This review contains spoilers
What a fucking DOWNGRADE? The combat has improved a decent amount and the world is much more fun to explore but that's really as far as the pros go for me.
Overall the enemy variety is abysmal and even when you get into the postgame it barely changes. Monsters from DD1 are just completely missing such as the Hydra, Cockatrice and the Evil Eye. New enemies are mostly just the absolute worst to fight, especially the Dullahan. Encounter rates are also terrible, you're fighting goblins or harpies every 4 steps and they aren't even tough fights, they just take up time.
The story overall is fucking awful, it feels like nothing has happened and then boom you're at the ending. It's such a big load of nothing with very little going for it.
Most "Setpieces" function very poorly and aren't as big and cool as they wanted them to be. The Gigantus is a major one where you have to stop it by destroying all the crystals on its body. Problem is the climbing in this game is absolute dogshit compared to 1 and if you're any class that isn't thief, climbing it is a nightmare. It also just keeps walking once you destroy all the bits and you're just meant to wait without it being conveyed to you.
That's what half this game is, things happen without information being conveyed to you properly.
Speaking of classes, don't pick any class except Thief, It's not worth it. Thief does insane damage output and solos the entire game. Every other class gets absolutely fucked over in every department.
The Pawn system is somehow worse? They never do anything they're told to do. You'll be scrambling around on the floor or staggered, getting eviscerated by an enemy and they'll just stand there casting heal or ignoring you. They run off to fight enemies you have no interest in fighting every two seconds, they fall off cliffs and just disappear needing to be summoned again. They never shut the fuck up about running places. Honestly, just terrible.
Traversal is also absolute ass. At first I didn't mind walking everywhere. It's fun to explore and find new things....but only for so long. Fast travel is limited to a very expensive and rare resource (or you can spend real money, thanks capcom!) and while I don't mind that at first, it gets absolutely tedious when you're spending 90% retreading the same paths over and over. Ox Carts are another way to get around but most of the time you're spending money to wake up mid ride with the cart being demolished by a monster and having to walk the rest of the way. The Developer has said "If you make exploring fun, there's no need for fast travel" well you fucked up making exploring fun, the rewards for 90% of exploring are terrible.
I wanna talk about the post game or rather...the real game. When you get the "true ending" (Which without really looking it up or asking someone you probably wont get) you are taken to the Unmoored World and the games title screen changes to "Dragons Dogma 2" which while kinda neat feels like this is the real game. It's the original map completely demolished with insanely OP enemies everywhere. It's pretty neat at first...until you realise you have not only one life to beat the entire area, but also if you rest too many times you will end the game and be forced into NG+. This essentially limits your exploration time in this world massively and makes it feel more like a chore you're speeding through to avoid taking too much damage to need to rest. It's honestly a terrible concept and just takes all the fun out of the game for me.
Overall the game is very interesting and can be pretty fun in places, but that fun is soon overshadowed by repetitive nonsense, abysmal writing, poor game direction and poor cohesive instruction to inform the player of things happening.
Also the Dragons Plague being a mechanic is terrible, whoever thought it was a good idea to make your own party able to wipe out entire towns is an asshole.
Overall the enemy variety is abysmal and even when you get into the postgame it barely changes. Monsters from DD1 are just completely missing such as the Hydra, Cockatrice and the Evil Eye. New enemies are mostly just the absolute worst to fight, especially the Dullahan. Encounter rates are also terrible, you're fighting goblins or harpies every 4 steps and they aren't even tough fights, they just take up time.
The story overall is fucking awful, it feels like nothing has happened and then boom you're at the ending. It's such a big load of nothing with very little going for it.
Most "Setpieces" function very poorly and aren't as big and cool as they wanted them to be. The Gigantus is a major one where you have to stop it by destroying all the crystals on its body. Problem is the climbing in this game is absolute dogshit compared to 1 and if you're any class that isn't thief, climbing it is a nightmare. It also just keeps walking once you destroy all the bits and you're just meant to wait without it being conveyed to you.
That's what half this game is, things happen without information being conveyed to you properly.
Speaking of classes, don't pick any class except Thief, It's not worth it. Thief does insane damage output and solos the entire game. Every other class gets absolutely fucked over in every department.
The Pawn system is somehow worse? They never do anything they're told to do. You'll be scrambling around on the floor or staggered, getting eviscerated by an enemy and they'll just stand there casting heal or ignoring you. They run off to fight enemies you have no interest in fighting every two seconds, they fall off cliffs and just disappear needing to be summoned again. They never shut the fuck up about running places. Honestly, just terrible.
Traversal is also absolute ass. At first I didn't mind walking everywhere. It's fun to explore and find new things....but only for so long. Fast travel is limited to a very expensive and rare resource (or you can spend real money, thanks capcom!) and while I don't mind that at first, it gets absolutely tedious when you're spending 90% retreading the same paths over and over. Ox Carts are another way to get around but most of the time you're spending money to wake up mid ride with the cart being demolished by a monster and having to walk the rest of the way. The Developer has said "If you make exploring fun, there's no need for fast travel" well you fucked up making exploring fun, the rewards for 90% of exploring are terrible.
I wanna talk about the post game or rather...the real game. When you get the "true ending" (Which without really looking it up or asking someone you probably wont get) you are taken to the Unmoored World and the games title screen changes to "Dragons Dogma 2" which while kinda neat feels like this is the real game. It's the original map completely demolished with insanely OP enemies everywhere. It's pretty neat at first...until you realise you have not only one life to beat the entire area, but also if you rest too many times you will end the game and be forced into NG+. This essentially limits your exploration time in this world massively and makes it feel more like a chore you're speeding through to avoid taking too much damage to need to rest. It's honestly a terrible concept and just takes all the fun out of the game for me.
Overall the game is very interesting and can be pretty fun in places, but that fun is soon overshadowed by repetitive nonsense, abysmal writing, poor game direction and poor cohesive instruction to inform the player of things happening.
Also the Dragons Plague being a mechanic is terrible, whoever thought it was a good idea to make your own party able to wipe out entire towns is an asshole.