The BIG Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen Retrospective

there was one point in my life where i worked at an electronics store it sold things like appliances computers televisions etc and also had a fairly large section for video games working at said store meant that i could have a discount applied to many products that i purchased but it was nothing crazy something along the lines of what the store paid for it plus a small percentage now if you don't know the markup on video games specifically as a product is relatively low businesses that pay for games as a product do not actually make that much of a profit through selling them some products you could get for a steal while others like games you'd basically be paying full price for the way around this was through purchasing used products brick and mortar stores will generally allow you to trade in your games for either a very small amount of real money or for store credit there's deals here and there for trade-ins but you're almost always getting screwed over the main use of this system is for kids who can't actively afford games to be taken advantage of and trade in their old ones so that they can grab something new usually the current big game being marketed at the time since the markup for trade-ins was so high in comparison to a new game it meant that the store discount applied to staff was much better overall as well this was a time in my life where i was trying many games that i would have never considered trying before if i was going to pay an exorbitant amount on a game i would want to make sure i knew everything about it marketing back then and still today is used to push the consumer into buying highly priced products with the promise that it'll be of high quality as well and this is always a hit or miss situation you get to be more experimental with your choices when you have less to lose if i see a used game on the shelf cheap from trade-in and made even cheaper through my discount i could often take the risk based simply on what i see on the cover or a quick google search before the soul series was the powerhouse it is today i randomly picked up a copy of demon souls only to be blown away by the now iconic gameplay style they presented i was able to pick up sleeping dogs which actively shaped my music taste through its radio stations and added a breath of fresh air to the open world gta gameplay style that so many different series were trying to emulate at the time but most importantly i was introduced to a game that i believed looked a little generic which is funny to think about now as the original cover art matches up fairly well with the cover art for monster hunter freedom from one of my favorite series of all time but it wasn't the original cover art i was seeing instead finding a used copy of a re-release which contained the dlc expansion after the fact dragon's dogma dark arisen didn't really wow me overall with the presentation on the package but as i said a game both used and fairly cheap means you get a better chance to take risks and i'm glad i did because dragon's dogma ended up being a game that defined my taste in future games for years to come dragon's yangman is a capcom product directed by hideake itsuno if that name sounds familiar it should as ituno is the main driving force behind the devil may cry series since devil may cry 2. that might not sound very impressive since devil may cry 2 is often considered the worst entry in the series but this is due both to development struggles and izano being brought onto the project late into development with an inexperienced team who hadn't even worked on the first game this drove iteno into wanting to not only direct the third entry in the devil may cry series but have full control from the get-go leading to what is often considered the best entry overall itsuno would continue work on the series and direct devil may cry 4 in 2008. following these releases itsuno finally had the opportunity to work on his dream project that being dragon's dogma a game he yearned to create and finally felt was possible with the technological innovations of the time itano wanted to make a mechanically intensive game within an open world environment with so much experience in the action rpg genre this was the perfect opportunity to create the only open world experience that could better focus on that aspect think of surface level devil may cry combat mixed into an open world high fantasy rpg this game is from the mind of itsuno with a desire to introduce satisfying action-packed combat to a genre that generally didn't have it a game influenced by the likes of devil may cry monster hunter oblivion and many more influences that you truly feel throughout said game you feel the influences of devil may cry through the combat the influences of oblivion through the quest system and npcs and the influence of monster hunter through your interactions with the giant beasts and monsters you will be fighting this is without even touching on the pawn system introduced in the series that we'll be going over later a system so unique and iconic that it is still praised to this day for how inventive it ended up being dragon's dogma sold well and talks of a sequel go back to as early as 2012 after selling 1 million copies worldwide the true sequel would not be seen until its announcement in 2022 but the game did receive a multiplayer sequel in the form of dragon's dogma online an entry that released in 2015 and shut down service in 2019 but what actually made this game so unique and successful what was it about dragon's dogma that allowed it to exude so much charm to the point that i am still enamored with it to this day it's not just the combat system it's the world building the mechanics of quests and characters the pawn system and the depth in world design even if granzis where the game takes place may sometimes feel overly empty it's a game that gives you options more options than you may ever think possible the aesthetic is eerie in some ways you often watch cut scenes and things will feel off characters can be fairly off-putting and story lines will most likely not make sense to you on your first playthrough dragon's dogma does not hold your hand through the narrative there's a lot for you to figure out on your own and that lends to the game's appeal and mystique all of these aspects combined into a game that was heavily praised on release but seems to be almost a sleeper hit in regards to how many people actively know about it or have tried it i wouldn't call it a cult classic as i believe it was pretty popular initially but dragon's dogma definitely manages to carve its own path while being under the radar unlike similar capcom releases such as resident evil or monster hunter after it exploded with the release of world it's a diamond in the rough a game that adds so much while still ending up being a little janky and off-putting to the general consumer but if you're open-minded and willing to take the risk dragon's dogma may be the game for you and i hope to show you that today in this video we'll go over its themes gameplay and so much more if you enjoy this content please consider liking commenting and subscribing as it helps me continue to make it with that out of the way i'm super rad and this is the dragon's dogma retrospective this video is sponsored by manscape.com the premium global brand for men's grooming and hygiene products if you're looking for a high quality brand to complement your shaving experience whether it be above or below the waist look no further than manscaped who were kind enough to send me their perfect package 4.0 the package includes the lawnmower 4.0 a waterproof trimmer that comes with advanced skin safe technology so you know that your skin will be safe no matter where those ceramic blades are touching also included are the crop preserver and reviver deodorant and toner for your balls they're they're for your balls additionally you get a disposable shaving mat in the form of an old-timey newspaper and for a limited time this amazing shed travel bag it's very soft as well as a pair of the softest anti-chafing boxer briefs i've ever worn so what are you waiting for head over to manscape.com and get twenty percent off plus free shipping and those two free gifts when you use my promo code superrad manscape.com that's 20 off plus free shipping and two free gifts with my promo super rad at manscape.com dragon's dogma opens up near the climax of the game's world cycle but far in the past you as the player control a character known as savann at the time of these events savon is known as the arisen a title forced upon individuals who have come into contact with a legendary dragon that appears periodically throughout the lifetime of the world that dragon's dogma takes place within the model of dragon's dogma's world will become more obvious as we progress through the retrospective and is a huge aspect to some of the mechanical elements within the game leading to it being necessary to discuss the world and storyline as we progress through the journey of our personal arisen for a short time however we are savon and it's the duty of siobhan to take down the dragon that is terrorizing the land while this sets up foreshadowing for your personal character's own adventure the story of savon is mostly meant as a brief tutorial of sorts a means of highlighting the combat system of dragon's dogma without forcing the player through various menus and dialogue instead the player is thrust into an adventure one that leads them into recruiting several pawns automatically pawns are the servants of the arisen destined and compelled to help the arizona along their journey to confronting the dragon they're also tied to one of the most well-known mechanics of the game and we'll get a better idea of what that is as we progress savon is a fighter a type of vocation or class within the world of dragon's dogma sporting a sword and shield that allows him to not only block incoming attacks but use various skills to distract foes and stun them in fact almost every vocation comes with a primary and secondary weapon that ties into the overall design of combat within the game on your primary weapon you can assign up to three skills and then expend stamina to use them or attack as normal at little to no cost it's the same for secondary weapons savann has three primary skill sets for his sword that allow him to attack aggressively and even attack enemies in the air but when guarding he has access to three additional skills for his shield there are some exceptions to this however mage classes for example generally only have one weapon but in turn get the ability to assign up to six spells to make up for this as the player controls savon they'll fight various enemies including harpies and goblins with the final battle culminating in an encounter with a chimera a creature with the head of a lion a goat head on its back and a snake for a tail the chimera showcases the intricacies of larger monsters within the game there's plenty of nuance and mechanical depth with smaller monsters such as harpies forced to fall when lit aflame or the ability to pick up and throw virtually any small creature but larger monsters have a lot more going for them i mentioned previously that monster hunter was partly the inspiration in terms of the game's overall design and you see this within the larger boss-like monsters chimeras for example have many weaknesses take the snake tail which can be cut off from the body proper and prevent poisonous attacks from continuing or the player can focus on the goat head killing it to remove the monster's ability to perform spells most if not all large monsters in the game follow this type of intricacy they'll have breakable parts on their body that can drop loot or weaken the monster in some way and one of the biggest aspects of fighting larger monsters is the ability to scale them you can climb virtually any creature in the game from cyclops to griffins to even dragons it's pretty limitless and one of the game's main selling points every large battle can feel not only like a monster hunter encounter but also like a mini showcase of shadow of the colossus you could climb onto a griffin as it starts to fly away or have a harpy pick you up and send you soaring into the air the battle system is incredibly dynamic in this way and this is shown to you right from the get-go within the prologue regardless of whether or not you win or lose against the chimera a cutscene will play and quickly shift into the present day where we witness the appearance of grigori the main legendary dragon within this timeline along with grigori is the appearance of countless monsters that begin to evade the land of granzis it is unknown to the population of granzas why the dragon has appeared but it is far from the first time that this has happened with the dragon's first appearance predating current civilization by thousands of years with multiple repeat appearances throughout humanity's lifetime while the appearance of the dragon repeats it is not always the same dragon who shows up grigory the current red dragon is both the latest and previous dragon to show up in the cycle but there were others before him and there will most likely be others after him you are a villager within the town of cassardis it's at this point in the game that you get to create your character and it's more of an involved process than you might initially think not only can you change the general appearance of your character but the stature as well and certain factors will dictate certain stats about you for example choosing specific lengths and widths for your head legs and arms will affect your overall weight as a character and this in turn will affect your use of stamina as well as your encumbrance when holding items and equipment heavier characters can hold more before being encumbered but regenerate stamina slower while lighter characters regenerate stamina faster but have a hard time carrying a large assortment of items this in turn matters based on how you want your character to operate encumbrance comes in various levels from very light to very heavy and eventually overencumbered not only is stamina regeneration affected by encumbrance but your ability to simply walk or jog is slowed the higher the level of encumbrance you have the less you hold and the lighter you are the faster you will be overall in both combat and simply traversing the land of granzis and this shows us a bit of the design philosophy of dragon's dogma as a whole mechanical depth ituno not only wanted to make a game that would emulate an open world rpg with a more interactive combat system he also wanted something with intense mechanical depth where every choice you made and everything you do within affects you in more ways than you may be used to i highly doubt any of us have created a character in a game and expected our height and weight to affect our actual stats race selection sure oblivion offers various bonuses depending on which race you choose but your weight your height these are almost always simply cosmetic flavors for the role playing aspect of the game this is where dragon's dogma truly excels in comparison to any other game where there is a basic feature dragon's dogma looks to take said feature a step further a game gives you a lantern as a light source and dragon's dogma says that not only will you have to fill up said light source periodically with oil but it can regularly go out when you get wet not only that but getting wet gives you a drenched status that leads to a debuff even further turning off your lantern and turning it back on negates the wetness effect and your pawns can actually learn to do the same thing it's levels upon levels of mechanical depth for something as simplistic as the character's light source your weight can even affect the world around you such as heavier characters being able to affect pressure plates faster than lighter characters and this can even be further sped up by using your pawns to stand in place with you there's more options within the creation process that can affect your overall character and i won't go into total detail here it's better that you find out on your own but things like running speed or even whether or not you will be drenched can be affected by height and torso choice additionally gender does not lock you out of any mechanics or features of the game including gendered armor male and female characters can wear any piece of equipment and there may even be a time where you need to disguise a male character as female in order to enter a fork full of female bandits additionally monsters like ogres specifically target female characters while elder ogres may target male ones instead every choice matters once your character is created you are met with a cut scene of soldiers from the capital of granzas grand soren delivering a missive about the return of the dragon the previous appearance of the dragon is recent enough to be in the minds of many citizens at this point and duke edmund of grand sorin is said to be the one who defeated it last time unfortunately as this missive is being read grigore makes his appearance on the beach of casares and begins attacking several civilians your first task then is to try and defend your village from this unbeatable adversary before you and you are quickly bested by gregory who swats you away like a fly however your effort and courage as well as the ability to lodge your weapon into grigori's hand awakens him from his slumber-like state and has him recognize you as this cycle is arisen now that probably sounds really confusing all at once so let's break it down a bit further within the cycle of the dragon an arisen is chosen generally through showing courage and resolve as well as a strong will your attempt at facing the dragon awoke grigori and set his sights on you as the next arisen through this grigori punctures your chest and takes from you your heart consuming it and keeping the organ within his own body this in turn makes you immortal in terms of age or sickness but not from battle and arisen will never age as long as the dragon continues to exist and their heart has never been reclaimed should the arisen retrieve their heart they will have the ability to be fully human again and all who may not have yet reclaimed their heart from said dragon will age to the point they should be based on their last encounter with the beast this is very important for one particular scene in the post game having your heart taken from you leaves a scar and it is through said scar that your connection with the dragon is formed the arisen can hear gregory through his scar by placing his hand on his chest and it is grigori who implores you to pick up arms and attempt to best him in battle in order to retrieve your humanity back this isn't simply a request to receive your heart back however there is more to it behind the scenes things not readily made apparent to you at the time that lead to this adventure are a form of tests that will have light shed on it as you progress as gregory takes your heart he absconds from the scene and you fall unconscious upon awakening you hear grigori's voice from your scar and are prodded to pick up a set of weapons from a nearby table this will in turn allow you to choose your starting vocation those being fighters strider and mage these are the only three vocations you may choose at the time but there are several other advanced vocations that are considered natural progressions of the starting classes fighters striders and mages could naturally swap to warriors rangers and sorcerers alternatively you can pick a hybrid version of these classes such as assassin which is the midpoint between fighter and strider there's also mystic knight which is the midpoint between fighter and mage and magic archer which is the midpoint between mage and strider each of these classes offers a different play style fighters for example are fairly strong and tanky striders on the other hand are what you may consider your deck spilled mages specifically are incredibly versatile they can be a utility-based healer or a cannon of high elemental damage it's up to you as the player to create the build that you want to use and there's a lot of options out there and that's what makes the class system with then dragon's dogma so much fun to explore especially since you can change between classes whenever you want at the local inn within grand sorin dragon's dogma gives you that freedom and through it you can actually benefit yourself through the augments of different classes to make a build that is right for you many players won't have to ever worry about swapping between multiple classes and simply play the ones they feel are the best fit for them but dragon's dogma rewards you for experimenting in many ways as you defeat enemies you'll gain experience and discipline points discipline points gained lead to your vocation rank increasing up to a maximum of 9. each rank unlocks new abilities for you to purchase via discipline points that you have earned in combat you can then set these skills for use within combat some of these abilities you can buy are augments which can be equipped as passive bonuses and these augments carry over regardless of which vocation you are currently on this means ranking up each vocation to max and purchasing all augments will allow you to create any set of augment you prefer with a maximum of 6 being equipped at any one time it goes further than this however each level you gain through combat via experience points will raise your stats but the stats affected are based on which vocation you are at the time if you play the entire game as a strider or assassin you may find you have a large pool of stamina but are fairly squishy in terms of defense this means that should you choose to do so it can be beneficial for you to play other classes as well to find a good middle ground playing strider for some levels to build stamina and then switching to fighter for a few levels to build defense as an example this allows you to min max your builds to be as optimal as possible for the vocation you want to focus on but it is hardly necessary to do so you can experiment and later focus on a specific advanced class and manage to beat the endgame boss just fine maybe with a bit of challenge dragon's dogma is not a difficult game if you take your time to explore retreat from enemies that are too strong for you at the time and return after a few levels with new and improved equipment preparation is key here and throwing yourself at tough enemies often may make it seem like the game is fairly difficult but this is only because dragon's dogma's world is set up that straying off the path too far before you are ready can lead to some very punishing circumstances each class also gets its own set of permanent traits as well similar to games like devil may cry you are limited to your light and heavy attacks in combat but can often unlock new combos that involve pausing between button presses or holding the button down during the attack additionally most vocations gain unique traversal abilities when using said class vocations equipped with daggers can double jump and mages can hover and these abilities lend greatly to exploration in that sense it's best to experiment with your classes and take time to complete side quests and figure out which areas of the map have enemies that are the right level for you this is in contrast to a game like oblivion for example where the entire world levels up with you meaning no matter where you go every area is going to feel like a challenge and you in turn may never feel truly powerful with dragon's dogma an area that gave you a fair bit of challenge at one point maybe even a wall of difficulty that prevented you from progressing in exploration may eventually feel trivial due to how you have advanced as a character and the composition of your party overall as i mentioned previously strider is what you could consider the best class for scaling monsters and fighting from a distance they're the decks build within a typical fantasy rpg and the start of the yellow vocations not as strong as some but able to dish out damage through quick successive attacks they specifically utilize two weapons the daggers and the short bow with long bows being reserved specifically for the ranger class with each of these weapons comes several skills you'll unlock as you raise your vocation rank and you can equip three of these skills per weapon what makes striders so much fun to play for me is their ability to scale monsters with around a third of the stamina depletion other classes would be subject to this makes it easier to reach key weak points that can be attacked successfully either with normal attacks or some skills that function while grappling onto the creature moves like thousands kisses for daggers or dire gouge for swords are examples of moves that are not only beneficial when climbing a monster but some of the most powerful and effective in the game at dishing out damage through this mechanic they're both quick and versatile and the ability to fight while also at range is an added benefit and you can think of them as the pure dps role of the party it's also one of the most mobile roles in the game in terms of progression as striders gain the ability to not only double jump but dodge roll as well dodge rolling specifically is a very fast motion with little down time that costs no stamina meaning that if you run out of stamina while sprinting you can actually use the dodge roll to travel faster than normal as your stamina regenerates fighters then are your tanks and can use their shield abilities to both draw monsters attention and protect themselves not only can they block with their shields but timing the block just right will actually lead to a parry that allows you to advance on an opening created by the mechanic in fact the parry mechanic not only has augments that make it easier to perform but one of the advanced vocations more fully revolves around it as a core aspect of its identity to balance them fighters are less mobile than striders unlike striders which can double jump warm mages that can float around gaps the fighter isn't so lucky instead one of their core skills is the ability to tech roll mid landing after being knocked away by a monster leading to a faster near instant recovery on the surface fighters may not seem as in-depth or particularly interesting as some of the other classes but that's due to its ability to stand in place or move around slightly while controlling the flow of battle through its enmity or aggro generating abilities the fighter then can keep the attention of monsters on them while mitigating damage and dishing out a fair bit of their own magic meanwhile can be one of the most interesting aspects within any rpg you could have a very simplistic magic system like in skyrim as an example the ability to shoot fire for as long as you have mana or to buff yourself in several ways while debilitating others or you could go on the opposite side of that to look at something with a little more depth say dungeons and dragons which has pages of spells and effects for your character to learn that can be used in a multitude of ways mages and dragons dogma fall within a halfway point between the two a large portion of the mage's arsenal focuses on elemental damage but it isn't as simple as simply spewing fire out of your hands as you run around the map no mages need time to cast incantations and can't be interrupted aside from some augments that help prevent this you can build augments and even equipment that help mitigate this time requirement and the stronger the ability the longer it will take to activate meaning party composition matters if you or your pawn are a mage you want said spellcaster to be protected in some capacity generally through the inclusion of a fighter or other red vocation within the party mages aren't only proficient in offensive spell casting however they specifically get the ability to bestow elemental buffs on the party's weapons and these buffs can both be upgraded through vocation ranks and have their duration extended through augments mages also have the ability to heal and remove debuffs from party members giving them even more utility within the party interestingly while sorcerer is the natural progression from mage in terms of blue vocations you may find yourself or your pawn sticking to the role of mage throughout the majority of your playthrough and we'll find out why that is shortly i'd like to point out that we will return to advanced vocations later on as we near grand sorin it's best to have an idea of what every class does their strengths weaknesses and their gimmicks so it's better to know about the starting vocations early on so that you have a better idea of what your preferred selection may be and what makes dragon's dogma so special is how unique each of these vocations are you may not understand it at first but as you rank up and learn new abilities it becomes much more apparent what the strengths and weaknesses are for each of the archetypes and how they will benefit your party overall and if you are willing to experiment you will find sets of skills that can absolutely decimate certain encounters that's the beauty of it your skills can be swapped out anytime in certain hub areas if a party composition isn't working for you you have the ability to change it up and try again it's not always necessary but it is highly encouraged once your vocation has been chosen and you reveal that you're awake to kinah who has been taking care of you you basically have full reign of casartis to explore but before that at the town's main gates a pawn is summoned and makes itself known to you we'll get into the concept of pawns shortly i know i keep saying that but for now all you really need to know is that they are people of the rift an area accessible only by pawns and the arizon that allows pawns to travel through different worlds in the known universe and help arisen of parallel dimensions i believe this is the mechanical slash lore explanation used to explain why your pawns and the pawns of other players can be used freely through the game's unique online mechanic one of the things i have seen dragon's dogma most criticized for is its large but overly empty world while i have my own opinions on the land of granzis that we will go into later one area that the game excels in is the design of its towns for which there are not many specifically you will be visiting cassartis your home and fishing village and the capital grand soarin a bustling city with whining streets that are easy to get lost in they are dense areas with a lot to discover within them and exploring is a huge aspect of this game especially with the freedom you have to do so it's not full on wall scaling all uh assassin's creed or prince of persia but you can hop up virtually any ledge and make your way to the rooftops of the towns in order to explore them vertically and reach areas you generally wouldn't find accessible it's within cassartis that you can start your first set of side quests and this is a great time to discuss side quests overall while there aren't many the majority of these quests are intricate enough to be of note especially since many of them offer decent rewards and are missable as you progress through the story if you head over to the game's fan wiki you will generally see that the game is broken up into 7 stages from when you lose your heart to the post game and as you enter from one stage to the next you lock yourself out of some of the side quests that you haven't completed within the previous stage this in turn can lead to you locking yourself out of future quests that were connected to previous ones some people like this mechanic and some don't it's a function of old school jrpgs since their inception while many games now expressly tell you when a side quest is available and when it will no longer be there's something more real and impactful over finding a quest before it's lost to you especially in a replayability sense you could go through the first run of dragon's dogma and miss several side quests and rewards and then play it again on new game plus or a fresh save only to explore further and find something you missed that leads into a grander narrative over the course of the main storyline although i will point out that due to the nature of certain quests and how new game plus functions it may be in your best interest to be a completionist if you want to make the most out of subsequent playthroughs and you'll see why when we get to the concept of idols and forgeries so while it is beneficial to the exploration factor of the game it really depends on the player at hand if you want to go in blind and experience everything as it is presented to you you have that option and it is both valid and enjoyable but if you want to know when certain quests begin and are lost there are various options for that as well before we begin talking about specific side quests however it's best to make your way out of cassardis and towards the nearby encampment as this will lead you to unlocking your own personal pawn and various mechanics in relation to them the world of gransis is rife with danger and you'll see that as soon as you exit out of the safety of cassartis generally speaking you'll have your best chance of reaching somewhere safely by following the roads and traveling during the day at night certain more powerful creatures may spawn and the likes of goblins and wolves may become more aggressive overall on top of this night time is incredibly dark in this game facilitating the use and upkeep of a lantern that you should always have on your person dark areas and dragon's dogma are truly dark and you need to prepare for travel if you plan on exploring during night or within caves and dungeons i would emphatically suggest early on that you do stay on the road and only travel into the forest or off the beaten path when absolutely necessary it does not take long for you to run into more powerful enemies or even giant monsters like chimeras or even drake's close to where you were just previously gransis is incredibly dangerous and only gets more so within the post game although you will be much more prepared by that point this offers a sense of danger when it comes to the concept of exploration i remember being worried about even taking one step off of known roads for fear of running into another monster that i wasn't ready for even if you didn't there could be times you found yourself ambushed by the likes of a griffin or of bandits or zombies and skeletons late at night the fear adrenaline and immersion are palpable within this point that's why it was always so surprising to me to hear people criticize the world as being empty without much to do when that simply isn't the case kranzis is very large and there are many unique areas to explore within it and if you choose to do so you will find yourself fighting against countless enemies some of which are unique and won't appear again until the post game there's not an abundance of towns sure but the dangerous realm of granzas is there for you to attempt to get through to find something new and face new challenges not to simply find another side quest for you to take and get direction on instead you get to create your own path fairly often and you'll be rewarded for doing so through unique encounters and challenges close to cassartis is an encampment run by the duke of grand soren you'll find plenty of soldiers there as well as the merchant reynard who has his own rather involved quest line the main reason for reaching this point early on is to reach the rift stone and begin the process of creating your pawn before that however you need to prove yourself to the pawns of the rift by taking part in a challenge said challenge ends up being a battle against your first large monster a cyclops just outside the encampment this particular cyclops is already heavily weakened and you have the support of multiple npc soldiers at your side to help you what this event is designed for is showcasing the concept of large monsters to you cyclops have a lot of mechanical functionality you can attack their eyes as a weak point you can break the tusks of their face and loot them and you can even attack their legs to knock them down if climbing them isn't something you're more proficient at thunder thunderbase magic can even stun them there's plenty of ways to deal with cyclops and you get to learn the best ways for your specific vocation at this point in time what you learn with the cyclops is something that is constant throughout your entire journey all large monsters will generally have this level of depth and you can spend time learning how to best deal with them in order to be your most effective and it feels incredibly rewarding and exhilarating at the same time large battles feel grand they feel like a lot is at stake and like anything can happen back within the encampment is a rift stone these tools are your means of entering the area known as the rift you appear in this location to summon ponds for use in your party but before you have the ability you first need to make your own much like your own character creation process everything remains true for your pawn their weight and height directly affect things like their stamina and carrying capacity the pawn you create will always be by your side so it's best to make someone that you'll enjoy being around unlike the character you get to form a bit of the pond's personality or inclination inclination basically means how your pond will act within battle things like focusing on utility and healing over offensive tactics and combat you're given a brief survey during character creation to help you define this aspect of your character but you can also change it slightly throughout your journey by using a mechanic known as the knowledge chair which could be found within the ends you'll be visiting it's potentially the most iconic mechanic within the game and forms the majority of dragon's dogma's online aspect make no mistake dragon's dogma is a solo game you play by yourself with a party of pawns but said pawns are either generated via the game itself or by the creation of other players when you create a pawn if online said pawn will be available for hire to anyone else playing the game they can search for pawns of certain categories within the rift and have the opportunity of finding your pawn when doing so additionally the server will generate pawns to walk around the streets of grand sorin and the rhodes of gransis as a whole and said pawns can be actively recruited without accessing a rift stone pawns within the lore of dragon's dogma have the ability to travel across dimensions or to different worlds via the rift this is the explanation given to explain why you can use the pawns of other players because players within different worlds create their pawns and then said pawns travel across worlds to be used to other players arisen using pawns from other players is both beneficial to you as well as the owner of said pawn you get the use of a pond that may be built and specialized while making them highly effective and in return the owner of the pawn gets rewarded when their pawn is used through the accumulation of a special currency known as rift crystals rift crystals don't have much functionality at the start of the game early on they are specifically used for spawning in pawns of higher levels as any pawn your current level or lower is free to hire if you want to bolster your party with a pawn stronger than where you are currently in the game you can search for pawns of higher levels but this will exponentially raise the cost of rift crystals to contract them depending on the discrepancy between your level and theirs however dragon's dogma has a means of bypassing this cost if you are friends with the owner of a pond say steam friends for example the game will register this and allow you to contract the pawn for free regardless of level this may sound overpowered at first you could be level 5 and have a pawn that is level 200 and this will be useful to you but not as effective as you may think for one level isn't everything in this game equipment and proper skill usage is also vitally important for both a player and a pawn you could be max level and go to fight the awakened form of daemon on bitter black isle and still get your ass handed to you because your equipment isn't up to snuff on top of that there is a percentage experience penalty that goes up one percent per level the pawn is ahead of you up to a maximum of 25 percent this can actually be offset by having another pawn in your party who is 25 levels below you at the same time as it actually gives you an experience boost additionally having less than three pawns in your party at any given time also provides an experience boost meaning the more challenge you place on yourself the more rewarded you will be for overcoming them further pawns can actively learn for every enemy in the game the pawn can learn three ranks of knowledge on it in combat this knowledge will then be used by the pawn to point out weaknesses or allow them to focus on fighting the enemy effectively the best part is that this knowledge is bestowed upon all pawns in your party so when a player sleeps at an inn to access the game's servers they will get a notification from the game if the pawn was used showing what rewards they received in the process and what knowledge of monsters they learned along the way pawns are an incredibly unique mechanic that allow the connection of players within a single player focused open world rpg they are mechanically gratifying and rewarding to you as the player and the individuals using them you can even rank pawns that you enjoyed using when sending them back and maybe even offer them a gift in the process you can send some pretty useful items alongside the pawn if you feel like being particularly generous in fact dragon's dogma is not afraid of allowing you to be incredibly overpowered or mechanically liberated there's even a special arrow you can purchase for 300 000 gold called the maker's finger that can one shot almost any enemy in the game including the final boss the game is full of little things like this that you never expect to see in games similar to it and we'll showcase some more of them as we progress once your pawn is created you can take part in a side quest that will allow you to practice teamwork with a full party specifically you have to take out a bunch of targets that would be difficult to do on your own especially since some are weak to physical attacks and some to magic you also have to work with your pawns to carry an assortment of cargo over to a designated location it's a quick challenge that functions as a tutorial of sorts to show what makes pawns so useful pawns can do basically anything the player can maybe just not as effectively and by having a full party of unique pawns with their own strengths you can make the most out of almost any situation and if you can't you can always rework your build your pawns build or the composition of your party entirely periodically as we progress through the main storyline of dragon's dogma i'll be discussing various side quests that appear within the given stage as mentioned stages are used to dictate when certain events such as side quests begin or are locked away permanently until a new run these stages are used by the wiki specifically but are a good reference for breaking up the progression of the game one of the first quests you have available to you is floral delivery in cassardis after the attack of the dragon several villagers are injured and need medical attention a healer in the village asks you to gather a set of flowers that will allow her to make a medicinal aid but how to find the flowers is left up to you a large portion of dragon's dogma's quests are open-ended you are supposed to do your own research to find out how to best complete your task this usually is through talking to various npcs that can give direct information or hints as to how you're supposed to complete said task more interestingly is an ability of pawns i haven't described yet not only do pawns gain monster knowledge but they can gain quest knowledge as well a pawn has the ability to offer various hints on where to go or what to do based on your active quest at the time and whether or not they already experienced it through another player's gameplay within the rift this is true for both your own pawn and the pawns of others these early quests don't offer the best rewards necessarily they are more a means of introducing you to various mechanics within the game floral delivery for example requires a flower that only appears near the beach at night thus showcasing how the environment can change via the game's day and night cycle certain enemies and items may not be available to you during the day but make themselves apparent once it goes dark another early quest called deep trouble tasks you with investigating a well within cassartis that leads to an underground cave now caves and areas at night aren't just dark they're near pitch black there's a day and night cycle but there is no moon currently within the world meaning sources of light are a must this is where the lantern comes in if you wish to traverse the cave to deal with disorients within you need to prepare yourself not just for battle but for the ability to simply see ahead of you preparation is a large aspect of dragon's dogma it relates well to old school monster hunter where having the right inventory for an encounter before setting off will greatly affect your ability to take on the challenge it's the same here if you prepare properly most tasks within dragon's dogma are fairly painless but if you don't even if you level excessively you may find yourself not even dealing damage to a monster that should be no match for you or running into overwhelming situations because you didn't have the ability to see them coming certain quests that you start early on have character or story arcs that continue on later into the game for example deep trouble where we enter the well has us revisiting it later to deal with further saurians for good by removing their eggs within the vicinity this isn't always the case however guard duty and other quest sees us escorting a merchant by the name of madeleine from cassartis to the encampment if you don't complete this quest early on it will fail but this won't prevent madeleine from appearing in grand soren upon your arrival there this is most likely due to her being fairly prevalent within one of the game's side stories that focuses on the cult known as sanctuary on the topic of merchants players can talk to raynard at the encampment for a rather involved quest one so long it doesn't actually fail until post game raynard has a job for us but he won't actually offer it until we become a better customer what this means mechanically is purchasing something from him 10 separate times specifically leaving the menu and re-interacting with him to purchase again you can do this all in one go by ending the conversation with him and then immediately talking to him again for an additional purchase once the purchases are made raynard asks you to find him a piece of scrap iron generally dropped by skeletons for a reward in this case a discount at his shop raynard's quest is one of the few that's expected to be completed periodically on your travels in fact raynard is a travelling merchant and will appear in random locations depending on which day it is and at which point in time so there's no real incentive to completing this quest as fast as possible especially since doing so removes him completely from the game at the very end which can complicate another mainline quest later on for now delivering scrap iron to him followed by five more transactions will lead rainer to asking for miasmite an item dropped by phantoms but it can also be crafted earlier producing the object followed by 10 more transactions will lead to another discount as well as the actual meat of the quest line you're technically raynard's best customer by this point and someone who can find things fairly easily turns out the scrap iron and myasmite was just a test for the true task at hand raynard is only a traveling merchant as he wants to find out more about his lost father he explains that he couldn't find anything about his father at all during his travels but believes you may have better luck and you will in fact there's six journal entries you can find around grands and producing them will allow you to complete raynard's questline but i highly recommend not doing so until a specific mainline quest known as trials and tribulations many of the quests are not as long and convoluted as reynards and even completing raynor's quest doesn't offer the best rewards for the work involved but it is a way of increasing his affinity and getting a few rare items speaking of affinity every character in the game can have a level of affection towards the arisen and this is dictated by the appearance of a pink glow behind their heads when conversing with you affinity as a mechanic is only really useful for unlocking optional escort quests as well as extra items from specific merchants it doesn't play a bigger role until near the end of the game players can raise affinity through completing quest lines for a character or by offering them gifts while they can lower affinity through grabbing them attacking them and various other actions they may dislike the concept of affinity in the game is more for a bit of role-playing flavor than anything else it's hardly mechanically necessary and you may not even realize it exists until the very end of the main storyline where it's made the most apparent one important side quest involves kinah your fellow village member disappearing into an area known as the witchwood at this point in the game getting to the witch wood can be fairly difficult and there's bandits within the trail leading to it that can easily one or two shot you if not properly leveled or prepared it's up to you whether or not you engage with them however it's perfectly viable to flee past them until you reach the witchwood proper said location is one of the more unique ones you'll come across specifically because of the magical fog that causes your mini-map to be incapable of showing you your surroundings this is caused by sets of talismans that are placed throughout the witchwood finding them and breaking them reveals a section of the map within the radius of the specific talisman you destroyed and makes it easier to find your way around but it is hardly if ever necessary upon entering you'll have to escort kina through the woods to the witch's hut where you will meet celine a small quiet girl who lives there by herself when asked about the witch selene assumes you meant her grandmother but unfortunately she has passed away this is important to remember for we will be revisiting this area and said storyline later on and it helps shed a little bit of light on the concept of the arizona and their ponds after completing all of the side quests of your choosing some of which i haven't bothered discussing you can talk to mercedes at the encampment and choose to sleep there in order to progress the storyline if mercedes looks familiar to you that's most likely due to the heavy influence berserk has on dragon's dogma specifically out of any inspiration attached to dragon's dogma berserk is possibly the most prevalent to the point that they actually had crossover equipment within the original 2012 and 2013 releases with both guts and griffith's golden age armor sets being available for purchase but then being removed due to licensing issues in a way dragon's dogma is potentially the best berserk game we will ever receive even without it being specifically berserk the setting and concepts are so heavily drenched within the inspiration of kentaro mira's work that it feels as though you're living within his universe when playing with that in mind mercedes appearance heavily resembles that of caska both are female warriors self-conscious about their worth in a patriarchal society where male soldiers are applauded and female soldiers are seen as nothing more than a joke to some you can see further references as you progress as well the hut within the witchwood for example has clear inspiration from a similar hut guts and his party arrive at when meeting shirk and receiving his berserker armor you even fight a golem here at one point which is what happens to the party when they arrive as well for now sleeping at the encampment will lead to a scene where you come face to face with a giant hydra that is seen attacking and destroying the constructed fort within this hydra specifically is scripted for the storyline encounter by dealing enough damage to one of the heads you can cut it off leading to a cut scene where the hydra escapes and you're applauded for your actions keeping the head of the hydra as a trophy mercedes plans on offering the head to the duke as a prize and giving you a bit of reputation and leeway within the world of granzis as the arisen arguably the hydra is an example of where dragon's dogma is at its weakest not the fight itself necessarily in fact fighting hydras is an engaging and exhilarating experience the issue is that you won't be seeing another hydra again until you complete the main storyline most likely in fact many unique large monsters and powerful creatures the majority of them are not available until you defeat grigori it's rather unfortunate because it leaves the world to grands feeling slightly repetitive it can be understandable why critics could feel that the game is somewhat empty and sterile when you'll be repeating a lot of larger monster fights that you've already encountered in the past it's a little puzzling considering there are so many unique concepts you only get to experience later on there's no hydras around the depth of grandest no floating eyeballs no living armor nights etc well that's not completely true some unique fights like living armor can be found when taking part in specific notice board quests but in a game that seems to promote exploration and it does so well it's unfortunate to see some of the locations you explore not have anything new of note until much later on to complete stage 1 of the game you need to escort mercedes and her men as they deliver the hydra's head to grand soren the nation's capital it's a rather involved questline and one that has you progress through multiple waves of monsters and bandits you can take part in the quest at any point whether it be day or night but interestingly mercedes will comment depending on when you arrive and even chastise you for being lazy if it's particularly close to nightfall it's probably best to complete this quest during the day as it's easier to see around you i personally completed it at night during this playthrough without thinking and the amount of ambushes laying in wait for you is much more prevalent this is probably the best time to mention then how prevalent certain phrases are within your travels pawns specifically will constantly shout in battle unless told not to and these shouts will often be repetitive phrases used to let you know about weaknesses or warn you about certain enemy strategies wolves hunt in packs arisen or their kind ill likes fire there's phrases you will hear over and over even if it doesn't make sense such as upon suggesting you rest at an inn immediately after waking up in one it's so prevalent that rather than it being annoying it has been openly embraced by the community as a running gag or a meme there's npcs for example who say the same slogan no matter how many times you enter or exit their menu their masterworks all you can't go wrong is a phrase you'll be hearing about 100 times per playthrough when talking to grand soren's local blacksmith after escorting the head to the front gate of grand soren you'll be happy to know there's no other required escort quests in the game really there's optional notice board quests for them but for mainline quests and side quests you're good to go after this point notice boards are scattered throughout gransis many of them within grand soren specifically they're generally used as optional tasks to complete while on the road while doing something greater and can provide various rewards some much more useful than others they're good for added challenges along the way but generally i rarely find myself grabbing ones that take me far off the beaten path unless it has something i truly need such as a silver idol which can be used in a later quest once the head is delivered to grand sorin and you make your entrance mercedes heads off to the noble quarter in order to deliver the head of the snake to the duke this is the end of stage 1 and the beginning of stage 2 opening up new mainline story quests as well as new side quests and mechanics for you to have access to as a player specifically advanced vocations now that we've reached grand soar and players have the ability to head to the union inn and acquire an advanced vocation switching between vocations isn't free initially you need to unlock each with a set amount of discipline points but afterward you can switch between them freely at any location which accommodates the functionality here advancement vocations cost one thousand discipline to unlock while hybrid classes cost fifteen hundred now you aren't the only one who can advance in vocation if you see fit your pawn can also swap to an advanced class for the same cost however pawns cannot make use of hybrid classes these are specifically for the arizon instead pawns can only get access to sorcerer ranger and warrior as advancements but it should be noted that depending on how you want your pawn to operate you may not want to switch them for the majority of the time you are using them let's take sorcerer as an example in terms of pure magic powers sorcerers are the and all be all craziest casters you're going to see in pretty much any game with giant tornadoes immense earthquakes and even meteors shooting from the sky sorcerers have the ability to perform some incredibly devastating spells that also require a large amount of time to cast for that reason it's better to pair their stronger skills with some weaker versions that would allow them to cast faster if sorcerers are so powerful why wouldn't you want your mage pawn to stick to it after advancement the main issue with sorcerers is that they lose a large amount of the mage's utility kit anodyne and halidon the spells used primarily for healing and curing ailments are not available to sorcerers sorcerers still have the ability to cast debuffs such as poison but no longer have the ability to heal cure or cast elemental affinities on weapons so you have to make a choice should my mage pawn become a magical glass cannon stay a utility healer or should i level them up through various vocations to create something unique there's augments for sorcerers that can be brought back and used as a mage meaning it isn't wrong to level up sorcerers for some time until you get the abilities you want before switching back it's all about what you want out of your party for example as a strider turned assassin i like to have my main pawn a sorcerer and then hire a warrior and a utility mage for damage output and healing for striders the class i play the most at the beginning the advanced vocation is known as ranger and can utilize longbows over the strider's short bow while still having daggers as their primary weapon unlike striders rangers are overall slower in terms of ranged combat this is to balance the fact that the longbow can deal overall more damage at the proper range than that of a short bow and primarily focus on attacks that will deal high damage in one blow by striking a weak point from afar think of trying to one-shot a cyclops by sniping them in the eye that's the main job of the ranger although their dagger skills are still prevalent and allow them to take part in close range combat while it isn't their strong suit warrior is the natural progression of a fighter and focuses somewhat on the same aspects rather than a shield they use two-handed weapons those being greatswords or warhammers and these allow them to deal devastating damage at the cost of speed and mobility to make up for this warriors have built in hyper armor or poise in the majority of their attacks staggers are possible on many enemies including humans but the least susceptible to this are warriors meaning that while you can't block attacks with a shield similar to fighter you can instead eat attacks while dealing damage of your own it's an aggressive frontline playstyle one i personally found the most boring out of all available classes however it does allow you to one shot a griffin out of the sky which is pretty insane additionally there are three hybrid classes which combine two of the vocations together to make something overall more interesting in my opinion you can get by fine with the normal vocation sure but in terms of functionality the hybrids bring so much more functionality and fun to the table that i'd feel you were missing out if you didn't try them at all my personal favorite is the assassin which is a mixture of red and yellow vocations and allows the use of daggers swords bows and shields while promoting fighting at night based on the augments for additional damage that being said you can get by just fine without these specialty augments in fact vocations like warrior and fighter offer augments such as clout or vehemence which augment your physical attack by a large percentage making it possible to melt certain fights if you prepare properly assassins are fast versatile and have high stamina allowing them to hit weak points with ease either from afar with a short bow or up close while climbing on top of it the gouge set of skills specifically are incredibly powerful for assassins as you get to use a sword grapple ability on a high stamina class mystic knights similar to assassins have the ability to use multiple different weapons including swords maces and mage staffs meaning their skill set is highly versatile they are a mixture of red and blue vocations but share the greatest similarities to fighters aesthetically although they get access to magic shields which are larger shields only available to their class while the mystic knight can have the same game plan as a fighter or mage their real gimmick and playstyle revolves around augmenting their shield and using it to block attacks fire counter for example allows the mystic knight to augment their shield with the fire element blocking with the shield will cause a shock wave while perfect blocking can cast the spell ingle which will perform a fire attack there's many many skills and upgrades for the mystic knight's magic shield that allow for a lot more utility and functionality surrounding the vocation and this is where it gets a lot of its character and uniqueness especially in terms of other classes while it is a merger of multiple vocation styles it feels more truly like its own unique vocation in comparison to pretty much any other aside from magic archer magic archer is the combination of yellow and blue locations not only can they use both staffs and daggers but a specialized magic bow that is exclusive to their class arguably magic archers are potentially the vocation i have the least experience with but that doesn't mean they are bad by any means in fact in terms of magical versatility they can offer various booms and debuffs that can greatly affect the flow of battle the biggest downside to the vocation however is its stat scaling which is primarily focused on defense over offense meaning the longer you're playing it the more you're losing out on strength and the ability to deal both physical and magical damage i stand by the fact that stat scaling won't matter too much in a casual playthrough maybe until the awakened form of the final boss and the dlc and even then good equipment can make up for it but the stat scaling for magic archer is truly abysmal especially for what its archetype entails take a look back at mystic knight you need good strength magic and defensive abilities to play it optimally so it scales around balanced stat gains magic archer on the other hand looks to scale defensive abilities despite the fact that it has some incredibly powerful skills that are used at range while dragon's dogma doesn't have many towns to explore it does make the most out of its hub city in terms of detail and density grand sorin is the capital of granza's it's a walled off complex that acts as the center point with pawns even pointing out all roads lead to grand sorin the majority of granzis's population then seems to live here meaning there would need to be a large amount of housing in order to fit everyone and this ends up being the case tall dense buildings that lead to winding roads and countless alleyways are the main design elements of grand soren to the point that it's incredibly easy to get turned around and lost within the market district or urban corridor of the city similar to cassartis grand soren is in a sense fully explorable while not every building has the ability to be entered players can find ledges and ladders that allow them to scale the rooftops of the city which ends up feeling like its own unique world above the streets below you're rewarded for taking the time to do so as well there's chests and items hidden around the rooftops a sense of platforming is incentivized when you need to jump from one building to another or onto a lower balcony so you can enter a merchant's house or find a chest that may contain a rare item such as a wake stone shard which are fairly rare by this point in the game grand soaring is broken up into districts you have the urban quarter as mentioned previously where the majority of citizens live and where the majority of trade takes place you find the union in here where you can change vocations and sleep to access the game's servers and progress time you can find a blacksmith and apothecary as well which is where a majority of the players will purchase their equipment and items as they progress through the storyline the apothecary less so potentially as crafting is a huge aspect of the game's preparation-focused design within every town every field and every dungeon you will find countless items plants and more to pick up on your travels many of these items will have numerous other items they can be combined with and it's through experimentation that you can learn which items combine with others and into what this is useful mostly for healing items but you can make many other items that could benefit you in battle as an example there's plenty of status type arrows you can craft arrows that cause poison sleep torpor or even just an explosive are all possible to add to your arsenal either through crafting or purchasing at the apothecary be careful however the amount of items you carry will raise your overall weight which is broken into tears as i mentioned previously the higher the tier the slower you are overall and the slower your stamina will regenerate madeline has her own shop within the nearby venery that will open after a little more progression and there's even an important shop within the same location known as the black cat a shop that within the original release focused specifically on the forgery mechanic that is one of the game's highest points of design the black cat sells rare goods you generally will have a hard time finding anywhere else additionally quest items that are lost appear here later on available for purchase the original release of dragon's dogma had various dlc equipment offered through the online shop even rift crystals could be purchased which is one of the biggest scams overall due to their relative uselessness unless you really feel compelled to have a high level pawn accompany you or if you really need crystals for another mechanic later on bitter black isle a dlc location added in dark arisen for the dark risen release most dlc armor sets that are costumes of prevalent characters within the game's setting will become available to you for free and automatically when you make it to the union inn but special dlc weaponry has to be purchased for exorbitant prices through the black cat a nice change for individuals that don't want to shell out extra money for dlc but a bit of a slight against the individuals who had already purchased them what truly makes a black cat special is the forgery mechanic i mentioned earlier by offering virtually any item to mount a bank the proprietor of the shop you can have him duplicate a forgery of it for you to use later for things like low tier upgrading materials this is a way of duplicating the items needed to advance a weapon to its next tier of effectiveness but for rare quest specific items this leads into many more interesting opportunities that we will talk about shortly on the topic of upgrades every weapon in the game can be upgraded up to three times via materials you generally have access to this function via the blacksmith and grand soren generally a set of specific materials and gold will be necessary in order to perform the upgrade with the first tier of enhancement only requiring an amount of gold and later tiers getting more complicated as a nice design choice having all of the materials for a specific tier of upgrade allows you to bypass the earlier tiers meaning if you want to upgrade your daggers to the highest tier and have never upgraded them at all you can skip straight to their final enhancement manually enhancing items like this isn't where upgrading ends however dragons play a role within the end game of dragon's dogma and can unlock a final tier of upgrade for what you have equipped at the time i'll go into that a bit later as well but dragon forging as it's known was the final tier of upgrades for any piece of equipment before the release of dark arisen which added two new tears as we will see when we cover the events of bitter black isle within the venery of grand sorin is the aqueduct and below the streets are the slums where many of the disadvantaged are forced to live if they do not have the means of making money through trade or capital like many fantasy settings before it dragon's dogma's setting is one of hierarchy you have the nobles the tradesmen the merchants and the poor and there's no one doing anything to help them the disadvantaged are there simply to be disadvantaged and abused by those in power specifically those within the noble quarter and specifically a man named fornival who we will meet once we reach said location where our travels are going to take us immediately however is the craftsman's quarter a large open area with fields for farming and sparse housing for those that work within you have the likes of blacksmiths crafters and farmers found within said area but most importantly you have the pond guild a location where many pawns flock to and the area you will be porting to when fast traveling like many open world games before it dragon's dogma has a form of fast travel but with a more convoluted design than you may expect in order to fast travel a player must have in their possession an item called a fairy stone these are one use items that allow the player to teleport to any port crystal currently on the map within the original game the only permanent port crystal that was available was the one i mentioned in front of the pawn guild but with the release of dark arisen one was added to cassartis as well more interesting then is the concept of portable port crystals again within the original release i believe there was only one and it could be found at the top of a location called blue moon tower a portable port crystal can be placed anywhere on the map of granzis effectively creating your own fast travel points you even have the ability to pick them up if you want to change the location you can fast travel to darker risen was kind enough to add four additional port crystals to be found meaning it is possible within your first run to have five fast travel points of your choosing on top of the ones found within grand soren and near cassardis an additional upgrade via dark arisen was the inclusion of an internal fairy stone that can be used infinitely this leads to a large design shift within the game as a whole while dragon's dogma's original release focused on very limited modes of travel and had fast travel cost you greatly in order to prepare for and achieve dark arizon made the process much easier and more accessible for the player to use there's a lot of discussion within games especially open world when it comes to fast travel some people lean on the side of not wanting it at all while others would always have it as readily available as possible the more middle ground approach is to simply make fast traveling mechanically interesting and i think regardless of how much easier it is to obtain in dark arisen the concept of fast traveling within the game is incredibly well designed and even more so within dark arisen specifically with the ability to hold on to more pork crystals the player can place certain crystals within certain points that will make hard-to-reach areas that you need to visit multiple times much easier to explore the witchwood is a prime example of this even if you placed a port crystal by the entrance of the witchwood it would still be a trek to get to the witch's hunt so that you can talk to celine there however after reaching the hut there is an exit that takes you to a ledge or cliffside directly outside of casaris by placing a port crystal here you will now always have immediate access to the witch's hut without having to take the original longer route to do so this is even more useful within new game plus as the port crystals carry over into subsequent playthroughs and ultimately allow you to place a maximum of 10 pork crystals across grands by the midpoint or end of your second playthrough you can have spent the time and effort to set up a fast travel circuit that is perfect for you as the individual player and this setup may not be the same as everyone else's what you find useful to get to someone else may find not so much or they may have other useful locations you never thought of this helps bolster the game's social aspect as you and your friends can discuss together where best to place a crystal while also using each other's pawns along your journey dragon's dogma is incredibly strong within this regard as the arisen you have a connection to the pawns of the rift and therefore the pawn guild is a natural detour to make in order to learn more about your duties as the arisen although not much is actually explained to you within here instead you are tasked with exploring the everfall by the head of the guild a pawn named barnaby apparently a light has been emitting within and a presence has made itself known and barnaby would like to know more about it the everfall is an incredibly large spiraling hole underneath grand soren it is in fact infinitely large or rather a loop but you don't find out more about it until the post game at the moment it simply exists as a mystery within the land of granzis exploring it is rather hostile as there are many undead within to deal with and an ogre who will more often than not fall to his death for incredibly easy early exp ogres are another interesting large monster they aren't the largest of the bunch but mechanically they have some nuance to them ogres will get excited and more aggressive within the presence of a female party member within dark arisen elder ogres are introduced that are more excited to see men instead this can mean proper party composition may require you to consider more than just weapons vocations and abilities you may also need to consider the gender of a pawn you are bringing alongside you at the bottom of the everfall is the first portable pork crystal you'll find assuming you're playing the dark risen version of the game interacting with the object known as the flame servant's throne causes multiple tentacles to rise up and begin attacking your party forcing the group to run away or otherwise suffer severe losses at the time you wouldn't know this but the tentacles belong to a creature known as an evil eye that can send itself or its tentacle through rifts in order to have them appear around the surrounding area the everfall is tied closely to postgame with the appearance of the dragon the containment within the everfall appears to be weakening and we are seeing foreshadowing of what is to come upon escaping you report your findings to barnaby but nothing comes of it and nothing will until the post game more importantly you've been called to the noble quarter by the duke in order to take part in the story progression quests known as the wormhunt quests the noble quarter is actually fairly small in terms of the rest of grand soren it houses two mansions and a chapel and leads directly into the duke's domain but we won't be heading there for some time there is actually a chapel in cassardis as well in fact there is a rather large religious presence within granzas as a whole known as the faith you don't get much of a look into the faith specifically dragon's dogma's deep dive into thematics focuses solely on the arisen and their struggle through finding purpose in humanity and the struggle and endless cycles of life the faith is just flavor for world building at this point similar to that of the other lands surrounding granzes for example the chapels within granzis are subordinates of a grand cathedral found on the mainland but where that is exactly or what the grand cathedral does is never made explicitly clear through casual gameplay there's many other lands and kingdoms that are mentioned but never fully explored the wife of the duke elenor is from the land of melor that was ruled by god king leonhart the first in recorded history to have killed a dragon meanwhile mercedes is the daughter of the ruler of hearthstone many of these locations are mentioned the game and setting want us to know that granzis is not the world of dragon's dogma but only one piece of it there's history and political influence that we do not get to see fully realized throughout the game and that's because it's not important outside of setting scale dragon's dogma wants us to know that we are not alone in the world as solely grants us but there is no point in exploring that further within this first entry as this storyline is to instead focus on the concept of the arisen versus the dragon and what this battle means and says about humanity and life as a whole sir maximilian stands near the gates to the duke and will be the one offering us up to four quests that we can choose to take in any order you can complete all of these quests if you wish and it is encouraged but you only really need to complete two before being able to advance with the main storyline we'll be going over these quests and what they entail shortly but first there's a few side quests that are more important to discuss in this stage as they showcase key mechanics and aspects that lend themselves to helping dragon's dogma feel so unique and wonderful one of the most important quests within this stage of the game is called a troublesome tome it's not necessarily important from a lore sense or even within its usefulness to the player outside of one optional scene during a specific quest what makes it important is the ability to showcase the nuance of the game's forgery mechanics stefan is a citizen of grand sorin and he is looking for a tome by the name of salomet's grimoire he asks you to retrieve it for him and you can agree to do so for a reward to find the tome you have to do the typical asking around various individuals can give you an idea of where to find it and you'll eventually be pointed towards the headquarters of a band of thieves known as the iron hammer bandits which is located in a fort near the witchwood while the majority of bandits on the way to the fort are hostile once inside the bandits will be cordial with you as long as you behave you need to specifically talk to a bandit named maul to find out more about the tome and he admits to having it but isn't willing to give it up unless you help him with something first here's what's so beautiful about dragon's dogma though you don't need to do anything for maul here in fact the tome is up in nearby broken down tower and you simply need to scale it to retrieve the tome for stefan this doesn't lead to any consequences either the bandits don't know you took the tome as far as they are aware it's still up there and you can actually complete a quest for maul that i won't be going into detail about on the topic there is another group of female only bandits that you can interact with as well as long as your party consists of only female or feminine presenting characters while they won't all be openly hostile to you the leader will attack you on sight i also won't be going into this quest specifically either as the mechanics between the two of them do not highlight anything that won't be brought up through later more important quests with the tome in hand you would think it's time to bring it to stefan but this is actually where forgeries come into play the quest item salomon's grimoire is a unique item only obtainable through said quest if you're like me you most likely enjoy collecting as many unique items in a game as possible and since the grimoire is one of a kind letting it go for a monetary reward may not feel right well you're in luck because you can actually pay the proprietor of the black cat to create a forgery for you once the forgery is made you can then choose to present said item to staphon instead of the authentic copy completing the quest and receiving the reward without losing the unique item there's actually a few other quests where this is technically possible to do but generally they will all lead to some form of consequence down the line stefan's is particularly hilarious and i look forward to sharing it with you what the forgery mechanic showcases is how the developers weren't afraid to throw in some incredibly unique mechanics that could be abused in silly ways to the point that they even account for it within the aftermath of some of the side quests dragon's dogma is rife with little things like this sure maybe you could have one quest in skyrim as a hypothetical where you steal a book and are then presented with the opportunity within the quest specifically to create a forgery only for that mechanic to never appear again dragon's dogma says that's not enough fun mechanics that lend to freedom within the game environment should be available at all times and they should be mechanics that are actually useful multiple times depending on how you utilize them i briefly mentioned fornivale a wealthy noble who lives in the quarter of the same name of the two mansions that you can find there fornival owns one of them for himself and his daughter simone who we will get to know in an important side quest following land of opportunity which we'll discuss now fornivale has a job for us he wants to sell some of his land for a profit but it's currently occupied by a family of craftsmen who aren't particularly keen on leaving fornival would most likely find a way to force them out regardless of whether or not you help but this is an opportunity to do a little bit of good or bad while earning coin in the process the family in question consists of jasper and sarah as well as their son pip each needs to be convinced into letting their home go by the arizon and this is done in a unique way for each for example jasper will not agree to move out unless you convince both his wife and son sarah will agree to it but you need to wait one in-game day for her to make up her mind pip meanwhile will refuse on multiple occasions and you must chase him down in order for him to finally agree pip will be especially disappointed commenting on how he believed the arisen was supposed to help people returning to jasper with his family's blessing will get him to agree as well but not before requesting 30 000 gold from you so that they have a means of finding a new place this payment is necessary to complete the quest if you went down the path of the eviction but you will earn a 40 000 gold reward meaning a net profit of 10 000 gold plus experience and rift crystal rewards for completing it additionally fornival's affection will raise significantly which helps in unlocking the next in his quest line this is not the only path you need to take necessarily you can return to fornival and complain about the process of the eviction which will in turn have him suggest you simply buy the land for 80 000 gold allowing the family to keep living there this is potentially the good karma option in a game that doesn't have the system in place this isn't new vegas realistically there isn't an in-depth criticism to be had here fornival exerts power through capital and property ownership over those less advantaged than him you can either agree to help him and make some money in the process or alternatively buy the land yourself for an 80 000 gold loss mechanically it's always going to be more advantageous to evict jasper and his family on the other hand from a role-playing perspective this may not be something you want to force upon them even by giving them the funds to find somewhere new you are still forcing the family to uproot themselves from what they consider to be their home in my previous retrospective on new vegas choices like this would often have in-depth dialogue and discussion revolving around them what is right or wrong here in this situation is there a gray area do you care about the value one holds for their home or do you value capital more so the choice is yours mechanically only one choice doesn't put you at a severe disadvantage financially and also lends to you being able to start another quest more easily in the future and in a game where the karmic actions you perform don't matter as much in the grand scheme of things generally the more mechanically advantageous option is the better overall option in dragon's dogma specifically you can perform bad actions but rarely will you be punished for doing so and even if said bad actions are brought up in the future it's usually for comedic effect or slight punishment that doesn't ultimately matter while dragon's dogma may sound weak in that regard i don't believe it was the intent of the developer to have strong karmic values within the gameplay experience the game wants to showcase its mechanical depth and opportunities to the player not make you question your ideals in terms of the working class and wealthy capitalist again this isn't new vegas and this isn't the point the point is that some of your actions whether they be good or nefarious will have consequences in the future and that will make you point at your screen and go oh i remember doing that oops and that's where the strength of the game's design truly lies that doesn't mean the game is without its own themes and messaging they just don't fall as hard on the socioeconomic aspects of kranzis but rather on the meaning of life and humanity as a whole as we'll be seeing when we confront grigori if you chose to help fornival or raised his affection through other means you can visit him at his mansion and find him dealing with his daughter simone who needs to be looked after while fornival is off on business with your arrival you are nominated as the official babysitter for simone and will have to escort her around grand sorin for the day while completing various tasks what's most interesting about this quest in particular is how you are rewarded for it various aspects of the escort and how you treated her will shape how simone feels about you you need to stay close to her as she walks around the market at all times and you need to make sure not to bump into her you need to play hide and seek with her and find her as fast as possible you need to get her a flask of water when she asks for it and you even need to race her on foot and let her win while not making it overtly obvious that you are doing so all of these layers of this quest will affect your reward at the end with the best reward being an item called a golden idol an item that gives you a large discount at any shop just by having it in your inventory but really this is not its main functionality the real point of the idol comes after the wormhunt quest when a new set of side quests unlocks specifically from caxton the arms dealer in gran sorin and madeleine each will ask you to produce an idol for them and in doing so they will increase their inventory of purchasable goods there are gold silver and bronze idols and providing the gold idol is what upgrades the shop's inventory the most but there's only one gold idol to give this means you need to make a decision who gets the gold idol and who gets the silver one generally i choose caxton so i can buy various weaponry from him when i need it in my initial playthrough their upgraded inventory carries over into new game plus meaning you can then give madeleine the gold idol on the next playthrough so that they are both fully upgraded alternatively you can simply forge two golden idols and offer them to each of the merchants to complete the quest for their base rewards but you'll ultimately be missing out on their enhanced inventory in the process there's a lot of options and ways around quests that involve forging items a simple mechanic that extends the possibilities of what you can accomplish in a quest if you put your mind to it west of grand soren is an ancient quarry which can be used as a path through the mountains to get from one end of the map to another in fact a merchant wants to do just that but has found it overcome with monsters and gates blocking access you can agree to go through and open all the gates and then deal with three ogres that live within for such an early quest it's actually fairly difficult to take on unless you've leveled appropriately through exploration ogres are particularly nasty and tanky monsters they require a lot of effort to deal with but it's not impossible early on the benefits also outweigh the work put in as completing this quest makes the quarry a hub area safe from monsters that individuals can now travel through the merchant you helped even opens up a shop within and this is actually where you could buy the berserk collaboration armor before it was ultimately removed in future releases completing this quest offers more of a reward than just experiencing gold as it creates a permanent shortcut for you that prevents you from having to go around a large mountain to get to some of the later areas in the game additionally you can purchase work orders that will expand the size of the quarry over time and unlock areas full of treasure and ore for you to mine in terms of licensing the biggest loss wasn't the berserk collaboration armor but the removal of the game's original opening into free by a japanese band called bees i can't play it for you here due to copyright obviously but there is an official release and music video i'll post in the description there's a few more minor quests you can complete along the way that are worth a mention but not express detail chasing shadows has you tailing sir julian voldoa who meets with madeleine late at night for reasons that are not clear at the time dying of curiosity has you helping another casartis villager by the name of valmiro which will lead to another quest later on and reaper's scorn is your introduction to wakestones wakestones are items that will allow you to revive upon death for each wakestone you have in your inventory is a free revival if you wish to use it and shards of wake stones can be collected to automatically create a full wake stone automatically it takes three shards to make a full one and you'll need to find some shards early on in order to help a craftsman whose son has died said craftsman asked for a wake stone due to the legend of their revival properties and you can legitimately revive his son by offering one in fact as dragon's dogma loves to do you can go one step further and use this mechanic whenever you want if an npc dies you can use a wake stone on them to revive them and this actually can come into play optionally during a later quest in order to get a reward you might not expect wakestones aren't fully explained or realized within the lore of the first game you can infer some ideas around them once everything is completed but for the most part they simply hold the magical property of reviving the dead most interestingly though they are shaped like hearts and you need 20 of them to complete the post-game storyline but we'll get into that more later and theorize what wakestones actually mean within the universe of dragon's dogma as i mentioned the way to progress the storyline from here is to complete two of the four wormhunt quests presented to you by sir maximilian in the noble corridor however i recommend completing all of them especially on your first playthrough as they not only provide rewards and experience but also lend themselves to the game's backstory and lore the first and potentially most important quest is the cipher as it leads to our first encounter with the dragon forged at hill figure knoll an ancient slate has been found and sir maximilian wants you to find out what it says and hopes it will help in the quest to defeat grigori asking around town will have you eventually reaching the black cat and the proprietor there informs you that it's not a slate of text but more simply a cipher but for what he is unsure from here you can find a courier named morin running around who points you in the direction of hill figure null but what's nice is that as soon as you receive the quest you can head directly there if you already know where you are going from previous knowledge or playthroughs in many games certain events are scripted to only happen if every stage of a questline is completed too many times have i seen a scenario where there is a mystery to solve or a location to find which you can reason out yourself only for progression to be inaccessible simply because you haven't found the right steps that allow the game to tell you the solution dragon's dogma is much more liberating in that regard if you know your final destination is hill figure null the game will not waste your time and you can simply make your way over there as soon as you accept the quest in order to come face to face with an individual known as the fool the fool is a pawn who resides at the knoll and on the hill is a carved out depiction of an arisen most likely that of the dragonforged who makes himself known soon after your arrival the dragon forged is a previous arisen at least one thousand years old and the fool is his pawn most interesting about the two is how the fool and the dragon forged look strikingly similar and there's more to that you can learn through a later side quest but if the dragon forged is a previous arisen how is he over 1 000 years old this is due to the ritual that creates the arisen in the first place as i mentioned the dragon taking your heart essentially makes you immortal and arisen won't age as long as the dragon lives meaning that grigori has been around for a substantially long period of time at least three cycles worth of arisens including yourself why is that is it not true that duke edmund of grand soren also killed a dragon as in arisen if that was the case shouldn't the dragonforged have disappeared by now due to old age well it's actually very simple the cycle of the arisen continues even if the dragon is not defeated there's many ways that the arisen can face the dragon and ultimately come out alive without killing the dragon in the process with the death of the dragon and arisen retrieves their heart and once again becomes mortal but through a sequence of events we'll discuss near the end of the storyline a new dragon must be formed in order to continue said cycle grigori is not the first dragon within all of the cycles of the arisen but he has been around for at least three of them he came into contact with the dragon forged with duke edmund and now you meaning that within grigori are at least three hearts of arisen and should grigori die this will in turn affect said arisen based on how old they are supposed to be the dragon forge would cease to exist and edmund would suffer a similar fate of aging to around 80 years old now how the dragonforge dealt with the dragon is up for speculation it's important to note now for later reference that the arisen that faces the dragon gets two choices they can either fight the dragon and try to slay it in combat or they can make a deal with the dragon which i will go into later detail on when we examine duke edmund a bit further it's up for speculation as to what happened with the dragon forge specifically some believe that he fought the dragon bare handed which led to his arms looking charred and partially destroyed others believe he may have made a deal with the dragon in order to continue living and now helps future arisen in their efforts to fight the dragon of their cycle it's not known or confirmed which is true exactly it's up in the air the point of the dragonforge isn't to give an explanation at face value but to leave you guessing based on the information you receive later on in the storyline however the dragonforged will disappear in the postgame after the defeat of grigori this could be for a few reasons but the most logical seems to be the fact that his heart was within grigori he was thousands of years old and with the death of grigori he simply turned to dust the dragon forged explains that the cipher simply existed to bring arisens to him it's the same reason there's a large drawing of a warrior on the hill he wants the arisen to find him so that he can help them along their quest mostly through guidance and explanations rather than action and you will be returning here later on if completing a specific side quest with the introduction of the dragonforge concluded it also marks the end of the quest and you can return to sir maximilian for a reward and to pick up the next in the wormhunt seeking salvation is the second of the four warmhunt quests that i believe to be a must if you want to get the most out of the game's world building there's rumors of a cult going around worshiping the dragon and the destruction it brings alongside it sir maximilian wants you to look into their activities and there's one individual who can truly help you with this endeavor that being mason of the slums mason is somewhat of a spy whose main motivations seem to be dealing with salvation specifically when you talk to him he gives you a badge that acts as a symbol to other members in the cult informing them that you too are a member after talking to a few citizens that make themselves known as members you learn of a meeting with the cult that is taking place in some nearby catacombs as you make your way through the catacombs you'll notice a locked section of them that is inaccessible at this time in fact there are two entrances to this locked section and how you enter is dependent on a choice made in a later main quest that also focuses on salvation exploring the catacombs eventually brings you to a gathering held by elysian the leader of the cult it's impossible to hide an eavesdrop here as the elysian will know you are present no matter what and summon a large mob of zombies to sacrifice the rest of the cultists to in a particularly gruesome cutscene that follows he then makes his escape with the knights champion behind him if said champion looks familiar that's because it is sir julian of the duke's knights who we tailed earlier in the chasing shadows questline after defeating all of the undead mason makes himself known and frees you from the trap while also presenting a cultist he managed to catch before he could escape mason gives you a choice here you can either kill the cultist or spare him and mason walks off after offering said option to you there's no real morality presented within the choice whether you think the cultist deserves death or not will not have an impact on the overall story or the perception of the arisen outside of how mason specifically perceives you by killing the cultists mason will reappear and applaud your efforts believing you are someone he can trust and raising his affinity toward you if you spare the cultists mason will appear to kill him anyway and also break ties with you if you're particularly set on being as good as possible it's a bit of a lose-lose no matter your efforts the cultist is going to die it really depends on if you care about getting the affinity from mason and also care about potentially losing some optional side content later on by disappointing him there's technically a third option you can kill the cultist to please mason and then use a wake stone on the corpse in order to resurrect him this mechanically does not affect the game overall you'll still get the same result as simply killing him but from a role-playing aspect it does allow you to get the most out of the situation without murdering an unarmed man the other wyrmhunt quests in my opinion are less interesting overall in comparison to the two i've already mentioned but they are still worthwhile one takes you to the water god alter near cassartis and acts mostly as a dungeon crawl through the upper levels of the temple before draining the water in and searching the depth for multiple heavy tablets that need to be delivered to a researcher outside the more mechanically engaging quest overall is a fortress besieged where you need to help a set of soldiers take back a location known as the shadow fort in order to do so you need to sneak through a nearby tunnel into the fort onto a large battlefield full of goblins and a couple of cyclops you can either take them out first and then let the other soldiers in or you can let them in early for backup in the ensuing fight most interesting about this quest is that you can fail it if the leader of the soldiers dies in battle to be safest it's best to deal with everything ahead of time and then let them in before working your way through the rest of the fort to take out the goblin leader even if the soldiers die and the quest fails you can still return for a reward but you'll lose access to the fort for future optional quests in particular there's a quest that gets you to slay a cyclops in an underground arena are found within the fort and the reward for doing so is the silver idol i mentioned before that is necessary to upgrade one of the shops in grand soren after completing at least two of the wormhunt quests and agreeing to meet with the duke you will be forced into stage 3 of the game's storyline which is relatively short in comparison to the others this is due to there being one interaction that must be accessed during this initial visit and that will lead into two future quests after the fact as you enter the duke's domain you'll be met with the court gesture festy who i can only describe as someone who is the perfect example of what you expect a gesture to look like festy places a joke hat on top of your head to humiliate you as you enter into the duke's court but the joke is on them because this in turn allows you the opportunity to i you not sleep with the duke's wife you are knighted by duke edmund dragensbane himself the man known for killing the previous dragon that terrorized the lands and you'll thus be taking quests from his chamber lane from here on the atmosphere within the cutscene says a lot about what's going on within the duke's domain for one no one takes you seriously with the hat from festy most individuals laugh or mock you behind your back while you look around in confusion it's only mercedes and julian that look really uncomfortable by the events the duke himself seems as though he couldn't be bothered with the events at hand he doesn't care that you're the arisen or that you're here he knows what it's like to face the dragon and can only assume that you will ultimately fail within your endeavors his body language says a lot as he is slumped in his throne talking to what i can only assume is his page or something to that effect and immediately after knighting you he simply goes back to doing just that slumping over and talking the ear off of some nearby subject not paying attention in the slightest as you exit the court a cutscene will play that shows a blond-haired woman tending to some flowers in a nearby garden approaching her and sparking a conversation introduces you to elenor the duke's wife through an arranged marriage between him and the leader of the kingdom of mellor eleanor will comment on the hat placed on you by festy and as you continue the conversation you will offer it to her as a gift while there is no dialogue choice within the scene by continuing to spark conversation you effectively take part in a flirtatious back and forth between you and eleanor that will have consequences later on upon leaving the domain you're officially within what the community considers stage four of the storyline much like stage one it's full of side quests and overall the longest stage out of the rest due to the amount of mainline quests that must be completed to progress i've already talked about some of the quests that are available by this point specifically the idol worship and suppliers demand wherein each of these you must present an idol in order to complete it and upgrade the respective merchant's inventory funnily enough suppliers demand and supply and demand are both quests within this stage that are easy to mix up for obvious reasons within cassartis there is a boy who explains to you that his father is a gardener for the duke and has gone missing he asks you to look into it and by asking around you hear about a worker that had been recently locked away in the duke's dungeon said dungeon is found underneath the duke's court and can be accessed freely at any time during the day i wouldn't typically bring up a simple quest like this one after all we've discussed already the main reason i do bring it up is twofold first is the mechanic of skeleton keys within dragon's dogma certain locked doors can be opened with an item known as a skeleton key which disappears after use there is one that responds near the noble quarter after a certain amount of days and others can be found elsewhere within granzis or bitter black isle by this point in the game it's probably best to have around three or four in your inventory for things to come as they can be used to unlock the prison doors something you'll be doing a fair bit within this stage of the game for example we can find the boy's father locked up in the dungeon and use a skeleton key to open his cell and speak to him the man explains that he overheard some conspirators talking and they ultimately had him locked up for it now he is free and needs to be escorted out however you can't simply have him walk through the front door so you must instead unlock the cell across from him which has a secret tunnel leading into the slums this is the second major reason i bring up this quest similar to how dragon's dogma made obvious references to berserk this dungeon seems to be in turn a reference to the opening sequence of oblivion you i've seen you where the main character is locked within a cell that has a secret passage leading to a tunnel and out through the sewers it's the same here you use a skeleton key to release the gardener and then another skeleton key to access the nearby cell that can lead to your escape once outside the boy will be reunited with his father and they will make their way back to casares from grand soren this is far from your last time visiting the dungeons however and the next visit will be almost immediate this is due to the quest arousing suspicion where eleanor's handmaiden mirabelle will approach you and explain that eleanor wishes to meet with you alone at night in her bed chambers i'm sure you can see where this is going or you can at least assume but believe me when i say those assumptions are incredibly misplaced as the next sequence of events is particularly chaotic the duke's domain is almost always accessible by this point but attempting to explore it at night can get you caught by the guards and locked away for committing a crime to meet elinor you need to work your way around the location without running into any guards and eventually crossing a bridge to her bed chamber which is located in its own dedicated tower eleanor will run to your arms excited to see you as a romance seems to be blooming unfortunately this is cut short as both festy and the duke approach the bedchamber forcing elenor to hide you behind a nearby folding screen as the duke enters there is clearly something wrong with him he appears to be in a trance of sorts with drool pulling and falling from his lips festy makes some crude comments before closing the door behind him so he can eavesdrop from the outside but it's not intimacy that the duke is seeking within this moment instead he forces eleanor onto her bed and begins choking her through sheer rage and guilt shouting and apologizing to a woman named lenore the duke's previous love it's implied here that the duke has done something to lenore that he is racked with guilt over and has been slowly chipping away at him finally culminating in his trance-like state while visiting eleanor but what happened exactly it has to do with the dragon and the choice of the arisen while it's still a bit early to be discussing it i did mention that the arizona has the opportunity to either combat the dragon or make a deal and said deal turns out to be the sacrifice of the arizon's love or something they hold that has the greatest value to them for you that'll be whoever has the most affection by a certain point in the game's storyline for duke edmund that was his love lenore who we can surmise he sacrificed in order to gain infinite life and become crowned duke of gransis at this point you have two options you either intervene or you don't but regardless of your decision you're going to get caught which seems like a bit of a missed opportunity on the developer's part the choice of either sacrificing eleanor for your freedom or saving her by sacrificing yourself would have had an overall larger impact on the storyline than simply having both choices converge into the same conclusion regardless saving eleanor is the only means of continuing her questline so by making yourself known the duke steps back from surprise and awakens from his trance-like state now confused by why you were there eleanor is quick to jump up and accuse you of being a pervert or brigand that broke into her bed chamber calling in festy to get the guards and have you sent to the dungeon for lashings bestie thirsty i know you're there the lady is mistaken i would never violate his grace's privacy while he violates melinda's private i remember reading up on this scene and seeing a lot of disdain for elenor overall a lot of people seem to be under the impression that she simply betrayed you to save herself and there is some merit to that she did temporarily throw you under the bus but we have to consider her motivations for doing so eleanor and all women of gransis live within a hyper-patriarchal society men of power and more likely men in general do not take the plights of women as seriously as men mercedes for example is not taken seriously by sir julian as a soldier eleanor was essentially sold off as a wife to duke edmond they are generally treated like objects to be used as currency for trade and relations between lords not only that but this scene implies that eleanor is in an abusive relationship one where she could clearly fear for her life were elenor to simply explain what was going on in that moment she would potentially be killed on the spot if not put to death after the fact is that justification for betraying you not completely no but this isn't a situation where she simply leaves you for dead the truth of it is that eleanor does care for you and this wasn't just some lustful encounter for her rather she cries for you as you're getting lashed and risks getting caught in the process of saving you from your cell and eating you in your escape if it wasn't for eleanor's actions things could have been much worse for the both of you and it's her actions after the fact that ultimately allow you to escape with your life and her heartfelt apology this is a weird conclusion to the questline not only were you caught in eleanor's bedchamber but you have now also broken out of prison to no consequence the duke will not bring this up again in fact you are no longer a wanted man and can continue to explore the palace freely and even converse with the duke and other staff within it's only eleanor who ends up getting punished after the fact as she is later sent out to a location known as the blighted mance to spend the rest of her days until you intervene next we have three quests that all relate to one another but can only be started after overhearing a conversation between two citizens of grand sorin it seems celine of the witchwood is being portrayed as an evil witch who may be related to the goings-on with the dragon these rumors start to rile up several citizens who decide to head to the witchwood in order to capture celine and kill her this is one of the situations where a well-placed pork crystal can save you a lot of time as you can simply teleport to the shortcut on the cliff side and quickly make your way to the hut in order to find a mob of individuals attempting to break down celine's door this in turn seems to cause the awakening of a nearby golem and this is potentially your first encounter with one although some may be found around gransis if you've been exploring golems are one of the more unique encounters in terms of large monsters they are basically invincible except for a few key points on their bodies that hold fragile talismans by breaking the talismans you can cause the golem to flinch and even fall over which is highly recommended since one talisman will appear on the bottom of its foot and another in the palm of its hands additionally one of the talismans will randomly be marked with an aura and destroying said talisman will cause the golem to freeze for an extended period of time the golem causes the mob of villagers to run away from the scene and its awakening and destruction reveals a hidden passageway within the trunk of the tree holding celine's hut in place said passageway leads to a poor crystal as well as an extension of the witch wood following the path leads you to celine who is in the presence of the ghost of her grandmother whom you have the ability to see and communicate with celine's grandmother is actually a previous arisen who died of old age meaning that she had successfully slain the dragon of her own cycle this confirms that she is from a time before grigori and potentially another dragon that was slain by savann in the game's opening prologue sequence this also makes celine fairly old as well since celine isn't an arisen it is both revealed and easily deduced that she is a pawn and sophia explains a concept she coined as the bestowal of spirit wherein upon will eventually gain the appearance of their arisen and even gain the ability to become fully human a process that is currently taking effect with celine now human celine asked if she may live with you and cassartis and will make her way there after the fact permanently for the remainder of the game this then explains why the fool looks so similar to the dragon forge after living for at least a thousand years they have become one and the same in appearance and the fool will most likely become human as well this shows us the cycle of the dragon has been going on since before recorded history for as long as time has been known within the universe of dragon's dogma there has always been the cycle of the arisen and the dragon and therefore there must be some reasoning behind it some purpose that explains why the dragon is formed and why they choose an arisen and there is an explanation that will slowly be made clear through the final battle with grigori and further into the post game before that there's still plenty to do specifically there's still two more tasks to complete within this specific area of the witchwood down the cliffside into a nearby pond slash river is a subspecies of golem known as a metal golem what makes these golems different from the typical variety is that their talismans are spread around the area they inhabit rather than directly on their person this leads to what is potentially one of the most frustrating encounters for players that are not a yellow vocation in the current moment the talismans are fairly tough they take a while to destroy and you may have trouble doing so without getting steamrolled by the golem as it chases after you the real trouble lies in the fact that one of the talismans is high in the air above a tree and the only way to really deal damage to it is through using a bow if you're not of a ranged class and without a pawn you may find it beneficial to simply leave and come back when better prepared even with the pawn however it can be incredibly difficult to actually get them to attack the talisman instead of simply attacking the golem even with full knowledge on metal golem specifically it's not impossible though i personally had a ranger with me and after 10 minutes of ordering her to attack she finally got lucky and sniped the talisman in one go whether you get rid of the metal golem or not there's still one more task here but you'll have to reset the location before it'll appear meaning leaving through the shortcut to cassartis and re-entering if you go back to sofia's grave you will find a traveling scholar who seems to be resting there and another large tablet similar to the ancient text from the previous cipher quest we completed earlier the scholar will suggest taking it to a priest and upon doing so said priest will suggest bringing it to the dragon forged upon presenting it to him the dragon forged will explain that this item is the arizon's bond a magical relic that changes its appearance based on the arisen of the current day the dragon forged once held it but under a different guise and now it's presented itself to you only to take the shape from a tablet and into a ring signifying that what is important to your arisen specifically is the relationships they share with other people this is the end of the questline and it may seem fairly lackluster overall the truth of it is that the arizon's bond holds a mechanical purpose within the game later into the storyline grigori will kidnap an individual with whom you have the highest affection this individual is considered your beloved and will be used later when gregory offers you the deal of sacrificing your loved one similar to what duke edmund had done previously i want to retread slightly to discuss something i brought up about the metal golem if you go into the fight against the golem unprepared or under-leveled you're going to have a bad time the health of the talismans will drop at an exceptionally slow rate if not using the proper tools for damage for example a ranger can snipe a talisman fairly easily but a fighter may take an exorbitant amount of time to destroy one this can make the game to those new to it feel incredibly unfair and poorly designed that doesn't mean it is unfair and poorly designed however but it is easy to get that perception to the uninitiated the game can feel like a world full of damage sponges there's fights early on that i'm sure many of you watching this remember where you are climbing up a hill on your way to the witchwood and a boulder comes crashing down towards you behind this trap is a set of bandits and past that set of bandits is several others it's incredibly easy to not only get one shot here by some of the warrior vocation or fighter vocation bandits but you will also find yourself having a difficult time damaging them or even staggering them meaning one false move could mean the end of you this can be frustrating at first until you learn that a few levels and an upgrade in equipment can make a huge difference moreover using elemental augmentations or abilities will often be able to change the tide of battle easily moreover using elemental augmentations or abilities will often be able to change the tide of battle immensely there's more you can use sleep arrows to control the enemy's movement or silencing arrows to stop pesky mages that are causing you a hard time you can pop buff items multiple times to upgrade your stats and suddenly steamroll anyone in your way dragon's dogma is a game that expects you to do things optimally to make a party formation that makes sense for the situation at hand and to have consumables to push yourself even further you don't necessarily have to do this but until you learn to you may find yourself having an incredibly frustrating time this is even more difficult with how pawns function as a.i while we can all applaud pawns for their intricacy and the ability to learn about the monsters you are fighting it would be disingenuous to say that the ai system for pawns is exceptionally well made rather it's a hair pulling endeavor to get your pawns to sometimes function as you need them to i have seen warriors who simply do not attack the enemy at all despite the fact that they have nothing to do i've seen utility and medically inclined mages manage to barely get a heal out during an intense battle and in a game where some bosses are so large fast and powerful pawns do not have your ability to properly dodge attacks this leads to an ever-present situation where you are forced to constantly circle around a boss while picking up your pawns in order to revive them before they disappear permanently until you can return to a rift stone and you will be picking your pawns up over and over again i feel i can safely say no matter what equipment you put onto them no matter how late game or high level it is if you try to fight something that is a moderate challenge for your level your pawns will flip a coin to decide whether or not they are the winning factor or if you will simply be playing babysitter to a bunch of kids getting their teeth kicked in one of the more important side quests to take part in is the conspirators as it's the only big side quest to take the arizona to soulflayer canyon a location that houses one of the journal entries for raynard fidel is a member of duke edmonds entourage for lack of a better word he wishes to speak to you but privately and will only meet you on the palace grounds at night here he explains that a letter talking of investigation into conspiracy against the duke and granzis has been lost on the way to fidel where he planned to present it to edmund thus he asks you to head into the nearby curse wood in order to find out what happened to it and retrieve it as he is worried that should it be made public it will lead to a city-wide panic you can find the attacked cart in the curse wood but the letter in question is gone and a gargoyle can be seen flying off in the distance towards soulflayer canyon thus you must make your way there and through the canyon in order to retrieve said letter from the gargoyle that stole it soulflare canyon is most unique due to its layout with two key sides surrounding a large drop into the canyon proper you have to make your way down one side and then back up the other to cross a bridge guarded by a cyclops in order to reach the gargoyle's roost and through that you have to fight your way through multiple enemies including the more annoying phantoms that can possess you and your party there are multiple notice board quests that will send you here but most casual players will most likely only ever approach the location once or maybe not at all depending on if they are completing side quests in the first place that's one of the interesting things about dragon's dogma there's a large swath of unique locations and engagements to take part in that you may never see if you simply take part in the main storyline and a few side quests throughout your journey even replaying it for this video i found myself exploring to further ends of granzis than i was typically used to and found new locations i wasn't personally familiar with this isn't a bad thing by making locations optional you're promoting exploration by rewarding the player with unique experiences in this way franzis feels much bigger than it actually is because you are less likely to step off the beaten path at first and then begin to find more and more to explore as you get more used to the world around you the only reason i'm mentioning the next quest rise of the fallen will be apparent very shortly sir maximilian wants us to investigate salvation since he fears they are summoning the undead to attack individuals out on the roads at night this means heading back to the catacombs but first you need to listen in on a secret meeting between two members near the aqueduct you can choose to either tail one of the members and steal their key or walk straight up on the other member for theirs which key you obtain will determine which door within the catacombs you can open to enter the unexplored area it's a pretty simple quest you explore the rest of the catacombs while finding five gemstones that are used as keys to open a nearby door turns out that all of this was a ruse a set up by a dude by the name of again i you not ball sack who we can then kill immediately and will seriously blow himself up i can't make this stuff out that's the only reason i even wanted to mention this quest there's a man named balsack who blows himself up there's a few other quests i won't be mentioning within this stage of the game but one that i do want to mention that i believe was very interesting in concept and not so much an execution would be nameless terror by exiting grand soren and talking to sir rickard you will receive a letter that essentially threatens the life of the arisen it is then shown to the player and not the character themselves that a set of assassins are lying in wait for you the setup here is exceptionally well done it's made to seem like there will be a set of difficult optional encounters potentially in the vein of superbosses that you can choose to encounter for greater rewards in execution however it's a rather lackluster experience overall the set of assassins are broken up into groups between one and four they'll only appear at night in specific designated locations and in an attempt to ambush you they'll even announce their entrance with a speech that is meant to intimidate their target but ultimately this falls flat for one main reason they can get cut down like butter in a playthrough where my only progression was through side quests rather than actively grinding i still had absolutely no trouble tearing through each assassin before they could even get their introductory speech out of their mouths if you know of the locations ahead of time it's even less engaging as you'll know ahead of time when they are expected to pop up the intended design is that should you choose to travel at night there is a chance that you will run into one of these groups of assassins depending on where you are within grands like i mentioned they are fixed locations so once you've seen them spawn you'll always know where they are on subsequent playthroughs unfortunately the assassins do not live up to the little bit of hype that was bestowed upon them in the scene and the quest ends up boiling down to you jumping from place to place in the span of one night in order to quickly dispatch your attackers on a first playthrough this may feel more involved as you may not have port crystals set up properly or you may simply just not know the locations of the ambushes but after taking out even one it should become clear that these assassins simply aren't a threat even if you don't know where they will appear you simply need to explore the world of granza's at night until they do and quickly dispatch them to give it credit this is a good motivator for newer players to attempt exploring the game world at night when things are more dangerous overall but even then the actual locations of the ambushes are either near grand sore and proper or on the path from grand soren to cassartis which you have already actively explored by this point it was a missed opportunity to have the player try exploring the greater parts of granzis at night and ultimately turned one of the quests with the most potential into one of dragon's dogma's biggest flops royal order quests have at least one of my favorite quests within the entire game but there's plenty of love within almost all of them first we have griffin spain which is a rather involved quest in terms of travel it appears a griffin has been terrorizing the lands of grand sorin in fact you can actually get a sneak peek at this during one of the previous quests while out on your travels a group of soldiers will get attacked by a griffin and have their ox taken away back to its roost at blue moon tower now there are actual orders to take it out for good sir george and various other volunteers will accompany you to a cliffside where you need to kill a goblin and carry it over to a designated location as bait for the griffin what's most interesting about this quest overall is that it can essentially be completed right here and now saving you a load of travel time once the griffin appears if the player is strong enough or has a strong party of pawns the griffin can go down fairly easily before it has the chance to escape back to blue moon tower it's less rewarding this way overall but there's plenty to loot and find within blue moon tower such as a pork crystal and a scene with stefan who we gave the forged grimoire to a while back you still go there for a separate quest but it's better overall to hit it up now and get the expedition out of the way early once the griffin has taken a certain amount of damage it will fly off towards the tower and you and the elizabeth corpse will have to chase after it this takes you far north and then the farthest east it is possible to go within granza's in fact the trek is so long it's highly recommended that you place the pork crystal found at the top of the tower near the entrance as you'll have to come here again very soon after blue moon tower is pretty straightforward overall there's a large amount of fallen platforms and construction to climb around in order to find various chests open but the path to the griffon is basically up a set of stairs at one point you'll actually be actively chased by the griffin and forced to open a series of gates to get away from it until the final confrontation this is one of the only times you get a fight that is this scripted and cinematic but like everything in dragon's dogma it's only scripted to a point you can generally break the sequence of anything in this game depending on how powerful you are on a related note it turns out that you can save all of the enlistment core in this quest from the griffin even an individual you see gets snatched up by him and taken away to higher ground actually never knew you could do this until looking into the quest for greater detail and it will apparently affect mercedes affinity if you managed to save all of them once you reach the top of the tower the true battle begins and you'll have to fight the griffin from start to finish if you've completed stefan's quest for the grimoire this is where the payoff is a short cut scene will trigger and stefan will appear wanting to lend aid since you helped him in the past comedically and a show of just how much thought went into the mechanic of forgery stefan will attempt to use the grimoire only for it to fail and leave him questioning what went wrong exactly while also leaving him in the battle but effectively useless if you did give him the grimoire he will be of much more help within the battle as he gains the ability to cast a version of bolide which will cause meteors to rain from the sky and inflict heavy fire damage regardless defeating the griffin will mark the completion of the quest once reported back to aldis in grand sorin there's rewards to grab at the top of the tower specifically and you can even talk to stefan who will begin to reason that you duped him with a forgery i personally like to throw him off the tower at this point although he will still appear in grand soren and rather soar over the fact that he has been cheated trials and tribulations is next no not that one and it's up to the arisen to decide the fate of a certain noble who we have had past dealings with it appears fornival is in a bit of trouble with the law and asks us to help him out of a sticky situation in exchange for a discount from his shop backroom dealings and potential conspiracy has fornival possibly put to death and the trial will take place within the next four in-game days there's no real investigative work here however instead you're expected to find pieces of evidence that do not necessarily tell you anything one way or the other it's to the point that it's actually hard to decipher how some of the evidence will sway the court or be interpreted things like the gift ledger found in his house in the chamberlain's affidavit can be read as showing guilt or innocence depending on the context of which you have none for this reason it can simply be easier to ignore these pieces of evidence from the get-go and simply choose not to turn them in while focusing on grabbing evidence which will more accurately lead to the verdict of your choosing if you wish to help prove vornival innocent you can escort a witness from when bluff tower and gain favorable character references from the likes of his daughter fidel and jeffrey of the cathedral assuming you haven't completed raynard's quest you can also purchase falsified affidavits from him of increasing expense half of which speak against fornival with the other half praising him in terms of guilt if you saved the gardener earlier you can use him as a witness against vornival and also grab character references from jasper and his family who are still sore about the eviction again the game does not make it fully clear which way certain pieces of evidence will sway the court nor does it make it clear how much evidence for either side is required in order to get a specific verdict in this play through i personally only offered the positive character references and after four days this was enough to find fornivale innocent in terms of consequences dragon's dogma doesn't shy away from removing mechanical features such as merchants from the game based on your actions finding fornival guilty will have him put to death and you will lose the ability to buy items from him such as the maker's finger for the remainder of said playthrough simone will additionally end up homeless in the slums but you can buy her house back for a sum of 100 000 gold which isn't much in the grand scheme of things should fornival be found innocent he will gain a large portion of affection towards you and also sell you items at a discount making this the perfect opportunity to buy the maker's finger if you plan on using it at some point in the future there's one side quest that unlocks by this point in the game as you enter into stage five by visiting madeleine's shop you will find that she is left without a word mostly as she is under investigation by the court you can inquire around about her and eventually see her running off within the aqueduct to an exit that leads towards the ocean where you can follow to confront her there's not much to this quest but by completing it madeline will head back to casares and also appear there as a merchant during the post game this is the only way to keep her shop open as failing to complete this quest will leave her in grand soren without anything to sell potentially one of my favorite quests for a mechanic near its conclusion pride before a fall is a treat to take part in it seems there are conspirators within the ranks of the duke that have finally made themselves known by attacking wind bluff tower you're ordered to accompany mercedes there but she sees this as an opportunity to prove herself and as politely as she can asks you to stay out of her way despite this conversation you both head to winblock tower and witness a scene of multiple knights fighting against one another this isn't the point of the quest however really it's about to show off between mercedes and sir julian or the knights champion an individual whom you've had run-ins with multiple times in the past from tailing him in grand soren to witnessing him at one of salvation's meetings julian is a knight from valdoa sent to help the forces of granzis deal with the dragon however julian worries that if the dukedom were to be recorded as slaying a dragon for a second time in history it would give them too much political power effectively making them a threat to the neighboring states for that reason julian has been helping salvation and looking to cause of the destruction of granzis and the dukedom through the use of the dragon and the cult when the men of windbluff tower revolt it is both julian and later mercedes who were sent to deal with it however julian has been working with the man of wind bluff tower as is seen in a side quest called supply and demand thus forcing himself to make his treachery known to mercedes which leads into the altercation you run into mercedes and julian clash and julian mocks mercedes for thinking she could ever be a knight that people value while also being a woman this is in part one of the things mercedes is most self-conscious about through her time in granza she has done everything in her power to prove herself as just as capable as anyone else looking to make both her father and homeland proud despite realizing that her father sent her as a political move since he believed she would be of no actual value mercedes tells you not to interfere and you therefore have a few options in how this battle will conclude if you let the two fight it out julian will defeat but not kill mercedes and will then escape you can technically side with julian here by attacking mercedes instead of julian but it leads to a similar outcome alternatively aiding mercedes in battle will lead to the death of julian and a crestfallen mercedes realistically mercedes is upset regardless of which option you choose by letting her lose you gain her silver rapier and otherwise a cutlass mechanically it is best to defeat julian as it leads to one of the most interesting uses of wake stones should you kill julian you then have the opportunity to revive him with a wake stone doing so completely baffles him and he feels as though he has been completely bested by you as you have both killed and saved him within one fell swoop due to this julian will surrender and agree to return to grant's orin for punishment it's absolutely fantastic that the developers thought to put this in little extras like this that you may never have thought to do can lead to a progression within the storyline that you'd never think possible for julian specifically he will be locked in the palace dungeon to take this even further you can actually visit him and use a skeleton key to unlock his cell somehow julian has managed to hold on to his unique magic shield and offers it to you as a reward for completing the quest in this way i believe this is the only way to get it as well so if you want mercedes rapier and julian shield i think you'll need to do so through multiple playthroughs the warm king's ring is another royal order quest and another quest that can benefit the player the most via forgery salomet yes the man who wrote the grimoire you retrieved for stefan is on the loose once a mage of the duke he betrayed grand sorin and made off with a magical ring of extraordinary power you can ask around the palace about who people believe stole the ring and this will eventually point you to salamat who seems to be stationed within the ancient quarry currently you can head there to confront him which will force you into a battle with him and an assortment of bandits however you won't be able to kill him here instead he will abscond to blue moon tower meaning it's time to make use of that pork crystal you placed there if you remembered to do so like i suggested another trek to the top of the tower will have you face off against salamat for the final time which is a fairly easy battle overall he'll die by falling off the top of the tower but not before the ring falls off of his person and onto the ground what makes the worm king's ring special is that it has a passive benefit by simply being in your inventory specifically it makes the casting of spells take less time overall and doesn't require being equipped in an accessory slot to do so for mages this is an incredibly powerful item to have especially when paired with augments of similar effect even better the ring works on pawns so if you aren't personally a magic user but your pawn is you can choose to keep the ring and have your pawn make use out of it in order to keep the ring however you'll need to create a forgery and just like the grimoire this will come back later to bite you in the ass slightly although not permanently after completing the final royal order you'll be requested to head to the mountain way castle near the water gods altar unfortunately this turns out to be a trick to get the arisen out of grand soren so it could be attacked while you are away luckily you can simply teleport back with a fairy stone to find a cockatrice terrorizing the craftsman's quarter the cockatrice is a perfect time to mention that the game does not fool around when it comes to certain status ailments for example the cockatrice can inflict petrification which will begin to turn the victim into stone over time if you do not have a curative on your person or a mage that can cast halodon this will kill you after a set amount of time or permanently kill a pawn until you return to a rift stone to complete this quest you just need to make the cockatrice flee or kill it through heavy consistent damage and your reward will be based on if you manage to protect some crates of the dukedom that can be destroyed by the thrashing of the beast i did not know that until looking into it in this video i did not know you had to save some boxes i always just killed the cockatrice after reporting back to aldus this immediately leads into the next quest reward and responsibility in which the duke seems to have a quest for the arisen that would send you far from granza's for an extended period of time what said quest is is never fully explained i believe it could be surmised that the duke is trying to get you as far away as possible as to prevent you from confronting the dragon however this is ultimately not possible as a pressing event is soon to occur before that however the duke has a reward for you the man that tried to sleep with his wife and escorts you to his treasury where he attempts to open a chest with a special lock that can only be opened by the worm king's ring since we created a forgery of the ring it will unfortunately not open and the duke will question if the magic of the ring is wearing out you can come back here later to open the chest and receive a paladin's mantle after attempting to open the chest a soldier will inform the duke that an area known as the great wall is being attacked by salvation and your orders will be changed to go defend the location from the cult we're now in stage six of the storyline and on our way out of the palace you can talk to mirabelle that will deliver the news of the fate of eleanor as it turns out the actions between the two of you have caused the duke to force her to be locked up within an area known as the blighted mance mirabelle will get you a set of night armor that you can wear as a disguise to sneak in and make your way to elenor's bed chamber where you can then begin the rescue operation but not before some intimacy between the two of you during a fade to black it's more involved than you might think in order to get elenor out of the mans since you can't take her through the front gate you have to escort her through the lower level sewers and dungeons which are fairly elaborate and full of enemies to take out along the way additionally there are several gaps where you may be forced to carry eleanor in order to help her across them eventually you will be reunited with your pawns and make one final push back out into the fresh air before this however you should consider giving the arizona's bond to her as a gift or before the quest entirely figuring out who you are going to present it to it's not necessary to do so in order to have a beloved by the point in which grigori will kidnap them but it will affect a cut scene slightly later deny salvation is another quest where you can save various nights along the way in order to gain some rewards in the process certain locked areas can only be opened if you speak to specific individuals once you make your way up to the top of the great wall fort you'll be forced into a confrontation with the leader of salvation who will sacrifice two of his members to summon a couple of whites this could be your first time seeing an enemy like this depending on how far out you trek at night after taking out two whites grigori will make himself known by no landing on top of the cult leader and crushing him under his foot grigori will discuss the cult with you briefly talking about how they are fairly nonsensical but suggest that you take their actions and this encounter as a lesson that the only one that is relevant to the dragon is you as the arisen no one else really matters grigori will then fly off and instruct you to meet him at the tainted mountain so that you may meet for your final confrontation if you gifted the arizona's bond to an individual of your choosing a cutscene will play where you see it fall from the sky suggesting grigori has kidnapped your beloved you can then pick it up after the fact so it returns to your inventory it's not necessary to talk to anyone after this you can now head straight to the tainted mountain through the great wall if you choose and towards the end of the game i will point out a set of dialogue you can have with the duke at this point however where he will threaten you by saying heed this well arisen to challenge the dragon is to challenge edmund dragonsbane it will not stand suggesting that he had planned to be rid of you with his quest from earlier but now is being much more direct by informing you that by making a deal or killing the dragon you will be directly impeding in the duke's own deal that he had made while in arizona himself the tainted mountain lies behind the great wall upon arriving you will find yourself where savann stood during the prologue and make your way through a similar trek towards the gates that hold the dragon behind them unlike savan's journey yours will be filled with monsters who are of a higher tier of difficulty most likely due to the developers taking into account your level and progress by this point in the game a normal chimera would be incredibly easy for you to dispatch so upgrading everything to higher tiers of enemies is a bit of a necessity to keep the challenge engaging there's not much to say about the journey up the mountain itself it plays out similarly to the prologue but once the gore chimera is dispatched you'll need to activate a series of pressure plates in order to open the temple doors that lead to grigori proper here the arizona will come face to face with grigori for the final time you as the player will then be given a choice grigore will inform you that there are two ways this encounter can go down you can choose to fight the dragon win or lose or you could make a deal with him a choice given to every arisen who makes it to this point in your journey a part of the endless chain of cycles that takes place within your world grigori will showcase your sacrifice by revealing your beloved to you the npc who has the highest affection overall in this case it's eleanor for this playthrough and she's currently being harassed by a set of goblins during this gregory we'll discuss some of the themes of dragon's dogma proper what does it mean to live to be human the first question he asks upon your arrival is what is your purpose here arisen if you sought to live you had not but run and hide yourself away in asking this gregory follows by asking what it means to live in truth would the arisen truly be living by simply running away is it to live simply being biologically alive or is there more to it than that is there purpose in fighting to stay alive for an undetermined amount of time to pray to gods you do not know for certain exist humanity's actions at this point are to simply grow and build and spawn more life in the process people seem to live simply to generate more people and fear the end of their own lives in the process do humans do this of their own free will is living the decision of humanity or merely of their creator is it free will to go on living and continue the cycle of life and death of humanity's growth this leads into a contrast between the way gregory posits humanity and how goblins perceive themselves one goblin accurately points out that they eat when they are hungry and sleep when tired of eating that is the goblin's purpose there is no more or less to them and they act in a means that helps facilitate said lifestyle goblins were created for that purpose what is stopping them from breaking free of this mold and acting for something greater our goblins of free will and in the same vein is humanity humanity lives to continue living goblins live to continue living as well just for more basic desires in a simplistic surface level look humanity and goblins are one in the same gregory states that goblins go on living through simple fear of death but then is humanity not doing the same or does humanity have something about them that allows them to live for more not necessarily goblins yearn to live it's their base carnal instinct to continue living and to manage this by any means necessary compare this to humanity where some may be willing to die for any number of reasons or those who go into battle knowingly to their deaths simply for the sake of country or because they were ordered to for the arisen to come face to face with a beast as powerful as grigori it is borderline suicide why does humanity have the ability to push themselves to this point while other species seem to not this is in essence the question of humanity's purpose or of what makes humanity different from that of other lives in the world in turn this is grigori's test for the arisen for whom he saw a strong will and desire you can either prove your will as man and fight the beast your survival determined based on your ability to slay something of immense power or you can break your will for more carnal desires for greed or for power over those like you this is the decision duke edmund made through the breaking of will the duke chose to sacrifice his love lenore in order to gain control over grandest and immortality as long as the dragon should live by doing so grigori points out that you are abandoning all delusions of control that the free will of humanity is nothing but a farce and humanity is simply at the will of the cycle of their creator grigori even confirms for you that the duke won the duchy through such a bargain at this point control falls back on to you as the player and you get to make your choice by sacrificing your love you lead yourself to what is essentially a game over although i believe you get a trophy for doing so you may then attempt to retry the segment in order to fight grigori properly the fight against grigori is interesting for a number of reasons for one it is one of the most and only cinematic fights within the game the only other being the griffin encounter of blue moon tower and similar to many fights in the game the battle can realistically be won at any time there's plenty of chases and scene transitions against grigori but you can ultimately finish the fight right at the start with the maker's finger i mentioned previously although i did hold on to it in this playthrough to better showcase the entire fight by choosing to fight a cutscene will play and your beloved will have the opportunity to escape allowing the arizona to focus on the fight proper by taking part in the full fight you'll have to first be chased by grigore before gaining the opportunity to deal a bit of damage to him within a chamber of the temple later grigori will fly off and you'll have to chase him over a crumbling bridge since the ai of the pawns are not particularly adept at platforming in general this can unfortunately lead to senpai's permanently dying by falling off luckily the game seemed to account for this as the final encounter with gregory will at the very least spawn back in your personal pawn and i can only assume the pawns you hired as well should they have been lost during the chase but i didn't have that happen to me heading down the bridge and up a nearby tower to a set of ballista will allow you to shoot a grigori as he approaches and offer an opportunity for the origin to latch on as the dragon flies off into the sky this is a scripted segment in which you must climb towards a glowing point on the back where your scar seems to be reacting to your own heart within the dragon this in turn causes grigori to throttle towards the surface alongside you while you somehow survive the impact at this point we're in the final phase of the fight and grigori says the following the hour for turning back is passed the world will have its answer you or me death or life beyond if you would gain ought give your all here and now such is the contest you have chosen i raise your weapon your teeth of steel your blood red voice show me your power arisen prove yourself worthy of what lies beyond my corpse show that you possess the strength to still my heart the will to do it the soul slay me and with me death itself stay the fires of destruction gregory is more heavy-handedly telling you now that this is a test you must be the one to prove yourself to grigori in order to see what lies beyond for if you cannot kill gregory the cycle will continue until the eventual energy death of the world gregory is not the end of this journey but merely a check to see if the arisen is worthy to handle what comes next the battle during the aftermath of the dragon that we will see within the post game that's what the cycle has been the entire time a test to see if there is a member of humanity worthy to face that of which is stronger than the dragon and we will soon learn that means facing god himself if you die during this cut scene grigore will even comment that he must find someone else to awaken and try again it is grigori's purpose as the dragon of this cycle to find one who may stand up and face that which is the cycle itself he will point out how he remembers this sensation and pain as something he had once inflicted himself in the past how this battle will lead to the very heart of creation itself in fact this helps us better understand the backstory of grigori and dragons as a whole dragons are the creation of fallen arisen should an arizona die they may be used by an individual known as the seneschal in order to create a dragon that can either walk freely through gransis or be used as the arbiter of the cycle depending on the strength of the creature said strength is most likely based off of the will of the arisen who passed on gregory then at one point was most likely an arisen one who faced the same battle you are facing currently and one who ultimately failed at some point along the way once defeated grigori informs you that you have managed to potentially buy a time for this world to allow it to keep living longer depending on what happens next grigori brings destruction sure but he is not what would end the world that is something else we will consider later on in the post game a truth the arisen will see staring back at them from its utmost depths as gregory tells you about this a cutscene will play one where we see the city of grand soren begin to collapse into itself revealing the ever fall beneath but different from before grigori will reward you by returning your heart and through this we then witness the passing of the dragonforge so old by this point in the story that he simply turns to dust likewise the duke regains his heart as well and through it the age that he has staved off through the deal with the dragon rapidly aging him to somewhere around his 80s as grigory dies you will be reunited with the npc who has become your beloved and as such you have completed the main storyline of dragon's dogma but this is far from the end both due to the darker isn't dlc but also from the post game centered around the everfall upon completing the final fight against grigori you will awaken back in cassardes your beloved will now be stationed within your house alongside celine if you completed her questline that made her become human cassaris has changed in reality the entirety of granzis and potentially the world has changed the sky is no longer sunny but an off-gray green color that blankets the world in a murky atmosphere while ash falls from above killing the dragon wasn't the end to the suffering of grands but merely one step within the trial of the arisen grigori was not the finale in your struggles and people are not safer because of your efforts in fact the world is a much more dangerous place at this point than you have ever experienced before the death of the dragon there were monsters that roamed the lands but nothing too difficult for a low-level character there was even a single drake you could run into and fight early on if you felt brave enough but now every area has changed to include new stronger variations of monsters cassartis to grand soren appears to be the most affected by this just outside of cassardis is a gore chimera on the nearby beach and throughout the plains of gransis and within areas like blue moon tower or the water god's altar various forms of lesser dragons are littered about for you to challenge all of the equipment you wore during your battle with grigori will now be considered dragon forge this is one upgrade rank higher than that of 3 star and considered the highest rank overall before the release of dark arisen dragon forging is technically possible even before fighting grigori as there is a drake who has the opportunity to produce the same effect however while the fight against gregory is guaranteed to dragon forge the entirety of your equipment other fights against most dragons are not so guaranteed when fighting a lesser dragon there is only a chance of a piece of equipment being dragon forged a fairly low chance at that and one that is only raised through raising its normal star ranking a 3 star weapon for example has a better percentage chance of being dragon forged than that of a 1 star or 2 star weapon there are ways to guarantee dragon forging within the post game even before the release of dark arisen and we will discuss said challenge a bit later in the meantime it's a good idea to visit grand sorin to properly see the aftermath of your battle there's a side quest that involves you visiting the duke within the noble quarter within his office the duke will ambush you now old and frail due to the effects of the dragon's death the duke is paranoid of the situation and blames you for his old age believing you must have made a deal with grigori in order to take over as the duke yourself edmund does not believe it is possible for man to fell such a beast or rather he is so racked with guilt over his own choice that he has to refuse to believe it else suffer the entirety of his guilt head on for that reason edmund attempts to fight you although there isn't much he can do after defending yourself the two of you will be flung onto the nearby balcony and guards will arrive shocked at the sight of their once young duke now old and frail edmund will claim treason against you and you will be forced to run from the scene all knights will turn against you some even suggesting they always expected you to be a traitor and you will be forced towards the giant gaping hole that is formed within the urban corridor of grand soren as you arrive you look into the depths of the everfall which seemed to extend past the bottom you reached near the beginning of your journey and through it you see past the bottomless pit and into the sky of granzis itself doubling back on yourself as gregory's words about the truth of the world through its utmost depths ring back in your ears somehow it seems like the world of dragon's dogma is in itself a cycle you will be forced to fall into the everfall and by continuing to descend through the bottomless pit you will in turn find yourself back above the city of grand sorin within an endless loop only able to stop by latching onto one of the many outstretched balconies within the everfall by doing so the arizona is able to pull himself up and you will come face to face with one of the pawns that assisted savon during the prologue of the storyline said pawn quince will inform you that she was assigned to stay here to assist future arisen and tasks you with collecting at least 20 wakestones before returning to her this is the main task of postgame to explore the various levels of the everfall by falling towards them and fighting bosses both new and old until you collect enough wakestones to progress further in fact you'll soon be an abundance of wakestones by taking part in the content surrounding the everfall after the events of the fight against gregory the everfall is now broken up into multiple levels each with their own respawning challenges some of the floors can have one of multiple options while other floors are generally the same each time you visit them additionally this is an area where ponds are known to be stuck or frequent most likely due to past arizona making their way here and ultimately dying within this implies that the everfall is incredibly old almost infinitely so and that humanity has been dealing with the concept of the arisen and dragons for long before recorded history in fact one could surmise that the collection of wake stones is the collection of hearts from previous arisen the shape of a wake stone is that of a heart and they are most abundant within the everfall the final destination for arisen that have triumphed over the dragon there's more to suggest this later on in bitter black isle once we've taken out the final boss within additionally the everfall is one of many factors that puts into question what the world of dragon's dogma truly is is it a planet if so how does traversing the ever fall double back to above grand soren we have seen above the clouds while on top of grigori but is there space further than that or would you find yourself within the ever fall by continuing forward or upward there's a day and night cycle but there's no moon are we on a planet or are the logic and natural laws of this world different from how we perceive our own mechanically the everfall has 16 levels overall each level has an assigned boss or trial for you to take part in sometimes there's not even a boss at all and you simply need to clear a set of mobs and open several chests along the way other times you may find yourself fighting a combination of gore chimera a regular chimera and a lich while the same room could instead feature a drake it's pretty static with some variants here and there levels will generally have pawns within some levels even having merchants that sell fairly powerful gear for this point you are within the game's progression line the best gear overall is found within bitter black isle but there was a time that the ever fall and the optional raid boss were the best options you had after killing gregory in terms of design the everfall is a gauntlet of boss fights it's a means of helping you get better gear while also leveling up fairly quickly bosses like the hydra finally make consistent appearances within the everfall allowing you to fully fight the enemy you only had a taste of back near the beginning of the game i don't think i've mentioned it yet but dragon's dogma has 200 levels total for the player and their pawn and i believe you only need around 40 or 50 to beat the game and head into new game plus thus the point of leveling before dark risen was released was for the sole purpose of being able to fight the er dragon easier the er dragon is an optional boss fight designed around allowing players to work together in order to take down what is essentially a super boss it has both an offline and an online version and the offline version is designed to be soloable meaning you aren't locked out of the fight if you don't have an internet connection for some reason that being said since the offline version is easier to defeat the rewards you receive are not at the same tier as the rewards from the online version the fight itself is fairly simple you must enter the chamber of lament on the sixth floor of the everfall and defeat a few pawns that seem to be controlled by the dragon if online the pawns will be pulled from the game's server with unique names and traits based on how the owner designed them once the pawns are defeated the ur dragon will soon make itself known and the true fight will ensue if online you will see a generation number showing how many times the dragon has been fully defeated if offline the battle is fairly straightforward the dragon has countless hearts around its body for you to target and destroy you need to whittle down these weak points to deal damage to the dragon until it ultimately dies and you are rewarded like any other dragon this rewards you with the opportunity to have your equipment dragon forged although it still isn't guaranteed to do so online however does guarantee that you will get all equipped pieces to be dragon forged regardless of their current rank however successfully killing the dragon online is much more involved mostly due to how large its health pool is this means that you fight the dragon for a set amount of time before it retreats then the damage that you allocated is stored and passed to the game's server now anybody that goes to fight the dragon after this point will be fighting one with slightly less hp than the previous encounter you can challenge the dragon within its generation as many times as you want and as more and more players help out at a given time the dragon will lose more and more health overall until entering what is known as a grace period technically the dragon could appear with more health and hearts than you have previously dealt with it isn't confirmed as to why this is although speculation suggests that there are several servers hosting several ur dragons that consolidate their health pools and average them out from time to time additionally to prevent cheating they even have a damage cap that does not access the server if the player has dealt more damage to the dragon than should be possible during the grace period the dragon will only have 0.1 percent of its health this is to allow players to get their actual kill in so that they may be rewarded with said rewards being based on how much you helped out within the current generation killing the dragon will always give you some of the best rewards but having taken part in several battles and dealt over certain thresholds of damage you will accumulate bonus rewards as well wakestones fairy stones and random rewards if you're worried about losing access to the ur dragon during new game plus don't be a rift stone will appear that allows access to the fight for all completed files meaning that you can start your journey over with your character and still take part in the end game erdragon mechanic which is still alive and well today except on the 360 as i believe that the servers are closed on that console now in terms of starting new game plus we aren't quite ready to explain that just yet with the post game out of the way it's time to talk about darker isn't proper and take a trip to bitter black isle while also talking about a few game modes that were added to offer additional challenges and rewards hard mode and speed run mode are two features of the game that weren't added within dark arisen necessarily but were optional dlc originally with the release of dark arisen the two modes were contained within the base game experience but how you access them is a bit different from simply choosing a difficulty option first it should be pointed out that starting a new game wipes your character data there are no multiple saves within this game to start a new you need to get rid of what you've built up the best way to bypass this is through new game plus which is unlocked near the very end of the post game another means of keeping your character is by switching game modes if you switch from easy or normal difficulty you will not have to restart from the beginning of the game however switching to hard mode will restart the game from the character's select screen while preserving your character level and inventory now when i first played the game i stubbornly began it on hard mode and while it is definitely possible to do so it is a nail-biting endeavor until much later on in the game however the rewards are many for one enemies will be much more likely to drop giant coin pouches which means you'll be regularly earning upwards of 10 000 gold per kill additionally experience points discipline points and rift crystal rewards are all doubled to offset this enemies now hit much harder than ever before and actions require more stamina overall to perform the best way to experience hard mode in my opinion is to play through the game on normal difficulty first including all of bitter black isle although you could skip it then when beginning new game plus you can transfer your completed save over to a hard mode file that will allow your more readied character to reap the rewards of the extra gold and experience by defeating gregory on hard mode you'll be rewarded with a special vest and by completing the game proper a costume set of duke edmonds clothing meanwhile speedrun mode is a mechanic i haven't personally taken part in but it also has its own rewards players can take part in a speedrun at any time and it will use your current save file and inventory to start the process luckily using any items on set attempt will not affect the inventory of your real playthrough meaning it's good to have completed the game at least once and stocked up on required key items and materials such as wake stones in order to complete the game as fast as possible however it does not matter how long it takes you to complete the game in order to get the reward and achievement that being a forest tunic set and a set of caretakers garb the real challenge lies not in how long it takes you but in making sure you never die as one death is the end of the entire run and the only way to circumvent this is through the use of weight stones which again you need about 20 of in order to complete the game in terms of challenges the extra modes are good for acquiring unique items and some of the rarer achievements apparently the sprinter achievement for completing the speedrun mode is one of the least obtained within the game's lifetime while the concept of extra challenge is nice the best thing about hard mode is that it can be used to extend the value of your first new game plus run offering additional challenge that you will be better prepared for at a higher level while rewarding you with additional experience discipline rift crystals and gold while it's great that darker isn't consolidated all of the game's dlc and extra content into one product the real addition is that of bitter black isle a new location for the player to explore that brings with it the toughest challenges within the game and within that the greatest rewards in order to access it you must approach the pier within cassartis at night time here you'll meet with ulra a woman lacking the memories of her past one who feels compelled to not only venture to the isle but take you along with her if you agree to go you will begin the storyline of dark arisen but will still have the ability to return to cassares from the isles entrance at any time overall looks to bring any arisen willing to aid her to the isle but she doesn't know why she needs help in the first place in truth she is in arizona possessed by a pawn of the same name who is being used by her to bring other arisen to the isle in order to deal with a being known as daemon an arizona who has been corrupted in some way and now dwells within the depths of the isle you may be asking yourself how this could be how could an arizona still be alive especially after we have just killed the dragon edmund the last to have interacted with the dragon before his own cycle aged into his 80s or so with the death of grigori that would mean that any arisen prior to this should be of an age that would leave them extremely old if not dead yet ulra and another arisen we are soon to meet seem to be fine why is this well there's a lot of little things to make note of within the isle to suggest that it is between the world of granzis and potentially various others for one bitter black isle has a moon something that does not exist within granzis and on top of this it is always night here with no cycle in the day additionally areas within the game that connect do not always make logical sense based on the layout of the island suggesting that there is a magical or supernatural element at play similar to something like house of leaves one could then reason that bitter black isle is similar to the rift and accessed via multiple worlds or timelines alternatively it may just be a magical hub within granzis that bypasses the effects of certain elements such as the dragon however this wouldn't explain how ulrah managed to meet us within casares it is much more likely that ulrah and the other risen we are to meet come from different worlds with different dragons some of which are still alive at this point it's not explicitly clear the hows and whys much like the rest of dragon's dogma storyline but there's enough here for you to not question it too much it can be reasoned out in some capacity the same way we can reason out pawns coming from another player's world into our own in a sense you may consider the arisen within bitter black isle to be players themselves ones that went down a different path than you and ended up here in the process regardless of how the arizona exist within this world the fact is that they do and ulra would have us begin to explore the depths of the isle in order to learn more about why we are here in the first place while i have described ulra's situation slightly the character does not at this moment have a recollection of who they are or why they are here the further you go within bitter black isle the more that will slowly come back to her until our first confrontation with the dlc's final boss damon but getting to damon is half the battle and the journey there is one rife with challenge with some of the most difficult fights in the game the design of the isle itself is fairly different from the open-endedness of granza's now you are much more constricted in terms of where you can explore there are winding paths in the odd offshoot room but for the most part you will be following a linear path from start to finish with various checkpoints along the way this isn't a detriment to the game while dragon's dogma is known for being an open world rpg the dark arisen dlc breathes a bit of life into the series overall by providing this gauntlet for you to explore yes you will be taking the same path potentially over and over again but there are nooks and crannies for you to find within that lead to various rewards mostly through the opening of chests just make sure that you're careful bitter black isle is the first and only place within dragon's dogma where you can begin to run into mimics known as man-eaters large tentacle-like creatures that will latch onto whoever opens their chest and will kill you if there is no pawn to save you from your dire situation you can break out of it yourself but the chance of you managing to wiggle your way out before your health reaches zero is unrealistic without the use of multiple curatives during the process unlike dark souls there's no real way to tell when a chest is a man-eater or not you can't hit the chest to provoke the creature either you simply have to take your chances although there are a few ways to keep yourself safe you could have a pawn open the chest for you and then save them when attacked alternatively you could set up a form of persistent spell or effect that will deal damage to the beast even after it begins to consume you personally i could never bother with this i generally open every chest as long as i have a warrior pawn near me ready to flinch the man-eater whenever i spring its trap that's the theme of bitter black isle however death sadness and danger every area is caked in an aesthetic of sorrow to the point that even killing enough enemies will release an odor strong enough to bait various other stronger creatures into the vicinity forcing you into either another fight or into running away entirely running away is a valid option within the isle sometimes it's better to push on past enemies or even retreat back to a place of refuge of which there are several throughout your journey you may find areas of refuge where you can heal and access rift stones to rework your party or heal your pawns alternatively there are several rift stones throughout the dungeon that can be repaired through the consumption of rift crystals you'll begin seeing these i believe after the first major section of the isle's entrance as you enter into a courtyard of sorts and come face to face with another arisen by the name of barak barak functions both as a merchant and as an inn for storing your goods and accessing your vocation abilities more importantly he introduces the rarify mechanic which allows you to take items that have been dragon forged and upgrade them further the items must already be dragon forged to upgrade further and just like normal enhancements generally require some form of material on top of the cost of the process however the cost to rarify is not gold but rift crystals and it should be pointed out that you will be earning a large sum of crystals throughout your adventures within the aisle barrack notes that he has been here for an exceptionally long time he seems to simply enjoy exploring and living within the isle and you will spot him within various locations and safe zones until he ultimately sets up shop near the pier at the entrance after your first encounter with damon in terms of exploring there are some back tracking and optional zones here and there sometimes you will need a key and said key can only be found in an area that you have to go to only to never be required to explore again additionally the area in which you first meet barrock has a set of doors that require moonbeam gems to enter these gems are found in static locations around the map and there is only one of each except for one specific gem that responds each time you defeat daemon throughout your exploration you will sometimes have the misfortune of witnessing death spawn in front of you in terms of battles death is purely optional similar to the er dragon his health is constant and any damage you deal will be persistent throughout each encounter that being said it is best to simply run from death until you are absolutely sure you are ready to take it on attacks from death scythe are guaranteed instant kills for you and your pawns and death also has the ability to permanently remove your pawns from the game until you reach another rift stone really death is here to simply add a sense of urgency to the encounters within the game no matter how hard or easy a battle may seem to be there is always the chance that death is creeping up on you around the corner which is a more on the nose take of the themes surrounding bitter black isle as you progress through the aisle you will find yourself in combat with static bosses such as the gazer which appears to be a larger higher tier version of the evil eye and the dark bishop who summons a zombified dragon that he can also possess [Music] these fights are generally signifiers of a checkpoint zone awaiting you further ahead these checkpoint zones take you back near the pier of the aisle and allow you to open shortcuts for the rest of that specific run and for good reason while you may want to head back to cassartis without losing your progress the real advantage of this is being able to revisit olro without backtracking this is due to the assortment of cursed objects you'll find along your travels cursed objects come in four categories those being novelties gear weapons and armor and within these categories there are three tiers of them from level one to three respectively cursed items may be categorized but you don't know exactly what you're getting until aurora purifies them for you and to do so requires a sum of rift crystals to perform as you can tell rift crystals are much more prevalent and utilized than within the base game purification of categories that provide class specific items such as armor or weapons generate equipment based on the vocation of you and your pawn for example if you are of a yellow vocation and your pawn is a blue vocation you may see an assortment of mage or sorcerer specific gear on top of equipment such as daggers bows and longbows since these items are semi-randomized if you are fishing for something specific it's a good idea to make sure you and your pawn match the vocation color of the item you are trying to grab these equipment items especially in level 3 are generally going to be the best overall for your character from daggers that always have the fire augment active to similar items that have the highest raw damage overall you can then fully enhance these items to become as powerful as possible but to be clear this is not always enough to have an easy time a lot of the monsters especially later on in the aisle are incredibly powerful and beefy in terms of health you are incentivized to prepare here more than ever before bringing consumables that will buff your stats building your character in a way that your allocation of stats is somewhat optimized and having a party that will better aid you in specific situations over others and swapping them out from time to time bitter black isle is a test of your skills at the game being level 200 isn't enough here sometimes having the best equipment isn't enough here either you need to both practice and prepare to the best of your ability if you want to succeed novelties specifically offer you an assortment of items from purification but more importantly they can unlock what are known as secret augments for you that are equippable on both yourself and your pawn and can be used on any vocation similar to normal augments they even take up the same slots essentially these are just new passive options for you to choose from to better fine-tune your character overall but none of them are particularly necessary i managed to get through two runs of bitter black isle without using them although it was a pain to do so since i wasn't fully preparing or optimizing during the process bitter black gear will provide an assortment of accessories again some of these being dependent on vocation special rings in the game can often be worn to upgrade certain skills you use already generally your skills will first be unlocked and then get an upgraded form through purchase at the end there are rings however that allow the further upgrade of specific skills if you manage to get your hand on one making your way through bitter black isle is a challenge but it is far from impossible like any other mob in the game those within the aisle have their own sets of strengths and weaknesses which you can exploit additionally certain areas will even have special urns where you can spend rift crystals to cause an area of effect attacked against all monsters within one special set of mobs includes ponds that have lost both their arisen and their minds these pawns are highly effective combatants and can easily overwhelm your party if not ready for them similar to the bandits you have faced early on near the witch wood when starting the game proper as you approach the final area of the dungeon you will find yourself in an underground town why there is a town is somewhat explained through the backstory of bitter black isle that can be claimed through the collection of pages for the monument of remembrance a large slab of text found near the entrance of the isle by finding these hidden slabs throughout the dungeon proper the player can return to learn the backstory of the location through excerpts of several individuals at least two of whom are arisen the accounts tell the story of gret an individual who has become the arisen after coming into contact with her world's dragon during her journey she came into contact with her main pawn ulra who i mentioned earlier is possessing the ora we know near the pier gret and olra also met a young boy by the name of ash whose village has been burned down during the destruction caused by the dragon ash traveled alongside gret and ulra up until the point that gret like every arizona had to face their dragon gret was successful at defeating her dragon but still had to deal with the final challenge that we are still personally making our way towards the seneschal a battle with the seneschal ensued and gret ultimately fell in battle in turn becoming the next dragon to continue the cycle while part of her humanity still remained gret sought out ash and made him into the next arisen ash who had fallen in love with upon ulra weird made her his main pawn so that he may go on to fight the dragon who wished for ash to end her suffering the fallen city then is most likely a memory of the home of ash as just beyond it is the sanctum in which we will find daemon the most notable aspect of the city is that your first visit to it leaves the streets empty with no enemies in sight this will immediately change as soon as you enter the sanctum by entering and exiting before facing daemon dragons and other mobs will now populate the location and will continue on further runs through the aisle as well the sanctum is the final location within bitter black isle it is where you come face to face with the dark arisen daemon who turns out to be ash from the backstory of remembrance as it turns out ash also made it to the dragon and he was given the same choice as you and gret to either make a deal with the dragon or attempt to slay it in combat but ash seeing what had happened to gret ultimately decided to choose neither option instead wishing for everything within their world including himself to be damned unfortunately this seems to act as his deal and ulra who ash had fallen in love with was the sacrifice this deal cursed ash and turned him into the dark arisen known as daemon who seemed to be a catalyst for bitter black isle ulra then somehow found a means to possess a woman by the same name and used her body to have her deliver arisen to the island hopes that one would be able to finish daemon off once and for all ulra will converse with you during the battle against damon and it's one of the more interesting and involved battles overall mostly due to damon being a larger and more effective magic user and arisen his abilities are incredibly varied and it's very easy for him to overwhelm your party ulra will implore you to defeat daemon in order to end ash's suffering my only real criticism of the fight is one move that damon can activate during certain points within the fight where he begins to suck the party towards a large magical portal of sorts the attack seems to completely deplete you of stamina and force you in place with no means of escape for an extended period of time it will kill you and your pawns with your pawns being permanently removed from battle and you only able to revive with the use of wake stones to this day the only way i have found to counter this attack is to be already grappled onto damon's head when he starts performing the ability this seems to prevent you from losing all of your stamina and also allows you to flinch him out of the move and then effectively flinch him again soon after to lead into an extended down or topple that offers a large opening for you and your party however i have had situations where even grappling during the beginning of the attack was not enough and i somehow was launched off of daemon leading to a failed boss attempt due to the fact that all of my pawns would be removed from battle it's finicky i believe you can use a brief opportunity as he winds up the attack to jump onto him but other than grappling i am unsure if there is a proper counter especially once you're in the vortex i believe from a distance the vortex may not affect you allowing you to flinch daemon using ranged attacks other than that though the battle is incredibly engaging even if it is fairly easy for an assassin to cheese it overall by climbing onto his head and using skills to melt his hp bar over a short period of time while flinch locking him defeating daemon will leave his corpse on the ground while freeing the spirit of ash the player can receive a few rewards from a nearby treasury room before heading back to the pier in order to watch a cut scene where the spirit of the pon ulrah and the spirit of ash are reunited the human ulrah understands now why she was here due to possession but decides to stay in order to continue helping you with your ventures through the aisle once you leave the sanctum after defeating daemon you are given a warning that you will not be able to return for some time this is due to the isle as a whole resetting for a second run in fact all of the locations will replace the majority of mobs within with those of a higher challenge the fights will be tougher but also more rewarding in terms of experience and loot luckily i don't believe you need to grab keys for areas that were unlocked during your initial run if you're wondering why you would bother running through the entire aisle a second time it's both for the increased rewards but also for your second encounter with daemon when you make it to the sanctum a second time the fight against daemon will appear strikingly similar to the first time you defeated him however when you defeat him this second time a cutscene will trigger in which the body of daemon will begin to float and go limp as a face growing out of his chest will come to life bearing a strikingly similar appearance to that of grigori the face seems to resonate with the scar of the arisen suggesting there is a relation between daemon and that of a dragon from the cycle what this second form of daemon is is never made expressly clear it could potentially be the remaining energy of the curse bestowed upon ash by the dragon or a new creature entirely awakened through the process however the creature seems to know something about the inner mechanics of the world you come from claiming you are part of a broken system or order a slave to the cycle of the dragon upon killing daemon's second form the body will wither away leaving the skeleton of ash's original body and a vile wakestone further suggesting that wakestones come from the hearts of fallen arisen with demons being particularly warped due to the curse the wakestone itself is used as material for rarifying several items into the highest level of upgrade after this second run you can continue farming the isle and daemon for as long as you see fit in order to fully optimize the gear of you and your main pawn barrack will also be found at the pier alongside ulra after your initial completion dark arizon as a dlc is a stylistically different form of adventure from what the initial game offered and one of immense challenge at that overall i remember finding the section more reminiscent of something like dark souls or even ghost and goblins instead of an open world rpg but something that still offered enough off the beaten path exploration and optional content to feel fulfilling for me dark arisen wasn't extra content necessarily i have the perception of someone who started with this specific release meaning it was available in the game since i first ever played and that seems to be true for a lot of people introduced to the series overall with bitter black isle out of the way there's still a few loose ends to take care of while i've mentioned the seneschal a few times in the past i haven't gone into great detail as to what it is nor its relevance within the post-game of dragon's dogma as a whole but it's time to take a further final look at the everfall by gathering the 20 wakestones required for us so we can bring them to quince and begin the final trial that every arizona must face or die trying to get to one of the questions you may have been asking every time i've mentioned it is super rad what the hell is the seneschal and how do i spell that the seneschal is both the final test and rank in a risen can achieve during their cycle it is to become the god or guardian of the world and to use your own energy life force to create life and continue the cycle in order for the world of dragon's dogma to function energy must come from somewhere this is described as coming from the high will power of an arisen who has become the seneschal even one with a will strong enough to defeat the dragon and become god will eventually run out of juice and therefore the cycle is a necessity making sure that a new cenotal is chosen before their time runs out otherwise the world will eventually lose all forms of life including the individuals living within and thus ceased to exist for this reason the seneschal can bring about both life and destruction it is the seneschal who can create a dragon from a fallen arisen and sudden send dragon out into the world in order to cause destruction the dragon is then designed to find an individual of strong will who will have the opportunity to prove themselves by besting the dragon in order to eventually lead them to the seneschal this is the cycle of life or the endless chain of dragon's dogma the arisen is chosen by a dragon and either succeeds or fails against the dragon either through death or through the deal then the dragon will leave and return later in order to find a new arisen should the risen succeed at defeating the dragon they can use the everfall to find the throne of the seneschal and challenge them should they fail they will be turned into the next dragon to continue the cycle of finding a new god for the world if they succeed they will become seneschal themselves if a proper replacement isn't found in time it could mean the end of the world but the length of time to find a strong enough arisen seems incredibly long considering the dragon forge was over a thousand years old this is the path that savann the arisen from the prologue set out on and succeeded within savann was both able to defeat his dragon and make it to the everfall where he would have had to collect enough wakestones in order to open a rift to the throne of god and challenge said god to battle to see if the title would change hands savon succeeded at all of this meaning that when you have enough wakestones you can bring them to quince in order to have the rift open for yourself when you enter into the seneschals domain you will have to complete a set of trials in order to become victorious within these trials you will have a dialogue with the seneschal that sheds some light on the purpose or will of the world and humanity versus that of pawns the seneschal lays it all out for you you are to defeat them in order to become the keeper of the world you only need the will to claim it within this is the entire purpose of the cycle the world is much like humanity and within humanity is a will to live much like humans the world itself wants to continue moving on to continue existing the world and humanity are essentially one in the same and thus the world needs to find an individual of strong will as a catalyst to continue existing it is the will of the arisen to fight for survival due to their belief that life is worth fighting for that allows the wheels of the infinite world to keep turning the seneschal goes further into explaining this concept by asking what it is that makes you alive they answer these questions themselves volition and unbending will are equal to life within the world of dragon's dogma it's at this point that the fight against the seneschal will take place within the first phase he will use holy attacks that are fairly easy to dodge and it's your goal to remove a health bar from them in order to move on to phase two if you defeat them fast enough the seneschal's speech will continue before the cut scenes into the next phase begin when the second phase does start the seneschal will give an example of his power using the ability of infinite creative potential to create a doppelganger of the player character just as the arizonan has the ability to summon pawns from infinite worlds via the rift the seneschal too has the ability to command all of existence any creature or form of life can be created by their will whether this be human or beast it's here that things become a bit more frightening in terms of existentialism the seneschal points out that there is no compassion or mercy within the world for humans there is simply existence created by the seneschal and within that humans are simply empty vessels driven by their desire to live no different than the pawns you use throughout your journey what makes humanity different is the ability to have a strong will and to use said will in order to overcome any challenge presented to them thus without will there is no such thing as life it is will and volition that makes a being human and without it they are nothing but a pawn while not explicitly stated this is why pawns have the ability to become human because they have the ability to have a will to live to want to be human and to want to live freely is in turn what leads to the bestowal of spirit and turns pawns both into humans and into the likeness of their arisen i'd like to take a moment here to point out that there are three endings within the confrontation with the seneschal the first of which can be obtained by simply dying to their hand by failing to defeat the seneschal the arisen will be thrust out of the rift and back into the world proper taking on the form of the dragon then the opening scene after the prologue will play once more showing the cycle begin anew as a dragon much like grigori is summoned into the world near cusardis however this time it isn't grigori who is within the vessel of the dragon but you the arisen this leads to an end credit scene but a checkpoint will allow you to try again from where you have just died following this second phase of battle the seneschal will have another test for you in which cassartis will appear in the backdrop and you are given a choice you are to either move forward to chase the throne of the maker or you can go back to cassartis and live a life of peace both of which are presented to you as valid options choosing to return to cassartis will lead to the peace ending in which you will appear on the beach of cassardis without your pawns or gear you can then run into kina near cassares's gate and the seneschal will comment on how fear has bested you meaning that they will have to find a new arisen to mold for the trial again a checkpoint is made here so once both endings and achievements have been earned you can continue the story to see the game to its proper conclusion as you journey away from cassartis and towards the throne you will run into phantom versions of individuals from your past characters like mason the duke and even the leader of salvation you'll see celine and your beloved as well as mercedes and more all of these npcs will suggest in some way that you should consider turning back while also attempting to fight you it is then that the trial is to see how your will stands up to the fear of leaving everything behind to leave your existence behind and all of those you have formed bonds with fear is just as deadly as combat in terms of your will and you must then show your resolve as the arisen by continuing to move forward once you make it to the end the seneschal will reveal themselves to be savan who will challenge you to one final battle alongside his own original main pawn with you being allowed to summon yours as well if you are on the new game plus playthrough and connected online the reveal of savon will be that of a random arizon who has completed the game as well as their main pawn leading to a more dynamic reveal with the battle playing out much the same way if offline the previous incarnation of your own arisen will be revealed instead i cannot recommend going through the game a second time enough it's almost mandatory to truly experience every feature the game has to offer and little design choices like this them considering to show you online players during your next playthroughs shows the level of care that went into the game's overall development defeating the seneschal's pawn is easy enough but savon himself must be grappled by your pawn in order to have a final hit landed to end the fight from here savon will see you as worthy for the throne and present to you the gods bane a weapon with the ability to kill all of the immortal including god themself before that however you can ask savon various questions to learn some of the backstory and lore behind the creation of the world and what the seneschal actually is rather than being truly god savann points out that the seneschal is more a steward to the world itself it is the world that holds dominion over all existence but the seneschal controls that of living beings in a way the entirety of existence is part of the world's endless loop and it is the will of the world itself to create those that will allow it to continue existing that does not mean the world is singular however as has already been pointed out the pawns exist within the rift and travel to endless worlds all of which have their own infinite cycle savon points out that much like a ring there is no start or end to the world and thus no way of that for humanity to reach some form of final terminus if there is it would only be seen by that of a greater power or existence potentially something that has created the world that dictates you the entirety of existence within your perception is a cycle life does not last forever but neither does death everything repeats on and on there is no explanation for it past this as humanity even the sonocho do not have the capacity to break free for an outward glance looking in siobhan asks you to end his infinite existence with the gods bane and you can oblige he does not feel sadness over this only happiness that he has finally been released from the prison of eternity at this point you have truly become the seneschal you exist within your own domain and there is no escape from here by sitting on your throne you may visit cassartis and grand soren specifically but you will appear invisible and pass through any npcs you come into contact with it's an interesting situation as gran soren seems to have been put back into a state before the ever fall collapse suggesting that time has either reverted to some point before the dragon or existence itself has been manipulated in some means where people will not remember that you were alive at all it's possible that all of the destruction from the dragon gets reverted and that the people of the world go on living as if it never happened potentially reverting the existence of the dragonforged and the duke as well since they also took part in the conflict against grigori it's not very clear but the world is yours to look over now and at some point within the future you may summon your own dragon to begin the cycle anew so you may find your own arisen essentially it seems history may simply not exist we do not truly know how far back or forward time may pass before returning to the beginning of the cycle and the creation of the dragon we know of history via the dragon forged in edmond but when we become the seneschal we only see from the perspective of where we began was our beginning then the beginning of the cycle or was there truly a time before us in this sense it seems as though life truly is for nothing other than to keep the world moving through its cycle humans don't exist via free will but simply through the will to survive and you are merely a being the world has employed in order to keep things moving smoothly it's rather bleak there's no real reason to continue what you're doing outside of wanting to live until you don't until you are ready to find a new seneschal or you begin to simply run out of the energy necessary to keep the world spinning there's another option here however a means of breaking the cycle somewhat but probably not fully the only way to escape this domain and finish the game proper is to place the gods bane at your chest and end your own life with the only weapon that will allow it the god's bane has always had this function since you received a version of it from grigori you could essentially force a game over with it if you wanted to but this time it's different this time you are the seneschal and you can end your own existence before a replacement for you has been found what this means is unclear you can end your life and your pawn will come to be by your side then both of you will begin to fall from the rift and begin traveling through the everfall your pawn will call out to you as you exit the everfall into the skies above cursartus as this happens it seems as though multiple versions of your pawn begin to consolidate into one another suggesting that there are infinite versions of your pawn for infinite worlds potentially you both fall into the water near the beach and soon your body is washed ashore but as you awake in a panic it is not you that calls out but your pawn calling for their master we are no longer watching the arisen at this point but the pawn who has taken the arizon's form back on the beach of cassartis as your beloved comes to greet you your beloved will thank you and appears to understand that you were not the arisen but their pawn instead your beloved then realizes there are forces at work that go beyond the comprehension of humanity but they are simply happy to have you here with them now you walk off together into cassardis thus ending the game but whether or not the cycle has ended is left up in the air realistically it seems it has not you seem to once again exist within the world but said world seems to have memories of you as the arisen and thus the dragon does this mean that the cycle has been broken that time can now move past the knowledge of the dragon's destruction and society and humanity can now progress through history rather than returning to a point where another arisen must be chosen the cycle may not be able to be broken but this is the first time we have witnessed a seneschal remove themselves from the equation without a replacement how does the world handle that does it have a contingency in place for this situation we don't know this is the end of dragon's dogma's storyline but not necessarily the end of the journey entirely as i mentioned there is hard mode and speed red mode to take part in as well as new game plus which changes a few things here and there such as adding the rift stone that allows you to continue fighting the er dragon with the end comes a lot of questions the story and lore within the game is explained rather thoroughly at times while leaving countless greater questions left unanswered whether or not we will ever have answers to these questions i'm not really sure dragon's dogma online is an entry i have never had the experience of playing i don't know its storyline or if it attempts to shed light on some of the questions posited within the original game dragon's dogma 2 is also in the works at this point and could potentially focus on a new cycle within one of the infinite worlds or perhaps explore the world of the original game after the death of arsenesha it's up in the air currently what i do know is that dragon's dogma is one of the most unique experiences out there for its time it's a rare thing to have a game so mechanically unique and intensive while producing a storyline so full of existential curiosity i believe on the surface that this game can look somewhat generic at a glance but once you try it and really get into it once you begin to experience all of the features the game presents and see the inspiration it pulls from i believe that it is very easy to gain a deep appreciation for its effort and design it's a game that looks at every little mechanic and tries to make it impactful lanterns are useful and require upkeep the pawn system is incredibly in-depth combat has countless possibilities and monster design offers a variation of ways for you to handle any situation it's a game with the charm and depth of some of the greatest open world rpgs out there while having the systems in play that help it stand up to some of capcom's greatest action games as well you can tell this was a passion project for isuno something he has always wanted to put out into the world and you can see this through the effort to make every single mechanic feel important just as ituno wanted to prove himself with devil may cry 3 and excelled at doing so he put that effort into dragon's dogma as well in order to create one of the most unique games ever released to the global market if you haven't played dragon's dogma in the past or if you have tried and fell off fairly quickly please consider giving the game a chance it's one of those experiences that simply gets better the more you explore and learn and some of the questions it poses about humanity and the meaning of life may leave you with questions about will and existence of your own the game goes on sale fairly regularly and it's on almost every major console outside of i think the newest generation it's worth giving a shot even if just so you are prepared for the new sequel that is in the works if you do try it i hope you enjoy it and please feel free to let me know about your experiences in the comments thanks for watching everyone [Music] hey thank you so much for watching to the end of the video it was a long one so i'm very happy that you made it here shout out to all of my patrons for deciding to support me always very nice of you to do that also shout out to shout out to manscaped shout out to manscape manscaped thank you manscaped for the sponsor i appreciate it very cool of you get an extra shot they didn't even pay me for this extra shout out if you want to support me you can go over to my patreon you can find the link down below in the description it would mean a lot if you felt like supporting me but you don't have to just watching the video is always enough for me uh this is just a little bit extra it gets you shouted out or your name in the credits here probably here usually here all right ralcar triton8 snow cart prime xd ashtray and disparity thank you so much for the g-rank tier pledge beyond the time nolan brookman moal kisemi captain zeba and cyberworm thank you so much for the g-rank tier uh kathleen medjuk crunchy kaoru jonathan strangely and rosa leo thank you for the g-rank tier as always mr janky isn't actually on this list right now i think he had an issue with his account or something like that but he is pledged so shout out to him for that and also big shout out to mr janky for uh helping me out with the script as he did with the new vegas script always a big help always a huge effort he puts in basically for free so uh shout out to him thank you so much uh big big shout out to mr janky and to manscaped and to you for watching thank you so much and i'll see you next time [Music]

Channel: SuperRAD

Views: 544,629

Keywords: capcom, dragon's dogma, ddda, dark arisen, seneschal, monster hunter, dd2, dragon's dogma 2, retrospective, grigori, arisen

Id: I6oGKtbPmO8

Length: 194min 59sec (11699 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 12 2022