Death of a Game: Dragon's Dogma Online 

The fact that this never left japan is one of the great tragedies in modern gaming

I had no idea dragon dogma online was even a thing.

Never forget that they gave us Anarchy Reigns, but withheld Dragon’s Dogma: Online. Why must you hurt us, Japanese game publishers? Why?

I'm convinced it wouldn't have died if they had just released it in English markets. The original game was already more popular outside Asia, so you'd think they'd have known better

THEY'RE MASTERWORKS ALL. CAN'T GO WRONG

"Uh-Rizz-en"; your pawns pronounce it for you non stop through the game

My sister loves DD. Dark arisen. She’s played this game as a child to a 22 year old woman today. All she talks about is the sequel and we are both excited. Crazy game.

What made this game unique vs a tab target mmo was the ability to take out very hard enemies before you're ready for them. I remember me and my friend spending like half an hour killing an ent creature in a forest that we were way under levelled for. Felt so intense climbing it and stabbing it and winning by the skin of our teeth. Had similar with an ogre too. The combat music was epic too very intense.

I was literally talking about Dragons Dogma Online with a friend about 30 minutes ago Your timing is absolutely impeccable

The section explaining how pawns work in Dragons Dogma 1 felt super cursed when you said you can "voice chat" with pawns and that they act like players populating an empty world. Its just ever so slightly off that it makes me feel like ChatGBT wrote that part. Otherwise, good video!

It's "e rɪz ən", not "a rise en". It's said a lot in the the base game and dlc and the main theme throughout the game because you were brought back from the dead.

I literally cringe every time he miss pronounces Arisen.

I regretted not playing this more. This game improved many class imbalances of Dragon's Dogma and streamlined the combat. I really wished they just released it in the west because there was a lot of hoops just to get it to work.

I loved Steparu videos on it, the game was so cinematic yet very action oriented. Such a shame it was cancelled.

truly the most bizarre death that could have been diverted but hey Dragons Dogma 2 is alive and well

This was a game I always wanted to try, the little bit of lagged out gameplay i managed to play of this was amazing. Sad to see the Japanese version being shutdown.

Wtf, DD:O sounds like my dream MMMORPG. With great action combat and game design more like Guild Wars 1, with the small 4 or 8 player group questing in instanced spaces and large hub zones to socialize. What a shame, this never released in the west! :(

I had the pleasure to play DDON. It was a pain to play as you need VPN everytime you login and need translation whenever you do the mission, it is still super fun times especially with the EN group. Alchemist and Elemental archer was a blast to play

Nerdslayer only touches upon but one or two of the aspects of why the JP playerbase was in a constant steady decline. They fell into many of the same balancing traps that PSO2 did. Which is often referred to as the free to play approach of balancing and design. Which proved to be more volatile in their case due to their insulated playerbase left feeling burnt whenever new classes were released. You also had the mounting system which was fundamentally different from Dragon's Dogma, and mostly hated by the playerbase. This core mechanic was eventually phased out, being only really used on flying bosses to keep them grounded. There is a private server in development and has the fundamentals of the game working, but is still very much a WIP and very much "Join my discord" style of private server.

It was so great being able to have multiple pawns and getting them to craft you gear at base and the guild hall.

I like the pawn system more than actually playing with other people tbh. I love the idea of having my creation out there playing and growing with other people.

I can’t wait for Death of a Game: Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League

I can only speak as a Monster Hunter fan, but its wild to me how with Monster Hunter they’ve always been trying to extend that olive branch to the West. Ever since the release of MH Tri with their awesome commercials, they’ve really pushed into the west and with MH World I think they finally cracked it though I think a HUGE part of it is them finally embracing PC. But theyve been always seeking that western audiance. Always blows my mind how other games just couldnt care less even within the same Capcom umbrella

always glad to see you still going strong dood!! bruh i knew about dragon's dogma but had no idea there was even an mmo

Thank you! I asked for this one on the Motor City Online episode last year, after I played and got amazed by the first game and found out that a mmo already existed and already went dead for this franchise, now I can get to what happened

It's pronounced Dark Arizzen 😂 that was driving me crazy. Great video though my man

Last year, there were efforts to make an English private server for DDO, although I haven't checked in on that in half a year, so I'm not sure if it's still an ongoing thing. Although, I doubt it has launched yet, as that would certainly make some gaming news.

I really really wanted DDO to come to the west but alas... the truth hurts. At least we can still hear DD's most famous quotes: "WOLVES HUNT IN PACKS" "THE HEART ARISEN THE HEART ATTACK THE HEART" "MASTERWORKS ALL"

I hope they add a separate game mode to DD2 that’s multiplayer.

I remember being one of the main videos out there to explain how easy it was to play Dragon’s Dogma Online with the English patch, which I was super proud of because damn was it a unique MMORPG. It’s so rare you have an MMO that feels like a single player game, with how weighty and deliberate the combat was. I’d kill to see it get a revival in the west. Maybe if Dragon’s Dogma 2 is successful enough?

I was so sad about this one. I came across it towards the tail end of it shutting down and barely got to scratch it's surface. I always felt like if they had changed the monetization model and touched up a couple things then ported it to the West, it would've been a massive success.

Man as someone that played it for 3 years into server shutdown was amazing, light/dark dragon, dark night fight, the bosses where sick an the classes omg, magic swordsman, shield sage, assassin, an the broken warrior class, imo DD2 has big shoes to fill if it wants to be as good or better then DDO

Since you approached Capcom, I think you should eventually make a video about the latest online Resident Evil games: *Resident Evil Resistance* and *RE:Verse,* which are bizarre Capcom decided to handle them, release them both as a "free multiplayer modes" of Resident Evil 3 "remake" and Resident Evil Village, respectively, while being released as standalone games (unlike GTA Online and Red Dead Online are to GTA 5 and RDR2) AND having zero connections to them, especially between Resident Evil Village and RE:Verse. Even more bizarre is, unlike Resident Evil Resistance, RE:Verse was delayed for over 1 year only to be released to minimal extra content, a very small training map, one extra map and in-game shop. Both games were abandoned by Capcom in less than 6 months after being released. Capcom did not even have the decency to release them as standalone free-to-play titles.

"All riven, kith and kin. All given for this, a never-ending riddle. " Sorry. I just really liked Dragon's Dogma, and that's the first line that pops to mind.

One thing japanese developers doens't seem to understand is that japanese games are popular in the west because they are different, they don't need to cater to the west

I didn't know DD Online was a thing. Thanks for the consistent output and coherent stories, as always!

Thanks NS. I never played online but I've loved DDDA for a long time. Played it on 360, ps4 and switch. 1 of my favorite games of all time. The combat is the best I've ever experienced in a rpg. Thanks for everything you do.

I will add that DDO died because capcom killed their online division in 2019. Monster hunter frontier, the online version, also shut down that year because of this

Still sad this game never got brought to the west, same with Capcom's other MMOs: "Monster Hunter Frontier" and "Monster Hunter Online". But, it is what it is; and at least we're getting the mainline entries.

So glad you covered this. I had the good fortune of playing this back in my uni days and was alot of fun.

There are a few things I agree with, somethings missing context in why it got shut down that wasn't even talked about here, and somethings that were a bit more exaggerated than what it actually was when it was active. He links to the DDON community discord, but I don't recall him asking anybody in the discord on information. From the people that actually played it when it was active.

This is weird but I play your videos to fall asleep to. You have such a calming and relaxing voice!

I've played DDO a lot back in the day on my PS4. I was always obsessed with Dragon's Dogma. We had to use public proxy's to play and we had to change it almost daily cuz it would get super laggy. Then i moved to PC and used private VPN's which were much better. There was a pretty big western community on some specific servers. Even a fan English translation. It helped a lot. I'll always miss those days. Even if we can kinda play it today with private servers, it's not the same thing as having thousands of people online interacting. A shame it ended that way.

I remember making a Japanese account with a Fake VPN just to play this game on PS4. I eventually got a PC just to get the English Patch and man was it fun. It's a shame we haven't seen the Alchemist Vocation in any other DD.

I played like 3 hours of Dragon's Dogma Online, was such a pain to set up and run with the translation. The following day the game updated and I was back at square one. The little time I spent with it was great though, the Shield Sage was very cool.

High Scepter... please....... Itsuno-sama..... I beg you....... DD2 needs High Scepter...... I want to play it

With the mispronunciation of Arisen ("Ah-Riss-En" and not "A-Rise-En"), I think its clear to say you didnt play the games, did you? Cause if you did, you wouldnt have mispronounced the one word that gets repeated the most. Even more than the word "HARPIES!" That said. Very good video!

Kingdom Under Fire 2 next? That's a wild story.

oooooof nringing up lost planet hurts my soul maybe do a death of a game for the series

I never even knew about this game until last weeks community post. I would have been all over this thing if it came to the west.

I still maintain that Dragons Dogma is a perfect match for small party multiplayer and it doesn't need to be MMO scale either, just adding coop to the base game would be enough to make it a really fun almost D&D style experience. I was hoping they would add multiplayer for DD2 but obviously that didn't happen. It's still really sad that DDO never made it to the west, I'm sure it would have been very popular here.

In regards to why it died, one of the speculations back in the day was that capcom didnt want to renew their contract with the company in charge of hosting the servers, because iirc the same month as DDON was shutting down, Monster hunter online also shut down. One thing i loved about this game was how it was an mmo, but it fully played like a singleplayer game, for me who was a wow player, this was just so amazing, you would go into the city and hang out with people, but when you went out into the world to do quests and play the story, you would bring only the people you want, or the pawns you want. The pawns were also so revolutionary, they felt like actual humans, they would do smart stuff that would save you, or do stupid shit that would make you yell at them as if they were a stupid kid. One of my most memorable moments in the game was when i ran into a cyclops that was a lot of levels above me. I had so much fun taking it down, it took me like 15-20 minutes, and it felt like a boss fight, while it was just an ordinary monster, that was just a higher level than me. It was so much fun that i will never forget it. I wanted it to come to the west so much so more people would find out about it and play it, but sadly it shut down before that could ever happen. One thing i must say tho, while i would have liked it to come to the west, i also enjoyed playing on the JP servers a lot. The western people were all gathered up in a few guilds, and it was such a close community, whatever help you needed, people would always give. No matter what it was, whether it was help with how to play your vocation, or with a dungeon, people would always be nice and friendly, and i think that is only because generally westerners werent allowed in the game, you had to use a vpn, and generally there are a lot of cases of japanese online games banning players when they find out they arent playing from japan, but are using a vpn. Overall very sad the game shut down, but the private server project is being worked on by amazing people and i really hope that in a few years we will have the ability to fully play the game like before it shut down.

seeing this video made me feel so sad because there are a plenty of monsters on DDO that aren`t on DD2, i hope they add some in a near future...

Never even knew there was a Dragons Dogma: Online. Loved Dragons Dogma and the Pawn system but the game would have been even more amazing with actual multiplayer.

This was made before Capcom's revival/redemption that started with Monster Hunter World and Resident Evil 7. Good to see them back on top.

I was always so jealous that I couldn't play it. It really did look great.

We need a dragon dogma 2 online.

DDON is the most fun I've had in online games. It was a blast to play during the years it was up. Sure, it did lack content, but the gameplay was so much fun and there were so many classes to try, that you'd hardly ever get bored. I really hope alchemist makes it into DD2, such a cool class concept I've never seen before. I hope the DDON server, while playable and a lot of fun, ends up fully restoring the game, since some parts of the game like quests, loot drops, crafting and area levels are not yet implemented.

I'm glad fans are making a new one I never got to play the original in fact didn't know it even existed until years after it was shutdown.

Ngl at first I thought that the thumbnail said the death of dragon's dogma. I was going to flip out.

Oh man i remember that I wanted to try this so much but as you said was stuck on the east. Dragons dogma was one of my fave games period

It was honestly so much fun to play. Im currently getting some nostalgia through the broken rebuild of the game. quests dont work sadly tho.. also i love this video but your pronunciation of Arisen kills me lol

My cousin and I played a fuckton of DDO using a VPN and English Patch back in the day. We expected them to eventually release it in the West, and were saddened that it was shutdown eventually.

I remember seeing news about Dragon's Dogma Online years ago and wanting desperately to play it. I even watched videos on the various classes in the game and BOY do they have a lot of unique ones. As the years went by, I ended up giving up on hoping for the title to release in the US. Follow that up pretty much immediately with their announcement of it closing down and it was essentially over. Pour one out boys

Another great video, NerdSlayer. I didn't even know they made a Dragon's Dogma Online game, as I'm Canadian. I do tend to prefer South Korean MMOs though so this could've been great!

man i really hope DD2 gets some kind of co-op multiplayer. DDDA has so many moments i wish i could experience with friends

I was station in Japan during the early 2010s and I remembered my roommate playing this on his pc I think or ps2 .

Is Dark A-Ryzen the new line of AMD CPUs?

I remember wishing for this game to exist and I never knew it was actually made. Its crazy how I only found about it due to DD2 o.O

I've let my friends know plenty of times over that they will not be hearing from me for a whole week after Dragon's Dogma 2 comes out. I've been waiting a whole decade for this game that and I've bought and played the original / dark arisen version more times than I can count. Thank you for covering DDO because it's identity is relatively unknown. By the way a key point of Dragon's Dogma was being able to create your own pawns that were meant to gleam information from your own playstyle. P. S. It is A-RIZZ-EN not A-RISE-N.

never heard of the online game! Thanks for the video! :)

Next video - Death of a Game: Suicide Squad kill the justice league 🤣

Played it back in 2016 on my ps4, was a pretty good game and I was really sad to see it shut down :/ maybe DD2 will have a MMO expansion as well

Out of all the DoaGs, this one probably has to hurt the most for me. That said, I hope the lessons they learned with DDON are implemented well in DD2. Also that teaser at the end... Friday the 13th the Game?

This looks like what would have been a dream, ideal MMORPG for me. I may try to look into private servers of this, it feels a shame to never have a chance to play this!

(Before I watch the video) I genuinely think that they closed down the game, to create a demand for Dragon's Dogma 2. It was reported that the dev team were in the middle of making content for an update and basically found out the game was shutting down around the same time the public was told (which was like a month out or something). They had no clue that the game was "doing poorly." Heck, they had a specific server (can't remember the name of it as its been awhile) that was flooded with english speakers like me and a team dedicated to doing a fan translation of the game so we could at least get some of the story out of it. Capcom ended up trying to get rid of us through IP blocks and region locking... I guarantee that if they had created an international version of the game, they wouldn't have been "having issues" making money on it. The game had a very, very short life cycle and it looks like they just gave up on it... very, very fun game by my short time with it. There is currently a dedicated team working to bring up a private server and finish translating it and they've been making a looot of progress so far.

This game was so great. totally worth going through the captcha boss to play.

The alchemist vocation is so cool

DDO was insanely fun. It was literally just Dragons Dogma with co-op and the occasional 8 player raid, which is all I wanted from the original.

Wow i had no idea there was an Online Dragons Dogma. Enjoyed the Dark Arisen game though.

Never played DDO. I hope we get to see some of the creatures and other stuff in DD2

The multi-player I wanted was a up to 4 player co-op. The host would be Arisen and the other 3 would be other players Arisen as pawns. I so wanted to play with my fiance with our main pawns as a 4 man party.

The whole reason I learned how to set up a VPN was to play this game. It definitely was cool, but had some weird design choices for the conversion to MMO status, not all of which were that great tbh. It's also been interesting seeing some of DDO carry over in DD2(Class splits, monsters, etc.)

I'm curious about the revival of the game when you said you can play with friends. Can you only do this in LAN or even with someone online?

Glad to know that the modding community is reviving this gem.

Will ya make a video about omega strikers

interesting that this appeared here This did pretty well in the east, and it was pretty hard trying to play it here in the west, especially if they found out you were from the west you got mass reported and banned

I remember I heard of dragon dogma online while playing DD but there was nothing I can do to play it. That was also during the time When White Knight Chronicles 1 and 2 come out for ps3 they also have a Online mmo setting also you might want to make of video of that also

I really hope that the Alchemist class from DDO makes its way to DD2.

I remember seeing a trailer of this game years ago and wondering to myself at some point what happened to that game, did it even exist at all?

"DDO is nearly completely playable while setting up your own server" Are quests working now? The big thing I remember last time was that there were no quests or anything at all, it was just an open world with monsters in it.

I'm so fucking excited for dd 2 bro, its dropping on my birthday!

i remember using a vpn and going through the steps to play this and there was currently a berserk event ingame. I was devastated when it patched a few days later and i needed a new english patch to play more so i didnt touch it again, to much to mess with.

discord link not working

When you mentioned Deep Down an add immediately went to load and the screen was black for just a moment. Buy it was long enough for me to see deep down into my eyes the pain capcom has inflicted upon me with just these two games alone. That being said I can't wait for dd2. I even have a music video made for the og players with decent views. So this game has given and taken from me lol

I didnt know u could set up a server and play it. Thats pretty neat ngl. I wish more games would do those kind of things. If only EA would release the DawnGate Assets and let ppl have a crack at it like Epic with Paragon. So mega Hyped for DD2.

I found out about this game when it was too late and it was already gone. I sooooo wanted to play it bad! Dragon's Dogma is such a fun game with its mechanics! I just wanna climb and stab! Really hope the new one will have online!

Thank you for covering this masterpiece. DDON was incredible and would have made tens of millions in the West imho.

The idea of dragons dogma online not being big sounds insane to me, so I'm glad this one got covered.

I remember setting my ps4 to Japan and downloading this and playing it