Dragon's Dogma - Dark Arisen

[6souls]

I enjoyed the demo and I found it amusing that you can kill your helpers by dragging them to a cliff & kicking them off. Did that to the first guy in the dragon's den, he was annoying. >.>;

[Brill Weave]

Game Informer gave it an 8.5

[Doombear]

Guide Book in my hands. Check a Gamestop near you! Haven't actually read much, and to be honest I don't even know that I wanted it that much... I just wanted something to help with the wait. Actually this may just be making it worse. Shit.

[Doombear]

Skimming through the guide book, staying away from anything spoilery like Bestiary and even Armor/Weapons. I am getting so hyped though. Cannot wait. Went back today to the demo and tweaked my characters a bit. Since there are essentially different weight classes and it affects things like stamina regen, encumbrance, and even whether or not wind and wing gusts knock you down... I beefed up my pawn and shaved off some weight from my main. Since I am going to be a Archer/Mage main I slimmed him down to 69kg and beefed my pawn up to 76kg since she is going to be my tank/DD.

So if anyone is looking for a warrior/fighter pawn to rent, add me =P I like that we can go back and update rented pawn's stats. For example if you rent my Fighter Pawn, and then after a few hours I have leveled her up in my game and given her new skills, you can 'update' your rental version to reflect that. I need to check the guide to see how exactly levels work when it comes to pawns. Anyone know? To clarify, say you 'rent' my main pawn and at the time she is level 6, but I go on a bender and she is now level 20 4 hours later but you are only level 8... will you be able to update her stats? Must look that up now... then I can come back and triple post!

EDIT: Looks like you can recruit a pawn of any level. The limitation is cost. Once you want to recruit a pawn that is several levels above the prices get pretty hefty. You can search for pawns in the rift via pawn name, gamertag, primary or secondary skills, vocation, and gender. Not sure if there is a way to update your current recruit's level without simply re-recruiting it.

[Viq]

I'm also looking to go archer/mage, but I'm planning on having my pawn be the warrior/mage (I think) buffer class. I was really looking forward to hopping on this day one, but then I got Dark Souls a couple days ago (hated DS, so waited for the sequel to be $15... turns out I love it). Now I'm torn if I should finish plowing through Dark Souls, or just take a break from it to play Dragon's Dogma >_<

[Doombear]

If you want my opinion... if you can wait then I would wait on Dogma. Dark Souls is probably my favorite game in the last few years. If you are loving it then keep going! Dogma isn't going anywhere and maybe it even gets a price drop if you are lucky. Dark Souls STILL has me hooked whether it is NG+ or just creating a whole different type of character and starting over. If Dark Souls has its hooks in then leave em there! Just make sure you stay away from topics like this one once it launches XD

[Vendog]

The brobox torrent is out for this.

[Doombear]

Not super shocked about that, since Capcom Store was shipping theirs out as early as Weds. I just wish that meant more streams, but those are getting taken down pretty quick. I don't want to see any spoilers, but I wouldn't mind seeing some of the early stuff.

EDIT: I feel like I am the only one hyped for this...

Watching streams off and on today, and it isn't making my class choice much easier. Right now I am watching a Warrior (this stream - spoilers obviously) playing right now and that two-handed hammer is fucking amazing. The player in the other stream I have been watching has largely been a Magick Archer which I was also interested in. Obviously I can be them all, but just not sure what I want to do right out of the gate.

[mightyg]

I gotta admit, I'm pretty hyped as well, especially since I don't have much to do at the moment. Game looks great, lots of stuff to sink my teeth into.

[AoE]

I'm hype too but trying not to spoil anything for myself. I have release day shipping from Amazon but won't be able to play until Thursday since I have finals Wednesday.

[Insanecyclone]

[TacoTaru]

Scores seem to be coming in right where I expected them to. Excited for tomorrow night, can't wait! :D

[Doombear]

I agree Taco, though I am not sure if you mean the whole (crazy) spectrum or just the positives.

I think I am about done with the review reading at this point as some of them are just making my jaw drop in wtfness. Some of them just sound so ridiculous, and remind me of the confused and off the mark reviews for Demon's Souls. Loved that game and I am sure I will love this one.

I absolutely expected a love it or hate it response to this game and I think that is what we will see.

[TacoTaru]

Basically what I'm getting at is scores alone (numerical, not the actual text) are coming in right where I expected: 7.5~8.5. Written reviews, like Destructoid's, when pointing out the games highs and lows, are also what I expected. Basically my expectations with what little I knew of the game are pretty much on par with what the game is going to deliver, and with that I'm happy. I expect I'll enjoy this game quite a bit.

[Insanecyclone]

lol joystiq's review gave it 2 stars cause it was too hard for them

[Souj]

I still plan on picking it up tonight. Gamestop's doing a midnight for Ghost Recon so I'm just gonna go in and grab DD.

[Eleven19]

I work 730am to 130pm tomorrow, pickin up reserve after that. I'm disappointed in lack of co-op gameplay but the game looks really fun despite it. Love the idea of the world being so huge. Not sure how I feel about reviews bashing on the menu.. Feel like menu navigation is just something that comes with time, sounds silly to complain about.

[Doombear]

Gotcha Taco, makes perfect sense to me. I really can't wait to get rolling with this. I am not going to bother with a midnight pickup as I will still have to be up for work on Tuesday anyway. I should have more than enough time to play Tues and Weds though. I hope. I wonder just how important it is going to be to (or even needed) it is to min/max in this. I know you can switch from vocation to vocation for a price (initially when you 'buy' a new vocation), but it sounds like the actually stat growth sticks.

So the Fighter for instance has the highest stamina growth compared to the Mage and Strider that you choose between until level 10 when the others open up. I just wonder what kinds of builds people are going to make taking each class shift into account. Obviously you could get to the same point in different ways, but I expect there to be some 'super efficient' paths out there.

Oh and one tip, nothing spoilery, but pretty helpful I think... know that when you send your rental pawn 'home' or he dies (and you cannot or do not revive them) all your gear/items it had on it are gone. Not super awesome if you are using one as a pack mule, well ... unless you are its owner who just had their pawn return to them with a bunch of free loot =P

Also... dress up rental pawns in opposite gender's armor before you send them back =P

[Viq]

Made up my mind, I'm grabbing this tomorrow at some point. Anyone else going to be on the PS3 version? Feel free to add me so we can trade pawns. viq_utep is my ID

[Kaiseran]

Made up my mind, I'm grabbing this tomorrow at some point. Anyone else going to be on the PS3 version? Feel free to add me so we can trade pawns. Viq_utep is my ID

I'm pretty sure I'll be getting it. Kaiser-0