Dragon's Dogma : Dark Arisen.

[Jimboxy]

@Nag

done(I think)

[Nag]

Cheers @Jimbo Xiii you're a beautiful man.

[mmmark]

On 04/06/2012 at 09:24, Sambob said:

Thanks for the impressions guys, I like the look of this. It the bad makes me not want to fork out the current 40 quid price tag for it...

Back when £40 was a lot. 

[bellow]

Just picked this up for buttons on Xbox deals. Looks like something I can play although it's a bit hard on the eyes after all the Assassin's creed games I've been playing lately. I do love an action RPG though.

[OCH]

It begins...

 

Zark VI - The Mage

 

Didn't have long but I got off to a good start so far. I got through most of the tutorial section before I realised the 'grab' button was for jumping on enemies, SoTC style. Basically did two of three mini quests in the starting village. It's fun. Shows it's age, but I didn't have the negative vibe to the tutorial boss that I recalled from the demo.

[Nag]

Don't be scared to change vocation in this... in fact it's a necessity to get the most out of the class augmentations.

[one-armed dwarf]

In addition to that, you'll probably end up hearing people talk about min maxing vocations. You do not need to do that at all, here's why

 

TL;DR, the takeaway is play how you want (but changing things up a lot is the key to more fun generally)

 

[OCH]

^Ta. I thought experimentation would be encouraged in this. Given there are only three vocations.

[one-armed dwarf]

9

[OCH]

6 minutes ago, one-armed dwarf said:

9

Only had three at the outset.

[Nag]

More open up later... 3 that could be looked upon as specialist and 3 that are more hybrid.

[OCH]

Side quests: The Game

So I'm level 6, with a level 3 proficiency. There were about half a dozen side quests and I completed all but two of them. As they don't seem relevant to the starting area. I have died a couple times. But that is because a Mage fights a bit differently to the Tutorial guy. I didn't realise my staff would be there to pew, pew from default. I thought I'd be whacking things with the staff until I learned/found/bought spells. I defeated the first boss. Which gave me my first "real" pawn. I decided on an archer, as that compliments my build. I did grind money, pelts etc for buying spells and levelling up armours and weapons. All the kind of things I get a kick out of in RPG's. A very low level Disgaea approach, and I'm into it. 

 

[OCH]

Progress?

I'm level 10. My vocation level is 4. There was a cutscene with a lady at the pier of the outset village. She took me to an island, which cued the subtitle 'Dark Arisen.' A quick look around informed me I'm a bit too low level to be here?

So I went back and continued going north on the regular map, past the training barracks. Discovered a cave to the east... Which led me back to the well I cleared early in the first village.😒 Continued along the valley, beyond that cave. "Ambushed" by a boulder from bandits. Dodged the rock. Only for one of the bandits to basically kill the entire party.

Okay, back to the northern it is.

Several wolf attacks later, I found a wandering cyclops. Now I would have won this battle - whittled him down to his last/third life bar - If not for the day and PITCH BLACK night cycle. Lost sight of him and as soon as I turned on the torch. He was in front of me and one swing from his club, I died. Next session, we'll try that again.

[Nag]

Night time is legit dangerous in this game, especially when you're low level... venture too far and night hits, you know about it.

[OCH]

21 hours ago, Nag said:

Night time is legit dangerous in this game, especially when you're low level.

 

Yes, I got that impression doing an overworld quest, killing Goblins. Even in the early game areas, they really crank the challenge up at night. 

So I have three offensive spells - Fire, Ice and Lightning. When I reached the barracks, I had the chance to buy the "high" version of each. Only bought the Fire one. Which is very handy. Level 2 Fire gives you multiple target look. In light of the high level bandit and cyclops. I thought to buy the second level for the other two this session. The spell merchant also doubles as the inn (for 300g). But I noticed another NPC walking around, offering free rest?? I sceptically clicked on it.

 

Cue surprise boss fight inside the barracks! Six life bars😲 This made me concerned. But it played out even easier than the cyclops. I'm guessing it was scripted and the rematch likely won't be. In turn, this becomes an escort mission. A sign of the games age, again. I expected it to be worse than it was. Now I'm in the capital city and quite certain that Bitterblack Isle wasn't where a level 12 Mage was supposed to go next..  

 

[Nag]

Yeah... you're about 80 levels off Bitterblack Isle yet... and that's being generous.😂

[shinymcshine]

And I'm back playing this (again) on NS.

 

Watched the Netflix cartoon last week, enjoyed it, and it gave me the buzz to have another run, so off I went, now going for a Mage> Sorcerer build, and just hit Lv 25 having cleared out the Shadow Fortress.

 

Even though it doesn't have the dialogue/ choice of the ES games I find it loads of fun to play, so I figure it'll be a couple of runs through the main game then off to the Island....