It's not very often that I play medieval fantasy games, so if you told me I would spend 270+ hours on this game I never heard of, and beat it twice in one playthrough, I would of called ya insane. So much time I could of wasted on other games, but yet I was sucked in this world like no other. And why? Why was this game so damn mesmerizing and time consuming? Why did I find myself excited to find/complete a new quest, or to go kill a dragon so I can get some of my equipment dragonforged, or even doing grindy notice board quests? The answer; I really have no idea. My friend originally recommended the game to me, well, more like insisted, so when I first started it up, I instantly thought "wow this game is going to get old FAST" and the first hour or 2 weren't the best. For some reason I kept having a hard time figuring out what tools/curatives did what, where the hell I was going, notice board quests that sounded impossible or vague, slightly outdated looking menu boards; it took a minute to get used to, as I'm not very familiar with playing games like this. Plus, the visuals didn't really speak to me either. But, I'd say around 6 hours in, I was absolutely hooked. The story was intriguing, but what made this game was the somewhat laughable cinematics, partly due to me creating my character as a mix between Shrek and a frog. During intense and serious cinematics, my character would break the ice everytime he appeared, usually giving a confused look like he was thinking "wait this isn't my swamp". The pawn feature in this game was one of the huge highlights of this gameplay though. Being able to create a side character to help you on your journey was very helpful, being able to craft a class that maybe you lacked. After hours and hours of gameplay, I found that being an archer was my favorite vocations, while having my main pawn be a sorcerer. You can also get 2 other pawns that you don't create, but can search for specific requirements to find the best pawn for your suiting. Now, the main reason your playing this game is the enemies, which is to say, the biggest part of the game (quite literally). The monster fights are truly remarkable, especially when you go down the fighter and strider vocations. Before I became a archer, I mostly played as an assassin, and being able to jump and crawl on these giant monsters (cyclops for example) was super unique in a big open world hack and slash. While the game progresses, I found out that it's actually quite risky climbing aboard some these beasts (gorecyclops for example) which is the main reason why I decided to focus on range attacks. Now, after becoming an archer, fighting does become a bit repetitive, but that's also this game in general; repetitive. At least for me, the game was a repetitive rinse and repeat formula because a lot of these notice board quests are strictly either killing specific creatures, or gathering materials. This is where the game will be difficult, and possibly why it takes you as long as it did to complete the game. I know that's what happened to me. Also, side quests; some of these are a pain. Not that they are inherently hard, it's just that a lot of these quests you will not find unless you scour the lands everytime you complete a main quest. Some side quests don't even unlock unless you do a hidden objective (for example, making 10 separate purchases from a specific character that isn't very notable). This is the reason I decided to replay the base game. It's also kind of the lore of the game too; endless cycle or reincarnation. After my first play through, I checked out Bitterblack Isle, and quickly found out I wasn't quite ready for some of these beasts (cursed dragon). After some contemplation, I decided it was best just to replay the story, aim for the stars and complete all side missions and notice board quests. Quite the challenge indeed. After hours and hours of hammering it away, I was able to complete my mission and complete all the side missions, which I should mention that there was sooo many that I missed my first play through. After killing Grigori, I checked out post-game for awhile while I completed notice board quests, seeing the array of new beasts that lurk around Gransys. Around this time is when I decided to give Bitterblack Isle another go... and with great success. Bitterblack is a pretty hard dlc, one of the harder dlcs I've played yet. Becoming an archer definitely helped me on this journey, and eventually was able to kill and set free Damien. Now this is where the dlc gets extra hard. After killing Damien, Bitterblack Isle is now post-damien and features harder beasts, and new beasts alike. This turned out to be the most rage-inducing part of the game by far. So much in fact, I ended up taking a break to go finish the rest of my notice board quests in Gransys. After completing all of Gransys's notice board quests, it was time to finish Bitterblack Isle.... And slowly but surely I did. First was to get me prepped for both Death, and the Awakened version of Damien. For Death, it was pretty simple but tedious; everytime you fight him and deplete a health bar, he teleports away and you have to go through Bitterblack to randomly find him again to deplete another health bar. The guy had like 11 health bars so you'd have to go through Bitterblack a few different times to have him teleport again. I was planning on killing him first before Awakened Damien, but because I was sick and tired of searching Bitterblack just to find him again to deplete one of his many health bars, I just went for Damien first. Very hard, but if you bring the right equipment, you can kill him pretty fast. For me, it was bringing close to 400 blast arrows and like 10 conquer periapts. The first 2 times I tried to fight him didn't work out so well; the first try I didn't bring much of anything because I expected to just kill regular Damien again, and the second time I only ended up bringing like 200 blast arrows and that wasn't enough. So thirds a charm. After killing him, the look for Death was upon me, but I also had some other Bitterblack notice board quests to do, and some of these (for example, killing the 2 dire wyverns in the Everfalls) was relentless. Sadly, I only was able to find 12 macabre statues, and frankly I wasn't going to look for anymore. I also decided against trying to acquire all of the 13 devilish armaments although I found most of them. All of the other notice board quests were completed, including the tedious quest where you have to find and kill 5 elder ogres. After all my quests were complete, I went and tracked Death down for the very last time, and was honestly satisfied in his "death". Completing Bitterblack to the best of my ability, I decided to complete the senshal mission one last time, officially ending my Dragon Dogma play through. In all, it's a great game that really sucked me into its magical world. I would say there will be times you absolutely hate this game, but after overcoming these obstacles, all of these rage fits will be nothing compared to the fun and accomplished feeling you get after finally killing that dragon, or completing that quest. I grew to really like this game. The music was awesome, the creature/environment builds were eye catching, and the gameplay was loads of fun. A game I probably will never revisit but I will be waiting for its sequel, and will be playing it the first day it's released. Recommended.
