I'm loving this game. Loving it, except for one thing. It's really bad at telling me what the hell is gong on and why I should care.

I love me some Western RPGs, be it Morrowind or Dragon Age (not 2, obvs). I love them most for the world you inhabit, the characters you meet, the lore, all that good stuff. It seems like at least some of that is there in Dragon's Dogma, but the devs didn't know how to show it or something.

As an example, when I first got to Gran Soren, I explored the city, like anyone would. In the process I got a quest in which someone named "Mason" wanted me to find out about the spy from "Salvation". The wording in the quest text implied I already knew who they were and had encountered them before, though of course I hadn't. I watched a cutscene where that merchant girl talked to some armored French guy about vague things, and was then supposed to turn it in to the bartender at the Alehouse. I opted to wait, thinking I'd somehow done things out of order.

A while later, I was named a Hunter for the Duke, and a guy gave me several quests to complete, one of which was entitled 'Seeking Salvation'. I assume this is the quest that introduces them, but it doesn't do much of a job. I go there having no idea who they are or why I'm going, watch a crazy lady(?) summon some zombies while I catch a glimpse of the armored French guy running away behind her (I believe). Then suddenly Mason, who I barely know (I'd finally found out who he was when he talked to me briefly at the beginning of the quest, though not who he is, how he's involved, or why I even needed to talk to him), is there and wants me to kill someone I've never met, who is a member of an organization I know next to nothing about. When i don't murder the guy, Mason tells me he's disappointed and "our partnership" is over.

What partnership? Who are you?!

So having learned nothing at all, and accomplished nothing except to piss off a stranger that's apparently important somehow, I go back to inform the quest-giver of what's happened. Except, the guy makes no mention of Mason at all, and tells me nothing in return. Oh, and I am still able to turn in that first quest to the barkeep, even though Mason hates me now. Not that it's any help. I just get some gold and exp, no story reward at all.

Look, I get being mysterious and keeping things from the player, but this is just obtuse. If I don't even know what my motivation is, or what's going on in the world, or what a given organisation is, or even who these people are (my pawn made a passing reference after seeing the French guy flee from the zombies to "the Night's something-or-other", clearly referring to that guy, as if i'd ever heard the term!), how am I to care? I want to care!

Maybe I missed something big. I hope so. Does anyone who has a firmer grasp of those events feel like explaining it to me? Without spoilers, please, I've not gone beyond that point in the story yet, not even any of the other Hunter quests you get from that same guy. I'd really like to be brought up to speed, so i can enjoy the crazy for myself. Thanks in advance!!

(P.S I really do love this game, else I wouldn't care so much!)

^^no, it's pretty much just handled crappily. There are even worse moments to come for that. In that main salvation quest, there was a point where it was like "chase [some guy whose name I can't remember]" but at no point did the game actually tell me that was his name. It was obvious who it meant, but at no point in the cut scene do you actually find out his name. It's pretty lazy

I'll try and keep this spoiler free, but the moment where I really stopped caring was a quest in which everyone tells you "oh, everyone knows [a certain character] is a complete joke" ok, well when I met her before I didn't really get that impression, but maybe I would have if I'd have spoken to more npcs. Anyway, we both head off to a place where some bad stuff has happened. A guy is like "it was me, I did this to safeguard neighbouring countries!" I have no idea who the neighbouring countries are or why they need safeguarding, but even worse than that, I didn't even know what it was this character had done! I found out after the quest was finished, but everything in the cut scene fell flat because of that.

I said all this in the what you think thread. It's just lazily and incompetently done. Nothing seems to follow from anything else, things just happen without ever seeming connected to anything else, or necessary for any reason other than giving you stuff to do. There is some interesting lore around the pawns (a quest with the little witch girl, for example) but I feel like it only escapes my complete lack of interest by being touched on very rarely. I am hoping that some of the stuff you learn about pawns will become important to the main plot, in as much as the relationship between the arisen, pawns and the dragon is something that I am finding fairly interesting.

Edit: Also, I never thought I'd see a game that handled relationships with npcs worse than fable.

Honestly I didn't get too much cleared up until my second play through. Awesome thing was I got a weird ending for the second play through with a certain character and she basically explained the ending in much more detail. And yeah the second play through totally had some pretty big differences for me. I got a jaw dropping revelation that i didn't get the first play through. Something that is explained but I didn't connect the dots until they rubbed it in my face.

Capcom's best narrative is probably Resident Evil stuff. Think about that. :[

Yes the story is boring/bad, but for me the ending totally made up for the lack of information.

Yep! I really enjoyed the ending though, and enjoyed the game as a whole.

Well, that's disappointing. Hmm.