best weapons and armour from the main game all dragon forged and I feel almost completely ineffective against most of the bigger enemies I encounter and in the case of that minotaur I got one-shotted by it twice. Even after getting a cool new bow from one of the moonbeam gem rooms and dragon forging it...then upgrading it to the second level of that with the mysterious man I still feel like barely any of my attacks do any damage... I'm often at the mercy of the AI doing heavy hitting magic attacks to stun enemies before I can do any damage.

@gunstarred: Yeah, it's been a pretty consistent complaint I've noticed thus far. Considering how widespread it is, I'm hoping Capcom will have a patch in order to sort out the balancing. I hanged around in Bitterblack Isles for a little while, but I skedaddled once I encountered a cocktrice that was seemingly invincible my attacks done so little damage. I'm also only level 55 atm... Plus I'm on Hard mode as well, so I wonder if Bitterblack Isle also scales up. Though for someone at your level and gear to still be having problems, regardless of the difficulty mode it's ludicrous how punishing it is.

They're clearly aiming for a very Dark Souls-ish sort of design with the new area, but I feel like they've completely misinterpreted what made Dark Souls to be considered such an unforgiving game. Making enemies nigh unkillable wasn't it... The problem with Dragon's Dogma's combat is It leans a bit too heavily in the RPG aspect of the game -- not entirely unlike the weird balance between the stats and the shooting in Alpha Protocol, though it's not nearly as drastic as that of course. Still, there are people who can beat Dark Souls at soul level 1 purely by mastering the gameplay, whereas in Dragon's Dogma no matter how good you are, if you're under levelled for an area then it can become downright impossible.

Should I be maxing out each vocation before switching? I started as a strider and I want to go the magic archer route to have my strider attack set but also magic. I don't care much for the bow. Since I'm 3/4 through the Strider uhh experience? Should I just wait to max it? I'm not sure how that stuff works.

So last night, I walked into a room that had 2 Gorecyclops, and a bunch of Sirens. As I started killing off the Sirens 3 of those Warg, giant Hellhound things spawned in...Really? Is that even a possible fight?

2 Gorecyclops, handful of Sirens, and 3 giant Hellhounds? Either they purposely want us to hate the game, or it needs a patch, very badly...

@yummylee: I don't think it scales, The huge black dogs that get summoned if you kill too many enemies in an area were almost impossible when I entered the isle, but I've killed two of them now so I must be a little bit more powerful. It's those elder trolls and the poison dragons that are the worst. They seem almost completely unkillable with what I have now.

@humanity: AFAIK the only thing that carries across vocations are Augments so, unless there's a higher level Augment under Strider that you want, there's no real reason to keep leveling as that. Also your stat growth is based on vocation.

@starvinggamer: How do Augments work?

@humanity: It's up to you. It's always handy in making sure you've got all the augments available from that particular vocation before moving on But If you're not enjoying the class, then there's no real danger in cutting it short and moving onto another, and you can always come back and max it out later.

It's an impressively flexible system, such as how any dagger skills you've already bought will then carry over into other such classes where you can use dagger. You'll still have to level up your vocation to unlock them again, but you at least won't have to buy them again.

EDIT: Blarg, I was still typing this to realise someone had already answered your question. But as for augments, they carry over across every class so you can mix and match them however you like. You can play as a mage character while still keeping all of the Warrior's increased defence augments for example... Should you of course play as a Warrior first :P

@humanity: They're just passive buffs that you slot in.

The summation of my thoughts: Infinite Ferrystone!

I mean I was pretty stocked up the last time I played it, but damn, does it take out the need to run everywhere (But after a 100 hours and literally having walked everywhere I am okay with it).. Haven't played the new area a bunch yet, got up to the giant cyclops, and he crushed me in one go, but I do like the idea of finding Augments, not yet finding a useful one for my character.. Also forgot how much I loved the original, and at least it doesn't have it's own set of Achievements, or I'd be hunting them down..

Also since it wasn't a full price game I'm alright with having to buy another copy (Especially here in Aus where the prices are crazy)

The wiki doesn't seem to have a comprehensive list, I just found another portcrystal in Witchwood during one of the sidequests. It's behind the door after you defeat the golem.

Ok I am now like 10 hours in and level 20 on normal and I died quite a few times. I have the feeling I am doing stuff I am not yet supposed to do. One mission in particular which are the escort missions which are quite dangerous. I did like 3 escort missions and every time I stumble accros some mighty foes (invisible guys) Dragons with like 5 points of health and that one was even an escort mission from the starting town. I am not really complaining but I have the feeling that I now will encounter a lot of missions which will be very easy later on because I did these more advanced missions already.Otherwise. Where do I get these travel stones? I got one from one escort mission but can I buy these too?

Otherwise I really enjoy this game

After playing a bit... yep. It's Dragon's Dogma alright. Can't complain one bit.

@darji: personally I would save escort missions until you are higher leveled and when you might have a stash of ferrystones to speed it up, some can take you quite a long way and at your level you don't want to be out much at night. The missions will disappear after some time, but most you can get to respawn. If you have a mage pawn with you your health shouldn't be that much of a problem.

you can buy ferrystones from Fournival or the Black Cat shop in Gran Soren . Also you can get free ones, that occasionally spawn in the Portecrystal in Gran Soren as well

thx^^

I am level 27 now and so far I did like 5 or 6 escort missions because they are quite challenging but managable and I level fast by killing 2 Oger or Zyclops for 5k exp each. But guess that I was fearing. It is getting way to easy at this point because I do not do much story missions but rather these sidequests. I think I will now try the new stuff since this seems to be challenging XD

Where the hell is the original theme? It always felt so goofy and out of place, but I really miss it now it's gone..

Yeah, I feel the same way. I thought it would have been hilarious if they leaned into the out-of-place j-rock thing and recorded a whole new track for Dark Arisen. I suppose they want Dragon's Dogma to be taken a little more seriously now more than ever for some reason.

Frankly I wouldn't be surprised if Capcom were so out of touch when trying to make their Western-inspired fantasy epic, that they actually thought it fitted in with the rest of the game. Then they learned that everyone actually loved it for how ridiculous it was, and not because it was some grand theme song people would associate with the game as some sort of ballad or something and removed it as such for Dark Arisen.

@yummylee: I love DD precisely because of the weird often goofy feel of the whole experience. The awkward J-Rock, constantly repeating dialogue (At this point hearing "They're masterworks all" just raises a smile) ability to just pick up literally anyone and throw them around. Since it seems clear they are making a sequel (I think it was that "Deep Down" trailer?) I can only hope it keeps the quirks that make it unique even if it can hurt the moment to moment gameplay at times.

Like not even 10%

After playing a bit more I can confirm that I continue to like Dragon's Dogma. I really miss the dumb opening theme song though. I haven't hit the new stuff yet, so the only things I can comment on are that the game really does a piss-poor job of presenting sidequests to the player. There are several things that I straight up missed on my first playthrough that I only found because I was being thorough and trying to get the "Do all of the real quests in the game" achievement... which I screwed myself out of in a different way because seriously, they should fix that.

Other than that though, it's still the bizarre game I know and love with its half-present story, excellent combat and constant inane pawn chatter.

I didn't play the original game, but so far I've been mostly enjoying Dark Arisen, just took down those lizard creatures in the sewer in the starting village, which was tough.

Combat is fun and the world looks fairly nice. The game feels like it's not quite there, but I'm very happy with it for the price and think the series could produce something amazing one day with some tweaks and perhaps a better story with better presentation (though I guess that's not the highest priority).

Glad to see the overwhelming positive response. I can't wait to pick this up. I S-Ranked the original - I have a question on that front. Is there a whole new set of achievements? Or does it just add the new DLC onto the existing set?

I don't think there are any new achievements.

Having the superhard monsters spawn straight on top of the one you killed was super annoying, I managed to take down the giant cyclops, but before I could reap my spoils, the dark dragons thing spawned right on top of it..

I think the third level skill item's are cool, but could get tedious with the partial randomness associated..

I had a few left to go in OG DD and I have 40 of 50 here, so unless there was less than 50, nope..

I put about two hours in yesterday (newcomer) and haven't fought a single thing yet (aside from the goblins and the chimera during the prologue) since I spent most of the time creating my dude, running around in the starting village, breaking shit, falling from rooftops and reading "you could get that if you had an empty flask".

I really like the feel of the combat (eventhough I didn't do much of it) and climbing the chimera was awesome. Graphically it's really inconsistent. Parts of the prologue looked pretty good but some of the textures reminded me of the latest Star Trek game.

Last thing I did was to complete the two quests in the church and since there is apparently nothing more to do at the moment I'm going to take Rook (or whatever that pawns name is) to some kind of camp next.

Now if only they were able to mix the combat system with a Dragon Age like story...

Ok just ended my first trip down this hell with level 30 and now I am 32 and got some nice helmet with health regen out of it. Normally I could have gone further but on a "boss" fight with some 4 health bar beast which went ok I killed some random goblin which then spawned a 6 healthbar Monster while I was fighting the other boss. This was kind of impossible with level 32 so I called it quit and I am going back when I hit level 40 or so^^

@humanity: That's pretty much how I started the game. Offensive mage, main pawn is a strider, early on I had another mage pawn as well. He healed and fire-buffed our weapons. I didn't have any issues but I did add a fighter pawn when I got to Gran Soren.

Dark Arisen is GREAT!

Dragon's Dogma hasn't really ever clicked with me, but I can understand the appeal. And many seem rather passionate about it. So, I'm glad fans seem to be enjoying Dark Arisen. I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but it sounds like it's more of what fans enjoy.

Brought my 180 Sorcerer in from the original Dragon's Dogma, in Hard Mode, haven't had too many problems so far. They definitely nerfed my boss killing Holy Boon though. Doesn't do alot of damage anymore, pretty much regulated to trash mobs now. Haven't gotten far in Bitterblack, went past Death (got a bar and a half before he left, tough customer) and got to this courtyard. Does it all take place in this dungeon? I was really hoping for more outdoor areas, but it's looks just like the Everfall...

Here are my tips for you newcomers:

1. Sword and Shield Bandits are massively overtuned. I'm surprised they haven't changed them, honestly. However, Grapnel from the Mage class will completely lock them down for you to wail on. Hire a pawn that knows it, or use it yourself.

2. You should not attempt escort quests when you come into Gran Soren for the first time. They are pretty much designed for you to be fairly high leveled to keep monsters off of your charge.

3. After you defeat the Hydra, GO SAVE QUINA. Seriously, there's like 5 different quests that spawn off of that one that are lost the moment you hit Gran Soren's gates.

4. All of the classes are endgame viable, even the starters. Choose the one you like to play. If you want to min /max your stats, then you should be looking at Assassin for physical, Sorcerer for magical. (Up to level 100, after that the scaling is much lower and you can play what you want.)

@runeseekermireille: From what I've seen its mostly taken place inside. You occasionally run along the top of a castle, but it still feels pretty small.

I'm glad everyone seems to like it. I've been wanting to play this game but I'm glad I waited for this to come out. Maybe I'll give it a try soon.

Yeah, I'm pretty much tripping over them at this point. I don't think I even want to use any of them its kind of almost overload. Personally I kind of loved trekking back and forth. It made every trip out feel like an adventure into itself.

This game have a lot of problem, but it is one of those with such highs(combat) that the lows were barely noticeable.

I have my main pawn as a Warrior coupled with a Mage and a Strider. Thinking that I should get rid of the strider and get another mage instead. Sometimes I really need elemental buffs on my weapons and the one mage I have doesn't seem to keep up with that.

My impresion on DA clean save(just imported a save from start of DD) to DA content

some GOOD improvments over DA

Gift removed: so not need to agree to accept rotten meat anymore YAY

Rate removed : this was kinda usefull, but still could get to see what personality treat they have so I am not stuck with a gurdian useless ....any vocation

more port crystals and infinity ferry stone : I have no complains on fast travel anymore, just sadly you must own pre-DD to get it....give it as reward in main story "minor spoiler" from the dutch when he give you his treasure chamber"

added the little "scale" version after a while in main mission: I noticed that bandits started to use better weapons but started to be scared when they did have a comet mage....and dragon gear (look on it) but still easy

overall it was great and cheaper ferry stone and more portal crystals killed the fast travel issue (there is 1 atleast at every major place like blue tower)

now on the DA part, I love it

it is hard and great kind of hard (except for few tweaks on chain stun monsters and giant hellhounds , did get4 giant hell hounds + the normal foes is hell ) but can be because I am a mystic knight it feels abit easier than most other people as I have a tool for everything and can dish out good damage fwith my cannon spam

but please to all players, veterans and new-players .....STOP MAKE YOU'RE PAWN WITH"GURDIAN" PERSONALITY
seriously....
it still shitty and buggy as always. no one like a pawn that stand beside you drooling in his own world (or even behind you, this is kinda disturbing to see a fighter lurk around the target behind the mage...) just DON'T make passive pawns as they litraly need to be grabbed and thrown on the enemy if you not a melee fighter. worst part is that they don't do anything and just stand around (even the "buff-bot" pawns just go downsyndrom if they are gurdian

but some advice for newbies I guess

-take strider or fighter to get most out of the game and work out from that, there is plenty of games where you can stand in background and look at cast bars and it not awesome before mystic knight or sorrceror (if you going mystic knight you only need to attunment for better enchants) if you want a hardcore offensive mystic knight (gattling cannon) than max out mage+ sorrcer first for 32% more magic damage attunments

-Wyrmking ring, forgery it (make a fake) and keep the real one. don't ask , if you want to know why you google the ring effect and thank me later

-get a mage/sorrceror or become a mystic knight and get Fire enchant and holy as main backup and you will get majority of the game much easier

- don't ignore elemental enchants, they are the best major boosting damage output out there

- shackle + random stone make skeleton keys (prison break)

-there is plenty of musrhoom and roots everywhere that give healing and stamina so you never really need to visit the general supplier once in this game for supplies

-have atleast 1 spell caster, physical (cutting) pawn in you're party (emberasing to not have cutting weapon and did faught a hydra that take normal few min to kill to nearly half hour)

- you Don't need to use every slot on you're main pawn for skills, there is no shame to only have 1 attack spell (high mealmstorm) and rest support spells, this way it will cast mealmstorms very often

-not sure what to pick?youtube the class and you will find out what they look and feel like later in the game

-capes just pick the one you like most, it give so little stats it close to vanity

-DLC weapon is weak except for the enemy it is designed for

bonus tipe :as mystic knight place a dark enchanted -great cannon x 3 right before grigori shots his massive fireball that split to get 5 FPS and sucidal dragon (this sight where worth the money alone)

no problem duder.

Yeah if Dragon's Dogma has a critical flaw , it's the difficulty. It alternates between way too easy and occasionally too hard almost at random, but on the whole you can easily powerlevel through this game if you do even half of the sidequests.

Great game anyway, big monster fights can't be beat.

I don't mind they turned it off, but that is weird, I started over because I got a friend of mine start playing DD:DA because it was much cheaper and all free content ect but both use DA games but we have zero option to gift each other so I assumed it was turned off (not like we got anything else than rocks and rotten meat)

one thing that still annoying after finished the DA content,today is that Ai is very poorly programed for the DA content , most of the boss fights they just stand around and get smashed and made me wonder " what about just drop the whole pawn system and just give you a sidekick? or just make it into a full fledged singel player mode? most fights I end up alone as a mystic knight and feels awesome (except for abit long because of the health amount )

@Slag
only difficult if you don't use right weapon/elements, like hydra is a nightmare if no ice mage or cutting even it is one of the easiest bosses so it can feel it take forever to kill it

It might be just me, but it feels like DA leans toward making my pawn Guardian. I have to constantly monitor it and do everything in my power to keep it OFF Guardian status. Anyone else get this feeling?

@switchb1ade: Have you been playing more defensively and cautious now? Pawns base their inclinations by watching you, unless you manually alter them with the potions and Knowledge Chair. If you're playing the new content, that might be what's happening. Buy some of the Neutralizing potions and the potions of the inclination you'd want, so you can always change it back if you want.

What a brilliant game. I'm ashamed to let this pass me by for an entire year.

Still very early on, but I'm thinking of creating a Mystic Knight. Was gonna roll a Strider, but then I ALWAYS play ranger in these types of games, and fancied a change.

Was cheap as chips, too.

Like most RPGs in the beginning you have to be very careful at the start. Three things to check.

1) Make sure you have as good of arms and armor as you can find or buy, the menu system is not the greatest for determining what is best, but spend some time making some comparisons and slogging through the menus is worth it.
2) Pull out the manual and figure out how to learn and upgrade your own skills and the skills of you main pawn. Make sure the pawns you choose have primary & secondary skills filled out, and abilities filled out as well. A pawn without primary, secondary and abilities won't fight well. A pawn without clothing or armor on head, body, legs and back is probably not well protected in a fight.
3) Run away. You know how the pawns keep saying "There is no shame in fleeing a fight." That's a huge HINT. Running away from some enemies just makes sense and is expected. Bandits will be the bane of your existence for the first 1/4 of the game because they occur in groups often groups of groups. Some enemies that you could take are just not worth fighting, run past them, get to your goal (saves time & health)
4) Gather everything, look everywhere walking around, and then shift what you pick up to pawns so that nobody is weighted down too much. Only sell 5% of what you gather, you NEED raw ingredients and materials for upgrading equipment and making potions...only sell items if you really need cash.
5) Remember a new pawn has only the gear on their backs, so give them potions, herbs...and a lantern & oil. Every time you change pawns make sure the new ones get some supplies. Nothing gets you killed faster then a bunch of weak pawns at your back. Give them supplies and you need never worry about them.

@runeseekermireille: I dont think I am any more defensive than I always have been. Maybe its because since DA has come out I use "Help" more often since I feel like the pawns dont help for sh**. I get devoured by a chest monster and they just hang out and watch me die. Or a Phantom latches onto my face and they just stand there in amazment. Or an enemy falls and instead of taking advantage of them being knocked down they are playing around elsewhere or hitting his feet rather than his head. So yeah, I have been using the GO and HELP emotes more often, in hopes of making my pawns less "special"...Guess its time for a new plan. -.-

So for those wondering here is the way the stat growth works....

Fighter

Strider

Mage

Warrior

Ranger

Sorcerer

Mystic Knight

Assassin

Magick Archer

So I'm personally trying a specific build this time through. I went to level 31 as a Strider and I'm going to continue on as an Assassin until level 100 where the stat progression drops off and then I might play other vocations to get some of the other Augments. I'm going to see how my pawn works out playing as a pure Fighter the entire time up until level 100.

I figure if I can get some Heaven Keys which are the most powerful weapon in the game unless there is something more crazy in BBI then stacking a DragonForged pair of those at 800+ base attack with my high STR stat I should be able to clobber anything and if its at night I'll double that and do absolutely insane damage. Thanks to the Assassin Augments. Honestly, it really doesn't matter too much what you pick but I would stay away from Magick Archer as its stat growths are just kind of bad all the way around.

@switchb1ade: Yep, that would be it then. Those commands are what the game sees as a direct reflection of your character. You always needing help means your pawn wants to protect you. :)

Just stop using that command and then buy potions to manually change the inclinations yourself, and the problem should go away.

Although not really that significant, I gotta say the cover for Dragons Dogma Dark Arisen is excellent. Has just enough of that classic fantasy without being too corny. Not a big deal but I do appreciate a good box cover.

Fighter

Strider

Mage

Warrior

Ranger

Sorcerer

Mystic Knight

Assassin

Magick Archer

Fixed

Credits: Dragon's dogma wikia