Yea I forgot to add, loving the lighing mechanic with the darkness at night and in caves, i'm enjoying the latern and the atmosphere it creates more and more.

@Totori said:

@TentPole said:

@Demoskinos said:

I think the majority of people bitching about the game are the same people who don't get the design vision for it. It really is better than Skyrim in every way save for the visuals IMO.

I think Skyrim has much better lore. But other than that I agree with what you are saying.

The key thing here is that the main gameplay loop you do in both games is combat. One is fun...the other is like playing a glorified game of wack-a-mole.

Except that a good game of whack-a-mole is a much better experience than swinging that sword around in Skyrim.

I think he meant skyrim was the whack a mole and DD was the good one.

I know. I was just saying that the comparison was unfair to whack-a-mole.

@thomasnash: Thanks, man! Really appreciate your input. I was watching videos of the game today, and decided to pick it up this afternoon. The combat looks awesome! Hopefully I like it as much as some of the people on these boards.

Ha. So you wanna hear something interesting?

Turns out, my first playthrough was bugged. I had assumed that a couple things here and there may have been but now in NG+, I have proof. There were a whole bunch of quests in the first town that I didn't do, but the game still gave me credit for.

So that's a thing.

@Totori: Sorry to burst that bubble.

But, to be honest I would now love to see Capcom make a Berserk videogame.

It would have been cool if NG+ was actually difficult. I should have stayed in the Everfall.

I am a LVL 37 Warrior in the Everfall Chambers segment. I have enjoyed the game and thought it would have ended at the dragon's defeat and yes there are some silly things in the game but some great things like a griffin's shadow flying overhead. Some parts were hard to me and the game has gone on for a long time and I thought overall there was a ridiculous factor. I really loved Lord of the Rings War in the North and I play the game like that one. Thanks to Capcom, Giant Bomb, and all the adventurers.

@thomasnash said:

@Aquablak: Honestly, I don't think it's at all similar to Dark Souls. Combat is a lot more rapid, and although being careful with the conbat can be really rewarding, in terms of figuring out what combos work and stuff, it also really frequently devolves into mashing for me. Also there's an element of randomness to it that means it will never be as measured or precise as DS (eg, the fact you have no control over the weapon buffs your pawns are giving you). Also, non-fighter classes have no block that I can see - so whereas in DS you almost never want to get hit, DD seems a lot more about making sure you don't get hit too much, if you know what I mean. Also, as someone said in another thread, it's more about taking on mobs than one on one combat like DS.

There is quite a lot of story compared to DS, although a lot of it is really badly explained (a lot of moments when you finish a quest and someone says something about what you just did that was in no way conveyed during the quest). So you could say there is no story, but it's not in the deliberate way of Dark Souls at all. There are shortcuts but only a couple, and they all take a bit of time to travel in themselves, but the world is a lot more expansive than Lordran. Also, Dark Souls did give you a sort of fast travel after a while anyway.

The only way in which I can see any similarities between the two is the monster design to be honest, and even then, I haven't seen any monsters on the scale of some bosses in DS (although I'm not too far through the game yet, I guess).

I don't want to say it's a bad game, I'm really enjoying it, but it is nothing like Dark Souls, imo.

I just rolled the credits on Dark Souls yesterday. Best game I have played in a long time! I was thinking of playing Dragons Dogma. I don't mind at all if it is not similar to Dark Souls. I could play NG+ or Demon Souls for that experience. I just want an open world action RPG that is more engaging than Skyrim. I also greatly appreciate a polished product with attention to details like motion quality, responsive combat, art direction, lighting, music, stuff like that. I'm only balking because it is a new game and full price. What about patches? Has it been patched yet or seem to need any patching? Seems every new RPG released gets a patch before long.

@p00rdevil:

From what you say you are looking for, I'd suggest you wait for it to drop in price a little bit? Responsive combat and polish (imo) it has in spades (polish in the sense that I haven't had even hints of it breaking, others may have had different experiences - I wouldn't say it particularly needs patching). Art direction, lighting, music etc are all fine, but I wouldn't say they stand out really. It's cohesive at least, art design in particular is fairly generic (with occasional moments of awesome design in some of the bigger monsters).

I am starting to find the "story" a real drag though. Up until yesterday I wasn't at all bothered by the lack of story, that was fine. Dark Souls lacked and yet managed to support a really interesting, rich story by giving small details. Unfortunately, it's not anything like that in this. It's lack of attention to detail. I just finished the quest where Mercedes and that Knight duel, and there is a bunch of intrigue that is set-up and then executed in about ten seconds. The knight keeps going on about neighbours and politics which haven't been mentioned at all. Who are the neighbours? I just don't know. Worse was that he did something to safeguard these neighbours. At no point was I told what he actually did, why or how it helped his goals. No explanations given and it just makes it impossible to give a shit about anything that's going on. Easily the biggest bummer I've had in this game.

Although on the flipside, some of the lore around the arisen/dragon cycle and the pawns is actually pretty interesting, I think.

@BraveToaster said:

It would have been cool if NG+ was actually difficult. I should have stayed in the Everfall.

Super-Word.

@thomasnash said:

@p00rdevil:

From what you say you are looking for, I'd suggest you wait for it to drop in price a little bit? Responsive combat and polish (imo) it has in spades (polish in the sense that I haven't had even hints of it breaking, others may have had different experiences - I wouldn't say it particularly needs patching). Art direction, lighting, music etc are all fine, but I wouldn't say they stand out really. It's cohesive at least, art design in particular is fairly generic (with occasional moments of awesome design in some of the bigger monsters).

I am starting to find the "story" a real drag though. Up until yesterday I wasn't at all bothered by the lack of story, that was fine. Dark Souls lacked and yet managed to support a really interesting, rich story by giving small details. Unfortunately, it's not anything like that in this. It's lack of attention to detail. I just finished the quest where Mercedes and that Knight duel, and there is a bunch of intrigue that is set-up and then executed in about ten seconds. The knight keeps going on about neighbours and politics which haven't been mentioned at all. Who are the neighbours? I just don't know. Worse was that he did something to safeguard these neighbours. At no point was I told what he actually did, why or how it helped his goals. No explanations given and it just makes it impossible to give a shit about anything that's going on. Easily the biggest bummer I've had in this game.

Although on the flipside, some of the lore around the arisen/dragon cycle and the pawns is actually pretty interesting, I think.

You know what? I tried out the demo and decided I would probably not like it as much as I did Dark Souls. So I went out and picked up a used copy of Demon Souls. I think I made the right decision. Dragons Dogma I will be willing to try when the price drops some. I am having a good romp with Demon Souls. Because of my experience with Dark Souls, I can parry and backstab right out of the gate, lol!

So, i've bought the game a bit over a week ago. I was sorta hoping it'd be a Skyrim-Monster Hunter-Dark Souls frankenstein. Figured I'd probably enjoy it enough to take the risk.

I've finished it and I have to say it's been a very enjoyable experience. Combat is great, exploration is exciting, dungeon crawling is a lot of fun, night is sort of scary at first, killing big monsters is always a plus. The dialogue is something I had to get used to at first, but 8-4 did an amazing job. The story seems a bit random from time to time, but on my second playthrough I found there was a bit more depth here and there if you care to look for it. The ending is indeed as crazy as people say, it's amazing.

I just hope this thing will become a financial success. With any luck there'll be more games like this on the western market.

@RedRavN: It's not DMC5. It is a reboot. I know that is getting picky, but I REALLY hate Dante's new character design, so I don't want people to think that emo-git is the same as Dante. Also, I really enjoy the game and actually quite like the into music. I also enjoyed the SF4 opening theme, though that was something of a guilty pleasure of mine. Also, I too wish there was co-op. I would even buy a DLC for it. JUST GIVE IT TO ME (with split-screen please)!