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    Dragon's Dogma

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    A fantasy action-RPG franchise developed by Capcom.

    Replay Dragon's Dogma Right After Dark Souls 2?

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    Seppli

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    #1  Edited By Seppli

    I'm done with Dark Souls 2, 4 playthroughs on 4 characters and one completed NG+ are enough. Despite how much I love Dark Souls 2, I think I love it less than Dragon Dogma: Dark Arisen. It's been a year since I played that game, so I'm a little foggy on it, but I'll try to put it in words anyways.

    If I replay Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen right after playing Dark Souls 2, I'd find that...

    • A. Core gameplay mechanics such as combat and camera and movement are so much better in Dragon's Dogma. Pinpoint precise, snappy, accounting for towering enemies with the mounting mechanic - nigh perfection, regardless of what playstyle I'd chose - and just as tightly balanced and demanding as in the Dark Souls games. Point: Dragon's Dogma 1:0
    • B. Character Progression is much closer, but I'd still likely vote in favor of Dark Souls 2, mostly because it let's me distribute every attribute point at will, rather than linking the attribute gain to what class I'm playing. That said, I feel like the playstyle options are much more diverse and rich in Dragon's Dogma, with more and more interesting and more significantly differentiated skills and playstyles, whilst Dark Souls 2 pretty much only has 2 major playstyles, melee and ranged (including magic) - Dragon's Dogma is broader and just as deep, probably even a little deeper. It's just, it's so god damn rewarding to have full control over allocating attribute points myself. Point: Dark Souls 2 1:1
    • C. Loot and loot progression. It's a close one here too, the systems for finding and upgrading weapons and armor are practically the same, if I recall correctly, albeit weapons are so much important to the Souls franchise. Playstyle diversity comes from its weapons and their movesets and particular timing, and there are countless weapons, whilst movesets depend mostly on class, rather than weapon in Dragon's Dogma, though timing is different depending on weapon, I believe. Point Dark Souls 2, I guess. Point: Dark Souls 2 1:2
    • D. Online clearly goes to Dark Souls 2. Dragon's Dogma has the pawn system, which is its achilles heel. The pawns are obnoxious with their chatter, the system is cryptic, finding good pawns is somewhat of a gamble, and kind of a chore. Then again browsing for pawns can be fun too. Yet it doesn't hold a candle to the all interesting and downright innovative things Dark Souls 2 does with Coop and PvP. Good god man, the game summons a player into a bossfight to fight alongside the boss against me. Point: Dark Souls 2 1:3
    • E. Exploration and Challenge and Sense of Danger - Dark Souls does an outstanding job with these things, it's better than pretty much all survival horror games, but I feel Dragon's Dogma did just as great a job at it, if not a better one. It has a proper and beautiful open world, it has lots of smaller dungeons, it has one gigantic multi-tiered dungeon with a proper NG+ that's almost as big as a whole Souls game with Bitterblack Isle. Bitterblack offers the full Souls experience with all of the mechanical benefits of being Dragon's Dogma. It plays so darn well. Point: Draw 2:4
    • F. Story and Lore. Really, who cares about these things in these games. They're both more interested in setting a tone and creating atmosphere, rather than conveying a coherent plot. That said, Dark Souls 2 and Dragon's Dogma pretty much have the same plot (replacing the current king/god), it's just Dragon's Dogma conveys it so much better, and its ending is mindbendingly amazing, whilst Dark Souls 2 just ends. Point: Dragon's Dogma 3:4

    Whilst Dark Souls 2 takes the point tally here, for me, core gameplay is the most important, and that's the area Dragon's Dogma truely shines. Clipping a Dragon's or Giant's toenails for the win? No sir. I'll climb his back and stick a knife in his throat instead, thank you very much. Oh, he's wearing armor? I'll just cut the leather straps first, so the armor will fall off. Ecetera. The win in core gameplay is worth 3 points, in my esteem, so I declare Dragon's Dogma the winner. Final Tally: 5:4 in favor of Dragon's Dogma!

    What say you? Whatever I said just now, I love both games dearly, and I want more of 'em. So while I'm confident I'll be getting lots more Souls games over the next decade, Capcom is keeping me second-guessing their commitment to the Dragon's Dogma franchise. While Deep Down looks mechanically amazing and somewhat related to Dragon's Dogma, it being free-to-play and randomly generated doesn't make me supremely confident in it. This is me clamoring for more Dragon's Dogma! Where is the Dragon's Dogma 2 announcement Capcom?

    Final Question. Should I actually do another Dragon's Dogma playthrough? I already did like 3 of those, one of which was a NG+ hardmode all the way to lvl 200. That said, it's been a year. And why the fuck not. As long as Battlefield 4 is still rubberbanding, there isn't anything better to play.

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    gerrid

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    You've already convinced yourself but remember this important bit of advice:

    1. Always be playing Dragon's Dogma
    2. There is no #2

    Hope this helps.

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    TruthTellah

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    #3  Edited By TruthTellah

    @seppli: It sounds like you've already decided what the result will be; so...

    Yeah, sure, play some more Dragon's Dogma. It's a cool game. Have fun with it.

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    TobbRobb

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    #4  Edited By TobbRobb

    I'm inclined to agree with a lot of this, if the difficulty design in Dragon's Dogma wasn't so busted. It relies too heavily on long crowd conttrol, huge knockbacks and other anti-fun difficulty components. And the curve just goes up and down like a rollercoaster, it's never consistent. While Dark Souls doesn't have any of those problems.

    And the relationship system is just stupid. Though I think unintentionally stealing the Duke's wife to run away in lesbian love was one of the best parts in the game. XD

    That said, Dogma has the potential of just straight up being my favorite game of all time if they only fixed some really core issues. As it is, it's less of a full and coherent experience than it's counterparts. :(

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    Gaff

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    Can we rename this thread to "Why Dragon's Dogma is better than Dark Souls 2"?

    Also, 3 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 6.

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    Karkarov

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    #6  Edited By Karkarov

    @gaff said:

    Can we rename this thread to "Why Dragon's Dogma is better than Dark Souls 2"?

    Also, 3 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 6.

    No it was 1+1+2+1 not 1+2+1+1 so as you can clearly see there are no bullets left in this gun.

    As for OP, damn straight. I am a Dragon's Dogma crackwhore. I own it on both systems, have multi characters, and will be playing again myself coming up when my dumb buddy I have been trying to convince to buy it for 2 years finally gets his copy in the mail. So the only question is what system you are playing it on?

    I will say though Dogma wins on Loot progression .... because 1: there is a ton more loot in dogma. 2: While technically speaking much of it is tied to the level of your character and your skills... I wouldn't try beating Dark Arisen with a broadsword you got off that first weapon vendor. Souls you can beat the whole game (quite viably) with a piece of crap club you get off some old lady and just upgrade and many people beat it without even bothering to put on armor. So I would say in Souls it is all about your stats, and Dogma while it isn't all about your gear it plays a much larger role. The effects of gear in Dogma are more complex too. For example elemental effects are more extreme when they do bonus damage (or the enemy is resistant), there are more elements to begin with, your gear can give you wildly varying status/elemental resistances, blah blah.

    Dragon's Dogma is just a criminally underrated game. I am no sure about Bitter Black being as big as a whole souls game though :P, maybe if you throw out all the parts you can skip.

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    shirogane

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    @karkarov:

    Bitterblack being as big as a whole souls game? That's crazy. At best i'd say it's maybe double or triple the Artorias DLC, depending on whether you're counting size of the are or how long it takes to play through.

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    Yummylee

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    #8  Edited By Yummylee

    The only thing I'd say DD does better than the Souls games is its character creator.... and archery, that too. Even though DkS2 greatly improved the use of bows, DD definitely has some of the best bowplay (?) I can recall. It may also have the better dragon boss fight, too. Though that one I'm a little torn of.

    Still besides all that, by and large I think the Souls series are better games.

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    Karkarov

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    @shirogane: Yeah that's what I meant. The OP suggesting Bitterblack was as big as Dark Souls and well.... it is big... it isn't that big. Like I said, Souls 2 and Bitterblack might be the same size.... If you only consider the optimal speed run route for Souls 2 and pretend everything else doesn't exist. Which seems pretty silly.

    @yummylee said:

    The only thing I'd say DD does better than the Souls games is its character creator.... and archery, that too. Even though DkS2 greatly improved the use of bows, DD definitely has some of the best bowplay (?) I can recall. It may also have the better dragon boss fight, too. Though that one I'm a little torn of.

    Still besides all that, by and large I think the Souls series are better games.

    Dogma definitely has the better dragon fight, I still think that battle is the best boss fight I have played in years.

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    ProfessorEss

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    I really gotta get around to playin' that Dragon's Dogma game.

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    tourgen

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    Dragon's Dogma is one hell of a game. One of my favorites too.

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    maestro17

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    Bonus criteria:

    Overused words.

    Dark Souls 2: "dark"

    Dragons Dogma: "aught"

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    TheHT

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    @karkarov said:

    Dogma definitely has the better dragon fight, I still think that battle is the best boss fight I have played in years.

    It's easily the best dragon fight in any game.

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    maestro17

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    Well, I had 700+ hours in DDDA when my BBI data was all LOST. So I'm back to level 187. BUT...

    I'd restart if others were interested in a Giantbomb Pool of Pawns. A GBPOP. I'm on 360, GT maestro17.

    What the hell am I talking about

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    ArbitraryWater

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    Dragon's Dogma is a pretty fantastic game, and you like it even more than I do, so clearly you should replay it.

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    reisz

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    I am actually replaying Dragon's Dogma right now precisely because I've just finished Dark Souls 2. I was so crushed that by New Game + I still didn't need anything better than the gear I played damn near 90% of the game with. It was just a bummer, there are beautiful armor sets in that game that I have no incentive to use. Also what the hell Dark Souls 2, why is the selection of straight swords so poor?

    Whatever man, Dragon's Dogma is fucking amazing, I got Dark Arisen on PS+ so I have that now as well, I've been working towards finishing the Vanilla game first before loading it up. Would that be considered folly? Bitterblack Isle sounds pretty phenomenal.

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    Seppli

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    #17  Edited By Seppli

    @gaff: Math is my achilles heel. Even most basic math -the kind I have sufficient digits on one hand for a visual aid- escapes my grasp way too often. I actually was an A student once, in basic math. Higher math though was so repulsive to me, I've rejected the whole notion of math as folly. Hence I'm a stunted fool, not only when it comes to math...

    @karkarov: Playing on PS3, but I've decided against it for right now. I've still like 20 games I've already paid for in my backlog, that I haven't even touched yet. Might start tomorrow though. Or the day after. The idea is currently fermenting. It'll be ripe soon enough.

    @shirogane said:

    @karkarov:

    Bitterblack being as big as a whole souls game? That's crazy. At best i'd say it's maybe double or triple the Artorias DLC, depending on whether you're counting size of the are or how long it takes to play through.

    Taking NG+ into account - Bitterblack gets all new spawn patterns, and an expanded final bossfight, as well as an increased loot table after the first playthrough - it's more than 30 hours of content for sure, and that's taking the whole affair lightly. I don't think you could speedrun Bitterblack as quickly as Dark Souls 2. Hell - if I'd beeline a NG+ on a beefy character, even without rushing, I'd be done in like 3-4 hours.

    @reisz: To tackle Bitterblack, it's recommended to at least hit level 50 first, which is about what most people are at after completing the core game. Go for it.

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    veektarius

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    This was rigged

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    Karkarov

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    @seppli said:

    @karkarov: Playing on PS3, but I've decided against it for right now. I've still like 20 games I've already paid for in my backlog, that I haven't even touched yet. Might start tomorrow though. Or the day after. The idea is currently fermenting. It'll be ripe soon enough.

    Well if I am not already on your PSN friends list from the PS4 friend list share thing feel free to add me and you can rent my pawn and stuff. I will rent yours too and we can have some really convoluted sorta jolly cooperation! I also promise not to get your pawn hopped up on Herb Ale.

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    Slag

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    @seppli:

    You sir, have made the right choice.

    There is never a wrong time to play DD:DA.

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    Jazz_Bcaz

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    I came back to Dragon's Dogma after Dark Souls 2, on my hard mode from level 1 character. Around level 20, no magic and main pawn only, I fought the ogre in the catacombs and it brought me to tears of joy. It was the feeling of accomplishment following tension people tout so strongly after a Dark Souls boss, but played out over 3 longer, more significant emotional rollercoaster attempts, compared to the throwing yourself like waves crashing against a cliff face method of Dark Souls. And that's just an ogre. An enemy I've encountered many times before. before People just don't know...

    It reassured me that this game will always remain in my heart, even though the Souls series is great.

    I do however prefer the online stuff in Dark Souls but I just hope they add similar PVP and covenant systems in Drag Dog. In fact, Drag Dog could do with stealing as much as possible from From, setting, atmosphere and storytelling wise.

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    Seppli

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    #22  Edited By Seppli

    @jazz_bcaz:

    Drag Dog?

    Is this the Drag Dog you're talking about?
    Is this the Drag Dog you're talking about?

    Or is the team behind Dragon's Dogma called Drag Dog? Confused. Oh wait... now I see what you did there.

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    emfromthesea

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    #23  Edited By emfromthesea

    I played Dragon's Dogma once. I didn't know what to do for a quest, so I picked up the quest guy and threw him off a cliff. That game's pretty cool.

    But seriously I'm also considering going back and finishing it after being done with Dark Souls 2.

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    YI_Orange

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    Whenever someone talks about how great the gameplay is Dragon's Dogma I feel like I must have been doing something wrong when I was playing it. I played mainly the strider/ranger/assassin type classes. The bow and 2 swords. I enjoyed it, but at a certain point the climbing around got kind of dull. Big fights consisted of me shooting with my bow until I decided it didn't do enough damage(I absolutely love the bow abilities against groups of small enemies though) then climbing and mashing. The health on a lot of enemies went down incredibly slow and it took what should have been an all around awesome mechanic and made boss fights somewhat of a chore. I made it to the cockatrice attacking the town. I fought it for like 10 minutes until it blew me up and I never touched the game again. I really want to see this Dragon fight and I really like a lot of things about the game, but too much of it felt like a chore. I know the travel was improved in Dark Arisen...but I think someone needs to explain the combat to me because I see how it's awesome, but in practice it's not so much.

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    MarkWahlberg

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    @karkarov said:

    @gaff said:

    Can we rename this thread to "Why Dragon's Dogma is better than Dark Souls 2"?

    Also, 3 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 6.

    No it was 1+1+2+1 not 1+2+1+1 so as you can clearly see there are no bullets left in this gun.

    Well I'm giving you a +1 for the reference, which should bring us up to 6.

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    Humanity

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    @seppli: My only comment would be that calling any game's systems "cryptic" in comparison to Dark Souls is pretty funny.

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    Seppli

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    Whenever someone talks about how great the gameplay is Dragon's Dogma I feel like I must have been doing something wrong when I was playing it. I played mainly the strider/ranger/assassin type classes. The bow and 2 swords. I enjoyed it, but at a certain point the climbing around got kind of dull. Big fights consisted of me shooting with my bow until I decided it didn't do enough damage(I absolutely love the bow abilities against groups of small enemies though) then climbing and mashing. The health on a lot of enemies went down incredibly slow and it took what should have been an all around awesome mechanic and made boss fights somewhat of a chore. I made it to the cockatrice attacking the town. I fought it for like 10 minutes until it blew me up and I never touched the game again. I really want to see this Dragon fight and I really like a lot of things about the game, but too much of it felt like a chore. I know the travel was improved in Dark Arisen...but I think someone needs to explain the combat to me because I see how it's awesome, but in practice it's not so much.

    It's about competence really. The more games reward competence, the more enticing RPG progression becomes. Like elemental weaknesses, soft spots, and the likes. If I remember correctly, the cockatrice is vulnerable against holy, and it's best to cling to its throat as a strider. Given the right preparation and a proper plan, with correct execution the cockatrice would have died swiftly - and thanks to the awesomeness of Dragon Dogma's core mechanics, it would have looked and felt like you'd imagine such a thing would go down... rather than just clipping toenails as per usual.

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    Seppli

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    #28  Edited By Seppli

    So. Dragon's Dogma finally got the better of me. Just started a lvl 1 hardmode run, instead of playing something new.

    Forgot how loose the core game is, and the pacing problems that come with how the side stuff is handled, and just the nature of the open world stuff. Guess I'm going to beeline it to the endgame. Looking forward to getting into the high density gameplay of Everfall and Bitterblack Island.

    I'm all about dungeon crawling.

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