I especially loved his follow-up, citing dragon fighting: "it's a related field." I'm not sure of much in this crazy world, but one thing I know for certain is that Dr C was born to do youtube commentary.
"Would've thought you learned SOMETHING by now"...but nooo, Dave was too busy learning exactly how to break the mind of Jonathan Ferguson, Keeper of Firearms and Artillery at the Royal Armouries Museum in the UK, which houses a collection of thousands of iconic weapons from throughout history. Which to be fair, you have become an expert at.
"I'm being a pedant, but that's sort of my job." I love Toby's down to earth personality and extremely informed analysis. He's brilliant, and I hope we see more of him.
"How far are you willing to go into the realm of impracticality for the sake of your visual appearance?" *In this world it's drip or drown, Spiderman.*
I wish you had Toby Capwell on the channel more frequently, he's great. Also, you need to show him more DD2 armors! You need to show him the marcher armor that Vermund guards wear. Also the set you can pick up in border rest town with the tabard and winged flat-top helmet (the accompanying legs are actually sold in Betahl), as well as the fighter armor you get at volcanic base camp.
i got a mod to boost all the rest of the weapons to have endgame-level stats once fully upgraded and wyrmfire strengthened just so i can use the Marcher set everywhere i go
"It can feel abit like being in a washing machine" Oh man nailed it perfectly for any situation where you're subjected to "Suddenly Physics" in my experience with motorcycles lol
Toby is my spirit animal when it comes to arms and armor in games. I keep this stuff to myself because I know it's irritating to hear, but it's so cathartic to hear an expert address all the qualms I have with artistic choices vs suspension of disbelief in games. That being said, I do my absolute best to just let go and enjoy games for what they are, but it's much easier to do that when you only have a pop culture understanding of arms and armor! Thanks Toby, loved your work with Todd from Todd's Workshop!
I like how he isn't judgemental. He explains the mistakes, tries to source the reason for said mistake, but also acknowledges and accepts that the people behind the game are more 3D artists looking for cool designs and less HEMA enthusiasts/historians going for greatest realism.
@@Candlemancer I find that to be unfair though...as you play the game you get new pieces of armor, some of which don't really "go" together, you'll equip them and hope you find that chest piece that goes and whatnot. It's the nature of these types of games.
@@rin-joh8644 my favorite combo is the Hounskull mixed with a mason armor that looks like chain mail and...erm..brigandine I think? Don't remember the exact name in game.
Great to see Toby back, I always enjoy seeing him on the show, and I appreciate his dry humour. Now if you can only find some game with armour AND firearms, and feature both Toby and Jonathan together, that would be amazing.
@@mikeesteves8427 Apart from the outlandish giant weapons, I think Monster Hunter has a lot of decent armors. They're basically regular armor with monster body parts sewn on top of it, if not just plain clothing made out of monster skin.
I am playing as Beleg Cuthalion and with my companion Turin Turambar from the silmarillion. The helm and the Bow. And turin is inspired party by Tristan and Lancelot. And st George with his fight against the dragon. Siegfried in german. I got in trouble with a dragon in batthal in dragons dogma 2. But I used the turin trick for defeating Glaurung. In a tight spot to minimize its mobility:)
I really want this guy to look at Examima. The visuals, the actuality of the gear, and all of the actual armor effects, it's all very well put together and I think he'd like it.
I'd love to see Toby's reactions to some of BG3's armor and equipment. Some of it is definitely very fantastical and out there but other stuff is surprisingly grounded (or at least have some interesting features)
For videos like this, I think you need to do a better job of giving the reactor how the setup works and/or put together sets appropriately for design. A lot of instances in this video had more to do with "Player Fault" as opposed to "Developer Fault". I'm pretty sure every time he mentioned the cloak it was a "Player Fault" issue since very few cloaks are designed with specific armor pieces in mind, and even fewer were allocated properly in your presented armor sets. Only notable point where you as the presenter/interviewer really seemed to convey this issue was when he mentioned the pants not lining up with the armor, and you admit it was a problem of your fashion choices. At this point it became apparent that he wasn't made aware of 4 armor slots being mixed and matched by the player as opposed to the developer. So throughout the video he's pinning the blame on the design of the armor as opposed to the person who chose to wear pieces not designed together in the first place. It'd be nice if it felt like the reactor was prepared properly for the setup or your prepared the presentation appropriately to be reacted to as would be expected. Then at least the criticism of certain facets would be going towards the correct place.
10:04 he's right, if you look at lizardman evolution, they're lesser dragons, think of them as Turians from mass effect, aim for the more softer spots.
Him: How far are you willing to go into the realm of impracticality for the sake of your visual appearance? Me, an intellectual: All the way sir, ALL the way. 😂😂😂
Would have been cool to show him the Flashback sequence early in the game! I really like the armor you wear during that and it's sad you cant get that armor without mods
Someone should tell Tobias that Mystic Spearhand in universe is a combat style literally built piecemeal by taking techniques and equipment from other fighting styles and schools. It was literally a guy going "I wanna look as cool as possible and don't care about a cohesive aesthetic" so the fact his big complaint is the lack of a cohesive aesthetic means it did its job perfectly
Yeah, Spearhand is, by design, a disparate collection of techniques prioritizing function over form. In-lore, it's even hyperspecialized with the the specific aim of fighting the dragon.
There's a few things to disagree with Toby on this one, particularly since he's more eurocentric in his knowledge about armour. Long scale (or lamellar) skirts are common on asian armour, since most of those armours were designed with intention to use on horseback. It's not a design you see in western europe but it is definitely still a design which historically existed - although wearing one on foot would get a bit more cumbersome. As for armouring with plate on arms and legs before doing it on the torso there is basis for it. Particularly light cavalry will opt for leg plate armour even if they're not wearing plate torso armour, this is mentioned in Cordebeuf's description of french coustilliers from ca 1450 (they have helmets, mail shirts, gauntlets and leg plate).
Seeing him react to Dragon's Dogma 2 armors, it would of been nice to have him see the first Dragon's Dogma with how it handled armor, especially with the lamellar armor in that one being more of actual lamellar than in Dragon's Dogma 2.
One of the things that stood out in the original for me was its focus on conventional armor designs. My knight style characters would get a surcoat with mail or a gambeson under it first, then move up to just a breastplate. I'm not able to play the sequel yet so I don't know, but I think this video is focused on the late game designs using fantastical enchanted or enhanced components.
One thing I do like is how it depicts the way armor affects your movement. It uses a stamina system where the weight of your equipment decreases the rate at which the stamina gauge regenerates, so while heavy armor doesn't restrict how well you can move around, it does affect how long you can move without taking a break.
He has a lot of very good and *very* valid points, but something to consider: Dragon's Dogma is very specifically designed around the idea of "classic" fantasy stuff, 80's and 90's stuff. The devs absolutely know stuff is unrealistic but realism isn't the intent. Armor and weapon design in the game is mostly form over function, which is perfectly fine for a very fantastical game. It's not trying to be realistic and it doesn't have to be.
mr.capwell is very reasonable. even in a fantasy world the way a person armors themselves should conform to some type of logic, even if that's logic exclusive to the fantasy world. and that type of forethought was common to old pc fantasy games like ultima, which has sadly fallen by the weyside.
I didn't care for the way the capes looked in this game, and they clipped a lot too. So I went more for the mantle types, and I'm VERY happy with how my character looks in them! They have a poncho look to them, which along with the heavy armor, makes her look like an armored cowpoke. Very fitting for the southern desert. Fashion Dogma is definitely a thing! The stats aren't hugely important after a certain level anyway. (Unless there's some high-level unique stuff that has specific effects...I haven't found any yet, at 42.)
Long skirts were common through history with tight fitting cuisses only being a late medieval onwards thing. Yes, they were very heavy. High medieval chinese heavy lamellar suits with skirts going past the knees often weighted 30kg or more.
Awesome! I'm really addicted to Dragon's Dogma 2 right now. And I'm always happy to see Toby Capwell - him and Jonathan Ferguson are my absolute favourites :-) Hoping for a part two! I wanna hear his opinions on the flamberge. ... also still hoping for a video on the guns from Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, no matter how impropable that is.
I disagree about the armored skirt. There are plenty of instances, historically, of armored skirts with padded leggings. Ancient Mediterranean, Roman, and Middle Eastern soldiers wore them. Some were long enough to reach the middle calf area. But, the longer ones usually were only worn by cavalry.
I'm so sorry Mr Campbell, the guy behind the choice of armor sets fumbled the Smoke Magic Man massively with those shoulders, because the chest he was wearing was a reference to the Tibetan Monk outfits except made of some outlandish white leather.
I agree wholeheartedly, if they took the time in fantasy to add function and reality to design and movement, placement. It can only help immersion and that is the point. I'll never say add reality slavishly to fantasy but grounding definitely helps.
Capwell is obviously not a fan of the Berserk school of armor composition. He didn't notice that the Clerical helmet didn't cover the top of the head lol. Mages deserve more wiggle room in the Drip vs Practicality department. Great to see Tobias Capwell on. People interested in more armor related stuff should check out his book on english armor.
About the bevor - in general (and I am no expert, nor an amputee or someone with any sort of limb disability or difference, so YMMV, please feel free to correct me if you know better) people in real life will not wear and cannot be made to wear for any length of time a prosthetic arm that is fundamentally annoying to wear. Even those with no hands at all, even with access to *extremely* sophisticated prosthetics, will choose to leave their arm on the shelf if the socket is not made with their (specifically *their,* bespoke, not some random stranger's) comfort in mind. That is to say, while I have no doubt that the bevor *was* used correctly -- it's designed that way for a reason and is there to save your life after all -- I also have no doubt that sometimes it will have been worn impractically loosely even at risk of life (especially by those wearing cheaper armour). The soldiers in question perhaps did so out of sight of their commanding officers, but I can absolutely hear the age-old saying, "look, fine, just don't come crying to me when [you're 'orribly beheaded]" having been uttered. Not really a criticism of Tobias Capwell here, just a note - sometimes real people do unrealistic things for the sake of, eh, feel like it. Just ask your average crazy French snowboarder. Just wear a helmet! Don't die! Is it so hard to just make the not-dying decision??? AaaahhhH!!!
the thing i love about Toby is that he respects the material hes reviewing, he allows susspension of disbelief because its a fantasy setting, he sees that its a fun game that is overall well presented, the man loves LOTR so its understandable. Game designers please hire people like Toby to advise you on historical arms and armor, even for you fantasy games!
This guy is awesome! Love his attitude, humour and calm competence. Not an expert on crocodile-people, but I can forgive that, since he's honest about it :D
I think I would have the pauldron on the shield side, since that's the bit my opponent might hit. I'd also have the gauntlet on my sword hand cause that's the bit they're more likely to hit, as opposed to my shield hand... cause there's a shield on it. I agree though, you'd want the chest covered.
1:28 It isn't only about animation expression. Combat movements in the games in general have to be readable for gameplay reasons, especially the start and end of movement. So player can see, understand, and react to actions properly.
The British Museum is currently displaying Roman armour basically made from a big piece of crocodile, so it's not just Renaissance era fantasy as precedent for dragon armour
This guy is great! Very intentional with his words. He admits he's not an expert but then has an excellent take on it, and it makes all the sense. Straight G😂
In the symmetry segment: As an author of fantasy settings, the reason they likely designed the mail armor at the start that way is because as the "guy with the shield" you're the one standing between the monsters and your back liners. And we're not talking just goblins. The reason for the extra plating? It's the thing standing between you and a twenty foot tall cyclops, and between your sword arm and some very big, very nasty teeth. At least that is what I'll assume, because when you asked for video games to be considerate of the equipment and rationale of equipping oneself for combat, this is not a game about fighting other people or soldiers in the slightest. The armor set is both a beginners, and likely cheap set of armor regardless of it's status, but they likely didn't add even more plating to be shielded from one side wholly, while remaining light enough to remain mobile.
I thought of it as someone that had chain armor scavenging bits of plate armor when useable pieces are found. Just adding on what ever they can find for extra protection.
@@elchjol2777 That's a reasonable possibility, but I still think "designed to fight a giant" is still more plausible because of the fact their the front liner.
That comment on how he is going to walk through a door reminds me of the scene in final fantasy remake where cloud pulls his sword and immediately hits a door frame, I remember laughing so much at that scene.
16:17 Its kinda amusing that a game made by a Japanese company can't make lamellar armor look right. You'd think that a culture that historically used lamellar armor and atleast know what it looks like.
It'd be interesting to see him do the first game as I think I remember things like the bevor being more accurate, however it was likely changed in the second as well as some of the other pieces as they would typically clip through other parts of the armour in the first
2:55 ask 15th century Italians why have such large left pauldrons. 5:00 there are similar styles of breastplates in 15th century Burgundian armor. 17:42 maximilian couters can stick out a lot. 21:15 reminds me of dussacks
