Dragon's Dogma demo (and beyond)

Anyone else try this?

I thought it was OK, but things like picking up loot weren't very fluid. Didn't die during the two missions but I'm not sure that will be the case in the real game. And I'm not sure if I was expected to 'kill' the two bosses three times, or if I missed some special move that kept the boss going for another whole lifebar twice, each.

A truly great pre-order bonus will be required for me to not wait for the bargain bin...

Edited by mikepaul - 1/25/13 at 1:12am

It was nice that Debbie and Julie, the hero and pawn I spent a while creating, were used in the second part of the demo. Debbie was carrying a bow but I didn't see any 'switch to ranged' option and I had to wait while the boss flew around and then land to hit it with the two daggers she was carrying. The demo is gone now so I won't be trying again.

Meanwhile, the bonuses are unimpressive so the bargain bin it is...

Finally bought this at $30. Too bad there wasn't much gameplay discussion here. Googling for advice is very hit-and-miss: location of blacksmith in major town seems unanswered.

Not thrilled with how often I have to run past enemies, but when killing them all fails 12 times in a row what else can you do? Worth the wait to get it...

Is there a side-quest that's ultra-important to get 'right' in order to earn a god-like weapon?

I talked to one guy, got a quest to evict some people, and then talked to the 'wrong' person in that group because he happened to be nearby. Now after looking up help, I see that I can't get the best version of the end of the quest, and that I also didn't have enough money to get that best ending either. If another quest is out there that gets some great loot if I do it the right way, I'd like to set it aside until I can get it correct.

Also, can I restore an old copy of the game from a USB stick once I have released the pawns that were in-use at the time and not screw up the whole pawn-loan system? I could duck back some, before that screwed-up quest, but those pawns have already been released with a gift (nothing fancy) and I don't know what will happen if I restore. I'd prefer not to end up short on pawns while trying to get past the areas in which I already had difficulty. If the game keeps track of pawns separate from the game save, they might be gone.

Finally, for now, what's up with the cost of the pawns that aren't free, like from my friends? Who sets the value? I didn't know any of my friends had played the game, but I see a few pawns in the rift each time I enter that are free, none of which seem all that gifted. When I do a search for available ones, I see some that'd cost 99,999,999 and I wonder if that's just to prevent them from being lent out at all. Even the 'low' cost ones exceed my current rift coinage. Is the whole deal just a scam to sell rift coins in the LIVE Marketplace and I should just hope that as I move along (Level 14 now) I can still get decent free ones?

Thanks...

OK. What about the pawns? Are the free ones acceptable or do I NEED to pay for some?...

I was talking about paying rift coins, but since they sell those on LIVE Marketplace your answer is quite correct. Today I saw one pawn in the rift that would have cost me some rift coins so not everybody on my friends list just lets them go out for free. My pawn Julie has been borrowed a few times already. She's not happy that I don't dress her better so her Appearance rating is higher. After I get massive amounts of money, I plan to fix that.

I played the old saved game off the USB stick, and those pawns were back on my team even though I'd released them. I released one again, and had no issues. What bugs me is the Level 18 Mage pawn, one I picked up to cover the healing job my Level 23 Arcane Archer can't do anymore, gets knocked down more often than a Level 12 Strider pawn. Made a valiant attempt to kill a dragon we ran across, but with pawns getting clobbered left and right just getting through the first layer of the dragon's health, I reloaded the game and went another way. I guess better pawns or better pawn equipment would help, but so would higher impact powers. Not sure when I'll reach the tipping point where dragons are doable. Hope it doesn't take forever...

Worked through 'Act 1' so far. Gave the gold idol to the weapons/armor guy but there was no immediate gratification. I can buy a better new staff, but what I really want is the best magick bow I can get out of him. Sad to see from game wiki pages that I have to replay the game to get the kind of power I'd like to use NOW. I mean, I'm at Level 37 and some enemies die after a couple of shots and when I get to 100 I expect bigger ones to do the same, but between now and then my team's butt is constantly getting kicked. Didn't look up what level I can expect to reach in the first playthrough, so if the endgame comes WAY before 100 then I'll be throwing spitballs at big enemies all the way to the end and that's not MY idea of fun. It may not be Dark Souls, but there's a taste of the same You Will Die attitude there. Occasionally Die, at least.

I like ranged magic powers, so I'll probably stick with Arcane Archer until the end. Sorcerer may have decent mid-range powers once leveled up, but nothing I've seen so far tops what the Archer can pull off from a distance. Crowds die better when you aren't right on top of them, and they auto-retreat quickly if you are far enough from their 'home'. Need to find the stuff to enhance the rusty bow I found, to have a combination of trick and powerful bows (and a mix of staves) for different situations. Really hope my carry capacity goes way up eventually.

Didn't delve deeply into pawn use yet. Still wondering why I didn't see the latest incarnation of a pawn until she died in battle and I had to get her back from the rift. Hours and hours of Level 12, then suddenly she's Level 35 and more trained. Sure, it's a good deal since she's healthier now and all, but why didn't my stays at the inn get her status refreshed? Is the standard way to play this game to release the extra pawns every day or so then go get them again? Seems lame if so. Unless the owner has moved on, leaving the pawn at 12 forever, I should see the updates on a regular basis. Should...

FINALLY nailed a Griffin. Walked out of town on a sunny day, and stumbled across it fighting some bandits. I'd been working on maxing out the Arcane Knight to beat a Golem (worked), so I started batting fireballs at it and knocked it out of the sky. Unfortunately the focus required to beat the Griffin and the bandits allowed it to escape, so I reloaded that save. Trouble is, the Griffin only lands when it wants to , and I went through like seven reloads before it came down again, apparently attracted by the group of bandits once more. THIS time, I focused solely on throwing fire at it, and it eventually died. Four pinions for upgrades.

Arcane Knight now seems like a better deal, especially when the combo of a Ruinous Sigil and Great Cannon just pour damage onto a big enemy. I'm going to go out again as the Magick Archer to see if the higher level I'm at now helps much. Someday soon I'll be ready for the next phase of the main quest...

I decided that the Core Skills and Augments should be maxed out before I progress the main quest, so I've spent days killing cows and bandits around the main town. The Cyclops rarely shows up near the Harpy pit anymore, but I've noticed that the vocation I'm using changes what I run into. For example, when I could shoot a 'normal' bow, the Griffin would make an appearance every 6 or 7 days. With the bow and Blast Arrows, I could take it out of the sky even if it didn't want to land on its own. Now that I'm a Level 63 Warrior, it has shown less often and hasn't attacked once. Not that I could beat it to death. The cows take two swings, just like they did levels and levels ago with any weapon I was carrying. Only the bow people (Assassin, Ranger and Strider) showed real damage upswings as they leveled up. Distant bandits went from wounded to dead if the headshots connected. I liked that.

So I'll finish the Warrior to rank 9, then the Fighter, and then I'll decide if the Mystic Knight or the Magick Archer is the way to go for normal use, with the Strider stealing stuff off the wandering pawns as needed. Since I still haven't felt powerful enough to go where the Drake lives just to see how it'd go, and I *know* there are tougher fights than that down the road, only the MK and MA seem to have the guts I'll need. Without loads of Blast Arrows, anyway.

Meanwhile the two extra pawns I like seem abandoned now, with no level changes for days. I prefer having two Rangers to go with my Mage pawn Julie so I feel obligated to seek out new ones that are nearer my level. If anyone has a max-rank Ranger higher than Level 40 that carries decent equipment, let me know. I give fairly decent stuff when I dismiss them. Mostly health restoring plants. Not the Wakestone Shard Julie brought back yesterday, though. Still wondering what she did that earned THAT...

All vocations are at Rank 9. Still have a few augments (that I think I'll want to use, anyway) to purchase. Returning to the main quest soon.

Killed my first Drake at Level 68. Mystic Knight using an ice sword eventually beat it down. The pawns needed constant rescue, which gets REALLY annoying. Even the Level 62 pawn I hired recently seemed unable to use health aids while fighting. Maybe with more practice they'll get better, or I'll figure out what to do to make them keep themselves alive. Annoyingly, no Dragon Forged effect noticed. I'll look up the details before I try again.

Turns out an Astracite shard can't be promoted to a full piece. I have to go spelunking in the underground caves to get one, then figure out if it's better to duplicate it to use for upgrades. I have over 1,000,000 right now from cow recycling, but I've already had one equipment upgrade cost over 250,000 due to duplication costs and inn stays while waiting. I don't know if any new and really good equipment is still available before the game ends, so I have to get by with whatever I can build. If the 12 pieces of Astracite I need will cost over the million I have, I may need to fight a lot for it. With like one piece per fight, 'farming' is hardly the word. More like 'scrounging'...

Another question: Outside Gran Soren, on top of some of the dilapidated tower-like walls, I can see chests. No amount of platforming works for me so far. If I try to jump off a nearby wall section and Levitate over, I fall short. I did notice a skill that involves tossing an ally into the air off an extended sword, but I think I'd have to be tossed by a pawn to pull this off. Is that the way to get them, or is there another way, like a super-jump ability I missed while playing the other vocations?

Found out that there are several quests that get canceled by doing others. One off a job board needs another one to be found by wandering into the castle and talking to a guy. Really crappy deal if you don't read the 'support' pages to know what to do, and even then the warning about the cancellation isn't as big on the page as it should be. Several places say "Do those quests on the second playthrough" but the XP rewards will have little impact then and if the really cool gear you can just purchase is 256K and up, I'd rather spend my time killing cows since it's faster than wandering off somewhere.

Did finally get some armor Dragon Forged. Kinda wish the magic bow had gotten a dose, though. Since the Magick Archer can kill the Drake fairly easily by sacrificing a pawn or two, and they STILL need to be picked up constantly during the fight anyway, I plan on sticking with him until I see if a Golem will be an issue or not. Golems are supposed to be magic-resistant so if I have difficulty knifing them to death I may have to switch vocations more than I I'd like. The whole pull out the valid clothes for each vocation thing got old REALLY fast. At least the Mystic Knight has (for now) a Griffin set that's easy to remember.

Magick Archer has a bad rep when it comes to killing real Dragons, but I'll worry about that later...

Thanks. Now that the annoying Nameless Terror quest is over, I'll take a moment and see if I can toss a pawn up there so she (only use females) can open them. With nobody talking about the contents, I assume I'll get junk but what the heck.

I am wondering if I should change my main pawn Julie. Level 78 Mage, she hasn't really done anything else, except for the few moments I gave her the other vocations to suck up the lowest level Core Skills and Augments. I get rotten fruit from some people as return gifts, while others give stuff like Ferrystones. When the big display pops up and lists the user who gave her Rift Crystals, one gave her 75,000 while several gave her a big fat zero. There's a disconnect there that I can't explain. Not sure I want to 'fix' her. One pawn I like has been a Fighter and now a Mage after a long time as a Ranger, and I'd like the Ranger back. Unlike the new Ranger I hired, the old one knows that cow meat should be picked up quickly. Not thrilled with that stuff, and not sure I feel like annoying anyone who likes Julie as she is. Ah, well...

Pawns don't grab for ledges when tossed. Not sure how I can train Julie to toss me on demand, but that's my next move.

Meanwhile, the Magick Archer's Great Sacrifice bow skill makes Dragon Forge farming a breeze. OK, if I manage to hit the exposed heart (lousy trees jumping in the way) and the damage is enough to do the job, it's easy. Two or three hits, MAYBE depending on which pawn gets sacrificed for the shot. One website says maybe the pawn level affects the damage. One run, I missed twice and the third shot left like three levels of health to burn through, so I toughed it out rather than reload. Run and Shoot, over and over and over, slamming down potions as needed. After surviving that, I went back to Gran Soren, loaded my pawn Julie up with every stamina and health aid she could carry, and went back. When Julie dies, she keeps her stuff. No need to restock her like the other pawns. So I've been sleeping 7 days at the Rest Camp near Devilfire Grove, killing the Drake, rinse, repeat. I'm now half-done with the Dragon Forging of my standard MA gear. Gimble Gyre magic bow did get upgraded. Daggers are equipped since I kill more stuff with them, then when they are ready I'll equip the staff. Once my staff is done, I'll swap Julie's in and keep going. When I have all of the best stuff I can get now done, I'll probably be at least Level 100 and will carry on with the main quest.

After some research, I will start using the Assassin's 70% solo bonus Augment when I try again. That third shot should qualify since I'll be alone after the pawn is dead, and extra power behind the shot can't hurt...

It'll be a while. I'm not exhausting my supplies too fast, given that I kill the Drake fairly frequently with two or three shots. What's bogging me down is that my 2-star equipment isn't getting Dragon Forged so I'll be there quite a while. Darn lower odds for success unless I had some Astracite to move it up to 3-star.

One pawn I liked was retired. The search for past hires brought back a new name but far better equipment, from NG+ I guess. Sad that the pawn has to start from scratch, since Julie will be really badass by the time I'm done and won't get that good again if I'm glowing in the dark with power and won't be grinding anymore...
Edited by mikepaul - 1/30/13 at 7:28am

Level 102. My 2-star daggers and 3-star staff refuse to Dragon Forge. Two sets of 2-star mage shoes both worked, so 'hard luck' is all I hope is involved. My pawn Julie is all-Forged now, even her own Magnanimous Cloak in case it helps on her outside ventures.

Turns out using pawns as ammo works out well in getting the Achievement for using a lot of pawns. I sure hope karma doesn't keep track of the number of deaths...

Level 111. Killed the Drake dozens of times, still no Dragon Forge for my two remaining weapons (equipped both off and on in case one would get it). I remembered that the one staff that upgraded had struck the deathblow, so I switched tactics. No more pawn ammo. Drake is badly hurt by the ice magic behind Sixfold Bolt so once the chest is cracked open that's what I use until the Drake was down to it's last health bar, then the non-bow weapon was used to kill it. Absolutely no luck, not even the 3-star staff. Gave up soon after. I had been reading about red eyeglasses as possible equipment so after I finally reached the required 300,000 rift coins I went shopping. Turns out that eyeglasses are actually headgear and my stats would suffer when my hat went away. Plus, red ones are not available until later and the cheaper ones didn't seem like anything I'd use. Bummer.

My pawn Julie didn't level up for a long time, since she was the first to die every time I used Great Sacrifice. I was like 20 levels higher than her for quite a while. Once she started surviving every fight again, 'magic' kicked in that made her level up at the slightest XP gain, no matter how little XP it was. I'd kill the Drake, she'd level up. We'd walk over to the goblins nearby, I'd shoot one, wham, she leveled up again. She's now 2 levels below me and I'd expect her to be at my level soon if this magic continues. Beats me why they felt the pawn had to work this way, but it's OK. Fewer people using her now, though.

I think 'glow in the dark with power' is about there. Walking over to do the Wyrmking's Ring quest, found the nearby Golem had regenerated. My daggers kicked it into the next county. That was the one big worry I had about the Magick Archer, so I'm good to go for a while...

Hard luck on Dragon Forging finally ended for a while. My best bows, swords, and daggers are done. Turns out a cheap rusted magic bow is pretty effective once Forged. I've been using the Ranger to practice Drake killing with lower magic involvement and I've carried a bunch of pieces of gear to get them Forged for later. Noticed the Swordsman stuff for sale in the quarry, which carries skill stifling resistance which would help, and have a few upgraded already. The pieces that need unobtainable-for-now materials to get to 3-star rank are just going to have to rely on luck at 2-star.

Julie isn't as popular a hired pawn as she was when she was at a lower level. Changing her to a vocation that can toss seems like it would annoy fewer people now. I will probably work on her ability to toss me starting today the same way I leveled up before: killing cows for cash and bandits/Griffins for XP. It's not going to be quick, but I do have the 10,000,000G Achievement within sight anyway...

Julie, set to Utilitarian and Nexus status to enable helper skills like Springboard, didn't toss me into the air once. Other discussions of having a pawn springboard you say that it's combat-only. Not sure I can bring the bandit combat close enough to the right spot to test that, or even if fighting bandits will allow the use of springboard as a tactic. Since I want to put Julie back as a mage, I'll give up on this again. Maybe build up her sorcerer stats first so she can gain some more decent magic augments...

Level 123. Playing as Sorcerer, with Julie Sorcerering also so she gains the benefits. Oddly, bunches of Drake kills and the related XP isn't upping her rank very fast. In fact, it seems like the goblin and Cyclops kills do a better job of that. Not sure what's up, since it used to look like gaining X amount of XP gained rank, but since I have stuff to Dragon Forge I'm continuing that work along with what I'm doing with Julie. Once she's Rank 9, I'll put her back at Mage duties for the main quest progression.

At Level 123, I find it more of an annoyance than a danger fighting the Drake as the Sorcerer. Even with 30% spell cast boost, I'm getting swatted often before the cast is done, which means I start over, usually after running back to the center of the fighting area. Run too close to the outside, and the 'quest' to kill your enemies is auto-failed. After I luck out and get my 2-star archstaves Dragon Forged, I still have some Swordsman stuff that is limited to the Mystic Knight so he'll have to play with the Drake again. Julie's co-Sorcerer vocation helps when she casts the same spell I do and boosts it, which I think she does as a plan rather than just an accident, but her Mage healing when I leave the Sorcerer behind is far more important than any help I'm getting now. The pawns survive OK, and I have plenty of money for healing stuff, so I'll stick the Magick Archer/Mystic Knight plan and just fondly remember how the Sorcerer's Maelstrom spell kills bunches of bandits at once...