How Dragon's Dogma Does Open-World Right (and Wrong)

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A review/critique/analysis/retrospective of Dragon's Dogma (2012), taking an in-depth look at its open-world design, and what makes it such a great open-world hack-and-slash action-adventure-role-playing-game. With the sequel, Dragon's Dogma 2 coming out soon, I wanted to go back and re-examine one of my favorite games in this genre and figure out what makes Dragon's Dogma 1's open-world so compelling to me. It has a lot of great and interesting things going on in this department that set it apart from other, similar types of games, but it does have some notable flaws that could've been done better, which I'm hoping will be addressed in the sequel.
00:00 - Intro/Overview
01:39 - What it does right
13:45 - What it does wrong
20:10 - Other positives
22:09 - Outro/Conclusion
Dragon's Dogma is an open-world hack-n-slash action-adventure role-playing-game from 2012, developed by the same team at Capcom that had previously worked on games in the Resident Evil and Devil May Cry series. Dragon's Dogma takes inspirational elements from both of those series, with its take on more western-styled fantasy-RPGs blending some of the darker, more survival-horror elements of Resident Evil with the highly physical intensity of Devil May Cry's more stylish combat. Those are both fun enough qualities that make Dragon's Dogma stand out from some of its competition, but one of the things I really like about it is how it handles its open-world design.
I'm fond of open-world games in general because I'm an avid explorer in pretty much every genre of game, and open-world games obviously emphasize that aspect with abundant opportunity; but I also enjoy that greater feeling of agency that comes with having the freedom to choose your own path through the game world and how you'll engage with all of the game's content, which makes every person's experience feel somewhat unique since no two players will ever go to the same places and do the same things in the same order. And yet I find that some open-world games are a little too big and spread out for their own good, or else fill their world with too much shallow, repetitive content, which can make me lose interest and start to feel bored after a while. In some cases, it turns an ordinarily compelling gameplay experience into a dull exercise in time-wasting tedium.
Dragon's Dogma doesn't fully escape from some of the pitfalls of open-world design, and in fact it has some notable flaws that I'll get into later, but it does some really unique things that you don't often see in other open-world games, and certainly not in this combination, which makes the open world of Dragon's Dogma one of the more engaging ones that I've ever experienced, and certainly one of my personal favorites.
#dragonsdogma
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16 июн 2024

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Комментарии : 114

@LN.2233 3 месяца назад

In hindsight, a lot of Dragon's Dogma 1's pitfalls were due to the fact that the budget was small and their lack of experience. This is why Bitterblack Isle was the best content because it focused on direct dungeon crawling. I kind of hope the sequel is fixing much of that because it seems so.

@TheNocturnalRambler 3 месяца назад

Bitterblack works in large part because it rightly focuses on some of the core game's strongest assets and distills them down into a more compact, potent form so you can really appreciate (and enjoy) the good stuff without dealing with so much of the tedium of the other extraneous stuff. Hopefully DD2 understands this and improves on the stuff that didn't work so well in the original and can make the whole game feel like it's on the level of Bitterblack, but while still retaining the appeal of the more open-world design of the original.

@maegnificant 3 месяца назад

Bitterblack Isle was by far the worst part of the game for me and I never got very far. Played through the game twice though.

@Grynfelt 3 месяца назад

I honestly hope if they decide to make a DLC for the second game to not do something like Bitterblack Isle again, those mechanics and grind had no place in a single player RPG, while I loved the base game, the exploration, finding dungeons around the map in caves and so on, Bitterblack felt like some Diablo/Path of Exile dungeon crawl to get random loot + it was an annoying traversal to the last boss.

@TheNocturnalRambler 3 месяца назад

@Grynfelt I understand that desire. But at the same time, there are people (like me) who were deeply engrossed by the dungeon crawl of BBI and enjoyed it. The best compromise may be to have a dungeon/environment in the style of BBI for those who want it, while not making it the entire focus of the core game or DLC so those who don't want it don't feel forced to engage with it. I'm thinking sort of like how the Chalice Dungeons in Bloodborne were totally optional but offered extra challenge and rewards for the people who wanted it.

@LN.2233 3 месяца назад

@Grynfelt Well early diablo was a single player rpg and so are many dungeon crawlers. The grind, traversing dungeons, fighting enemies, and better loot isthe point and works well with the parallel worlds of DD

@SimplyMavAgain 3 месяца назад

i always loved how Dragon's Dogma uniquely managed to create the sense of a long arduous journey. traveling all the way to Bluemoon Tower for the first time, while not being a weeks long endeavor still managed to evoke feelings similar to whenever the LotR movies showed those travel montages. There's no game that does it quite like Dragon's Dogma and this video does a great job at going into the details of how that sense of a journey is achieved. Great stuff! Incredibly excited for Dragon's Dogma 2. With its far bigger world map and the presence of a camping system i feel like they're only going to double down on those long journeys that make you want to make sure you're properly prepared before setting out.

@TheNocturnalRambler 3 месяца назад

I alluded to "old school fantasy literature" in the video, but those travel scenes in the LOTR movies are exactly what I was thinking of.

@YourLocalCopiumDealer 3 месяца назад

LotR. Yes, that captures the feel of DD perfectly! The fellowship, the travel, the party dynamic in combat. I thought the landscapes and landmarks in DD1 were rewarding enough, but from what I've seen of DD2 we get rocky desert areas and pine tree forests too. Maybe 4 times the size means 4 wildly different terrains?

@Darkwater1886 3 месяца назад

I think the craziest thing to me was how defense for enemies worked. If an enemies Physical/Magical defense was higher than the attacks total, you didn't do reduced damage. YOU DID ZERO DAMAGE. That means if you ended up in a high level area, even skilled play wouldn't save you lol.

@blade6965 3 месяца назад

that's the reason why min-maxing is so encouraged if you ever looked up the guides,you either destroy your enemies or the game turns into tes 4 Oblivion

@Valkod23 3 месяца назад

@@blade6965Min-maxing was a thing before Dark Arisen was released. Now with how powerful BBI gear is and how strong cheese and some tactics are, you don't need to minmax. Hell, Infinite Cringe recently beat the entire game while offline, no DLC gear, no pawns, and all stats at 1 via using a mod/cheat engine . Their level was set to 200 so they wouldn't even get any levels. With the right cheese and tactics, a Warrior can do enough damage to one-shot Death. Mage 1-10 and Sorcerer 11-200 Magic Attack gains are less than the BBI tier 2 Archistaff when given just some upgrades. Weapons + Augments can easily compensate for a non-minmax build with Dark Arisen.

@NeoAstrisk 3 месяца назад

And this is a good thing.

@jokig 2 месяца назад

A damage threshold system was the entirely wrong way to go with Dragon's Dogma, imo

@pixelmaster9964 2 месяца назад

@@blade6965min-maxing is heavily discouraged. You can look up videos of people leveling full physical and then switching to sorc with the proper gear and augments and still kicking ass. Gear and augments is where 90% of your stats come from.

@sheezy2526 3 месяца назад

I remember 2001 game Severance the Blade of Darkness. If you try to drink a potion while in combat and the enemy manages to hit you you drop the potion on the floor. It is crazy how many good systems some of these old games really had but were taken for granted because non of it was marketed.

@TheNocturnalRambler 3 месяца назад

That's such a novel mechanic, and it's sad that not much else has really tried to replicate anything like that, as far I'm aware. So many games nowadays are just instant-healing from a hotkey, which feels awfully immersion-breaking if you actually stop to think about it.

@LN.2233 3 месяца назад

Severance was also a hack & slasher with low enemy counts, hard lock on, and easy enemy stagger. Its approach to combat is ultimately very different from DD.

@pitbullnamedcupcake8485 3 месяца назад

Kind of reminds me of the feature in Baldur’s Gate 3 where you can throw potions at your teammates

@washaa 3 месяца назад

You could also loot enemies potions. But if you didn't finish then off effectively they'd scamper off and heal, quaffing the potion. Made you take that into account and do those enemies in first. Good game.

@rusi6219 Месяц назад

That game had amazing gore

@vulcanitu2578 3 месяца назад

Severely limited fast travel was painful, especially with really asshole-ish enemy respawn

@TheNocturnalRambler 3 месяца назад

I would definitely say the original version was TOO limited and TOO harsh with its fast-travel. Dark Arisen did some good things to address this by adding more port crystals and lowering the cost of ferrystones, but I also feel like they lowered the cost too much, and straight up GIVING you the Eternal Ferrystone right off of the bat is excessive.

@NeoAstrisk 3 месяца назад

Nah the main issue was the static spawns. It'd be fine if there were variety.

@IBN5100SG 3 месяца назад

I like to be challenged by games as well, but in DD I constantly felt I am being punished for playing. The constantly re-appearing same groups of enemies in the same locations were extreme boring after a short while, the fact the game was basically non-stop combat added to the repetition, while having to micromanage pawns every level and do all sort of similar busywork detracted from the experience. I got to Gran Soren, did some quests, but then simply stopped and never came back, as I could not shake off the feeling that the gameplay is constantly getting in the way of the actual game.

@TheNocturnalRambler 3 месяца назад

A major problem with DD, I suppose, is that you sort of have to meet it halfway on a lot of things by deliberately ignoring certain aspects that turn you off (like me ignoring healing items to make the health system more satisfying), or take deliberate effort to circumvent other issues that prove too much of a nuisance (like hiring pawns a few higher levels than your current level so you don't have to switch them out as often), or just sort of acknowledge some of the faults and try to deal with them as best as possible (like the repetitive respawn of the same enemies in the same locations). There's a lot of buy-in, in other words, before it becomes truly enjoyable, and even then, it's still got some issues that you just have to overlook.

@JuliusCaesar103 3 месяца назад

Finally you made your article into a video. Also the hype for the sequel is real, this final week without it can't go quickly enough

@TheNocturnalRambler 3 месяца назад

In actuality, it's a whole new script that only expands on a few concepts that I only vaguely touched on in the original article. I wasn't super pleased with that original review back when I wrote it as I felt like I didn't really capture the essence of why I liked the game so much back then, and I'm even less pleased with it now, so I just set out to start from scratch with better understanding of my opinions and a more capable way of expressing them.

@georgelitsitis7849 3 месяца назад

It's good see you back with the videos. It's been a while!

@TheNocturnalRambler 3 месяца назад

Thank you! I'm expecting to be able to upload more regularly for the time being, at least, so there shouldn't be another year-long wait like when I was working on the Elex 2 review.

@wst34 3 месяца назад

i feel like the portcrystal thing is good to have and could be ignored if you don't wanna use them. I don't have much time to play each day due to work so it really helps the casual aspect of the game.

@Gothicfan 3 месяца назад

Thank you for the awesome videos. I love to fall asleep to these kind of videos (I sometimes watch the same video way too many times :P)

@TheNocturnalRambler 3 месяца назад

Glad you enjoy it!

@Kuoin 3 месяца назад

Did 2 runs on PS3 when the game came out and if I recall you get 1 or 2 portcrystals(arisen you get like 5?) per run before you did a ng+ run and I think I used the ferrystones a total of 10 times cuz I didn't wanna waste my gold, lots of running. And when the PC version came out and I played dark arisen I was thankful for the unlimited teleport but if that was my first time playing it would have felt very different for the overall experience, one which would be more negative for a first timer, at least personally.

@TheNocturnalRambler 3 месяца назад

I think you're correct in those assessments. I would say the teleport system from the original release was indeed a little TOO restrictive, but then I also feel like Dark Arisen pushed it to the other extreme where it became too liberal. To me the sweet spot is to have the extra port crystal from Dark Arisen, with the single-use ferrystones from the original version (albeit perhaps not quite as expensive). I love how the world design and teleport system force you to engage with the world in person more, but that appeal does wear off after the second (or maybe third?) time through an area when you start to notice the constant respawn of the same enemies in the same places all the time. At which point, it becomes more enticing to just teleport so you don't have to deal with that stuff.

@theor1962 3 месяца назад

Love Dragon's Dogma. The world feels a little empty at times, and I hate the infinite respawn of the same enemies everywhere, but damn if it isn't satisfying to explore the world for the first time and fight all of its monsters. For an open-world game, it's mostly about the combat system, and if you can get into the combat and leveling up to get more skills and so you can fight the bigger boss enemies, then it's easier to overlook the flaws and just enjoy it for those aspects alone.

@Zeurion 3 месяца назад

I am so happy you made another video so fast after the last one! You're probably really busy, but I was wondering if you are still playing The Chronicles of Myrtana. Keep up the good work!

@TheNocturnalRambler 3 месяца назад

It turns out videos are a lot faster to produce when they're only 23 minutes long and only have about 30 hours of footage to scrub through, while only focusing on one very specific aspect. As opposed to a 3+ hour comprehensive analysis with extensive comparisons to previous games and over 200+ hours of footage to pull from just in the game being reviewed alone (not to mention another 200+ hours of footage from the other games being compared). As for COM, I'm not actively playing it right now and still have the full playthrough on hold for the time being. I'm trying to work on some other, shorter videos for the next few months so I don't have such a long delay in releases like I did getting through the Elex 2 review. I may ultimately wait until the updated 2.0 version of COM is out to play it in full, depending on how long their production takes and where I'm at with other games or how I'm feeling down the road.

@user-kh6kp3ij9v 2 месяца назад

One of the best review channels i love the calme and grounded presentation keep up the good work

@julvadas 3 месяца назад

Guess who’s back! Your last video did very well, I’ve watched it twice now haha

@TheNocturnalRambler 3 месяца назад

Thanks for the kind words, and the extra views/watch time. I've watched it a few times myself!

@bpopa27 3 месяца назад

For an rushed and unfinished game it's pretty good open world

@czarkusa2018 3 месяца назад

With Outward 2 just being announced, I wonder if we'll get an Outward analysis.

@TheNocturnalRambler 3 месяца назад

It's been recommended to me several times before, but I almost certainly won't be getting to it any time in the near future due to my busy schedule and too many other games I already own that I want to get to, first.

@czarkusa2018 3 месяца назад

@@TheNocturnalRamblerThe fantasy hiking and preparation is unparalleled, but it also feels as uncanny as a Gothic game if none of the NPCs had anything to say. Once one gets past how little dialogue stuff there is it's worth being invested in its preparation gameplay stuff but it really is kind of shocking how empty it feels due to that issue. I appreciate the tens and perhaps occasionally hundreds of hours (Elex...) of direct effort behind your videos, and that doesn't even get into your prior experiences. You work damn hard and it adds up to something worth seeing, gl out there.

@washaa 3 месяца назад

Sadly DD2 is confirmed to allow for menu healing again... it will be a cakewalk if we don't hold back on munching grass again. Totally agree on the fast travel in DDDA being too accessible. Completely sucks out any sense of dedication towards setting out on a quest or journey. However, the base game not giving you tools to setup camp or similar made it too restrictive. Walking around during night in a new area felt foolish to do, so my rp sense forced me to make many return trips before I became accustomed with the world. I feel the sequels camps will solve this in a great way and provide something I've been longing for in 3D games. Being able to plan short adventures in a reasonable way. Outwards did it decently but lacked in other ways.

@Manwithopinions 3 месяца назад

For me, it was the repetitive enemy placements and the pawn chatter that really got on my nerves after a while. I also think the world could benefit from a somewhat larger scale so to allow the player to go through different routes between towns (obviously more towns would be nice too) and a dynamic enemy spawn system rather than a static set time where they spawn and what spawns there. It made the first game’s world feel less alive due to that.

@TheNocturnalRambler 3 месяца назад

I agree with all of that. I like the pawn chatter, since that makes them feel more alive and gives me a stronger feeling of this being an actual party of adventurers going on a journey together, but some of the chatter gets to be repetitive after a while. Sometimes they all talk at once and you just get bombarded with a wall of audio/subtitles. But otherwise, yeah, dynamic respawns for the enemies, some more varied pathways, and a few more towns/villages would've helped a lot.

@WhoDaresWinso7 3 месяца назад

Dragons dogma and wrong in the same sentence? Sorry i dont understand how thats possible.

@DKarkarov 3 месяца назад

My understanding is dogma 2 at least addresses some of these complaints. Ie there is no manual save anymore. The pawn recovery now has a wait time to it too, though i doubt they added a use time to healing items.

@NIL0S 3 месяца назад

Loved DD and played the heck out of it, it has a very engaging mix of features. The only thing that left me super iffy about it, were the unrepeatable timed quests. I get it, fail states can make things interesting, but how am I supposed to judge if I'm able to tackle such a quest with absolutely zero foreknowledge and no idea about where to go?

@TheNocturnalRambler 3 месяца назад

Yeah, some of that is a little frustrating. I do like how many consequences stem from the quest design, with so many of them having different outcomes that affect the success rate of the quest and which may have future consequences on later quests or main story events. And it does add some degree of compelling realism to the game world that things don't always wait around indefinitely for you to experience them. It would just help if there was a better way to anticipate when quests are going to get canceled or become unavailable so that it feels like more of a consequence of your actual decision-making, as opposed to just happening unexpectedly for no discernible reason.

@DKarkarov 3 месяца назад

But that's kind of the point. You were meant to feel a sense of risk and make "I'm not sure" choices. Devs wanted you to always be thinking about risk vs reward and the fact that you wouldn't just take that side quest without thought means they succeeded.

@Golghrom 3 месяца назад

What an awesome game, replaying it for the idk how many times 😂.

@123SLM123 3 месяца назад

I played this game several years after release on the PS4. It was the Dark Arisen edition. I remember that I had a hard time in the beginning, but that the game really picked up after the first few hours, but that I also did not finish the expansion due to fatigue. I recently bought this game again for my PC to replay before the second part releases, and had a very hard time getting through this game again. I gave the game a good shot, but am 5 hours into it and am not having any fun so I won't be likely to finish it this time around. Which is a shame, but it also doesn't matter because I will be playing the second game in a few days.

@TheNocturnalRambler 3 месяца назад

I remember struggling a little to get into the game when I played it originally back in 2013. The introductory enemies and quests around Cassardis are pretty mundane, and there's some weird pacing issues with how much back-tracking is involved with doing its various side-quests. It makes a good chunk of that early game content feel like padding, while not painting a strong picture of what the future gameplay is going to be like. That may be part of the reason the game starts you out playing Savan in that prologue sequence, which at least teases some of the more exciting action sequences you can expect in the full game. For me, it wasn't until I made it to Gran Soren that things really started to click, with the world opening up a lot more and having some more interesting quests and character interactions, not to mention the proper introduction of the economy system and achieving a level where the vocation system started to really shine. I then also found Bitterblack Isle extremely compelling as I liked the dungeon-crawling environments and the higher challenge and rewards that came with it.

@vinoirma8225 3 месяца назад

I wanted to play as a 2h sword but it was tedious when at normal difficulty a bunch of lizzards easily killed me in the starting town. And the quests you protect npcs side to side drained my soul and forced me to unistall the game.

@TheNocturnalRambler 3 месяца назад

I'm not sure how popular the 2H Warrior class is, but I like it a lot. That was my preferred class back when I played originally in 2013, though I've come to really appreciate the Strider/Archer class more for its superior versatility and mobility. The Warrior is tough to play, though, due to its slow movement speed, slow attack speed, and worst of all only having 3 active skill slots (everyone else gets 6), but it's really satisfying when you land those heavy hits for massive damage, and I also like the wide-sweeping AOE strikes it can do in close range. I also really like the escort quests the first couple times you take one on where you're venturing into uncharted territory, but it does get incredibly stale and tedious very fast, to the point that I stopped doing them after a short while.

@NeoAstrisk 3 месяца назад

The only viable way to play is jumping light. Then arc of obliteration when they're knocked down. I'm glad DD2 is fixing this.

@TheMightyNovac 3 месяца назад

I love how seemingly every positive has been doubled-down on, and every flaw you mention has been in some way dealt with: healing items no longer restore max health, the open-world has far more distinctive and visually appealing regions, the level design is more varied, the monster encounters are more dynamic and mobile, the Ferrystones have been brought back to pre-Dark Arisen balancing. The works.

@TheNocturnalRambler 3 месяца назад

You're describing what they're doing with the sequel, right? If so that sounds really promising.

@BaraTheVeggie Месяц назад

Gave it a whirl after your video, 69 hours amazingly spent, can't believe I slept on it for so long. A weirdly compelling experience from start to finish. Still considering if I gimped myself from enjoying the game even more with doing the door glitches and grabbing some op items in the start, nevertheless it was a blast. Can't imagine how the sequel can be better than this honestly, looks better but also like some soul has been sucked out of it. Patiently waiting for your thoughts.

@StayWildTV 3 месяца назад

is DD2's world going to be kinda like this?

@DKarkarov 3 месяца назад

Kinda yes. But also extremely larger with two kingdoms and two major cities with much more variety in land scapes and more enemy types. Up to and including gondolas to ride on and the ability to "make camp" in the wild.

@Lishaaaaaaa 3 месяца назад

I feel like travel is somewhat trivialised once you set up your portcrystal network and have the eternal ferrystone (included in Dark Arisen). It eliminates the need to use regular ferrystones. Even so, it doesn't diminish me enjoying traversing the world manually; it just makes annoying escort quests less fraught to deal with.

@TheNocturnalRambler 3 месяца назад

Oh it definitely is. But I think by that point you've likely already explored most of the map once already (since you have to have explored the map to each place you want to place a port crystal) and done a fair amount of its content to unlock all the port crystals. So by that point I feel like you've earned the right to start using the teleport system more freely. And it's especially justified by that point with the set enemy placements and respawns that you've likely dealt with a couple times already and didn't need to be constantly experiencing over and over again. The main issue is really just that the Eternal Ferrystone combined with a single port crystal can completely trivialize all the long-term consequences you're meant to suffer from a long journey away from town.

@rphilipsgeekery4589 3 месяца назад

I had no idea this game was so hardcore, never played it, I assumed it was just another typical rpg :)

@nobodyimportant4778 2 месяца назад

In theory the inventory management is strategic. In practice, the actual way it interfaces with the player is by wasting their time.

@jinji_xo 3 месяца назад

Nearly everything in "what it does wrong" is because the game is unfinished. There were only a few things they had time to fix when they released Dark Arisen, thats why the og isnt available. Dark Arisen is the patched/updated version of the game. Obviously now, DD2 is everything they wanted to do and more

@adamiadamiadami 2 месяца назад

You can still pause and heal during combat, which means it's a broken game, unnimersive and lazy design. Lol

@28Silent 3 месяца назад

this game is very similar to Outward. it's funny, every negative thing you mentionedin DD1 have, you would not find in Outward, what makes it perfect game for you 😊

@wilddreams 3 месяца назад

you should try gothic if you haven't. it's old as stone but you seem like the kind of cultured gamer who would soak this up like nothing.

@TheNocturnalRambler 3 месяца назад

Funny you should mention that. I've been a huge fan of the Gothic games (and Piranha Bytes in general) ever since 2003. My fondness for those games is one of the main things I'm known for, and I have several videos already on the various Gothic games.

@wilddreams 3 месяца назад

@@TheNocturnalRambler oh well, i should have checked out your account before posting then xD you sound like a gothic fan even when talking about other games

@skydivin4ng3l 3 месяца назад

I think there should be options to play a game. For example your wish for harder restrictions, well u can always choose to make your life harder. But there should be a choice to do so. U don't like the fast travel don't use it. The most important part is that both choices are fun. Most modern games relie on fast travel without its not bareable. The same for save games... allow save scamming. If the player wants to save time. Let them. If they wine about it being possible and can't hold them self back using it well. They might have other problems in life.

@SogonD.Zunatsu 3 месяца назад

I can just tell by how the camera moves and the switch between keyboard and controller controls on the hud that you're using a Steam Controller. 😁

@TheNocturnalRambler 3 месяца назад

You are correct. I've got the right trackpad as mouse (with all face buttons programmed underneath it on click), left trackpad as joystick (with sprint on outer ring and jump on click), and gyro set to activate on L1 when the bow is drawn. It's been a pretty good setup, a helluva lot better than the old DualShock 3 controls I used originally on the PS3 version.

@SogonD.Zunatsu 3 месяца назад

@@TheNocturnalRambler The flickering of the controls on the HUD would make me craaazy ! I'd sooner give up analog controls and have the stick emulate WASD than deal with that.

@Eeiiaane 3 месяца назад

I didn't know it was directly influenced by RE, the game feels more like a MH+DMC to me..

@TheNocturnalRambler 3 месяца назад

Monster Hunter is the more direct, obvious comparison. The RE influence is relatively minor, as I'd say it's mostly the dark, spooky atmosphere of night and some of the quasi-survival elements, plus the fact that there are literal zombies in it. It's really more of a tiny hint of RE flavor than a fundamental influence.

@NeoAstrisk 3 месяца назад

The best change for me going into DD2 is that sprinting out of combat will not use stamina. The only mod I have for the first.

@allandm 2 месяца назад

God I hate farming in every game... just WHY

@hakijin 3 месяца назад

You have to play this game in the summer of 2012. All time after is a lesser experience

@TakaChan569 2 месяца назад

Not gonna lie every restriction you wanted would have made the game worse lol, any of they would have made things far more of a pain. The game itself wasn't even that hard to start, nvm if you took the time to grind or you do the thing that became common later of using BBI to just make the main game a joke.

@crreginald5943 Месяц назад

"promosm"

@stuffstuff6932 3 месяца назад

Idk man that section about what it does right sounded like a ton of negatives to me. Just really tedious stuff.

@TheNocturnalRambler 3 месяца назад

Some people will feel that way, and that's ok. I really enjoy all that stuff because it adds meaningful consequences to all of the basic mechanics, so it actually matters how you choose to move about the game world and interact with it because there's some sort of trade-off for nearly everything you do. That then leads to a fun level of "risk vs reward" and a stronger feeling of tension when going on a long journey outside of town, which are feelings I don't generally get from other, similar types of games.

@stuffstuff6932 3 месяца назад

@@TheNocturnalRamblerThat's fair. Different strokes for different folk and all.

@CalamityCain 3 месяца назад

@@TheNocturnalRambler While I can understand the OP, I'm very much with you on your points. That's exactly why Dragon's Dogma is one of my favourite open worlds alongside Gothic 1 and 2 and the first Risen game. For me these points also have a lot to do with _immersion._ I still do feel the tedium, when playing the first chapters of Piranha Bytes games, when you haven't yet gotten teleportation runes, for example, but that's only because I've played them so often. For a first playthrough I wouldn't wanna have it any other way! What also comes to mind is how revisiting places makes you able to find your way on your own, because you begin to recognize certain landmarks and places. A cardinal sin that so, so many (modern, but not exclusively) open world games get wrong, in my opinion. From all that you've pointed out, I'm really hopeful, Dragon's Dogma 2 is going to improve on that while still retaining it's core identity! Only sie days to go! My characters are ready to go. As soon as I saw that you can make a beastren character, I just knew I had to make Final Fantasy X's Kimahri as my main pawn. And it worked out beautifully - sans the horn, sadly! This big boi is gonna be such a mule for me. I hate not being able to loot everything! Here's hoping the item placements are randomized again. Great video as always! Thanks so much!

@sanny87 3 месяца назад

Couldn't get into this game at all.

@TheNocturnalRambler 3 месяца назад

That's a shame, but completely understandable. A lot of the things I put in the "positive" category would likely be turn-offs for other people, and the game does have some notable flaws that even I can't argue against. Maybe the sequel will improve on those issues and make it a more enjoyable game for everyone.

@sanny87 2 месяца назад

@TheNocturnalRambler fightincowboys video on the sequel is making me want to give it a chance. I gave the original about 5 good goes over the years. Massive problem is the things people love about the game I don't like. I don't like the pawn mechanics, I don't like the combat.

@mastergame1311 2 месяца назад

It is cool, but just incredibly tedious. I wish the inventory system and map design were better because they hinder the experience greatly. Also, the difficulty balance sucks.

@OGPuppetMaster 2 месяца назад

Difficulty balance is great, you're just dogwater at the game

@mastergame1311 2 месяца назад

@@OGPuppetMaster Nah, 20 minute-long fights suck. Monster Hunter this ain't.

@OGPuppetMaster 2 месяца назад

@@mastergame1311 if you're fighting a monster for 20 minutes thats on you.. get gud. Most amount of time i spent on an enemy was the dragon in the forest and that was 5 minutes max as i was slightly underleveled

@mastergame1311 2 месяца назад

@@OGPuppetMaster Sure, buddy.

@OGPuppetMaster 2 месяца назад

@@mastergame1311 find a fight that lasts longer than 10 minutes.. ill wait

@LVega_ 3 месяца назад

Too bad the second one will be 30FPS as was this one LMAO

@TheNocturnalRambler 3 месяца назад

Was the original PlayStation version 30fps? I would guess so, it's been too long since I played that version, but the PC version that came out a few years later has an unlocked frame limit. It would be a real bummer if they capped it on the PC version of DD2.

@Radek494 3 месяца назад

PC version is not capped. In fact none versions are capped but they hover around and above 30 fps on consoles@@TheNocturnalRambler

@jinji_xo 3 месяца назад

its framerate is only locked on consoles....

@NeoAstrisk 3 месяца назад

Imagine having a console.

@thedude7319 3 месяца назад

17:06 can 'analyst/video assayers' be honest for once. Seriously guys I wanted it to be more restrictive. no you don't because if you genuinely wanted it, you wouldn't be tempted

@TheNocturnalRambler 3 месяца назад

I think you're missing the point of my criticism. The game has several mechanics specifically designed to cause progressive "wear and tear" on your party, to make your journey more difficult and more exhausting the more time passes towards nightfall, the more you get hurt in battle, the more loot you accumulate, etc, and then has a free mechanism (introduced in an expansion/updated game version) to completely bypass all of those limitations. That is inherently self-conflicting design that completely undermines the original intent of the game mechanics. Me feeling tempted to take advantage of that bypass, and wanting the game design to be consistent to its own intentions, are different things, as my personal feelings don't change the objective fact. I also don't see how it's dishonest to feel tempted by something while wishing the temptation weren't there in the first place; if anything, I would think that's MORE honest to admit that temptation.

@thedude7319 3 месяца назад

14:50 then just don't do it ?

@TheNocturnalRambler 3 месяца назад

I explicitly say a mere 16 seconds later that I personally don't use the healing items whatsoever.

@Maveroik 3 месяца назад

Imagine reviewing a game from 12 years ago, as if it had been released in 2024

@TheNocturnalRambler 3 месяца назад

That would indeed be pretty bizarre if someone were to do that. I, however, don't consciously apply modern standards to older games when playing or evaluating them, and specifically try to judge them in the context of their time. Even then, certain aspects of game design are timeless, thus making the year they're being critiqued somewhat irrelevant. In the case of Dragon's Dogma, I should also mention that I played it back in 2013 when the Dark Arisen Edition came out, and even reviewed it on my blog at the time, so I do have that extra degree of context for what I was feeling with this particular game when it was brand new.