Dragon's Dogma 2 is a Bit of a Mess (Game Analysis)
Вставка
- Опубліковано 11 лип 2024
- Dragon's Dogma 2 is an intriguing game that has a strong opening, but falls off really fast. It almost feels like a one-trick pony at times and never lives up to the potential it has, which is a shame.
Here's my open world video if you want to hear my thoughts on the general problems I have with open world game design - • The Problem with Open ...
00:00-02:03 - Intro
02:03-06:06 - A Promising Start
06:06-10:08 - Friction as Design
10:08-18:26 - Combat and Variety Woes
18:26-29:03 - Arisen = Errand Boy
29:03-32:37 - This is where I would talk about the story... IF IT HAD ONE
32:37-37:08 - Additional Issues and Wrap Up
Additional footage courtesy of IGN
#dragonsdogma2 #dragonsdogma - Ігри
Absolutely wild to me that a big criticism of the first game was there only being goblins, lizards, and harpies and they DID IT AGAIN.
also dogs... post-game dogs in 1 were THE WORST
They knew once the higher-ups demanded micro transactions in a single player, it was a botch job. Why try at that point. Terrible game in almost every way.
This game just makes me sad. It could've been something really special. I could forgive almost all tge missteps if the combat was challenging and there were unique weapons and armor i could find by exploring. You can just buy all the best stuff at the shops.
^this
Yeah the lack of good rewards definitely really hurts the exploration.
Dragon's Dogma 2 is just a re-skin of Dragon's Dogma 1's errors
Great video but I have to address one thing. I think we are at a point in game critique where we have to address larger industry issues affecting game releases. This game clearly wasn’t finished but was rushed to release by management because they knew hype was enough to sell copies. it’s not crazy to assume the devs aren’t happy about how the game turned out because management made a financial and terrible decision
Yeah I think its certainly worth thinking about, especially with how bad the industry is now. But I don't want to use stuff like that as an excuse everytime something is disappointing or flawed. Because thats what fans always do to cope whenever a game they were hyped for turns out to be bad/mid. And nothing I've seen in regards to this game seems to suggest they were actively hindered in any big way. I mean they had 12 years since the first, and at least 5 years of active dev time on DD2; that's plenty of time to not only make a complete game, but also improve upon the issues of the first. And since so many of the games issues are central to how it's fundamentally designed (or just issues carried over from the first), it leads me to believe that this is just on the devs/director themselves. Sure, the microtransactions are VERY dumb, but capcom adds that into every game now and they've released plenty of recent games that were great, so I definitely don't think that is evidence either lol.
I do understand your point though, it is worth keeping in mind. I just don't think it applies here lol. Thanks for checkin out the video!
I think that is the key issue with this game. A lot of the repetition, like fighting mostly goblins again or all the caves looking the same all feel like they were place holders, but management saw it and said "meh, good enough, ship it as is" just to cut corners and rush the payout from release. That's probably why the story is honestly so shit too, it's probably not even half baked.
About the Rodge quest, man I missed and screwed up a LOT of quests in this game and even I knew I had to look for flowers to find him. I made the same mistake though, I went to the quest marker location on the map to the grave yard and the marker disappeared. I gave up. I had talked to at least 4 NPC's about Rog and knew flowers were a big clue, I just couldn't piece it together. It wasn't until LONG after the time limit expired, that one of the guards at the front of the town randomly told me about the wolf cave they probably took him too. That was the only reason I even found his remains. If the guard had told me that any of the other countless times I ran past him, I could have saved the boy. Beyond that though, if you didn't know the flowers were a clue you probably didn't talk to enough NPC's about it cause it was clear as day the flowers were important.
I dont mind jumping on now and then just to travel from one campfire to the next. I will never hate this game.
i hate how hard it is but I can't bring myself to hate it😂 the game is just great for me (skill issues btw)
@@dielog2211 what you mean hard
@@yougottrolled5799 i think at the very beginning the game is surprisingly challenging. i remember getting my ass kicked by two centaurs at level 8 or something. but the more you play, and the lack of any scaling-- you end up being disgustingly strong at a certain point and the game doesn't offer challenges at all anymore lol. killing griffins in like 15 seconds and whatnot.
@ChrisOfChin oh yeah it became easier later but that just shows how far you come.
@@ChrisOfChinthe dlc will fix this just like the first game
RE: Saint of the Slums quest. You have 3 in-game days to go back to the Slums. Another Nunn (Lottie) will tell you that you got the Abbess arrested and they have no leadership. You have to go back to checkpoint rest town and speak with the Doctor that told you the medicine wasn't good and hire him to lead the Abby. It costs 3000 gold. That's the only way I've found to save Lubomir, the patient who hinted at something being wrong at the Gracious Hand in the first place.
Did not know that. I though he was just meant to die. I will deff have to try that the next game around.
The whole mechanic of 'detaining' or arresting that you can do in like 3 quests without the game ever explaining it to you was the most annoying part of that questline imo. I thought you would just report it to the captain or a guard nearby...
Bro this just blew my mind. Didn't even think of that.
Summed up all my thoughts in the first minute. They just made the first game again. With all the same mistakes.
People we're saying this even during the previews. If it aint broke, dont fix it I guess. But everywhere I look people seem to love it.
@reffa2858 people are blind by nostalgia I said the same thing about the Sims 4
@@reffa2858well a working combat system may not need to be fixed but to have LESS enemy variety, less armor and weapons, and less endgame content than the first it’s bad. They should be ashamed
Wow I did not know I was supposed to dress as a guard. I just murdered everyone downstairs when they attacked, and then revived one of them cause I felt kinda bad.
lmaooo well that's certainly one way to do it. Honestly might have even been the best course of action lol.
I don't blame you though, I was so confused at first lol. My friend was playing it at the same time as me and I told him to go do that mission to see what would happen, and he got confused as well lol.
I do agree on your views of the story. (Not BC its boring or anything though.) But because I felt like we didn't rly have a choice to make things good BEFORE the ending. Idk if it's because we needed it to happen that way since the Arisen and the Dragon is needed to keep the "cycle" going, but I wasn't a fan of how Brant kinda gives up after the Coordination.
You find the Godsway Blade and even with the Godsway staff (if you make an ALT and gift it to yourself while in the Unmoored World) Brant doesn't seem interested anymore once you find both of them.
Isn't that the main reason why we went to Bakbattahl? To learn more about the Godsway. Then we are asked to collect 15 WLC (WyrmsLife Crystals) to give to the enemy. Why couldn't we just go to Brant and take back Vernworth? Sven didn't even wanna rule. Just saying.
Then days after the endgame Dragon could just pop up so we fight for World Peace. Therefore not interrupting the cycle as well.
I feel like we are the cause of the Dragon destroying the world. Even if we did't plan to become the Arisen. No wonder why the ppl of Bakbattahl charge us so much to sleep at their Inn. We did make things worse for everyone if you rly think about it. I did't wanna give them the sword. But we had no other choice.
Why couldn't we have Vernworth Castle as our home? Isn't the Arisen is supposed to be Royalty in Vernworth? And then we see a 3rd Godsway (the flower necklace that the fake Arisen had.) But it's never found again. Neither is the false Arisen. I hope the upcoming DLC sheds light on that BC I am curious. Where did he go?
What about the lady who sold us the 30K home in Vernworth? She said she found a better place, but where? The brine made it so we couldn't leave. So where did she go?
Also not everyone went back to save Melve. Not everyone helps her become the leader of Harve Village. So when you end up in the Unmoored World and (even if you save everyone), get the achievement and all that. It does not feel accurate since most of us got them all killed. Especially the first gameplay around.
Even deeper you never spoke about the Unmoored World. I feel like its a place worth mentioning since it is the best place to collect WLC. Each new game you will aquire new gear. And with the 300+ WLC that you will earn from saving everyone and defeating all the Dragons (Red Beacons), you could use that place to Dragonforge all your gear. Making each new game feel worthwhile. For those who did not know. Their is some rare armor there. Also all you have to do is climb to the dragons belly and use the Godsbane Blade on its belly (wound) to get there.
You spoke on combat, but you never spoke about the Wayfarer Vocation. Did you not find it yet? Did you not bring 4 Liquors to the guy at the Hot Springs in Volcanic Island? Did you not like being able to switch multiple weapons in combat? Being able to attack close and far as well as "float upward" with staffs/wands to reach harder locations. BC this made my combat experiences much more enjoyable. Even exploration. Even with the lack of monster variety. I will admit. It did feel repetitive. Esp. On my 7th time around.
Here's my opinions on what I disagree with...
1.) There is 3 ways of travel. Not 2.
Once you Reach Bakbattahl you can use the Skyline to reach Volcanic island. I feel like there is 3 ways of travel since that is also another way. Even if its only to 2/3 cities that it goes to.
2.) Climbing to fight Gigantus
With the Magick Archer/Wayfarer Vocations, you could have waited until "Talos" reached the land, use the skill that targets the weak spots on his body and collected the Wakestone shards off the sticks that fell off his body. So why do all that climbing? And as for the higher parts on his face you could have used the higher parts of land and got him in the higher areas before he reached Volcanic Island. I am just confused to how you did all that climbing? All those stamina curatives could have went to something else. That must have been exhausting.
I enjoy your interest in Dragons Dogma and I will be looking forward to hear everything that you and the DEV team has to say/show about the game. I can't wait to see what happens next. Maybe we can become the next Pathfinder even. Who knows. Possibilities are endless since nobody rly knows what the Dragon Princess will bring to the table.
In the simplest terms.
The game is a pretty good foundation, with not much built on it.
Some weird people have said you cant compare it to DDDA, because it had DLC. When its the sequel 12 years later, it damn well should be better than the last product. They will need to get it together over the course of a year
Itsuno and Capcom have all the time in the world but in the end, Dragon's Dogma 2 has the same weaknesses as the original which is baffling. A sequel needs to improve but this is more of a remake/remaster sadly
Man, you nailed it. I really enjoyed this game for a while, but the story is so unfinished its almost offensive. Cant wait for Dragon’s Dogma 2 Dark Arisen 2
Nice video, my friend. I agree with most of your points about DD2. However, I have one thing to disagree: DD2 was not DD1 remake. In fact, it even downgrades many good points of DD1, for example: the endgame contents and classes. While DD1 is not a perfect game, it provides me more and more fun the deeper I explore the mechanics (lots of these mechanics were thrown away in DD2, for details you guys can watch Nihil0.0 vids) and the more I explore the endgame dungeons (Everfall, BBI,...). DD1 open world is small and there are still a lot backtracking, but since it's small it doesn't feel much overbloated and tiresome to explore like DD2.
I'd even argue that the base game of DD1 is already better than DD2. DD1 errors like enemies variety, bland questlines...are still in DD2, but it's not getting better, it get worse when they ignore those glaring issues and try to fix things that doesn't even need fixing.
I completely agree with you
The relationship aspect as well
In DD1 every unique character you can have special relationship with stands out a lot, whereas, DD2 makes you think no matter who you romance, none of that matters after endgame anyways
In DD1 you can even have your romance in your house too
Feel like it’s gonna be a sorta Skyrim thing going on with mods giving wayyy more interesting stories and characters. I loved it in the beginning, I love exploring but I hated the quests sending me EVERYWHERE and then just walking the same path to finish it.
The game feels like it was created reluctantly. Its kinda weird too cause this is a series that Capcom:
rereleased with an expansion after the original underperformed
created an MMO that they updated for a few years in Japan
had a Netflix anime adapted
Like Capcom has been completely ignoring games like Breath of Fire, NightStalkers and Megaman FOR YEARS and they half ass this sequal? That had aqcuired a cult following a decade after???? It truely feels like the only things they want to give true effort to are Street Fighter, Resident Evil and Monster Hunter.
I was going to buy this game but it has all the same problems i had with the first one for 1 stamina drains out of combat thats 1 of the stupidest things to do in a game with little fast travel not only that but the lack of rewards is even worst
Lol I totally forgot to mention the stamina thing, but yeah that really bothered me too. Especially with that God awful sound your character makes when you run out lmao. You should definitely have unlimited sprint outside of combat.
You can 1 shot Talos with the Medusa's head and give a unique cutscene later in the story involving your pawn
its still totally boring when you do that
Yeah but it isnt though @kagyubeef2482
@@dudem8guy it’s so stupid that they replace two boss fights with a silly cut scene. If you don’t fight talos at all you get to fight those two dragons yourself. This is basic game design 101: you don’t reduce your players’ fun by making them watch a boss fight from the side. Can’t fight this logic mate, but I’m sure you’ll still stubbornly try
@@kagyubeef2482 what?
@@kagyubeef2482 Yes it's honestly only there to help people who haven't really researched or played the game enough to be at the required level so they can finish the story.
I loved DDDA. It was absolutely wonderful. DD2... I got bored after not that long, for all the reasons you listed. The combat wasn't compelling enough (fewer skills available), enemy variety was lacking, walking everywhere is tedious as hell, the story and almost all the quests are boring fetch quests. They even removed some of the equipment slots compared to DDDA, which makes for less interesting fashion. It's just... Worse.
Well the usurper plotline gets dropped because you triggered the end of the world in the true ending. So people are more concerned about that. But it does resolve involving Sven.
DD2 copies all the original mistakes of one and removes features. Hell, DD2 doesn't consider itself 2 until unmoored world. So DD2 is essentially DD1 without water, greenery, no enemy variety, no NPCs in the different towns if you evacuate. They add 4 sky beams, and the final is just an interactive cutscene where you fight credits to see. 12 years and they call this a refined vision of Dragons Dogma? You have a whole class dedicated to being useless! Detection could have been on the thief. You had the dragon taxi you to the final battle. DD1 dragon was epic AF, it felt like a sprawling layered battle. It's hard to fully enjoy 2 because DD1/DDDA is superior outside graphics. They artificially inflated the game with a larger map and camps. In DD1 you had a healing spring and could bottle the water. Camps you can't really cook with all foods and can't rest a short period. Being honest, this feels like a half assed effort to cash in on a long demanded sequel. If you didn't play the original DD2 seems amazing. I'm disappointed because it would have just been better to copy DD1 with these graphics entirely and add duospear.
Great vid. I haven't finished as of writing but the title is spot on as have been your criticisms thus far. The game is literally a bit of a mess. There is still a lot of fun to be found in the gameplay and exploring the world and I did sink a lot of hours. However, it feels less like a solid, high-fantasy action RPG game and more like a really shitty attempt at open-world Monster Hunter that had to release before they got all the fluff added and ended up releasing a surprisingly sub-standard framework to what could have been an otherwise amazing game. I can hardly remember or point towards any quests that were really interesting, main/story, side-quest or otherwise. My gameplay highlights were finding Medusa, or a dragon in some cool spire/tower area... or I guess fighting a Dullahan on a bridge late at night. Also my thicc asf pawn in the corset.
I am sure Capcom is already developing or is waiting to develop a paid DLC expansion (a la Dark Arisen) that will likely address a good few problems, while still ignoring many, whether it's in the form of base-game fixes or just an entirely separate piece of content that works better than the base-game story. I really genuinely felt no connection to the story nor did I feel like I was the Arisen, and they may as well have dropped the entire "you are an arisen" plotline and just had me making my way up in a high-fantasy medieval world because the story missions did absolutely nothing for me. The story only got interesting watching Talos (fight felt just like a joke gimmick), and fighting Grigori, plus the "true ending" post-game was somewhat neat.
Highlights of the game were basically just the gameplay itself as the narrative was so unbelievably weak. It was cool to travel, see the sun set, travel at night, camp, fight big monsters and see larger or stronger variations again (Gore "X"'s and whatever else). Even then, they reduced variety between the classes (even the same class) due to less skills/abilities that you can use compared to the first game. Lessened the fashion variations by combining classes of clothing/armor and stuck with the same sort of tier-based "time to buy the next set of best armor available that I unlocked at the vendor!". Meh. I thought I would get absorbed and it would be GOTY but instead I suffered through poor performance and a skeleton story to ultimately drop the game in the post-game after the sky turned fucking red. I think I will return to it, as I did enjoy it, it wasn't a total flop shitshow game, just really negatively subverted my expectations. The moment you're getting like 18fps in the INTRO TUTORIAL SEQUENCE ALONE on console should have made Capcom realize "we can not fucking release this game in the state that it is in currently".
Also I forgot to talk about the difficulty as well (as you did). The camping, the loss-meter for max-health, the item-healing, crafting items.... all of it served effectively as providing "a challenge" for me at the beginning. However, once you can kill things way too quickly due to the lack of scaling or difficulty options, none of that even matters... and it doesn't take long. I unfortunately explored the entirety, and I mean THE ENTIRETY of Vermund before I went to Battahl. That led to the entire half of the game following the "border crossing" to consist of maybe 1minute30seconds MAX DURATION for any large monsters that I fought. Never died, never had a threat of dying or losing progress due to having soooo many wakestones piled up. Fast-travel being sparse didn't matter when money income was high enough that you could constantly use Portcrystals to travel to a city, and replenish the one you just used at a vendor for 20,000, plus the rate at which they drop and are rewarded, coupled with oxcarting. UGH It's just all so frustrating. They made a whole different game and somehow managed to PERFECTLY REPLICATE THE SAME FEELING that DD1 gave you of "this game could be so much more than it is if they just let us see it before they released it or listened to our criticisms, or passed it on a pre-release to another seperate studio to play around in for a few weeks so they can give their input.
Holy shit. The wolf mission with the kid and the guard jail mission were two moments I was questioning my intelligence or wondering if I missed something. Glad to see it being recognized as some stupid ass shit. How was I ever going to find that kid lol. I genuinely thought the game had bugged out in both of these quests.
Hey so you do find out who the fake arisen guy was (you said you don't think that you even find out who he was). If you go to a hidden village area in Vermund, it's like some hidden thief village where they are all basically ninjas, you can learn about him there. I don't remember exactly how but there's a path leading to it that is blocked off (but not blocked off on the map), and somehow you're supposed to know that you can bypass the rocks and go around through some other route. Once you do, you get to the village. It's a bit sketchy and you talk to this big head honcho guy of the village who basically dismisses you after teaching you a master skill for the thief class. If you poke around more, you find an underground hideout that is the "true" thief village and the actual leader is in there(???) and you do some really loose and easy parkour challenge for like 30 seconds. Then he tells you everything you want to know about the current fake Arisen, and gives you yet another skill. He basically says that he was a thief of their village and he did some stupid shit and fucked off. yeah idk I can't remember it much and this is certainly a bastardized summary.
Ahhhh okay yeah I did that thief mission (One of the more interesting ones IMO) and I totally forgot he gives you some info about the fake arisen. But do they expand on him any more than just that? And do you ever meet him? Because unless there's some out of the way side quest I missed, I definitely didnt have any actual interaction with that guy. And I certainly didnt like how that plotline got kinda disregarded with the ending lol.
Glad you liked the video!!
Crying that hard about the story of DD2 then turning around and low key glowing about Elden Ring at the very end is wild to me. lmao
You can go to your last save or last Inn save. There is a difference. Inn saves are useful when experimenting with the game and you wanna undo a terrible mistake.
You have to pay everytime you rest on a Inn for someone starting it will be rough
@@TheMETALICA40wrong... I'm new player just a few days ago and here I'm already able to afford going to a volcanic camp island..guess what , u just need to do a side quest and manage your coins properly so you can afford a house by 20K lol
@@TheMETALICA40at the beginning you should be selling all your unwanted stuff (even gear upgrade materials) this will allow you to afford the 20K home in Vernworth. Then once you get further in the story (Bakbatthal) you can head to Digger's Ruins to farm the 30K that the beastern lady sells. You will get everything back again anyways. So why save it. Collect everything and sell it now. More wealth will come once you have all 2-4 homes.
@@antoniowarren4841 ok tnx
@@TheMETALICA40 thats not true, i bought a home in 2 towns so ididnt have to pay everytime😂
I am deeply disappointed. I expected much more after 12 years; The game is gorgeous, but its limitations bring enthusiasm down dramatically. I couldn't get the NG+ going.
I have to disagree with the campfire being no risk...I was very low on health and didn't want to go all the way back to town so I used camp. Halfway through the night I got raided by a horde and I almost died. Luckily survived tho. Made me think twice now if I want to camp or just go to town.
Tbh playing with only my main pawn has been way more fun
I loved the game between hour 2 and 7 of my total playtime. Everything else was tedium. I dropped it after 27 hours and I'm still having a difficult time making sense of both having felt like the game was amazing and... kind of hating it.
I think the game is just a lot of surface with nothing beneath. Amazing exploration... in theory. Deep combat... in theory. Complex RPG systems... in theory. The game is ultimately shallow and disappointing around every corner.
I totally get you. When I was 10 hours in I was telling my friends this game seemed great. 10 hours later I wasn't sure anymore. 10 hours after that I was starting to just straight up dislike it lol. The more I played the more issues I had with it. That initial sense of exploration and mechanical freedom seemed cool, until I realized how surface level it really was lol. Lots of interesting ideas, but also lots of poor execution.
@micshazam842 plays CoD every year though
@@Super_Broly ???
I love the game but I have to agree with you, the game needs more enemies variety. I’m hoping they hear our concerns, we need DLC that fix those issues.
Why do you want to pay even more for the game for them to fix it?
Good video agree with everything basically, the people complaining in the comments gotta be blind, its fine being like the first one but they coulda atleast fix the stuff people complained about it for the first one
Only real complaint I had was the enemy variety. Other then than that it’s probably my favorite game of the year so far. Really hope they decide to do some sort of dlc later but it doesn’t seem to be that much of a priority
Idk it says open world but lots of very narrow corridors. Open World should be more vertical and wide landscapes. Most rpgs don't pull it off when going for realistic graphics. As for combat, this is why I cannot get into most action rpgs. When they do the hack and slash. Like hitting a titan with a fly swatter. X,X,X,X,X,X,special move.x.x.x.x.x.x
something that i dont hear often praised about the souls games is that they do not make you re-loot when you die.
They probably realised having a game where you die often, re-looting feels teadius and very boring.
In dragon's dogma, and lots of other games which uses saves/auto save on deaths. You willl be re-looting/re oraganizing on eveery death. the only mitigation being quick saving right before a tough fight, if possible.
7:46 I actually encountered that dragon at night and it completely destroyed my resources and killed all my pawns and my last inn save was like 2 hours before so I fking ran for my life and IT FOLLOWED me for quite a bit, damn night in this game is amazing you literally can’t see danger until you are next to it
9:40 you can’t actually choose which save to use it s just the last save so it s not always good for you
They didn't just remade the game, they remade DD1 not DDDA... like, why?
Sidequests are a bit bland and weirdly implemented/resolved at times. It does have moments of brilliance though. Eg. sphinx quest. I think the biggest problem with the main plot is that there are no main antagonists, and people just disappearing from the story after certain events. The gameplay + pawn system are fun though but it does get stale after a while due to lack of enemy variety and especially from midgame on there is a distinct lack of difficulty. Only being able to use 4 skills at a time is also a bit limiting. So yeah, while I did enjoy my playthrough, there is no motivation to continue in NG+ or replay this, unless they fix some of these issues in a DLC (like enemy variety).
the really sad part is that if they had actually just remade DD1/DA but with the new tech and added stuff to the story it would've been infinitely better than 2. you actually get to fight the ultimate dragon and god in DD1/DA
?? We also fight the Dragon in 2…
@@tariqueisso you do NOT fight the ultra dragon of post game, you crawl on its back as one big setpiece and you dont get to fight god.
what you're thinking of is the basic final battle which isnt radically different from the first because it isnt supposed to be
@@_Sage967_ nonsense, after flying in it’s back I fought it on the ground, I’ve played bro 😅
@@tariqueisso you do not fight Nex the brine dragon of post game you are again thinking of the NORMAL dragon who is the final boss of the base game that you have to avoid fighting to even get into the post game
either you forgot or you havent gotten the true ending
@@_Sage967_ oh, there’s another bigger dragon besides the one who took the ariren’s heart? I didn’t knew
I lost interest after playing for a while.
The companion system threw me off. It felt disjointed when I would be walking around and fighting enemies every 30 seconds and then see a random person mindlessly strolling down the path into the battle area as of nothing is happening. It just feels weird to me for that to be the mechanic.
Also after playing games like RDR, Baldur's Gate 3 or Cyberpunk 2077 my threshold for main character interaction/conversation animation quality is VERY high.
When I spoke to certain NPCs the facial animations and body language was odd and immersion breaking. That type of shit matters (to me) when experiencing a fantasy epic. They let that aspect fall through the cracks.
The combat was mostly fun though and the world looks pretty good.
pause to heal? theres a quick slot for that, one you can use at 0hp even.
So what you're saying is... GOTY material?
Yep. If there were a total of 3 games that came out in 2024, this would definitely be a top 5 game 100% 😎👍
No it sucks
@@robertrainford6754 Quality has never been a metric for GOTY nominees.
@@immortanjones9136 I know just look at god or war or Elden ring
@@robertrainford6754 Yeah, I'll take the bait. There have been no good video games since 2001.
I was ultimately disappointed. It just didn't pull me in like the first one. I finished one playthrough (took a long time just exploring etc) and have struggled to get very far into my second.
You perfectly put my disappointment with this game into words.
Thanks for checkin out the video!
Sadly the game was always going to be what we got. For this series the best parts weren't made by itsuno but others. He's an ideas guy more than a game director for this series. At least that's what he should be
you are so right, it's literally the first game... again. With almost all of the mistakes in it... again. just wow what a disappointment. Monster hunter, a franchise they own, has better loot and combat systems than any dragons dogma.
For me poor combat boring travelling where is the lock on im hitting thin air not the enemy at times its getting traded in
More reason to wait the "complete/goty/whatever edition" in 2 years or so. Hope they add variety too.
I'm already expecting this, cause I felt the same toward DD1 vanilla back in the first day launch.
I had a lot of problems with the game running properly even with a high-end system.
I guess they patched it to run a little better but then the game itself didn't really wow me that much.
It's okay but I regret buying it now.
I’m curious what a true DD2 can be, I enjoyed the game kind of played the original a little bit, but was really excited for this one when I seen the trailer it was a very fun game but agree with you there were things that they could have improved on that they didn’t here is hoping they do in the next game
Hey mate, great review!
Not sure if I agree with you on the matter of low stakes due to many camps available everywhere.
Losing your progress in a single player game never rly helps the experience and you end up loading the game for a different outcome anyway…
When the friction mechanic turns into a feeling that playing this game is „like a job” then you lose even more interest I suppose?
@mbra8228 Thanks for checking out the video! Glad you liked it!
And yeah losing progress isnt necessarily "fun" (certainly not in the traditional sense lol) but the point is that I think the fear of losing it adds tension to the experience because now there's something tangible to lose. Having an actual failstate adds a bit of risk into the equation and forces you to actually make choices about how to proceed with certain situations. And since the game is clearly trying to have some friction in its design, I really wish they would have embraced this angle. Because without it, yeah I just think the friction of walking everywhere just becomes a bit tedious lol. Thanks again for watching!
@@chrisrivera7530 Travel was tedious in comparison to other ARPG's but I think it was done very well. The game lines up very nicely when you get the swing of the ox carts, put down 2 or 3 well places port crystals. To me the design was neat if you actually did swap vocations and explore the games different options for combat levelling vocations wasn't tedious because it paced nicely with the lack of instant fast travel. Not for every player I suppose as most of us have been conditioned with easy fast travel. I really did like the design choice - I think they were clever in monetizing camps and fast travel because it was clearly a publishing requirement, but for any gamer playing the game as intended they were absolutely not required. Fail states and not being able to finish some quests etc is annoying, but you're heavily encouraged to do more than one playthrough. E.g. I failed the sphinx and couldn't get the achievement my first playthrough.
i like these 30-40min vids, really showcases ur funny, new sub👆🏿
Lol thanks! Glad you enjoyed the video!
"i love to hear your guys thoughts"
aka i need utube engagement. i wish utubers would just say the truth about leaving comments and how it helps their channel
Bitter sweet they took a step forward and back at the same time but this newest update helps elevate some of those issues I still find it lacking especially the monster variety and the sphix is disappointing the only way to kill it is with the arrow even tho I chunked it down to 0 it gets a shield and fly’s away it’s very weird. Still a good game if you enjoyed the first one
I have killed the sphinx with knives as a thief, and also as a mystic spearhand
Glad people are speaking out this game needs a lot of work. I like it but it’s not as good as the first game in my opinion.
Same thing i said as well. DD:DA is still the superior game of the two.
I uninstalled it. It just got bored
I wouldn't have mind the constant running back and forth if they went with some kind of mount. It's what killed the fun of the game for me.
Hmm yeah a mount, or some way to at least temporarily get a mount, could have been interesting. To be fair tho, I do like the IDEA of limited fast travel, but I just wish the game was smaller, it had more enemy variety, and the quests weren't so sterile (Ideally all 3 combined lol)
#1 the autosaves aren't always the best. I often have to reload my last inn stay orcelse i risk losing so much.
#2 thank fukin god there are so many camps. This game is pretty unforgiving, especially with regards to the dwindling max health.
#3 there actually is some risk in camping cuz you can get ambushed while trying to sleep.
if you sleep at a camp a monster can come & tear the whole thing down so it always felt like a risk reward thing 2 me. plus ur always weighing whether 2 stop or keep pushing juuust a little longer its fun!
lack of fast travel very much does force you to prepare for trips ahead of time, i wound up in soo many situations where i was stuck in pitch darkness scrambling for any type of safety while scared for my life avoiding packs of enemies with like no health, frustrating but memorable:)
monster variety sucks but the enemies were given a lot more care due to the limited selection. they are a lot more reactive than you give them credit for imo. also comparing the enemy variety to elden ring is hilariously unfair for any game.
the vocations all felt very different to me, two handed sword is veeery slow and deliberate in contrast to thief or fighter.archer has a really cool slide thing u can do like u can pull some real legolas moves its great. sorcerer and whatever the other one was called are two entirely different approaches to magic.
also calling the unmoored world a ”slightly changed” version of the regular map is very strange.
i could keep going but honestly this game sucks and the first one is way better. i like the video btw its rly well made
I honestly stopped playing half way through. I enjoy the combat but it and the move/magic easily became repetitive and lack luster. I might finish it later this year but I'm definitely not in any rush.
Gaming has become all about the money, the industry doesn't appreciate the players anymore, we are cash cows.
Enemy variety is a deal breaker. Too many games (BG, ER, Diablo, etc etc) get this right to piss with DD. I have more enemy types in miniatures for TTRPG's than they do in this game ffs. Try again with DD3 Capcom - there's something to build on here, but this isn't a fleshed out game.
I don’t think you got the real final, it’s not just that 😅 the majority of people complaining of this game didn’t really played.
I have seen all the different endings and mentioned that in the video. I did the unmoored world, and I looked it up to see if I missed anything else, and I did not. The unmoored world is kinda cool in theory but I think asking players to spend 40-60+ hours running errands, only to be rewarded with a slightly altered map, a red tint, and more of the same gameplay isnt exactly thrilling lol. And this "real" ending still doesnt address basically anything in that main series of quests with Captain Brandt lol.
It's like a side grade, which now I think that maybe I was wrong. Since this is the game they wanted to make. Sucks, but it's not an awful game; and with a dlc it could get better for sure. Hopefully something much harder than the base game.
Its so sad that only the combat is good about this game the rest is really mid. Story, loot, exploration etc.
Love your review , theres no unnecessary hate that most youtubers have on their videos thank you for giving a good and honest!
Thanks for checkin out the video!
I agree with all your points
Still like this game more than Elden ring and baulders gate 3 lol
Main story is so bad. No epic moments until the copy+paste end of the first game. Still enjoyed it for a playthrough.
man dd1 boss were mush more harder, now in dd2 the boss is way to easy
I want to like this game but cant.
Same! lol. I enjoyed the first 10-15 hours or so quite a bit, but it fell off pretty hard after that
After 10 hours I couldn’t do it anymore. Just so boring.
did you play the 1st one?
Your whole campfire rant was kinda dumb, I'm in the woods, why would it be hard to find stuff to make a campfire? That would be immersion breaking.
You are absolutely correct about the quests and story. Any comment in the first two months I made about the quest and story design were attacked by Capcom simps who seemed personally offended by the reality that these aspects of the game were so trashy dog shit. But the truth is the truth. This game holds your hand when it shouldn't, and then refuses too hold your hand when it should, and in the latter instance it seems the developers and simps defending the game seem to think they've done something clever, when in reality they've just trolled the player in the worst ways a game can. There's a million other infuriating things I could write that you didn't have time to cover in your great video here, but why bother. As for the gameplay, I enjoy it a lot when I stop doing the quests and just treat the game as a fun fantasy monster-hunter arcade game that I play an hour a day - kill a couple dragons, have a bit of fun with classes and cool looking spells, laugh at the goblins, and then go back to amazing games like RDR2, BG3, and Elden Ring.
Wait did you not make it to post game? I agree the story is ass but the post game does make it slightly better
@lycoris8425 Yeah I made it through the unmoored world. I think the idea of the unmoored world is kinda neat in theory, but I think asking players to spend 40-60 hours runnings errands only to be rewarded with a slightly altered map, a red tint to the world, and more of the same gameplay is... not exactly great design lol. And even if it does kinda try to do some different story stuff, it 1. Still doesnt actually address what you do for the main quests with the queen/false arisen lmaooo. But 2. Its just kinda too little too late. I probably should have mentioned it in the video, but yeah I think its another aspect of the game thats kinda interesting in theory, but is poorly executed.
Thanks for checking out the video!
Yea i agree, wasted potential unless they add something completely engame changing to it soon. It's dead to me now. Nothing worth playing for now i have explored everywhere and done most things
Man...great review! 👍
Thank you! 🙏
totally agree every word you said bro.
The problem is, people never see the good parts of a game. They only see and comment on the things they don’t like, and they take the good things for granted. No game is perfect, I love dragons dogma 2 but I know that it’s not the best game.
I mean, objectively speaking, I do talk about the stuff I liked about the game lol. It takes up the whole first part of the video, so im not just only commenting on the things I don't like.
But I also don't like the view of "no game is perfect, therefore we shouldn't really criticize things". I just think that stance is incurious and boring lol. I love art, and I love the analysis of art. Simply brushing off any attempt at critique or deeper insight just kinda makes everything clump together in one big category of "Games that are not perfect", which is lame. Engaging with art on more than just the surface level allows for much more interesting analysis and reflection and it can both define your own tastes, and give you a better understanding of certain elements of the medium itself. There are plenty of games that I think are not good, but I had really interesting or memorable experiences with them, so I view them more fondly than games that have less apparent problems. And that's the fun part about engaging with art! It can offer different experiences! But if we look no deeper than "No game is perfect" then you start to venture into the surface level mindset "Don't think, just buy and consume, then buy more". Which is basically Ubisoft and EA's whole model lmao.
Also I kinda disagree on the no game is perfect stance too lmao but thats beside the point.
That game is great no doubt, the only issue i had was i wanted more monsters to fight and i HATED being rushed at the end in that red realm due to mist. Like why would you introduce a new world/map to me and rush me to finish?
I hope capcom patches new monsters, story and even mechanics like taking out the rush of that mist via time.
And maybe personal, the music in this game sucked compared to the first one (besides the battle music)
Damn it you are so right 😊
I beat it regardless of hating it but I didn't enjoy it. It was a complete chore to beat the game
When they released the dlc i think its going to be good
you mean when they release the huge sections of the game they already built and then cut in order to sell you DLC later down the track?
The games "adaptive difficulty system" is actually an algorithmic fail state generator . This makes the game virtually impossible to play once you get good at it. Capcom has really thrown out the idea of actually balancing a game and is now relying on algorithmic fail state generators in the name of money.
It’s the walking for me.. Once you’ve walked the same path for the thousandth time, you start to realize this game is 89.6 % WALKING… When you don’t have much time and wanna get some quick gameplay in, it’s pointless because the farthest you’re gonna get is to a campire most times.
Well for me game is great and it is as most fans was wanna,mean like dd1 👊
I love the game's little references of reused animations, like the zombies from resident evil series, the punches from street fighter, or some of the fighters and warriors style of fighting borrowed from Devil may cry, or the Monster Hunter World climbing system. The list goes on and the game is awesome IMO
Actually, DD1 was the original of this climbing system, Hideaki Itsuno brought it to monster hunter one game before MH:W.
@superpnutbutter8608 I wish I was old enough to know that honestly
Lmao but bald man Asmon said its "good"
I have unerring faith in bald men so... yeah, bald man Asmon is probably right.
Unfortunately all true, I wish this game was the best thing to come out but it's just a disappointment
Every game that ive loved this year has hella hate and complaining from these internet nerds😂 im so glad i dont let the comments and the reviews influence my opinion of the game. Its like a new generation on UA-cam, just pure hate and wining💩 Yall keep suffering😂
Not as bad as you make it seem but not the game of the year either ! 😂 I’m a souls player and dragons dogma clearly doesn’t want to be dark souls … and I do have a problem with u saying no consequence but your pausing to heal lmaooo like bro u can not pause to heal and make the game more difficult or like it’s intended to be .. I like the pause menu so they really can’t do away with it
Lol I dont think you understand that pausing to heal IS how you heal. There's not an alternative lmao. It's not like im finding some exploit to make the game easier, Im playing it the way its designed. Why should I have to force myself to do a no-heal challenge in order to add some semblence of tension or difficulty? That sounds like a fundamental problem of how the game is designed, not a problem with how im playing.
@@chrisrivera7530 I agree with u but when ppl healing when the whole bar is gone is crazy lmaooo but I liked ur video and I’ll subscribe you didn’t tell one lie but just sounded harsh becasue I never played the first and I like it
You missed the real ending, if you don’t take the throne and speak to the watcher your mind will be blown. 👌🏻
@renoscantlebury5934 Yeah I made it through the unmoored world (The "real" ending where you stab yourself or whatever lol). My mind was definitely not blown lol. I think the idea of the unmoored world is kinda neat in theory, but I think asking players to spend 40-60 hours runnings errands only to be rewarded with a slightly altered map, a red tint to the world, and more of the same gameplay is far from great design lol. Its way too little too late, and it still doesn't resolve the stuff with the queen/false arisen.
I should have been more clear in the video, but I did check out all the endings, and all of them still ignore the stuff you spent 90% of the playtime doing lol.
I think it's a bit of an exaggeration to say his mind would be "blown". The "true ending" it fun but its not mind-blowing, still only a couple new bosses, and the world just had a red mist added to it and a few river beds to explore with basic enemies again, a couple more dullahans but that's about it. Really not mind blowing at all
I refunded it. Best decision considering I already had a better version. The first one.
12 yrs for this dogsht
200 hours in the game. It has flaws, but it's way better than most games. I'm just a simple Arisen high fiving my harem of giant female pawns.
@@__Weasel__ ah, fellow man of culture 😎
GOd sounds horrible, im glad i didnt torrent it.
Game is heavily flawed, just like the first one, but I still love it, flaws and all. First game is my favorite but the second is definitely better in a lot of aspects, even though it does take steps back in others.
Great video. It really speaks to how I feel about the game as well, BUT there is one little point I have to disagree with. The game does a good job of keeping you on track with quests. Many quests, like the "Lost kid" quest you used as an example, have an LOGIC BASED open-ended problem solving structure, meaning there ARE clues to find but YOU have to put in the time to actually search for them to better come to a clear conclusion... using the "Lost kid" quest again, the game DEFINITELY does tell you exactly what you have to do and how to solve the mystery without spelling it out plainly. The game doesn't treat you like a idiot and that is one of the GOOD things about it. You have to use your actual brain and common sense. I had NO problem figuring out you had to follow the flowers at night. The clue from a little towns girl is literally; "Yeah he loved going down to the meadow to pick his favorite flowers." Once you get there, you see it is a field full of flowers. The ones that glow at night specifically, so, common sense will tell you, come back out at night because duh.. The glow will be much EASIER to see once it is dark. Follow the obvious flower path and BOOM ya there. Im confused about how you got confused with some of these quests 🤔 DD 1 had more brain twisting puzzles than this game.
My biggest criticism is no coop. Honestly that’s my biggest criticism of many games.
They already said we won't be getting that. Our friends Pawns will be the closest that we ever get. Besides with Co-Op the reviews would be worse since we all would start off OP.
I don't think Co-op fixes the issues though, just makes them less initially apparant because you'd be messing around with your friend lol. I played Farcry 6 with a friend, and while that game was terrible, I still mostly enjoyed my time playing it, but that was entirely because my friend is an idiot who kept killing himself (and also because we constantly made fun of how bad the game was lol). I don't think Co-op is a fix for problems with game design, just a way to sometimes mask it.
And you'd also have to consider balancing issues, because co-op tends to make things way too easy lol.
Nah im good on co-op. Not every game should have it.
This game is very good.
Pack it up, everyone. @2Guapo just laid down the law. We were wrong. The game is actually very good.
Dragon dogma 1 was better in 85% aspect
I had a decent time when I first played this because I loved part 1 so much but after 15 hours I couldn’t do it anymore it was just the same shit over and over and over. Recently they patched it and said it had better frame rates so I decided to start over with different classes to make it fresh but after 6 hours I wanted to kill my self for ever thinking to play this again. Omg it was torture. It’s sad cause first couple hours I was having so much fun but then same enemies got so boring and same coves copy and paste bs and same plants on every region and honestly the map isn’t even big it’s all water it’s a fake map to make the word look bigger when you can’t even explore 50% of it. Capcom is a joke if this was made by any other dev it would have been a game talked about for a decade like Elden ring will be.
In my humble opinion, DD2 ia a very good Action Adventure game and a complete failure as RPG. Of course Action Adventure part still can be improved greatly, but at least it's something the can do, as for the RPG part, it can't be saved. By design those "quests" exist to give a player some direction but not connection with the world- the VERY SOUL of any RPG. They failed miserably because they don't understand it, and you can't fix what you can't understand.