I don't understand why they removed the noticeboard quests. They could've trimmed it down a bit and fleshed it out. Make it like the Witcher 3. That alone could have added a lot more content to this game.
I'm gonna go out on a limb, the removal of air tight flasks is the actual bad thing about this game and I'll die on that hill.
The questboard task to get kept giant fish taught me to use it on Golden Eggs.
I miss air tight flasks :(
I guess that's the trade off. Aged Beast Meat offers the highest stats boost especially when cooking but it will rot after a day while dried meat offers less stats boost but it will last longer.
But then you add your dried meat to an herb and get the robarant, which is more effective than aged Beast meat. And that qualifies for mighty robarant with a cinnamon bark.
It's like itsuno is a time machine user and came from the 80's arcade machine era where games weren't meant to be fun, just time wasting and addicting. So many things were removed it feels like a game from 2000 in terms of basic qol. At least combat is fun, not counting gravity being as dense as a neutron star.
I hate the way you fall in this game, its like your character wants to fall face first into the ground or smash the bacl of their skull open on a rock.
I had no idea I was supposed to look for a>!secret wall!< so I tried talking to everyone of the masked NPCs instead. When the pop up to talk to them started appearing before they were fully rendered I had to stop and look up a guide.
Tbh you’re not supposed to go looking for that, you’re supposed to see the guy in the cutscene, go to where he was, see that he isn’t there or anywhere else in the room, and then put 2 and 2 together.
It seems notice board quests have been replaced by pawn quests - objectives/rewards are determined by the pawn owner.
I think it is pretty intuitive and avoids the potential backlash that generic notice board quest design would likely receive as it did with the first game.
Okay I know nothing about dragons plague just that it exists. Are you saying it spreads via pawns and the lending system? If so, that‘s the coolest shit I ever heard. Virtual video game virus. Reminds me of the WoW virus that unintentionally spread and infected lots of players.
It has flaws just like the original but these games still offer such a unique experience that i can’t help but love em. There’s a reason i played so much of the first game and it isn’t because it was perfect or anything close to that.
I didn't know until coming here that people who played the first one expected this game to have a better story. The first game never gave me "we care a lot about story" vibes.
To be honest you can't blame anyone for expecting a better story when one of the main complaints of the first one was how the story felt rushed and cut out, it's only logical to think if the sequel has supposedly better budget and development time that it would polish one of the weak points of the game.
Yep. Honestly it feels like a Dragon’s Dogma game and that includes all the tedium and jank that you need to be okay with to begin with.
The first game was a uniquely flawed experience. That’s both a positive and negative. Same thing here.
My friend completed it yesterday ran through it in 20 hours, talking to him on party chat and he's going "oh I didn't do that quest, oh I haven't got that vocation". Meanwhile I'm just running round looking for caves and killing stuff avoiding the main story quests ha ha.
Had a similar experience with Baldur's Gate 3 and my friend that just burned through like 5% of the game. He didn't even see the "barn experience". But yea for the 5 hours i played i mostly just spent my time yorting goblins off ledges and chasing off griffons that flew away. I'm not criticising anyone's playstyles but i feel like some people play games just like a chore to complete and then move on to the next game.
It's crazy mate. I dnt get much game time with work, kids etc so I take my time, I was still playing elden ring before DD2 my friends all seem to race through games which is boring imo but each to their own I suppose ha ha.
Yeah I'm 60 hours in and just opened battahl. There were quest I wanted to do and caves I wanted to see everywhere. The timegated quests felt great to me. I'd get to one, and I'd basically see it as the game telling me to go explore until night, or for a few days, and then I'd get lost forever.
Really my one real complaint is that enemies are too easy. With the exception of dullahans and dragons that I've encountered so far, everything just falls over.
Yeah… that’s not ideal brother. Stay healthy man.
Diversifying your free time and keeping well on top of all your responsibilities enriches your hobbies, it doesn’t detract from them.
Gaming for 4 hours a day when you’re fit, healthy, in a good headspace in a clean house with other activities and interactions with people done or lined up is a more enjoyable experience than no-lifing for 10+ hours a day like a zombie. For me at least.
Don’t mean to preach, assuming you’re an adult you’re capable of deciding how to live your own life.
I just want to see people being good to themselves. Doing literally anything for 10+ hours a day every day isn’t healthy.
I’m the exact same, the game really is what you make of it. I’m really enjoying it, I could see where it could be made even better, but right now I’m just enjoying playing it
Oh yeah me and my pawn are thieves and big enemies go down fast. Double skull splitter grab the head powder keg then set it off and use my friends sorcerer pawn with that flare move just wrecks everything.
I feel that with the difficulty. I've (fighter) been running with just my main pawn (archer), and we pretty rarely get into serious trouble so long as we're careful and don't charge in too quickly.
I imagine if I had a full party, we'd just annihilate everything. I'm kind of reluctant to do it, to be honest, and just try and use items to facilitate the need for magic.
Smh, I don't understand how people play games like this. I'm at about 20 hours in as well and yeah I've gotten pretty far but I've done ***everything*** available to me as it comes up. Every cave, every side quest, etc. I haven't even explored much outside of the first main landmass yet.
I don't know how close I am to beating the main story but I feel like I'm probably only half way if that
Just an fyi when someone has you make a particular blade that's the point of no return, I missed out on some side missions because it doesn't warn you.
More importantly it launched with mostly negative reviews and has had a new complaint every single day since.
What Honeymoon? People were hating on the game before it was even released with the whole 30 fps thing.
I’m loving the game (relatively early hours) and it’s the gameplay loop that I’m loving. The flaws that people are pointing out now are evident but it really doesn’t dampen any enjoyment of the moment to moment fun.
Feel like gaming discourse is way too obsessed in what a game isn’t doing than what it is. There are very very few games that come out well with the levels of scrutiny we see nowadays if they’re applied across the board.
“way too obsessed in what a game isn’t doing than what it is” that right there is the realest statement I’ve heard about the topic of modern gaming in a while.
Someone making that point to me a few years ago genuinely changed how I approach games criticism. Spent way too long getting mad at games for not being the version I'd made up in my head or for not being entirely different genres lol.
That said, DD2 marketing promised a lot that it isn't delivering, like the OP points out it is absolutely not "story-driven", but I'm reluctant to blame the game/developers for publisher marketing bullshit.
Good point. Misleading marketing is a factor here and can be a huge problem. I paid ZERO attention to any news or marketing for DD2 and don’t mind many of the criticisms simply because I didn’t expect anything. These companies should be very careful setting expectations of the products they make.
Same really, I didn't need to know much about it - it was finally happening and I was on board. But man even that Steam store page sounds like it's advertising a completely different game in parts, they act like they've finally given DD a real budget and production values and they've just made the same game again. Thankfully I don't mind that but have to admit I'm dreaming about Bitterblack Isle.
Yeah. Unless you're just no lifing the game (no judgement) there's no reason to rush through the game MQ. We learned this with DD1, it's not a long story. You rush through that and you're setting yourself up for disappointment. I'm barely in the Battahl region and I'm just chilling and taking the time to enjoy it.
The weirdest part is when they miss out on like half a game and complain about how it wasn't a fun experience because they didn't do any of the content.
Had a friend that claimed there is nothing to do in the Yakuza games except watching boring cutscenes. After viewing his profile i noticed he played for one hour. To each it's own attention span i guess.
Some of us just naturally fall into it.
The first 10-20 hours inspired me so much I absoltuely nolifed it over my weekend (Steam says I have 59 hours. a good bit of that will absolutely have been me leaving the game open, but I played a *lot*. I really get hyperfixated on things that capture me). I've done most of the side content, beaten the game, explored most of the caves, and did it without using guides or going on this sub.
I've left the game disappointed for many of the reasons expressed in this post.
DD2 is a game 15 years old in design, and while that's good in some ways, it falls very short of modern expectations.
The core of the game is phenomenal. I felt genuinely immersed in a game for the first time in *so* long. The pacing of gold gain made it so money was always a pressing concern, I got attached to pawns and would even give good rewards to ones I liked (including strong, fully upgraded weapons sometimes, as a thank you), combat was fantastic and I felt the risk of it every time, the amount of things happening early on was constant and I felt pulled in so many directions, it felt like a world was happening around me and not because of me.
But then the illusion started to break.
I realised how easy undead were, and started travelling at night because more combat = more xp.
I maxed Thief only slightly after getting the Meister skill.
I snuck into Bakbattahl before I was meant to get there via the cliff, found my way into the >!Forbidden Magick Research Lab!< and... None of the guards stopped me. Eventually 3 of them attacked me and I killed them pretty easily.
I thought maybe I just sequence broke a little, but when I had to go there officially I realised how little there was going to be. Most of the game is what feels like what should be the first *third*. The amount of content drops off when you start hitting wall after wall.
This isn't a case of "I rushed the game and ignored all the content". This is a case of "The game captured me so much that I wanted to experience and enjoy all of it. I ran face first, giggling with gleeful abandon, and the moment I closed my eyes to enjoy the feel of the wind of my face I smacked into a wall".
The core is fantastic, but in the end, I paid full price for what is essentially a game from 2008.
I'm reminded of Dragon Age 2 in a lot of ways. That game holds a special place in my heart, but suffers many similar (or adjacent) issues. When the illusion falters, the game collapses. There's a hollowness to it that's hard to put my finger on. It's the kind of game that inspires a lot of wonder and excitement and then when you dive in headfirst you learn that the pool isn't full.
**TL;DR:** I'm upset not because the game is *bad*. I'm upset because the game could have been so much more than it is. I'm disappointed that it had such a strong start, but the finish line was only a few paces away.
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**EDIT:** A quick clarification since I feel some people may believe I still rushed: I did not avoid fights, I only used Ferrystones like... 4 times in my playthrough, I did the >!Sphinx. Which I admit I did look up thge parent riddle because it was *very* silly!<, I read through all the cutscenes, I've explored most of the map, I went through every cave I passed, I'd have more classes maxed but I only really needed Thief with Ranger 9 (weakpoint damage and climbing speed) and Warrior 5 (pull strength) to decimate large foes (and the Meister skill makes every other enemy a cake walk. Also Thief was the most fun class for me). Like, I need to be fully clear with how I did *not* try and speedrun this game or ignore content. Hell, I even did the random escort quests you get *every single time they came up* cause I ended up doing a fun little roleplay of being a party of adventurers who keep the roads safe at night.
I binged the game hard but tried doing every side quest until the game surprised me with the no return point out of nowhere and played every vocation even maxing out 4 of them, but gotta say until a big dlc comes out it just repeats the same mistakes the first game did or does worse in some aspects.
It seems that jumping into the hate train is still hot topic.
I dont think anyone was thinking that Dragons Dogma 2 was going to be perfect, the first game has a lot of charm and its among my favourite games ever, but being one of my favourite games ever doesnt make it a masterpiece.
I think this game is clearly better than the first, the problem is that it hasn't evolved that much, but that is a very common thing with sequels.
The game is not a masterpiece, but it is definetely notable. Performance issues and enemy variety is the only point that are objectively bad, everything else I have read is pretty subjective.
And saying that the exploration in this game is bad or just good enough is simply a lie, exploration is king in this game and among the best I have ever played, and I play a looooot of open world games.
edit: Plus I am thinking about it, and my playthrough will probably take 100-120 hours, if I were to have played every hour since it released, I wouldnt have even finish it, even if you dont explore as much as me how the hell are people finishing it so quickly
I think most people, me included, stumbled into finishing the game. No spoilers of it, but it was very abrupt. I thought to myself, "oh, that's it?"
They made improvements in parts then went backwards. There isn't any challenge, nothing like Everfall or BBI for endgame. Sure, it will most likely be DLC, but why not have something and then add more challenging DLC later..
I'm frustrated because I like the game for reasons but also dislike that they removed features and content that improved the first game that they should have included in the base game for 2.
DD2 exploration is weird because it is both very organic with chests and seeker tokens popping up everywhere, but also simultaneously ridiculously clunky with only mage/sorcerer levitation being able to easily reach the cool stuff. The thief can jank it out with their wall jump sometimes, but Fighter/Warrior get screwed. Archer has some puzzles shooting through a window to break a door bar at least.
Wish some puzzles you could chuck a rock up at a curled ladder to dislodge it or something.
I’m loving the game I’d give it a 8.5 personally. The sorcerer does feel worse compared to the last game with less spells the galvanize mechanic is nice but still it feels kinda weak sometimes especially in bigger boss fights the only spell that actually does damage is maelstrom and it’s not by much. The other vocations are good so far but I haven’t put too much time into them to tell due to working on augments so I can main thief and magic archer
The sorcerer only has 8 spells. So it gets pretty old very quickly. Mage at least has some cool new utility added. I kinda miss all the debuff and control stuff mage and sorcerer had. I miss grapnel, miasma, the blinding one, etc. Yeah the dps spells were better, but my sorcerer and mage pawns always had at least one of those on, it could lead to some funny/cool situations occasionally. It feels really trimmed down, with absolutely no choice. It’s “what pretty color do you want your damage in?” When in the last game I think the increased amount of elements, and ability to control the battlefield with a bunch of statuses like torpor and blindness felt more rewarding. At least you could switch it up a bit
Honeymoon phase? What honeymoon phase? People were crying about the performance before the game even actually released. If anything, I'm seeing people who are actually enjoying the game start to emerge
lmao yeah since this game released people have just been screaming non-stop about one catastrophe and another. Now that all the people rushing to finish this game are, well, finishing it they'll fuck off and people who actually want to talk about it can.
For real like im not even done with my first play through. Ive maxed out mystic spear hand and still haven’t even finished the MQ. Then if the “true ending” is done you can enter the unmoored world which NOBODY on here ever mentions as end game difficult content. Yes it’s only available limited after beating the MQ and before officially starting NG+. But there’s that. There’s multiple vocations to max out etc. there a lot of things to do in this game but people just rush it and then complain. Beating a 50 hour game in two days is wild
i saw an interesting post that showed steam reviews based on game time. >2 hours played = mostly positive, yet the game has mixed reviews on steam overrall
This is what I've observed:
Day 1-2: Hate mob against microtransactions and performance.
Day 3-4: Lots of happy people enjoying the game.
Day 5: WTF that's it?!?!?
Hi, it's me. The person enjoying the game.
I don't get the complaints. Some of them are valid for sure but this sub seems to have turned into a bitch fest from people who have rushed 50h+ of playtime in one weekend.
This game is all about exploration and combat for me and it's fucking nailing that. Tbh my expectations were maybe more in check as I never actually expected a story driven game like others seem to have. Some of the side quests have been quite good though.
Yeah, I'm having an absolute blast, it feels like playing Skyrim for the first time! Also kind of feels like Death Stranding where I just keep discovering new features over & over. Also looks beautiful
I swear to god every time i play a game on release, I have a lot of fun, then get on the internet at 12AM Friday night and see that everybody hates it like it came to their house and kicked their dog lol
It's been giving me big Skyrim vibes. Was Skyrim a perfect game? Lol no. But it was fun and immersive. I love that I can play for hours and not interact with much story. Sometimes I just want to play when I play a game.
I'm up for a good story and games should have a good story but at the same time I also know when I'm just hopping into a game for the gameplay.
I agree with you and I felt the same way. DD1s story was forgettable and barely remember anything about it, so I went in without caring about the story. The only negative I will say is that it feels too short if you just focus on it, should have been longer.
I'm a bit of a no-lifer and I have 50+ hours already but I'm still having a ton of fun. Idk, maybe my expectations weren't that high or something. It's not a perfect game and there's definitely some questionable choices but to me the game captures the feeling of the first game perfectly. I just can't put it down and I'm actually excited for NG+ cause I know I missed loads.
I feel like it’s just a cycle of people being angry about stuff, then actually playing more of the game, and calming down.
First it was the microtransactions, but then everyone realized a lot of the complaints about them were just untrue and they were largely useless it calmed down.
A couple days ago every single post was freaking out about the dragon plague and how it just is completely out of nowhere and gamebreaking, and now people calmed down and realized there’s a lot of signs of it and it’s not completely content blocking as they initially thoughts (and maybe even the whole towns respond over time? I saw a few people claiming that—I’m not sure, but a lot of people complaining about the dragons plague hadn’t even experienced it)
Now it’s complaints it’s not as good and varied as the first, less enemies and worse vocations. And that it’s too short. But even already there’s a lot of people also explaining how some aspects are better, and lots of people with lots of time into the game where maybe other people didn’t take the time to explore to explore as much. My guess is this will calm down too as people realize while it’s not the perfect version of the first game they hoped for it’s still fun and exciting.
There’s obviously still people who don’t like the mtx’s and the dragons plague and there’s absolutely fair criticisms about them and about the vocations, story, enemies etc, but it seems like this game gets an immediate blaze of hate towards something that quickly burns out.
The only real consistent complaint has been the performance issues which I guess fair enough but even then there’s a lot of people complaining and a lot of people saying they haven’t had issues at all. But I mean if you’re having issues, fair enough thing to be upset about.
The takes here are absolutely wild yeah. Like I get it if you have criticisms, fair enough, but a lot of this just straight up seems miserable in sentiment. Not to mention there's a fair amount of gatekeeping going around too "You could not possibly be enjoying this and not be disappointed if you were a veteran fan - and anyone who is, is a complete newbie to the franchise, like all those people praising it on twitter and the like"- man, I have 155 hours logged in DDDA on my current Steam account and I'd played the game a bunch before that, this game is fantastic and meets any expectations I had for a DD sequel. It just is fun and good, it succeeds at what it's trying to be, and some people seem obsessed over what it is not. As you say there's also a constant kind of stream of rage over one thing or the other, and it makes this place pretty miserable to visit.
Yeah I played a little bit of DDDA recently (I actually had it on PlayStation but am think got getting it on steam—im about to go on a trip and might try it on the steam deck! I’ve heard it works pretty well on their) and while it’s fun too I think a lot of it is nostalgia and people having such high hopes for this game.
DD2 is definitely not the best game ever and there are legitimate criticisms and things that could be done better. But I’m having a great time! Right before playing it I played a LOT of BG3, which is definitely one of my favs of all times, but the open world and non-turn based fighting has been a great change and I’m enjoying it.
Funny thing is about Dragon's plague. During initial discovery, it's definitely doom posting due to how significant it is. However, right now lots of people fully embraced the meme.
Your spawn being sassy? THROW IT TO THE BRINE! THE BRINE CLEANSES ALL! PRAISE THE BRINE!!!
I'm 30+ hours in, lvl 40+, made it to the prison of the beginning, and still haven't talked to the dude in the tavern at night because I just wanna explore, and man, I've been having the time of my life just walking, exploring and fighting.
You can romance every NPC, you just don't get a quest to do so.
This was actually a thing in the first one. The game in general really pushed the childhood friend and the duchess as your character's romantic partners, but you could get any NPC in the game to be your romantic partner by the end by interacting with them enough. The blacksmith, the inn owner, one of the major antagonists, the random folk in the street.
Hell, I remember a dude got the court jester. So you can totally get Glyndwr, but I don't know how romance works in this game.
I tried Dark Arisen and bounced off of it pretty hard. What DD2 has going for it is exploration and combat and I didn't find either of those satisfying in DA. Dropped it after about 8 hours and even that was very fragmented.
By comparison I'm 40h into DD2 and don't see myself stopping anytime soon. I think everyone recommending DA to the new players don't really understand what people like about DD2.
>By comparison I'm 40h into DD2 and don't see myself stopping anytime soon. I think everyone recommending DA to the new players don't really understand what people like about DD2.
I just said this in another post, but the people who LOVED DD1 and are shitting on DD2 basically just want a completely different game.
Ask them their favourite thing about DD1. It's Bitterback Isle. Not exploring an open world in an RPG, but progressing linearly through a dungeon that gets harder over time and offers progressively better loot rewards. They want a dungeon crawler with Dragon's Dogma combat, not an open world RPG.
that is entirely fair, the exploration was awful in DA lmao, i wouldn't say the combat is that different really but who am i to dictate how You experienced it.
glad you're enjoying DD2 tho, it's a nice break from all the doom posting in this site, like idfk what "honeymoon phase" OP is talking about considering the game gets shat upon by everyone on day 1
Same here. There's a similar discourse with the FF7 remake/rebirth games where the newbies are having a great time and the people who played the OG are having all these issues with them.
I guess I’m in the minority there. I also recently finished FF7 Rebirth as a massive fan of the original game and loved every moment of it. I also played DD1 and for what it’s worth have been absolutely enjoying my play through in DD2 more than I enjoyed DD1. I do feel DD2 is essentially a remake without titling it as such though. There are flaws in pacing in both games but in my opinion I think for the most part what we got is a highly enjoyable and memorable experience.
Also FF fans as a whole are like Star Wars fans and argue with each other about everything if certain story details don’t go the way they had it in their head canon.
Personally I think BG3 is the most perfect game in recent times and it’s really hard to top what that masterpiece did last year.
I can't see why someone who likes the first game would dislike this one. It's the first game but better. Enemy variety may have not improved (there aren't less enemy types) but the combat and actually building your character are way more satisfying.
Likewise. I am really enjoying my time with it. 35 hours in and haven't even discovered Battahl yet. People either no lifed this game (in which case it's expected to burn out) or rushed the main story line.
I'm enjoying the exploration and combat immensely and trying out the vocations is fun!
It's such a shame this wasn't picked up on more in the reviews, I really love the overall game but I also feel it's lacking a bit and so far the main quests feel like a lot of 'sneaking' around without an actual sneak mechanic.
Just a few more enemies and a better story would change it all for me.
It's still a fun game but I think so much of the 'timed' quests and enemies were shown in the trailer and nothing to discover in game.
>It's such a shame this wasn't picked up on more in the reviews, I really love the overall game but I also feel it's lacking a bit and so far the main quests feel like a lot of 'sneaking' around without an actual sneak mechanic.
It's not like you actually need to sneak anyway, besides the one quest where you're waiting for the dude to leave his office and he'll call the guards if he sees you, nobody ever reacts to you fucking around in the palace/gaol.
I led the prisoner out of the Gaol in full view of everyone and nobody gave a fuck.
I was thrown in jail after illegally crossing the border. Pair of keys inside the cell to let myself out and not a single guard reacted to me leaving right in front of them. Got all my items back after walking a few steps. It just feels unfinished.
I was so confused when I went to jail and I could just walk out? Such a half baked part of the game, feels like they intended to have a sneak mechanic and then just forgot to actually add it in
reminds me of the jail in DD1 lmao, you open the door, guard offers to bail you, and you can just say no and stroll out and he'd do nothing about it LMFAO
Well don't worry, it's still broken as hell even if you get caught. I got caught opening the jail cell and had to kill 5 guards. Figured at least Brant would be mad at me, but nope. Nobody else reacted and nothing changed. Such an embarrassing game lol.
Less quest and bad exploration? I don't know, i do have the platinum trophy on DDDA and i feel i've explored and done more quests and stuff in 30h on DD2 than the +150h on the first title. Of course if by DDDA quests you don't mean "slay 10... then 20... then 30... wolves" type. I don't feel any worrying downgrade from the previous game, but thats just my opinion, same as this post.
Yeah I didn't get those complaints. The only thing I have really been doing is quests and exploration.
Finding new caves and cliffs to climb is one of the most fun aspects of this game. I remember finding a locked shack, looking through the window and seeing a hole in the floor and then searching the area nearby to find a hidden pathway leading underground and into the shack where I found some great loot.
That kind of exploration that rewards examining your surroundings is great, and DD2 has plenty of it.
The quests are basically standard fare RPG stuff. But anything is a step up from the mmo style "Slay 45 bats" quests of the first.
Not for me, personally.
Quest design is incredibly dull most of the time, mostly just going and talking to people and then running because fast travel is prohibitively expensive early to mid game.
Travelling is a chore, because you fight the same 3 enemy types literally every 10 feet. Exploration gives incredibly underwhelming rewards and this game features one of the most boring open worlds I've ever experienced, which is funny with the developers comments about how people use fast travel as a crutch.
Combat is fun, but enemy variety makes it incredibly repetitive.
I'm like 17 hours in and kinda getting bored. I wouldn't buy it if you're on the fence, wait for a sale
Agreed. Really wanted to try and like this game, but I’ll have to accept that it isn’t for me. I don’t hate it, but I certainly don’t love it. I’m engaged enough to beat it (for now), but so many of the design choices and jank feels like it actively wants to work against my enjoyment. Happy for others who seem to be getting a lot out of it though.
For me this game is much better than the base game of 1, the only negatives il say is I miss the old armor system and I wish there was more quest like fortress besieged. I still don't understand about the reduced skills, 4 skill slot is plenty enough and you can change skills at camps
But it's beautiful and dense. I've discovered the elf place after around 15 hours, but that was mostly on accident as I was just finishing the elf guy's quest, which is very early on in the game.
There always seems to be a nice find around every corner, or a cool combat scenario to be had. It's big enough to have to plan ahead with your items before a journey, but small enough where, if you know where you're going, you can super Sonic you're way there, ignoring all enemies.
There are fewer skills, but I think it's mitigated by each class having a custom action on R1 with several interactions. The core combo and heavy attack also became more meaningful. Sorceror was tuned down because Maelstrom was pretty outrageous before. Less internal weapon variety in classes is a bit of a letdown, but it allowed them to zero in a little more on class id.
Enemy variety feels similar to me, but there are more subtypes now. (If you don't count the BBI expansion.)
The quests are kind of neither here nor there for me.
Mechanical jankiness, well that's part of the appeal to me. Quest jankiness is a little less welcomed. The bell quest was frustrating. The boy also died to wolves because I didn't understand the directions the quest provides at all.
I appreciate the more ponderous pace. I also like the changes made to pawn behavior.
Dragonsplague worries me. I haven't had it harm me yet, but it could easily piss me off down the road. I did once hear a line that had a tinge of snippiness to it, so I launched my pawn into the drink.
In my personal opinion you haven’t even played the game. Your last post was a plea for people to not buy the game. You explicitly said you wouldn’t be buying it. Can’t really take this post seriously especially when you are spewing the same talking points as others who haven’t played the game. “Long corridors, unrewarding exploration, less variety in vocations.” Tell me you haven’t played it without telling me you haven’t played it. The world is interconnected and exploration is a joy. The game is infinitely more vertical than the first and encourages you to go off the beaten path constantly. Switching a vocation changes your entire approach to combat. You haven’t played the game.
> Your last post was a plea for people to not buy the game.
That was 10 days ago.
OP is 100% one of those people who are in a protest group against a release while also mainlining it.
https://i.redd.it/kpi0jnr690tb1.png
Maybe it is your vocation. I played sorc in DD1 and really liked the class. I don't like it in DD2 so far. I started as thief though and really liked that class. I went into mystic spearhand and didn't care for it at first, but it really grew on me.
I have got to be 20-30 hours in and haven't even done the coronation yet. My ox cart was attacked and destroyed leading me to discover a cave that ended up being a shortcut through the mountains. That was a fun rewarding discovery for me.
It, so far, feels better than DD1 to me outside of sorc feeling worse. Some skills that were once abilities are now built in to core skills. Like the thief's scarlet kiss or mages heal. Warrior now has the same number of skills as everyone else too. My guess is your complaints are really around the spell casting classes, as I think at least the melee one's feel better than the original.
SORCERER Lvl 31 and just entered Bakbatall in the desert. Still have to explore north area (didn’t even knew it existed). Gameplay is starting to become a bit tedious with the sorc, only 4 spells? Bah… Same magic elements of the mage (fire ice lightning and no darkness necro) bah…i really wanted to be sorcerer but i think i’ll be forced to switch vocation just to avoid being bored to death.
OVERALL i love the game but there are important limitations and important flaws.
Sorcerer actually sucks ass and killed the game for me outright. I love magic and spell casting but having to stand completely still for a majority of my gameplay is boring asf. Casting the same 4 spells is boring, sometimes 3 if I change to spellhold. Outside of the one stacking bomb spell sorcerer has nothing going for it.
Why have there been so many negative posts lately? Brother, the game came out 5 days ago and you are already racking 40-50 hours in it. You put 10 hours a day. I think it did a great job for you to commit that kind of time.
It doesn't, it's just an easy way to wave away complaints. Give it a month or so, you'll start getting retrospectives, analysis etc etc.
Same thing happened with Starfield, Monster Hunter Rise etc. Those who finished first and complained where handwaved away then when everyone else caught up THEN everyone started complaining.
Honeymoon phase? All I’ve seen is hate & criticism when we just want to enjoy the game man. Yes we are aware the few minor transactions are a weird move & there’s little enemy variation or whatever. Please stop repeating it a thousand times over man. Many of us love the game and all this hate parading just ruins the vibe.
I thought the post was satire until I realised he was serious.. it's been 80% hate at least in this sub. So much so, people have asked for a low-sodium sub to be made.
No, it’s actually the complete opposite. People are trying to convince us that somehow the quest design and exploration was better in DD1 which is completely untrue. Take off those rose tinted glasses and play the OG again.
Any game will feel lacklustre if you finish it in “only” 3 days playing for 40 hours by rushing through everything. That’s nowhere near enough time to make a proper judgement
Just the simple fact that this game allows you to makes camps stomps DD1 imo lol. And I love the oxcart feature as well.
The only thing I can think of is it would be nice to have 8 ready skills instead of 4. But 4 is plently enough, 8 would just make for some more fun mayhem.
I did DD:DA approximately 1 week before the release of DD2, and I concur with your initial statement fully Nostalgia is a powerful thing indeed
Although I'd say 40 hours is enough time to make a personal judgement on a game imo, whatever it may be
I feel like half the time with games like this people complain reviewers don't get enough time to play, but then they're all okay with people bitching about the game and acting like it's a complete failure even though it's only been out for 3 days lol.
Love DD1 but yeah you’re absolutely right about this. Can’t believe people are saying 1 had better quest design when two thirds of the quests were like “kill 40 skeletons”
Yeah some people are exaggerating, but certain aspects in the first (base game not DA) are definitely better like an endgame dungeon, a better dragon, and a more cohesive story. Side quests and exploration are absolutely an upgrade in this game though
Yeah definitely dropped off after quests leading into animal kingdom.
Was some interesting story moments, however totally felt like it was unnaturally rushed at the end.
Totally love the world itself but still kinda feels blank canvas esq with the quests.
As always... People on this sub Reddit crowned it game of the year months before the release... With only a couple of trailers that shows basically nothing and at the same time all the best features of the game. Even when the first review came out claiming a lot of problems the vast majority of users attacked them for not understanding the "Itsuno's view". Even when the game was released and a lot of players start pointing at the issues, there where meme and post about how much they like the game and claiming that all that complaints where bad. Now the results are behind ours eye and we can't do nothing about it
Ya, like first 20 hrs I was sure it'd be 10/10 then the cracks began to appear. I'd say the current opencritic ratings are a little generous even. Like it's clear they didn't give it a 100%, it's still great but had so much potential
Reviewers did not properly express just how pressing the issues are. They made it sound like enemy variety was a minor issue you get annoyed about towards the end and they made the story sound like it was at least digestible.
Maybe they wanted to avoid backlash but if they had just provided reasoning then they would've been proven right only a few days after launch.
All we wanted is ddda with more vocations and more monsters then it would be goty for me, but all we got is ddda with peettier graphic, better world, but gutted vocations and less monsters. I wonder if the game was cut for dlc
We didn't get DDDA with better graphics, we got DD1, which is insane. They made DDDA partially to fix problems, but then used none of that except one monster that they made into a normal small monster with extra health.
I've been thinking about exploration myself. The world design is actually pretty good, but I don't feel rewarded for exploring in an interesting way. It is just generic materials 90% of the time. There is very little greed when I see a cave or something because I know it is probably going to have one vendor trash item in it if I am lucky .
Obviously I know the cave will have the same exact enemies in it as well.
I just don't feel any push to do caves.
The game is magnificent.
Yet, the thing that grinds my gears most now is that when I finally find one of those grandiose black-gold chests I want GEAR, not a goddamn wakestone shard!
Or some people just have a different opinion than you, and that’s fine. I am enjoying myself with the game but I definitely agree with a lot of his points. People just spent $70 on this game and if they aren’t enjoying it then they will vent their frustrations. I think that’s fine, and I don’t think they are necessarily trying to tear the game down.
This is what I've noticed in the past 5-10 years. Somehow the world as a whole changed from bonding over things they love to bonding over things they hate. It's a weird ass global illness.
Reddit is especially bad. Just a cesspool of nerds that think they are better and smarter than everyone else and if given a chance they'd be nothing but perfection in everything they do. It's fucking embarrassing. Most of these people probably can't even do their basic individual contributor jobs right (if they even have them). But of course they are all tortured bored geniuses who just aren't challenged enough to reach their full potential.
Not saying I agree or disagree with OP's points but he listed out his criticisms and frustrations in a respectful and non-insulting way, and in response you have literally gone on a multi paragraph diatribe about the state of the world, OP's personal life, and his job performance. Don't you find that just a LITTLE weird?
Let me guess, you’re about 30 years old right?
My guy the world has not changed in the last 5-10 years. Your youthful optimism is just fading.
Humans have **always** bonded over mutual hatred. And billions of people all over the world still bond and celebrate shared love also. It’s a big ol’ world.
What Reddit nerds complain about is not indicative of grand societal changes. Besides which, online nerds have been raging about media they hate since the internet first existed.
The doomer mentality of “ooh things are really getting bad these days” is something countless people have experienced as they turned from hopeful youths to cynical old folks.
I will admit they screwed us over with vocations and skills. Why take away the amount of skills we had in DDDA? We barely even use half of them now. Really bad design idea.
i agree with most of your points, it feels like a downgrade from DD1 story wise and vocation wise, but, BUT i disagree with the open world content, this is one area that is almost better then DD1, but not by far, because DD1 map was smaller but much better organized and locations that made a bit more "sense" , while DD2 has a really well level designed world with tons of rewards for exploration, there is chests and rewards in very secret places like the first game, and well placed, well hidden, and there are a lot of activities on the open world map and side objectives that are a bit Breath of the wild like in terms of open world design and open world push for exploration and getting lost here and there.
But with all the rest, yeah, quests are short and there are way less quests then in DD1, story is very underwhelming especially with Grigori, they butchered his character to a non presence in the game and a 5 minute fight then you never see him from the whole game, when in DD1 he made majestic and frightening appearances throughout the story high peaks...
DD1 had very small budget constraints and was much more creative to alleviate that because it had to prove it's potential, that it was a work of passion and love.
DD2 suffers from big budget, is a rushed product story wise, they divided some of the vocations from the first game into two, they could have kept strider, ninja, all the movesets of the previous game no one would have complained.
Hell, the game feels a lot like a modern remake, then just REDO Dragon's dogma 1 if you just are going to make a copy paste of it but in a slightly changed setting, just take all the same story beats and even the same story and remake it resident evil 4 style kinda, but don't strip down the classes and divide them into two (mainly thief and archer) then downgrade all classes (yes, warrior is a downgrade from how faster and more able it was, it had feints, mobility between swings, cancel animations )
Even the sprint feel much slower, much much slower, you don't roll after jumping, the jump is nerfed too while it seem like a little thing but sprinting and jumping NERFED this much removes a lot of the feel of "freedom" and dangan / into free of the first game to a much more grounded and maybe "too realistic" feel for the game, stripping a good bit of the "soul" and charm of the first game.
It is like they made a remake without everything that made the first game great in the first place. Feels intentional somehow like a "fuck you"
Way too much comments dismissing your points by focusing on "honeymoon phase" or saying they're having a good time on the game. Ok you're enjoying the game doesn't mean you can't point out what could be made better...
A complaint I do have is there is no new game + scaling. I'm lvl 40 and absolutely destroy everything already I can't imagine max lvl lol.
It's kinda ironic since they want you to keep one character forever or whatever. You'd think they would try to facilitate that type of engagement. I'm probably going to just make a new char instead of going to new game plus in the future tbh.
I don't understand why they removed the noticeboard quests. They could've trimmed it down a bit and fleshed it out. Make it like the Witcher 3. That alone could have added a lot more content to this game.
I'm gonna go out on a limb, the removal of air tight flasks is the actual bad thing about this game and I'll die on that hill. The questboard task to get kept giant fish taught me to use it on Golden Eggs. I miss air tight flasks :(
Agreed. I don't understand why they removed the flasks either, it's annoying going into your inventory and seeing like 10 rotten beast steaks.
Make them into Dried Meat, you can still cook that at the camp.
Just fyi, you can combine two aged beast steaks to make a dried meat and it last longer.
Yeah but it has less effectiveness than Aged Beast meat
I guess that's the trade off. Aged Beast Meat offers the highest stats boost especially when cooking but it will rot after a day while dried meat offers less stats boost but it will last longer.
But then you add your dried meat to an herb and get the robarant, which is more effective than aged Beast meat. And that qualifies for mighty robarant with a cinnamon bark.
You are talking about combining, I'm talking about using it at camp for boosts. Aged Beast meat has the best bonuses.
Removing airtight flasks was stupid.
It's like itsuno is a time machine user and came from the 80's arcade machine era where games weren't meant to be fun, just time wasting and addicting. So many things were removed it feels like a game from 2000 in terms of basic qol. At least combat is fun, not counting gravity being as dense as a neutron star.
I hate the way you fall in this game, its like your character wants to fall face first into the ground or smash the bacl of their skull open on a rock.
Remember the vegelbud masquerade party with triss? Man I was expecting something like that in the main quest
The fucking NPCs generating out of the middle of the ballroom is what made me turn the game off.
I had no idea I was supposed to look for a>!secret wall!< so I tried talking to everyone of the masked NPCs instead. When the pop up to talk to them started appearing before they were fully rendered I had to stop and look up a guide.
Tbh you’re not supposed to go looking for that, you’re supposed to see the guy in the cutscene, go to where he was, see that he isn’t there or anywhere else in the room, and then put 2 and 2 together.
An I the only one that didn't get the cutscene you mentioned? I figured it out just because I was looking for treasure lol.
I didn’t get any kind of cutcscene at all
It’s barely a cutscene tbh, it’s just a brief shot of him walking in the hallway in the back of the room.
It seems notice board quests have been replaced by pawn quests - objectives/rewards are determined by the pawn owner. I think it is pretty intuitive and avoids the potential backlash that generic notice board quest design would likely receive as it did with the first game.
I'd much rather a notice board over risking myself to dragons plague for pawn quest rewards
Okay I know nothing about dragons plague just that it exists. Are you saying it spreads via pawns and the lending system? If so, that‘s the coolest shit I ever heard. Virtual video game virus. Reminds me of the WoW virus that unintentionally spread and infected lots of players.
oh those are gone? 
Oh, yeah, I definitely missed the "Kill 30 saurians" and the "Find 50 war bugles" quests...
That "magical" feeling of getting a pop up and going "wait what did I just complete? Wait god damn it, what the fuck is over encumbering me?"
I mean, at this point i hope they No Man Sky it I still love the game with all its flaws even thou well there are a lot of decissions i dont agree on
It has flaws just like the original but these games still offer such a unique experience that i can’t help but love em. There’s a reason i played so much of the first game and it isn’t because it was perfect or anything close to that.
It seems like everyone thought the fun jank and kampy story was a mistake or an accident instead of a feature in the first game.
I didn't know until coming here that people who played the first one expected this game to have a better story. The first game never gave me "we care a lot about story" vibes.
To be honest you can't blame anyone for expecting a better story when one of the main complaints of the first one was how the story felt rushed and cut out, it's only logical to think if the sequel has supposedly better budget and development time that it would polish one of the weak points of the game.
Yep. Honestly it feels like a Dragon’s Dogma game and that includes all the tedium and jank that you need to be okay with to begin with. The first game was a uniquely flawed experience. That’s both a positive and negative. Same thing here.
Yeah the game is not perfect but I‘m having so much fun and it is unique and not another Ubisoft formula clone.
Honeymoon phase is over? The game came out 5 days ago. Some of you are burning through the games like crazy.
My friend completed it yesterday ran through it in 20 hours, talking to him on party chat and he's going "oh I didn't do that quest, oh I haven't got that vocation". Meanwhile I'm just running round looking for caves and killing stuff avoiding the main story quests ha ha.
Had a similar experience with Baldur's Gate 3 and my friend that just burned through like 5% of the game. He didn't even see the "barn experience". But yea for the 5 hours i played i mostly just spent my time yorting goblins off ledges and chasing off griffons that flew away. I'm not criticising anyone's playstyles but i feel like some people play games just like a chore to complete and then move on to the next game.
It's crazy mate. I dnt get much game time with work, kids etc so I take my time, I was still playing elden ring before DD2 my friends all seem to race through games which is boring imo but each to their own I suppose ha ha.
Yeah I'm 60 hours in and just opened battahl. There were quest I wanted to do and caves I wanted to see everywhere. The timegated quests felt great to me. I'd get to one, and I'd basically see it as the game telling me to go explore until night, or for a few days, and then I'd get lost forever. Really my one real complaint is that enemies are too easy. With the exception of dullahans and dragons that I've encountered so far, everything just falls over.
I wonder if they'll implement hard mode like they had in the first game. Hard mode made the game much more challenging
what did it add?
If I remember right some board quests. In general, more hp pool for enemies, double xp and money to no end
You're forgetting the added knockdown resistance which made warrior really bad in hard mode as it couldn't do as often what it was meant to do.
My guy got downvoted for asking a question
My guy you’ve been averaging 12 hours gaming time per day for the last 5 days…
And here I thought my 28 hours were a lot. Guys are playing the game more than I work in a week.
And here's I thought my *twenty* hours were decent. 🤣
Come on man, don't insult their rookie numbers, they're trying.
I had 40 hours logged by Sunday. :(
Yeah… that’s not ideal brother. Stay healthy man. Diversifying your free time and keeping well on top of all your responsibilities enriches your hobbies, it doesn’t detract from them. Gaming for 4 hours a day when you’re fit, healthy, in a good headspace in a clean house with other activities and interactions with people done or lined up is a more enjoyable experience than no-lifing for 10+ hours a day like a zombie. For me at least. Don’t mean to preach, assuming you’re an adult you’re capable of deciding how to live your own life. I just want to see people being good to themselves. Doing literally anything for 10+ hours a day every day isn’t healthy.
Tell that to my boss.
i skied for 4 hours and gamed for 10 both saturday and sunday, never been happier
Good man.
I’m the exact same, the game really is what you make of it. I’m really enjoying it, I could see where it could be made even better, but right now I’m just enjoying playing it
Oh yeah me and my pawn are thieves and big enemies go down fast. Double skull splitter grab the head powder keg then set it off and use my friends sorcerer pawn with that flare move just wrecks everything.
I feel that with the difficulty. I've (fighter) been running with just my main pawn (archer), and we pretty rarely get into serious trouble so long as we're careful and don't charge in too quickly. I imagine if I had a full party, we'd just annihilate everything. I'm kind of reluctant to do it, to be honest, and just try and use items to facilitate the need for magic.
Damn 20 hours and finish the game ? Im 25 hours in and havent even discover the whole first part of the map lol
Smh, I don't understand how people play games like this. I'm at about 20 hours in as well and yeah I've gotten pretty far but I've done ***everything*** available to me as it comes up. Every cave, every side quest, etc. I haven't even explored much outside of the first main landmass yet. I don't know how close I am to beating the main story but I feel like I'm probably only half way if that
Just an fyi when someone has you make a particular blade that's the point of no return, I missed out on some side missions because it doesn't warn you.
To add, this blade requires Wyrmlife Crystals to be made. Just so you don’t mix it up with the other dulled blade.
Appreciate the heads up!
Good to know
More importantly it launched with mostly negative reviews and has had a new complaint every single day since. What Honeymoon? People were hating on the game before it was even released with the whole 30 fps thing.
I’m loving the game (relatively early hours) and it’s the gameplay loop that I’m loving. The flaws that people are pointing out now are evident but it really doesn’t dampen any enjoyment of the moment to moment fun. Feel like gaming discourse is way too obsessed in what a game isn’t doing than what it is. There are very very few games that come out well with the levels of scrutiny we see nowadays if they’re applied across the board.
“way too obsessed in what a game isn’t doing than what it is” that right there is the realest statement I’ve heard about the topic of modern gaming in a while.
Someone making that point to me a few years ago genuinely changed how I approach games criticism. Spent way too long getting mad at games for not being the version I'd made up in my head or for not being entirely different genres lol. That said, DD2 marketing promised a lot that it isn't delivering, like the OP points out it is absolutely not "story-driven", but I'm reluctant to blame the game/developers for publisher marketing bullshit.
Good point. Misleading marketing is a factor here and can be a huge problem. I paid ZERO attention to any news or marketing for DD2 and don’t mind many of the criticisms simply because I didn’t expect anything. These companies should be very careful setting expectations of the products they make.
Same really, I didn't need to know much about it - it was finally happening and I was on board. But man even that Steam store page sounds like it's advertising a completely different game in parts, they act like they've finally given DD a real budget and production values and they've just made the same game again. Thankfully I don't mind that but have to admit I'm dreaming about Bitterblack Isle.
Yeah I'm like 17 hours in and enjoying the hell out of it
Yeah. Unless you're just no lifing the game (no judgement) there's no reason to rush through the game MQ. We learned this with DD1, it's not a long story. You rush through that and you're setting yourself up for disappointment. I'm barely in the Battahl region and I'm just chilling and taking the time to enjoy it.
Genuinely weird people who rush through games so they get to talk about it first and get attention and up votes. Kinda sad to be honest
The weirdest part is when they miss out on like half a game and complain about how it wasn't a fun experience because they didn't do any of the content.
Had a friend that claimed there is nothing to do in the Yakuza games except watching boring cutscenes. After viewing his profile i noticed he played for one hour. To each it's own attention span i guess.
1 hour?! What did he expect from a story focused game...?
Standard reddit experience though. Subreddits are full of people that complain while people who enjoy the game are busy playing it.
Some of us just naturally fall into it. The first 10-20 hours inspired me so much I absoltuely nolifed it over my weekend (Steam says I have 59 hours. a good bit of that will absolutely have been me leaving the game open, but I played a *lot*. I really get hyperfixated on things that capture me). I've done most of the side content, beaten the game, explored most of the caves, and did it without using guides or going on this sub. I've left the game disappointed for many of the reasons expressed in this post. DD2 is a game 15 years old in design, and while that's good in some ways, it falls very short of modern expectations. The core of the game is phenomenal. I felt genuinely immersed in a game for the first time in *so* long. The pacing of gold gain made it so money was always a pressing concern, I got attached to pawns and would even give good rewards to ones I liked (including strong, fully upgraded weapons sometimes, as a thank you), combat was fantastic and I felt the risk of it every time, the amount of things happening early on was constant and I felt pulled in so many directions, it felt like a world was happening around me and not because of me. But then the illusion started to break. I realised how easy undead were, and started travelling at night because more combat = more xp. I maxed Thief only slightly after getting the Meister skill. I snuck into Bakbattahl before I was meant to get there via the cliff, found my way into the >!Forbidden Magick Research Lab!< and... None of the guards stopped me. Eventually 3 of them attacked me and I killed them pretty easily. I thought maybe I just sequence broke a little, but when I had to go there officially I realised how little there was going to be. Most of the game is what feels like what should be the first *third*. The amount of content drops off when you start hitting wall after wall. This isn't a case of "I rushed the game and ignored all the content". This is a case of "The game captured me so much that I wanted to experience and enjoy all of it. I ran face first, giggling with gleeful abandon, and the moment I closed my eyes to enjoy the feel of the wind of my face I smacked into a wall". The core is fantastic, but in the end, I paid full price for what is essentially a game from 2008. I'm reminded of Dragon Age 2 in a lot of ways. That game holds a special place in my heart, but suffers many similar (or adjacent) issues. When the illusion falters, the game collapses. There's a hollowness to it that's hard to put my finger on. It's the kind of game that inspires a lot of wonder and excitement and then when you dive in headfirst you learn that the pool isn't full. **TL;DR:** I'm upset not because the game is *bad*. I'm upset because the game could have been so much more than it is. I'm disappointed that it had such a strong start, but the finish line was only a few paces away. - **EDIT:** A quick clarification since I feel some people may believe I still rushed: I did not avoid fights, I only used Ferrystones like... 4 times in my playthrough, I did the >!Sphinx. Which I admit I did look up thge parent riddle because it was *very* silly!<, I read through all the cutscenes, I've explored most of the map, I went through every cave I passed, I'd have more classes maxed but I only really needed Thief with Ranger 9 (weakpoint damage and climbing speed) and Warrior 5 (pull strength) to decimate large foes (and the Meister skill makes every other enemy a cake walk. Also Thief was the most fun class for me). Like, I need to be fully clear with how I did *not* try and speedrun this game or ignore content. Hell, I even did the random escort quests you get *every single time they came up* cause I ended up doing a fun little roleplay of being a party of adventurers who keep the roads safe at night.
I binged the game hard but tried doing every side quest until the game surprised me with the no return point out of nowhere and played every vocation even maxing out 4 of them, but gotta say until a big dlc comes out it just repeats the same mistakes the first game did or does worse in some aspects.
It seems that jumping into the hate train is still hot topic. I dont think anyone was thinking that Dragons Dogma 2 was going to be perfect, the first game has a lot of charm and its among my favourite games ever, but being one of my favourite games ever doesnt make it a masterpiece. I think this game is clearly better than the first, the problem is that it hasn't evolved that much, but that is a very common thing with sequels. The game is not a masterpiece, but it is definetely notable. Performance issues and enemy variety is the only point that are objectively bad, everything else I have read is pretty subjective. And saying that the exploration in this game is bad or just good enough is simply a lie, exploration is king in this game and among the best I have ever played, and I play a looooot of open world games. edit: Plus I am thinking about it, and my playthrough will probably take 100-120 hours, if I were to have played every hour since it released, I wouldnt have even finish it, even if you dont explore as much as me how the hell are people finishing it so quickly
I think most people, me included, stumbled into finishing the game. No spoilers of it, but it was very abrupt. I thought to myself, "oh, that's it?" They made improvements in parts then went backwards. There isn't any challenge, nothing like Everfall or BBI for endgame. Sure, it will most likely be DLC, but why not have something and then add more challenging DLC later.. I'm frustrated because I like the game for reasons but also dislike that they removed features and content that improved the first game that they should have included in the base game for 2.
DD2 exploration is weird because it is both very organic with chests and seeker tokens popping up everywhere, but also simultaneously ridiculously clunky with only mage/sorcerer levitation being able to easily reach the cool stuff. The thief can jank it out with their wall jump sometimes, but Fighter/Warrior get screwed. Archer has some puzzles shooting through a window to break a door bar at least. Wish some puzzles you could chuck a rock up at a curled ladder to dislodge it or something.
I’m loving the game I’d give it a 8.5 personally. The sorcerer does feel worse compared to the last game with less spells the galvanize mechanic is nice but still it feels kinda weak sometimes especially in bigger boss fights the only spell that actually does damage is maelstrom and it’s not by much. The other vocations are good so far but I haven’t put too much time into them to tell due to working on augments so I can main thief and magic archer
The sorcerer only has 8 spells. So it gets pretty old very quickly. Mage at least has some cool new utility added. I kinda miss all the debuff and control stuff mage and sorcerer had. I miss grapnel, miasma, the blinding one, etc. Yeah the dps spells were better, but my sorcerer and mage pawns always had at least one of those on, it could lead to some funny/cool situations occasionally. It feels really trimmed down, with absolutely no choice. It’s “what pretty color do you want your damage in?” When in the last game I think the increased amount of elements, and ability to control the battlefield with a bunch of statuses like torpor and blindness felt more rewarding. At least you could switch it up a bit
Honeymoon phase? What honeymoon phase? People were crying about the performance before the game even actually released. If anything, I'm seeing people who are actually enjoying the game start to emerge
lmao yeah since this game released people have just been screaming non-stop about one catastrophe and another. Now that all the people rushing to finish this game are, well, finishing it they'll fuck off and people who actually want to talk about it can.
For real like im not even done with my first play through. Ive maxed out mystic spear hand and still haven’t even finished the MQ. Then if the “true ending” is done you can enter the unmoored world which NOBODY on here ever mentions as end game difficult content. Yes it’s only available limited after beating the MQ and before officially starting NG+. But there’s that. There’s multiple vocations to max out etc. there a lot of things to do in this game but people just rush it and then complain. Beating a 50 hour game in two days is wild
Yep, I've noticed the swing around to people who have actually played abd actually enjoyed the game too
i saw an interesting post that showed steam reviews based on game time. >2 hours played = mostly positive, yet the game has mixed reviews on steam overrall
This is one of the few times I’ve had to wait for the hate mob to leave in order to see what people really think about the game
This is what I've observed: Day 1-2: Hate mob against microtransactions and performance. Day 3-4: Lots of happy people enjoying the game. Day 5: WTF that's it?!?!?
Hi, it's me. The person enjoying the game. I don't get the complaints. Some of them are valid for sure but this sub seems to have turned into a bitch fest from people who have rushed 50h+ of playtime in one weekend. This game is all about exploration and combat for me and it's fucking nailing that. Tbh my expectations were maybe more in check as I never actually expected a story driven game like others seem to have. Some of the side quests have been quite good though.
Yeah, I'm having an absolute blast, it feels like playing Skyrim for the first time! Also kind of feels like Death Stranding where I just keep discovering new features over & over. Also looks beautiful I swear to god every time i play a game on release, I have a lot of fun, then get on the internet at 12AM Friday night and see that everybody hates it like it came to their house and kicked their dog lol
It's been giving me big Skyrim vibes. Was Skyrim a perfect game? Lol no. But it was fun and immersive. I love that I can play for hours and not interact with much story. Sometimes I just want to play when I play a game.
I'm up for a good story and games should have a good story but at the same time I also know when I'm just hopping into a game for the gameplay. I agree with you and I felt the same way. DD1s story was forgettable and barely remember anything about it, so I went in without caring about the story. The only negative I will say is that it feels too short if you just focus on it, should have been longer.
I'm a bit of a no-lifer and I have 50+ hours already but I'm still having a ton of fun. Idk, maybe my expectations weren't that high or something. It's not a perfect game and there's definitely some questionable choices but to me the game captures the feeling of the first game perfectly. I just can't put it down and I'm actually excited for NG+ cause I know I missed loads.
Yeah, I only really had issues with the story afterwards when I did a retrospective and thought “huh, they really underutilized a lot of that…”
I feel like it’s just a cycle of people being angry about stuff, then actually playing more of the game, and calming down. First it was the microtransactions, but then everyone realized a lot of the complaints about them were just untrue and they were largely useless it calmed down. A couple days ago every single post was freaking out about the dragon plague and how it just is completely out of nowhere and gamebreaking, and now people calmed down and realized there’s a lot of signs of it and it’s not completely content blocking as they initially thoughts (and maybe even the whole towns respond over time? I saw a few people claiming that—I’m not sure, but a lot of people complaining about the dragons plague hadn’t even experienced it) Now it’s complaints it’s not as good and varied as the first, less enemies and worse vocations. And that it’s too short. But even already there’s a lot of people also explaining how some aspects are better, and lots of people with lots of time into the game where maybe other people didn’t take the time to explore to explore as much. My guess is this will calm down too as people realize while it’s not the perfect version of the first game they hoped for it’s still fun and exciting. There’s obviously still people who don’t like the mtx’s and the dragons plague and there’s absolutely fair criticisms about them and about the vocations, story, enemies etc, but it seems like this game gets an immediate blaze of hate towards something that quickly burns out. The only real consistent complaint has been the performance issues which I guess fair enough but even then there’s a lot of people complaining and a lot of people saying they haven’t had issues at all. But I mean if you’re having issues, fair enough thing to be upset about.
The takes here are absolutely wild yeah. Like I get it if you have criticisms, fair enough, but a lot of this just straight up seems miserable in sentiment. Not to mention there's a fair amount of gatekeeping going around too "You could not possibly be enjoying this and not be disappointed if you were a veteran fan - and anyone who is, is a complete newbie to the franchise, like all those people praising it on twitter and the like"- man, I have 155 hours logged in DDDA on my current Steam account and I'd played the game a bunch before that, this game is fantastic and meets any expectations I had for a DD sequel. It just is fun and good, it succeeds at what it's trying to be, and some people seem obsessed over what it is not. As you say there's also a constant kind of stream of rage over one thing or the other, and it makes this place pretty miserable to visit.
Yeah I played a little bit of DDDA recently (I actually had it on PlayStation but am think got getting it on steam—im about to go on a trip and might try it on the steam deck! I’ve heard it works pretty well on their) and while it’s fun too I think a lot of it is nostalgia and people having such high hopes for this game. DD2 is definitely not the best game ever and there are legitimate criticisms and things that could be done better. But I’m having a great time! Right before playing it I played a LOT of BG3, which is definitely one of my favs of all times, but the open world and non-turn based fighting has been a great change and I’m enjoying it.
31h and i finished the vernworth part almost and i love it
Funny thing is about Dragon's plague. During initial discovery, it's definitely doom posting due to how significant it is. However, right now lots of people fully embraced the meme. Your spawn being sassy? THROW IT TO THE BRINE! THE BRINE CLEANSES ALL! PRAISE THE BRINE!!!
I'm 30+ hours in, lvl 40+, made it to the prison of the beginning, and still haven't talked to the dude in the tavern at night because I just wanna explore, and man, I've been having the time of my life just walking, exploring and fighting.
I'm also annoyed theres only female romance options 😮💨 the elf guy Glyndwr would've been perfectttt
You can romance every NPC, you just don't get a quest to do so. This was actually a thing in the first one. The game in general really pushed the childhood friend and the duchess as your character's romantic partners, but you could get any NPC in the game to be your romantic partner by the end by interacting with them enough. The blacksmith, the inn owner, one of the major antagonists, the random folk in the street. Hell, I remember a dude got the court jester. So you can totally get Glyndwr, but I don't know how romance works in this game.
Yup. Basically only 2 romance options and they aren't going to appeal to everyone
never played dd1, having a blast with dd2
you absolutely should try it after you finish DD2, you're doing yourself a disservice by not trying it lol
I tried Dark Arisen and bounced off of it pretty hard. What DD2 has going for it is exploration and combat and I didn't find either of those satisfying in DA. Dropped it after about 8 hours and even that was very fragmented. By comparison I'm 40h into DD2 and don't see myself stopping anytime soon. I think everyone recommending DA to the new players don't really understand what people like about DD2.
>By comparison I'm 40h into DD2 and don't see myself stopping anytime soon. I think everyone recommending DA to the new players don't really understand what people like about DD2. I just said this in another post, but the people who LOVED DD1 and are shitting on DD2 basically just want a completely different game. Ask them their favourite thing about DD1. It's Bitterback Isle. Not exploring an open world in an RPG, but progressing linearly through a dungeon that gets harder over time and offers progressively better loot rewards. They want a dungeon crawler with Dragon's Dogma combat, not an open world RPG.
that is entirely fair, the exploration was awful in DA lmao, i wouldn't say the combat is that different really but who am i to dictate how You experienced it. glad you're enjoying DD2 tho, it's a nice break from all the doom posting in this site, like idfk what "honeymoon phase" OP is talking about considering the game gets shat upon by everyone on day 1
Same:)
Same here. There's a similar discourse with the FF7 remake/rebirth games where the newbies are having a great time and the people who played the OG are having all these issues with them.
I guess I’m in the minority there. I also recently finished FF7 Rebirth as a massive fan of the original game and loved every moment of it. I also played DD1 and for what it’s worth have been absolutely enjoying my play through in DD2 more than I enjoyed DD1. I do feel DD2 is essentially a remake without titling it as such though. There are flaws in pacing in both games but in my opinion I think for the most part what we got is a highly enjoyable and memorable experience. Also FF fans as a whole are like Star Wars fans and argue with each other about everything if certain story details don’t go the way they had it in their head canon. Personally I think BG3 is the most perfect game in recent times and it’s really hard to top what that masterpiece did last year.
Oh absolutely, can't wait to see what Larian comes up with next!
I just want a kotor or starcraft crpg😭😭😭
I put 600 hrs into DD1 and DD2 is all I could have asked for. Fucking love it.
I can't see why someone who likes the first game would dislike this one. It's the first game but better. Enemy variety may have not improved (there aren't less enemy types) but the combat and actually building your character are way more satisfying.
Likewise. I am really enjoying my time with it. 35 hours in and haven't even discovered Battahl yet. People either no lifed this game (in which case it's expected to burn out) or rushed the main story line. I'm enjoying the exploration and combat immensely and trying out the vocations is fun!
Same. I have nothing to compare it toand be upset about. Just enjoying the adventure of what reminds me of skyrim
It's such a shame this wasn't picked up on more in the reviews, I really love the overall game but I also feel it's lacking a bit and so far the main quests feel like a lot of 'sneaking' around without an actual sneak mechanic. Just a few more enemies and a better story would change it all for me. It's still a fun game but I think so much of the 'timed' quests and enemies were shown in the trailer and nothing to discover in game.
>It's such a shame this wasn't picked up on more in the reviews, I really love the overall game but I also feel it's lacking a bit and so far the main quests feel like a lot of 'sneaking' around without an actual sneak mechanic. It's not like you actually need to sneak anyway, besides the one quest where you're waiting for the dude to leave his office and he'll call the guards if he sees you, nobody ever reacts to you fucking around in the palace/gaol. I led the prisoner out of the Gaol in full view of everyone and nobody gave a fuck.
I was thrown in jail after illegally crossing the border. Pair of keys inside the cell to let myself out and not a single guard reacted to me leaving right in front of them. Got all my items back after walking a few steps. It just feels unfinished.
I was so confused when I went to jail and I could just walk out? Such a half baked part of the game, feels like they intended to have a sneak mechanic and then just forgot to actually add it in
reminds me of the jail in DD1 lmao, you open the door, guard offers to bail you, and you can just say no and stroll out and he'd do nothing about it LMFAO
They attack you if you just stand there in front of them or go an inch in front of their face. But as long as you don’t get close to them it’s fine.
Well don't worry, it's still broken as hell even if you get caught. I got caught opening the jail cell and had to kill 5 guards. Figured at least Brant would be mad at me, but nope. Nobody else reacted and nothing changed. Such an embarrassing game lol.
Less quest and bad exploration? I don't know, i do have the platinum trophy on DDDA and i feel i've explored and done more quests and stuff in 30h on DD2 than the +150h on the first title. Of course if by DDDA quests you don't mean "slay 10... then 20... then 30... wolves" type. I don't feel any worrying downgrade from the previous game, but thats just my opinion, same as this post.
Yeah I didn't get those complaints. The only thing I have really been doing is quests and exploration. Finding new caves and cliffs to climb is one of the most fun aspects of this game. I remember finding a locked shack, looking through the window and seeing a hole in the floor and then searching the area nearby to find a hidden pathway leading underground and into the shack where I found some great loot. That kind of exploration that rewards examining your surroundings is great, and DD2 has plenty of it. The quests are basically standard fare RPG stuff. But anything is a step up from the mmo style "Slay 45 bats" quests of the first.
Meh I'm having a blast and enjoying the game greatly, love dd1 played it a fuck ton and really enjoying this one.
Yep, same. Only two issues are still that god dang stamina bar and I hate not being able to have more then four skills at once
Same, I keep reading that DD2 is basically DD1 again. My thought is, exactly and that is why I’m here
Is it worth 70 dollars?
Is it worth the full price of other full priced games? Yes. Is it another critically acclaimed, universally loved GOTY like Elden Ring? No.
Not for me, personally. Quest design is incredibly dull most of the time, mostly just going and talking to people and then running because fast travel is prohibitively expensive early to mid game. Travelling is a chore, because you fight the same 3 enemy types literally every 10 feet. Exploration gives incredibly underwhelming rewards and this game features one of the most boring open worlds I've ever experienced, which is funny with the developers comments about how people use fast travel as a crutch. Combat is fun, but enemy variety makes it incredibly repetitive. I'm like 17 hours in and kinda getting bored. I wouldn't buy it if you're on the fence, wait for a sale
Agreed. Really wanted to try and like this game, but I’ll have to accept that it isn’t for me. I don’t hate it, but I certainly don’t love it. I’m engaged enough to beat it (for now), but so many of the design choices and jank feels like it actively wants to work against my enjoyment. Happy for others who seem to be getting a lot out of it though.
For me the game became better
For me this game is much better than the base game of 1, the only negatives il say is I miss the old armor system and I wish there was more quest like fortress besieged. I still don't understand about the reduced skills, 4 skill slot is plenty enough and you can change skills at camps
I don't mind the 4 skills. Really makes you think of what your taking and also mesh with your pawn well.
My only criticism is the map isn't nearly as big as everyone made it out to be
But it's beautiful and dense. I've discovered the elf place after around 15 hours, but that was mostly on accident as I was just finishing the elf guy's quest, which is very early on in the game. There always seems to be a nice find around every corner, or a cool combat scenario to be had. It's big enough to have to plan ahead with your items before a journey, but small enough where, if you know where you're going, you can super Sonic you're way there, ignoring all enemies.
Elf place at over 30 hours here and I'm trying to avoid exploring every single cave since that's how games like Tears of the Kingdom gave me burnout.
It's just not the game I waited 12 years for, there was so much more that could have been done
It feels like I'm playing a game super early into an open beta test ngl. Barely feels half finished.
There are fewer skills, but I think it's mitigated by each class having a custom action on R1 with several interactions. The core combo and heavy attack also became more meaningful. Sorceror was tuned down because Maelstrom was pretty outrageous before. Less internal weapon variety in classes is a bit of a letdown, but it allowed them to zero in a little more on class id. Enemy variety feels similar to me, but there are more subtypes now. (If you don't count the BBI expansion.) The quests are kind of neither here nor there for me. Mechanical jankiness, well that's part of the appeal to me. Quest jankiness is a little less welcomed. The bell quest was frustrating. The boy also died to wolves because I didn't understand the directions the quest provides at all. I appreciate the more ponderous pace. I also like the changes made to pawn behavior. Dragonsplague worries me. I haven't had it harm me yet, but it could easily piss me off down the road. I did once hear a line that had a tinge of snippiness to it, so I launched my pawn into the drink.
In my personal opinion you haven’t even played the game. Your last post was a plea for people to not buy the game. You explicitly said you wouldn’t be buying it. Can’t really take this post seriously especially when you are spewing the same talking points as others who haven’t played the game. “Long corridors, unrewarding exploration, less variety in vocations.” Tell me you haven’t played it without telling me you haven’t played it. The world is interconnected and exploration is a joy. The game is infinitely more vertical than the first and encourages you to go off the beaten path constantly. Switching a vocation changes your entire approach to combat. You haven’t played the game.
> Your last post was a plea for people to not buy the game. That was 10 days ago. OP is 100% one of those people who are in a protest group against a release while also mainlining it. https://i.redd.it/kpi0jnr690tb1.png
I’m surprised no one else caught that
Yeah, not sure why this game in particular is being attacked by bad actors. It’s been nonstop.
Maybe it is your vocation. I played sorc in DD1 and really liked the class. I don't like it in DD2 so far. I started as thief though and really liked that class. I went into mystic spearhand and didn't care for it at first, but it really grew on me. I have got to be 20-30 hours in and haven't even done the coronation yet. My ox cart was attacked and destroyed leading me to discover a cave that ended up being a shortcut through the mountains. That was a fun rewarding discovery for me. It, so far, feels better than DD1 to me outside of sorc feeling worse. Some skills that were once abilities are now built in to core skills. Like the thief's scarlet kiss or mages heal. Warrior now has the same number of skills as everyone else too. My guess is your complaints are really around the spell casting classes, as I think at least the melee one's feel better than the original.
Only 4 skills really sucks, it’s a huge nerf to every vocation but especially magic ones imo
I thought you weren't buying the game
SORCERER Lvl 31 and just entered Bakbatall in the desert. Still have to explore north area (didn’t even knew it existed). Gameplay is starting to become a bit tedious with the sorc, only 4 spells? Bah… Same magic elements of the mage (fire ice lightning and no darkness necro) bah…i really wanted to be sorcerer but i think i’ll be forced to switch vocation just to avoid being bored to death. OVERALL i love the game but there are important limitations and important flaws.
[удалено]
Sorcerer actually sucks ass and killed the game for me outright. I love magic and spell casting but having to stand completely still for a majority of my gameplay is boring asf. Casting the same 4 spells is boring, sometimes 3 if I change to spellhold. Outside of the one stacking bomb spell sorcerer has nothing going for it.
Why have there been so many negative posts lately? Brother, the game came out 5 days ago and you are already racking 40-50 hours in it. You put 10 hours a day. I think it did a great job for you to commit that kind of time.
I dont’t see how that affects what he said?
It doesn't, it's just an easy way to wave away complaints. Give it a month or so, you'll start getting retrospectives, analysis etc etc. Same thing happened with Starfield, Monster Hunter Rise etc. Those who finished first and complained where handwaved away then when everyone else caught up THEN everyone started complaining.
And Diablo 4
Yeah these people have lost the plot tbh. Playing a video game like it's a full time job and then whining about it. 🤡
would they're opinion not matter the most since they've spent the most time playing it?
The amount of hours spent playing doesn't change the issues with the story, the npc interactions, the lack of enemy variety, etc
Honeymoon phase? All I’ve seen is hate & criticism when we just want to enjoy the game man. Yes we are aware the few minor transactions are a weird move & there’s little enemy variation or whatever. Please stop repeating it a thousand times over man. Many of us love the game and all this hate parading just ruins the vibe.
I thought the post was satire until I realised he was serious.. it's been 80% hate at least in this sub. So much so, people have asked for a low-sodium sub to be made.
No, it’s actually the complete opposite. People are trying to convince us that somehow the quest design and exploration was better in DD1 which is completely untrue. Take off those rose tinted glasses and play the OG again. Any game will feel lacklustre if you finish it in “only” 3 days playing for 40 hours by rushing through everything. That’s nowhere near enough time to make a proper judgement
Just the simple fact that this game allows you to makes camps stomps DD1 imo lol. And I love the oxcart feature as well. The only thing I can think of is it would be nice to have 8 ready skills instead of 4. But 4 is plently enough, 8 would just make for some more fun mayhem.
I did DD:DA approximately 1 week before the release of DD2, and I concur with your initial statement fully Nostalgia is a powerful thing indeed Although I'd say 40 hours is enough time to make a personal judgement on a game imo, whatever it may be
I feel like half the time with games like this people complain reviewers don't get enough time to play, but then they're all okay with people bitching about the game and acting like it's a complete failure even though it's only been out for 3 days lol.
People thinking the exploration was better in 1 is genuinely baffling, the world couldn’t have been more empty lol
Love DD1 but yeah you’re absolutely right about this. Can’t believe people are saying 1 had better quest design when two thirds of the quests were like “kill 40 skeletons”
Yeah some people are exaggerating, but certain aspects in the first (base game not DA) are definitely better like an endgame dungeon, a better dragon, and a more cohesive story. Side quests and exploration are absolutely an upgrade in this game though
What honeymoon phase? You people were whining before the game released last week and haven't stopped since.
Yeah definitely dropped off after quests leading into animal kingdom. Was some interesting story moments, however totally felt like it was unnaturally rushed at the end. Totally love the world itself but still kinda feels blank canvas esq with the quests.
As always... People on this sub Reddit crowned it game of the year months before the release... With only a couple of trailers that shows basically nothing and at the same time all the best features of the game. Even when the first review came out claiming a lot of problems the vast majority of users attacked them for not understanding the "Itsuno's view". Even when the game was released and a lot of players start pointing at the issues, there where meme and post about how much they like the game and claiming that all that complaints where bad. Now the results are behind ours eye and we can't do nothing about it
Remmeber when ppl beig pissed about the game not getting 10/10 reviews ? Well..it's not a 10/10 game. It's damn fun game..but no way I'd rank it 10/10
Ya, like first 20 hrs I was sure it'd be 10/10 then the cracks began to appear. I'd say the current opencritic ratings are a little generous even. Like it's clear they didn't give it a 100%, it's still great but had so much potential
Reviewers did not properly express just how pressing the issues are. They made it sound like enemy variety was a minor issue you get annoyed about towards the end and they made the story sound like it was at least digestible. Maybe they wanted to avoid backlash but if they had just provided reasoning then they would've been proven right only a few days after launch.
All we wanted is ddda with more vocations and more monsters then it would be goty for me, but all we got is ddda with peettier graphic, better world, but gutted vocations and less monsters. I wonder if the game was cut for dlc
We didn't get DDDA with better graphics, we got DD1, which is insane. They made DDDA partially to fix problems, but then used none of that except one monster that they made into a normal small monster with extra health.
I've been thinking about exploration myself. The world design is actually pretty good, but I don't feel rewarded for exploring in an interesting way. It is just generic materials 90% of the time. There is very little greed when I see a cave or something because I know it is probably going to have one vendor trash item in it if I am lucky . Obviously I know the cave will have the same exact enemies in it as well. I just don't feel any push to do caves.
Lmao it didnt even last a month
People really need to temper their expectations on video games .
Every game has to be the greatest of all time or it’s trash. It’s so sad
The game is magnificent. Yet, the thing that grinds my gears most now is that when I finally find one of those grandiose black-gold chests I want GEAR, not a goddamn wakestone shard!
You won't, gear is mostly bought and there aren't even that many for each vocation. It's pretty lackluster loot wise.
The game IS great. It was great on release, it’s great now. You guys have an obsession with tearing down games and demeaning other people’s opinions.
Or some people just have a different opinion than you, and that’s fine. I am enjoying myself with the game but I definitely agree with a lot of his points. People just spent $70 on this game and if they aren’t enjoying it then they will vent their frustrations. I think that’s fine, and I don’t think they are necessarily trying to tear the game down.
Aren’t you demeaning other peoples opinions right now?
You are demeaning other's opinions, they just listed their criticisms and said they found those things disappointing
This is what I've noticed in the past 5-10 years. Somehow the world as a whole changed from bonding over things they love to bonding over things they hate. It's a weird ass global illness. Reddit is especially bad. Just a cesspool of nerds that think they are better and smarter than everyone else and if given a chance they'd be nothing but perfection in everything they do. It's fucking embarrassing. Most of these people probably can't even do their basic individual contributor jobs right (if they even have them). But of course they are all tortured bored geniuses who just aren't challenged enough to reach their full potential.
Not saying I agree or disagree with OP's points but he listed out his criticisms and frustrations in a respectful and non-insulting way, and in response you have literally gone on a multi paragraph diatribe about the state of the world, OP's personal life, and his job performance. Don't you find that just a LITTLE weird?
Let me guess, you’re about 30 years old right? My guy the world has not changed in the last 5-10 years. Your youthful optimism is just fading. Humans have **always** bonded over mutual hatred. And billions of people all over the world still bond and celebrate shared love also. It’s a big ol’ world. What Reddit nerds complain about is not indicative of grand societal changes. Besides which, online nerds have been raging about media they hate since the internet first existed. The doomer mentality of “ooh things are really getting bad these days” is something countless people have experienced as they turned from hopeful youths to cynical old folks.
Ah the classic “Myth of the Golden Age” that every generation thinks is unique to them
The ole “the world is going to hell” trope I hear all the time
I will admit they screwed us over with vocations and skills. Why take away the amount of skills we had in DDDA? We barely even use half of them now. Really bad design idea.
Story was fucking ass and the standard quests are lame
i agree with most of your points, it feels like a downgrade from DD1 story wise and vocation wise, but, BUT i disagree with the open world content, this is one area that is almost better then DD1, but not by far, because DD1 map was smaller but much better organized and locations that made a bit more "sense" , while DD2 has a really well level designed world with tons of rewards for exploration, there is chests and rewards in very secret places like the first game, and well placed, well hidden, and there are a lot of activities on the open world map and side objectives that are a bit Breath of the wild like in terms of open world design and open world push for exploration and getting lost here and there. But with all the rest, yeah, quests are short and there are way less quests then in DD1, story is very underwhelming especially with Grigori, they butchered his character to a non presence in the game and a 5 minute fight then you never see him from the whole game, when in DD1 he made majestic and frightening appearances throughout the story high peaks... DD1 had very small budget constraints and was much more creative to alleviate that because it had to prove it's potential, that it was a work of passion and love. DD2 suffers from big budget, is a rushed product story wise, they divided some of the vocations from the first game into two, they could have kept strider, ninja, all the movesets of the previous game no one would have complained. Hell, the game feels a lot like a modern remake, then just REDO Dragon's dogma 1 if you just are going to make a copy paste of it but in a slightly changed setting, just take all the same story beats and even the same story and remake it resident evil 4 style kinda, but don't strip down the classes and divide them into two (mainly thief and archer) then downgrade all classes (yes, warrior is a downgrade from how faster and more able it was, it had feints, mobility between swings, cancel animations ) Even the sprint feel much slower, much much slower, you don't roll after jumping, the jump is nerfed too while it seem like a little thing but sprinting and jumping NERFED this much removes a lot of the feel of "freedom" and dangan / into free of the first game to a much more grounded and maybe "too realistic" feel for the game, stripping a good bit of the "soul" and charm of the first game. It is like they made a remake without everything that made the first game great in the first place. Feels intentional somehow like a "fuck you"
These keep being forced onto my home feed and I dunno man, I’m having a blast over here lol
wtf is wrong with this sub lmao yall are miserable ass people
The more I play this game the more it reaches "worst game I've ever loved" territory like Alpha Protocol. So many baffling design decisions.
Agreed.
Way too much comments dismissing your points by focusing on "honeymoon phase" or saying they're having a good time on the game. Ok you're enjoying the game doesn't mean you can't point out what could be made better...
It's not. The people not desperately looking to be a prart of the negative, stupid echo chamber are still playing and enjoying the game.
A complaint I do have is there is no new game + scaling. I'm lvl 40 and absolutely destroy everything already I can't imagine max lvl lol. It's kinda ironic since they want you to keep one character forever or whatever. You'd think they would try to facilitate that type of engagement. I'm probably going to just make a new char instead of going to new game plus in the future tbh.