Recently picked it up, fuggin loved it. Made my Pawn based on my daughter, and got the pawn humanity ending, literally cried. Also, she created her own class *she's 4 so she picked what vocation and outfits, and LOVED that she regularly saved daddy in the game.
After the announcement of a sequel I was hoping someone would talk about this game again and seeing this video in my feed made all the memories from playing it on the 360 come rushing back. For that, I can’t thank you enough Son. However, I must say that it’s a shame there wasn’t a mention of the original title theme “Into Free”. It’s a genuine banger even if it doesn’t fit the tone of the game
If you face the Seneschal in online mode, the Seneschal isn't a random player and Pawn, it's the player and Pawn who most recently defeated the Seneschal.
@I Just Wanna Talk About Games something that is probably needing note here… There are teams that work on a game and are dedicated to certain facets such as design, writing, programming and so on. I would say the story was just meh no matter what mechanics they threw in the game, but it is unique. I’ll give them that.
@I Just Wanna Talk About Games do you actually develop games? If not you should stop assuming that the teams working on that were also working on the things that were cut.
One thing that I absolutely adored of what I played of this game, and never hear anybody talk about, was the sprinting animation. The Arisen needs a little time to reach their full sprint and time to come to a stop, and the animation reflects the effort going into both of those tasks. Few games make the sprinting animation look quite as realistic and weighty as this games and I really appreciated that about it.
@I Just Wanna Talk About Games You start on a dime for sure, but you don't hit top speed for a second or so, and stopping happens sooner if you haven't hit top speed.
Absolutely loved this game, the point when the everfall opens up and the mystery that follows is to this day one of the most surprising moments in gaming that I have ever experienced
Oh definitely, I was in last year of highschool when this game released, I was 17 back then (27 now) and I remember defeating the dragon and thinking, this is it, I've done it, what an amazing game, then the ever fall opens up and my jaw drops to the floor. Sooo incredibly happy with the announcement of the second entry. I'm currently on my 10th and 11th run simultaneously on PC and Xbox Series S. I never get tired on this game.
The cutscene with Elysion getting crushed and the monologue of the dragon is one of my favorite moments in gaming. I still get the cool-factor chills seeing it again. The depiction of Grigori is probably one of the best red dragons ever made.
As someone who works 12 hour shifts, videos like this are an absolute blessing. Also, this game has some of the most awesome magic I've ever seen in a game. Makes you feel like a sorcerer that can take on an army
This is why I've put off playing it. Also work 12s and super long games are tough to fit in. That being said I did manage to put in like 150 hours in elden ring but that's besides the point
Retrospectives like these have helped keep Dragon's Dogma from slipping into obscurity and highlights to Capcom the passion of it's fan base. Great Deep Dive!
My favourite thing about this game is the fact that the Hydra from the beginning of the game writes the Arisen a note asking for a fight... I'm not even kidding, once you're in the post game you can get a quest from the quest board asking you to kill the Hydra in the arena underneath the shadow fort, but it's written from a first person perspective, it's something along the lines of "I'm in the arena under the fort, come and face me arisen" I always found that hilarious.
That quest was so strange, it always felt like there should be more to it to me. It takes place in a huge coliseum which is unused outside of that quest, and there's a unique cutscene of the gate opening and the Hydra coming out flanked by goblins. Maybe it's another piece of half-finished sidequest content that they were unable to fully realize
@@islandofmelanat It is likely an unfinished area, but there is another quest that asks you to defeat the cyclops that occupies it before you defeat the dragon. Interesting to note that if you interact with the large gate where the hydra came from, it says something along the lines of "Enemies... They're everywhere!" which I always found strange because most players would only interact with it after beating the hydra. Maybe there was meant to be a boss rush mode in there or something?
@cooperlittlehales6268 I feel like that gate was meant to lead to the so-called "frontier lands", which is mentioned in some of the loading screen texts.
Yes, I love it! I can point out three specific things I love in this game: -Pawns! Some may silence them, but I think that's heresy. I love that the game is a party-based RPG with some actually smart and helpful AI. Good AI is simply not something that you see often enough these days. -A real feeling of having to put effort into adventure. It's not so stressful that it feels like a survival game, but knowing where to find certain herbs and knowing how to combine them as well as all the things you can do with other items in the game really makes the difference in a fight. -The story! It feels like such a perfect blend of a Western-style CRPG and a JRPG. I like how it starts out simple but gets more and more mystical, culminating with you basically deconstructing the way the world works. The player has real agency in this.
The only complaint i have os that most new players never got to hear the OG title screen, a song called "into free" which was a fast-paced rock song and was so good.
I adored this game when I played it on the 360. The class and subclass system is insanely fun to mess around with & the pawn system is simple, yet effective. Can’t wait to see what happens with 2. Great work on another banger, son 👌🏻
I've played many rpg's on my time, and none of them had striked me more than Dragon's Dogma. I got into it by same time when other rpg was a huge talk, Skyrim, game that I was hoohed on too, and favoured that more than DD, so it took YEARS later when I finally got into DD, the Dark Arisen version, I created my character, and pawn who was female elven archer, red haired too. Fought against griffins, goblins and of course, dragons too. And what an experience it was. However, sometimes during my travels in Gransys, I often stopped and simply, enjoyed the world around me, the noises of animals and breeze while you walk through the woods was just lively experience. Especially during nights when night really is, well... NIGHT, dark and scary, very horror game like, when you have to carry a lantern with you so you can see what's in front of you. And during night, monsters come out as scarier as ever, when I encountered Chimera first time, it was night and it jumped from behind, it really gave me goosebumps. Those kinds of moments make this game, Dragon's Dogma, so special, a journey to the world of life and dangers that are worth to experience yourself. This game REALLY is a "masterwork, you can't go wrong with it."
Hey son, I don't comment often but I feel like this warrants it. I found your channel thanks to the Legacy of Kain retrospective, really loved that game and I love listening to longform analysis of games and other media, I really admire how fast you've been churning these videos out at frankly insane pace, I can see this channel will blow up with how hard you're going, looking forward to all the lovely longform videos you will be releasing.
I remember playing this back when it came out for 2 weeks straight being completely hooked. The multiple "endings" had me wanting to keep playing and I've beat it and replayed it with the same character at least 6 times. It's still, to this day, one of my favorite games or all time, and after watching this, I might go back and replay it again.
Slight correction with Daimon son. He wasn't an Arisen at first when he started adventuring with Grette and Olra but then became one. He was faced against Grette who was the Dragon when she failed to kill the Seneschal then cursed into his form while Olra (his pawn and lover) was slain by Grette.
PRO TIP: The moment I realized I could fill empty flasks and I found a healing pool, I just smiled. Me and my pawns stopped at a shop, bought 100s of flasks, and made a few trips back and forth. Never worried about healing again.
This is infinitely easier in the Bitterblack Isle, as Barroch (who lets you access your storage, among other things) will appear in a safe zone that also has a Healing Spring within its bounds. Literally a 15 second walk away.
The Mercedes vs Julian fight is my instance of absolutely adoring this game. 2 obvious options but 3 outcomes. i just happened to have a wakestone on me and doing the blacksmith son quest.
55:38 There are actually four options here. 1. Let Mercedes fight and lose. 2. Intercede and wound Julian, letting him escape with his life. 3. Kill Julian by doing enough damage to him before he can flee. 4. Use a Wakestone on Julian after killing him so he can be arrested and put in a prison cell (which can be visited later to increase affinity with him).
This is by far one of my favorite games of all time. So yeah. I’ll watch anyone talk about it for over an hour lol. The little details in the game are really what makes it stand out for me. Some of my favorite bits is being able to kill the gryphon immediately finishing the quest early and that it isn’t a fully forced scripted sequence. A pawn telling me that the next quest involves carrying a heavy thing so be sure to pack light. The way the story and lore is actually really interesting albeit not told in a way that’s immediately apparent. Wolves hunt in packs. They’re masterworks all you can’t go wrong. Also man I feel like no other game has ever captured what it’s like to truly have the power of actually terrifyingly powerful magical spells. The feel of casting a tornado, causing giant ice pillars to erupt from the ground, or just plain have meteors rain from the sky are just leagues ahead of spell casting as it’s depicted in other games.
Dragon's Dogma has been my one of my favorite games since I first played it and I'm just so, so happy that over the years its managed to find an audience that appreciates it, quirks and all. Let's all hope Itsuno gets to make the game he wanted to the first time around; without any compromises!
I actually played this about 4 years ago for the first time and I honestly regret not playing it before Dragon Age: Origins as I find them to have so many paralels and both being superbly fantastic games. I also secretly wish this is what Skyrim is like, as no other game made me so happy to go hunting dragons and feel badass while doing it as this one.
Skyrim's end dragon battle is a joke! Compared to DD where Grigori chase you through a cavernous ruin and then flies through the sky while you desperately cling on him for life!
Farnival sells unlimited Conquerors Periapts later on, which are extremely useful. Allowing him to be found guilty blocks this, which is detrimental, imho. Also, there are a number of acts that can play out differently...for example, when Mercedes fights Julian, you can let her fight & be defeated, or you can intervene and wup Julian's arse. But if you can defeat Julian without getting hit, you can use a wakestone to revive him, which causes Julian to have a change of heart and he will turn himself in. Visit him in Gran Soren in the dungeons later on, and he will gift you his shield. Dragon's Dogma has a number of quests that can be handled in very different ways with secret rewards.
when I heard this was getting a sequel I freaked out, I screamed like a kid and ran to tell my wife all about the first one and how much I loved it. Great video hearing about it all reminded me of the magic the first game had
31:26 I was watching a friend of mine play DD through Discord streaming and I asked them "You... Know you can fast travel to locations with port crystals attached to them, right? There's no need to run around the entire country to get to Gran Soren, for example." "'Port crystals'? 'Fast travel'? You can do that in this game?" They were on level *47.*
Personally, I think that NG+ proves that you didn't break the chain. I think that, when you stab yourself with the Godsbane, all you accomplish is cleaving your soul from your physical form. Your body becomes an empty shell and falls to Earth, which in turn, allows your Pawn's soul to inhabit your empty body. It gives your Pawn an opportunity to live a real human life. Meanwhile, your own soul is still trapped in the role of Seneschal. After all, the world still needs the Seneschal. It always will. Life would not exist without one. So there you sit, waiting. Waiting for the next Arisen to come and finally, finally, release you from the endless chain. More support for this idea also comes from Savan. How does he give you the Godsbane in the first place? He pulls it from his chest. As if he had also tried to stab himself with it, and failed to escape the chain. It follows with the theme of endless loops. Every Seneschal, at some point, tries to end themselves with the Godsbane. And every time, it accomplishes nothing. EDIT: I suppose it does accomplish something actually. Each time, it allows a Pawn to become human. A Seneschal breaks from the chain, a human becomes the new Seneschal, and a Pawn becomes human. A constant flow.
i'm not sure this will be read, but dragon's dogma is my all time favourite game ever and ten years later it still stirs in me a spirit of adventure and wanderlust. i absolutely adored your video and presentation on something i love so much, son.
I love this game so much. The Everfall, Seneschal and the entirety of Bitterblack Isle is as good as the deepest Dark Souls lore IMO. Dark Arisen does make another change that was overlooked in your video: it revamps fast travel to have eternal ferrystones available from the get-go with some static portcrystals around the world.
The Eternal Ferrystone and static Portcrystals singlehandedly saved the game for me. I tried so many times to beat it, but always found it so tedious to travel around. But once I learned about the Ferrystones in Dark Arisen, the game became much more palatable.
@@rustyshackle8000 same here. Played the original on ps3 and the constant traveling wore me out. Later, I learned of these new additions and got Dark Arisen on pc to continue and found it far more streamlined
I love the structure of your videos. The way you blend your description of story and gameplay really adds to the viewing experience. Thank you for your art.
I love Dragons Dogma. I remember first time playing it and i absolutely hated it. Few years later i replayed it out of boredom and discovered what a masterpiece i was missing. Now every few months i replay it and have a blast each time. definitely a true hidden gem.
I am pretty sure all those trials and errors you went through became your wake up call. Then once you figured out how to get past each stage while being at a low level, you ended up learning to love that game.
Yeah, I'm among those who found the game too hard to get through. But, that was years ago. It was actually a college buddy who originally told me how the game ended. He really got into Drakenguard afterwards. At least, I think that's what the game was called.
One thing I notice you missed..... The original main menu song! It was nice little J-Pop number that didn't fit the theme at all, but was perfect for getting you pumped to kill the dragon. My only assumption for its removal for DD:DA, is copyright issues.
Just got past Grigori. Had the game for years from a capcom humble bundle. Sad i waited this long but now i can listen to this retrospective, son. Cant wait for the sequel in a few weeks
I can't sing the praise of Dragon's Dogma enough. Amazing combat, classes, story, magic variety, pawns, the world, and its monsters, it's such a great game and experience. One of my favorite games ever since a GameStop manager convinced me to try the Demo before it came out on 360. It's so great that more and more people are making videos and posts about an underrated gem of a game.
38:58 you may know or not know of this but there was a different main theme song back when the game first came out. If you get a chance I'd recommend hearing it. The song is Into Free by B'z The community at first was a little confused on why they did that so they changed it to what you hear on this video today. I miss that old theme song.
Another thiNG underrated is the community it’s still very alive to this day. Everyone is super helpful. One of my favorite games of all time if not #1 I felt genuine excitement and euphoria when I found out we were actually getting a sequel 🤣🤣
Excellent timing, son! Not only did I need a new long-form video to accompany the week's commute, but I've also just recently started a replay of Dragon's Dogma on PlayStation for the first time since launch.
This game is, far and away, my favorite game of all time. I agree completely that it was criminally underrated, and deserves both a remake and a sequel. It's soundtrack was amazing, the combat was fluid, immersive, and epic, and the world/lore was rich and the story was uniquely told. Absolutely adore this game.
So I don't think that the Arisen breaks the chain, due purely to the fact that the previous Seneschal pulls the Godsbane from his chest, as if he also plunged it into himself.
Dragon's Dogma is so dear to my heart. Seeing an over one hour long video, in the year 2022, just pouring more love on it ... It makes me so happy. Here's to the sequel !
I love this plot analysis of the post game. A great take on the cyclical, doomed nature of the arisen's path to a form of enslaved goodhood. I think what's most amazing about the dark arisen expansion the villain Daimon. He is a result of an arisen accidentally triggering a curse after having this very same epiphany you have as a player, which makes it all the more tragic. Worse, in trying to rebel against the wheel of fate and break the cycle as it where, he completely isolates himself from the posibility of exerting change. Also in the dark arisen expansion there is another corrupted, mad arisen that takes the form of the classical depiction of death, wielding a lantern and sythe. I'm not entirely sure how this comes to pass but considering there are a few hostile pawns roaming around the Lower levels of the island, it's possible that a world separate from the seneshal but still linked to the mystical rift of the ever fall causes that corruption, if not it has to be daemon himself. sorry about the word vomit, I love this game's lore
Ashe had wished for the power to break the cycle and, in a sense, he did. He had given rise to the Bitterblack Isle, which drew in other Arisen and basically imprisoned them there, rendering them incapable of feeding into the cycle. He did "stop" the cycle of eternal return, but he never "finished" it. He did what is akin to causing a car crash to interrupt traffic- sure, there is suddenly no way down the street, but once he falls to our Arisen, the proverbial wreck is moved off of the road. The cars resume driving down the road, the cycle continues once more.
The lore in the game that slowly unravels through exploration, conversations and the opening up of BBI is so amazing and I hope DD2 expands further on what we already know. This game is one of my all-time favorites and I am having a blast playing it again on the PS5! The way I see it with NG+, you are playing as your pawn, as the arisen, and the new pawn will become your next arisen on your next NG+. I nearly passed out when I was offline and my past arisen was the Senechal. I only found that out recently!!
This isn't my favorite game of all time (it's maybe my fourth or fifth favorite), but it is the game I've replayed more than any other. It's a rare RPG where different classes can almost change the genre of the game itself by how differently some of them play from each other.
I actually stopped watching half way through to pick up this game. it was just never on my radar at launch but you convinced me to finally try it. you got me son, you got me.
I had never heard of your channel until I started looking at a game I had never played...DDDA. This is very well done, even a year later it resonates. I don't want to insult you by compairing you to other YT folks but, I am a major fan of long form presentations. I started long form reviews with Skill Up, and moved over to Luke Stephenson...they both seem to have gotten board of this format and are now reaching for the low hanging fruit. Today alone (because of this vid) I have managed to binge at least four of yours that caught my eye. Keep up the good work, and I hope you do not get tired of doing these type of reviews and retrospects. Cheers!
The first time I played the game, I thought the dragon was the end, and after winning at level 40 something, I was confused. I thought, "Is that all?" Now I'm going for the real ending. I know many people say the story was meh; I can see that, but with the lore you gave at the end, the gameplay, and the ambition behind this game, I can only respect Drogon's Dogma. It will be one of the best games I have played and a game that makes a lot of sense to replay multiple times
A friend of mine introduced me to this game a couple years after its release. He said he finished and enjoyed it but felt the combat was a bit lacking. Hearing this, I gave it a short try before putting it away for a few months while I continued doing every single thing I could imagine on Skyrim. After squeezing every ounce of fun I could from Skyrim, I decided to give this game another shot. It was boring for the first hour or so while I ran around the world before getting to Gransys. There I discovered the inn along with the different vocations and skills I could play around with. Fast forward a few weeks and I'm having a blast as a magick archer with my sorcerer pawn using crazy-powerful spells. My friend comes over and sees me doing double jumps, throwing barrages of magic bolts, covering enemies in explosives before blowing them up, jumping off of high ledges and beyblading into an enemy's head, and climbing large enemies while on fire. Meanwhile my pawn is summoning meteors, earthquakes, and tornadoes. My friend was completely shocked that all of this was possible. He asked me how I was doing all this, what weapons I was using, where I got my class, who the person following me was, etc. Turns out my friend went through the entire game as a fighter using nothing but light and heavy attacks, not knowing you could climb enemies and having no idea pawns even existed. I decided to check out his pawn after hearing this. She was the default model with basic starting gear and barely past level 10. Meanwhile he was nearing 130 (gotta overlevel like crazy to kill a dragon by hacking at its ankles with a sword). After seeing me play he went out and bought another copy (since he had given his to me).
Everything else aside, Dragon's Dogma's combat mechanics scratch an itch that no other game ever has for me. While there are a lot of games with very good combat mechanics (Anything by FromSoftware, Monster Hunter, DMC, hell even Genshin Impact), there is just something about Dragon's Dogma combat that you just can't find elsewhere. I've played through the game dozens of times over the years with everything from completionist runs to challenge runs. I really can't wait for the sequel. I am curious to see how much more advanced they manage to make the pawn system in the sequel.
Funny thing is you can sell the monocle for a few hundred thousand gold. You can buy throwblasts which are super over powered. They make pretty much make the game a cake walk.
I feel like so few people have experienced the less traditional endings, like taking the deal, dying to Seneschal or turning back so I'm glad to see someone else out there who experienced it all. My take on breaking the cycle is that we don't break the cycle. Every path you take is not your choice to make, but one you have put before you, usually feeding back into the cycle. Yes, as Seneschal you choose when to end, but because of the rift and it's weird time/space properties it may mean that other Pawns will fill in the void and the Pawn who becomes you simply entered a slightly altered version of reality as we knew it but at the beginning of the game (time wise) Another words, the Pawn becoming you is another cycle. We know that when we become the dragon it loops over, meaning it is possible to be sent back in time, so my theory could be true. There was one other "choice" , the Dark Arisen path. The closest to an actual "choice' I think that island called out to all Arisen who intended to refuse all the other paths.The island exists for those Arisen who choose the path of doing nothing and refusing to engage in the cycle. And in the end what happened? A "Demon" (something half way looking like a dragon) that "tested" other Arisen or fed upon those who failed. In a sense his "inaction" led to another cycle where basically he lived out a warped version of being the dragon.
Had it on the 360, I bought it on the Switch earlier this year, God this game is just something else. It's closer to Dark Souls than it seems, for most people a "Souls Like" is a slow paced game with dodge rolls ... Really. But ultimately they share something else and it's the core of their story telling : you can finish the game without knowing what's going on, unless you read, unless you search, unless you explore the intricate world, it's a kind of game that truly reveal itselft to those you are passionated and I LOVE it. This game is a masterpiece and I almost never use that word. Something that bothers me is the fact that Capcom never used the pawn system in other games, you explained it well here but to feel it is really different, they evolve for real, you get emotionally attached so much to them, one of the most addictive part of RPGs is the progression of your character, having a NPC YOU designed from head to toe and seeing it grows, not only in stats but personnality depending on the situation it faces and your actions, while gaining knowledge (and not only weaknesses and quest lore but fighting style as well, some pawn won't hesitate to climb on monsters or "jump slash") is just soooo cool. Great video son, it made me feel younger, thank you. - a close to 40yo proud dad.
On being attached to other pawns: if your friends also play, you can use their pawns consistently. Myself and my brothers always coordinated our teams so we could play "together".
I played on PC a couple of years ago. Bought it for almost nothing on a steam sale just before I had to leave to the countryside to my mother's house since someone broke in while she wasn't there and I wanted to be there while we installed some locks and shit. I took my laptop with me and I had this and maybe one other game. I had no access to an internet connection so I spent whatever free time I had with this game. It was perfect for that type of moment since I had no idea about the game at all, just bought it because it was so cheap, and had no access to guides or anything so I had to figure out all the game story and systems by myself which added a lot to my enjoyment of the game as it felt like playing in the 90's when you couldn't just look up guides for any small puzzle you found or look for optimal builds and crap like that. I probably put like 200 hours on it with multiple playthroughs and it's an excellent game, full of content that really begs to be explored blind, with hundreds of small touches that only show up if you spend a lot of time in the game and that normally you'd just miss because you want t oget to the end, or you'd just look up some video instead to find out what happens. It's one of those games that really captures the idea of the wold being alive, with characters moving on with their lives and goals apart from whatever it is you are doing. I really can't wait for DD2.
Who would've thought that the one and only based Sophia Narwitz would be found here. I see that when not scarring the internet you enjoy quality content of our dear son.
@@alessandromata190 Lengthy video game essays are my favorite content on youtube, it makes up the majority of what I watch. Even those that hit the 5-10 hour mark. And our boy Son here is especially good at making em.
@@Sophnar0747 Well, I have to agree, video game essays make for really interesting content, and just as you said, he is indeed really good at creating engaging content, and is really thorough with his coverage on top of all that.
So hyped for DD2. The two things that live rent free in my head from the first are talking to I think it was Olra? Spamming through the conversations it felt like “Pray pray pray pray pray”, and then the other is “just a jape friend… just a jape!”
When it came down to Fournival’s trial I decided to save him because he’s a father after all. I didn’t want Simone to be without a parent. Fournival actually became more generous at the end after we saved him. The other part of this is if you did let him be executed, Simone won’t stop mourning for his father and blames you for it. For the family that needed to be evicted, on my first play through I let the family keep their home only ended up regretting ot later because at the end the kid lost both his home and parents to the everfall. However if you did get them evicted whilst giving them the money to move, they actually find a better place to live at the farm area. So when you said you let Fournival die I felt bad for Simone. She was genuinely crying for ger dad and that left a bad taste on my play through. Nowadays I play giving the NPCs a better outcome whenever I start another N+. Also I prefer romancing Mercedes. I’ve had the princess way too many times already.
A couple things: Bitter Black Isle was in the base game just you needed to get the expansion, in Dark Arisen, it was tied to the game itself (Similar to Dark Souls Prepare to Die edition and it's DLC). Dark Arisen also fixed the affinity system as it use to be whoever you talked to the most (Likely the inn keeper). The game is actually missing over 60% of the originally planned content. They also explained exactly how the world works. If you look into the sky at night, the moon is actually missing which is a world building detail, because the worlds are stacked on top of each other, blocking the moon from view for all that are under the upper most world. It is my belief that the hole in Gransys is showing the path to the other worlds however we are unable to actually travel these worlds. At least now. It is likely that finishing the game would lead to the upper layers of the world until we finally reach the top and see the moon which would have then allowed us to go there and likely kill whatever was there.
@11:24 - This was actually finally translated several months ago. I should know, I was part of the team who spent weeks (not exaggerating) deciphering the speech, translating it, then figuring out the most likely meaning given the context. It's entirely latin, by the way. I don't speak latin, so...that was fun. 😆 Loving the retrospective here though. In my opinion this game can't possibly receive enough love and its been criminally underrated since basically the very beginning.
Wow. I beat the game, played the DLC, but I was wrong. I regret not seeing the ending that was there. That’s amazing! Definitely going back now. Thanks, son.
with probably 600 hours into this game it ranks right up there with Witcher3 for me. Its one of those games that everytime you play it you discover something you didnt know or use. Still playing this game today.
I've been replaying this game recently, after playing it back in 2013 because of the announcement of the sequel. It's just as amazing now as it was then. One of my favorite RPGs, games even, of all time. Very cool to see you do a video on it during the same time I'm doing a playthrough.
Fun fact, interaction with shop keepers boosts your affinity also. If you speed run the game and dint give away the ring you can end up with the merchant you used the most as your beloved.
One of my top 5 personal favorite games of all time. Thank you for making this video. It does a great job of explaining some of the reasons this game is so beloved. Hopefully the culture is primed for the sequel and it elevates the IP to the cultural gaming RPG landmark status Dragons Dogma deserves.
You can find a skeleton key past the gate in the Noble Quarter. There will be steps leading down but turn around to look where you just came from and you'll see a chest on a ledge.
Excellent work, Son! You're already good, but you're getting even better. Nonetheless here's some small things to add: If at the end of the Ring quest you make a forgery of it and keep the original - the Duke cannot open the chest in his treasury with the fake one, hence you can't get the Paladin's Mantle from there unless you sneak in during the night and get it yourself by having the ring in your inventory. Furthermore keeping the ring is the best thing you can do as it lowers the casting time of spells, making it a great bonus for magic (blue) vocations. (SPOILERS FOR BITTERBLACK ISLE BELOW!) Bitterblack Isle - appart from serving as the mandatory optional ultra hard dungeon in a JRPG also has the narrative goal of explaining what happens when an Arisen rejects the cycle and refuses to take their place in it. You have the Dragonforged who sacrificed his kingdom for knowledge The Duke who sacrificed his loved one for power and riches and you have the one Arisen who refused the cycle altogether and became its enemy (luring Arisens to his isle to be slain so they cannot further the cycle) In a way if the Senechal is the God of this world, Daimon is the Satan. The fallen angel who rejected the whole chain but ended up bitter. They sure put a lot of thought into fleshing out what at first look is a generic fantasy setting, didn't they?
10:41 y'know i never understood, the purpose of the moniker system, even when NPCs don't call out your name. And why would there be parental controls in a rated M game.
What i remembered reading about the duke was that he took the bargain and gave up his love. He blames you thinking he knows that you took the same deal. Its his guilt that makes him angry with you. I may have missed this as an explanation as i was cooking while listening. Great video. Ill be showing this to my friend who just wont play the game but loves everything he knows about it.
This was a great watch. I have 70+ hours in and playing thru NG+ now. And I just learned I can craft skeleton keys. And couple quests that I didn't even knew. This game keeps giving more and more. DG2 is going to be great.
great video, but kinda funny how you talk indepth about the lore of the base game, but totally ignore the DLC one that is so intertwined with it. as little summary (spoiler) like said - Daimon is/was an Arisen called Ashe. He hates the cycle especially as the dragon was hist stepmother or sth, so he would sacrifice a beloved one anyways. So he did neither and kinda became both - Arisen and Dragon, Daimon. If you kill him the first time, u can fight him the second time in his stronger awakened form - though his head is slumped down, no life in it. Instead the Dragon Face on his chest awakes and talks to you. Ashe, the Arisen is dead and what you fight is another speculation, but some think it is the essence of the (dragon) curse left over, especially as it looks like it. All else is also very interesting to interprete.
Dragons Dogma and Yakuza are 2 of my favorite games of all time, so it's kinda surreal to see both of these underrated gems get covered simultaneously by an equally underrated channel.
One if my favourite games ever, atmosphere, adventure and combat that just feels amazing. To this day bitterblack isle sticks in my head as one of the greatest expansions ever too, easily up there with the souls and bloodborne expansions and i call them that because when it come to content these were all heavy additions that i think went beyond most "DLC"
During the confrontation with the Seneschal, he pulls the god-slaying blade from the exact spot from when you plunge the blade during the animation. With fighting your arisen on the second play through, I always took it as a continuation of an unexplained facet of the cycle. Great vid. Hands down one of my favorite games.
I've been waiting for hourlong retrospectives on this game for years! EDIT:Did anyone mention the secret endgame drakes & Wyrms boss fights scattered across the map? They can talk n mention more lore! Specifically how they used 2b Arisen as well but failed BEFORE ever meeting the Sanchel.
I think the main takeaways from Dragons Dogma is that putting in systems to avoid whacking giant’s ankles for 30 minutes and putting effort into side/optional quests can pay dividends towards making your game enjoyable for multiple playthroughs. That and little details go a long way. Day and night cycles, how that impacts travel, and lantern mechanics are still respectable to this day.
Came here to catch up for DD 2! Thanks, great video! The whole "hey dad" thing seemed weird to me until i thought about how i love vtubers and a lot of them have odd things their call their fans, once i thought of it that way i found it endeering. I hope you have much success!
Small correction: The Liogran Peninsula is not a kingdom, it's just the name of the territory. Gransys and Liore are duchies on the peninsula, answerable to their sovereign ruler, a kingdom only mentioned as "The Mainland". You made some statements about the political situation of Gransys and Liore which I felt contradict in your segment about the faith, so I thought I'd clear it up.
How do you feel about Dragon's Dogma Dad? 🐉
I’m proud of you son this is why you’re my favorite
Son, what about your yakuza retrospective?
Very exciting to see this pop up. Thanks for speaking about this great game, son.
Recently picked it up, fuggin loved it. Made my Pawn based on my daughter, and got the pawn humanity ending, literally cried. Also, she created her own class *she's 4 so she picked what vocation and outfits, and LOVED that she regularly saved daddy in the game.
After the announcement of a sequel I was hoping someone would talk about this game again and seeing this video in my feed made all the memories from playing it on the 360 come rushing back. For that, I can’t thank you enough Son. However, I must say that it’s a shame there wasn’t a mention of the original title theme “Into Free”. It’s a genuine banger even if it doesn’t fit the tone of the game
If you face the Seneschal in online mode, the Seneschal isn't a random player and Pawn, it's the player and Pawn who most recently defeated the Seneschal.
That is an awesome way to do it.
@I Just Wanna Talk About Games something that is probably needing note here…
There are teams that work on a game and are dedicated to certain facets such as design, writing, programming and so on.
I would say the story was just meh no matter what mechanics they threw in the game, but it is unique. I’ll give them that.
@I Just Wanna Talk About Games do you actually develop games? If not you should stop assuming that the teams working on that were also working on the things that were cut.
On ng+ it’s your former arisen
If you have friends who have beaten the game it will be them and their pawn
One thing that I absolutely adored of what I played of this game, and never hear anybody talk about, was the sprinting animation. The Arisen needs a little time to reach their full sprint and time to come to a stop, and the animation reflects the effort going into both of those tasks. Few games make the sprinting animation look quite as realistic and weighty as this games and I really appreciated that about it.
Aaaww v
I love the sprint jumping. I do feel the weight and distance of jumping. It does feel like your character is running full speed.
Not only that the character size determines stamina use
@I Just Wanna Talk About Games You start on a dime for sure, but you don't hit top speed for a second or so, and stopping happens sooner if you haven't hit top speed.
Also when your syamina reaches near empty you character starts staggering as if they are running out of breath.
I appreciate that wyrms appear during post-game, speaking different languages and generally confused as to what's going on.
I must've missed this. Are there videos of it?
@@Jigalipuff in Gransys there's Drakes, Wyrms, and Wyverns that all speak the dragon language and are all confused or speaking in a way to the arisen
There's a Drake in the forest before post game as well.
And one single wyvern in the water gods altar who speeks english and is meant to be one of the cassardis villagers turned dragon@@vipeyboii
@@grimms1916I didn’t see that one
Absolutely loved this game, the point when the everfall opens up and the mystery that follows is to this day one of the most surprising moments in gaming that I have ever experienced
I still remember My first run of bitter balck isle was crazy
Good news, they announced dragons dogma 2
Oh definitely, I was in last year of highschool when this game released, I was 17 back then (27 now) and I remember defeating the dragon and thinking, this is it, I've done it, what an amazing game, then the ever fall opens up and my jaw drops to the floor.
Sooo incredibly happy with the announcement of the second entry. I'm currently on my 10th and 11th run simultaneously on PC and Xbox Series S. I never get tired on this game.
The whole post-dragon game is complete nightmare fuel. I saw the black sky and remember thinking; something is terribly wrong here
The cutscene with Elysion getting crushed and the monologue of the dragon is one of my favorite moments in gaming. I still get the cool-factor chills seeing it again. The depiction of Grigori is probably one of the best red dragons ever made.
(The rantings of an up jumped zealot make for tedious listening) best line ever
@@redlegionknight2194 "When the weak court death, they find it" is another banger of a line.
“The main title is a beautiful song, an Angelic voice-“
“THE WIND IS PUSHING ME”
Best song NGL wish the new games old sound pack had that one
Dude it's a crime that that song wasn't played when you for fighting Gregor 🫠
me on the way to bluemoon tower yes.
As someone who works 12 hour shifts, videos like this are an absolute blessing.
Also, this game has some of the most awesome magic I've ever seen in a game. Makes you feel like a sorcerer that can take on an army
Whats your job?
This is why I've put off playing it. Also work 12s and super long games are tough to fit in. That being said I did manage to put in like 150 hours in elden ring but that's besides the point
Another 12 guy!
I work four 12hr shifts in a row, I'm a lineman for a telecomm.
same here!
uh imagine how fast live goes by working like that. Giving time in exchnage of wage.
Retrospectives like these have helped keep Dragon's Dogma from slipping into obscurity and highlights to Capcom the passion of it's fan base. Great Deep Dive!
This game is massively underappreciated when it is so much better than most games akin to this even now
ngl love these formats, they are a welcome one for me as a spotlight for games you mentioned
Did you just bless my month with an unexpected long ass video on the best game of all time? Proud of you, son.
My favourite thing about this game is the fact that the Hydra from the beginning of the game writes the Arisen a note asking for a fight...
I'm not even kidding, once you're in the post game you can get a quest from the quest board asking you to kill the Hydra in the arena underneath the shadow fort, but it's written from a first person perspective, it's something along the lines of "I'm in the arena under the fort, come and face me arisen" I always found that hilarious.
That quest was so strange, it always felt like there should be more to it to me. It takes place in a huge coliseum which is unused outside of that quest, and there's a unique cutscene of the gate opening and the Hydra coming out flanked by goblins. Maybe it's another piece of half-finished sidequest content that they were unable to fully realize
@@islandofmelanat It is likely an unfinished area, but there is another quest that asks you to defeat the cyclops that occupies it before you defeat the dragon. Interesting to note that if you interact with the large gate where the hydra came from, it says something along the lines of "Enemies... They're everywhere!" which I always found strange because most players would only interact with it after beating the hydra. Maybe there was meant to be a boss rush mode in there or something?
@cooperlittlehales6268 I feel like that gate was meant to lead to the so-called "frontier lands", which is mentioned in some of the loading screen texts.
Yes, I love it! I can point out three specific things I love in this game:
-Pawns! Some may silence them, but I think that's heresy. I love that the game is a party-based RPG with some actually smart and helpful AI. Good AI is simply not something that you see often enough these days.
-A real feeling of having to put effort into adventure. It's not so stressful that it feels like a survival game, but knowing where to find certain herbs and knowing how to combine them as well as all the things you can do with other items in the game really makes the difference in a fight.
-The story! It feels like such a perfect blend of a Western-style CRPG and a JRPG. I like how it starts out simple but gets more and more mystical, culminating with you basically deconstructing the way the world works. The player has real agency in this.
Are you really playing Dragon's Dogma if you don't have 3 idiots screaming TIS WEAK TO FIRE all the time?
@@Iymarra Wolves hunt in packs!
I was clumsy!
The only complaint i have os that most new players never got to hear the OG title screen, a song called "into free" which was a fast-paced rock song and was so good.
I adored this game when I played it on the 360. The class and subclass system is insanely fun to mess around with & the pawn system is simple, yet effective. Can’t wait to see what happens with 2. Great work on another banger, son 👌🏻
Giant woman for a pawn, eh? Absolutely blessed taste my son.
I've played many rpg's on my time, and none of them had striked me more than Dragon's Dogma. I got into it by same time when other rpg was a huge talk, Skyrim, game that I was hoohed on too, and favoured that more than DD, so it took YEARS later when I finally got into DD, the Dark Arisen version, I created my character, and pawn who was female elven archer, red haired too. Fought against griffins, goblins and of course, dragons too.
And what an experience it was.
However, sometimes during my travels in Gransys, I often stopped and simply, enjoyed the world around me, the noises of animals and breeze while you walk through the woods was just lively experience.
Especially during nights when night really is, well... NIGHT, dark and scary, very horror game like, when you have to carry a lantern with you so you can see what's in front of you. And during night, monsters come out as scarier as ever, when I encountered Chimera first time, it was night and it jumped from behind, it really gave me goosebumps.
Those kinds of moments make this game, Dragon's Dogma, so special, a journey to the world of life and dangers that are worth to experience yourself.
This game REALLY is a "masterwork, you can't go wrong with it."
Hey son, I don't comment often but I feel like this warrants it. I found your channel thanks to the Legacy of Kain retrospective, really loved that game and I love listening to longform analysis of games and other media, I really admire how fast you've been churning these videos out at frankly insane pace, I can see this channel will blow up with how hard you're going, looking forward to all the lovely longform videos you will be releasing.
I remember playing this back when it came out for 2 weeks straight being completely hooked. The multiple "endings" had me wanting to keep playing and I've beat it and replayed it with the same character at least 6 times. It's still, to this day, one of my favorite games or all time, and after watching this, I might go back and replay it again.
Good news. Dragons dogma 2 babbyyyyy.
Slight correction with Daimon son. He wasn't an Arisen at first when he started adventuring with Grette and Olra but then became one. He was faced against Grette who was the Dragon when she failed to kill the Seneschal then cursed into his form while Olra (his pawn and lover) was slain by Grette.
Isnt it kinda messed up to sleep w one's own pawn? Lol. They kinda have to do whatever the Arisen asks.
@@Nabs-xd2qr Depends. You do see pawns in the story who are unbound so they have choice.
PRO TIP: The moment I realized I could fill empty flasks and I found a healing pool, I just smiled. Me and my pawns stopped at a shop, bought 100s of flasks, and made a few trips back and forth. Never worried about healing again.
Wow where the heck did you find a healing pool
@@quemsereu2009 there's several. They glow at night
I put a port crystal right in a healing pool so I just teleport back and forth and have almost 1,000 spring water bottles lmao
@@irontarkus4205 that's dope af
This is infinitely easier in the Bitterblack Isle, as Barroch (who lets you access your storage, among other things) will appear in a safe zone that also has a Healing Spring within its bounds. Literally a 15 second walk away.
The Mercedes vs Julian fight is my instance of absolutely adoring this game. 2 obvious options but 3 outcomes. i just happened to have a wakestone on me and doing the blacksmith son quest.
55:38 There are actually four options here.
1. Let Mercedes fight and lose.
2. Intercede and wound Julian, letting him escape with his life.
3. Kill Julian by doing enough damage to him before he can flee.
4. Use a Wakestone on Julian after killing him so he can be arrested and put in a prison cell (which can be visited later to increase affinity with him).
This is by far one of my favorite games of all time. So yeah. I’ll watch anyone talk about it for over an hour lol.
The little details in the game are really what makes it stand out for me.
Some of my favorite bits is being able to kill the gryphon immediately finishing the quest early and that it isn’t a fully forced scripted sequence.
A pawn telling me that the next quest involves carrying a heavy thing so be sure to pack light.
The way the story and lore is actually really interesting albeit not told in a way that’s immediately apparent.
Wolves hunt in packs.
They’re masterworks all you can’t go wrong.
Also man I feel like no other game has ever captured what it’s like to truly have the power of actually terrifyingly powerful magical spells. The feel of casting a tornado, causing giant ice pillars to erupt from the ground, or just plain have meteors rain from the sky are just leagues ahead of spell casting as it’s depicted in other games.
Dragon's Dogma has been my one of my favorite games since I first played it and I'm just so, so happy that over the years its managed to find an audience that appreciates it, quirks and all. Let's all hope Itsuno gets to make the game he wanted to the first time around; without any compromises!
I actually played this about 4 years ago for the first time and I honestly regret not playing it before Dragon Age: Origins as I find them to have so many paralels and both being superbly fantastic games. I also secretly wish this is what Skyrim is like, as no other game made me so happy to go hunting dragons and feel badass while doing it as this one.
Skyrim's end dragon battle is a joke! Compared to DD where Grigori chase you through a cavernous ruin and then flies through the sky while you desperately cling on him for life!
Farnival sells unlimited Conquerors Periapts later on, which are extremely useful. Allowing him to be found guilty blocks this, which is detrimental, imho. Also, there are a number of acts that can play out differently...for example, when Mercedes fights Julian, you can let her fight & be defeated, or you can intervene and wup Julian's arse. But if you can defeat Julian without getting hit, you can use a wakestone to revive him, which causes Julian to have a change of heart and he will turn himself in. Visit him in Gran Soren in the dungeons later on, and he will gift you his shield. Dragon's Dogma has a number of quests that can be handled in very different ways with secret rewards.
when I heard this was getting a sequel I freaked out, I screamed like a kid and ran to tell my wife all about the first one and how much I loved it. Great video hearing about it all reminded me of the magic the first game had
31:26
I was watching a friend of mine play DD through Discord streaming and I asked them
"You... Know you can fast travel to locations with port crystals attached to them, right? There's no need to run around the entire country to get to Gran Soren, for example."
"'Port crystals'? 'Fast travel'? You can do that in this game?"
They were on level *47.*
Personally, I think that NG+ proves that you didn't break the chain. I think that, when you stab yourself with the Godsbane, all you accomplish is cleaving your soul from your physical form. Your body becomes an empty shell and falls to Earth, which in turn, allows your Pawn's soul to inhabit your empty body. It gives your Pawn an opportunity to live a real human life.
Meanwhile, your own soul is still trapped in the role of Seneschal. After all, the world still needs the Seneschal. It always will. Life would not exist without one. So there you sit, waiting. Waiting for the next Arisen to come and finally, finally, release you from the endless chain.
More support for this idea also comes from Savan. How does he give you the Godsbane in the first place? He pulls it from his chest. As if he had also tried to stab himself with it, and failed to escape the chain. It follows with the theme of endless loops. Every Seneschal, at some point, tries to end themselves with the Godsbane. And every time, it accomplishes nothing.
EDIT: I suppose it does accomplish something actually. Each time, it allows a Pawn to become human.
A Seneschal breaks from the chain, a human becomes the new Seneschal, and a Pawn becomes human. A constant flow.
i'm not sure this will be read, but dragon's dogma is my all time favourite game ever and ten years later it still stirs in me a spirit of adventure and wanderlust.
i absolutely adored your video and presentation on something i love so much, son.
I love this game so much. The Everfall, Seneschal and the entirety of Bitterblack Isle is as good as the deepest Dark Souls lore IMO.
Dark Arisen does make another change that was overlooked in your video: it revamps fast travel to have eternal ferrystones available from the get-go with some static portcrystals around the world.
The Eternal Ferrystone and static Portcrystals singlehandedly saved the game for me. I tried so many times to beat it, but always found it so tedious to travel around. But once I learned about the Ferrystones in Dark Arisen, the game became much more palatable.
@@rustyshackle8000 same here. Played the original on ps3 and the constant traveling wore me out. Later, I learned of these new additions and got Dark Arisen on pc to continue and found it far more streamlined
I love the structure of your videos. The way you blend your description of story and gameplay really adds to the viewing experience. Thank you for your art.
I love Dragons Dogma. I remember first time playing it and i absolutely hated it. Few years later i replayed it out of boredom and discovered what a masterpiece i was missing. Now every few months i replay it and have a blast each time. definitely a true hidden gem.
I am pretty sure all those trials and errors you went through became your wake up call. Then once you figured out how to get past each stage while being at a low level, you ended up learning to love that game.
Absolute gem, a product of passion, creativity, ingenuity. A true work of art.
Masterworks all, you can't go wrong.
Yeah, I'm among those who found the game too hard to get through. But, that was years ago. It was actually a college buddy who originally told me how the game ended. He really got into Drakenguard afterwards. At least, I think that's what the game was called.
One thing I notice you missed..... The original main menu song!
It was nice little J-Pop number that didn't fit the theme at all, but was perfect for getting you pumped to kill the dragon.
My only assumption for its removal for DD:DA, is copyright issues.
Just got past Grigori. Had the game for years from a capcom humble bundle. Sad i waited this long but now i can listen to this retrospective, son. Cant wait for the sequel in a few weeks
I can't sing the praise of Dragon's Dogma enough. Amazing combat, classes, story, magic variety, pawns, the world, and its monsters, it's such a great game and experience. One of my favorite games ever since a GameStop manager convinced me to try the Demo before it came out on 360. It's so great that more and more people are making videos and posts about an underrated gem of a game.
38:58 you may know or not know of this but there was a different main theme song back when the game first came out. If you get a chance I'd recommend hearing it. The song is Into Free by B'z The community at first was a little confused on why they did that so they changed it to what you hear on this video today. I miss that old theme song.
It's very fun to listen to
If I recall correctly the license they had for the song ran out so they had to change it.
49:00 Did Feste really sold us out? or was he actually being that loud to warn us about the Duke approaching?
Another thiNG underrated is the community it’s still very alive to this day. Everyone is super helpful. One of my favorite games of all time if not #1 I felt genuine excitement and euphoria when I found out we were actually getting a sequel 🤣🤣
Excellent timing, son! Not only did I need a new long-form video to accompany the week's commute, but I've also just recently started a replay of Dragon's Dogma on PlayStation for the first time since launch.
This game is, far and away, my favorite game of all time. I agree completely that it was criminally underrated, and deserves both a remake and a sequel. It's soundtrack was amazing, the combat was fluid, immersive, and epic, and the world/lore was rich and the story was uniquely told. Absolutely adore this game.
So I don't think that the Arisen breaks the chain, due purely to the fact that the previous Seneschal pulls the Godsbane from his chest, as if he also plunged it into himself.
Dragon's Dogma is so dear to my heart.
Seeing an over one hour long video, in the year 2022, just pouring more love on it ... It makes me so happy.
Here's to the sequel !
I never played the game but i just watched 1.20h of a video totally inmersed in the lore. Nice video
When i played this game offline and i saw that the Seneschal was my previous Arisen and pawn my jaw was on the floor
I love this plot analysis of the post game. A great take on the cyclical, doomed nature of the arisen's path to a form of enslaved goodhood.
I think what's most amazing about the dark arisen expansion the villain Daimon. He is a result of an arisen accidentally triggering a curse after having this very same epiphany you have as a player, which makes it all the more tragic. Worse, in trying to rebel against the wheel of fate and break the cycle as it where, he completely isolates himself from the posibility of exerting change.
Also in the dark arisen expansion there is another corrupted, mad arisen that takes the form of the classical depiction of death, wielding a lantern and sythe. I'm not entirely sure how this comes to pass but considering there are a few hostile pawns roaming around the Lower levels of the island, it's possible that a world separate from the seneshal but still linked to the mystical rift of the ever fall causes that corruption, if not it has to be daemon himself.
sorry about the word vomit, I love this game's lore
Ashe had wished for the power to break the cycle and, in a sense, he did. He had given rise to the Bitterblack Isle, which drew in other Arisen and basically imprisoned them there, rendering them incapable of feeding into the cycle. He did "stop" the cycle of eternal return, but he never "finished" it. He did what is akin to causing a car crash to interrupt traffic- sure, there is suddenly no way down the street, but once he falls to our Arisen, the proverbial wreck is moved off of the road. The cars resume driving down the road, the cycle continues once more.
The lore in the game that slowly unravels through exploration, conversations and the opening up of BBI is so amazing and I hope DD2 expands further on what we already know. This game is one of my all-time favorites and I am having a blast playing it again on the PS5! The way I see it with NG+, you are playing as your pawn, as the arisen, and the new pawn will become your next arisen on your next NG+. I nearly passed out when I was offline and my past arisen was the Senechal. I only found that out recently!!
This isn't my favorite game of all time (it's maybe my fourth or fifth favorite), but it is the game I've replayed more than any other. It's a rare RPG where different classes can almost change the genre of the game itself by how differently some of them play from each other.
what are some of your other favourites?
probebly dark souls@@FailWhaleGamer
This game is so underrated, doesn’t get the attention it deserves. You can see Berserk influenced the art style. Great vid btw :)
oh man. berserk. awesome
I actually stopped watching half way through to pick up this game. it was just never on my radar at launch but you convinced me to finally try it.
you got me son, you got me.
Did you enjoy your time with it?
I had never heard of your channel until I started looking at a game I had never played...DDDA. This is very well done, even a year later it resonates. I don't want to insult you by compairing you to other YT folks but, I am a major fan of long form presentations. I started long form reviews with Skill Up, and moved over to Luke Stephenson...they both seem to have gotten board of this format and are now reaching for the low hanging fruit. Today alone (because of this vid) I have managed to binge at least four of yours that caught my eye. Keep up the good work, and I hope you do not get tired of doing these type of reviews and retrospects. Cheers!
Glad you've enjoyed the videos!
The ending legit made me cry the first time I played it... Powerful ending to a powerful game. Timeless.
The first time I played the game, I thought the dragon was the end, and after winning at level 40 something, I was confused. I thought, "Is that all?" Now I'm going for the real ending. I know many people say the story was meh; I can see that, but with the lore you gave at the end, the gameplay, and the ambition behind this game, I can only respect Drogon's Dogma. It will be one of the best games I have played and a game that makes a lot of sense to replay multiple times
A friend of mine introduced me to this game a couple years after its release. He said he finished and enjoyed it but felt the combat was a bit lacking. Hearing this, I gave it a short try before putting it away for a few months while I continued doing every single thing I could imagine on Skyrim.
After squeezing every ounce of fun I could from Skyrim, I decided to give this game another shot. It was boring for the first hour or so while I ran around the world before getting to Gransys. There I discovered the inn along with the different vocations and skills I could play around with.
Fast forward a few weeks and I'm having a blast as a magick archer with my sorcerer pawn using crazy-powerful spells. My friend comes over and sees me doing double jumps, throwing barrages of magic bolts, covering enemies in explosives before blowing them up, jumping off of high ledges and beyblading into an enemy's head, and climbing large enemies while on fire. Meanwhile my pawn is summoning meteors, earthquakes, and tornadoes. My friend was completely shocked that all of this was possible. He asked me how I was doing all this, what weapons I was using, where I got my class, who the person following me was, etc.
Turns out my friend went through the entire game as a fighter using nothing but light and heavy attacks, not knowing you could climb enemies and having no idea pawns even existed. I decided to check out his pawn after hearing this. She was the default model with basic starting gear and barely past level 10. Meanwhile he was nearing 130 (gotta overlevel like crazy to kill a dragon by hacking at its ankles with a sword).
After seeing me play he went out and bought another copy (since he had given his to me).
Everything else aside, Dragon's Dogma's combat mechanics scratch an itch that no other game ever has for me. While there are a lot of games with very good combat mechanics (Anything by FromSoftware, Monster Hunter, DMC, hell even Genshin Impact), there is just something about Dragon's Dogma combat that you just can't find elsewhere. I've played through the game dozens of times over the years with everything from completionist runs to challenge runs. I really can't wait for the sequel.
I am curious to see how much more advanced they manage to make the pawn system in the sequel.
The bow combat was so good they used it in monster hunter world for their bow combat Capcom just know how to do combat
You are absolutely churning these videos out man, good stuff every single time. Keep up the good work can’t wait to see where you go with this.
Funny thing is you can sell the monocle for a few hundred thousand gold. You can buy throwblasts which are super over powered. They make pretty much make the game a cake walk.
Man, every Silent hill game and now Dragon's Dogma!? You make me so proud son.
I feel like so few people have experienced the less traditional endings, like taking the deal, dying to Seneschal or turning back so I'm glad to see someone else out there who experienced it all.
My take on breaking the cycle is that we don't break the cycle.
Every path you take is not your choice to make, but one you have put before you, usually feeding back into the cycle.
Yes, as Seneschal you choose when to end, but because of the rift and it's weird time/space properties it may mean that other Pawns will fill in the void and the Pawn who becomes you simply entered a slightly altered version of reality as we knew it but at the beginning of the game (time wise)
Another words, the Pawn becoming you is another cycle.
We know that when we become the dragon it loops over, meaning it is possible to be sent back in time, so my theory could be true.
There was one other "choice" , the Dark Arisen path.
The closest to an actual "choice'
I think that island called out to all Arisen who intended to refuse all the other paths.The island exists for those Arisen who choose the path of doing nothing and refusing to engage in the cycle.
And in the end what happened? A "Demon" (something half way looking like a dragon) that "tested" other Arisen or fed upon those who failed.
In a sense his "inaction" led to another cycle where basically he lived out a warped version of being the dragon.
Had it on the 360, I bought it on the Switch earlier this year, God this game is just something else.
It's closer to Dark Souls than it seems, for most people a "Souls Like" is a slow paced game with dodge rolls ... Really.
But ultimately they share something else and it's the core of their story telling : you can finish the game without knowing what's going on, unless you read, unless you search, unless you explore the intricate world, it's a kind of game that truly reveal itselft to those you are passionated and I LOVE it. This game is a masterpiece and I almost never use that word.
Something that bothers me is the fact that Capcom never used the pawn system in other games, you explained it well here but to feel it is really different, they evolve for real, you get emotionally attached so much to them, one of the most addictive part of RPGs is the progression of your character, having a NPC YOU designed from head to toe and seeing it grows, not only in stats but personnality depending on the situation it faces and your actions, while gaining knowledge (and not only weaknesses and quest lore but fighting style as well, some pawn won't hesitate to climb on monsters or "jump slash") is just soooo cool.
Great video son, it made me feel younger, thank you.
- a close to 40yo proud dad.
On being attached to other pawns: if your friends also play, you can use their pawns consistently. Myself and my brothers always coordinated our teams so we could play "together".
I played on PC a couple of years ago. Bought it for almost nothing on a steam sale just before I had to leave to the countryside to my mother's house since someone broke in while she wasn't there and I wanted to be there while we installed some locks and shit. I took my laptop with me and I had this and maybe one other game. I had no access to an internet connection so I spent whatever free time I had with this game. It was perfect for that type of moment since I had no idea about the game at all, just bought it because it was so cheap, and had no access to guides or anything so I had to figure out all the game story and systems by myself which added a lot to my enjoyment of the game as it felt like playing in the 90's when you couldn't just look up guides for any small puzzle you found or look for optimal builds and crap like that. I probably put like 200 hours on it with multiple playthroughs and it's an excellent game, full of content that really begs to be explored blind, with hundreds of small touches that only show up if you spend a lot of time in the game and that normally you'd just miss because you want t oget to the end, or you'd just look up some video instead to find out what happens. It's one of those games that really captures the idea of the wold being alive, with characters moving on with their lives and goals apart from whatever it is you are doing.
I really can't wait for DD2.
Been dying for you to cover this game, it’s pretty great. Methinks your dad is proud of you for covering it too. ❤️
Who would've thought that the one and only based Sophia Narwitz would be found here. I see that when not scarring the internet you enjoy quality content of our dear son.
@@alessandromata190 Lengthy video game essays are my favorite content on youtube, it makes up the majority of what I watch. Even those that hit the 5-10 hour mark. And our boy Son here is especially good at making em.
@@Sophnar0747 Well, I have to agree, video game essays make for really interesting content, and just as you said, he is indeed really good at creating engaging content, and is really thorough with his coverage on top of all that.
So hyped for DD2. The two things that live rent free in my head from the first are talking to I think it was Olra? Spamming through the conversations it felt like “Pray pray pray pray pray”, and then the other is “just a jape friend… just a jape!”
When it came down to Fournival’s trial I decided to save him because he’s a father after all. I didn’t want Simone to be without a parent.
Fournival actually became more generous at the end after we saved him.
The other part of this is if you did let him be executed, Simone won’t stop mourning for his father and blames you for it.
For the family that needed to be evicted, on my first play through I let the family keep their home only ended up regretting ot later because at the end the kid lost both his home and parents to the everfall.
However if you did get them evicted whilst giving them the money to move, they actually find a better place to live at the farm area.
So when you said you let Fournival die I felt bad for Simone. She was genuinely crying for ger dad and that left a bad taste on my play through.
Nowadays I play giving the NPCs a better outcome whenever I start another N+.
Also I prefer romancing Mercedes. I’ve had the princess way too many times already.
A couple things:
Bitter Black Isle was in the base game just you needed to get the expansion, in Dark Arisen, it was tied to the game itself (Similar to Dark Souls Prepare to Die edition and it's DLC). Dark Arisen also fixed the affinity system as it use to be whoever you talked to the most (Likely the inn keeper).
The game is actually missing over 60% of the originally planned content. They also explained exactly how the world works. If you look into the sky at night, the moon is actually missing which is a world building detail, because the worlds are stacked on top of each other, blocking the moon from view for all that are under the upper most world. It is my belief that the hole in Gransys is showing the path to the other worlds however we are unable to actually travel these worlds. At least now. It is likely that finishing the game would lead to the upper layers of the world until we finally reach the top and see the moon which would have then allowed us to go there and likely kill whatever was there.
@11:24 - This was actually finally translated several months ago. I should know, I was part of the team who spent weeks (not exaggerating) deciphering the speech, translating it, then figuring out the most likely meaning given the context.
It's entirely latin, by the way. I don't speak latin, so...that was fun. 😆
Loving the retrospective here though. In my opinion this game can't possibly receive enough love and its been criminally underrated since basically the very beginning.
Wow. I beat the game, played the DLC, but I was wrong. I regret not seeing the ending that was there. That’s amazing! Definitely going back now. Thanks, son.
So proud of you for making this video son.
with probably 600 hours into this game it ranks right up there with Witcher3 for me. Its one of those games that everytime you play it you discover something you didnt know or use. Still playing this game today.
I've been replaying this game recently, after playing it back in 2013 because of the announcement of the sequel. It's just as amazing now as it was then. One of my favorite RPGs, games even, of all time. Very cool to see you do a video on it during the same time I'm doing a playthrough.
Fun fact, interaction with shop keepers boosts your affinity also. If you speed run the game and dint give away the ring you can end up with the merchant you used the most as your beloved.
One of my top 5 personal favorite games of all time.
Thank you for making this video. It does a great job of explaining some of the reasons this game is so beloved.
Hopefully the culture is primed for the sequel and it elevates the IP to the cultural gaming RPG landmark status Dragons Dogma deserves.
You can find a skeleton key past the gate in the Noble Quarter. There will be steps leading down but turn around to look where you just came from and you'll see a chest on a ledge.
Excellent work, Son! You're already good, but you're getting even better.
Nonetheless here's some small things to add:
If at the end of the Ring quest you make a forgery of it and keep the original - the Duke cannot open the chest in his treasury with the fake one, hence you can't get the Paladin's Mantle from there unless you sneak in during the night and get it yourself by having the ring in your inventory.
Furthermore keeping the ring is the best thing you can do as it lowers the casting time of spells, making it a great bonus for magic (blue) vocations.
(SPOILERS FOR BITTERBLACK ISLE BELOW!)
Bitterblack Isle - appart from serving as the mandatory optional ultra hard dungeon in a JRPG also has the narrative goal of explaining what happens when an Arisen rejects the cycle and refuses to take their place in it.
You have the Dragonforged who sacrificed his kingdom for knowledge
The Duke who sacrificed his loved one for power and riches
and you have the one Arisen who refused the cycle altogether and became its enemy (luring Arisens to his isle to be slain so they cannot further the cycle)
In a way if the Senechal is the God of this world, Daimon is the Satan. The fallen angel who rejected the whole chain but ended up bitter.
They sure put a lot of thought into fleshing out what at first look is a generic fantasy setting, didn't they?
They shouldve added that if you lose you actually play as a dragon.
10:41 y'know i never understood, the purpose of the moniker system, even when NPCs don't call out your name. And why would there be parental controls in a rated M game.
What i remembered reading about the duke was that he took the bargain and gave up his love. He blames you thinking he knows that you took the same deal. Its his guilt that makes him angry with you. I may have missed this as an explanation as i was cooking while listening. Great video. Ill be showing this to my friend who just wont play the game but loves everything he knows about it.
I'm so happy for this one! Amazing choice and work, my boy!
My favorite son, reviewing my favorite Capcom "hidden" gem
It's a good day to be a dad
Yay I’m so glad you covered this one! Good job son
This was a great watch. I have 70+ hours in and playing thru NG+ now. And I just learned I can craft skeleton keys. And couple quests that I didn't even knew. This game keeps giving more and more. DG2 is going to be great.
great video, but kinda funny how you talk indepth about the lore of the base game, but totally ignore the DLC one that is so intertwined with it.
as little summary (spoiler)
like said - Daimon is/was an Arisen called Ashe. He hates the cycle especially as the dragon was hist stepmother or sth, so he would sacrifice a beloved one anyways. So he did neither and kinda became both - Arisen and Dragon, Daimon. If you kill him the first time, u can fight him the second time in his stronger awakened form - though his head is slumped down, no life in it. Instead the Dragon Face on his chest awakes and talks to you. Ashe, the Arisen is dead and what you fight is another speculation, but some think it is the essence of the (dragon) curse left over, especially as it looks like it.
All else is also very interesting to interprete.
My favorite son talking about my favorite ARPG. Father’s Day came early
Dragons Dogma and Yakuza are 2 of my favorite games of all time, so it's kinda surreal to see both of these underrated gems get covered simultaneously by an equally underrated channel.
Yakuza aint underrated not even close
I asked for this not too long ago. My man! My son I've been gone but I have returned to binge your videos.
One if my favourite games ever, atmosphere, adventure and combat that just feels amazing. To this day bitterblack isle sticks in my head as one of the greatest expansions ever too, easily up there with the souls and bloodborne expansions and i call them that because when it come to content these were all heavy additions that i think went beyond most "DLC"
During the confrontation with the Seneschal, he pulls the god-slaying blade from the exact spot from when you plunge the blade during the animation. With fighting your arisen on the second play through, I always took it as a continuation of an unexplained facet of the cycle. Great vid. Hands down one of my favorite games.
I've been waiting for hourlong retrospectives on this game for years!
EDIT:Did anyone mention the secret endgame drakes & Wyrms boss fights scattered across the map? They can talk n mention more lore! Specifically how they used 2b Arisen as well but failed BEFORE ever meeting the Sanchel.
My god this is my favorite game ever. Keep 'em coming, champ! That's why you're my favorite!
I think the main takeaways from Dragons Dogma is that putting in systems to avoid whacking giant’s ankles for 30 minutes and putting effort into side/optional quests can pay dividends towards making your game enjoyable for multiple playthroughs.
That and little details go a long way. Day and night cycles, how that impacts travel, and lantern mechanics are still respectable to this day.
Came here to catch up for DD 2! Thanks, great video!
The whole "hey dad" thing seemed weird to me until i thought about how i love vtubers and a lot of them have odd things their call their fans, once i thought of it that way i found it endeering.
I hope you have much success!
Criminally underrated, still incredible that despite the cut ideas the game is still 🔥
Dragons dogma 2 will be dragons dogma 1. the loop is unending.
also great vid, just finished my first playthrough and i absolutely loved it.
Playing this game for the first time right now. Just started and I’m so friggin stoked!!!
Small correction: The Liogran Peninsula is not a kingdom, it's just the name of the territory. Gransys and Liore are duchies on the peninsula, answerable to their sovereign ruler, a kingdom only mentioned as "The Mainland". You made some statements about the political situation of Gransys and Liore which I felt contradict in your segment about the faith, so I thought I'd clear it up.
Yet another game that I found fascinating but never managed to get far in. You alway tackle wonderful pieces of gaming history. You are a gift son.
I’m proud of you for covering this son.