Dragon's Dogma 2 Review (GS 9/10)

women dodge, men brace/tackle, signed by warrior gang

It baffles me that they seem to think a dodge button is necessary for aggressive enemies. Barring a few bosses, enemies are not terribly aggressive in Souls games. You do not need particularly high reflexes for a Souls game. Those games are more methodological than anything.

Makes me question how many melee based games they even play. Because there are so many combat systems you can deploy. Souls uses a dodge based system, and that is fine, it's FromSoft's forte and they have mastered that type of combat (Platinum Games does it better but I digress). But there are so many melee based battle systems that don't. In fact, more don't than do.

And Mozelle accusing me of being unskilled when he is asking for lock on, iframes and other things is incredibly rich. 😂 Almost as bad as him citing Fextralife.

Edit: Happy Holi.

Can't wait for the PC shop to find out what's wrong with my PC. So I can join you in the Warrior gang!

@Maroxad: When did your PC called it quits?

I have been without a gaming PC for a month and a half now. But it was mostly because I wanted to upgrade, but some things are not adding up with my new components. Had to go through 2 motherboards that didnt work. Which meant sending, returning. And on Wednesday last week I turned in my new build to the store so they could check it for errors.

Been gaming on my ROG ally for my PC gaming needs in that time. Not sure it can run DD2 though. Character Creation worked fine, but highly skeptical of the full game.

Damn! That sucks. If do try the game on ROG, it would be interesting to know what the performance is like.

Not the best, but sure as shit better than PS5's 15-30 fps,

My plan is to gamble by purchasing the game once my deskop is back, then see how my ROG can handle it.

@Maroxad: There isn't a single aspect of gaming that Platinum games does remotely as well as From Software.

And yeah, gamers like you prefer fighting enemies that just look at you.

Wanting, dodge, i-frames, and lock-on has absolutely nothing to do with skill. In fact the opposite, those are elements of gameplay that induce a certain aspect of skill requirement into the gameplay mix.

I even said it in my post, I wish enemies were more aggressive, a lot smarter and you know, actually tried to kill you? like they do in Souls games and the rebooted GoW franchise.

I say this as a D2 gamer will 11k hours, where all you do is tank and click on enemies. This was acceptable for videogames in the year 2000-2009 (not to mention completely different kind of RPG but I digress)

in 2024 just click and hitting buttons without having to dodge/evade/block/parry feels archaic. having dumb enemies without complex movesets also feels archaic.

DMC1 is the best action game of all time and had this, but that was 2001. 23 years ago it was forgivable videogame design.

I literally haven't died since I switched to Thief vocation. Nor do I ever need to heal. My health is constantly full. I'm immortal now. I have a dodge button in a game where enemies don't even try to kill me.

in GOW, I would have died like 150 times in these 15 hours of playtime. (on GMGOW).

You thinking DD2 has better Combat than GOW is yet another case of thinking quantity of mechanics > quality of mechanics. Something this board really seems to love more than any other place I discuss videogames.

I think i can finally begin playing tonight. all new parts installed and seem stable.

@hardwenzen: Wait so you haven't started yet? If you got a 4000 series GPU, then I recommend the frame gen mod. There's ghosting, it is 100% worth the extra frames lol.

I played for like 10 minutes, and decided to stop until i install new cpu/mobo/ram that i received on the day DD2 came out. Took so damn long doing all of that, then cable management and now getting rid of old drivers so there's no interference with new ones.

I havent mentioned GOW. Perhaps you should actually respond to what is being said. The reason I don't talk about it is because I don't care for it.

Anyways, I don't think Dodging with iframes is inherently bad, I don't think it takes as much skill as some other forms of defense. That said FromSoft handles the rollfest combat quite well. But asserting that all melee based action games should use it demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of game design. Almost as bad as saying "All games should use UE 5.2".

As a personal preference however, I prefer Mount and Blade style mechanical combat or combat that takes more queues from fighting games. However, unlike you, I have strong enough critical thinking skills to realize that my preferred combat system would not work in Dragon's Dogma.

Before picking it up I brought a cheap code from cd keys for dragons dogma dark arisen will try it out to see what it's like.

I think I'm gonna get this one after I finish Alan Wake 2.

Just finished it about a month ago,enjoyed it...got me hyped for DD2..i'll buy it once ive finished the Stalker trilogy and hellblade 2 👍

@Maroxad:

Critical thinking skills... lol. There is exactly zero reasons (except a skill issue among Capcom devs) to why enemies couldn't have smart AI, more complex movesets and more aggressive AI.

The lack of i-frames / dodge / block / parry mechanic would leave even the most "skilled" DD2 players slaughtered within a few seconds if the bosses fought with any kind of sentience

Of course the combat system here works because the enemies don't fight like a Souls boss. Sigrun would kill every single DD2 player online on Steam right now in a 1 vs 129,545 battle lol.

Maroxad and his critical think bs he tells everyone when he is annoyed by your valid arguments lol. Capcom didn't even need better ai and more complex move sets (bosses DO need em, tho). All what's needed is for every enemy in the game to be significantly more aggressive/faster, and a dodge roll would fit the game like a glove. Of course, if this isn't done, and they were to add a dodge, it would break the game, and playing something that is braindead easy is the last thing i want.

My thoughts of DD2 after 23.7 hours of playtime. The game is addicting and very hard to put down. I love a fantasy RPG more than anything but here's a few negative points:

• Fast travel should be readily available. I haven't learnt how to use those crystals and waypoints (apparently there are only a few permanent and the rest are temporary... Not done much research on this, I refuse to use consumables in any game I play.
  

• A mount of sorts would be nice. While the game looks decent when maxed out on PC, it's just no where near as gorgeous as Ghost of Tsushima, Red Dead Redemption II or Horizon Forbidden West (or Horizon Zero Dawn from 2017(!) for that matter) so its not like you are exploring this stunning, beautiful game like in those games. (even though they all except RDR2 have fast travel from the get-go). I really am tired of walking everywhere and every oxcart I take gets raided by fucking goblins leading to griffins spawning in and ruining the fucking cart
  

• Enemy variety is poor. It reminds me of GOW (2018) before they rectified it with GOWR. According to in-game stats, I have killed 1200 enemies, of which more than 600 (>50%) are goblins. The rest are Saurians/lizards or harpies. Its the same 4 enemies plus the same two mini bosses (ogres and minotaurs) From Software has REALLY spoiled us given us dozens of completely unique and phenomenally well made enemies in every single one of their games.
  

• Levelling in this game sucks. When you level up your stats are allocated automatically, boo. That's everything wrong with Diablo 3 / Diablo 4 and none of the right that Diablo 2 did. I want to choose my own stat points. I also wish I could put points into skills to further increase their use (like D2)
  

• There are literally zero good reasons as to why we cant play this game in co-op. The game is literally built for co-op. If Elden Ring can do it, so can DD2. "bu bu but the pawns" - the pawns just repeat the same lines over and over again and have almost no unique dialogue. How many times does my main pawn need to mention that different ingredients create different creations? And how many times he have to mention that we are all of different vocations? The devs should have given the pawns 10,000 unique lines, and not reuse the same 10 or 12 comments. I've played 24 hours but I have heard everything 50 times each. I'd prefer to mute the pawns at this point.

So why not allow us to play with a friend so we don't have to listen to constantly repeated generic commentary?

At least we should be able to play with one of the two options:

1. You, your friend, your main pawn and a random npc/players pawn
2. you, yourfriend, your main pawn, friend's pawn

@Mozelleple112: You do realize you can have aggressive enemies in a melee based game without iframes, right?

And as far as games discussion goes. Being able to analyze each piece acts as a part of the puzzle and how it would interact with others is a crucial part of game design. Instead you seem to complain that game lacks X and it is bad because game Y did so, all without actually looking at the larger picture.

Since you are now a PC gamer. You may find out through mods, that sometimes adding features nilly willy, can in many cases hurt the overall product.

Edit: In fact, there is a mod for BG3 which raises the level cap. Just like you wanted. Try it and tell me it improves the experience (it doesn't).

Great score!

@Maroxad: I think you misunderstood what I wanted from BG3. (which in my opinion is a 9.7/10 game but still has some 'flaws').

I don't want to "raise a level cap" or "get more powers". or whatever.

I want the 12 levels you are given to be spread out between 99 levels.

I have played the game for 300 hours and I have two level 12 characters plus some extra builds here and there at random levels. If you do the math, that's 1 level per 10 hours of gameplay.

I have previously stated that 1 level per 1 hour of gameplay is a perfect ratio.

Dragon's Dogma 2 has nailed this so far. 26.9 hours play time and I am level 27. That's exactly 1lvl/hr

In Horizon Zero Dawn which I am also playing right now I am level 33 after 35.7 hours play time. Very close to 1lvl/hr.

In an RPG the reward of levelling your character should come (on average) once per hour. The higher level and closer to end game of course they can take longer time (in Diablo 2 going from level 97 to level 98 would take you 200-250hrs while going from level 98 to 99 will take you 500hrs... No joke)

I also want to micro manage and finetune my character. Every level (hour) I want to have choose between slightly more health, slightly more strength or slightly more magic, stamina, charisma, dexterity, etc. etc.

IF there is a Baldur's Gate 3 mod that raises the level cap to 100, scales all enemies from 1-100 instead of 1-12, lets you add one stat point per level, and allows you to put multiple points (lets say minimum 5, maximum 20 (like in Diablo 2) or a perfect 10 points per skill) to increase its effectiveness. Then let me know I'll download that straight away.

@hardwenzen: Exactly lol. I will never understand when people argue that Souls games are "roll simulator" or that Sekiro is "parry machine" etc. having to time dodges and parries is 100% better than standing still and tanking enemies.

I am enjoying DD2's combat so much more with the Thief Vocation, but yeah the difficulty is really easy, except for those damn Griffins. They can literally 1-2 shot any character (yet they don't kill us instantly because they are dumb af and cannot even hit targets in front of them) their health bar is near infinite and the fight is just so tedious. then they fly away...

In a perfect world, the Griffin's would have half the amount of health they have, but be extremely aggressive and be able to kill 6 pawns in 6 seconds if they just stand still. and thus a parry/dodge system to prevent you from dying in 6 seconds would make for much more engaging combat. That at a co-op mode would be my GOTY for 2024.

@Heil68: Are you going to play it?

@hardwenzen: The game is brain dead easy. Mashing buttons as a thief has got me 40% through the game, but because there’s no lock on I’m just whizzing around attacking enemies who seem happy to just stand there and get slaughtered while I mash away. Not used a revive stone once, there’s literally no point.

I’m enjoying it but it’s no better than Witcher 3 which looks eminently better….the obligatory 60fps patch will be out soon, which makes me wonder why people pay a premium day one for big games that are available cheaper when they’re actually fixed.

Haven’t even seen an MT yet, so all that hoohah was beyond petty.

Well, if its easy af, then that's disappointing. Only played for like 15 minutes, so if its nowhere near ER difficulty, then that sucks.

@hardwenzen: Lol. Nowhere near ER difficulty. I’ll play it to the end, but there’s too many negatives for me to call it a good game. When you open a chest, you auto pick up what’s inside. No choice. Every single journey I’m weighed down by plants and potions I don’t need and because of the silly fast travel system, I just dump stuff instead of trading it in.

I spend more time trying to get my weight down to average than anything else, which means I have enough stamina to actually fight.

Then, if its this easy, i might as well just play with my main pawn, and ignore the other two you can recruit. Honestly annoying to hear because when a title is easy, it renders all the additional tactics and little things you can do to go through challenging areas completely irrelevant, and that destroys the core gameplay of a game.

These pawns forcing the player into a self ad is annoying as hell .😑

I see they still jump off cliffs.

@uninspiredcup: They can be suicidal 😂

Is FSR completely broken in this game or what's happening? I've never seen it being this blurry when running on Quality.

i've had this game sat for nearly a week. played a couple of hours when i first got it then moved back to what i was playing previously. need to pull my finger out and start over

Are you sticking with sorcerer?

Diablo 2 did that way back. To me it looks like Souls dying mechanics are inspired by Diablo 2.

The games I've actually enjoyed these past handful of years have been few and far between. Not a lot of games have made me excited to get off work, only to go home (after the gym) and boot up DD2 on my PC; finally switched to PC this year. Not to mention that I've had probably over a decade of open world burnout, but DD2 has been so fun for me personally. Thankfully my PC is beastly and I've had no issues with the game, even in the Capital. There's a lot of mechanics in the game that I still need to adjust to, mostly related to quick bars, hot bars?? I think that's the term. Overall, a fun game. :) Not as good as my all time favorite Alan Wake 2. Always gotta give a shout out to that game. ;3

AW2 is your fav game?😱

Rumor has it that Alan Wake 2 was ruined,😏

@hardwenzen It's my favorite game of all time. Yes. Beat the long standing holders of that title, Kingdom Hearts and Spyro the Dragon.

Interesting. I barely hear anybody mention the game, let alone have it in their top 10.

@hardwenzen: It apparently didn't meet their sales expectations, which is a darn shame. So I can understand why you don't hear it brought up all that much. :) It probably also didn't help that it was digital only. :/ I really wanted to get a physical copy after beating it, only to find out it's not possible. LOL

They did that to themselves by making it an EPIC exclusive. And while i know that EPIC helped them fund the game, for a game to do well, it needs to be on Steam no later than a month after launch, and if its a big budget game, better be on Steam on day one.

i picked fighter but will probably start over just to freshen up on the story, would you recommend sorcerer? i heard thief makes the game easiest. was hoping it'd be a good challenge but reading some of the comments in here, doesnt sound that way at all. how are you finding it?

btw first couple of hours reminded me a lot of ffvi, i remember you were asking about opinions of it a few weeks ago

@Macutchi: Thief is super easy so far, so definitely not thief.I have only played as thief but I am going to try mage.

@Pedro: i'll stick with fighter. bit frustrated the difficulty or lack of it wasn't mentioned in the reviews i watched.

i'm right at the end of dark souls 3. soon as i'm done i'll pick dd2 back up but worried the contrast is going to detract from the experience

It definitely feels easier than the first game. Hopefully the challenge increases as the game progresses.

@Pedro: Spoiler: It doesn't.

Well I'm 40 hrs in and played almost exclusively as a Thief. Dodge ability makes you immortal in this game, unless you doze off against a griffin or something that can 1 shot you.

Switched to Mystic Spearhand and your damage is sick AF and you're really tanky but I am NOT enjoying an RPG where you just stand still infront of your enemies not have to dodge, block or parry...

40 hrs into the game and here are my mods (for the fellow master race among us):

• Frame Gen - I literally refuse to play the game without. If you have 40 series this is a must. my FPS is around 90-100 mark in the busiest cities otherwise its 100% locked in at 115 fps. all maxed.
• Infinite stamina outside combat - I cannot believe Capcom omitted this QoL feature. Elden Ring was the first time FromSoftware did this but, in their defense it is still their only open world game. Having limited stamina for sprinting in a huge open world without (easily accessible) fast travel is a ridiculous suggestion. Thank god for this mod. QoL is improved x 100
• Half-weight items: Just like in Starfield, having limited space in 2024 really sucks this isn't 2001 anymore... give us big storage space so that we dont have to travel back and fourth all the time or constantly be 'very heavy'. or always leave behind good loot. There are many mods that will completely remove the weight of items but thats just broken IMO. The mod I use reduces all item weight by half and upgrade materials like the rocks are reduced to 0. Its perfect. I still have to micromanage / sell / store / swap items so the game isn't completely broken.

Those three completely essential mods to enjoy the game IMO. (no idea how people could play without them).

I prefer playing my games vanilla unless they have broken mechanics (poor framerate, limited storage, stupidly unnecessary stamina expense) so I will probably only use these three. But I did notice over on the nexus there is a mod to add a lock-on system as well as dodge system... Very interesting. I fear it might break the game unless you also use a mod to improve enemy movesets and agression.

spearhand does have a counter tho