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Capcom Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen

Delterius

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Dec 12, 2012
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Entre a serra e o mar.
"OH MY FUCKING GOD I'M DYING HELP!"

*casts helping hands*

"You shouldn't concern yourself for likes of this pawn."

*throws pawn off a cliff*
 

Invictus

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The Real Fanboy
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Divinity: Original Sin 2
I kind of liked the whole "bad emphasis on the pawn talk" kind of reminded of Captain Kirk's over the top style
 

cvv

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So I killed Grigori and now the game is basically Diablo? Just grinding monsters in Everfall and Bitterblack Isle to get better loot to whack stronger monsters?

Gotta say, while I don't love the game the way I adore Dark Souls I damn right respect it. I thought it's just a silly light-RPG to kill a few evenings, and the regular game basically is exactly that. But I absolutely did not expect the depth and hardcore-ness in the post-game and Dark Arisen. This kind of grinding loot-based RPG is not my thing - also, I've never fell in love with the combat system - but I take my leave from the game with a salute.

Final thoughts - another unique and surprising jRPG. It didn't blow my mind like FF7 and DS1 did back in the day but I don't regret the time. Will buy DD2.
 

Mozg

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I don't consider BBI to be nearly as brainless as Everfall. It's got a story, and the goal of lootin' and killin' is to
descend the dungeon, then do it again through new enemy and loot placements until you can beat the second form of the Wizard of Yendor at the bottom.

Once you do that you can rerun BBI one more time if you really want, consider shit done and uninstall, or boot it up once every couple of weeks to kill the community superboss thing Capcom is into.
 

Hyperion

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So I killed Grigori and now the game is basically Diablo? Just grinding monsters in Everfall and Bitterblack Isle to get better loot to whack stronger monsters?

Gotta say, while I don't love the game the way I adore Dark Souls I damn right respect it. I thought it's just a silly light-RPG to kill a few evenings, and the regular game basically is exactly that. But I absolutely did not expect the depth and hardcore-ness in the post-game and Dark Arisen. This kind of grinding loot-based RPG is not my thing - also, I've never fell in love with the combat system - but I take my leave from the game with a salute.

Final thoughts - another unique and surprising jRPG. It didn't blow my mind like FF7 and DS1 did back in the day but I don't regret the time. Will buy DD2.

Since Dark Arisen was released, Everfall is only worth doing for a Dragonsblood accessory or two for the affliction resists for you and your pawn. Once you have that, you should go straight into Bitterblack Isle and try to beat that shit at a low level as possible. Going in there at level 50 - 60 is, in my opinion, more challenging than anything a Souls game throws at you, barring challenge runs. After beating it once (which isn't easy) the entire place resets, with more difficult enemy layouts, Death shows up more often, and the final boss has a new form that can get pretty damn brutal if you don't know the power strategies. The only real downfall of the content is the tileset reuse like Dragon Age 2.

If you're simply sick of the game and need something else to play, it's understandable, but I'd hope you at least try to kill the expansion boss once.
 

cvv

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Going in there at level 50 - 60 is, in my opinion, more challenging than anything a Souls game throws at you

Oh the post-game is absolutely way, way more hardcore than Dark Souls. Problem is I don't love the combat and the post-game is just pure combat. My brain says it's actually interesting and complex and well thought out but emotionally it just doesn't work for me the way DS combat does.

In the main game I enjoyed the shit out of exploration (awesome world btw, reminded me of early Piranha Bytes stuff) and I liked some quests and characters. All that is gone in post-game so nothing really draws me back. But as I said - good game.
 

Haplo

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Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
The real fun starts once you defeat the BBI boss and traverse the BBI again... especially the final levels.
 

Machocruz

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Hyperborea
I love that BBI is a gauntlet of horrors, especially second playthrough. Feels like a fight for survival in a way Dark Souls doesn't. Enemy spellcasting is varied and will fuck you up. Factor in the RNG in enemy spawns, possible enemy combinations, and you can really be in a tough spot depending on what pops up in some rooms. You can't just roll dodge your way to safety. I'd go so far as to say that the developer didn't even bother tuning or balancing for you to win like in most games, you just get whatever cards come out of the stack and it's up to you to deal with them. Some of the rooms are just brutal. And then a Garm or two shows up. Then we're hiding in a doorway hoping the one mage pawns who got stuck out there gets their Bolide or Maelstrom off before they get K.O'd. or the Dark Bishops zero in on us.
 

Zed Duke of Banville

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Final thoughts - another unique and surprising jRPG. It didn't blow my mind like FF7 and DS1 did back in the day but I don't regret the time. Will buy DD2.
Yes, you would buy Dragon's Dogma 2 in an alternate reality in which Capcom realized the value of its new IP, rather than waiting three years to port the Dark Arisen verison to PC and creating a cheap, Japanese-only online cash-in as the game's only successor. :argh:
 

Zed Duke of Banville

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I'm currently engaged in my 6th playthrough of Dragon's Dogma (3rd on PC), and I just saw new pawn behavior: in Soulflayer Canyon, while fighting snow harpies on a narrow pathway over a gorge, one of the harpies picked up my character and flew off. I managed to shake the harpy off, and I think would have managed to land back on the pathway rather than falling into the bottomless pit to my death, but in any case one of my support pawns shouted "No, I won't let you fall", jumped up into the air, grabbed my character in mid-air, and landed us safely on the ledge together. Complete with one of those slow-motion combat cinematics, of the pawn jumping and grabbing my character. :salute:
 

ERYFKRAD

Barbarian
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Strap Yourselves In Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Meanwhile I encountered that Undead dragon that spawns once you pick up the void key or something, and fuck trying to kill him, it's more fun to run, jump, grab his tail and climb all the way to his heart. Then jump from there to the next floor, run down, and repeat.
 

Mozg

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I'm currently engaged in my 6th playthrough of Dragon's Dogma (3rd on PC), and I just saw new pawn behavior: in Soulflayer Canyon, while fighting snow harpies on a narrow pathway over a gorge, one of the harpies picked up my character and flew off. I managed to shake the harpy off, and I think would have managed to land back on the pathway rather than falling into the bottomless pit to my death, but in any case one of my support pawns shouted "No, I won't let you fall", jumped up into the air, grabbed my character in mid-air, and landed us safely on the ledge together. Complete with one of those slow-motion combat cinematics, of the pawn jumping and grabbing my character. :salute:

Would have been a better story if the pawn's momentum carried you away from the safe landing you would have had into the pit.
 

Grimlorn

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Messages
10,248
I'm currently engaged in my 6th playthrough of Dragon's Dogma (3rd on PC), and I just saw new pawn behavior: in Soulflayer Canyon, while fighting snow harpies on a narrow pathway over a gorge, one of the harpies picked up my character and flew off. I managed to shake the harpy off, and I think would have managed to land back on the pathway rather than falling into the bottomless pit to my death, but in any case one of my support pawns shouted "No, I won't let you fall", jumped up into the air, grabbed my character in mid-air, and landed us safely on the ledge together. Complete with one of those slow-motion combat cinematics, of the pawn jumping and grabbing my character. :salute:
I recently fell twice in that area recently with a solo Magic Archer I'm playing. It was funny because even though I fell down a very long way (from top of canyon to below it), I still landed in water and took no fall damage and the brine reset my character on land. Second time I fell I barely hit part of the ledge falling taking fall damage. Wasn't enough to kill me because I didn't fall as much, had about 50 hp left, but then fell further down into water and brine reset me. Couldn't believe it, almost reloaded as soon as I fell. Had no idea you took no fall damage as long as you landed in water.
 

Hoaxmetal

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Messages
9,157
Had no idea you took no fall damage as long as you landed in water.
I don't remember a single game that has impact damage from hitting water too hard. It's either instant death or a safe landing area for large jumps.
 

ERYFKRAD

Barbarian
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Sep 25, 2012
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Strap Yourselves In Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Had no idea you took no fall damage as long as you landed in water.
I don't remember a single game that has impact damage from hitting water too hard. It's either instant death or a safe landing area for large jumps.
Just Cause 2 actually had that. Impact damage, which would kill you if you fell from high enough, which you would more often than not.
 

ERYFKRAD

Barbarian
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Strap Yourselves In Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Also, what the fuck is up with pawns trying to pick up unconscious pawns that need to be resurrected? They just pick up, then drop them. Why?
 

Hoaxmetal

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Also, what the fuck is up with pawns trying to pick up unconscious pawns that need to be resurrected? They just pick up, then drop them. Why?
Maybe the plan is to bring them to you but it quickly gets overwritten because of the fight?
 

moraes

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Project: Eternity Wasteland 2 Codex USB, 2014 Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
What are the best inclinations for a Ranger pawn? Right now mine gets too close to foes and uses daggers a lot. Also, can pawns make use of skills like Great Gamble?
 

Grimlorn

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Messages
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What are the best inclinations for a Ranger pawn? Right now mine gets too close to foes and uses daggers a lot. Also, can pawns make use of skills like Great Gamble?
Challenger
Mitigator
maybe Utilitarian for a third.

I don't know for sure if they can use Great Gamble effectively or not. I just made sure they had tenfold flurry.
 

Delterius

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Entre a serra e o mar.
Also, what the fuck is up with pawns trying to pick up unconscious pawns that need to be resurrected? They just pick up, then drop them. Why?
Maybe the plan is to bring them to you but it quickly gets overwritten because of the fight?
Yes, one of the behaviors is all about bringing pawns back to the PC. Best for PCs that don't move around too much and tend stay back.
What are the best inclinations for a Ranger pawn? Right now mine gets too close to foes and uses daggers a lot. Also, can pawns make use of skills like Great Gamble?
Here's the thing. While Inclinations affect a pawn's general behavior, the tactics they employ are something else entirely. For an example, Scather makes your pawn go into the offensive against weaker enemies. Challenger makes him strike the stronger enemies. How he goes about doing that, however, is something else entirely. Basically, if you give him tons of crappy Bow skills and the best Dagger skills, he'll use those. If all he sees is you fighting on melee and using daggers yourself, he'll do the same. And if the only enemy tactics he witnesses are climbing on monsters, he'll do that.
 
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Grimlorn

Arcane
Joined
Jun 1, 2011
Messages
10,248
Also, what the fuck is up with pawns trying to pick up unconscious pawns that need to be resurrected? They just pick up, then drop them. Why?
Maybe the plan is to bring them to you but it quickly gets overwritten because of the fight?
Yes, one of the behaviors is all about bringing pawns back to the PC. Best for PCs that don't move around too much and tend stay back.
What are the best inclinations for a Ranger pawn? Right now mine gets too close to foes and uses daggers a lot. Also, can pawns make use of skills like Great Gamble?
Here's the thing. While Inclinations affect a pawn's general behavior, the tactics they employ are something else entirely. For an example, Scather makes your pawn go into the offensive against weaker enemies. Challenger makes him strike the stronger enemies. How he goes about doing that, however, is something else entirely. Basically, if you give him tons of crappy Bow skills and the best Dagger skills, he'll use those. If all he sees is you fighting on melee and using daggers yourself, he'll do the same. And if the only enemy tactics he witnesses are climbing on monsters, he'll do that.
Challenger makes him strike ranged casters and stuff. Mitigator goes after all weak enemies first. Scather goes after the strongest enemies and will typically climb them and get into melee range. Utilitarian relates to tactics and spell synching between magic users. The problem is with pawns using tactics is, they don't do it if they have no knowledge of the monsters they are fighting. That's what the stars correlate to. Once they gain that knowledge and know their weaknesses, they are pretty reliable about using tactics against the mobs.
 

Damned Registrations

Furry Weeaboo Nazi Nihilist
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Feb 24, 2007
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Note that 'tactics' often include weakpoints of monsters. A pawn with high knowledge of a cyclops will continually snipe it right in the eye over and over, for example. Especially if it's watched it's owner doing that. Otherwise, it might spend 2000 stamina 'sniping' his chest instead. Elemental weaknesses are included here too.

That said, I find utilitarian pawns tend to be the most useful in combat, because they'll do a lot of stuff that is obviously helpful even with little knowledge, like holding monsters down so you can murder them, curing status effects or enchanting weapons and casting buffs.

The defensive buffs are REALLY good, btw. Definitely try them if you haven't.
 

Hyperion

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Jul 2, 2016
Messages
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Utilitarian pawns also work best when all 3 of them have it as one of their main inclinations. All that "annoying shouting" they do actually becomes a synchronized ass whooping on whatever monster they called the tactic on. For example, you fight a Saurian with 1 Fighter, 1 Strider, 1 Mage, the Fighter shouts, "Let's have its tail off!" and the Mage shouts "Their kind hates ice!" the Fighter Grapples it, the Strider goes for the tail, and the Mage will either cast Ice Enchantments or an Offensive Ice Spell depending on his other Inclinations.

Utilitarian should ALWAYS be somewhere in your top 3 inclinations, imo.

Whatever class you want your Pawn to be, you should play as your Arisen at the same time for awhile. This should help instill "good" behaviors in them, such as Rangers using primarily their bow for Tenfold Flurry, or sticking to the daggers for evasion and crowd control. If you give them Great Gamble, and load them up with Mushroom Potages, you can make your Ranger into a Stamina Battery for the entire party. Striders are a bit tougher, because their bow skills are useful, but Brain Splitter is also the strongest attack in the game (barring Arc of Obliteration) if you can utilize height properly. Can work really nicely if you've a Fighter with Springboard.

For Fighters, spam Dragon's Maw, and utilize it for its obscene i-frames, using Hindsight Slash as an evasion tool, opening with Blink Strike, and trying not to grab onto too many enemies. For Warriors, equip them with Eminence and jump attack a lot. Exodus Slash is fucking awesome. Watching Pawns in action with evasion skills equipped is downright unfair at how fucking good they are with them.

Guardian and Nexus have their uses, but are mostly shit, especially if you're Ranged / Caster, try to avoid pawns with these. They lead to pawns either doing nothing, or running back and forth between monsters and the Arisen / other Pawns.
 

Carceri

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Jul 3, 2007
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Transylvania
What are the best inclinations for a Ranger pawn? Right now mine gets too close to foes and uses daggers a lot. Also, can pawns make use of skills like Great Gamble?

There are some subtleties involved in this though aside form what other posters have already said. I have a 200 lvl ranger pawn on my main account and form what I have observed she started to use bow attacks a lot more as she went up in lvl and got a bigger stamina pool at her disposal. I'm talking strictly about tenfold flurry here, of course. This is the only bow skill I have her equipped with now that she reached the level cap. I did not find anywhere mentioned this, but I am 90% sure the stamina pool in correlation with the foe knowledge determines some how the amount of tenfold flurry spam. Some other utility bow skill I found to be very useful while lvling are fearful din and spiral/corkscrew arrow. A ranger pawn with good knowledge, morbidity augment and sleep/petrify arrows can turn some BBI fights into a walk in the park. Sure, near the lvl cap all this is irrelevant, everything dies in seconds. Great gamble is woth it only if the pawn has over 4k stamina. However, no matter what you do the pawn will occasionally try to use it on some trash mob, which is particularly annoying.

Also, there is nothing wrong for a ranger pawn to use daggers. I see people always complaining about that, but the truth is that climbing a big monster and spamming hundred/thousand kisses on the weak spot is most of the time the fastest way to end the fight. If your pawn knows how to dodge-roll properly then it will do just fine in melee combat.
 

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