What happened to Dragon's Dogma 2 | FULL REVIEW

After nearly 12 years, the sequel to Dragon’s Dogma is finally out and the hype was palpable. With its platinum trophy obtained, I’ll now give you as much of a comprehensive review as I can - exploring how Capcom has handled the generational leap with Dragon’s Dogma 2. It’s a rollercoaster of extremes, with fantastic class design and engaging combat at one end, and an unfinished story and laughable affinity systems at the other. And of course, we also have some lies to go through. The chapters and timestamps of this video are shown below.
0:00 Intro
7:03 A Really Strong Start
11:01 Vocations
19:01 Quests
24:16 The World
28:27 Lack of Character
35:35 The Story
40:33 The Seneschal
48:03 Lies
52:47 Conclusion
Here are the OSTs used:
Dark Souls 3 OST Epilogue
Dragon's Dogma 2 OST ： A Strange Figure ｜ Extended
Dragon's Dogma 2 OST ： Bakbattahl ｜ Medley
Dragon's Dogma 2 OST ： Battle - Armored Cyclops ｜ Extended
Dragon's Dogma 2 OST ： Battle - Drake [Rage] ｜ Extended
Dragon's Dogma 2 OST ： Battle - Dullahan ｜ Extended
Dragon's Dogma 2 OST ： Battle - Gigantus Phase 1 ｜ Extended
Dragon's Dogma 2 OST ： Battle - Memories Of A Dragon ｜ Extended
Dragon's Dogma 2 OST ： Battle - Sphinx ｜ Extended
Dragon's Dogma 2 OST ： Battle - Unmoored World [Danger] ｜ Extended
Dragon's Dogma 2 OST ： Castle Gaol
Dragon's Dogma 2 OST ： Decide Thy Fate ｜ Extended
Dragon's Dogma 2 OST ： Main Menu v.2 ｜ Extended
Dragon's Dogma 2 OST ： Main Theme ｜ Extended
Dragon's Dogma 2 OST ： Masquerade ｜ Extended
Dragon's Dogma 2 OST ： Melve ｜ Medley
Dragon's Dogma 2 OST ： Oxcart ｜ Extended
Dragon's Dogma 2 OST ： The Queen Regent ｜ Extended
Dragon's Dogma 2 OST ： The Return Of The Sovran ｜ Extended
Dragon's Dogma 2 OST ： The Slums ｜ Medley
Dragon's Dogma OST： 1-02 Main Title
Dragon's Dogma OST： 1-20 Hydra Battle At Dawn
Dragon's Dogma OST： 1-23 Gran Soren
DSi Shop Theme
Nintendo Wii - Mii Channel Theme
Outer Wilds Original Soundtrack 01 - Timber Hearth
Persona 5 OST 03 - Escape
Shop - The Legend of Zelda： Ocarina of Time
Soul of Cinder
Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There instrumental version
Fleetwood Mac - Little Lies
Verdi： Requiem, Dies irae

[@granujja]

Against all odds... they repeated their own dogma

[@GeteMachine]

An endless, pointless cycle indeed.

[@zaid4708]

dragons dogma

[@almightypotatoe4592]

...Unbound by time; all-binding, grand design. Land and skies, and seas yearn, Finish the cycle of eternal return...

[@florianbucher9075]

Pretty early on in the game you can encounter a quest in wich you have to throw a poison barrel over a river at a nest of monsters. The npc tells you if you miss/throw the barrel in the river you woud poison the water supply of the village. Now i threw the barrel straight into the river.. Guess what happend next Nothing. The nest was poisend and the npd thanked mer for my help...

[@Rannockh]

I remember that! Shame that I didn't think of testing it out too. Missed out on the exhilarating feeling of being disappointed

[@real_Schrooten]

For me there were like one or two drops that went into the river and i got told to better work on my aim xD

[@Nicole_Auriel]

The content, editing, background footage, and sound quality is surprisingly stellar for a channel with only 300 subscribers. Hope you really make it big on this platform.

[@Rannockh]

Thank you so much! It takes a while to do it all, but it really pays off to hear that it resonates. I'm happy you've enjoyed it!

[@EXHellfire]

basically the only actually honest and sincere review or video on this game I've seen other than sphere hunter's

[@LowResCatExplosion]

It really sucks how we don't even get to learn this Dragon's name Also how the quests don't have the same level of reactivity as the first. For instance, the quest where you help the empress of Battahl root out a traitor, I got the ending where she poisons herself to avoid questioning. I thought, "Ha! Got your ass, you ain't escaping that easily, " and tried to use a wakestone on her, but the game wouldn't let me. Not only is this shallow, but it's straight up lore-breaking that I couldn't use that wakestone when you can use them in any other situation. Now compare that to DD1. If you interrupt the duel between Mercedes and Julien, you kill Julien, Mercedes is pissed and leaves. The quest ends there. But that doesn't stop you from using a wakestone to revive him, which results in him going to prison. Then you visit him in prison, and he gives you his shield. Then, you can unlock the door and carry him out of prison, all the while Julien is left utterly confused about your decision-making process and whose side you're even on. And keep in mind, you didn't have to do anything more than kill him. The quest ended. Everything past that is just a bonus reward for creativity, Dragon's Dogma 2 just doesn't have that same inventive spark

[@MuraCasardis]

That's actually weird and ironic, because you CAN do that to several other NPCs. For example, the Arisen's Shadow quest has an assassin after you. My first time around, I killed the guy. However, I used a Wakestone right away to revive him, which triggered the cutscene where the guards came to arrest and interrogate him. Another case is with Ser Gregor, who died against the Dullahan while we fought it. I was able to revive him with a wakestone, which changed the objective and he could now be reported back to his wife as alive. Seems this kind of emergent gameplay isn't applied equally. As the video says, it's a game of extremes lol.

[@real_Schrooten]

DD1 was funny at times. Just like that Wyrmhunt quest where you get send out with a troup of soldiers to reconquer a fortress that has been taken by goblins. Only for you to kill your captain of operation right at the sieges start and end the quest that way. The other soldiers willl report to Ser Maximillian that you delivered a good fight, totally wasn't your fault lmao

[@d3knot]

Capcom: "the performance issues are because of our advance NPC AI" Right..

[@Rannockh]

So advanced that they can't be unloaded like in literally any other game

[@Ninakoru]

Yeah, absolutely nothing to do with an awful port.

[@MrAjking808]

Never had issues lol

[@Wariyaka]

@@Rannockh So about those lies? Why you now perpetrating them? The performance issues don't come from their AI but their character creator and the "bazillion" layers of meshes a character have (including the npc's) because how extremely customisable it is. This lead to the cpu having to calculate all the bodies and all clothing for all characters and npc's on the fly all the time. Maybe not the best idea from a performance perspective. :p There is a reason most games use just a few select meshes and skeletons for the bodies of characters and npc's and pre design gear to fit those. Some do use sliders but most I've seen are very basic scalings of the whole mesh which from a resource/math perspective is pretty simple and easy. They certainly don't do anything near what this game does. Just to make it clear. I don't think this was design choice was worth its cost but if it should be criticised it should be so for what it is and does and not with even more lies.

[@ShxpxRok]

The queen questline should have had some sort of effect on the story after all that build up in the trailers an interesting idea the green flame that is said to repel the dragon but we don't see it do anything, nothing gets expanded on, and the world doesn't even react to the player. like you are in the middle of a pawn hating country and only 1 group of npcs challenges you here's some things that would have been better with bhtal you get regularly challenged if you have any pawns with you things are more expensive to unbuyable (with pawns near you) you have to pay to use the vocation guild (with pawns near you) story wise when the Arisen goes near the flame the dragon who has been talking to him this whole time (as it should have been) goes silent and the Arisen feels weaker (your heart wifi is weaker so you are weaker and w/o your pawns you get swarmed by guards maybe gameplay section where you can escape but it is tough so 9/10 you won't escape but there's dialogue if you escape and maybe a rare item) maybe tPhasus throws your guy in prison if they get caught and the queen's guard contacts you after this be it in the town or in prison she lets you in on that there's a plot to kill the empress because she gets in the way of the phasus' pawn experimentation the guard lady trusts you with this mission because you are a capable foreigner and the common people love the empress so much, if you fail they send you away from bhital and you are kinda locked into a bad ending with them in the end game state. But if you complete it well the green flame is used to stop a boss in the end game state showing that the green flame was actually strong that these beast people were on to something. and after saving the queen the town becomes what it is in base game is now people are still kinda mean but you can bring your pawns around with you and have a few fights here and there vocation guild becomes free and one of the hotels is now cheaper. it's all on player choice too if you leave your pawns it becomes a little easier one way but harder in another way, if you have your pawns they comment on how they are glared at but after saving the queen they comment that your character is so great that the people no longer glare at them. It also opens up a way to get the empowered god's bane blade (something the path finder should not have wanted you to get.) if you don't get the god's bane blade you get the crrent ending we get but with empowered you go unmoored world. and again it would have been nice to confront Disa and phasus for the evil that they did. people would have loved this story they just needed to put more than 2 - 3 braincells together. I thought of this in 5 mins... Idk how a AAA team of "competent" writers that are getting paid to make good stories did not think of something like this... that's 400 people getting paid for what? J: I'm convinced that they had 1 - 2 years to create this game, no way it was 12 years of development if it was people need to be fired.

[@real_Schrooten]

in retrospect i'm happy that i only expected a modern remake with a lil plus on the content meaning having more than only one central city and a fishing village as settlements lmao

[@Ninakoru]

Great review man, hopefully you get more subscribers with time, the review quality has nothing to envy with other CC with hundreds of thousands of subscribers. GL!

[@Rannockh]

Thank you so much, I really appreciate the kind words and I'm happy you've enjoyed!

[@chillcloak]

I have to say I was completely engaged and immersed this whole review and then you showed the clip of Plane Jane's "mama kudos for saying that, for spilling" and it just took me the hell OUT 😂😭

[@Rannockh]

Mama kudos for watching all the way through, for engaging 🤣

[@croissantwizard]

I need to acknowledge this moment as well bc I felt so seen as a gaymer but was also fully gagged bc it was so unexpected LMFAOO

[@Juwce_86]

Lad, just letting you know this video came up in my recommended. It's excellent. The editing, direction and also commentary/review is solid. I'm now subbed and also commenting to feed the algorithm. Good shit man, keep it up.

[@Rannockh]

I'm happy you've enjoyed it and I really appreciate the kind words and support! Thank you and have a lovely weekend!

[@Jenohart]

39:43 I totally agree that the Gigantus was a confusing and poorly explained plot point. The worst part is: you do have agency even though the game doesn't tell you, whether you "halt" the Gigantus without destroying it by attacking the spikes or allowing it to be destroyed DOES impact the story. ENDGAME SPOILERS: . . . In the Unmoored world, if the Gigantus is intact then it will fight for you which reduces the number of boss fights required. The side quests to evacuate each settlement also change depending on if you did certain sidequests/have high affinity with characters. I thought that payoff was really cool as I went out of my way to do every sidequest before finishing the game, but you're still right about it feeling inconsequential as saving the settlements doesn't really change the ending outside of like a few movie clips that play while the credits are rolling that show epilogues for some of the NPCs. The mysterious hooded person is also apparently not the Seneschal from the previous game but instead the "Watcher", although I had to learn that from reading the wiki as it's not explained clearly in the game. There's also a lot of details in the game that just feel unfinished or scrapped ideas. The Marcher armor you get early on is meant to be a disguise you can use in Vernworth castle. There's actually another disguise you can get for the Forbidden Magic Research Lab in Bakbattahl, but you can only get it by finding a secret NPC at night who sells saurian tails and attacking them to trigger dialogue where you force him to give you his uniform. This doesn't seem to be part of any quest, and also is completely useless because nobody stops you from entering the lab. The guards literally just let you walk in by default so a disguise isn't necessary. Really feels like there was meant to be a whole Battahl story arc that got cut. The Empress of Battahl is on the front cover of the game, but you have to go out of your way to do like 3 optional side quests to even meet her and you don't learn much about her. On top of that: your beloved is chosen based on which max affinity character you most recently did an escort quest for. Completely arbitrary logic, but it doesn't matter because the beloved system has been downgraded too. There is no unique dialogue or special cutscene for your beloved. I still love the game just from the fantastic combat and open world dense with interesting content, but it is a bit of a shame that after all this time the game kinda feels more unfinished than the first game in several ways.

[@LowResCatExplosion]

You don't even have to fight the titan, I took the long way to the volcanic island since there was no reason to assume the godsbane would open the locked gate to the shorter path and by the time I got there, they already killed it

[@real_Schrooten]

@@LowResCatExplosion yea same, was on my way just reaching the bigger caves. So basically right at half distance so turning back made no sense anymore. Guess we learned our lesson and prepared an teleport option for ng+

[@LowResCatExplosion]

@@real_Schrooten I already had a port crystal at the volcanic spring camp, but it just wouldn't let me use it at that part of the game, we'll have to go the authored path

[@real_Schrooten]

​@@LowResCatExplosion Oh what i meant is go early to Volcanic islands by using the godsbane. It's staying in the inventory so no problem to prepare stuff in the early game or at least before the coronation. for the coloss i actually have placed the port crystal on the path towards the volcanic islands, not on the islands themselves.

[@real_Schrooten]

i actually have no idea why sometimes u can port to volcanos and sometimes u can't. Kinda struggled because of no ports the first time playing. In NewGame+ I didnt notice any limitation. I had my port crystaly just at the dragon that spawns on the northern part of the island.

[@ethan.hk3994]

Amazing video boss man. For being new, the script, editing, and jokes were really tight. Keep it up!

[@Rannockh]

Thank you very much for the kind words!

[@Amaryryry]

Wow, it amazes me that your channel is as small as it is. Out of the many reviews and critiques I've watched thus far, this one definitely ranks at least top 3. Everything down to even the music choice is extremely well done. I'm eager to see where you'll go from here. Definitely subscribing

[@Rannockh]

Thank you so much for the kind words ❤️ I'm really happy you've enjoyed my work! I've only started about last year and comments like yours really make me feel positive about creating more content!

[@GwydionGivesVoice]

I was consistently bemused by the NPC aggro system. If I rode an oxcart that was attacked or fought enemies in towns, the NPCs would immediately start screaming in terror or threatening me once the battle was done because my weapons were drawn. A couple times I ran around thinking I'd missed an enemy somewhere, but 'twas I, the bad guy. The weirdest example resulted in me bugging (I think) a minor follow-up quest where you're given a chance to rehabilitate a good-natured but misguided NPC who was incarcerated in Bakbattahl. A guard greeted me and started to lead me to the cell, but another guard aggroed and started attacking me, which made the friendly guard turn on me, too. I tried sheathing and unsheathing weapons to no avail, and the guards all eventually fell to my pawns' bloodlust. I revived the friendly guard with a wakestone but unlike other NPCs he wasn't mildly pleased with coming back to life and started attacking again. I wound up killing up him a second time for some quiet, but the incarcerated NPC wouldn't talk to me as there was no 'Speak' prompt. In the end, I used a key to open his cell and picked him up to carry him all the way back to my Bakbatthal residence. (He broke free of the carry a couple times along the way but still wouldn't speak to me.) Once we arrived, he unmuted himself and said, 'Oh, are you the one who busted me out?' There was some further dialogue that implied I had missed out on some intended interaction beforehand, then he unkindly told me to go away after I suggested I could tell him where to go but only had 'Nevermind' as a follow-up. He just lurked where I left him for a while. I did another quest and triggered his speech accidentally some time later when attempting to speak to someone else, where a new option appeared and I sent him away. Also, unrelated to the above, I didn't fully complete Wilhelmina's quest because at the time I did it, I wasn't aware that each required quest item produced its own list of possible turn-ins. Since I showed an item to Brant and he acknowledged it, I assumed he had taken it. As a result, I only turned in one of two items, got an undesired result for completion, and was aghast when I later saw the second item still in my inventory. This is more of a me-as-a-player problem, sure, but I still think it's a really freaking stupid system of handing in items. I'm used to all potential items being displayed and they'll populate a hand-over panel as necessary, not having to individually select the slot for a requested item. Especially when some quests in the game have allowed quests to be completed without handing over the maximum amount of items. It might be easier on PC to think to click an empty slot, but it's kind of cumbersome on PS5. And that is my small rant. Thank you for your time and for the video.

[@lorddragon5262]

Btw the game warns you at the beginning that people think you holding your weapons out is aggressive

[@GwydionGivesVoice]

@@lorddragon5262 Yeah, of course. I just found it weird that there was, like, zero delay between knocking the griffin in the middle of Vernworth to 0 HP and the people I was just fighting alongside suddenly deeming me a threat.

[@lorddragon5262]

@@GwydionGivesVoice that's really unlucky I've not had that problem yet but I'll definitely keep that in mind to prevent it lol

[@jatt7109]

Dragons dogma 2 is better sweet. How they managed to take a step back and forward at the same time I will never understand.

[@NoMADnecro]

Because Capcom only had about 1/4 the people working on it compared to every other major release they've had

[@Kebin13]

​@@NoMADnecroi seriously tough that after dmc v and the resident evils success capcom would not fuck up again with dragons dogma development, seems like i tough wrong... Now all i can hope is that the dlc datamined to come around november will get the monster hunter iceborne treatment to be able to fix all the step backs from this game.

[@paranoyd70]

I feel the exact same way. For every step forward, it makes an equal amount of steps backwards. For example, the map is 4x larger (step forward) but there are no wide open areas, its just a series of narrow winding interconnected paths that zig zag all over the map forcing you to travel the exact same narrow paths over & over & over again. And I could go on & on. This game feels rushed & incomplete, probably on purpose so as to save content for future DLC.

[@maegnificant]

​@@paranoyd70the first game had the exact same map Design

[@augustblade6167]

Rannockh, you've earned a sub from me. I can tell you wrote out a script for your video, and you edited your video well to align with the points you made. You have no idea how irritating it is to me to watch a content creator who obviously didn't write a script, or *just* put their gameplay in the video with no major editing. They just 'wing it' and it's incredibly annoying. Thanks for all the effort you gave.

[@Rannockh]

Thank you so much for the kind words! I'm really happy you've enjoyed it!

[@Atelier-Naginata-vod]

You're doing a really good job and deserve a lot more subs ! Thx for the video, I'll happilly watch the next ones :)

[@Rannockh]

Thank you so much for the kind words! I'm really happy you've enjoyed the video!

[@Atelier-Naginata-vod]

@@Rannockh And the others too, I'm binge-watching your channel right now

[@SharkPivo]

dd is a like a son/daughter you love but that never ceases to disappoint.

[@ogreaggressuv]

*Ceases*

[@SharkPivo]

@@ogreaggressuv thx for pointing that out. Fixed it

[@Biouke]

Notes : I never got any NPC going hostile on me for no reason. Also never engaged with "stealth" since it's quite easy to grab a guard uniform early in the game and it allows free access to the castle and jail as long as you avoid the main door. It seems days in the unmoored world only pass when resting. With allheal elixirs, wakestones and swapping pawns I never saw the mist progressing past the Melve area. Actually thanks to your video I now know that it is indeed supposed to progress :p Thoughts : I preferred how the first game had a clear divide between main and side quests, my first playthrought of DD2 was confusing because I didn't know when a quest would progress the story and potentially prevent me from finishing a side quest. The first part is centered on court intrigue instead of hunting monsters and the general narrative makes the Arisen more interested in taking the throne of Vermund that it should be. With the dragon trial/choice and the Duke in the first game it was pretty clear that the Arisen should be above this, just yearning to roam free and take on challenges. The tighter narrative of DD2 thus feels constraining. The game really feels rushed out and inconsistent. Again! Caves and dungeons are plentier than in the first game, they're also (way) shallower than even Skyrim's. The Moon Tower is a joke. I can think of a handful of places that were half-interesting to explore, and most are optional. Didn't these guys made Bitterblack Isle? The catacombs? The Bluemoon Tower? Even the Shadow Fort had more going on than most of DD2's caves.

[@A.H.M.K]

250 hrs played. Absolutely my game of the year! I love this

[@glowerworm]

Same. Only 80 hours so far for me, but I liked this game even more than Elden Ring

[@A.H.M.K]

@@glowerworm both are great games but I think I might be enjoying DD2 more as well. Enjoy my friend! There still ought to be discovered :)

[@rossing4463]

Lay off the crack​@@glowerworm

[@JustJeff777]

Same, still love this game despite it's issues

[@lazyassedprophet6410]

Ok so apparently Rothais is not just a past king but the the current Seneschal of the world, he outright states so in the japanese version and it got lost in translation. The pathfinder is another outer identity standing even above the seneschal. It makes me think that some of the more iffy parts of the plot are at least in part due to the translation not being completely exact but who knows at this point. I even doubt that the story gets much clearer than it is now with a proper translation, i just don't get the role of the pathfinder for the most part Really good video btw! always glad to find small channels with this much work put into them

[@Rannockh]

I did have a feeling something might’ve been lost in translation, but it is wild to think they would go with a Seneschal^2. I'm curious about looking into the Japanese version to see if things are more cohesive and comprehensive. Thanks for the kind words!

[@MuraCasardis]

It's actually implied already in DD1 that there's a force above the Seneschal, as Savan tells you when you question him at the end of the game. He wasn't certain, but Rothais was because he was able to uncover the existence of Pathfinder, and rejected it. His rejection messing up the order of the cycles, Arisen and Seneschal is also a bit of a parallel to Bitterblack Isle and Ashe/Daimon. Unfortunately, the game explains it poorly. You also nailed your criticism in the ending properly.

[@JustJeff777]

Yeah I was confused wether the Pathfinder was Oblivion or not... I know Rothias is the Seneschal, but When the Pathfinder dies, they say that Oblivion is no more...

[@real_Schrooten]

My deadass thought it's just the friendly elb out of your neighborhood back at the work camp

[@pochu9506]

I just bought the game last weekend. I love it. I didn't play the 1st game. I didn't even know it existed until i saw the gameplay of the sequel. I wasn't following the game in youtube or social media either, so I'm kinda shocked that people don't like the game.

[@BubbasGameReviews]

Excellent review! I'm glad that I'm not the only one that had a lot of the same issues that you did. Those issues need to be called out because the defense I'm seeing from fanboys is just "you're not playing it right" or "you just don't understand the game".

[@allandm]

Only 4 skills per class is not enough, they needed to let us equip 8 minimum. Imagine playing Hogwarts legacy but you only have 4 spells? That'd suck

[@Rannockh]

I honestly haven't played it, but I've been shown some gameplay at some point and it looks most fun when you have a few several spells available.

[@Promethevs_xviii]

I actually like the 4 Skills "limitation" ON PAPER. For Sorcerers it's a damn mess (especially if we look at how many spells simply got removed, compared to DD1) but let me explain what I mean. The freedom and free-form fighting of having up to 6/8 skills of course gives a certain feeling of "I can do whatever I want and feel cool doing it". Personally, I like when games give me some kind of limitation and I have to adapt to it, but there needs to be a whole system of small details and mechanics and parameters working together for it to be satisfying and make sense. The limited 4 skill slots could have worked perfectly with the abundance of campfires scattered throughout the map, where we would ideally change our loadout and skill set to deal against *certain* enemy types present in a *certain* areas. Example: You explore a new area with what you got, try it out, find some insane enemy type you know nothing about, and you get your ass handed to you: "maybe I have to change my strategy". You retreat to the nearest campfire and try to come up with a combination of skills for Character and Pawn to overcome the obstacle. Now it feels more bearable and I can keep exploring, but who knows what perils and secrets lie ahead? Maybe I'll have to change my mindset again. However, this is where this system crumbles. DD2 enemies are predictable and the same bunch of types repeats endlessly throughout the ENTIRETY of the game. There are almost no enemies tied to specific areas or particular ways to beat them. They have barely any significant variation in elemental defenses or types of physical defenses. Apart from looking different in Vermund and Battahl, they certainly don't feel that much different in behavior and defenses, and if there are differences, they're absolutely unnoticeable. Except for a couple of enemies like slimes, most of them will fall very easily with any Skill/Spell setup. Encounter and enemy design have to flow nicely with everything else in order for it to make sense. I can also understand why they thinned down the skill slots available: If Pawns have less skill slots, it's less likely their AI breaks. I remember in DD1 setting up my pawn to have just 3 or 4 skills, so it wouldn't go in this loop of making foolish actions - giving them less options paradoxically makes them more reliable. So yeah, on paper, I like the design decision to limit to 4 skills. In practice, it's pretty much just an annoyance.

[@allandm]

@@Promethevs_xviii they could let pawns have 4 skills, and the arisen have 8. 8 skills equipped would already be a limitations as there are more than 8 to choose from I believe. 4 just really feels like not enough, and it's annoying to keep changing it. There's already a lot of player choice in choosing our vocation, limiting our skills as making us choose even further is overkill for me.

[@Mohgenstein]

Imagine playing hogwarts at all, games shit

[@allandm]

@@Mohgenstein what? Hogwarts legacy is so much fun

[@aersla1731]

This channel is underrated and you pretty much summed up exactly how I felt about dragons dogma 2. As a sequel it's disappointing but as a stand alone game it's fine. Hopefully we get a dlc that rounds out the experience.

[@Rannockh]

Thank you! I hope so too, if at least for a decent reason to delve back into some more combat.

[@EatWave]

They really could have stood to give the main conflict another draft or two. The primary conflict could have been between 2 factions, the Vermudian pro-Arisen army and the Battahlian anti-Arisen anti-Chosen One/Fate forces each battling it out over who should be the one to take down the Red Dragon. Each faction could have had its own ties to the currently existing endings, at that. Vermund would be the ending where the Arisen takes the throne while Battahl would be the Unmoored World/breaking the cycle ending, with neither ending being promoted as the ideal outcome.

[@Rannockh]

I think that's fantastic and miles ahead of what we got! Palpable conflict and consequences and tension are things the game dropped halfway through, as well as most of Battahl's content.

[@odst123451]

The problem with the stealth mechanic is that it’s unnecessary. One of quests basically gives you guard armor. Wear 4 pieces of it and you can walk around the castle.

[@grumpy1089]

You can get mystic spearhead vocation actually much earlier if you talk to the dude while doing side quest in Melve village. But the point still stands for the other advanced vocations. (Edit: you kinda adressed that.)

[@th.ratzicha]

The issue is that the game is not where it's supposed to be. If you do anything else other than the story and ignore it's existence it's pretty fun.They did a good job of making a nice world worth exploring which along with the combat being fun is nice, but it gets old quickly and at some point when I decided that yeah, I should probably progress the story a bit more, I ended up fighting the final boss when I thought I was in the middle of the game. It has so much potential with all the plot points in vermund and then they were like ok here's a new continent and your final boss. Many of the things in the game I didn't know existed before watching the video and when I finished the game I had just unlocked the spear vocation and killed the dragon without having unlocked either the mystic archer or the warfarer. Overall fun 20 hours and then goes downhill, underwhelming is a kind word in this case.

[@Rannockh]

Really went down after crossing into Battahl huh? Also, wild that apparently you can get the mystic spearhand much earlier on your way to melve, just found that out. Enter that reviewer era!

[@th.ratzicha]

@@Rannockh Yeah he's available on melve but if you are too tired spamming only to hear Bugger off then now fuck you you get it 10 hoursa later. But yeah battahl was definitely a downgrade in my eyes. Of course I didn't spend as much time there because I oopsied and stumbled in the ending, but when I went in battahl I was like oh nice a bit more variety in enemies and a bit more challenging fights and a new continent to explore nice, only to realize that yeah you get nice fight BUT YOU ALSO GET THEM EVERY 1 METER. In battahl it was the first time I just skipped through mobs because of the sheer number of them.

[@bdshep20]

Great video man

[@Rannockh]

Thank you!

[@Xizax41325]

The pawn stalking, idk if it's just something on my end but I usually get pawns a few levels higher than me when I recruit. Usually costing somewhere between 100 - 400 RC. The random pawns I encounter on the street don't bother me. I think what happens is the game checks if your hired pawns are a lower level than you and if so will have pawns of your level come pester you so you don't have to go back into the rift to swap them out. That being said, I do have mixed feelings about the system. For one it's nice being able to swap out inefficient pawns easily. At the same time I main warrior, my pawn a fighter. I only hire magic people and pick them based purely on skills equipped. It's far harder to run into pawns I'd want to hire out in the wild.

[@Rannockh]

That is pretty fair actually. I really didn't get the point of those rift stones that only summon one pawn, you're likely to want something more tailored to your needs

[@user-yo5wt4sf7e]

I find it odd that dragons dogmas exploration and combat are clearly its strengths, but the games story quests largely ignore both.

[@EXHellfire]

what do you mean? the quests mostly do send you to remote locations

[@ShacalGD]

Great video

[@Rannockh]

Thank you so much!

[@daben7145]

even bethesda level of writing could improve dragons dogma if they combined it with their banger combat system and their world design, if theyd get any decent writer, it cant be too hard to build a world in which this combat system can shine, we high fantasy fans arent that picky, but dragons dogma 2 feels so half assed in so many aspects it feels insulting to me, as a big fan of DD1. It sold really well, so I hope they gonna put some people in charge who can actually write decent quests, decent characters, a decent story, some decent worldbuilding, doesnt have to be execeptional, but the current level after 12 years, even downgrading in many aspects compared to the old game, its a joke and if they dont use the profit they made to improve a lot, I'm gonna ditch them just as I ditched bethesda after FO76 release, ubisoft after AC:valhalla or bioware after ME:Andromeda, I'm so fed up with these developers and publishers taking our love for granted and treating us like they think we are idiots.

[@Rannockh]

Completly respect the sentiment. The current business-y environment of making games (especially higher end ones) is really ruinning them. Can't take the time to release things when fully realized, or even optimized to an acceptable level because shareholders really want their money. It's a shame, but at least it lets smaller and indie studio take the spotlight and release experiences we've been looking for.

[@attrage7545]

I expected to like this game but was surprised at how much I like it. This is fast becoming one of my favourite RPGs - I am genuinely immersed in the world DD2 has given me to explore. It's a new Skyrim for me, a game I have sunk days into and will gladly sink many more.

[@UngaBungaPilot]

This video deserves more attention 💯

[@Rannockh]

Thank you! 😁

[@Kebin13]

I dunno, i feel like capcom may hate dragons dogma for some gods forsaken reason, wich is why they cuted out so much money from the original one, why it took 12 years for it to get a sequel and why the second game, that ONLY needed to improve upon the skeleton of the first game ended up like... This. Sigh, goddamnit.

[@real_Schrooten]

it's a race for having the most famous pawn! Ah never mind the scoreboards are dominated by SphinxParent and therefore useless...

[@keithedwards499]

Ugh I want to play this game but the performance is a nightmare for my laptop. PLEASE I JUST WANNA KNOW IF OPTIMIZATIONS GOING TO BE S THING

[@Rannockh]

Tbh I wouldn't hold my breath on that, other than some small improvements I doubt they can do much about it

[@keithedwards499]

@@Rannockh :(

[@MuraCasardis]

Amazing review. It's super fair and stands well on its own even without comparing to DD1, BUT as it's a sequel, a comparison is needed. Doing so is even more disappointing too haha. Thank you for your well-written thoughts!

[@kojk2545]

Pay-to-win shouldn't be the standard as to whether microtransactions are obnoxious. Developers more often add intentional friction and inconveniences into the core gameplay that can be remedied with a 2.99 purchase. I think microtransactions are the least of DD2's problems, but being so anti-fast travel in the lead up to release, and then selling a portcrystal microtransaction isn't a great look.

[@Rannockh]

I feel like a lot of the time it's the publishers that push microtransactions. They hold a lot of sway over what goes in their games and I would not be surprised if changes are made to nudge layers towards them. And it makes our perspective to them quite cynical - I.e. I might find dragons dogma 2 hard, and rather than find satisfaction out of besting encounters my mind will just go to them sending wakestones for 1 euro. Or as you said about traveling. Everybody loses except the shareholders at these publishers who want more money.

[@lutherheggs451]

Only a brain dead imbeciles would buy these MTX. Im literally halfway through a NG+ run and in the NG you get 2 or 3 for free and by the end of the game you had 2 of 3 in your inventory left over because you cannot put them anywhere. It would make more sense to sell ferry crystals than it does port crystals, but the game even buries you in either ferry crystals or ferry crystal chunks which you can craft into ferry crystals.

[@TheOmegau]

On the thing with forgeries. He didn't forget. You're bribing him to lie. He knows its fake.

[@LionofDawn]

11:51 actually the Mystic spearhand can be found much earlier and in Melve if you return to it after some time and see a pus dragon attacking the village and Sigurd will be there and you can aquire the vocation from him there. The location you pointed out is if you missed out on finding him in the first place, and/or if you failed to kill the dragon in time and it will then fly away to that location.

[@Rannockh]

It's something I'm aware now, bewildered too because I did go to and from melve quite a lot

[@LionofDawn]

@@Rannockh Sometimes the game doesn't trigger certain events because some NPC that was important to that event might have died. And i hate that the game doesn't actually tell you this. Or the game just bugs out.

[@benjiago6800]

12:20 1) Fighter beginning, till 25% of the game 2) Mystic Spear hand till 60% 3) Wayfarer for the long hall, ng++

[@StevenoftheDead]

I must heavily disagree about the good start. I remember constantly hoping that eventually something will happen, but it never did. Then we arrive in the city and it seems like the most boring fetch quests in DD1 for ser Maximilian are back and amped up even more, being even more boring since they now don't even involve combat. Then it turns out, the boring missions didn't even lead to anything, you walk up to the castle, your lawn gets a headache and you immediately leave. Like, wtf? All that build up just for that? In the first part at least you were constantly fighting, the boring trailing missions were at least short, but between the ball, ""sneaking"" into the castle multiple times just to talk to Sven once and head out again, I dont know, my points go to the first part any day. I could rant about a lot of other things I disagree with, but what's even the point. I didn't think I'd be in the minority with my gripes, having watched quite a few of reviews and takes on the game now, so apparently my opinions are just not justified, or something

[@Rannockh]

I wouldn necessarily say your opinion isn't justified. I didn't really touch on the meh-ness of the first quests, just more about the positive changes they've made with the world and premise. I would agree that the moment your pawn gets that headache the story does indeed go down hard.

[@destructomaniac2540]

I must state that you can get Spearhand early if you go back to Melve and repell/kill the lesser dragon there as Sigurd is in the location fighting it off. I encountered it before the warrior/sorcerer vocations by accident but you gotta be annoyingly pokey with people to find stuff.

[@Rannockh]

I've found that out from previous comments, crazy that I've not come across it since I went frequently to melve and back.

[@user-wu6gt1gf1c]

itsuno is a hack, kinoshita made BBI, maybe the DLC will save this game again.

[@MILDMONSTER1234]

Maybe itsuno should just go make DMC6 instead while Kino makes DD2 😂

[@inquisitivemind8061]

I heard it's more a remake than a sequel as one who has never played the first I wouldn't know. Hopefully, they'll expand upon it with DLC (or a sequel).

[@Rannockh]

By the looks of it, there's quite a bit lost in translation. After reading a post about it on reddit, I understood far better what they wanted to do with the story. It's a shame the translators skipped the the first game too lol

[@WrldWideOp]

That’s exactly what it is, only usually when you remake a game you make it better than the original. I don’t think this is better than DDDA

[@kalacs32]

The Coco Peru inclusion pleases me.

[@ChrisW-wq7un]

i miss the ever fall :(

[@Twinterfang]

Beat the game after 25 hours, i doubt I'll ever pick it up again, no replay value

[@minhngnp]

There is a follow up to the nun's quest, the game won't tell you but you can talk to some npcs related to that quest after the nun arrested to see what happen next, and it's time sensitive too.

[@Rannockh]

What?? Where was it?

[@valicedans7954]

@@RannockhI think that quest wants you to go ask the doctor in rest town for help, didn’t do it tho

[@minhngnp]

​@@Rannockh it's not a new quest It just do extra thing to save the patients got poisoned by the evil nun. After a few day if you don't do anything they'll die

[@Rannockh]

@@valicedans7954 I do remember talking to him, but I don't think he had anything new to say. Might look up a quest guide to see what it actually was about

[@chillcloak]

​@@Rannockh In case you forgot to look it up, basically after Lubomir gets sent to the sick room, Elena will catch on to your plot to expose her, so she will attempt to kill him. After she is arrested, you must find the doctor in Checkpoint Rest Town again and pay him to visit Vernworth and help the sick patients. If you fail to do this within a certain time frame, Lubomir will die. This is hinted at by one of the nuns outside, who tells you that without Elena they simply cannot take care of every patient.

[@pdawg4209]

I had to pay for all the dlc wakestones as I started the last mission without knowing and went into end game with not much more than a counterfeit ferrystone and a single shard🤣🤦🏻‍♂️

[@MuraCasardis]

You didn't HAVE to do that. You chose to. Wakestones and Ferrystones drop like rain in the endgame.

[@paranoyd70]

Thanks for affirming that I'm NOT crazy. When this game came out, it was heavily praised. Keep in mind that I am a huge fan of the original, despite its many flaws...but when I played this sequel, I scratched my head to find all the improvements? The entire game feels like a series of steps forward & an equal amount of steps backwards. The map is 4x larger, but its nothing buy narrow winding paths with an excess of the exact same mobs. The game adds a handful of new enemies, but removes the same amount of enemies from the original. The game has more explorable caves, but they are all identical looking. The game just re-uses so much from the original, down to armor (which is fine) but now limits the number of armor pieces. And I could go on & on. The problem is that where the first game was extremely slow & boring initially, it got much better the deeper you got into it. Whereas this sequel is the exact opposite, where it starts out strong but gets extremely tedious the deeper you get into it. It seriously feels like so much more content was conceptualized, but never implemented so as to save for future DLC. And I thought I was going crazy wondering where is the game that everyone seems to be praising because I just don't see it? That's not to say its terrible, just not the masterpiece that so many claim. Its full of inconsistencies & mis-steps. And I want the game that was promised. Guess I'll just have to wait for the DLC, for a price. I'm getting so pissed with Capcom's greed.

[@Rannockh]

I think there's sometimes a lot of dissonance over how much people like the game and would let it get away with. Like, I might have come across as fairly negative, but someone else who likes the game could've had the same issues but worded it in a way that doesn't sound as bad (because they do indeed enjoy it). It's something I see a lot for instance on reddit, with peeps acknowledging the flaws of the game, but managing to get more enjoyment out of it.

[@revolver2750]

Mystic spearhand is actually possible to get before sorcerer and warrior. It was my first vocation i unlocked. The town Helve? IF you kill the dragon there it will unlock i believe it's been 100 hours now...

[@DayvonR64]

(Spoilers Ahead) It really pains me that the game just throws away so many of the plot points it sets up. You spend the majority of the first half of the game trying to do side quests as they tell you that getting x evidence will help prove your claim to the throne or helping x person will give you helpful/powerful allies when its time to go against the royals. Yet, nothing really comes out of doing those quests other than rewards. I felt like I was building up all this anticipation for when I finally confronted the queen and the false arisen at the coronation just for it to quickly be brushed aside and I'm instantly told to go to a whole other side of the map. It felt like all of it was just there to pad out the story and the only time I ever spoke with the Queen was at the end where the game tries to give me a moral lesson of "You can choose to kill the queen for all she's done or save her". Like, I have had 0 interactions with her and now I'm suppose to help mend her relationship with her son or just kill her?! Not to mention we never had any meaningful interactions with the false arisen either. It would have been so cool to have to fight him and other pawns as a unique boss fight. Also, I straight up didn't even know there was a location that the elves lived at. Aside from getting told that certain pawns can help with the Elven Language, I forgot they were even in the game. It wasn't until I had to bring all the cities together and they told me of the location that I realized they existed. I felt like it could have been a great plot point that they rejected my offer and even claimed that I was there to trick them since I randomly came to their city and told them they needed to go while an apocalyptic event happened. Instead they just instantly believed me despite never meeting me before. I truly feel the last parts of the game was rushed and incomplete because imagine having cutscenes and plot points of the leaders meeting each other, having to work together, and you getting to see interactions from these vastly different cultures and worlds. You also have the fact that following phaseus and the false arisen to the tower, fighting the dragon, having the choice to claim the throne or rewind time to change your choice, and destroying the world all happens back to back. It was such a whiplash because I wasn't even expecting to see the dragon that quickly and it felt like I didn't get time to breath. Hell, I didn't get to explore the new area that just opened up because as soon as you step foot there the story kind of pushes you past everything due to the Titan.

[@Rannockh]

I'm very much on the same wavelength. The first act was so brilliant and what the original missed. It set the bar so high only to never really come close to touching it again. It's such a shame and genuinely disappointing. You might’ve missed that the false arisen is in the fight at the end at the top of the moonglint tower. It's kind of a glitchy fight. Like I skipped it by running to the stairs, and killing the false arisen also ends it. But yeah, there's not much to his concusory act, he's just lumped in with several other mobs and you hardly notice him unless he says a voicline or two. Really saddened by how it turned out overall, but it's saving grace from utter mediocrity is the combat and exploration, and to some extent the world-building. Nonetheless, I'd be lying if i'd say that I'm not craving for more from a game of this caliber.

[@DayvonR64]

@@Rannockh I was going to mention the fight but I honestly thought I misremembered and he wasn't actually in it...which is bad. We really had a side quest to get more information on who the false arisen is, just for him to still be unexplored as a character.

[@GeteMachine]

I honestly hate how the main questline design is pretty much the same as the first game. Get a plotline, but do a lot of filler side quests, then move on without much depth in it.

[@user-kl4so1vn6d]

Actually... Mystic Spearhand can be acessible at the very beggining after the second dragon attack on melve. Sigurd will be there and if you talk to him, he'll give you acess to the class.

[@tbaudio3310]

I'm a huge fan of DD1, been playing it on and off since release back in 2012. And even I can admit that I agree with pretty much everything you said in the video. It's a tough pill to swallow, to admit a game I've been waiting for for 12 years isn't as good as I hoped it'd be. I'm just so confounded on how they had all this time to reflect on what worked and what didn't in DD1 and still manage to repeat the same mistakes and even add in new issues. It honestly baffles me. That being said, I still enjoy DD2 a lot, but just disappointing to see so much wasted potential. Hopefully a DLC will be able to breathe new life into the game. (Also, this is me being a stickler, so take this as just a side note not meant to be rude, but Moonglint tower and Bluemoon tower aren't the same. If you look at the map from DD1, Bluemoon tower is north of Gran Soren, and Moonglint is far south or where Gran Soren appears in DD2. Bluemoon is actually the small circle on the map just below Vernworth. That's me being picky, otherwise fantastic video you've made here!)

[@Rannockh]

I get what you mean. It gets lethargic at some point to see games with great potential not do all that much. I'm so hungry for an experience that big budget games don't really bother with anymore. About the moonglint tower, I know of the other tower from the no more water world and thought that it could be bluemoon as well. But why I thought it's not that is because in DD1 the tower would be sort of in the direction of where you look where you go to the princess' chambers, and the ruined DD2 rendition kind of points towards it as well, so I thought it might make sense it's that. Either way, thank you so much for the kind words! I'm happy you've enjoyed it!

[@tbaudio3310]

@@Rannockh Yeah, I can't help but feel like Itsuno kind of got swept aside again with DD2. I wish they could pull some idea from the MH games because there's so many nice quality of life options in those games that are sorely missing in a game like DD2. Things like autocrafting, auto sorting, streamlining the vendors, HUD management. It could be SO MUCH better. But instead it feels like we're stuck in 2012 again. Oh well. Here's hoping DLC adds enough to make up for some of the shortcomings. And that's a fair point about DD2's map layout regarding Bluemoon/Moonglint. Maybe the studio forgot the layout of their own world. Haha. Still, I'm in the camp that the tower nearest to Vernworth is Bluemoon. The architecture, stairs and size of the area are closer to that of what I recall from DD1. But like I said, I'm just being a very picky viewer. Nice job again on the video! Thanks for your reply!

[@Rannockh]

@@tbaudio3310 Funny you should mention MH, because I feel like there's palpable inspiration from that series. The warrior's concept of hold, charge and release at the right time, the cooking bit in camping, even the idea of breaking parts of a larger enemy - this goes way back to the original too.

[@A.H.M.K]

Only 1 portcrystal is purchasable And you get like 7 in game. Anymore is not needed

[@naralishamalainen6372]

alot of the skills assassin had are in the thief class now like the powder charge, easy kill. im more triggered that sorc didnt get exequy. . . they could have even called it Funeral Rights ;-;

[@user-kl4so1vn6d]

Also, the game wasn't in the makings for 12 years. The development started in 2019 and stopped in the same year because of Covid, they had to revamp the whole climbing system and some other features in the game. Development of this game took roughly 3 to 5 years. I agree with you that the characters are unidimensional and lack personality, it feels more like "bots" than "characters" tbh

[@allandm]

It's enjoyable as long as you IGNORE the story xD honestly everytime someone talked to me I would die of boredoom. But exploring the world and fighting monsters is a lot of fun

[@Rannockh]

Yeah, I'd say that's the most agreeable take on the game. If you treat is as a sandbox for combat and exploration, it's fantastic and loads of fun

[@Foogi9000]

This is basically what i'm doing lol. I'm now level 44 and i found a way into battahl so that's where i've been exploring the most as of late.

[@revolver2750]

25:42 that's actually a semi important place, i would say it's fluff but that old man is important and he will get a cutscene after the true ending.

[@12431265]

Still watching the vid but just a note to make about mystic spearhand. The game at some point in the beginning nudges you to go back to Melve because the queen regent is making moves towards it. Now this is missable so it does not invalidate your point on the classes being a bit too spread out but if you follow that questline and go to melve you will meet Sigurd there and be given the Mystic Spearhand vocation. So for my experience I got warrior and sorc when I got to vermund. Got halfway through brant's quests and got Mystic Spearhand then got to go to Battahl and get trickster which felt more well paced for class unlocks to me up until I was looking for Magick Archer XD.

[@Rannockh]

A friend told me that if you return to Melve you'll find the Sigurd fighting a dragon and he gives you the vocation afterwards. I went quite a few times back to Melve but it didn't happen. Either way, kinda neat tbh. I sure am glad I left the caveat about getting all the trophies not being the same as knowing everything about the game.

[@SharkPivo]

@@Rannockh i also happened to stumble upon an infected drake in melve when decided to visit it for a quest, but im still not done with thief vocation, so mystic spear will wait. on everything else, yeah, it kinda sucks.

[@florin-alexandrustanciu5643]

There is only one portcrystal, you can unlock mistic spear pretty early as well when the first corupted dragon attacks melve, magick archer is pretty far down the line tho which is bad

[@Rannockh]

There's another by default in harve village. Not inside the village itself, but next to the hermit's hut, beyond the cave with saurians.

[@florin-alexandrustanciu5643]

@@Rannockh I meant there is only one portcrystal in the real mony shop. Still bad but not as bad

[@Rannockh]

@@florin-alexandrustanciu5643 Ah yes, and for 3 euros. I swear the prices on most of these things look like an obvious ripoff

[@CallMeVanEl]

I've seen a few videos saying you get the Mystic Spearhand late in the game... Since its my favorite class I'm here to let everyone know that after you do maybe one or two quests in the capital of Vermund, you'll get a quest saying to go check on Melve. Go back to Melve and you'll meet the maister that teaches it after a boss fight

[@Rannockh]

Yeah, I've had a lot of mentions about that. Seems quite easily missable. But I agree, it's one if my favorites too

[@CallMeVanEl]

@@Rannockh definitely. I had saw an article saying quests would have a time crunch to dissuade you from accepting a bunch and neglecting them. Didn't know how that worked so immediately went back to that town lmao. Turns out only like 2 quests are like that. Great video though and I definitely agree with the storyline falling off and not making any sense

[@Rannockh]

@@CallMeVanEl The ones that are affected by the time crunch have an icon next to their name in your quest log. It's reminiscent to the original where if you advanced too far in the story you'd fail some quests. It's just that in dd2 they seem really inconsistent. Like, you've got to chase Phaseus to Moonglint tower, and when you get to the excavation gaol you can just rest and do whatever - I think someone nearby even recommends you to do so. Thanks for the compliment! Happy you've enjoyed :)

[@michaelp1923]

Idc about the optimization as much as I do about the armor slot customization and lack of enemy variety

[@baydews]

You captured so well all the issues I have with the game. It's so weird, because 200 hours later I still can't stop playing it, and yet I can't stop groaning about all the things it could have done better either. I definitely see the value and inspiration in the main story, imo it had a huge potential, only to shoot itself in the foot by constantly forgetting about details and making your efforts feel irrelevant (for example the whole False Sovran questline). Spoiler warning, theorizing about the True Ending in the next paragraph (although if you have watched the video, it will probably not be anything new): It can be sortof explained away by saying it aims to feel incomplete deliberately, that the Pathfinder is a bad storyteller who really thinks so low of the world and people in it he thinks they will not question a vapid world, doing the same thing again and again with less attention to detail, anything to perpetuate the cycle over and over - but at the same time, it's more likely the devs just rushed the writing for whatever reason, and while it's nice to cope, I would have much preferred the game alludes to it if my own little theory is true at all. A real shame, because with more content in Act 2 and more time in secret Act 3, they could have achievemed so much more. Great job on the video by the way, liked and subscribed. 👏

[@Rannockh]

Thank you, I'm happy you've enjoyed it! I think when it comes down to it, if you appreciate combat and ignore a lot of everything else, it can be very enjoyable because they nail that well. I've heard there has been some translation issues which caused the pathfinder parts to be very different in the English version. I'm curious of checking that out and seeing what they actually wanted to go for.

[@user-kl4so1vn6d]

And oh, the Seneschal entity isn't the same as the Pathfinder entity. Pathfinder has the control of the Brines, Seneschal in the original game COULD DIE to the Brines (despite of being a god-like figure). The only Seneschal you see in the game is Rothais (the Arisen you find in Seafloor Shrine and self-claimed founder of Vermund). Pathfinder is probably one rank above of the Seneschal. The Pathfinder happens to show-up because his radar/sentient nature sensed that something was changing the balance of the cycles, then during the story you find out that this figure was the Seneschal (Rothais) that was killing the Arisens and collecting fragments of their souls. Rothais also gives the Godsbane to the Arisen after it disappears momentarily. Note: Rothais is still alive since you see him again in the post-game". If you compare with the first game, the Godsbane is also a gift from Seneschal Savan. During the fight with Dragon, it plants doubt in Arisen's head about how the world works, and that bring you to he Unmoored World, which you can face as "the outside of Arisen's Matrix", the world being torn-apart by some unknown force. Pathfinder reveals that the "Greater Will -> God -> Creator of the Universe" created the cycles and Dragons to prevent the world of being completely destroyed by this unknown force. What Pathfinder wants is that you continue the cycle without the inferference as he considers himself a "writer zealot", an instrument of continuity. In the end, it's safe to assume that this game (despite of being a remake of the first game), complements the story of the first game and it's a direct sequel.

[@valicedans7954]

like LITERALLY the only characters who have a character are the sphinx and the dragon, the rest are drops in the water

[@florin-alexandrustanciu5643]

Vocations are cool and all but I think the game would be way better if you could just use whatever weapon you want and set the active skills for each. And when you level up you spend some points to increase your stats as you wish.

[@SoloEcho]

If you accept that this game is different, you'll understand. Not every game needs to be exactly the same style.

[@florin-alexandrustanciu5643]

@@SoloEcho I know man but some things are just strictly better than others, vocations have nothing better to bring than what I said. At least in my eyes, please tell me one advantage. I still like the game a lot but it s not perfect

[@Lionhart1991]

I miss both romance quest bc i did too much story missions, do you wanna know who was my final nps in the deal with the dragon? The f elf in the inn LOL i gave her flowers to get the elf book and i found her at the end and i was like "wait wtf loool" Anyway... This game is an ocean of wasted potential I can only hope for a great dlc like dark arisen to pump up even more the combat and a good story line (the one with the love story of Dark Arisen is still to this day a 10/10 for me)

[@6Mourning6Star6]

I want to like the game I finished the game, and wanted to try NG+ But... what is there to do? You melt through enemies like they're nothing. There's nothing new for ng+ The story just isn't gripping enough to want to experience it again, as it doesn't even matter in the grand scheme of things. You can do the bare minimum and get the same results as doing everything.

[@Rannockh]

It is pretty shocking that they didn't make a ng+ mode that scales like they did for the last game. Honestly, I think that since they've already asked their players if they want DLC for the game, they have their work cut out for them. There's a lot of stuff they have to do.

[@averagesoul8256]

dude this video was hilarious

[@Rannockh]

Thank you!

[@bennybear4662]

I don't mean to yuck your yum, but.... Mystic Spearhand can be unlocked very easily at the start. After you kill (or don't) the lesser dragon in Melve, you can talk the MyS. Master and he gives you the class immediately. If you miss him in Melve, he lives in Harve.

[@Rannockh]

My yum has been yucked already, no worries. It looks like it's an interaction that is pretty easy to miss.

[@palen3388]

I love the game ngl, but it has so many potential lost, one thing that desapointed me a lot was the ng+, aside the dragon forger buffs, there is nothing, not even insentive to re explore caves, ng+ feels like a hunt for for dragons so I can buy pretty gear just bcuz it looks pretty

[@deadbeatseikor0wonl1dance88]

My wife is a really big fan of dragons dogma and DD2 is the only game that finally convinced her to buy a ps5. I play on ps5 and ive played it with her and even she could tell that the game is lacking a fair bit. And me, as a connoiseur of games, definitely have a lot to say as well for dd2. But i cant go to hard on it cause she really loves the franchise.

[@jameslynch2110]

There is a video talking about how the games story feeling shallow is intentional because it's all meant to be entertainment for some kind of greater will, and while I don't personally like this direction the game took, that video made the story "click" for me, why the unmoored world is being destroyed because the player chose to break away from the story the pathfinder made for them to play there start,

[@Rannockh]

Sometime after release, someone found out that there's a lot of stuff lost in translation! I've checked some posts on reddit where this is discussed and honestly, the story made a lot more sense. It's a shame the translators seemed to be a rather clueless of the first game and couldn't put them together.

[@glowerworm]

The post game in general made this game one of the best I've played. I respected so much that they were willing to limit the number of long rests you get. I am pretty sure I haven't seen that in a game for over a decade. I really appreciate the extremes this game goes to, mostly because I'm annoyed by so many AAA games being so damn safe these last few decades. The story being crap and NPCs being glorified signposts never bothered me at all because I've actually never played a video game with a 10/10 story or npc interactions. So I don't mind that the DD2 game devs decided to not even bother refining these things in order to spend more time on the glorious combat. It's the same design philosophy that brought us Elden Ring, which has the simplest combat of the Fromsoft soulslikes but the best feeling of adventure and art direction. I think a lot of DD1 fans wrongly believed this sequel would fix up the issues with the previous game, when instead it went further into refining what made that previous game good. I am glad they went this route, I would've hated if this game attempted to play it safe by being a jack of all trades like every other AAA game has been for so long now. Like for example, and no offense to fans of DD1, but the writing and story in that game was nothing special. It was a means to an end to get you to engage with the combat, as so many Capcom games are. Also that 5 seconds of dark souls 2 slander hurt me, truly. I think it has the best story in the series, mostly because it's a much more personal story with a moral. It's about the people losing themselves because the meaning of life has been lost after so many cycles. The hollowing isn't just affecting individuals, it's affecting kingdoms. It's a deeply personal story about how repeated trauma can make people lose themselves, reminds me a lot of Uncle Vanya, if you've seen/read that play.

[@petemisc4291]

Good news is, no is asking for Dragons Dogma 3

[@TaiLysana]

Now to wait for the Dragon's Dogma Online video. No clue how the story is, but playing with other actual people with this combat system has stolen around 200 hours of my life last month.

[@Rannockh]

I wish I could give it a try tbh, but dragon's dogma online shut down sometime ago

[@TaiLysana]

@@Rannockh I play it daily. There's private servers for it

[@damianlegion8455]

12:16 You never played Remnant 2, right?

[@Rannockh]

I haven't

[@ArnnFrost]

The story feels like its stitched together, like they created chapters separately but when they found out they don't have enough time to make context for everything they hurried and stitched everything as much as they could to send the game off to be sold. It could've been a good story if it was actually complete but stitched as it is rn a lot of things make no sense, you jump between parts of a story without actually finishing any of them then suddenly you're in the final mission xD

[@pdawg4209]

Admittedly I was thrown into the deep end with this game I had never played the first or had no idea what it was about😂 struggled like f for the first couple of days and then I got the spear hand and got used to it and I can honestly say it’s some of the most fun I’ve had gaming. Was really annoyed at first the graphics looked patchy and it just didn’t feel like a new game, then they updated it and now I’m on my 4th play through already🤣 on my 2nd or 3rd though one of my pawns was so op the last dragon boss lasted 4 mins😂. Don’t get me wrong combat can still get overwhelming but at level 70 you near enough 1 tap any regular enemy and the boss fights only last a couple of mins if that😂. It’s fun don’t get me wrong and I don’t wanna be ass blasted 24/7 so it isn’t fun but it’d be nice to have a difficulty option to make it more refreshing.

[@Rannockh]

I think the game is great if you're purely focused on combat. It's by far the best designed thing in the game. It's weird how they didn't add a new game plus that scales, the original had it and this one is just straight up missing it

[@pdawg4209]

@@Rannockh I can’t talk on that as I’ve never played the og, but I can definitely say it’s the most stress/fun I’ve had for a long time😂

[@congratulations-]

Yalll the game is a bombbb. It is so addictive and I never had any performance issues and micro transactions are not necessary

[@TheRetifox]

I have to disagree quite a lot on the vocation section, especially on Sorcerer, this Vocation got gutted heavily. Losing all Darkness and Light affinity spells, removing some seriously cool spells like Brontide(Eletric whip). For some mere QoL features are not close to being worth it. Also, you really like the Trickster, you don't see an issue of Vocation which deals zero damage? Being sole support in the singleplayer game, with AI companions? It sounds like it is really bad desing then anything. However, I enjoyed your video greatly, thank you for the last section of the video, seems like not many reviews if any really, touched on the Hideaki Lies.

[@Rannockh]

That's complelty respectable, there's a lot of stuff that doesn't return and it's a shame. It's more about how satisfied we are on a personal level with the balance between loss of some abilities and the changes of DD2. I'm glad you've enjoyed the video though!

[@Kousaburo]

I died during the Talos fight. I had a Wakestone but didn't know it. I thought I'd be met with the Load Last Save option. It usually takes about 10 fucking years before it lets you choose that option because there is an infuriating delay. I was bashing X in anticipation of reloading but Use Wakestone? popped up instead. I wanted to use that Wakestone and keep up the momentum but for some reason the default choice is No and the button registers instantaneously. This is basic stuff and these incompetent imbeciles couldn't even get that right. I couldn't climb back up Talos quickly enough and it all just killed my interest in the fight. I got his last weak point, was waiting for something to happen but then died again. I reloaded again only this time Talos is not moving and the fight is over. What did I miss? This whole fucking mess has just pissed me right off. Also, the darkness of night lasts way too long. How am I supposed to explore the game world when I can't fucking see it?

[@dferas5535]

Besides the combat Dragon's Dogma 1 is the superior game

[@themaxamealianomega]

if you dont like microtransactions.....dont buy them, obviously people buy them enough to spend dev time to implement. I dont waste money on them, if someone wants too oh well. moving on.

[@lutherheggs451]

The MTX in the game are the same ones that were in the first game, nobody bought those then clearly the people calling them pay to win have zero clue what pay to win even means, otherwise they might grasp that it applies to MP games not a SP game There is ZERO purpose to buying the port crystals. The game gives you 7 or 8 and you cannot put them anywhere. Im in NG+ and have 3 in my inventory just because you can't put them everywhere.

[@MOCHIII01]

Such a shame I'm new to the series and even upgraded to a 30 series graphics card, my friend on a 40 series and we're both seeing major frame drops making the game un-enjoyable, so far Capcom seems to be fixing everything except the performance here on PC

[@Rannockh]

I empathize with that. It looks like no one across the board has positive things to say about the games performance. I've not tested the game since they released their past few updates, but I'd expect massive improvements by the time they start releasing propper dlcs for it

[@Rannockh]

I empathize with that. It looks like no one across the board has positive things to say about the games performance. I've not tested the game since they released their past few updates, but I'd expect massive improvements by the time they start releasing propper dlcs for it

[@AllyJ1141]

If you wanna be technical, there are a BUNCH of subspecies of most of the enemies in the game, with different designs, attack patterns, animations and special moves so.. I dont know if most people would count that but I do. DD2 does indeed have a problem with diverse enemy type but it is NOWHERE near as bad as everyone is making it.

[@SharkPivo]

its really difficult to not compare it to the first game. you can come up with so many more enemies without going too far from what you have already. why not rework chimera slightly and make it into a new manticore enemy? why not bring back cockatrice? i haven't finished dd2 yet, but fighting hydra would be cool. devs already reworked cyclops into golems essentially, so why not create some more giant humanoid enemies? why not make a friendly giant guys and gals that are so big that you need to climb onto their shoulders to speak to? i just came up with it on the spot, imagine what you can come within a single day. how they didn't figure it out in 12 years? non of it is an insult to in any way, i just needed to vent.

[@SharkPivo]

and its not like capcom doesn't have experience or doesn't know how to super effectively rework existing frameworks and rigs, they have 20+ years of monster hunter behind them for christs sake! they've reworked an armored bear into giant bunny that slides on snow on its belly and then did it again into a volcanic armadillo with 5 meters of paralising tongue THEY KNOW THEIR SHIT

[@AllyJ1141]

@@SharkPivo Yeah, and you know what, that is probably the main reason everyone is so upset about it. We KNOW Capcom can do better than this. We have LITERALLY seen them rework rigs into cool shit but on this game they just got lazy??? Idk, but it is definitely disappointing. Like I said I DO appreciate the effort they put in already. They literally reworked the "Goblin" rigs like 1000000 times in DD2 but it is like... Are you gonna do just the one?? We'd rather have more subspecies reworks of ALL the monsters, big AND small ONCE rather then 45 different "Goblin" like enemies 🤣 that is like if they made a new Monster Hunter, brought back the Great Jaggi and all of its G Jaggi-like variants, made three more, stopped and said "Aright! The new monster hunter game is ready!!" And then looked confused when everyone is upset, like sir... Capcom.. PLEASE... Get your shit together 🤣🤣🤣 But I am excited for the future. I am betting the farm that the DLC for DD2 is going to be out of this world.

[@swampyg8571]

The gameplay is great. Exploring the classes is great. Discovery is ass. None of the best weapons are found. No boss fights worth a damn. Just dragons and drakes. The story can be streamlined in a hour if you wanted. I got to the unmoored world and was just like "I'm exhausted, I leveled up the classes I wanted to play, and I dont have anything interesting enough to do with it". The game gets really repeated after a while. Great for the first playthrough to some degree, but even then sort of fell off at the end for me.

[@jaidoncrawford1163]

You can find spearhand earlier

[@franco_setti]

This franchise has some shitty writers and directors

[@hoangvietnguyen5576]

actually good review

[@Xfushion2]

Dragons Dogma 2 has to be the most disappointing and bizarre experience I had with any game, it's more of a remake than a sequel but it did not address any of the games previous issue, in fact outside combat (that a point could be made for the first game's to be superior) everything is a downgrade: The story and characters are worse, exploration is mid at best since all the best equipment is found in stores again and almost all _dungeons_ are three room caves with saurians, systems like armor layering or dragonforging were better implemented in DD1 and the post game has nothing on the Everfall/Bitter Black Isle, *it doesn't even has a final boss* I really don't get how they basically made the same game twice with the same flaws.

[@eduardosantos2477]

The vocations was a big letdown for me,cmon the warrior does not have the arc of obliterance...why capcom

[@pdawg4209]

Also it’s kinda like diet dark souls. And I’m more than okay with that😂. Love the games but they’re very time consuming and not everyone can get into them. I love a challenge but personally I find dd2 much funner. Even when I fucked up I still had fun😂

[@GameCritics]

Check out No Rest for the Wicked

[@paris5831]

5/10 it’s kinda below mid