Great critical observations. Here are some of my thoughts if anyone is interested: -Too many story threads that never went anywhere. I would have preferred less story, but all focused on finding the dragon and more quality less quantity. To Nihil's point: more combat quests with a boss at the end that led to getting closer to finding the dragon. -Would like less time and effort spent on npc's and npc dialogue and more time spent improving the pawn dialogue. -Should be able to use more skills. -Randomize enemy spawns -Increase difficulty with each newgame+ -Throw that dragonforged graphic effect in a fire in a deep pit of hell. -Let us make new characters without deleting our old one. -Upgrade system needs a complete revamp. Every path should have a reason to exist. As it stands knockdown is too superior to other choices. -More enemy types please -Make pawns stop yeeting off cliffs -Improve pawns choices in skill use There is soooooo much more but this is a good starting point. Thanks for all the cool vids Nihil0.0 👍
dragonforged effect can absolutely burn in hell. made my shadowy dark thief glow like a glowstick. and yeah i think the 4 skill maximum holds this game back in a very substantial way. warfarer was pretty much dead on arrival to me because of it.
we also don't have any connection to the main dragon. Grigori showed up 3 times before we had the showdown with him in DD1 and it felt way better than just in a flashback and then BOOM here he is.
@@mekudu-man3804 there should have been way more story and quests related to the dragon. I personally would have removed at least 50% of the quests and npc's connected to certain quests and spent that time and effort on more main quest surrounding the dragon and adding depth to the pawn system.
After finishing my 1st playthrough of DD2 I found myself wishing they would have just remade and fleshed out the 1st game 😢 Thank you for teaching me how to play mystic knight many years ago 🙏🏼
I always found it weird why half the main story is "go to vernworth keep and avoid guards that dont care if youre there or not, grab an item, watch cutscene, leave"
"I would replicate it and improve it, I would not instead remove 50% of what was so close to perfection, and then replace it with bullshit nonsense" Well said...put this man in charge of the development of DLC and DD3 as the people in charge right now clearly dont know what they are doing with the series, they appear to be going the Bethesda route of "streamlining" instead of improving upon what came before. Great review btw, very informative.
It's over. Capcom doesn't give a shit about player enjoyment, they want money like most developers nowadays. It's like many of these companies don't even care about making good games anymore. Baldurs Gate 3 was a godsend that actually restored a lot of my faith in the gaming industry but it's been the first great game in a long time.
To be honest I deleted it after the first 10 hours and went straight back to Dogma 1. I just couldn't click with the new combat style because I believe that it has changed for the worse. It is apparently "the same" but feels clunkier and slower, the attacks don't have the "crunchiness" of the original Dogma. The combat has always been the backbone of Dogma and they screwed it. DON'T FIX WHAT ISN'T BROKEN.
The "crunchiness" was indeed part of what made DD1's combat so visceral. That's one thing that made me commit to Warrior, despite the class being more limited than the others.
@@Sadistic_77 the sluggish quality and delay to everything is because Capcom is pushing their "adaptive difficulty" tech as a way to scam players into pay to win. I highly recommend playing the RE3 remake and then RE4 remake. The input lag in RE4 in dramatically increased so that there is a greater period of time between button presses and execution, this allows the game to cheat whereas when a game is instantaneously responsive it harder to cheat the player without them recognizing it.
It could also increase pawn rental turnover for people like me who otherwise never interact with rift stones unless a pawn dies. Being able to see new hires every time you fast travel would be great.
its the same problem of the first game. the lead designer makes a subpar game that the other devs had to fix with the expansion. The expansion team also made Dragon's Dogma Online which is better than DD2.
Garm got completely socialized. I remember when I first saw Garm in DD2 and I sweatin. But after the fight was over I was like what have they done to you man? You ain't even scary no more.
Hey Marz. How you been man? It is a shame. The big enemies (the best part of Dogma) have all been downgraded. I'm working on a vid now comparing and it is sad.
Two things stand out to me the most: quest design and vocation design. In my opinion both of these core aspects were horribly done in 2. Vocations feel neutered across the board and the quest design is too focused on running between quest givers instead of leading you to interesting battles.
People often say that good gameplay was enough to make DD a cult classic, and that it was the main reason game wasn't forgotten over the years. Nothing proves them wrong better than the sequel. DD was great because it had a working story, likeable characters, great music, great attention to detail and a lot of heart. DD2 definitely succeeded at making some things better, but so many things were overlooked and lost in the process, that it's just baffling to me. If this is what Itsuno always wanted from the series, I'm fine with Dragon's Dogma 2 being the last in it. And funnily enough, I feel like I'd rather replay the original game over the sequel simply because it's a fairly short 20-30 hours long game and not a 100+ hour behemoth.
Yeah, even before Dark Arisen came out DD Vanilla was one of my top games. I did not feel short changed after defeating Grigori and thought that was the end. Was pleasantly surprised when I learned that not only does Gransys turns into a nightmare with stronger enemies but I had the Everfall to mess around with. I didn't have a strong opinion on the story when I first started playing it, but I fell in love with it after beating the Seneschal. I play DD1 on a regular basis and knew before DD2's release it wasn't gonna eclipse the first game because it was already a bunch of things revealed that I wasn't fucking with.
The first game had brilliant combat and great characters (I vividly remember them). Yes, the story was threadbare, but it was just enough to give the experience meaning. And from everything I've seen of DD2, it doesn't seem like 12 years of formula refinement. In fact it seems to me like Capcom told Itsuno to remake DD1 but make it look better, make it overall easier, and make it QUICK (get it out on store shelves asap)!
Problems for me: Having to avoid every pawn walking down the road in fear that they will approach me at the most random times especially when I already have a full party. The pawn chatter is more annoying in dragons dogma 2. I never feel inspired to climb any large monsters,if I wanted to hack and slash a monster foot,I would play other games. I can not have fun exploring because every five feet I walk I get attacked by monsters,which is kinda unrealistic. Monsters tend to pursue my party even when iam just trying to get somewhere, and it is very annoying as well. Some of the side quest are unavoidable,people approach you and force a quest on you that you may not be interested in doing. These are just a few annoyances for me.
you know you can say no right? it won't make the quest go away, unless it's just an optional escort mission to increase affinity. don't like the pawns approaching though. pawn chatter is like a specific niche alcohol, you either like it tolerate it or drive sober. i do miss the open fields though.
They tried to capture the majority that did not play DD1 rather than focus on doing a great game for those who loved and kept playing over and over the first game. A pity, really. I don't share your positive outlook on how a DLC could possibly save the game, because the game seems to have been ruined mostly by lack of vision (they completely ignored what made the first game great and did not even try to expand on that) and inability to understand their playerbase (worrying to sell to those who did not buy/play the first game rather than to its fans) which are both things not fixable by coding, and require a change in direction that I don't see them making so quickly. I think we're going to see the exact opposite of what happened to DD1: an initial blaze of glory and then it's gonna fade into oblivion and getting forgotten.
Now that Capcom considers Dragon's Dogma a key franchise, we can only hope that the DLC and the sequel, whenever it comes out get the staff and resources it deserves from Capcom. Dragon's Dogma is most likely my favorite game and I dropped the sequel after a month and a half of playing after waiting 10+ years for it. Agree on the quests so much, whenever I think about Dragon's Dogma and starting a new playthrough I think about all the cool quests that await me, they're so many yet in Dragon's Dogma 2 I can only think of a handful, not really that much of an incentive to start a new save file.
A total remake of DDDA with complete contents as the dev team ever devised and planned but forced to released without and added contents from the doomed DDO sounds nice to me..
The noticeable npcs dont have a lot of quests either, around 1-3 quests, but they make the game more interesting. i thought dd2 would easily improves on that.
Look at the quest with the noble boy and the girl in the slums, leading this quest to a somewhat satisfying conclusion would've been so easy even most of us would be able to write it, but they didnt, because they either gave no fucks or forgot or didnt have the manpower and time (12 years...) but it shows the lack of dedication to hand out a decent product, let alone a great one, which DD:DA would've deserved.
What do you mean by the staff and resources it deserves? I ask because if you are referring to the misinformation that there were only 400 devs working on the game, that is wrong. There were actually more than 1,500 devs working on the game. If you want to verify youself, look up Dragons Dogma 2 on MobyGames to see the full list of credits.
It's tough to admit, Dragon's Dogma 2 I still love. However, the game is a severe let down in so many aspects. Barely new enemies, vocations, lack of cohesive storytelling, lack of different enviroments in the world. I have to talk about the world being boring, imagine an actually mystical elf village with unique vegetation and trees. A winter biodome with norse inspired monuments and people. A dwarfen town that specializes is blacksmithing and rare armory. God so much missed opportunity and I've only just started....
5:38 A cool detail is that If you give him a forgery of the tome, he appears against the griffon and the spell fails to activate, so even within that branching path there are more branching paths
No enemy scaling please. I don't find it a problem to steamroll lower level critters. Game just needs more end game content, not to have level scaling.
I miss mystic knight, but I love the animations to fighter and stuff, and what keeps me on the game alot is the pawn interactions. But I missed rusted weapons, and more elemental weapons and things they do. Also where is dark, and why is holy and dark night appliable.
Mystic Knight was in DD1. That was the major issue in DD2 for me... plus I pretty much agree with all that you said. Always a objective, conclusive and all in all great video. Hope to see you back in DD1! I'm going back there now
"Subjective" it's not entirely objective. for example, the combat system is altered from the first, it's not bad it's different and weighty. for many that is a plus. for others not so much. the pawns, they are alike the pawns in the first game with more dialogue and vocal performance options. their ai is impressive, side by side I think the pawns are a little more active in combat in this game. but only slightly. I don't think many people have unlocked the pawn trophies which acts like pawn knowledge of enemies in this title. again, a subjective view. the cave systems. caves in video games have always been subjective. enemy variety. if you include dark arisen which had between 70-80 different enemy types including skeleton, bandit and goblin varieties. then dragons' dogma dark arisen had more. however, pre-expansion the base game only had 53, compared to dd2 which has 54. so, comparing the two base games in this regard is objectively false. a true comparison between enemy variety can be made after the expansion for dd2 comes out. vocations. any critique on vocations is again based on personal preference and is again subjective. many players favoured vocation is the trickster. which isn't objectively bad just depends on play style. its only weakness stems from one-on-one duels with certain npc's which again in that situation you can still call your pawns to aid you or go full unarmed. quests. this i think is where you might be able to make an argument for objectivity. then again i haven't scoured every nook and cranny in the game to compare properly. but so far, the first did side quests and optional ones better. the story: on paper they are written in the same style and vagueness. objectively they are not one better than the other in their respective pacing and way of telling it. people can subjectively choose which ever one they prefer. though this is a sequel. so really the whole story should be judged with both games in mind. difficulty: the same difficulty as the first game pre-expansion. both games had me take around the same amount of time 25ish hours to complete the main story and both saw me finish the first playthrough around level 35-40. equipment: there is objectively less options in how to dress your character in this game. when taking into account that the first game had and under and over layer for both legs and torso. objectively Grigory was better in the first game. (is my subjective opinion)
They tried to hard to sell DD to people that didn't care about DD... and this is the result. Non-fans will forget about the game anyway and DD fans got the middle finger.
Haven’t noticed any veterans talk about the lack of Godsbaning in the sequel. In DD2, I have yet to stand in front of a chest and Godsbane repeatedly to get a 0.5% drop. I haven’t had the need to trivialise the coolest boss in the game so I can get BBI lvl 3 gear. In DD2 I just cruise around and do what I want, it’s nice.
Don't think I agree with everything, but agree with most of it. While we all waited for 12 years, I don't think 12 years of dev went into it. In fact, it's probably more likely there was a prototype, the anniversary announcement, a review of the interest from fans, and THEN the real dev started. Warfarer makes sense to me, but weapon choice matters. My favorite is daggers with the grapple skill, smoke and a Magik Archer bow - usually with sleep or rebound. I don't like how toned down archer and warrior feel, but I like their standard movesets a lot more this time around. I also had quite a few boss fights, I thought.... Guess we just define that differently. The medusa/griffin questline, the sphinx, or dragons peak spring to mind. Same conclusion in the end. Good, not great.
DD2 proves that Assassin wasn’t just a needless rehash of assets. In DD1 Assassin is the vocation that allows weapons to really become more than just the vocation themselves as new DPS skills were added to them, especially sword and shield. In DD2 it’s great that they specialized the vocations but it came at the cost of variety. Warfarer showcases this because being able to use any weapon you want doesn’t work in practice because the skills are what define the weapon. For example, a sword effectively isn’t a weapon, it just turns you into a tank vocation cause Fighter is the only vocation who uses swords. So you’re still forced to use a Duospear, Greatsword, and Daggers if you want a melee DPS option cause Mystic Spearhand, Warrior, and Thief have the weapons skills that do damage. Assassin can still be done in DD2 with little effort and would solve a LOT of issues especially for Warfarer, all they need to do is make the vocation use sword and bow. Mechanically it’d just be like DD1 where sword is the main weapon with the light and heavy attack buttons while the bow would be the secondary weapon with R1 being Steady Shot as the sword itself does not have a Vocation ability. All 4 skills would be shared between the two weapons. BOOM, more variety with little effort.
Drakes have a bigger moveset than dd1, they still got the tailwipe, the headbutt, the spin, the grab, they got 3 different kinds of flamebreath attacks, the aoe stamina debuff (which is lame because it is a flat amount and not % based) , the buttslam, the spells and variations if stationary or flying. Problem is that they seem to rotate those not often enough and are not aggressive enough. Agree that all the "minibosses" need more aggression/speed. But it is unfair to critizise that they had "12 years" for advancement. They had exactly the time they got from capcom when it got greenlit.
Yeah if it was a game made over these 12 years sure, but in reality it only started development after dmc5, they had to make everything from scratch for the new engine, they reused lots of ideas and concepts but implementing those takes time especially with the physics stuff they went with. Interested to see what we will get if they make an expansion
There's 12 years of reviews and other shit all over the Internet telling them what was good and what was bad. Many features they left out, they did out of their own desire. They were not concerned with what the community enjoyed about the 1st game.
Yeah, sure thing. But if this has always been their dream project, and they have been given a second chance to make it. Like Nihil said, why didn't they "remake" DD1 from near-perfect, and then perfect it. I, too, am enjoying the game. But I don't see me getting 10k+ hours out of it like I did DDDA.
@@TSotPAgreed, I recently went back to spreading democracy for Super Earth, did put a lot of hours into this game but unless there is dlc probably wont touch it for a while.
Yeah, someone who misses mystic knight as much as I do, but hopefully, capcom does keep supporting the game, and we get updates and dlc that make the game better.
Yea imagine if real fights ware like: 1. Straight punch with left arm 2.Hook with right. 3. High guard stance 4. Low kick with left leg. And that is all moves you can do in a fight 🤣🤣🤣 DDDA was low on possible skill use for me but this one is hilarious.
@@G01010It’s not really hard to understand. There’s less skill slots because they added vocation skills (stuff like warrior shoulder charge) and also folded some skills into core skills, like scarlet kisses.
I feel the lack of combat quest was a problem too. Like I was hoping to get put into more situations where I would have to fight a juiced minotaur or drake like that sacred arbor and Dullahan quest. I just didn't care about becoming sovereign and just told my time to go fight monsters.
I don't agree on all point but i agree on most tbh, to me this can game be resumed as "dragon's dogma, but less" in all aspect Sure it is prettier and has great additions ... but how can i forget DD1, DDDA and DDON's hundreds of mechanics, aditions, classes, mobs, and improvements ? We had so much, 2 games worth of content, and none of that made it in the sequel. Mods will most likely fix a lot sure, but in my book if a game needs mods then it is not good enough. DDON's story and mechanics were keeping me way more entertained, i remember sweating in fights and tryharding, just to get enough exp to unlock new combos/skills. In this game i never tried, never lost a single fight, and i'm not even good which angers me the most. But the worse offense to me were pawns themselves. How can we go from the depth of DDDA, with the good pawns of DDON, and end up with 4 pawn options. I've recruited as many different pawns, with as many different skills, with as many different configurations, and they all were the same in pattern, AI, fighting and ... voices as it's obviously painful that they linked voices with AI and made them repeat the same 6 to 8 sentences on a cooldown. (Don't even get me started on open world dungeons ... they are subpar to the first game in every aspect, it feels like every dungeon is the same) I hope that future entries give us way more, or that the dlc upgrades all of that by a lot, because i love this franchise too much to not buy the dlc but god, does this game not deserve me putting full price in it >.
I played Dragon's Dogma and Dragon's Dogma 2 back to back, make videos of both. Restarted back my DD Dark Arisen 1 day after I bought DD2. And what I can see is night and day difference. Dark Arisen is way more fun, vocations are all balanced. Entire armors and clothing can be used by all vocations. Vagabond Armor, White Stockings, Tiara, Overknee Boots combo of gear are all not class locked. I can have my mage/sorc main pawn has about the same defence as my main Strider/Assassin Arisen. Strider/Assassin/Ranger are all similar enough that I can happily switch one to the other in DD. DD2 vocations are all so unsimilar, and importantly the fashion dogma become so unrecognizable, it gets tired very fast. Fashion in games are very important for me, I like my Pawn and Arisen to have the same "look". In Dark Arisen its easy ofcoz. Just equipped both with Silk Lingerie and I'm very happy yeah... In DD2 unless both Arisen and Pawn are same vocation, we can never be the same... Very sad, very wasted becoz the creator of Dd2 is so awesome. I spent 5 hours on creating both Arisen and Pawn using the free Creator demo they released. Time 0 to time 30 mins, I already at encampment with Scammer Rook and my main Pawn. So yeah the character creator in DA is like "nonstarter" compared to DD2. But with a combination of Vagabond Armor, Tiara, White Stockings, OverKnee boots, both my main women can really look like sisters yeah! I played many many Rpgs if the fashion did not give me "kick", I got bored very fast. Which is sad to say I got bored of DD2, the game's so beautiful and my Arisen too lifelike and beautiful too... And Before I forget, they bring back that Scammer Rook again to "trick" my poor Arisen! Ah I really don't like tat guy. And my chars are "women" not girls yo, I modeled them to look like 30s women yeah! Hey I'm a 35+ man bro.
I think a lot of people underestimate how difficult it can be to improve upon something that was done 10+ years prior. Life changes so much over that time frame, it can be hard to remember why something was done a certain way to begin with. That's especially true for artists, which may have drastically changed their philosophy towards their medium. The times change, too. I don't think anyone could make an objectively superior iteration on a previous product, because products are influenced by the culture and market they are released to.
this is true in general but i doubt it was the case for this game. when you consider how many mechanics and features are holdovers from 1 but are implemented in such lackluster ways, it comes off as a game spread too thin, not the product of a change in design philosophy. dd1 had notoriously half baked systems and this game somehow follows that tradition which maybe says more about itsuno himself being too ambitious with this particular IP. the guy made devil may cry. he can make banger follow-up games that stay faithful after a decade has passed. let's just keep hope that a potential sequel is the final culmination of these 2 scattered titles, or that at the very least an expansion can bolster the experience like with dark arisen.
@@tyhjyys My point is that getting this game to be as close to the original as it is must have been difficult. It's in a newer engine, so I'm sure they had to rewrite a lot of code. I have no doubt there was temptation to veer away from the original and make things "better." They did put 5 years of their lives into this. Maybe by attempting to stick so close to the original, they stifled the creativity of their own team? I'm sure it's pretty boring just touching up someone else's designs and rewriting someone else's code. I could see that draining the passion from a large portion of the team.
It’s the most confusing game I’ve played in awhile. The way he talked it up, it felt like he was able to make a true version of DD. But it doesn’t do much of anything new and the stuff it removes is worse. The biggest enhancements are superficial.
They might be planning to bring back some of the things DDO had. Strider being split into thief and archer seemed to be a DDO thing first, though I think the vocations were both called something different. So, maybe there is a chance they'll bring back some type of huge shield vocation for the DLC.
For me, the battle feels a bit sluggish and the open world is just corridors connecting different rooms. In Dogma 1, we have 4 really large plains connected by mountain passes and shortcuts. In Dogma 2 the battle fields are much smaller, a lot of linear corridors with a lot of small enemies.
I don't think they developed the game for 12 years, more like 4 or whenever it was when they started announcing about DD2. I also recall reading that they ran out of funds in the make of DD1 leaving 70% of the story/material out, which I was hoping that they'd be able to apply wholly this time around.
I share a lot of your sentiments. Had some good time with the game but overall feels a bit lacking. I only hope they realize how loved BBI was and go hard on DLC. Also for anyone on PC, I encourage you to try the True Warfarer mod on nexus. Helps alleviate the feeling of too few skill slots and is really damn fun, albeit a bit op.
100%. Also try out the skillmaker mod, you can make mystic knight if you want. Being a console player this game made my ankles itch. Alot of improvements, mixed with a lot of nonsense decisions ie the performance issues still ongoing (cant speak for pc but for console its still an issue), only four skills, warfarer gimped, no new game+, overly focused on useless npcs opposed to meaningfull important npcs etc.
Nihil0.0's is the ONLY DD2 review for my money. I've played DD1 since it first released. I've put hundreds and hundreds of hours into it on PS3, PS4, and PC through many runs. It's my favorite game in any genre (and in fact turned me on to fantasy games, something I'd never had an interest in since Atari's Adventure!) and it's the yardstick by which I measure ARPGs. When DD2 released I was excited, but didn't have a PS5 and decided to wait on PC. Now? I've seen enough that my interest has waned... yes, even though I'm a big fan of Harryhausen and never thought a game would ever tip the hat to the master! This just doesn't seem like 12 years of perfecting the formula. And in many respects it seems like -- as Nihil0.0 shows -- a step backward. At this point I'd almost rather casually play the fan-revived DDO for more Dogma. I will play DD2 sooner than later, but my excitement is gone. I'd seriously rather CAPCOM make modding DD1 / DDDA possible and play fan tinkerings. *sigh*
One small thing I really feel makes dd2 lack combat fluidity is the lack of actual normal combos. Light attack being an endless loop has 0 weight to it I'm making a mod to restore MK to the game and so far I'm also going a bit over scope on it and restoring 3 hit normal combos and stuff to fighter. Didn't realise how much that affects the flow of combat until I really started doing side by side comparisons for skill timings
DD2 is definitively a mixed taste in my mouth, I am disapointed overall. I would add : - I can be anywhere on DD1's map, I don't need to look at the map, I see where I am. In DD2, everything is too look-alike. Not much character to places. It feels like a giant generated map to me. - Wayfarer could be useful to play a single vocation while upgrading the others... but you only get it when you probably don't need it anymore. - what is the point of a ring that boosts discipline if you probably are maxed out when you get it. - NG+ vocation upgrades to make leveling "better", when there is no need to begin with, and with stat limit on top of it. My bet : They didn't finish the game, they cut it short, they intended to do more, they intent to add a hard mode, and all that will come later.
It definitely feels like less time went into developing DD2 than DDDA. :/ Hopefully the DLC('s?) will right some wrongs at least with the same impact Dark Arisen DLC had to Dragons Dogma 1
What do you think about using mods for the ng+? It makes enemies more powerful and faster. I know this is not the best way to enjoy the ng+ but while waiting for the official one i’m enjoying the game in this way. Also i installed a mod for the wararfer class, i can use 3 skill for each weapons. I mean, you can try to mod the game in something to be more enjoyable for every taste..
Very informative take on this game. I have been on the fence about this game, and looking at the price it's quite steep in my country. I will eventually buy this at a discount. Maybe. Thank you for this video.
DD2 Garm is a spit in the face of DD1 Garm. Climbing is not really à thing anymore. It's shame but it is not a problem for me because I mostly play as a warrior (and a sorcer). The four skill slots is frustrating. I hope a hard mode will be added in the near future. And I'd love that in this mode not only the ennemies have more HP and hit harder but also are more aggrassive and have more moves to be on par with DD1 ennemies. Also Capcom needs to make a DA like DLC much pleinty of new ennemies (and some old ones who are missed) and interesting fights.
tbh I think as of right now with no major updates or DLC 50% being worth is debatable based on how much you've already played original DD. There really isn't a whole lot that's actually new and they really fucked certain things up. Personally I'd wait until DLC and/or some kind of major update
It's a really fun game to play but so many things simplefied. Pawn inclination, no notice boards, escort quest bunch of flowers, no Mystic Knight, no lassitude for me sorcerer. Mage is pretty good this time but i love the archer and the warrior. When i see the Garm first time in Batthal it actually scared the shit out of me, but then he went down. Let's say a hit and a miss is also very Dragons Dogma.
I agreed to your opinions on all of them, it true that was almost perfect then they proceed to release this neutral state of a game compare to the original and not to mention a lack variety compared to their Online. What my take is, they did it because it's a "reboot without a reboot". We want the game to feel like the original with all the niche of what it had and new technology what we have now, mixed it up and we get this. A hybrid of a good passive progressive world with some NPCs have progressions and monsters just real slow, making them more "menacing" but after the 5th time, you kinda get the idea what they can do and that's that. That's why you don't see the "2" on title till Post, they even force you to get true ending and throw you to Unmoored. It's where the whole idea of a more bigger enemies could just roam around, more "aggressive" version and potential of what they CAN pull off. So the game is like a new entry title for NEW players to come and try, get the feel for the game while the veterans know what's already existed is there and probably polarizing for us. Some aspect is really good but there's more cons than pros ultimately for us that so used to DD1. I, for one, do not like the clamber in this game, it gets real janky when you try to climb higher by jump, the game feels like it forces you to jump off instead of upwards at times, it feels slow and most enemies are just fine cutting their knees off, except golems, fucking enraged golems and pawns being dumb. I really hope they stop holding back and just perfect the game with the DLC, just let that creativity potential go. A new vocation, upgraded skill, new monsters that doesn't need to reach enraged to be faster and just more coherent story telling AT LEAST.
Hope they're gonna do something with the pawns. If not as you said, let us be able to create all of em, then at least add more filters to the rift pawn search so we can get the exact pawn with the exact skills that we want. Also let us do some customization to the AI. Wouldn't want to see them use explosive daggers on a critter. Let's hope for the best.. Have a good one!
Honestly at this point in time (it might change with the DLC whenever they release it), I'd recommend playing Dogma 2 BEFORE playing Dark Arisen. Sure, the graphics are better and it has some sort of main story; but it feels like the older game in every other aspect. I liked the idea of locking certain "tactics" behind some vocations, but man, they feel so boring when every vocation can only do 1 thing and that thing doesn't even do much anyway (or absolutely nothing at all, useless vaperwave class istg, I leveled that sh*t up to max)
I hope the dlc will give us the same if not more than dark arisen. 3 more vocations. I want mystic knight back, update of the warfarer. More elements also for smithing. An everfall.
i agree with you with the enemy spawns, but I wish it would be more fleshed out, think of a migration pattern to categorical enemies, basically we all know bandits, goblins, and other creatures in forest areas should migrate based on how much danger you poses or how much you grind in an area, basically make it so that if you were to hunt bandits so much, they just say "Fuck it, lets go away to another place from here" and they might leave and just destroy a goblin fort and take it over as a new base, and from there the goblins without a fort would go to the area you kept killing the bandits at. with at least 10 years of preparation, i would have expected at least that much from the devs. the game feels static to a certain degree, no dynamic vision like the first.
For those who never played 1 it’s good game but not for veterans and I agree with you. I really am disappointed with the story and monster varieties after they had many years to make it even more exciting
Good stuff Nihil. I am close to 300 hours in this game and when I hit that mark I will uninstall until/unless DLC is introduced. The biggest failing for me was the vocations. They effectively took away replay value with the changes made. Hopefully, they’ll restore what worked in the first game with DLC and give us a reason to play something other than Elden Ring which I really need to start some time soon.
@@Nihil0.0 I’m doing well. How are things with you? Brilliant points made in your final review. I hope Capcom incorporates riftstone fast travel and restores the monster aggression and climb mechanics you mentioned. This game feels unfinished. The main quest line ended up not having a real impact on the game. There’s a false arisen in the castle and roving bands of false arisen and their pawns that we never get to expose as frauds. I’m a bit disappointed in Dogma 2 but hopeful most of it can be fixed with DLC. What’s the next game you’re looking forward to playing?
It's not bad I still got 150hrs in it but in ng+ I'm kinda bored because u need to do all these quests again and I only play 'warfarer' well basically magic archer but I swap to the xp bow sometimes. I just use lifetaking arrow most of the time. O and romance sucks it's basically your last escort mission I ended up with Ambrosius talked to him twice in total 😂
They took away pawn learning. (For better or worse, pawns learning from example, was unique & they opted for milktoast). They removed mining ore, with powder kegs. (Not game breaking, but why remove that, when the mechanics are clearly there?).
unlike most people here, i think its still fine and addicting, just like the first. the only thing i can complain about is that they changed the stat system where it doesnt matter what you build or specialize your character and pawn as and i hate that. they shouldve kept the DD1 system and instead of playing as a class you dont like to get the stat, they could just give stat allocators where we can pick where we want to put the stat points.
Monster aggression, speed, improved/nerfed moveset has killed a lot of the fun I had. I was looking forward to fighting orges out of everything because it was my first “wall” in relation to combat, specifically the one that spawns in that abandoned camp at night in DD1. Orges in DD2 will engage you, attack once, hop towards you, walk back, hope back, walk back, hop back, horny slam the ground, then enrage slam the ground, all this while you are actively attacking them. By the time their done with all these filler animations their on their last HP bar close to knockdown. This isn’t the same monster that rekt me for 2 hours in DD1, in 142hrs I’ve been drop kicked 4 times and they’ve all missed. The only monster I actually enjoyed fighting were Dullahans because they’re the only thing that is actively trying to kill you survive you because of the counter options they have, but it sucks that they hardly spawn.
At this point DDDA > DD2. DD2 is great just doesn't stack up to DDDA. It needed more time in the oven, feels a bit rushed. Also they mentioned the stat gain per level was better in DD2 but after having played it I feel its more complicated and all over the place. DDDA was better in this regard as well (probably due to lvl 200 being max).
That's about how I saw this review going. Its unfortunate, but I feel about the same. I guess I look forward to a DLC, if only so itll make the product more complete, but I know DD2 wont have the lasting power for me that DD1 had. An odd thought occurred to me, in that I wish there were "Dogma-likes" the way there are Soulslikes or Roguelikes etc. Rarely do Soulslikes rival actual Souls games, but I genuinely feel if someone copied the formula of DDDA with genuine passion, they could produce a better game than this. If this kind of combat became a mainstay I bet a lot of companies could do better than this studio, frankly.
Since the first few gameplay trailers i've lived with this haunting notion that DD2 would be cursed from the start. It feels like Itsuno made DD1 and then went "aw man, i was almost there! well, too fucking bad Capcom's not gonna let me try THAT again haha :^)" and COMPLETELY ABANDONED THE POSSIBILITY OF IT HAPPENING. The sorts of mistakes Nihil lists are mistakes that anyone who's passionate enough about a project to wait 12 fucking years to finally realize it just would not miss. THAT'S what gets me: the feeling that, in the mind of Itsuno, this game could never exist therefore he didn't need to worry himself with bettering DD1's formula in order to make DD2 and this makes me really sad. DD2 should've been a easy game to perfect the formula. They had 12 fucking years of feedback, 12 years of progress. Hell they literally had the line traced in the sand for them to follow with DD1, it was simple; make DD1 but fix the kinks and add enough new stuff so that it isn't just DD1 with fresh graphics. Not only did they not do that, they also removed things from an experience that, if not for Dark Arisen, was already kinda barebones. A solid fundation sure, but barebones and THAT'S WHAT ANNOYS ME DD2 was supposed to be what DD1 couldn't due to problems of its time, so how in the fuck they managed to mess it up with EVERYTHING IN FAVOR when they pulled a rabbit out the hat to make DD1 happen is completely beyond me.
The riftstone fast travel is such an obvious miss for me. It feels like this was an update not a redesign… I do like that you have a mini quest to unlock the non basic classes… it feels much more “realistic”
I think a better design choice would be to make all of the vocations available from the start, but make the player do a quest to unlock their best ability/abilities
![How To Play Fighter Like A Chad - [Dragon's Dogma 2]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Spl-1vtsVJA/mqdefault.jpg)
It's sad to see that after OVER A DECADE this is what we got, it looks pretty but feels hollow.
Great critical observations. Here are some of my thoughts if anyone is interested:
-Too many story threads that never went anywhere. I would have preferred less story, but all focused on finding the dragon and more quality less quantity. To Nihil's point: more combat quests with a boss at the end that led to getting closer to finding the dragon.
-Would like less time and effort spent on npc's and npc dialogue and more time spent improving the pawn dialogue.
-Should be able to use more skills.
-Randomize enemy spawns
-Increase difficulty with each newgame+
-Throw that dragonforged graphic effect in a fire in a deep pit of hell.
-Let us make new characters without deleting our old one.
-Upgrade system needs a complete revamp. Every path should have a reason to exist. As it stands knockdown is too superior to other choices.
-More enemy types please
-Make pawns stop yeeting off cliffs
-Improve pawns choices in skill use
There is soooooo much more but this is a good starting point.
Thanks for all the cool vids Nihil0.0 👍
dragonforged effect can absolutely burn in hell. made my shadowy dark thief glow like a glowstick.
and yeah i think the 4 skill maximum holds this game back in a very substantial way. warfarer was pretty much dead on arrival to me because of it.
we also don't have any connection to the main dragon. Grigori showed up 3 times before we had the showdown with him in DD1 and it felt way better than just in a flashback and then BOOM here he is.
@@mekudu-man3804 there should have been way more story and quests related to the dragon. I personally would have removed at least 50% of the quests and npc's connected to certain quests and spent that time and effort on more main quest surrounding the dragon and adding depth to the pawn system.
After finishing my 1st playthrough of DD2 I found myself wishing they would have just remade and fleshed out the 1st game 😢
Thank you for teaching me how to play mystic knight many years ago 🙏🏼
Indeed, at this point I believe that most of not all Mystic Knight players were taught by the same guy.
Mystic Knights live on in legends now..... broke my damn heart when it was confirmed.
I would have been less pissed if they just were like haha we got your $70 and it was just a graphical upgrade to the 1st. Way less pissed.
I always found it weird why half the main story is "go to vernworth keep and avoid guards that dont care if youre there or not, grab an item, watch cutscene, leave"
"I would replicate it and improve it, I would not instead remove 50% of what was so close to perfection, and then replace it with bullshit nonsense"
Well said...put this man in charge of the development of DLC and DD3 as the people in charge right now clearly dont know what they are doing with the series, they appear to be going the Bethesda route of "streamlining" instead of improving upon what came before.
Great review btw, very informative.
It's over. Capcom doesn't give a shit about player enjoyment, they want money like most developers nowadays. It's like many of these companies don't even care about making good games anymore. Baldurs Gate 3 was a godsend that actually restored a lot of my faith in the gaming industry but it's been the first great game in a long time.
@@Sadistic_77 Well to be fair BG3 was also notoriously buggy at launch and has a lot of cut content.
@@Dr.StrangelewdBG3 still manages to be more complete than most games, especially DD2.
To be honest I deleted it after the first 10 hours and went straight back to Dogma 1. I just couldn't click with the new combat style because I believe that it has changed for the worse. It is apparently "the same" but feels clunkier and slower, the attacks don't have the "crunchiness" of the original Dogma. The combat has always been the backbone of Dogma and they screwed it.
DON'T FIX WHAT ISN'T BROKEN.
The "crunchiness" was indeed part of what made DD1's combat so visceral. That's one thing that made me commit to Warrior, despite the class being more limited than the others.
Wish CAPCOM wasn't so controlling of their IPs. I'd love to have seen DD1 / DDDA mod kits even moreso than a sequel.
@@Sadistic_77 the sluggish quality and delay to everything is because Capcom is pushing their "adaptive difficulty" tech as a way to scam players into pay to win. I highly recommend playing the RE3 remake and then RE4 remake. The input lag in RE4 in dramatically increased so that there is a greater period of time between button presses and execution, this allows the game to cheat whereas when a game is instantaneously responsive it harder to cheat the player without them recognizing it.
16:50
Riftstones as fast travel points makes so much sense that I'm baffled that it was never implemented at all in any way, shape or form.
It could also increase pawn rental turnover for people like me who otherwise never interact with rift stones unless a pawn dies. Being able to see new hires every time you fast travel would be great.
its the same problem of the first game. the lead designer makes a subpar game that the other devs had to fix with the expansion. The expansion team also made Dragon's Dogma Online which is better than DD2.
@@jprec5174Hopefully that'll happen again with DD2's expansion
Garm got completely socialized. I remember when I first saw Garm in DD2 and I sweatin. But after the fight was over I was like what have they done to you man? You ain't even scary no more.
Hey Marz. How you been man? It is a shame. The big enemies (the best part of Dogma) have all been downgraded. I'm working on a vid now comparing and it is sad.
@@Nihil0.0 please do. I was thinking of trying the same thing but I'm mainly doing shorts right now and I got some other projects planned.
Two things stand out to me the most: quest design and vocation design. In my opinion both of these core aspects were horribly done in 2.
Vocations feel neutered across the board and the quest design is too focused on running between quest givers instead of leading you to interesting battles.
People often say that good gameplay was enough to make DD a cult classic, and that it was the main reason game wasn't forgotten over the years. Nothing proves them wrong better than the sequel. DD was great because it had a working story, likeable characters, great music, great attention to detail and a lot of heart. DD2 definitely succeeded at making some things better, but so many things were overlooked and lost in the process, that it's just baffling to me.
If this is what Itsuno always wanted from the series, I'm fine with Dragon's Dogma 2 being the last in it.
And funnily enough, I feel like I'd rather replay the original game over the sequel simply because it's a fairly short 20-30 hours long game and not a 100+ hour behemoth.
Yeah, even before Dark Arisen came out DD Vanilla was one of my top games. I did not feel short changed after defeating Grigori and thought that was the end. Was pleasantly surprised when I learned that not only does Gransys turns into a nightmare with stronger enemies but I had the Everfall to mess around with. I didn't have a strong opinion on the story when I first started playing it, but I fell in love with it after beating the Seneschal. I play DD1 on a regular basis and knew before DD2's release it wasn't gonna eclipse the first game because it was already a bunch of things revealed that I wasn't fucking with.
The first game had brilliant combat and great characters (I vividly remember them). Yes, the story was threadbare, but it was just enough to give the experience meaning. And from everything I've seen of DD2, it doesn't seem like 12 years of formula refinement. In fact it seems to me like Capcom told Itsuno to remake DD1 but make it look better, make it overall easier, and make it QUICK (get it out on store shelves asap)!
3:33 pawns can still catch you when you fall off a cliff, harpy etc
Problems for me:
Having to avoid every pawn walking down the road in fear that they will approach me at the most random times especially when I already have a full party.
The pawn chatter is more annoying in dragons dogma 2.
I never feel inspired to climb any large monsters,if I wanted to hack and slash a monster foot,I would play other games.
I can not have fun exploring because every five feet I walk I get attacked by monsters,which is kinda unrealistic.
Monsters tend to pursue my party even when iam just trying to get somewhere, and it is very annoying as well.
Some of the side quest are unavoidable,people approach you and force a quest on you that you may not be interested in doing.
These are just a few annoyances for me.
you know you can say no right? it won't make the quest go away, unless it's just an optional escort mission to increase affinity. don't like the pawns approaching though.
pawn chatter is like a specific niche alcohol, you either like it tolerate it or drive sober.
i do miss the open fields though.
They tried to capture the majority that did not play DD1 rather than focus on doing a great game for those who loved and kept playing over and over the first game. A pity, really. I don't share your positive outlook on how a DLC could possibly save the game, because the game seems to have been ruined mostly by lack of vision (they completely ignored what made the first game great and did not even try to expand on that) and inability to understand their playerbase (worrying to sell to those who did not buy/play the first game rather than to its fans) which are both things not fixable by coding, and require a change in direction that I don't see them making so quickly. I think we're going to see the exact opposite of what happened to DD1: an initial blaze of glory and then it's gonna fade into oblivion and getting forgotten.
Now that Capcom considers Dragon's Dogma a key franchise, we can only hope that the DLC and the sequel, whenever it comes out get the staff and resources it deserves from Capcom. Dragon's Dogma is most likely my favorite game and I dropped the sequel after a month and a half of playing after waiting 10+ years for it.
Agree on the quests so much, whenever I think about Dragon's Dogma and starting a new playthrough I think about all the cool quests that await me, they're so many yet in Dragon's Dogma 2 I can only think of a handful, not really that much of an incentive to start a new save file.
A total remake of DDDA with complete contents as the dev team ever devised and planned but forced to released without and added contents from the doomed DDO sounds nice to me..
The noticeable npcs dont have a lot of quests either, around 1-3 quests, but they make the game more interesting. i thought dd2 would easily improves on that.
Look at the quest with the noble boy and the girl in the slums, leading this quest to a somewhat satisfying conclusion would've been so easy even most of us would be able to write it, but they didnt, because they either gave no fucks or forgot or didnt have the manpower and time (12 years...) but it shows the lack of dedication to hand out a decent product, let alone a great one, which DD:DA would've deserved.
What do you mean by the staff and resources it deserves? I ask because if you are referring to the misinformation that there were only 400 devs working on the game, that is wrong. There were actually more than 1,500 devs working on the game. If you want to verify youself, look up Dragons Dogma 2 on MobyGames to see the full list of credits.
Thank you for this video.
It's always good to hear your opinion and see your gameplay.
Silence, Nihil is speaking...
Listen and Learn
Once upon a time maybe, not this time.
It's tough to admit, Dragon's Dogma 2 I still love. However, the game is a severe let down in so many aspects. Barely new enemies, vocations, lack of cohesive storytelling, lack of different enviroments in the world. I have to talk about the world being boring, imagine an actually mystical elf village with unique vegetation and trees. A winter biodome with norse inspired monuments and people. A dwarfen town that specializes is blacksmithing and rare armory. God so much missed opportunity and I've only just started....
5:38
A cool detail is that If you give him a forgery of the tome, he appears against the griffon and the spell fails to activate, so even within that branching path there are more branching paths
No enemy scaling please. I don't find it a problem to steamroll lower level critters. Game just needs more end game content, not to have level scaling.
Yeah, DD 2 is like Morrowind. Auto leveling is killing experience, like in oblivion
I miss mystic knight, but I love the animations to fighter and stuff, and what keeps me on the game alot is the pawn interactions. But I missed rusted weapons, and more elemental weapons and things they do. Also where is dark, and why is holy and dark night appliable.
Mystic Knight was in DD1. That was the major issue in DD2 for me... plus I pretty much agree with all that you said. Always a objective, conclusive and all in all great video. Hope to see you back in DD1! I'm going back there now
"Subjective" it's not entirely objective. for example, the combat system is altered from the first, it's not bad it's different and weighty. for many that is a plus. for others not so much.
the pawns, they are alike the pawns in the first game with more dialogue and vocal performance options. their ai is impressive, side by side I think the pawns are a little more active in combat in this game. but only slightly. I don't think many people have unlocked the pawn trophies which acts like pawn knowledge of enemies in this title. again, a subjective view.
the cave systems. caves in video games have always been subjective.
enemy variety. if you include dark arisen which had between 70-80 different enemy types including skeleton, bandit and goblin varieties. then dragons' dogma dark arisen had more. however, pre-expansion the base game only had 53, compared to dd2 which has 54. so, comparing the two base games in this regard is objectively false. a true comparison between enemy variety can be made after the expansion for dd2 comes out.
vocations. any critique on vocations is again based on personal preference and is again subjective. many players favoured vocation is the trickster. which isn't objectively bad just depends on play style. its only weakness stems from one-on-one duels with certain npc's which again in that situation you can still call your pawns to aid you or go full unarmed.
quests. this i think is where you might be able to make an argument for objectivity. then again i haven't scoured every nook and cranny in the game to compare properly. but so far, the first did side quests and optional ones better.
the story: on paper they are written in the same style and vagueness. objectively they are not one better than the other in their respective pacing and way of telling it. people can subjectively choose which ever one they prefer. though this is a sequel. so really the whole story should be judged with both games in mind.
difficulty: the same difficulty as the first game pre-expansion. both games had me take around the same amount of time 25ish hours to complete the main story and both saw me finish the first playthrough around level 35-40.
equipment: there is objectively less options in how to dress your character in this game. when taking into account that the first game had and under and over layer for both legs and torso.
objectively Grigory was better in the first game. (is my subjective opinion)
They tried to hard to sell DD to people that didn't care about DD... and this is the result. Non-fans will forget about the game anyway and DD fans got the middle finger.
Haven’t noticed any veterans talk about the lack of Godsbaning in the sequel.
In DD2, I have yet to stand in front of a chest and Godsbane repeatedly to get a 0.5% drop.
I haven’t had the need to trivialise the coolest boss in the game so I can get BBI lvl 3 gear. In DD2 I just cruise around and do what I want, it’s nice.
Don't think I agree with everything, but agree with most of it.
While we all waited for 12 years, I don't think 12 years of dev went into it. In fact, it's probably more likely there was a prototype, the anniversary announcement, a review of the interest from fans, and THEN the real dev started.
Warfarer makes sense to me, but weapon choice matters. My favorite is daggers with the grapple skill, smoke and a Magik Archer bow - usually with sleep or rebound.
I don't like how toned down archer and warrior feel, but I like their standard movesets a lot more this time around.
I also had quite a few boss fights, I thought.... Guess we just define that differently. The medusa/griffin questline, the sphinx, or dragons peak spring to mind.
Same conclusion in the end. Good, not great.
6:55 what about the Dullahan at the end of that side quest (if it is considered a quest) from that certain noble?
DD2 proves that Assassin wasn’t just a needless rehash of assets.
In DD1 Assassin is the vocation that allows weapons to really become more than just the vocation themselves as new DPS skills were added to them, especially sword and shield. In DD2 it’s great that they specialized the vocations but it came at the cost of variety.
Warfarer showcases this because being able to use any weapon you want doesn’t work in practice because the skills are what define the weapon. For example, a sword effectively isn’t a weapon, it just turns you into a tank vocation cause Fighter is the only vocation who uses swords. So you’re still forced to use a Duospear, Greatsword, and Daggers if you want a melee DPS option cause Mystic Spearhand, Warrior, and Thief have the weapons skills that do damage.
Assassin can still be done in DD2 with little effort and would solve a LOT of issues especially for Warfarer, all they need to do is make the vocation use sword and bow. Mechanically it’d just be like DD1 where sword is the main weapon with the light and heavy attack buttons while the bow would be the secondary weapon with R1 being Steady Shot as the sword itself does not have a Vocation ability. All 4 skills would be shared between the two weapons. BOOM, more variety with little effort.
I miss the everfall. It was like a boss rush mode almost. Not talked about enough
awesome video, cant wait for the final review of the sequel to dd2 in 12 years!
Drakes have a bigger moveset than dd1, they still got the tailwipe, the headbutt, the spin, the grab, they got 3 different kinds of flamebreath attacks, the aoe stamina debuff (which is lame because it is a flat amount and not % based) , the buttslam, the spells and variations if stationary or flying. Problem is that they seem to rotate those not often enough and are not aggressive enough.
Agree that all the "minibosses" need more aggression/speed.
But it is unfair to critizise that they had "12 years" for advancement. They had exactly the time they got from capcom when it got greenlit.
Yeah if it was a game made over these 12 years sure, but in reality it only started development after dmc5, they had to make everything from scratch for the new engine, they reused lots of ideas and concepts but implementing those takes time especially with the physics stuff they went with. Interested to see what we will get if they make an expansion
There's 12 years of reviews and other shit all over the Internet telling them what was good and what was bad. Many features they left out, they did out of their own desire. They were not concerned with what the community enjoyed about the 1st game.
Yeah, sure thing. But if this has always been their dream project, and they have been given a second chance to make it. Like Nihil said, why didn't they "remake" DD1 from near-perfect, and then perfect it.
I, too, am enjoying the game. But I don't see me getting 10k+ hours out of it like I did DDDA.
@@TSotPAgreed, I recently went back to spreading democracy for Super Earth, did put a lot of hours into this game but unless there is dlc probably wont touch it for a while.
Yeah, someone who misses mystic knight as much as I do, but hopefully, capcom does keep supporting the game, and we get updates and dlc that make the game better.
The 4 skill slot limit is what killed the game for me personally. 😔
Yea imagine if real fights ware like:
1. Straight punch with left arm
2.Hook with right.
3. High guard stance
4. Low kick with left leg.
And that is all moves you can do in a fight
🤣🤣🤣
DDDA was low on possible skill use for me but this one is hilarious.
yeah in DD1 with magick archer, it was nice having 3 dagger skills and 3 bow skills
Of all the dubious decision they made, this is the one i find hardest to understand.
@@G01010It’s not really hard to understand. There’s less skill slots because they added vocation skills (stuff like warrior shoulder charge) and also folded some skills into core skills, like scarlet kisses.
Yea, force us to use skills instead of letting us pick. 6 skills in the original along with 2 different light combos and 2 different heavy combos
I feel the lack of combat quest was a problem too. Like I was hoping to get put into more situations where I would have to fight a juiced minotaur or drake like that sacred arbor and Dullahan quest. I just didn't care about becoming sovereign and just told my time to go fight monsters.
3:35 Pawns still catch you when you fall in 2
Away from graphics and the large map.. it feels this should be the first game and dark arisen is the second one..
I'm going to play Bitter Black Isle now. Disappointing.
I don't agree on all point but i agree on most tbh, to me this can game be resumed as "dragon's dogma, but less" in all aspect
Sure it is prettier and has great additions ... but how can i forget DD1, DDDA and DDON's hundreds of mechanics, aditions, classes, mobs, and improvements ?
We had so much, 2 games worth of content, and none of that made it in the sequel.
Mods will most likely fix a lot sure, but in my book if a game needs mods then it is not good enough.
DDON's story and mechanics were keeping me way more entertained, i remember sweating in fights and tryharding, just to get enough exp to unlock new combos/skills.
In this game i never tried, never lost a single fight, and i'm not even good which angers me the most.
But the worse offense to me were pawns themselves.
How can we go from the depth of DDDA, with the good pawns of DDON, and end up with 4 pawn options.
I've recruited as many different pawns, with as many different skills, with as many different configurations, and they all were the same in pattern, AI, fighting and ... voices as it's obviously painful that they linked voices with AI and made them repeat the same 6 to 8 sentences on a cooldown.
(Don't even get me started on open world dungeons ... they are subpar to the first game in every aspect, it feels like every dungeon is the same)
I hope that future entries give us way more, or that the dlc upgrades all of that by a lot, because i love this franchise too much to not buy the dlc but god, does this game not deserve me putting full price in it >.
I played Dragon's Dogma and Dragon's Dogma 2 back to back, make videos of both. Restarted back my DD Dark Arisen 1 day after I bought DD2. And what I can see is night and day difference. Dark Arisen is way more fun, vocations are all balanced. Entire armors and clothing can be used by all vocations. Vagabond Armor, White Stockings, Tiara, Overknee Boots combo of gear are all not class locked. I can have my mage/sorc main pawn has about the same defence as my main Strider/Assassin Arisen. Strider/Assassin/Ranger are all similar enough that I can happily switch one to the other in DD. DD2 vocations are all so unsimilar, and importantly the fashion dogma become so unrecognizable, it gets tired very fast. Fashion in games are very important for me, I like my Pawn and Arisen to have the same "look". In Dark Arisen its easy ofcoz. Just equipped both with Silk Lingerie and I'm very happy yeah... In DD2 unless both Arisen and Pawn are same vocation, we can never be the same... Very sad, very wasted becoz the creator of Dd2 is so awesome. I spent 5 hours on creating both Arisen and Pawn using the free Creator demo they released. Time 0 to time 30 mins, I already at encampment with Scammer Rook and my main Pawn. So yeah the character creator in DA is like "nonstarter" compared to DD2. But with a combination of Vagabond Armor, Tiara, White Stockings, OverKnee boots, both my main women can really look like sisters yeah! I played many many Rpgs if the fashion did not give me "kick", I got bored very fast. Which is sad to say I got bored of DD2, the game's so beautiful and my Arisen too lifelike and beautiful too... And Before I forget, they bring back that Scammer Rook again to "trick" my poor Arisen! Ah I really don't like tat guy. And my chars are "women" not girls yo, I modeled them to look like 30s women yeah! Hey I'm a 35+ man bro.
no gargoyles no cockatrice no hydra no evil eye and no UR dragon, they removed so much in this game.
I think a lot of people underestimate how difficult it can be to improve upon something that was done 10+ years prior. Life changes so much over that time frame, it can be hard to remember why something was done a certain way to begin with. That's especially true for artists, which may have drastically changed their philosophy towards their medium. The times change, too. I don't think anyone could make an objectively superior iteration on a previous product, because products are influenced by the culture and market they are released to.
well said.
this is true in general but i doubt it was the case for this game. when you consider how many mechanics and features are holdovers from 1 but are implemented in such lackluster ways, it comes off as a game spread too thin, not the product of a change in design philosophy. dd1 had notoriously half baked systems and this game somehow follows that tradition which maybe says more about itsuno himself being too ambitious with this particular IP.
the guy made devil may cry. he can make banger follow-up games that stay faithful after a decade has passed. let's just keep hope that a potential sequel is the final culmination of these 2 scattered titles, or that at the very least an expansion can bolster the experience like with dark arisen.
@@tyhjyys My point is that getting this game to be as close to the original as it is must have been difficult. It's in a newer engine, so I'm sure they had to rewrite a lot of code. I have no doubt there was temptation to veer away from the original and make things "better." They did put 5 years of their lives into this.
Maybe by attempting to stick so close to the original, they stifled the creativity of their own team? I'm sure it's pretty boring just touching up someone else's designs and rewriting someone else's code. I could see that draining the passion from a large portion of the team.
It’s the most confusing game I’ve played in awhile. The way he talked it up, it felt like he was able to make a true version of DD. But it doesn’t do much of anything new and the stuff it removes is worse. The biggest enhancements are superficial.
They might be planning to bring back some of the things DDO had. Strider being split into thief and archer seemed to be a DDO thing first, though I think the vocations were both called something different. So, maybe there is a chance they'll bring back some type of huge shield vocation for the DLC.
Holding out hope that the DLC will address at least some of issues.
For me, the battle feels a bit sluggish and the open world is just corridors connecting different rooms. In Dogma 1, we have 4 really large plains connected by mountain passes and shortcuts. In Dogma 2 the battle fields are much smaller, a lot of linear corridors with a lot of small enemies.
I don't think they developed the game for 12 years, more like 4 or whenever it was when they started announcing about DD2. I also recall reading that they ran out of funds in the make of DD1 leaving 70% of the story/material out, which I was hoping that they'd be able to apply wholly this time around.
It literally feels more like Monster Hunter than actual Dragon's Dogma. I'd be jubilant if they just added in the last 70% to the original Dogma lmao.
I share a lot of your sentiments. Had some good time with the game but overall feels a bit lacking. I only hope they realize how loved BBI was and go hard on DLC. Also for anyone on PC, I encourage you to try the True Warfarer mod on nexus. Helps alleviate the feeling of too few skill slots and is really damn fun, albeit a bit op.
100%. Also try out the skillmaker mod, you can make mystic knight if you want. Being a console player this game made my ankles itch. Alot of improvements, mixed with a lot of nonsense decisions ie the performance issues still ongoing (cant speak for pc but for console its still an issue), only four skills, warfarer gimped, no new game+, overly focused on useless npcs opposed to meaningfull important npcs etc.
Totally agree with your final review!!
Nihil0.0's is the ONLY DD2 review for my money. I've played DD1 since it first released. I've put hundreds and hundreds of hours into it on PS3, PS4, and PC through many runs. It's my favorite game in any genre (and in fact turned me on to fantasy games, something I'd never had an interest in since Atari's Adventure!) and it's the yardstick by which I measure ARPGs. When DD2 released I was excited, but didn't have a PS5 and decided to wait on PC. Now? I've seen enough that my interest has waned... yes, even though I'm a big fan of Harryhausen and never thought a game would ever tip the hat to the master! This just doesn't seem like 12 years of perfecting the formula. And in many respects it seems like -- as Nihil0.0 shows -- a step backward. At this point I'd almost rather casually play the fan-revived DDO for more Dogma. I will play DD2 sooner than later, but my excitement is gone. I'd seriously rather CAPCOM make modding DD1 / DDDA possible and play fan tinkerings. *sigh*
One small thing I really feel makes dd2 lack combat fluidity is the lack of actual normal combos. Light attack being an endless loop has 0 weight to it
I'm making a mod to restore MK to the game and so far I'm also going a bit over scope on it and restoring 3 hit normal combos and stuff to fighter. Didn't realise how much that affects the flow of combat until I really started doing side by side comparisons for skill timings
DD2 is definitively a mixed taste in my mouth, I am disapointed overall.
I would add :
- I can be anywhere on DD1's map, I don't need to look at the map, I see where I am. In DD2, everything is too look-alike. Not much character to places. It feels like a giant generated map to me.
- Wayfarer could be useful to play a single vocation while upgrading the others... but you only get it when you probably don't need it anymore.
- what is the point of a ring that boosts discipline if you probably are maxed out when you get it.
- NG+ vocation upgrades to make leveling "better", when there is no need to begin with, and with stat limit on top of it.
My bet :
They didn't finish the game, they cut it short, they intended to do more, they intent to add a hard mode, and all that will come later.
It’s like they did 1 step forward 2 steps back tbh
It definitely feels like less time went into developing DD2 than DDDA. :/
Hopefully the DLC('s?) will right some wrongs at least with the same impact Dark Arisen DLC had to Dragons Dogma 1
Sorry, but, listening to this is almost as depressing as playing the game.
@nihl not your fault.
Agreed.
Hopefully they'll do like a Dark Arisen esq DLC with all improvements made
It's weird. If you were to magically flip round the Graphics and Pawn AI, it's almost like DD2 is the first game, and DDDA is the sequel.
What do you think about using mods for the ng+? It makes enemies more powerful and faster. I know this is not the best way to enjoy the ng+ but while waiting for the official one i’m enjoying the game in this way.
Also i installed a mod for the wararfer class, i can use 3 skill for each weapons. I mean, you can try to mod the game in something to be more enjoyable for every taste..
Also I liked a lot your review 🙏🏼🙏🏼
Very informative take on this game. I have been on the fence about this game, and looking at the price it's quite steep in my country. I will eventually buy this at a discount. Maybe. Thank you for this video.
DD2 Garm is a spit in the face of DD1 Garm.
Climbing is not really à thing anymore. It's shame but it is not a problem for me because I mostly play as a warrior (and a sorcer).
The four skill slots is frustrating.
I hope a hard mode will be added in the near future. And I'd love that in this mode not only the ennemies have more HP and hit harder but also are more aggrassive and have more moves to be on par with DD1 ennemies.
Also Capcom needs to make a DA like DLC much pleinty of new ennemies (and some old ones who are missed) and interesting fights.
Riftstone travel would've been a perfectly elegant way to conjoin two systems. Such a good idea.
the journey for 50% sale continues...
tbh I think as of right now with no major updates or DLC 50% being worth is debatable based on how much you've already played original DD. There really isn't a whole lot that's actually new and they really fucked certain things up. Personally I'd wait until DLC and/or some kind of major update
@@TheArnoldification something to reflect upon...
Spot on
think mods can save it?
i wouldnt pay money for a broken product then have another customer fix it for me for free
@@deathblazer0 well im already past that sooooo
I should’ve known the absent of mystic knight was a red flag
Nice Enoch quote to start. Great content as always. Thanks.
Dogma 2 does not allow to remap the numpad, a big middle finger to left handed players.
@13:20 Garm With the Wind.
It's a really fun game to play but so many things simplefied. Pawn inclination, no notice boards, escort quest bunch of flowers, no Mystic Knight, no lassitude for me sorcerer.
Mage is pretty good this time but i love the archer and the warrior. When i see the Garm first time in Batthal it actually scared the shit out of me, but then he went down.
Let's say a hit and a miss is also very Dragons Dogma.
I agreed to your opinions on all of them, it true that was almost perfect then they proceed to release this neutral state of a game compare to the original and not to mention a lack variety compared to their Online.
What my take is, they did it because it's a "reboot without a reboot". We want the game to feel like the original with all the niche of what it had and new technology what we have now, mixed it up and we get this. A hybrid of a good passive progressive world with some NPCs have progressions and monsters just real slow, making them more "menacing" but after the 5th time, you kinda get the idea what they can do and that's that. That's why you don't see the "2" on title till Post, they even force you to get true ending and throw you to Unmoored. It's where the whole idea of a more bigger enemies could just roam around, more "aggressive" version and potential of what they CAN pull off.
So the game is like a new entry title for NEW players to come and try, get the feel for the game while the veterans know what's already existed is there and probably polarizing for us. Some aspect is really good but there's more cons than pros ultimately for us that so used to DD1. I, for one, do not like the clamber in this game, it gets real janky when you try to climb higher by jump, the game feels like it forces you to jump off instead of upwards at times, it feels slow and most enemies are just fine cutting their knees off, except golems, fucking enraged golems and pawns being dumb. I really hope they stop holding back and just perfect the game with the DLC, just let that creativity potential go. A new vocation, upgraded skill, new monsters that doesn't need to reach enraged to be faster and just more coherent story telling AT LEAST.
Hope they're gonna do something with the pawns. If not as you said, let us be able to create all of em, then at least add more filters to the rift pawn search so we can get the exact pawn with the exact skills that we want. Also let us do some customization to the AI. Wouldn't want to see them use explosive daggers on a critter. Let's hope for the best.. Have a good one!
glad i waited, I will buy it but once its on sale maybe.
Honestly at this point in time (it might change with the DLC whenever they release it), I'd recommend playing Dogma 2 BEFORE playing Dark Arisen. Sure, the graphics are better and it has some sort of main story; but it feels like the older game in every other aspect.
I liked the idea of locking certain "tactics" behind some vocations, but man, they feel so boring when every vocation can only do 1 thing and that thing doesn't even do much anyway (or absolutely nothing at all, useless vaperwave class istg, I leveled that sh*t up to max)
I hope the dlc will give us the same if not more than dark arisen. 3 more vocations. I want mystic knight back, update of the warfarer. More elements also for smithing. An everfall.
Oh and way more armor and weapons since it's more limited in here
This game is a demake.
i agree with you with the enemy spawns, but I wish it would be more fleshed out, think of a migration pattern to categorical enemies, basically we all know bandits, goblins, and other creatures in forest areas should migrate based on how much danger you poses or how much you grind in an area, basically make it so that if you were to hunt bandits so much, they just say "Fuck it, lets go away to another place from here" and they might leave and just destroy a goblin fort and take it over as a new base, and from there the goblins without a fort would go to the area you kept killing the bandits at. with at least 10 years of preparation, i would have expected at least that much from the devs. the game feels static to a certain degree, no dynamic vision like the first.
Oh yeah!
For those who never played 1 it’s good game but not for veterans and I agree with you. I really am disappointed with the story and monster varieties after they had many years to make it even more exciting
FINALLY
Good stuff Nihil. I am close to 300 hours in this game and when I hit that mark I will uninstall until/unless DLC is introduced. The biggest failing for me was the vocations. They effectively took away replay value with the changes made. Hopefully, they’ll restore what worked in the first game with DLC and give us a reason to play something other than Elden Ring which I really need to start some time soon.
Derek, how are you buddy? Yes, indeed the sequel is not what we really wanted. And if this is what Itsuno wanted back in 2012, then I am surprised
@@Nihil0.0 I’m doing well. How are things with you?
Brilliant points made in your final review. I hope Capcom incorporates riftstone fast travel and restores the monster aggression and climb mechanics you mentioned.
This game feels unfinished. The main quest line ended up not having a real impact on the game. There’s a false arisen in the castle and roving bands of false arisen and their pawns that we never get to expose as frauds. I’m a bit disappointed in Dogma 2 but hopeful most of it can be fixed with DLC. What’s the next game you’re looking forward to playing?
It's not bad I still got 150hrs in it but in ng+ I'm kinda bored because u need to do all these quests again and I only play 'warfarer' well basically magic archer but I swap to the xp bow sometimes. I just use lifetaking arrow most of the time. O and romance sucks it's basically your last escort mission I ended up with Ambrosius talked to him twice in total 😂
Warfarer was the biggest dissappointment for me
i miss sorcerer having its melee lighting whip 😔
I hope we get a DDDA remake before we get DD3. I miss the old gameplay and everything we lost on DD2 in just better graphics
I couldn't bring myself to shell out the seventy bucks, and I'm glad I didn't. Might pick it up if they drop it down to fifteen or twenty bucks.
Hard mode needed
Would like to play again , performance was good enough most times, but the game bricks my pc😥
12:40 I was just talking about this. Ole school drake got that Dog in him. The current drake cares but not enough to really do anything.
Video sums up my thoughts exactly, very fun game, also probably my biggest gaming disappointment ever.
They took away pawn learning. (For better or worse, pawns learning from example, was unique & they opted for milktoast).
They removed mining ore, with powder kegs. (Not game breaking, but why remove that, when the mechanics are clearly there?).
unlike most people here, i think its still fine and addicting, just like the first. the only thing i can complain about is that they changed the stat system where it doesnt matter what you build or specialize your character and pawn as and i hate that. they shouldve kept the DD1 system and instead of playing as a class you dont like to get the stat, they could just give stat allocators where we can pick where we want to put the stat points.
Monster aggression, speed, improved/nerfed moveset has killed a lot of the fun I had.
I was looking forward to fighting orges out of everything because it was my first “wall” in relation to combat, specifically the one that spawns in that abandoned camp at night in DD1. Orges in DD2 will engage you, attack once, hop towards you, walk back, hope back, walk back, hop back, horny slam the ground, then enrage slam the ground, all this while you are actively attacking them. By the time their done with all these filler animations their on their last HP bar close to knockdown.
This isn’t the same monster that rekt me for 2 hours in DD1, in 142hrs I’ve been drop kicked 4 times and they’ve all missed. The only monster I actually enjoyed fighting were Dullahans because they’re the only thing that is actively trying to kill you survive you because of the counter options they have, but it sucks that they hardly spawn.
At this point DDDA > DD2. DD2 is great just doesn't stack up to DDDA. It needed more time in the oven, feels a bit rushed. Also they mentioned the stat gain per level was better in DD2 but after having played it I feel its more complicated and all over the place. DDDA was better in this regard as well (probably due to lvl 200 being max).
Torpor was toxic anyways, im glad it's gone. Either it completely makes a monster obsolete or it doesn't work properly on them.
That's about how I saw this review going. Its unfortunate, but I feel about the same. I guess I look forward to a DLC, if only so itll make the product more complete, but I know DD2 wont have the lasting power for me that DD1 had.
An odd thought occurred to me, in that I wish there were "Dogma-likes" the way there are Soulslikes or Roguelikes etc. Rarely do Soulslikes rival actual Souls games, but I genuinely feel if someone copied the formula of DDDA with genuine passion, they could produce a better game than this. If this kind of combat became a mainstay I bet a lot of companies could do better than this studio, frankly.
Combat looks more like DD1 if you watch as 1.5 speed.
I don't know what made people think this game was in development for a decade.
no one learned anything from cyberpunk apparently.
DD2 in summary: One step forward, Two step back 😢
100% agreed. Once I completed the game I noticed how much I didn’t enjoy it
Since the first few gameplay trailers i've lived with this haunting notion that DD2 would be cursed from the start.
It feels like Itsuno made DD1 and then went "aw man, i was almost there! well, too fucking bad Capcom's not gonna let me try THAT again haha :^)" and COMPLETELY ABANDONED THE POSSIBILITY OF IT HAPPENING. The sorts of mistakes Nihil lists are mistakes that anyone who's passionate enough about a project to wait 12 fucking years to finally realize it just would not miss. THAT'S what gets me: the feeling that, in the mind of Itsuno, this game could never exist therefore he didn't need to worry himself with bettering DD1's formula in order to make DD2 and this makes me really sad.
DD2 should've been a easy game to perfect the formula. They had 12 fucking years of feedback, 12 years of progress. Hell they literally had the line traced in the sand for them to follow with DD1, it was simple; make DD1 but fix the kinks and add enough new stuff so that it isn't just DD1 with fresh graphics. Not only did they not do that, they also removed things from an experience that, if not for Dark Arisen, was already kinda barebones. A solid fundation sure, but barebones and THAT'S WHAT ANNOYS ME
DD2 was supposed to be what DD1 couldn't due to problems of its time, so how in the fuck they managed to mess it up with EVERYTHING IN FAVOR when they pulled a rabbit out the hat to make DD1 happen is completely beyond me.
21:03
THIS! Too many saves, man. They should've just gave us multiple saves.
The riftstone fast travel is such an obvious miss for me.
It feels like this was an update not a redesign… I do like that you have a mini quest to unlock the non basic classes… it feels much more “realistic”
I think a better design choice would be to make all of the vocations available from the start, but make the player do a quest to unlock their best ability/abilities
not being able to equip from storage or from shops feels like a huge disappointment that is unnecessary