Dragon's Dogma demo

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Zodicus / GTP_Zodicus
Xbox me no like
Downloaded the demo yesterday, been waiting for this one to come out. I liked it a lot, i played skyrim a lot and a lot of dark souls, this feels like a pretty good mix of both of them. Big open world, but with more detailed fighting. I hope they up the difficulty a bit or theres a option for it in the full game (should be)
The chimera fight was crazy i got overwhelmed right off the bat and fell back in to my tank mind set, as i had a "provoke" ability and a sheild. To my suprise it went very well, i kept it on me for the most part and the AI pawns seamed to realise what i was doing, kept me healed and the rest went on the offense. They evetually took it down, i almost went down a time or two but ran for a sec and the pawn healed me up.
The griphon fight was also crazy first 3 times i went down after it got dark out and i couldn't keep track of where it was, witch was tense. You can hear it flaying around but you cant see it untill it gets close and the lanturn lights it up. Once i figured out that me climbing on it and hacking at it did way more damage, the fight got kinda easy. Still provided some cool moments even after i figured that out. I was on its neck stabbing it in the head and the other archer got a good shot on its wing and it dropped out of the sky, with me on its back! we hit the ground rolling and i was tossed off. Then every one jumpped on it hacking and slashing, fire balls flying every wear it was awsome.
 
I've been hearing some good things about this game and all the videos I've seen look impressive. I'm digging that the night time is actually pitch black like it should be, not just slightly darker ala Skyrim.
 
I downloaded it last night and I'll try it this evening.

There are plenty of youtube video's if anyone want to look into it.
 
The demo was short. And it feels a little arcade, I was hoping on getting more hooked. Maybe I'll try it still but I won't rush the game. Need some reviews first.
 
I've been following this one. I'm waiting to see how Capcom treats this title as I've learned my lesson from buying Capcom games on release.
 
I love it, just the kind of game i like. At first glance it seams pretty normal, but theres a lot of stuff going on that you dont notice right away.

I'm undecided about the cinimatic camera, i first played with it off, then tryied with it on. It dose offer some cool shots but it can be a bit distracting. Definatly had to shut the pawn subtitles off.

Just figured out with the strider if you hold the strong attack there's a second thrust after the initial strike, and if you press the light attack once, pause, then repeatedly hit light attack the strider will switch to a cool looking kick that knocks enemys back. same works for the warrior in the prolouge if you do a light attack then pause and hit it again he comes over the top with a cool looking strike. weather theses do more damage i have no idea but it all looks cool.
 
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I heard good things as well, most people telling me it's sort of like a Skyrim/Dark Souls hybrid "it's got the open world of Skyrim with deep combat like Dark Souls" and I started to get a little excited despite initial sceptcism.

I just played a little and didn't even finish the demo, I'm almost offended by it given what I was told. My main issue is quite simple, the combat is better then Skyrim for sure but when you stack it up to Dark Souls it's like saying crabs (DD) is better than chlamydia (Skyrim), Dark Souls is in a completely different league compared to them both. The camera was fiddly(er DS is not perfect in this respect but leagues ahead and easily remedied), attacking had no weight to it, it's not particularly challenging and if there's a dodge button I missed it. I also couldn't find a lock on option, but I don't think it would have helped me enjoy it (it must be there right? Lesson number 1 to learn from Skyrim to Dark Souls is an option to lock-on makes melee more focused and allows more precise attacks whilst allowing you to not lock on if you so wish, also everytime I hit block my character refused to turn and without lock on that'd be annoying if I had to block anything as having to turn as an enemy charges you is kind of important to make you not feel like a total tool having to dis-engage and re-engage block to try to line yourself up).

I just felt totally detached from my character in Dragons Dogma, much as I did with Skyrim but I have no remedy to make the game enjoyable through archer/assassin playstyle which was by far the most interesting combat style in Skyrim, allowing combat to be satisfying so I could enjoy the other great elements of that game. That being said the friendly NPCs were annoying and I ignored them so if they had anything interesting to say I certainly missed that as well, the environments weren't particularly offensive and I'm sure the full release could have a nice world as the graphics are decent enough though the enemies were pretty generic to me. For me though to enjoy a world you must enjoy the actions you do within it, I couldn't find a way to enjoy the game part of the game to allow myself to get into any sort of atmosphere or immerse myself in this world.

The best analogy I can make is relating Dragons Dogma to NFS Pro Street, it tries to bring together 2 sides of a genre but instead of being the best of both worlds it feels like an awkward compromise which is trying to fill a void I personally don't have. It would need to provide me with a true hybrid of the best parts instead of this odd mid-point to win me over, needless to say it did not. I was immediately turned off by the combat, my mind became closed to most other things because of it. I'll consider re-visiting the demo if someone can convince me there's a more interesting way to play, but given the style of the game that seems unlikely (I can't see an archer build or similar holding any worth for fun, I imagine it'll be more like spam arrows until the enemies die instead of well placed one shots that I found in Skyrim).
 
There is a passive lock on, if you block while facing an enemy it will track them just like youre attacks do. I was hopping for a lock on to, but its there kind of.
I can see what youre saying though, but i think in this game its more how you do then what you do. yes the archer or "strider" spams a lot of arrows but if they all land in the chest area of the griffon you'll be shooting him all day, hit the wings and you can take him out of the air, hes also more vunerable if you hit his head. The pawns will hint at these things once they figure them out or see you do it.
Graphically i was hoping for a bit more, i think it looks better than DS but not as sharp as skyrim. However the lighting in this game is awsome, let it get dark while fighting the griffon. Even better let it get dark and dont use youre lanturn and fight the griffon.
I do hope theres a difficulty setting and that it can be turned up quite a bit from the demo's, I wouldnt be shocked though if the missions where made a little easy for the demo, espcially the prolouge quest. Lots of people would be turned off if they died a lot, not me i quite loved the fact that DS was so brutal even right off the bat. It set the tone, you know to be affraid when you see something new, because the last new thing mopped the floor with you, at first :)
 
I get why people might like this game, I understood that enemies had their weak points and the combat wasn't completely without skill but at the same time wasn't challenging. There was no finesse to it, my actions didn't feel like they had any sort of meaning where in a game like Dark Souls I feel every step is key particularly when you start getting involved in PvP and then in Skyrim the environment became my best weapon and my aim was always to be as 'ninja' as possible in every situation so there was a definitive observe, plan, execute to each situation. It's certainly much much more accessible, and that's a good point for alot of people but I want to struggle, to still be vulnerable to error over 100 hours in even in situations I've been in before.

A difficulty increase is almost a neccessity, I'm sure the game will be more difficult in full as you progress, but from what I saw I didn't feel like I'd be carefully observing enemies for their tells and such so I could make a precision movement and time my attacks carefully, learning the combat in other words even if the game was more punishing there didn't seem to be alot to learn outside of which button combos do what and some fights turned in to heavy attack to the ground, mash square until dead or grab chimera and spam square until 'stamina' is depleted and repeat. That chimera could one hit kill me everytime but when I'd eventually win I'd feel releaved that I'd never have to do it again because you spend so long mashing attack and watching the health slowing draining rather then being actively involved in a 'game of chess' battle where I constantly react for better or for worse based on every small movement of my foe. In Dark Souls I would feel on top of the world like nothing could stop me but at the same time excited as to what mountain I'd have to climb next whilst in fear of it all at once, in DD I was disappointed when a fight dragged on instead of thinking what an intense battle is going on. That level of quality and finesse is nowhere to be found, as a result it's just not an exciting game to play and I don't feel satisfied when a battles over regardless how well I did.

In summary, the game is too easy but I don't think it's ready to accept any real difficulty with it because the combat isn't meaningful enough from both an enemy and player perspective. The controls need to be tightened up massively and you need to be able to see small details in the enemies posture and movement so you know what's coming and you have to react accordingly from a simple block to well timed dodge. Skyrim has much the same faults with melee fighting as I've previously mentioned, and the animations along with it are poor, but there's ways to play and deliberately challenge yourself "can I take out all these guards completely undetected using a bow and dagger only?" or "can I assassinate this guy without killing anyone else?" and you learn complex little tricks along the way to maintaining perfect stealth like using your bow to make sound behind an enemy so he moves in to view to snipe him in the back of the head or simply sneak by and that's before you start using illusion spells to really mess with the AI.

Put another way, it's not a bad game but I came in expecting some Dark Souls DNA based on what I'd heard but for people like me who find any other RPG melee combat system that isn't Dark Souls to be sub-par it's the same story here. It's not even close.
 
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You could probably make the chimera fight feel like a DS fight, grab the guy at the start and throw him off the cliff, then dont touch the rift stone. That will put you one on one with the chimera. I might try this my self actually, im not sure it would be winable but then again i swore a few boss battles in DS where impossable solo untill i figured out how to do it. I think the strider could win eventually because you have a dodge but the tank im not so sure.
 
It could never feel like a DS fight, even 1 on 1, there will never be that same sense of tension because it's about more then being hard or dueling to be a Souls game. As I said before and I will rephrase better now, increased difficulty will just highlight all that's wrong with the combat.

I don't expect it to be better then Dark Souls, but I expected more crisp combat because people keep drawing the comparison which as someone with 150+ hours on DS I feel is completely inappropriate. I could have happily never bothered trying Dogma had people not told me, knowing I'm a Souls fan, that there are similarities. Infact I don't think it's even particularly similar to Skyrim other than the numbness of combat. This feels more like a previous generation RPG which isn't neccessarily a bad thing if you liked that sort of thing, but it totally lacks good core combat mechanics in the same sort of way that alot of MMOs do where it's more like you're telling your character what to do rather than you are in total control of your character. Dark Souls is a sort of combat RPG, where Skyrim and Dogma are more classic RPG with quite different approaches where combat is a means to an end rather than highlight of the show, Skyrim just happens to sort of lucked in to being a really enjoyable stealth game with the right playstyle.

Classic and MMO RPG fans should give it a shout, but those who are looking for combat focused RPG games should avoid getting excited until they try or be prepared for disappointment.
 
DS is definatly a hard act to follow. I got DS to hold me over untill skyrim came out. Then when it did come out i went and got my pre order and never even oppened it for like a week. played a few hrs then went back to DS. I did eventually play a lot of skyrim but only after i got through DS.
Ive got my mian in DS with about 120 hrs on it and 2 more both pushing 100 now and probably just as much in my 4 skyrim characters. I loved DS and i really liked skyrim but both left me wanting something, my hope is Dragons dogma is what im looking for. Ive got probably 12hrs in the demo between messing with my 2 characters and playing the mission over. I keep finding more ways to go about things and things i didnt notice before.

I did try the prologue solo and, I didnt make it through the harpies the first time, then on the second run i got the chimera down to just the lion and went down. I think its possable its gonna be hard but i think i can do it. I got a little argessive trying to take the sheep head down because of the sleep attack, and probably cost myself some curatives. I think with a little more composer i can do it.
 
You can string togeather all the strider attacks, the longest ive gotten it is: square, pause then square x3, then hold triangle. hitting square twice at the start will not start the kicks, and hitting square after the kicks start a 4th time will do the final kick but not allow the heavy(triangle) attack at the end. Remember to hold triangle to until you get the extra stab at the end.
I've also found the kicks to be quite useful in a group as they will hit enemies around you as well. Looks like at least a 90deg spread but could be up to 180deg in front of you. I didnt notice it hitting anything behined me.
I just thought, i have not tried adding in the L1 or R1 attacks after a regular attack combination.... I'll have to try that.

Tried the chimera fight again solo and got a little farther. Got the lion head at the end just past half dead. I did notice once you're down to just the lion head dont grab directly on to its face to climb up. It gets pissed and flings you around eventually slamming you in to the ground. Witch took quite a few HP. He did it every time in jumped and grabbed his face. If i climbed up from his side then near his head, he still jerked and bucked but didnt whip me in to the ground..
 
I played this last night. Seems ok. I like Kingdoms of Amalar:The Reckoning, Fable, and Skyrim better. The full game could be more fun but I couldnt really get into the demo.
 
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