Dragon's Dogma

[Kitsune]

Primary skill slots get the bonuses of the equipped staff, secondary slots don't.  I've never seen pawns seem more inclined to use one than the other, so you're best off putting damage in the primary slots and buffs/heals in the secondary, as to the best of my knowledge a higher magic stat doesn't do anything to alter healing (since you can't heal past the same point in any event) or buffs.

[Hawkbit]

Cyllix is crazy good as a pawn. 

I'm adding Jakaonovski on PSN soon-ish.  I wish my pawn were stronger so I could reciprocate the goodwill of pawn use.

Someone borrowed my pawn, and when she came back she doubled my RC and brought back a ton of knowledge. 

Have I mentioned that this game is massively huge?

[jakonovski]

Started playing this in earnest. The world feels so big when there's no fast travel to trivialize everything. Currently escorting a dude to the middle of nowhere, walked right past a dragon stomping around in a forest. Kinda scary.

The combat is so great, sounds and feels like utter chaos, just as it should. Fought a  pack of goblins. First one of the big guys throws a smoke bomb at me and I flail around barely seeing anything. I recover and start kicking ass, until some of them suddenly frenzy and start killingl my pawns. Not to be taken lightly, the mobs in this game.

edit: does anyone else get attached to the non-leveling pawns? It hurts me to swap them.

[Ruvaldt]

Picked up this game on Friday.  It's rough around the edges in any number of ways, but the gameplay is phenomenal.  I'm liking it more than I liked Diablo 3, and the pawn system is unbelievable fun.  I'm enjoying my pawn so much that I sometimes upgrade her possessions before my own.

I think travel times will eventually become an issue.  I like the idea of having to move everywhere without any fast travel options, but with a busy work schedule I'm not sure how long my enthusiasm will last.  As Hawkbit said, the game is positively enormous.

PSN name is Ruvaldt, by the way, if anyone wants my pawn.  Level 18 or so Holy/Fire Mage that I'm hoping to keep as a healer.

[Hawkbit]

Current list of f13 PSN IDs for pawn usage.  Use them, they're free.  If you want your name removed from this list, just post here or PM me.  I'm going to leave pawn information off this list because a few people have changed pawn classes.  Best to simply search from the Rift menu for the info.

Excapase   (Bann)
Jakaonovski   (jakonovski)
Ruvaldt   (Ruvaldt)
T_Abernathy   (Hawkbit)
Valatar   (Kitsune)

[jakonovski]

Jesus, this game's combat delivers so much. I just had a fight against an Ogre, was about to get my lowbie ass kicked when I managed to dodge so that it charged right off a cliff and died from fall damage. Now to trek down there to see what it dropped...

[kildorn]

The last bit of this game (the post-game) is .. really fucking strange and makes me happy that the other 99% is plot-light and fun to play. What the shit, game.

The post game is crazy hard, by the by. Fun, but holy shit.

[Kitsune]

I think travel times will eventually become an issue.  I like the idea of having to move everywhere without any fast travel options, but with a busy work schedule I'm not sure how long my enthusiasm will last.  As Hawkbit said, the game is positively enormous.

Teleport options are available, if not exactly cheap and somewhat limited in destinations.  If I'm way the hell away from the capitol and really don't feel like walking back or am caught in the middle of the night without any good spot to rest, I'll burn a ferrystone.  Otherwise I'll just walk.

[kildorn]

The map is also littered with quick travel routes (well, "quick") to the odd places you'll have to go. Blue Moon Tower is the only place that's a bitch to get to, and you get something there to help.

[NiX]

Just picked this up last night and am really annoyed that I have to attend a training session after work. From everything I've read about the game, it sounds like a damn fun game despite all of the quirks.

8 hours to go.

[Kitsune]

I've gone through and added anyone who was missing from my friend list. 

One thing I learned recently is that you can equip other peoples' pawns.  It's a one-way thing; once equipped you can't get it back from them, so it's effectively an extra gift on top of any item you hand them to take back to their player.  But before anyone gets the idea to twink out everyone else's pawns with top-tier stuff, I also discovered that the game penalizes you if you're using an item below the level the game expects you to have it.  So be sure to put stuff on your buddy's pawn that is more-or-less of the appropriate level for it before sending it home.

[kildorn]

Before it expects it being progress in the main quest, or being character level? I ask since I found it odd on starting a NG+ that my main character with an end game sword still takes about 5-6 hits to kill a bandit leader.

[Kitsune]

Raw level, to the best of my knowledge.

[Raguel]

So does the game play better than the demo? I played the demo and I didn't really like it (although it was cool that characters could jump on monsters).

[Ruvaldt]

Significantly better.

Also, I didn't really get into the full game until two or three hours in; it is rough around the edges, and that's most glaring in the beginning.  Now that I'm actually going through dungeons I'm even more hooked.  Just when you think an area or dungeon is trivial the game throws something really exciting at you that makes you rethink how you're playing.

[Kitsune]

The demo is... frankly sort of bad, in comparison to the game.  It just throws you in without a clue about how to play, what you're doing, how your class works, anything.  All knowledges that are really important for being able to enjoy the game.

[Hawkbit]

We're still pretty early into this year, but I suspect this will be at least my GOTY or a very close runner up. 

There's weird bugs all over, but the game is so much better than all that.

Post up if you want to share your pawn - I'll keep this thread updated with new PSN ids for pawn usage.

[NiX]

Did anyone get this for 360?

[Sophismata]

Yes. The game is a little rough. Lip synch (and the v/o over accompanying text) is often off by over a second, there's screen tearing and my character's hair keeps going through his clothes. But fun so far (I've only played 4 hours though).

[vex]

Did anyone get this for 360?

I am planning on picking it up today or tomorrow.

[Kitsune]

Lip sync is similarly stupid on the PS3, they really dropped the ball on that part.  And there's occasional slowdown when lots of spells are going off at once and filling the screen with fireballs.  Aside from those two obnoxious bugs, I've not encountered anything terrible.

[Ruvaldt]

The transitions between gameplay and cutscenes are also often quite rough.  Sharp elbows stuff though when contrasted with the fun of the gameplay.

[kildorn]

I agree with the mute protagonist giving the "the shit is wrong with you people, WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON" face the entire game.

I love the gameplay, though.

[NiX]

Did anyone get this for 360?

I am planning on picking it up today or tomorrow.

Nixel is my Live ID. Add me and we can swap pawns.

[jakonovski]

I discovered in my inventory a golden weapon worth 150k gold. I hope it's not useful for anything else because I cashed it in immediately. Also, the big  thingie in the southwest. Is it quest related or are you supposed to just kill it for funsies and lewts?

[vex]

Did anyone get this for 360?

I am planning on picking it up today or tomorrow.

Nixel is my Live ID. Add me and we can swap pawns.

I sent a request.  My id is SteakFury.   I have a mage pawn.

[kildorn]

I discovered in my inventory a golden weapon worth 150k gold. I hope it's not useful for anything else because I cashed it in immediately. Also, the big  thingie in the southwest. Is it quest related or are you supposed to just kill it for funsies and lewts?

For #1: they're basically cash, they say it in the description usually. I actually had one for a while that was leagues better than my normal gear though.

For #2: he's in the way when hiking to a quest, but he's basically a random "ambush". There is loot in them there hills, though! Including one room of it that's a bit tricky to notice.

[NiX]

I sent a request.  My id is SteakFury.   I have a mage pawn.

Awesome, I'll accept it when I play tonight. My pawn will probably be an Archer.

[Hawkbit]

You can change your pawn class, too.  Just in case you didn't know. 

The depth of game here is pretty amazing, and for as much as the follower banter is annoying, the pawn concept is fantastic.

[Kitsune]

The shame of this system is the one character per account thing.  I really want to try the Mystic Knight out, but taking so many levels in Fighter to get the improved blocking augment would be unkind to my magic stat, which I desperately need as a Magic Archer.  It's my understanding that after level 100 the stat increases dip to a relatively inconsequential level, so I may just wait till then to toy around with the other classes.

[Hawkbit]

I'm slogging through this slowly because of work/school/other games.  Last night was some of the best fun I've had in a single player game, maybe in my top five all time.  Spoilered because it was part of the main quest.


So, so much awesome going on in this game.  I've been doing the sky DLC, too.  I'm up to about 20 coins now.  It seems kinda dumb for DLC to basically do a guided easter egg hunt, but I'm digging it.  It has shown me other parts of the game I might have missed had I not gone to that area for the medal.

[Ruvaldt]

I had a similarly amazing fight last night involving a canyon, two cyclops, a ballista and a small army of goblins.  There were moments in which it felt like I was taking part in a big budget fantasy film, firing flaming ballista arrows at a cyclops, and then leaping from the edge of a cliff onto his head, where I grabbed hold of him and began clubbing him about the face.  Enthralling stuff.  Before I knew it it was 3:00am and now I just want to play more.

I also encountered my first dragon, and it did not disappoint.

[Falconeer]

I have too many things to play at the moment so even if I have the game and I am liking it a lot I can't put in it the time it deserves. My PS3 name is Falconeer (for all I know) and my pawn is named Suomenlinna, she's going to be a full time healer but right now a very low level one. It was nice to realize that due to our previous PSN friendship Cyllix, Kitsune's pawn, was already in my rift waiting to be picked up when I accessed it for the first time. Really smooth and cool.

My only gripe so far is the lack of a target lock. Sorry but after Dark/Demon's Souls it's hard to convince me that an action RPG can be better without it. Or there is one?

[John Difool]

Falconeer: There's no 'target-lock' in the way you're thinking of. There does seem to be a certain level of "assist" though in that I can point in the general direction of a mob, hit my Cutting Wind button and I will dash towards that target even if its moving laterally to my initial aim point. Can't speak for any other melee classes but that's true for my Strider/Assassin/Magic Archer toon.

Edit: Oh yeah, game is phenomenal. Haven't really felt the same sheer sense of "adventure" since my newbie days of early Everquest

[Kitsune]

There's a sort-of lock on in that when you're firing up some ranged abilities like spells you will see a targeting icon, and it does 'stick' to an enemy so you don't have to have pinpoint precision to get the damage to go where you want it.  In the case of Magic Archers, there is an ability with a literal lock on where it will hit up to ten things at a time with one shot.  In the case of large monsters, you can actually lock onto multiple hit locations simultaneously with it, and I never get tired of drawing my bow and watching target icons spring up all over a cyclops before I shower magic bolts into it.

One thing to note for Magic Archers is that their abilities are naturally elemental.  Unlike most everyone else who needs a buff cast on them for their attacks to do fire damage, etc, their attacks have an element inherent to them.  Some of the descriptions flat out state that they do fire or holy damage, but even the ones that don't like sixfold shot (which does ice damage) have an element.  When in doubt, watch for the color of the arrows when you fire them for a clue about what element is involved in the attack.