Dragons Dogma 2

[00:00:00] .

[00:00:10] Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of the Pre-Order Bonus

[00:00:13] podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Cameron Warren, and I'm joined as always by

[00:00:19] Professor Jacob Price. It's April 18th, 2024, and we're back to talk about video

[00:00:25] games. Jake, what are your thoughts on early access?

[00:00:32] Oh, I love it. I love it in principle. I think it's a great idea. It feels like a

[00:00:37] safe way to get a game out there in the open, low barrier to entry. It just seems

[00:00:46] like it's all win-win-win. Now, I don't know the other side of that and I'd be

[00:00:52] really curious to see people who talk about early access as a failure. I

[00:00:57] wonder if that has ever been the case. Something I do want to share though is a

[00:01:02] friend of ours, friend of the podcast. We interviewed him. This is Aaron from

[00:01:07] Flip Fly Studios. He said, and this is a hard time to get funding in

[00:01:12] gaming, so take this with a grain of salt, but he said that Whisker

[00:01:16] Survivor Squadron, or Whisker Squadron Survivor, which is currently in early

[00:01:20] access for like 10 or 12 bucks, has sold a lot of copies. That's a lot of

[00:01:27] people who are investing in that game to get better and they're going to be there

[00:01:30] at 1.0 no additional cost to the game and they're part of that sort of

[00:01:35] early community. But he said on Twitter that despite having sold a ton of

[00:01:41] games, it has been crazy hard to land funding from a publisher even

[00:01:46] though the proof of concept is kind of there for the game. It just makes me

[00:01:49] wonder that like as much as I want to believe that early access is a safe,

[00:01:54] wonderful way for especially smaller studios to sort of get their feet on the

[00:01:59] ground. Is it? I don't know. I have some doubt.

[00:02:06] Yeah, I was listening to the kind of funny games cast and they were just

[00:02:12] discussing this topic of early access and like, is it a good thing? Does

[00:02:17] it make sense? It's like kind of the weirdness of it. And they were talking

[00:02:23] about this because there's so many games coming out that are all coming in

[00:02:25] early access. Yeah, the biggest ones being No Rest for the Wicked and

[00:02:31] Hades 2 obviously. And then they kind of discussed, you know, how

[00:02:36] Baldur's Gate 3 was in early access for several years and then Hades 2

[00:02:39] for like a year and a half or whatever. So I thought it was an

[00:02:43] interesting topic because I definitely been thinking about this

[00:02:45] probably since around the time Valheim released and Valheim came out.

[00:02:50] That was the first moment where I was like, huh, early access. Like this is

[00:02:54] the thing that we're just doing now. Yeah. And that's it. Let me be

[00:03:00] clear, like I'm all for this. I'm definitely I think games only

[00:03:04] get better when they have more time and like more feedback with

[00:03:07] Baldur's Gate 3 being the preeminent example of this, right? It

[00:03:11] came out, sold a million copies for just Act 1 of the Game, sat in

[00:03:17] early access for like three plus years. Yeah. And then became the

[00:03:22] game that it is today I think really like a lot to do with

[00:03:26] early access and like the early feedback that they got for sure.

[00:03:32] But it is weird and the reason I want to talk about this

[00:03:36] because I actually today I cracked open No Rest for the Wicked.

[00:03:40] Oh, you did. Nice for just like an hour and Jake, let me tell

[00:03:46] you it's good. This has this got your name written all over it,

[00:03:50] my friend. Imagine if you will. I'm imagining Diablo 4 meets

[00:04:00] Dark Souls. Sounds pretty good.

[00:04:05] With a better story. Oh, and a really cool like super unique

[00:04:11] animation and art style and insane lighting graphics. I mean, it

[00:04:16] sounds amazing. A little but here's the thing. Yeah, it's in

[00:04:21] early access. Well, you had mentioned in the Discord that

[00:04:25] you were going to skip but it's the whole campaign. It's

[00:04:29] the whole game so I'm just curious on the type of person

[00:04:33] that is going to buy a game in early access that looks super

[00:04:36] interesting. I'm going to play it. I'm typically not I'm

[00:04:39] also usually I'll send like one round of feedback through

[00:04:43] the appropriate channels to the developer and just say hey, this

[00:04:47] is what I really liked. This didn't make sense to me. I got

[00:04:50] stuck doing this and I'll usually just do one round of

[00:04:53] that. I'm not like a super dedicated member of early game

[00:04:56] communities. I'm sorry but and then and then I can put

[00:04:59] it aside and then I can come back to the game when it's

[00:05:02] 1.0 and the fact that the whole game is coming out is like I

[00:05:06] know myself and I know if I play this entire game right now when

[00:05:09] it releases 1.0, I'm probably not going to touch it and I would

[00:05:13] prefer to play the game in its fullest most polished state

[00:05:19] rather than play the game in early access completely. It's

[00:05:23] not super sound logic but it's just kind of how I approach

[00:05:26] early access.

[00:05:28] No, I think it's perfectly sound. I think that's kind of the

[00:05:31] annoying thing and like part of the reason I wanted to bring it

[00:05:34] up is

[00:05:38] it's it's like this game has been like pretty heavily

[00:05:42] marketed. Oh yeah. They've done like quite a few partnerships

[00:05:44] with streamers and like gaming outlets. It's had like a ton

[00:05:48] of coverage and it's like dude, I mean people are treating

[00:05:51] like they treating it like this is coming out like this

[00:05:55] is out. This is a game that's like here and so you kind of

[00:05:58] want to it's kind of like Valheim when it had its is Valheim

[00:06:05] still in early access. I think it is. Yeah, it's like not 1.0

[00:06:07] yet. Correct. Which to me says like they're just never

[00:06:11] going to release it. 1.0. It's weird right because multiple

[00:06:16] years right? Like we're two plus years. I think we're two

[00:06:19] years. I want to say two years of early access at Valheim

[00:06:22] and it's received hefty content updates patches all sorts of

[00:06:28] things right? That game is not I mean it is quite different

[00:06:32] from what it was when it first launched. But yeah, I think

[00:06:34] Cameron you're getting at something where like when does

[00:06:37] early access kind of cross the line from Hey, here's an

[00:06:42] incomplete build that we want feedback on to Hey, this is

[00:06:46] a marketing strategy to try to get more people invested in

[00:06:50] this game because if you're releasing a game with the

[00:06:54] campaign complete, pardon me is like well what's preventing you

[00:06:59] from releasing the game in 1.0 and six months from now? Why do

[00:07:04] the early access and it kind of feels like a song and dance

[00:07:07] and I'll be honest as I've been thinking about this only one

[00:07:10] answer has come to my mind and folks remember this is

[00:07:13] speculation Cameron I'd like to hear your thoughts on this

[00:07:16] but I wonder if it makes sense to have a game that's so

[00:07:20] linear completion release and early access to soften reviews

[00:07:25] and to prevent review bombing bombing because people will

[00:07:28] always be able to say like Hey, this is early access things are

[00:07:33] going to change so it doesn't make sense to review bomb

[00:07:37] something when official reviews are going to come out later

[00:07:40] you get all the people who were really upset they kind of

[00:07:44] get their emotions out of their system without it like

[00:07:47] really hampering sales or the PR or just the basic dialogue

[00:07:52] surrounding the game. I don't know maybe I feel like I'm kind

[00:07:56] of making that up but at the same time it seems logical.

[00:08:00] I don't know I feel like we need another category almost

[00:08:02] at this point. I need it needs to be something called like

[00:08:07] pre release or you know I don't know like cuz cuz to your

[00:08:12] point it's like there are a ton of games on steam they're

[00:08:16] legitimately early access they're like hey we are like

[00:08:20] developing this game it is not complete at all whereas no rest

[00:08:25] for the wicked kind of treads that line of like Hey guys we've

[00:08:29] been working on this for six years here's the full campaign.

[00:08:33] Yeah, here's like fleshed out cinematics like this isn't like

[00:08:38] and obviously there's issues with it for sure and that's

[00:08:40] like the reason they put it in early access and I think

[00:08:43] it's still probably the right decision but anyway it's just

[00:08:47] interesting I can't help myself so I just bought it and I'm

[00:08:51] gonna play it a little bit but to your point I do feel less

[00:08:54] invested to finish it. So if I do hit like anything that kind

[00:08:57] of gives me pause it does make it so it just makes it a lot

[00:09:04] easy for me be like I'll just come back to this later and

[00:09:06] I just put it down really really fast. The one thing that

[00:09:10] may cause me to do that and I got a hefty discount on

[00:09:13] it because there was some promo today. It's got eight bucks off

[00:09:16] and it's cheaper in early access than it will be obviously.

[00:09:18] Yeah. But the one thing that may actually put me off for good

[00:09:24] is the performance because this game looks stunning but dude it

[00:09:28] eats your GPU alive like the lighting effects and there's no

[00:09:34] DLSS yet so like you can't even did you drop in like in

[00:09:39] the low 30s in combat with like a 3080 GPU so that's wild. I

[00:09:46] mean it's also unsurprising and that this is the team behind

[00:09:51] Ori and if you pay attention to the Ori games the stuff that's

[00:09:55] happening in the background well all of what's happening

[00:09:58] sort of graphically but like lighting and stuff is super

[00:10:02] wild and to sort of add the isometric dimension on top of

[00:10:05] what they're already doing with Ori I feel like yeah this

[00:10:08] seems like a game that's going to be pretty intense.

[00:10:13] But there is a cool game here that's actually what the thing

[00:10:17] that kind of hooked me into it was this is a it's not really

[00:10:23] anything like new but it's taking the over the top ARPG

[00:10:29] genre and just mixing it up a little bit and like kind of

[00:10:33] making enough changes that to make it a little bit more

[00:10:36] interesting like it's not a Diablo clone. It's not like a

[00:10:40] torchlight situation you know like one of those but it has

[00:10:44] like the same perspective but the combat is much more

[00:10:47] Dark Souls it steals like directly from that system that has

[00:10:51] it has weight and like you know has kind of the similar

[00:10:57] class types and but it has randomized loot like Diablo

[00:11:01] so anyway it's a mystery ideas in there incredibly cool

[00:11:04] art style this is a cool game super cool game so excited to

[00:11:08] follow it I may play more just depending on maybe they'll

[00:11:12] have a performance patch soon but right yeah.

[00:11:15] Yeah it'll be curious to see what the 1.0 launch kind of

[00:11:18] looks like right how different it really is I feel like if

[00:11:22] you have the entire campaign out though that's probably

[00:11:27] not going to change right it almost just feels like

[00:11:31] and of course folks I'm kind of assuming here I don't know

[00:11:34] the details behind it but you know it really feels like

[00:11:36] they're nearly done with production and that maybe the

[00:11:40] people who play just are also serving as a great greater

[00:11:45] net for QA I don't think Moon Studios QA don't get me I

[00:11:50] don't want that understood incorrectly but when you have

[00:11:54] I mean in the initial cinematics there's a quick

[00:11:57] assignment the initial cinematics and stuff like look

[00:11:59] like they're done like they're full blown like beautiful

[00:12:04] cinematics with like voice acting some I mean I assume

[00:12:08] the rest of the campaign is that way so then the early

[00:12:11] access to your point Jake it seems like it's bug fixing

[00:12:14] and balancing tuned towards like some sort of end game vision

[00:12:19] and we know there's co-op coming in future so anyway

[00:12:21] right okay yeah so who knows who really knows I wish I did

[00:12:26] that'd be kind of cool but at the same time like I said

[00:12:30] I probably won't be picking it up right now I'm trying to work

[00:12:33] on some backlog before my May gets completely logged

[00:12:39] water logged with like a ton of new games that are coming

[00:12:42] out and so I have a list that I posted in our discord

[00:12:45] I'm just going to kind of go through the games that

[00:12:46] I'm most interested in but other games have been

[00:12:50] announced as well for May it's really looking like

[00:12:54] quite the hefty lineup okay let's see here's my list

[00:12:59] and so Indica was actually just moved up a week it was

[00:13:03] moved to May 2nd from May 8th so May 2nd that's right

[00:13:07] around the corner speaking of early rising V rising

[00:13:10] 1.0 is also launching in May on May 8th and so

[00:13:15] that means it's 1.0 on PC and then 1.0 launching

[00:13:20] and this is its first launch on PlayStation May 9th

[00:13:24] it's going to be busy with Animal Well Crow Country

[00:13:27] it was just announced in the most recent indie world

[00:13:30] that Big Kitty or Little Kitty Big City which is like

[00:13:34] the happy version of the game Stray is coming out

[00:13:37] Crip Masters coming out on the 9th

[00:13:40] Ghost of Tsushima PC is coming out on the 16th

[00:13:44] excuse me Hellblade 2 is coming out on the 21st

[00:13:47] Haunty another great indie game is coming out on the 23rd

[00:13:50] Paper Mario the thousand year door remake slash remaster

[00:13:54] I'm not sure what that is exactly coming out on the 23rd

[00:13:57] World of Goode coming out on the 23rd and then

[00:13:59] Ninesouls a Metrivania highly stylized coming out

[00:14:02] on the 29th and that's the game that's a list

[00:14:06] of the games that I'm interested in to some extent

[00:14:10] there's no way I'm going to play all of those

[00:14:11] but May is entirely stacked and I think if

[00:14:15] you're not even into indie games but you play

[00:14:17] on PC you are obligated to play Ghost of Tsushima

[00:14:24] at the very least that game

[00:14:28] how do you think that game is going to be on PC?

[00:14:32] Dude I think it'll be amazing on PC

[00:14:35] I think it's gonna have if the other PlayStation ports

[00:14:39] or any evidence or whatever like they've both

[00:14:44] just been phenomenal including the most recent

[00:14:47] was Horizon Forbidden West

[00:14:50] dude that thing was stacked with graphical options

[00:14:54] like to the gills and people were running it

[00:14:57] at like max ultra settings with the DLSS3 enabled

[00:15:01] on like 120 frames so probably gonna be the best place

[00:15:05] to play Ghost of Tsushima honestly dude

[00:15:08] I might have to buy it again like I just

[00:15:12] I love that game so much

[00:15:14] I have played it probably too much

[00:15:16] so I actually probably won't buy it again but

[00:15:19] but if you dude can we can we just please announce

[00:15:21] Ghost of Tsushima too like what are we doing?

[00:15:23] Like what are we doing?

[00:15:25] Okay two things about Ghost of Tsushima

[00:15:27] because I love it as well

[00:15:29] I have the PS5 director's cut

[00:15:31] and I needed excuse to play it

[00:15:33] so maybe we do need to just do like

[00:15:35] hey Ghost of Tsushima still is amazing episode

[00:15:38] but in regards to the sequel

[00:15:42] I'm super concerned

[00:15:45] and I have nothing to base this on

[00:15:46] just all speculation in the hearsay

[00:15:48] that I'm seeing online

[00:15:50] I'm concerned that Ghost of Tsushima too

[00:15:52] is kind of suffering insomniacs Spider-Man 2

[00:15:58] with a bloated budget and just a ton

[00:16:02] kind of seems like that's what would happen right?

[00:16:04] It just kind of feels like

[00:16:07] similar things are happening

[00:16:09] and I really don't want Sucker Punch

[00:16:11] to get some of the same flak that Insomniac has gotten

[00:16:16] maybe not flak that's not the right word

[00:16:17] but people being laid off despite like a game

[00:16:21] being highly successful and wonderful

[00:16:24] I'm confident that that sequel is going to be

[00:16:25] just incredible and I really just want it

[00:16:27] to be a smashing success

[00:16:29] and I don't know man I'm worried

[00:16:32] because we haven't heard a peep

[00:16:34] on it really since they announced

[00:16:38] since they announced that they were working on a sequel

[00:16:39] and since they announced that the movie

[00:16:41] it is a movie not a TV series right

[00:16:43] was in production

[00:16:45] so please like I don't know

[00:16:48] I just want that game to come out

[00:16:50] I want it to be a huge success

[00:16:52] and I'm just super worried about

[00:16:54] just because of the gaming industry

[00:16:56] financial kind of issues that are going on

[00:16:58] I mean I think my greatest fear is that

[00:17:03] they are spending a lot of time

[00:17:07] making legends into a thing

[00:17:11] instead of like this nice little standalone experience

[00:17:15] which if I had to guess

[00:17:17] that's exactly what's happening

[00:17:19] and they're taking a lot of time

[00:17:21] to like work on legends and make it a thing

[00:17:23] because the original legends was really well received

[00:17:27] but it was kind of like a side thing

[00:17:29] it wasn't monetized

[00:17:30] it was just like hey here's this like proof of concept

[00:17:33] that was actually really good

[00:17:38] yeah man I hope that doesn't compromise the campaign

[00:17:42] it probably will

[00:17:43] I hope it doesn't

[00:17:45] but it probably will

[00:17:46] you think we might see a flip

[00:17:47] where it's like a 10 hour campaign

[00:17:49] and then a full-blown live service multiplayer thing

[00:17:53] I mean unless Sony was like hey

[00:17:55] we're gonna help you guys out

[00:17:56] we're gonna triple your budget

[00:18:01] but hey we're tripling your budget

[00:18:02] because you're actually attaching legends

[00:18:07] the nice thing about legends

[00:18:08] is that it's a completely like separate experience

[00:18:10] that's not part of the single player

[00:18:12] so they're not trying to meld

[00:18:14] like a single player campaign

[00:18:15] with a live service experience

[00:18:17] it just like really lives on its own

[00:18:20] which I have to assume

[00:18:22] I mean that's what they're doing right

[00:18:23] like they have to be doing that

[00:18:25] like that's sort of obvious to me

[00:18:27] did Ghost of Tsushima come out in 2020?

[00:18:30] is that right?

[00:18:31] 2021

[00:18:32] I think 2021

[00:18:33] so about three years ago

[00:18:35] because it was a summer release

[00:18:36] right

[00:18:39] I don't know

[00:18:39] three years obviously is a long time

[00:18:42] but in AAA game dev

[00:18:44] it's not a long time

[00:18:46] and who knows if the sequel was greenlit

[00:18:49] before Ghost of Tsushima launched

[00:18:52] oh sorry

[00:18:53] 2020

[00:18:53] it was

[00:18:53] so we were four years

[00:18:54] okay so it's been nearly four years

[00:18:57] I don't know man

[00:19:00] so we got to be one to two years out

[00:19:03] I think that's fair

[00:19:04] but it's

[00:19:06] but you would hope that they're not

[00:19:09] they were smart

[00:19:11] and they are wizards

[00:19:12] technical wizards over there

[00:19:13] and you hope that what they're doing

[00:19:15] is just building on that existing engine

[00:19:18] and so then that means it's not gonna take

[00:19:22] you know as long

[00:19:24] but what was the length between Spider-Man 2

[00:19:26] and Spider-Man 1?

[00:19:27] I want to say it was about three years

[00:19:29] and Miles Morales came out

[00:19:31] but between those ones

[00:19:33] isn't that right?

[00:19:35] yeah so okay

[00:19:35] so then that was three years

[00:19:37] and we got Miles Morales

[00:19:39] standalone game

[00:19:40] which was great

[00:19:42] and Ghost of Tsushima

[00:19:43] we haven't pretty much had any content

[00:19:45] except for obviously this PC release

[00:19:47] we had the director's cut

[00:19:49] which I don't know if that really counts

[00:19:51] excuse me

[00:19:52] I don't know

[00:19:53] excuse me

[00:19:53] I got those numbers wrong

[00:19:55] Marvel Spider-Man came out

[00:19:57] it's five years

[00:19:57] Marvel Spider-Man came out 2018

[00:20:00] and then Marvel Spider-Man 2 came out 2023

[00:20:03] but yes Miles Morales was between those ones

[00:20:07] right that came out in 2020

[00:20:11] yeah so we pretty much got a full game

[00:20:14] in between

[00:20:14] which if we had gotten a standalone Ghost of Tsushima game

[00:20:19] I would have been much

[00:20:20] like that would have appeased my patients

[00:20:22] at least for a little while so

[00:20:25] we gotta be you know

[00:20:26] the Yuna campaign or something

[00:20:29] an announcement has to be imminent

[00:20:32] unless there's serious trouble at Sucker Punch

[00:20:35] which I don't imagine there is

[00:20:37] but yeah

[00:20:39] please no

[00:20:40] okay so we got May

[00:20:42] tons of games coming

[00:20:44] I've been playing No Rest for the Wicked

[00:20:46] Dragon's Dogma

[00:20:47] which we'll talk about today

[00:20:50] Jake you got

[00:20:51] you're excited for indie games

[00:20:52] you're in the backlog

[00:20:53] oh I'll mention one more thing

[00:20:55] so the Fallout show

[00:20:57] supposedly really good

[00:20:58] yeah you started watching it right

[00:21:00] yeah I started it a couple episodes in

[00:21:02] I don't know if it's like exactly my

[00:21:04] vibes

[00:21:05] but the quality is there for sure

[00:21:07] like and it's it's got the world building down so

[00:21:10] I'll definitely probably continue

[00:21:12] but the one thing that I did do

[00:21:13] is I did jump in on the hype bandwagon

[00:21:16] with the rest of the internet

[00:21:18] and I went through the painstaking

[00:21:21] and let me tell you Jake

[00:21:22] this is the most effort that I've ever done

[00:21:24] to install a video game

[00:21:27] I downloaded and modded Fallout New Vegas

[00:21:33] like modded this thing to the guild

[00:21:35] like dude you need a minor in software engineering

[00:21:39] in order to install these mods

[00:21:41] I'm telling you

[00:21:42] like not joking

[00:21:45] I spent two hours getting the mods figured out

[00:21:47] that sounds like pure misery to me

[00:21:50] yes and I usually don't go through this

[00:21:52] but I have really really really wanted

[00:21:55] one of the Fallout games to work for me

[00:21:57] for so long

[00:21:57] and I've always heard so many amazing things

[00:22:00] about Fallout New Vegas

[00:22:01] from like an RPG

[00:22:03] branching narrative

[00:22:05] you know

[00:22:06] standpoint

[00:22:07] so I was like you know what

[00:22:08] like this is the time

[00:22:09] I'm gonna get the steam version

[00:22:12] I'm gonna get all the mods

[00:22:13] we're gonna get it running like

[00:22:15] you know 4k 3440 widescreen

[00:22:19] we're gonna get all like the bug fix

[00:22:20] we're gonna do the whole thing

[00:22:22] we're gonna do it

[00:22:22] so I'm like

[00:22:24] an hour and a half in

[00:22:26] and

[00:22:27] so far pretty good

[00:22:28] okay

[00:22:29] don't know if I'll continue

[00:22:30] because it's really old

[00:22:33] I'll be honest

[00:22:34] has not aged

[00:22:36] incredibly well

[00:22:37] the RPG elements are there

[00:22:39] and you can kind of sense that they're there

[00:22:41] and that's really cool

[00:22:43] I mean that part of it is like

[00:22:44] you can clearly see the obsidian DNA

[00:22:47] very strong

[00:22:48] right

[00:22:49] and I'm also playing with the Josh Sawyer mod

[00:22:53] nice

[00:22:53] because late like

[00:22:55] I guess several years after the game came out

[00:22:56] Josh Sawyer

[00:22:58] who is a game director

[00:22:59] on the bit

[00:22:59] basically did like a director's cut

[00:23:01] of like changes to the code

[00:23:03] that impact gameplay

[00:23:05] interesting

[00:23:06] and so I decided like

[00:23:07] okay I'm just gonna jump in with this director's cut

[00:23:09] which adds like some

[00:23:10] some things to it but

[00:23:12] anyway

[00:23:13] I'll probably keep going

[00:23:14] I don't know

[00:23:15] I'm kind of all over the place right now

[00:23:16] in between

[00:23:17] kind of big titles

[00:23:18] Final Fantasy 7

[00:23:19] Dragon's Dogma

[00:23:20] kind of wore me out

[00:23:21] so I'm

[00:23:22] yeah

[00:23:22] I'm kind of at a weird spot

[00:23:24] yeah I

[00:23:24] um

[00:23:25] I'm also a little

[00:23:26] okay

[00:23:27] I say that I'm worn out from big games

[00:23:30] because yeah

[00:23:32] what Final Fantasy

[00:23:32] or Banishers Ghost in New Zealand

[00:23:34] and then Final Fantasy 7

[00:23:36] Rebirth

[00:23:36] and then Dragons Dogma 2

[00:23:39] are games that are pretty intense

[00:23:40] it's hard to play just a little bit to them

[00:23:43] at a time

[00:23:45] and so

[00:23:46] I was like okay

[00:23:46] so I'll just focus on all these little games

[00:23:49] and then

[00:23:50] I'm probably gonna start back up

[00:23:51] Cyber

[00:23:52] well I am gonna start back up

[00:23:53] Cyberpunk 2077

[00:23:56] which is not

[00:23:57] oh

[00:23:57] which is not a little game

[00:23:58] it's not

[00:23:59] so

[00:24:00] that is definitely not

[00:24:01] so you're just going to another massive

[00:24:05] shooter

[00:24:05] act or

[00:24:06] shoot action RPG

[00:24:07] I would call it

[00:24:08] basically a first person shooter

[00:24:10] yeah

[00:24:11] I am playing a few indie games here and there

[00:24:13] I'm finally playing Highwater

[00:24:15] which came out last year

[00:24:16] but came to consoles

[00:24:17] in March

[00:24:19] I'm finally this game has sat

[00:24:21] in my Xbox backlog for years

[00:24:24] I'm playing Eagle Island Twist

[00:24:27] and then

[00:24:29] I don't know

[00:24:29] I finished a bunch of little games too

[00:24:31] I finished like

[00:24:32] Open Roads was one that I played recently

[00:24:35] Return to Grace is another one I played

[00:24:37] I played like the weird prequel to

[00:24:39] Final Fantasy 15

[00:24:41] it's like this weird like hack and slash

[00:24:44] pixel art game

[00:24:45] crazy short

[00:24:46] anyway

[00:24:47] I've been playing lots of little games but

[00:24:50] yeah oh

[00:24:51] and this is the last thing I want to say

[00:24:53] very rare moment

[00:24:54] so for long time listeners of the podcast

[00:24:56] you know

[00:24:57] that I teach

[00:25:00] at the university level

[00:25:01] and so

[00:25:02] something amazing is about to happen

[00:25:04] my semester is about to end

[00:25:06] but my kids are still in school

[00:25:08] so I have

[00:25:09] what I call

[00:25:10] the golden month of gaming

[00:25:12] and what I'm

[00:25:13] what I'm gonna do is

[00:25:14] I'm actually gonna stream

[00:25:15] for like three weeks

[00:25:17] Monday through Friday

[00:25:18] three and a half four hours

[00:25:20] a day in the morning

[00:25:22] so if you want to catch

[00:25:23] I'm gonna start with my indie backlog

[00:25:25] from 2024

[00:25:27] so if you want something pretty

[00:25:29] laid back

[00:25:29] you can go to twitch.tv

[00:25:31] slash chiptip18

[00:25:33] and I'm gonna be

[00:25:34] on there

[00:25:35] regularly until May 16th

[00:25:39] be excited for that

[00:25:42] that's awesome dude

[00:25:43] that's

[00:25:45] gaming

[00:25:46] enjoy that time

[00:25:48] that's a special time

[00:25:49] it's a golden month of gaming

[00:25:50] finally

[00:25:52] as you go back into your backlog

[00:25:53] just don't forget about a little game

[00:25:55] called Baldur's Gate 3

[00:25:56] yep

[00:25:58] dude I knew it

[00:25:59] I knew it

[00:26:00] I might I might like that last

[00:26:02] you will not

[00:26:03] you will not regret it

[00:26:05] out of all the games that you are

[00:26:06] selecting to play

[00:26:07] including Cyberpunk being one of them

[00:26:09] you will not

[00:26:10] also did you choose the

[00:26:12] female heroine

[00:26:14] in Cyberpunk or the male

[00:26:18] it's been so long that I played

[00:26:20] that I don't know

[00:26:22] okay

[00:26:23] I'm gonna tell you something about

[00:26:24] Cyberpunk right now

[00:26:25] they figured it out

[00:26:25] that game is good now

[00:26:27] for sure

[00:26:27] like yes

[00:26:28] great

[00:26:30] biggest pet peeve

[00:26:31] the voice actor for V

[00:26:32] the male

[00:26:34] a noise

[00:26:34] the living crap out of me

[00:26:36] and honestly

[00:26:37] that's like the main reason I never

[00:26:38] finished the game

[00:26:40] and I have like 45 hours in it

[00:26:41] I'm not kidding

[00:26:42] that's amazing

[00:26:44] that is amazing

[00:26:46] I'm female V

[00:26:47] way better

[00:26:48] can't can you like change halfway

[00:26:50] through or no

[00:26:52] and you change your

[00:26:54] I guess they have

[00:26:58] can you be like the female V

[00:27:00] I don't know

[00:27:01] I don't know

[00:27:01] I'll look into it

[00:27:02] I don't think you

[00:27:02] because

[00:27:03] I don't think you can switch halfway

[00:27:04] through that'd be cool

[00:27:05] it dude if you can do that

[00:27:06] straight up

[00:27:08] I might like reinstall

[00:27:12] well nice

[00:27:13] okay

[00:27:13] I also kind of got sick of

[00:27:14] I got kind of got sick of my build

[00:27:15] I was like a samurai gun build

[00:27:19] you should do a cool build Jake

[00:27:22] I should just look up a build

[00:27:23] I might just

[00:27:24] folks I'll be honest

[00:27:25] I might just put that on easy

[00:27:26] and kind of go through it

[00:27:28] because I have mixed feelings on it

[00:27:29] but that is a future podcast episode

[00:27:31] this episode we're talking about

[00:27:33] Dragon's Dogma 2

[00:27:34] it's already been 30 minutes

[00:27:35] so this is like 10 to 15 minutes

[00:27:37] over what we normally do in our intro

[00:27:41] lots of news lots of me are andring

[00:27:43] but let's get back on track

[00:27:44] Dragon's Dogma 2

[00:27:45] Jake how are we gonna break it down

[00:27:46] we will be talking about

[00:27:47] Dragon's Dogma 2

[00:27:49] in our very podcast defining for categories

[00:27:55] so the first category is the narrative

[00:27:57] we'll be talking about this story here

[00:27:59] we tend to focus a lot more on themes

[00:28:01] so if you're listening to this episode

[00:28:02] for the first time

[00:28:04] as a first-time listener

[00:28:05] just know that we're not going to get into spoilers

[00:28:08] we're just going to talk about the beginning of the game

[00:28:11] and then next we'll be talking about the mechanics

[00:28:13] lots to say here

[00:28:15] when it comes to the combat

[00:28:16] and sort of what it is

[00:28:17] that you are doing to interact with the game

[00:28:20] just sort of those building blocks

[00:28:23] of interaction

[00:28:24] of interactivity

[00:28:25] between player and the game itself

[00:28:27] and then third we'll be talking about

[00:28:28] the gameplay loop

[00:28:29] this is an open world

[00:28:31] and so that whole conversation

[00:28:32] is going to come back into play

[00:28:34] as we talk about gameplay loop

[00:28:35] and it will probably make an appearance

[00:28:37] in our fourth category of impact

[00:28:39] on the industry

[00:28:41] we know we're a little late to the ball game

[00:28:43] on this one

[00:28:43] but there has been a lot of

[00:28:45] in surprisingly I would say

[00:28:47] interesting discourse

[00:28:49] on social media

[00:28:50] about Dragon's Dogma 2

[00:28:52] interesting in a good way

[00:28:53] and that people have

[00:28:54] interesting and wonderful things to say

[00:28:56] about its game design

[00:28:58] and so we'll be talking about that

[00:29:00] as well when we get to the final category

[00:29:02] of tonight's episode

[00:29:06] let's jump in Dragon's Dogma 2

[00:29:10] this is the story

[00:29:12] of the Arisen

[00:29:14] yes

[00:29:14] who in the world of Dragon's Dogma

[00:29:19] there is a mythic

[00:29:20] a fable

[00:29:21] not even a fable

[00:29:22] it's like a

[00:29:23] no one

[00:29:25] you know

[00:29:26] what's the right word for it

[00:29:27] not myth

[00:29:28] but like it's not quite a legend either

[00:29:30] because it's not a legend

[00:29:32] right it's just a cultural phenomenon

[00:29:35] maybe

[00:29:35] the cultural phenomenon of the land

[00:29:37] is that there is always

[00:29:38] an individual who emerges as the Arisen

[00:29:42] and that person essentially becomes like the king

[00:29:45] yeah

[00:29:47] but game starts off

[00:29:49] you're like in prison

[00:29:51] somebody puts you there

[00:29:53] and what you come to fight out is that

[00:29:55] there is somebody faking being the Arisen

[00:29:58] which is no good

[00:29:59] no good at all

[00:30:01] and so you basically

[00:30:03] you get some dudes on your side who are like

[00:30:05] hey

[00:30:05] you're the actual Arisen

[00:30:07] we're gonna help you out

[00:30:08] we need to figure out what the deal is

[00:30:11] with the bad Arisen

[00:30:13] and that's

[00:30:14] kind of the story

[00:30:17] okay

[00:30:18] sorry

[00:30:19] continue because I got

[00:30:21] so many feelings

[00:30:25] so

[00:30:26] honestly

[00:30:31] this

[00:30:33] just spit it out

[00:30:34] because I'm going to

[00:30:35] this is a

[00:30:36] this is a weird

[00:30:38] so I'll be honest

[00:30:40] I was actually

[00:30:41] have really low expectations of the story

[00:30:46] but there were moments that actually

[00:30:51] you know

[00:30:52] surprised and delighted me

[00:30:53] there definitely were moments

[00:30:54] there were moments that was like

[00:30:55] oh like this is actually kind of interesting

[00:30:57] but then there are a lot of other moments

[00:30:59] where I was like

[00:31:00] this is a game from 2003

[00:31:05] oh my gosh

[00:31:06] and in between those

[00:31:09] you know

[00:31:10] you have what is like the actual game

[00:31:12] which is essentially just wandering the land

[00:31:14] exploring

[00:31:15] and killing the same set of like

[00:31:17] eight monsters over and over again

[00:31:19] we'll get into that in a minute

[00:31:22] yeah

[00:31:23] I think there's

[00:31:25] pretty classic

[00:31:28] hero

[00:31:29] you know beats villain

[00:31:31] heroes not getting the

[00:31:32] you know

[00:31:33] like being denied his rightful position

[00:31:35] and has to kind of

[00:31:37] be the good guy versus the bad guy

[00:31:39] and save the kingdom

[00:31:40] I don't think there's anything like

[00:31:41] deep thematically here

[00:31:42] there's nothing like

[00:31:44] super interesting from a decision-making standpoint

[00:31:47] you can't be like

[00:31:48] you know

[00:31:48] there's no like branching narrative

[00:31:50] it's very just a straightforward

[00:31:51] this is very old school in nature

[00:31:54] but I think it's just really fine

[00:31:56] like it's fine

[00:31:58] and it's not bad

[00:32:00] that's my analysis

[00:32:02] I like this analysis

[00:32:05] here we go

[00:32:05] I know it kind of feels like

[00:32:06] we're gonna rip this to shreds but

[00:32:09] listen

[00:32:10] this story

[00:32:11] this first let's start with the world building

[00:32:13] I freaking love the world building

[00:32:14] of dragons dogma too

[00:32:16] I think it's done super well

[00:32:18] when I talk about world building

[00:32:20] to my literature students

[00:32:21] what I tell them

[00:32:23] is that world building

[00:32:25] you know good world building

[00:32:26] what people like about world building

[00:32:29] when it's done well

[00:32:30] is that there is a coherent logic

[00:32:34] to how a world operates

[00:32:37] both physically

[00:32:38] like in terms of environment

[00:32:40] but also culturally

[00:32:42] in terms of

[00:32:43] how the different factions

[00:32:44] groups cities

[00:32:45] continents kingdoms

[00:32:46] whatever it is

[00:32:47] sort of respond

[00:32:49] to what's happening in the world

[00:32:50] in a lot of times

[00:32:51] an interesting world building

[00:32:53] especially in fantasy

[00:32:54] you know well

[00:32:55] you know in fantasy and science fiction

[00:32:56] we don't typically talk about world

[00:32:57] building outside of that

[00:32:58] but anyway

[00:33:00] that's another conversation

[00:33:02] typically what happens is

[00:33:04] you can identify

[00:33:06] what an author

[00:33:07] or in this case a game designer

[00:33:08] is doing when it comes to open world

[00:33:10] it's like

[00:33:11] hey what if we took a medieval setting

[00:33:13] like in dragons dogma

[00:33:14] and there are dragons

[00:33:15] and this regular high fantasy stuff

[00:33:18] but there's an arisen

[00:33:20] and the arisen

[00:33:22] has influence over ponds

[00:33:24] and ponds are these

[00:33:25] not quite human

[00:33:27] humanoids essentially

[00:33:29] that listen and obey the arisen

[00:33:33] that's it

[00:33:34] and so what I love about the world

[00:33:35] burp building in dragons dogma too

[00:33:37] is that I think it does an excellent job

[00:33:39] of constructing culture

[00:33:41] in history

[00:33:42] surrounding that point

[00:33:43] which is

[00:33:44] hold on

[00:33:45] if there is an arisen

[00:33:46] and they get a lot of political power

[00:33:48] because what are you going to do

[00:33:50] if the arisen shows up

[00:33:51] and then suddenly dozens

[00:33:53] and hundreds and thousands of ponds

[00:33:54] are like

[00:33:55] hey we are going to like

[00:33:57] swear fealty

[00:33:58] and obey this guy

[00:33:59] there are political ramifications to that

[00:34:02] and so it makes sense

[00:34:03] so I think on the story level

[00:34:05] I love the idea

[00:34:07] of the story that there is a

[00:34:09] pretender to the throne

[00:34:10] this is somebody who has

[00:34:12] convinced an entire kingdom

[00:34:14] that they are the one and true

[00:34:16] arisen at this moment

[00:34:19] but that's not the case

[00:34:20] because for me it makes for a super compelling

[00:34:23] political circumstance

[00:34:25] based on

[00:34:25] really interesting world building

[00:34:28] here's my big problem with this game

[00:34:31] the storytelling

[00:34:32] despite the world building

[00:34:34] and the actual plot itself being interesting

[00:34:36] is so flat

[00:34:38] yeah that's a great

[00:34:39] that's a great

[00:34:41] that's yeah

[00:34:41] you're saying it way better than I am

[00:34:44] I don't know if I'd say that

[00:34:45] but I just think that like

[00:34:47] there's so much here

[00:34:49] that is juicy and interesting

[00:34:51] and it sets up for something

[00:34:53] really cool to happen

[00:34:54] and I haven't quite been able to pinpoint it

[00:34:56] but I think the biggest sort of

[00:34:59] detractor from all the interesting setup

[00:35:03] is that there's way too much

[00:35:05] verbiage

[00:35:05] way too much dialogue

[00:35:07] people

[00:35:08] I just feel like the script

[00:35:09] for these people

[00:35:10] when you're talking with them

[00:35:11] is way too long

[00:35:12] and then I can't say

[00:35:14] because I haven't thought about it too critically

[00:35:16] is the voice acting flat

[00:35:17] is it bland

[00:35:18] I think it might be

[00:35:20] I just feel like the delivery of the story

[00:35:22] is not conveying the political intrigue

[00:35:25] and the emotion

[00:35:27] that should be behind it

[00:35:28] and so

[00:35:29] as I go through the main quest line

[00:35:32] typically I think to myself

[00:35:34] I'm sitting them on my couch

[00:35:35] and I nod and like

[00:35:36] oh that's interesting

[00:35:37] and then I move on

[00:35:39] you know what I mean

[00:35:42] no absolutely

[00:35:43] like you nailed it

[00:35:44] like the world

[00:35:45] this world is so cool

[00:35:47] it's like such an interesting world

[00:35:48] and like so many

[00:35:50] interesting facets

[00:35:51] and like you run around

[00:35:52] and there's this ginormous

[00:35:54] capital

[00:35:55] that's like really well realized

[00:35:57] and then like a beautiful countryside

[00:35:59] with the interesting things to discover

[00:36:00] and like

[00:36:01] cities

[00:36:02] and like little

[00:36:03] ruins and stuff

[00:36:04] that kind of have history to them

[00:36:05] and hidden monsters

[00:36:06] and like all this cool stuff

[00:36:08] that like you described

[00:36:09] and then

[00:36:09] you know the arisen and pond situation

[00:36:12] which is

[00:36:13] we need to come up with a

[00:36:14] academic term for this

[00:36:16] narrative to serve the video game

[00:36:19] instead of the reverse

[00:36:19] oh okay

[00:36:21] does that make sense what I'm saying

[00:36:22] so like ludonarrative harmony

[00:36:24] but starting with narrative before mechanics

[00:36:27] it's narrative that's designed

[00:36:29] for the purpose

[00:36:30] for serving the like game mechanics

[00:36:32] instead of

[00:36:33] the other way around

[00:36:34] set a mechanic

[00:36:34] so they started with a game

[00:36:36] and they built the narrative around the game

[00:36:37] which is what I think they did

[00:36:39] with because I mean

[00:36:40] the whole pond system

[00:36:43] and that ponds are like part of the world

[00:36:44] but they actually live in like

[00:36:46] parallel universes

[00:36:47] and that's like explicitly called out

[00:36:49] and that

[00:36:50] in the story

[00:36:50] yeah

[00:36:51] yeah

[00:36:52] freddy

[00:36:53] I know you're listening

[00:36:54] please ping us on whatever that term is

[00:36:57] there's probably a term for it already

[00:36:58] yeah

[00:36:59] so

[00:37:00] anyway

[00:37:01] that stuff all works

[00:37:01] and that's fine

[00:37:02] but like yeah

[00:37:03] to your point

[00:37:04] and I'll

[00:37:05] I'll kind of do some spoilers

[00:37:06] of the structure a little bit

[00:37:08] so

[00:37:08] if you don't want to hear this

[00:37:09] you can skip ahead

[00:37:10] a minute

[00:37:11] or 30 seconds

[00:37:12] but

[00:37:13] dude they set up all this stuff

[00:37:15] with all of that crappy dialogue

[00:37:17] and actually introduce

[00:37:18] like a lot of characters

[00:37:19] and kind of different things

[00:37:20] that they never pay off

[00:37:25] and I'm really really close to beating the game

[00:37:27] and dude they just get to a certain point

[00:37:29] and they're like

[00:37:29] yep

[00:37:30] let's

[00:37:31] we're gonna finish the game

[00:37:33] and

[00:37:34] the sequences

[00:37:35] and the

[00:37:35] and the stuff that happens

[00:37:36] like worldwide

[00:37:38] amazing

[00:37:39] like so cool

[00:37:40] but

[00:37:41] the characterization

[00:37:43] and like

[00:37:43] the people that are involved with it

[00:37:45] and kind of how

[00:37:47] all that kind of ties together

[00:37:49] it's so disjointed

[00:37:51] it's so like sort of nonsensical

[00:37:53] it doesn't follow

[00:37:55] lines like through it all

[00:37:57] it kind of leaves things

[00:37:59] yeah it just

[00:38:00] it really fails

[00:38:01] and I think

[00:38:02] have they've been able to figure that part out

[00:38:04] and kind of tie

[00:38:05] the narrative threads together

[00:38:07] in a more

[00:38:08] powerful way

[00:38:10] you'd be talking about like

[00:38:11] masterpiece level

[00:38:13] potentially

[00:38:13] because I think

[00:38:14] if you if you bring that part of it forward

[00:38:16] obviously that's going to elevate the whole experience

[00:38:19] because what's here from

[00:38:20] like you said Jake

[00:38:20] from a world building

[00:38:21] and a mechanics perspective

[00:38:23] and even a gameplay perspective

[00:38:24] is like

[00:38:25] really top tier

[00:38:26] in my opinion

[00:38:27] no I agree

[00:38:28] there's so much that I love

[00:38:29] about Dragon's Dogma 2

[00:38:31] and sure there are side quests

[00:38:33] and there are some NPCs

[00:38:35] but yeah it just doesn't feel like

[00:38:36] there wasn't the same level of attention given

[00:38:40] to that aspect of the story

[00:38:41] and so

[00:38:42] that the game I feel like is at its best

[00:38:45] when you're out of the city

[00:38:47] and you're adventuring

[00:38:49] and we'll talk about that more

[00:38:51] and sure there's some environmental storytelling

[00:38:54] but there's good history

[00:38:55] sort of baked into this world

[00:38:56] or good politics

[00:38:57] there's good culture

[00:38:59] everything that you would kind of expect

[00:39:01] in a world that feels living and alive

[00:39:03] is there in Dragon's Dogma 2

[00:39:05] it really is

[00:39:06] but yeah that's just my biggest hang-up

[00:39:08] is just that the storytelling delivery

[00:39:10] feels so bland

[00:39:12] and it just

[00:39:13] feels a little too out

[00:39:15] like out of reach for me to want

[00:39:17] to invest in it emotionally

[00:39:19] but you know things that we're talking about

[00:39:21] I mean themes like thematically

[00:39:24] corruption, obsession with power

[00:39:26] right I think

[00:39:27] what feel to you

[00:39:28] and what good leadership

[00:39:29] really mean

[00:39:30] and how they're defined

[00:39:31] I think there's really great themes in there

[00:39:33] and themes that have been

[00:39:35] you know tested

[00:39:36] in lots of different fantasy settings

[00:39:38] but and I think

[00:39:39] Dragon's Dogma 2 presents them

[00:39:40] interestingly enough

[00:39:41] like thematically right

[00:39:43] but just

[00:39:44] it's hard to really really want to care

[00:39:49] Let's talk about the gameplay

[00:39:50] of Dragon's Dogma

[00:39:52] I think this is

[00:39:53] this is obviously where this game shines

[00:39:57] This is a

[00:39:59] third person

[00:40:01] action game

[00:40:02] action RPG

[00:40:03] it consists of your character having

[00:40:07] different vocations

[00:40:09] which some of which are like accessible

[00:40:11] very early on

[00:40:12] like an archer

[00:40:13] and a fighter

[00:40:15] and a mage

[00:40:19] but then there's also other ones

[00:40:21] like scattered throughout the game

[00:40:22] that you discover through side quests

[00:40:24] or through interactions with characters

[00:40:26] that kind of unveil

[00:40:27] kind of more interesting

[00:40:29] vocations

[00:40:31] vocations

[00:40:31] like

[00:40:32] and they've already shown all these

[00:40:33] in marketing materials and stuff

[00:40:34] like yeah

[00:40:35] the magic archer for example

[00:40:37] which is like a mage that uses a bow

[00:40:39] and kind of they have a spin on that

[00:40:41] anyways

[00:40:42] each of those vocations consist of

[00:40:45] basically like a different set of gear

[00:40:47] and like style of fighting

[00:40:49] that you

[00:40:50] can use

[00:40:51] and then you have different abilities

[00:40:52] that are tied to each of those

[00:40:53] and they all play

[00:40:55] quite a bit differently

[00:40:56] like every single vocation I think

[00:40:59] really stands on its own

[00:41:00] and like you do have to play a specific way

[00:41:02] to play each of those vocations

[00:41:03] and they go all the way from

[00:41:05] very standard

[00:41:07] like

[00:41:08] you know fighter

[00:41:08] you're just smashing stuff with a sword

[00:41:09] and like blocking attacks

[00:41:11] all the way to

[00:41:13] the trickster

[00:41:14] which is straight up just a pawn support character

[00:41:17] and that's the other element of this game

[00:41:19] where the way that they do party members in this game

[00:41:22] is that you just have basically

[00:41:23] you have your

[00:41:24] your specific pawn

[00:41:26] that you start the game with

[00:41:27] and that levels up with you

[00:41:28] you can outfit your pawn

[00:41:29] and you can choose like their skills and vocations

[00:41:32] and then you have two other pawns

[00:41:33] that you can choose

[00:41:34] essentially from the parallel universes

[00:41:36] and they call this out in the game

[00:41:38] they're like hey

[00:41:39] the pawns are like

[00:41:41] the arisons

[00:41:43] soldiers

[00:41:44] and they live in parallel universes

[00:41:45] and you can literally go out

[00:41:46] and call other people's pawns

[00:41:48] yeah

[00:41:50] and so you bring that in

[00:41:51] and then you basically have a squad

[00:41:53] of three people

[00:41:55] and then yourself

[00:41:56] and you just

[00:41:56] you run around the world

[00:41:57] and you fight monsters

[00:42:00] yeah

[00:42:02] and it's

[00:42:03] pretty satisfying

[00:42:05] like the combat is quite good

[00:42:07] it's very very unique

[00:42:09] unique in the sense of just kind of how they approach

[00:42:11] it's it's unique

[00:42:13] what i mean by unique is like

[00:42:14] you're not

[00:42:15] it's not really derivative of anything else

[00:42:19] I don't think

[00:42:20] like it is its own thing

[00:42:22] which I found very refreshing when I played it

[00:42:24] yeah

[00:42:25] I love

[00:42:26] I love the pawn system

[00:42:28] I'm a big fan of like creative multiplayer

[00:42:31] especially creative asynchronous multiplayer

[00:42:34] because I don't feel like it's super common

[00:42:36] some recent examples of that would be like

[00:42:38] Super Mario Bros wonder

[00:42:40] right where

[00:42:41] you can kind of like

[00:42:43] see other players

[00:42:44] you slightly can interact with them

[00:42:46] sometimes given certain circumstances

[00:42:48] they can leave messages and hints sort of behind

[00:42:50] and it's very cooperative

[00:42:52] even if you're not playing

[00:42:53] with those players

[00:42:55] and I just love the pawn system

[00:42:57] one because

[00:42:59] you get the squad that just freaking adores you

[00:43:02] it's like your entourage

[00:43:04] and you're just like cruising

[00:43:05] and they're like

[00:43:06] ah a risen

[00:43:07] what a masterful play

[00:43:09] or a risen

[00:43:10] you are truly a sight to behold in battle

[00:43:13] a risen you are formidable

[00:43:15] I just love getting complimented all the time

[00:43:17] it just feels really great

[00:43:19] this game is such a fantastic ego boost

[00:43:21] but what I love about the pawns really is that

[00:43:24] you have the one that you get to customize

[00:43:27] and the customization is off the charts

[00:43:29] and what you can do with your pawn

[00:43:30] is you can switch out the vocation

[00:43:32] pretty much at any time

[00:43:33] there is like a currency

[00:43:35] you need to spend

[00:43:36] when you're unlocking

[00:43:38] different vocations

[00:43:39] and different abilities

[00:43:40] that go with those vocations

[00:43:42] but that currency is so freaking common

[00:43:45] last I opened up my pawn rift

[00:43:47] I think I was sitting on like 50k

[00:43:49] RC whatever like rift credits

[00:43:52] I don't even know what the currency is

[00:43:55] but yeah

[00:43:56] so the one that you can highly customize

[00:43:59] directly can compliment you in battle

[00:44:01] or you can both do DPS

[00:44:02] you can really just decide

[00:44:03] how you want the squad to be

[00:44:05] and then the other two

[00:44:06] that you recruit from these parallel universes

[00:44:08] I love this

[00:44:09] you go into the rift essentially

[00:44:12] and a bunch of pawns will kind of populate

[00:44:15] and these are these are main pawns

[00:44:17] that other players have created

[00:44:19] you can sort by stats

[00:44:21] you can look at all other details

[00:44:23] and you can just really get in there

[00:44:25] and pick what kind of pawn

[00:44:28] do I want to be on my squad

[00:44:30] and I've had so much fun

[00:44:31] running different types of squad

[00:44:34] it's just like me, my pawn, and two supports

[00:44:37] just why not

[00:44:38] I've run me, my pawn, and two DPS

[00:44:41] just to see okay

[00:44:42] what kind of damage can we output as a team

[00:44:45] and I just love that kind of creativity

[00:44:47] that allows you to really engage

[00:44:50] with but also fully understand

[00:44:53] all of the combat mechanics of each vocation

[00:44:57] so even though like I mainly play

[00:44:59] I played as a fighter, warrior, and mystic spearhand

[00:45:03] like relatively like exclusively those three

[00:45:06] but I feel like because I've been

[00:45:08] customizing my main pawn

[00:45:10] and I've been looking at these other two pawns

[00:45:12] that I add to my squad

[00:45:13] I feel like I have a really good grasp

[00:45:15] on other vocations

[00:45:16] so for example sorcerer

[00:45:18] so when I switch to sorcerer

[00:45:20] I'll have a good idea of what kind of abilities

[00:45:22] I can unlock

[00:45:23] and what kind of a build I can make

[00:45:25] and so I think it's a really fantastic way

[00:45:27] to really get you very invested in

[00:45:30] being really aware of the build crafting

[00:45:32] within the game

[00:45:33] which otherwise could feel convoluted

[00:45:35] and confusing

[00:45:36] but doesn't

[00:45:37] because you're constantly thinking about it

[00:45:42] yeah 100%

[00:45:43] um

[00:45:45] that's funny we played as the same classes

[00:45:47] oh you did those three

[00:45:49] yeah

[00:45:51] I did the exact same

[00:45:52] I actually just unlocked the magic archer

[00:45:53] so I've been doing that

[00:45:54] but I

[00:45:55] as soon as I unlocked it and played it

[00:45:56] for a couple hours

[00:45:57] and I was like

[00:45:58] this is kind of boring

[00:45:59] you just kind of point and shoot

[00:46:01] whereas the warrior

[00:46:02] and there's like

[00:46:02] there's a little bit more strategy

[00:46:03] and timing to it

[00:46:05] which I appreciate

[00:46:07] I really need that in my combat man

[00:46:09] like I need

[00:46:11] something to like

[00:46:14] I need something that makes me think

[00:46:16] about the combat

[00:46:17] right

[00:46:17] and it bothers me when I don't have to do that

[00:46:20] and as far as that goes with magic archer

[00:46:23] is just like choosing

[00:46:24] which powerful spell you're going to use

[00:46:26] and kind of standing in the background

[00:46:28] but onto that note

[00:46:30] like I think

[00:46:31] those other vocations that Jake mentioned

[00:46:33] like provide a lot of that

[00:46:35] one specific example I can think of is

[00:46:38] the fighter

[00:46:39] has an ability where you can put your shield up

[00:46:41] and then your pawns will come and jump off of your shield

[00:46:44] to jump up onto a monster

[00:46:46] yeah

[00:46:47] so dragon's dogma has this really

[00:46:49] and this was in the original game

[00:46:50] and they just kind of kept it here

[00:46:51] as this unique mechanic

[00:46:52] where you can grab on to big monsters

[00:46:55] and climb up on top of them

[00:46:56] to get to like

[00:46:58] critical

[00:47:00] like

[00:47:01] damage zones

[00:47:02] like on the bosses

[00:47:05] and that's really kind of

[00:47:06] the way you take down

[00:47:08] a lot of the really hard bosses

[00:47:09] is you really need to hit them

[00:47:10] in these like crit spots

[00:47:12] and the best way to do that

[00:47:13] a lot of times is like climbing up on top of them

[00:47:16] which is a lot easier

[00:47:17] when you can do this big jump

[00:47:19] and so having a fighter in your party

[00:47:21] just makes that way easier

[00:47:22] I think if your pawn is a fighter

[00:47:24] they will also do it for you

[00:47:26] yeah

[00:47:26] so you can like get up there

[00:47:29] but yeah

[00:47:29] like mix and matching

[00:47:31] the combination of

[00:47:33] the best

[00:47:33] this is the best part of this game

[00:47:36] is mixing and mashing

[00:47:39] the different combinations of pawns

[00:47:41] and then upgrading your guy

[00:47:42] to go and fight

[00:47:44] super powerful

[00:47:46] like beasts

[00:47:48] and when the music heats up

[00:47:50] and the fight

[00:47:51] you know you're just barely hanging on

[00:47:53] but then you do like a huge burst of damage

[00:47:56] and you just

[00:47:58] the thing topples over

[00:47:59] and you get like critical hit on it

[00:48:02] it is just wildly satisfying

[00:48:05] that's like

[00:48:06] really really the best part of this game

[00:48:08] and they nailed that part of it

[00:48:10] like that specific part

[00:48:11] my one caveat to that

[00:48:13] is I just don't think there's enough

[00:48:16] quite enough

[00:48:17] almost

[00:48:18] like they're really close

[00:48:19] but for me

[00:48:20] there just wasn't quite enough of variety

[00:48:23] in the enemy types

[00:48:27] to really fulfill that experience

[00:48:29] to like the deepest levels

[00:48:30] that I think it could have

[00:48:31] I would agree

[00:48:32] I think mechanically

[00:48:33] dragons talking with two

[00:48:34] is phenomenal

[00:48:36] because

[00:48:37] there's so much

[00:48:38] build crafting and customization

[00:48:40] that you can do

[00:48:41] with all the different vocations

[00:48:42] and like I mentioned

[00:48:43] you just have access

[00:48:44] and you're constantly thinking about doing that

[00:48:46] and your team building

[00:48:47] and that's a ton of fun

[00:48:49] and combat feels really great

[00:48:50] I mean I'm currently running

[00:48:52] a maxed out warrior build

[00:48:54] mainly because

[00:48:55] and we're kind of fading

[00:48:56] a little into gameplay loop

[00:48:58] but

[00:48:59] last few thoughts here on mechanics

[00:49:02] because while I was out exploring the world

[00:49:03] I found this dope looking hammer

[00:49:05] that is specific to the warrior class

[00:49:08] and so I made sort of a mental note

[00:49:09] like oh I want to try the warrior class

[00:49:11] and then I want to try this weapon as well

[00:49:13] and it has been immensely satisfying

[00:49:17] at first I thought the controls were a little funky

[00:49:20] this game

[00:49:21] this is another one of the ways

[00:49:22] I feel like the game feels a little old school

[00:49:24] but

[00:49:25] I got over that really quickly

[00:49:27] I think it controls really well

[00:49:29] some people were hung up on the fact

[00:49:31] that you can't lock on

[00:49:32] and

[00:49:34] I think that this is one of those rare games

[00:49:36] like ghost asushima

[00:49:37] right

[00:49:38] where

[00:49:39] half

[00:49:40] actually it

[00:49:41] not being able to lock on

[00:49:43] really forces you

[00:49:44] to use all the tools

[00:49:46] that you have available

[00:49:47] in order to excel

[00:49:49] at strategic combat

[00:49:50] and so I kind of feel like

[00:49:52] it would almost be a disadvantage

[00:49:55] to have lock on

[00:49:57] especially when you're just fighting

[00:49:58] just like a bunch of mob enemies

[00:49:59] like when goblins come and attack you

[00:50:01] or whatever

[00:50:02] because

[00:50:03] you want to play smart

[00:50:05] and this game

[00:50:06] encourages you

[00:50:08] it tells you

[00:50:08] look at all these different smart ways

[00:50:10] that you can approach a scenario

[00:50:12] that

[00:50:12] um

[00:50:13] I feel like it would just be

[00:50:14] selling some of the combat short

[00:50:15] having a lock on

[00:50:16] so I was converted to

[00:50:18] the no lock on system in this game

[00:50:19] I think it works

[00:50:20] incredibly well

[00:50:22] the last mechanic I have to bring up

[00:50:24] is that this game has an

[00:50:26] encumbrance

[00:50:28] mechanic

[00:50:29] and

[00:50:30] oh boy

[00:50:32] here's my big hang up with it

[00:50:34] if

[00:50:35] if you're running a single vocation

[00:50:38] which the game strongly encourages you

[00:50:40] to do

[00:50:41] right like

[00:50:41] you can't really switch between

[00:50:43] vocations on the fly right

[00:50:45] but

[00:50:45] if I want to go switch my

[00:50:47] for vocations

[00:50:49] I have to like go back

[00:50:50] to my storage

[00:50:52] I have to unequip everything

[00:50:54] I have to stuff everything into storage

[00:50:56] and then I have to withdraw

[00:50:57] everything out of storage

[00:50:58] with the new vocation

[00:50:59] I want to switch to

[00:51:00] and then I have to go over and switch vocation

[00:51:03] and

[00:51:03] um

[00:51:04] I this ties into being over encumbered

[00:51:06] because

[00:51:07] you cannot

[00:51:08] unless you really hunt down

[00:51:10] all the things that up your weight capacity

[00:51:12] you really cannot hold all the equipment

[00:51:14] for two builds

[00:51:15] simultaneously

[00:51:17] which would just make switching vocations

[00:51:19] little less tedious

[00:51:21] and so

[00:51:23] I don't know

[00:51:24] it's annoying to me where it's like

[00:51:26] okay I've

[00:51:27] collected all these wonderful things out

[00:51:29] my travels

[00:51:30] there's no straightforward

[00:51:31] fast travel in this game

[00:51:32] or at least

[00:51:33] there is

[00:51:33] you can use fairy stones to

[00:51:35] fast travel but

[00:51:37] sometimes you don't want to use a fairy stone

[00:51:39] or and you're in a place where you can't use one

[00:51:41] and you're like okay I have to trek all the way back

[00:51:43] just to dump a ton of stuff into storage

[00:51:46] just to switch things around

[00:51:48] and it kind of just sucks the

[00:51:50] the momentum out of the game

[00:51:52] to constantly have to deal with

[00:51:55] everything that you're packing

[00:51:57] so

[00:51:58] this is a good question Jake

[00:51:59] what is

[00:52:02] why

[00:52:05] what is the point

[00:52:06] because I was facing this in

[00:52:10] in Fallout New Vegas as well

[00:52:12] and with the Josh Sawyer mod

[00:52:16] it actually

[00:52:17] makes

[00:52:18] encumbrance

[00:52:19] worse

[00:52:20] and you have like less inventory slots

[00:52:23] and I find that like games

[00:52:25] have inventory limits

[00:52:27] it just ends up being an annoyance

[00:52:29] it doesn't like

[00:52:30] at least for me personally

[00:52:32] and so I'm just trying to like wrap my head around it

[00:52:34] and this game was especially

[00:52:36] cumbersome to manage in that regard

[00:52:38] because to your point like

[00:52:40] you don't have a lot of flexibility

[00:52:42] basically

[00:52:44] and it's not that you like can't do things

[00:52:46] that you want to do

[00:52:47] it's that you just have to go back

[00:52:48] and like

[00:52:49] go to a storage thing

[00:52:52] and like take stuff out

[00:52:53] and then put away the stuff you don't want

[00:52:55] and you take out

[00:52:56] so every time you switch

[00:52:57] if you want to like switch vocations

[00:52:58] and have variety

[00:52:59] you can't just like carry all that gear on you

[00:53:01] you have to get rid of it

[00:53:03] whereas would the game not be superior

[00:53:06] would it not be a more fun experience

[00:53:07] if I could just switch vocations on the fly

[00:53:09] and I could have like

[00:53:10] oh here's all my gear right here

[00:53:11] quit but quit but quit but quit

[00:53:13] okay keep playing the game

[00:53:14] and so that I could go back to an inn

[00:53:16] I gotta go to organized storage

[00:53:17] I gotta pull out the stuff that I like

[00:53:19] spent money on

[00:53:21] it's like a whole thing

[00:53:22] like what does encumbrance add to video

[00:53:24] because it's in every video game like that

[00:53:26] it's like in all of them

[00:53:27] I can't figure out

[00:53:28] what does it add to the game

[00:53:30] yeah I think

[00:53:32] I have a few thoughts here

[00:53:34] I think inventory management

[00:53:37] in certain genres

[00:53:38] works incredibly well

[00:53:40] and for certain games

[00:53:41] two immediately come to mind

[00:53:42] one resident evil too

[00:53:43] and I've only played the remake of it

[00:53:45] but I think inventory is managed incredibly well

[00:53:48] because it's a survival horror game

[00:53:49] and because you need to be thinking about

[00:53:51] okay

[00:53:52] how can I be judicious

[00:53:53] with the things that I have

[00:53:55] right

[00:53:56] so I think it works

[00:53:57] in resident evil too remake

[00:53:58] it also works in backpack hero

[00:54:01] this is a game that came out on steam

[00:54:03] and switch last year

[00:54:05] it's um

[00:54:06] it's a rogue like

[00:54:06] but it has an adventure mode

[00:54:08] but essentially what it is

[00:54:09] is you end up being in these battles

[00:54:12] and you can increase the size of your pack

[00:54:15] to get more inventory slots

[00:54:16] but you have to play Tetris

[00:54:18] sort of between battles

[00:54:19] and that will determine

[00:54:20] what your build is

[00:54:21] and it's a rare example of a game

[00:54:23] that takes inventory management

[00:54:25] and makes it the chief

[00:54:26] and most fun mechanic

[00:54:27] so backpack hero

[00:54:28] is one that I highly recommend

[00:54:30] and so inventory management

[00:54:31] sort of works for those games

[00:54:33] but it's also because they don't have

[00:54:36] weight

[00:54:37] like weight capacity

[00:54:38] like over encumbrance

[00:54:40] and um

[00:54:42] I think it's supposed to

[00:54:43] like the design idea

[00:54:44] is that it's supposed to add

[00:54:45] sort of this element of realism

[00:54:47] to the game

[00:54:48] but the biggest problem

[00:54:49] was something like

[00:54:49] Dragon's Dogma 2

[00:54:50] which is a power fantasy game

[00:54:52] is

[00:54:53] there's friction

[00:54:55] right between

[00:54:56] I want to be powerful

[00:54:57] and I want to be able to

[00:54:59] switch out my load out

[00:55:01] and quickly and easily

[00:55:04] but

[00:55:04] I'm held back by this thing

[00:55:06] that feels like it's designed

[00:55:07] for realism

[00:55:08] and so the power fantasy

[00:55:09] it essentially being tethered

[00:55:11] it's being held back

[00:55:14] by the weight

[00:55:15] you know

[00:55:15] the limits and capacities

[00:55:17] and yeah I don't

[00:55:19] I don't know

[00:55:19] I typically don't like it

[00:55:23] it's

[00:55:23] yeah I'm trying to think

[00:55:24] if

[00:55:25] I don't know just

[00:55:25] I mean I'll

[00:55:26] I'll give you a good example

[00:55:27] of a game that has like

[00:55:28] a massive

[00:55:30] complex inventory

[00:55:32] and it's

[00:55:33] boulders gonna be playing

[00:55:35] I did not see this coming

[00:55:37] okay

[00:55:38] and guess what

[00:55:40] they have an encumbrance

[00:55:41] system in that game

[00:55:43] never an issue

[00:55:45] ever

[00:55:45] so why have it

[00:55:46] it's never an issue

[00:55:48] just so you're not OP

[00:55:51] so I think

[00:55:52] yeah so I think the reason

[00:55:54] they have it

[00:55:54] is so that you can't just

[00:55:58] load like

[00:55:59] unlimited

[00:56:00] fire barrels

[00:56:01] like in your inventory

[00:56:02] oh

[00:56:03] the way it should weigh

[00:56:04] like a lot right

[00:56:05] so

[00:56:06] they're trying to have a

[00:56:07] semblance of like

[00:56:08] you know

[00:56:08] game balance

[00:56:09] but if it's just like

[00:56:10] a whole bunch of

[00:56:13] like pieces of armor

[00:56:14] and what like

[00:56:14] you could hold like a

[00:56:15] like 50 swords

[00:56:16] in your inventory

[00:56:17] but who care like

[00:56:18] that doesn't impact the fun

[00:56:19] of the game

[00:56:20] but it does impact like

[00:56:21] the balance

[00:56:21] right because you can't

[00:56:23] the same thing here though

[00:56:24] with dragon's dogma

[00:56:25] right like

[00:56:25] if you had something in

[00:56:26] the game where

[00:56:27] encumbrance would be an

[00:56:28] issue

[00:56:29] I think yeah

[00:56:29] like you need to add

[00:56:30] that in

[00:56:30] so it doesn't break

[00:56:31] the game and

[00:56:32] in bad ways

[00:56:33] or ways that like

[00:56:34] make

[00:56:34] you know

[00:56:35] like triplet

[00:56:35] tributt trivialize

[00:56:37] encounters

[00:56:38] or something like that

[00:56:38] yeah

[00:56:41] yeah I just find annoying

[00:56:42] it's just

[00:56:43] it's just a

[00:56:43] bothersome

[00:56:44] in this game

[00:56:45] I just

[00:56:46] yeah I mean one thing

[00:56:46] that was annoying

[00:56:48] one thing that would

[00:56:48] alleviate

[00:56:49] the over-encumberance

[00:56:50] in this game

[00:56:51] is if you were

[00:56:52] when you were in a town

[00:56:53] for example

[00:56:53] and you want to go

[00:56:55] enhance a weapon

[00:56:56] it pulled from your storage

[00:56:59] I don't want to

[00:57:00] go to

[00:57:01] you know

[00:57:02] the blacksmith

[00:57:03] see what materials

[00:57:04] it takes to

[00:57:05] you know

[00:57:06] enhance a weapon

[00:57:07] run over to my storage

[00:57:09] check and see

[00:57:09] if I have those

[00:57:10] materials in there

[00:57:11] if I don't

[00:57:12] okay I don't

[00:57:13] and then keep a

[00:57:14] mental list of what I need

[00:57:15] or then pull them out

[00:57:16] and then go back

[00:57:17] I think that to me

[00:57:20] would just be

[00:57:21] a lot cleaner

[00:57:23] it'd be a lot cleaner to

[00:57:25] to upgrade stuff

[00:57:27] it's

[00:57:27] one of the things

[00:57:28] that's kind of

[00:57:28] held me back is because

[00:57:29] I don't keep mental lists

[00:57:32] all that often

[00:57:32] of things that I want

[00:57:33] to upgrade

[00:57:34] it'd be nice

[00:57:35] I think too

[00:57:35] if you could pin

[00:57:37] like

[00:57:38] hey I want to

[00:57:39] enhance this weapon

[00:57:40] it requires

[00:57:41] these materials

[00:57:41] if I could pin

[00:57:42] that list somewhere

[00:57:43] and that list could

[00:57:44] tell me if I had it

[00:57:45] on my person

[00:57:46] or if my pawn

[00:57:46] was carrying it

[00:57:47] or if it was in storage

[00:57:48] that would also

[00:57:49] like be nice

[00:57:50] but I think for the most part

[00:57:52] it just simply

[00:57:52] isn't helping here

[00:57:54] I'm constantly running on

[00:57:56] average

[00:57:58] weight limit

[00:57:58] nearly at heavy

[00:57:59] yeah you're

[00:58:01] you're opening up your thing

[00:58:02] and giving stuff to your pawns

[00:58:04] which is like

[00:58:04] okay here's this

[00:58:06] not fun mini game

[00:58:07] that I have to play

[00:58:08] every five seconds

[00:58:09] here's five

[00:58:10] because I'm constantly

[00:58:11] over encumbered

[00:58:12] yeah

[00:58:13] or

[00:58:13] yeah yeah

[00:58:14] it's just

[00:58:15] yeah it's not that great

[00:58:16] it would be awesome

[00:58:17] if at the campsite

[00:58:18] you could send things to storage

[00:58:20] too

[00:58:20] you know

[00:58:22] which

[00:58:23] I

[00:58:24] I don't have anything else to say

[00:58:25] about

[00:58:25] mechanics

[00:58:26] but that's a part of the gameplay loop

[00:58:28] I think this gameplay loop is phenomenal

[00:58:30] but I do wish you could send things

[00:58:31] to storage

[00:58:32] from

[00:58:33] your campsite

[00:58:36] yeah so we

[00:58:37] spoken a little bit about it

[00:58:38] sorry to rant on

[00:58:40] encumbrance there

[00:58:40] because I ran into it and

[00:58:42] fall out

[00:58:43] again

[00:58:43] and I was like

[00:58:43] I can't do another

[00:58:44] there in cumbrance game

[00:58:45] just stop

[00:58:48] but yeah

[00:58:48] no fantastic gameplay loop

[00:58:49] again it's

[00:58:50] you know

[00:58:51] you kind of do your main quest

[00:58:52] missions

[00:58:52] there are side quests

[00:58:54] that take you to different places

[00:58:55] some of them

[00:58:56] some of them are actually like

[00:58:57] pretty funny

[00:58:57] and like quite interesting

[00:59:00] there's one in particular

[00:59:02] I'll

[00:59:02] I'll spoil this one a little bit

[00:59:04] but like

[00:59:04] just because I

[00:59:06] again

[00:59:06] if you don't want to be spoiled on

[00:59:07] this skip ahead 30 seconds

[00:59:08] I'll just copy out that

[00:59:09] but I just

[00:59:10] I'll just mention this one

[00:59:11] so there's one where there's a

[00:59:12] sculptor

[00:59:13] and he's trying to like

[00:59:14] make a sculpture of a monster

[00:59:16] and I didn't

[00:59:17] so I went

[00:59:18] and like

[00:59:19] he watches you

[00:59:20] he's like

[00:59:20] I want to observe you

[00:59:21] like

[00:59:22] take down this monster

[00:59:23] and I want to like

[00:59:23] be able to observe it

[00:59:24] for a long time

[00:59:25] so I had like

[00:59:26] what I thought was a pretty good

[00:59:27] run

[00:59:28] against this monster

[00:59:30] but didn't actually end up

[00:59:31] killing it

[00:59:31] and when I finished the quest

[00:59:33] it was like

[00:59:34] oh

[00:59:35] like

[00:59:35] well they did the reveal

[00:59:36] of this artist statue

[00:59:37] in like the

[00:59:39] the rich part of the

[00:59:41] capital town

[00:59:42] for this like

[00:59:42] group of artisans

[00:59:44] and they were like oh

[00:59:44] this is like

[00:59:45] kind of disappointing

[00:59:46] so I was like

[00:59:46] oh

[00:59:47] I guess I

[00:59:47] failed that quest

[00:59:48] yeah

[00:59:49] which

[00:59:49] was kind of funny

[00:59:50] and that was like

[00:59:51] a clever

[00:59:52] way

[00:59:52] that they did

[00:59:53] that they

[00:59:54] they did that side quest

[00:59:55] and there's a few of those in

[00:59:56] here

[00:59:56] yeah

[00:59:57] yeah

[00:59:58] um I

[00:59:58] the side quests

[00:59:59] are some of the

[01:00:00] funny ones like that

[01:00:01] but I would say

[01:00:02] as far as open world goes

[01:00:04] I think Dragon's Dogma 2

[01:00:05] does it

[01:00:06] incredibly well

[01:00:07] like I mentioned earlier

[01:00:08] in the podcast

[01:00:09] this game has had its best

[01:00:10] when you're just

[01:00:11] out of entering with your squad

[01:00:12] it took me forever

[01:00:14] to leave

[01:00:15] the first area

[01:00:16] because I was just having a ton of fun

[01:00:18] going from campsite to campsite

[01:00:20] you know

[01:00:21] fighting monsters

[01:00:22] finding caves

[01:00:23] getting loot

[01:00:25] and

[01:00:27] really honing

[01:00:29] like

[01:00:29] I think the game does a really good job

[01:00:30] of sort of pacing

[01:00:31] its beginning

[01:00:33] and so that was getting used to

[01:00:34] like okay

[01:00:35] if I'm attacking this type of monster

[01:00:36] like what do I need

[01:00:38] what's the best

[01:00:38] and most efficient way

[01:00:39] to take it down

[01:00:41] because you do fight

[01:00:42] like a ton of goblins

[01:00:43] and bandits as well

[01:00:44] and that does require strategy

[01:00:46] don't get me wrong

[01:00:47] but when it comes to

[01:00:48] like the monsters roaming in the world

[01:00:49] and there's

[01:00:50] there's a really cool selection

[01:00:52] you have ogres

[01:00:53] you have cyclops

[01:00:54] griffins

[01:00:55] medusas

[01:00:59] dragons obviously

[01:01:00] and I'm missing a few other ones

[01:01:03] but it's cool to kind of go

[01:01:05] figure out how to take them down

[01:01:07] it's just

[01:01:07] it feels

[01:01:08] super triumphant

[01:01:09] like you feel super victorious

[01:01:11] when you take one down

[01:01:12] and just being out in the world

[01:01:13] collecting looting

[01:01:14] exploring discovering

[01:01:16] I think it's just done

[01:01:17] super super well

[01:01:18] I'm a big big fan of it

[01:01:20] I actually don't even mind either

[01:01:22] that this game doesn't really have like

[01:01:24] easy fast travel

[01:01:26] because

[01:01:27] I have the most fun

[01:01:28] when I'm walking around with my squad

[01:01:30] and I'm exploring a new area

[01:01:34] the one thing that hinders me though

[01:01:36] is

[01:01:36] the over encumbrance mechanic

[01:01:38] right where it's like

[01:01:39] crap I can't do a venturing anymore

[01:01:42] and this world just pushes you

[01:01:43] it so easily pushes you

[01:01:45] into its little corners

[01:01:46] to find cool things

[01:01:48] but having to stop or

[01:01:51] assess like wait

[01:01:53] I don't know

[01:01:53] if we go out and check this cave right here

[01:01:56] I'm probably gonna get over encumbered

[01:01:58] so I'm gonna have to go drop

[01:01:59] everything off right now

[01:02:00] or I can do this cave

[01:02:02] and go at a snail's pace

[01:02:03] on the way back out

[01:02:05] lose my stamina

[01:02:06] very quickly

[01:02:08] and then just be you know

[01:02:09] trudging my way

[01:02:11] back to drop off a ton of loot

[01:02:13] so I think the open world

[01:02:14] like physically the environment

[01:02:15] everything you're going in

[01:02:17] really fantastic

[01:02:18] there are so many things to discover

[01:02:20] but you are held back by encumbrance

[01:02:26] yeah great open world

[01:02:29] what kind of open world is this Jake

[01:02:32] this deserves to be added

[01:02:33] to the open world conversation for sure

[01:02:35] I think it

[01:02:36] is this uh

[01:02:38] no I was gonna say

[01:02:38] it absolutely deserves to be added

[01:02:40] to the open world conversation

[01:02:42] there are

[01:02:43] I would say

[01:02:44] it's not really hubs

[01:02:45] but there are different sections of the game

[01:02:47] that really get unlocked

[01:02:49] once you progress in the story

[01:02:51] and each of those sections

[01:02:52] have a different environment

[01:02:53] and it's definitely like

[01:02:56] difficulty set right

[01:02:59] but I wouldn't quite call it

[01:03:01] like an open world

[01:03:01] divided by hubs

[01:03:03] because if you're sneaky

[01:03:04] if you're crafty

[01:03:06] you can pretty much go anywhere in the world

[01:03:09] even from the beginning of the game

[01:03:11] it's not until later in the game

[01:03:12] that I found certain shortcuts

[01:03:16] so I don't know

[01:03:17] like it's

[01:03:18] there's no gatekeeping

[01:03:21] but it very is extremely structured

[01:03:24] in what you're encouraged to explore

[01:03:27] and when

[01:03:27] so a term for that

[01:03:32] I don't know

[01:03:33] it is pretty unique

[01:03:34] and I think that's one of the things

[01:03:35] I like a lot about it

[01:03:36] is that

[01:03:38] I mean yeah

[01:03:38] you are just

[01:03:39] like a lot of games

[01:03:40] you're kind of just running around the world and

[01:03:42] but because it's so

[01:03:47] yeah I mean like

[01:03:48] so

[01:03:49] oh you know what

[01:03:51] Gene Park put it really well

[01:03:54] that there's no arenas

[01:03:57] oh right

[01:03:57] so like

[01:03:58] yeah

[01:03:58] yes so like

[01:04:00] Elden Ring for example

[01:04:01] like you have all these cool boss fights

[01:04:03] but they all take place

[01:04:04] pretty much

[01:04:05] within like specific arenas

[01:04:07] even like the mini bosses

[01:04:09] are all kind of contained

[01:04:10] self-contained

[01:04:11] these arenas that you kind of stumble upon

[01:04:13] and discover

[01:04:14] usually inside of a dungeon

[01:04:15] or in

[01:04:17] one of those teleporter pads or whatever

[01:04:21] whereas Dragon's Dog by like you have

[01:04:23] obviously a way way less variety

[01:04:25] holy crap

[01:04:26] yeah

[01:04:26] um

[01:04:27] come Elden Ring is just ridiculous on that front

[01:04:30] my goodness

[01:04:31] but these monsters are just out just roaming the world

[01:04:34] and so you could have a fight with a griffin

[01:04:36] the griffin can literally pick you up

[01:04:38] carry you across the map

[01:04:40] the world map

[01:04:41] yeah

[01:04:41] fall down and like you could literally continue the fight

[01:04:44] or usually what happens is they'll just drop you in the middle of the world

[01:04:47] and you die

[01:04:47] yeah

[01:04:50] but that is a really really cool

[01:04:54] facet of this

[01:04:55] is that you're kind of running through the world

[01:04:56] you run across these huge bosses

[01:04:59] and these dragons and these griffins and different things

[01:05:02] and they're just like right out there

[01:05:03] they're just right there in the open world

[01:05:05] it's not like a staged boss fight

[01:05:07] it's just kind of organically part of the world

[01:05:09] yeah that that organic sort of

[01:05:13] a world design is just so phenomenal

[01:05:16] and it makes for some really really really fun moments

[01:05:19] this game is designed

[01:05:23] probably purposefully so

[01:05:24] just to easily share 10 to 30 second snippets

[01:05:27] of something insane that happened right

[01:05:30] so in the game first came out everybody was showing clips of

[01:05:34] if you knock down a cyclops

[01:05:37] it might function as a bridge

[01:05:39] it might fall across a river

[01:05:41] and it's just like sitting there struggling

[01:05:43] and you could just walk across it

[01:05:46] or getting carried off by the griffin

[01:05:48] right

[01:05:50] that's another one

[01:05:52] there's plenty of things that happen to me

[01:05:54] that I just think are hilarious

[01:05:56] all of a sudden an ogre picks you up

[01:05:59] and you're like because you didn't dodge

[01:06:01] you didn't get out of the way in time

[01:06:02] ogre picks you up

[01:06:03] starts shaking you

[01:06:05] and dude I have been yeeted over probably 17 clips

[01:06:09] in this game

[01:06:09] the ogre just tosses you

[01:06:11] and you just do this wonderful flailing animation

[01:06:15] as you just soar across

[01:06:17] and the funny thing too

[01:06:18] I feel like is like I've survived a ton of those

[01:06:21] and it's like

[01:06:22] okay so to get back to this boss

[01:06:25] what am I gonna do

[01:06:26] like do I need to run around

[01:06:27] it just makes for these super fun moments

[01:06:29] and it makes these monsters

[01:06:31] feel like they're alive

[01:06:34] very much so

[01:06:35] I do agree though however that there is

[01:06:39] dude I do wish that there was more enemy variety

[01:06:43] and the different monsters

[01:06:46] are some of them are extremely difficult

[01:06:48] and you'll learn really quickly

[01:06:49] that if it has more like purple diamonds

[01:06:52] underneath its health bar

[01:06:53] and each of those signifies another health bar

[01:06:55] it's like okay

[01:06:56] this thing has five

[01:06:57] maybe I'm not quite ready for it

[01:07:01] but um

[01:07:02] but yeah I would love to see things

[01:07:05] just a little more that's happening in there

[01:07:08] I agree

[01:07:09] I don't know do you have a favorite monster to fight

[01:07:14] not really

[01:07:15] I think the

[01:07:18] the griffin

[01:07:20] probably because

[01:07:23] just kind of

[01:07:24] because

[01:07:25] just because it like flies around and like

[01:07:29] it will if you grab onto it straight up

[01:07:31] just like fly away and take you with it

[01:07:33] yeah

[01:07:34] which I just thought was just like a really fun

[01:07:36] like emergent

[01:07:38] gameplay thing but

[01:07:39] no I think

[01:07:41] again to your point

[01:07:42] that's probably one of my biggest

[01:07:44] biggest critiques is just not quite enough enemy variety

[01:07:47] it just needed like a little bit more

[01:07:49] I needed like a few more

[01:07:51] mini boss types and maybe like a couple more

[01:07:55] I don't know it even it could even could have been like the same

[01:07:59] types of things which they have some of that

[01:08:02] but they could have taken that even like one level up when you get into deeper

[01:08:05] like harder areas like you could just have the same thing

[01:08:13] but maybe make them like I don't know

[01:08:15] like an elite version or something

[01:08:16] yeah they kind of do that with like the salamander

[01:08:20] enemies I can't remember what they're called

[01:08:22] and harpies but at the same time

[01:08:25] they fight pretty much the same

[01:08:28] they just have more health or they might cause a different status

[01:08:32] condition on the player or on a pawn

[01:08:35] so yeah

[01:08:36] but overall I think the gameplay loop is phenomenal

[01:08:39] it is extremely when I started session of dragons dog went to

[01:08:42] it is really difficult for me to

[01:08:44] to put down the controller

[01:08:46] because I want to just explore

[01:08:47] a little further

[01:08:49] oh wait this part of the map

[01:08:51] it's it's you know it's great out

[01:08:52] I want to get in there

[01:08:53] ooh there's a cave

[01:08:54] I wonder what's in the cave

[01:08:56] and what is awesome is just how rewarding this game is

[01:08:59] like I mentioned earlier

[01:09:00] I found this early on I found this super cool looking war hammer

[01:09:04] for the warrior class

[01:09:06] and just because I went exploring

[01:09:08] and it was guarded by I think

[01:09:10] two Cyclops or something like that

[01:09:12] and so I thought oh I want to keep this

[01:09:14] and I want to use this

[01:09:15] because it looks really cool

[01:09:17] and the stats are really high

[01:09:19] and just getting rewards like that

[01:09:21] like so I've gotten tons of things for classes

[01:09:24] I haven't tried yet

[01:09:25] I got really cool daggers for the thief class

[01:09:28] I got a really cool looking staff

[01:09:31] for the sorcerer vocation

[01:09:33] and so because there's a lot of cool loot

[01:09:36] hidden in the world

[01:09:37] there's just a ton of incentive to go out

[01:09:39] and explore things

[01:09:41] I do kind of wish that I knew

[01:09:44] if my level was

[01:09:46] right for the next sort of encounter in a game

[01:09:49] does that make sense

[01:09:50] I think I'm like level 40 right now

[01:09:52] and I'm like is that high enough

[01:09:53] where I need to be

[01:09:54] or if I'm struggling with a griffin

[01:09:56] like when I when I first would fight

[01:09:58] some of these monsters

[01:09:59] like my first chimera fight

[01:10:00] my first griffin fight

[01:10:01] I was like am I under leveled for this

[01:10:03] or am I just not thinking strategically enough

[01:10:07] but yeah I would say overall

[01:10:09] I think the incentive the loot

[01:10:10] and just the gameplay of

[01:10:12] okay I'm gonna go out

[01:10:13] I'm gonna do some quests

[01:10:14] I'm gonna explore

[01:10:15] I'm gonna progress the main story

[01:10:16] and then suddenly it's been four hours

[01:10:18] this game really nails that gameplay loop

[01:10:24] absolutely Jake let's talk about

[01:10:27] deep in here

[01:10:28] hour 15 minutes

[01:10:29] let's talk about the impact on the industry of

[01:10:32] dragon's dogma too

[01:10:33] I think

[01:10:37] this is

[01:10:41] I'm not sure about this one

[01:10:43] I think Capcom is obviously

[01:10:45] I think Capcom's like really running at a high

[01:10:49] rate of success

[01:10:50] I don't know like what the sales

[01:10:52] what why is dragon's dogma did

[01:10:54] I know that the next monster hunter game

[01:10:57] which I think is you know one of their biggest

[01:11:00] franchises is using this

[01:11:02] a modified version of the same engine

[01:11:04] which is pretty cool

[01:11:05] ooh nice

[01:11:07] yeah but in terms of like industry

[01:11:09] conversation

[01:11:10] I think you know the big conversation that was coming out of this game was

[01:11:14] was again just those sort of wacky emergent moments

[01:11:20] and you know things that like share well on

[01:11:24] the ticktocks seem to just do better

[01:11:28] like you know like they just have a little bit of that jank

[01:11:32] a little bit of that like surprise

[01:11:35] because the game engine allows just crazy crap to happen

[01:11:39] because it's just the way that it's designed

[01:11:41] those types of games just seem to do better

[01:11:44] now and maybe they just seem to do better

[01:11:46] I think or they seem to at least get like more attention

[01:11:49] and so I definitely can see you know looking at like tears of the kingdom

[01:11:53] and looking at this game and looking at

[01:11:56] kind of the games that have popped recently

[01:11:58] the games that allow you to

[01:12:01] mess with the world in interesting ways

[01:12:04] I think you're gonna come out on top

[01:12:07] especially if they are sort of single player oriented

[01:12:10] and don't offer that sort of dopamine hit of like live service

[01:12:14] you know constant numbers go up game right

[01:12:17] so yeah I think this is another one of those in that field of games

[01:12:21] that I think is going to continue to be the case

[01:12:23] and and people are going to take learnings from that

[01:12:27] I agree I think there's a lot of good creativity here

[01:12:30] for a single player game and for asynchronous multiplayer

[01:12:33] this game is a sequel and I feel like Dragon's Dogma the original

[01:12:38] it came out in 2012

[01:12:41] what was kind of niche maybe I had always heard about it

[01:12:45] in social media from people who are like

[01:12:46] oh like what old games do you really love

[01:12:49] and people put Dragon's Dogma in there

[01:12:50] and so I think there there always has been a conversation

[01:12:55] and maybe a player base that's interested in this type of game

[01:12:57] Dragon's Dogma 2 launched two rave reviews

[01:13:00] and it launched to a lot of these

[01:13:02] I mean the world was very different in 2012

[01:13:04] you didn't exactly have viral clips the same way that they happen now

[01:13:08] and so I think Dragon's Dogma 2

[01:13:10] finally got like probably a lot more attention

[01:13:12] maybe at least in the western world

[01:13:14] what I didn't know is that let's see

[01:13:18] there was an MMO a Dragon's Dogma MMO

[01:13:22] it's probably still happening that came out

[01:13:24] and Cameron did you know that there is

[01:13:27] a Netflix original animation based on Dragon's Dogma

[01:13:35] uh I feel like you're that sounds familiar

[01:13:39] yeah like I just feel like maybe a bunch of this game was latent or

[01:13:44] I am I feel like a lot of people will kind of miss the boat on what this game

[01:13:48] what this series has been

[01:13:51] and I don't know like I think I'm kind of with you in this where it's like

[01:13:56] the game made a splash people like it people are still talking about it

[01:14:00] there are cool clips and cool moments and memories

[01:14:03] that are associated with the world design

[01:14:06] and how combat works and how interacting with monsters happens

[01:14:10] but who I just don't feel like anybody else is going to make this type of a game

[01:14:17] you have Capcom making this Capcom is a massive company

[01:14:21] and they are able to sort of take this type of us

[01:14:23] of risk in making this sequel over 10 years after the first one came out

[01:14:29] I don't know I just don't know who is going to make a single player game

[01:14:34] like this one I feel like especially now that

[01:14:38] a lot of game companies and publishers are super risk adverse

[01:14:42] I don't know if there's a ton of incentive to try to iterate on what

[01:14:45] Dragon's Dogma 2 has done so I I agree with you and I also agree

[01:14:49] that the thing that they are probably going to try to do

[01:14:51] if they do anything at all is make the world and monsters feel as organic as they are in

[01:14:56] Dragon's Dogma 2 to try to create those really cool emergent moments

[01:15:00] right like I don't think anybody can really deny that Dragon's Dogma 2 got a lot of the traction

[01:15:05] that it did because it's so shareable like this is just another example of how viral shareable

[01:15:10] videos can go a long ways

[01:15:15] yeah 100% yeah and this game really stands on its own

[01:15:18] I don't think any nobody yeah this game really is

[01:15:22] just sort of its own unique thing which I think it makes it a great

[01:15:26] I mean no one has really done what the original Dragon's Dogma did since it came out

[01:15:32] it had so it had like this pond system and had climbing the monsters and like had all that stuff

[01:15:39] and nobody really took it and then it kind of did that all again in the second game

[01:15:43] and kind of nobody really stole from that because it's it kind of makes it wholly unique which is cool

[01:15:50] I don't know if there's learnings to be taken from that or and maybe there shouldn't be

[01:15:56] other than like what we just talked about which is those shareable moments and then just

[01:16:02] kind of like making your own wholly unique thing you know not being derivative which

[01:16:10] I think that's going to become a rarer and rarer commodity in the AAA space

[01:16:14] to have like this game is really like we're not gonna I don't know if we're gonna see games

[01:16:20] like this in the future like very soon that are so unique and kind of so out there

[01:16:26] and don't follow a lot of the tropes that exist among AAA competitive games right

[01:16:33] uh competitor games it just it's kind of stands on its own um anyway I wonder if you if you need

[01:16:42] if you need companies like Capcom in order to do this right Capcom is a massive massive

[01:16:50] very you know valued company um and so they are kind of able to make games like this

[01:17:01] um and take that kind of a risk but otherwise I agree I don't know if I see EA making something

[01:17:07] that's just quirky enough kind of beyond what's really popular in AAA or Ubisoft right like

[01:17:16] are the how to what extent are they gonna kind of get out of their comfort

[01:17:19] comfort zone of what they think is or what they can more easily predict that will sell a ton

[01:17:24] of copies I don't really know but it is super nice to get games like Dragon's Dogma 2 where it's like

[01:17:30] okay you know what let's do something a little different with the single player fantasy genre

[01:17:35] let's have pawns you know let's have climbable you know scalable monsters that you can take down

[01:17:41] let's add like this a little more of a strategic element in here then just to make it a

[01:17:45] straightforward power fantasy with a gun so I don't know it's cool I really like it I'm

[01:17:50] super glad I picked up this game um it's a ton of fun and I do highly recommend it but I am also

[01:17:56] with you I just don't think that this is going to make the splash that maybe we would like it too

[01:18:07] well that's it ladies and gentlemen for a discussion on Dragon's Dogma 2

[01:18:13] um Jake any final thoughts before we close it up for another episode

[01:18:22] um I don't think so Rome in the world is just a ton of fun that's why I'm spending almost all my time

[01:18:29] yeah the thing we didn't talk about gameplay loop-wise that I'll just briefly mention is

[01:18:33] this is one of those games where when you beat the game the real game right begins

[01:18:39] which I don't think either Jake nor I have gotten to that part but that's

[01:18:43] that's really like I think the sort of meat and potatoes for the hardcore

[01:18:49] where you're like they're doing a lot of kind of min maxing and and combat like super hard

[01:18:55] combat situations which I I'm actually I think I'm gonna keep going like I do want to at least

[01:19:01] see that I don't I definitely don't think I'm gonna like go deep into that but I at least

[01:19:04] want to see what that looks like and maybe do an encounter or two yeah but uh yeah Dragon's

[01:19:10] Dogma 2 very cool game very much like stand on stands on its own as a like a wholly unique

[01:19:15] experience in the AAA space which is just really refreshing to see add a lot of fun with this

[01:19:22] really good well ladies and gentlemen this has been another episode of the Prieta Bonus podcast

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