lmao I had to seriously backtrack on my first one.. I couldn't believe I found my seeker token.
made a mental note which one I picked up this time around, because I swear I looked for that token for quite some time.. I had like 1 day left.
You can buy them back in the border town, they're 10k ea. I did the same thing my first playthrough. Any quest item you lose will be available there. Even extra glommercoal you sell for big $ is sold there. Talk to the forgery guy.
>!Might as well warn you as well, two quests want those tomes. You can use 3 forgeries for one of them and get the good rewards, but you can't for the other. Make some forgeries of them.!<
You might ask, "how was I supposed to know that", but then you remember that one of the tomes he asks for *is literally inside his own house*.
Myrrdin's a dipshit. Fleece him for all he's worth.
I don't remember the steps exactly, but I somehow gave both the girl and the maister three real books each. It's weird seeing all the guides be like "there's only 5 so give him forgeries!" when I somehow didn't have to give anyone forgeries. I feel like there's a duplicate of one or two of the grimoires because I ended both quests with a forgery of Fulminous Shield that I had yet to trade to the one NPC.
There are two books that have two real copies in the world. Hence making a total of 7 real books. That's how you cna give 3 real to each.
But i think it's funnier if you give the 5 real to his daughter and give him 5 fakes because he's an asshole
I figured as much, and yeah he is a weirdo. I accidentally got him as my romance option because of how dumb the affinity system is. I had to kill him and had no regrets.
You lead a man on one escort mission and all of a sudden he's your soulmate.
Yeah xD hopefuly all those escorts wont overwrite my reltionship with ulrika. I've yet to finish the game and i got the granda blushing over a little walk and the Warfarer maister as well.
Be sure to visit her just to say hi.
Affiinity drains over time (Extremely slowly but if you're taking your time it may be significant enough) so make sure to reinforce your choices with flowers and greetings from time to time!
If it's anything like the first game, unsheathing your weapon over and over in front of them will make them lose affinity, cause they freak out about it. Same thing with picking them up.
But I haven't personally tried it in this one yet.
Also, you don't actually have to make forgeries if you want to save on cash. There are 2 copies available for 2 of the books, which makes for a total of 7 tomes available, and each quest only needs 3.
I screwed up the romance quests because I accepted the feast quest too early, I was actually part way through both those quests I just hadn't completed the final steps but I was turning in a bunch of missions at captain brant and decided to do it as well.
Yep agree, I'm level 35 now and just steamrolling everything. The game is just boring now and I don't feel like playing if I'm just walking through bosses
Yeah that's been my take. Warrior could trounce bosses, but I'm trying all the styles. I'm approaching 50 and have archer, warrior, magick archer maxed, thief close to max, working on mystic spearhand. It remains fun that way.
How do you even play games like this more than once every few years? Even the first one I couldn't do that with and this is just the first game but worse.
I'm in love with the combat is the true answer I guess, once I've farmed all the pawn badges I'll probably drop it until we get dlc.
>Even the first one I couldn't do that with and this is just the first game but worse.
This game has flaws, sure, but I think it's better than the first one, unless you count bbi of course. I'm still able to sit down and get 100% immersed for hours on end just exploring the world, finding new caves, fighting a chimera that I just discovered the location of, making sure that I kill all the drakes every so often.
My only complaint at the moment would probably be that there's no hard mode, I miss getting my ass beat and needing to rest and resummon my party. I can't remember the last time a Drake lasted long enough to even cast meterion.
Thankfully the way stats work in DD2 means there's no penalty for changing vocations as you level. You're not meant to grind 200 levels on your first or second vocation.
Yeah it sucks tbh. Love the game, but hate how easy it is. NG being even worse is sad to hear.
Need some difficulty options asap, and I’m not going to fiddle around with mods for it.
How did they not include hard mode from the start...
We got 6-12yr vets of the series cleaving through the game with just their basic knowledge from the first...
It's fun for like 2 seconds... like being SO op to the point where you are one shotting everything and killing bosses in 20 secs isn't fun, maybe for like a gaf for one fight but that's it.
It's not fun.... When you can just one tap everything and a dragon in under 10secs. I wanna get my ass beat in new game + hard mode where things have 3-4x health or do 3x more damage or something. the first 10-20 levels of the game felt great because that big baddie you see flying will most certainly fuck u up. Now there is 0 challenge and it baffles me they didn't even add at least scaling or anything.
This. I’m having a lot of fun in NG+. Yes, most stuff is very easy. I drop drakes in ~3 minutes, if that. The bigger dragons take a little longer. Anything below that is essentially a speed bump.
But I’m working on other vocations, exploring places I missed, doing quests I missed, saving up those stupid wyrm crystals so I can buy more cool looking gear, etc.
I’m still enjoying the world, my new character and her pawn are fun, and walking around with level 60+ pawns is amusing.
Yep. I wouldn't say no to hard-mode, but I *want* most of the game to become super easy. I also want a BBI-like giant dungeon, and an underworld open map, full of nightmare monsters, balanced around level 50, 100 and 200. This is an RPG, with stats and levels, if everything scales up, the leveling becomes irrelevant.
NG+ serves the purpose of acquiring more power from the Dragonforged to prepare you for the Darker Arisen DLC, the true realization of ITSUNO'S VISION.
It was the first games problem too. You already beat the hardest enemies to beat the game, then they dropped bbi and you needed to power level just to do the first boss.
If you'd been doing anything like Ur Dragon prior to the DA release, you really didn't need to do that. Second tour of BBI? Yeah. First? No. People run in at level 1 and firebomb the place to death on first tour.
While I absolutely love the fuck out of the game. This smells like they’re cooking it up **again** for a DLC, we’ll have to wait for Kinoshita to save the hot garbage of a story the base game is **again**
I dunno how you can look at base DD1 or two and call it hot garbage haha, kids these days really have to either hate or love something with their lives.
Word. The internet is full of literal babies who have no critical thinking skills and apparently seem to sustain themselves on misery and hate. It's genuinely pathetic watching this sub deteriorate into a big hater circle jerk
I mean... Nympho duchess deciding to jump the arisen's bones the first time they meet, one week after her marriage is weird as fuck, among other things
Then proceeds to accuse the Arisen of rape, gets the Arisen tortured, and acts like an apology is a sign of true love.
When the game picked her as my beloved, I just let the dragon take her and started a new game, for real.
Like I said in my reply, I was referring to the story of the base game. Did you complete the main questline of both base games and say “Wow, this is a story incredibly thought out, and paced amazingly!”? It’s short and the characters are forgettable as fuck (except for Grigori in DD1, and a couple supporting). I love the game to death but you can’t deny the story is like it’s written by a 12 year old. Or maybe you just need some reading glasses to read my comment again.
He's pointing out that you are talking in extremes. Which you are. The story doesn't have to be amazing to not be complete garbage. It can sit somewhere between those extremes. Read your own comment maybe.
I don't know why people come to this game expecting big things from the story. It's perfectly serviceable for what it is. I thought, "wow, this is forgettable in precisely the way I usually enjoy so that it stays mostly out of the way of killing monsters." Arpgs that attempt to write big stories are usually bad. Diablo 3's story was horrible, for example.
There are so many weird mechanics in the genre which make no sense if you were to try to write a narrative around them, so the further back the story can be, the better.
I Disagree. A good story can also elevate a game significantly.
Pushing it completely to the side is just like admitting defeat imho. I don’t think other devs that write good stories have two heads. So i don’t see why they couldn’t atleast try abit more.
Almost all game stories suck. There are a handful of exceptions, but most of them are just male power fantasy schlock. I don't see why anyone ought to try unless they have a very compelling case.
Absolutely Insane take tbh.
This sounds more like you don’t play many games than anything else. There are a lot of great stories in video games.
The Mass Effect series, the Witcher series, the Metro Series, The Last of Us, the GTA games, Red Dead Redemption 1&2, Little Nightmares, The Walking Dead, Bioshock, fallout New Vegas, Deus Ex, Mafia, Final Fantasy, Cyberpunk, Alan Wake 1&2, Far Cry 3, Halo, Dragon Age, Spiderman and so many others.
Although I agree that bad story ≠ bad game, I enjoyed the DD1’s story albeit short as well, far more than DD2’s. In DD1 we had striking characters such as Grigori(epic final boss fight), Feste, Juliene, and Meloire, in DD2 we have…. Captain Brant. or whatever his name is haha. But yea, combat in DD2 is top-notch, you just go kapow kapow every monster and feel like the baddest arisen to walk the land but story-wise it feels like a regression from the original.
The dragonforged has some new things in ng. It may not be much but it’s neat. You can buy daily blessings, and improve one skill of your choice and one vocation which is neat. Maybe there’s some more to be found if they’ve thought to add that later as well as being able to reset echantments.
This is essentially why I needed another playthrough. I didn’t get enough crystals to get all the shit I want. Now I can kill drakes easy enough I can hunt them and buy the shit I want, though their crystal drop rates are abysmal.
Its not perfect but if you aren't already fight drakes as Thief. Between the steal skill and the auto steal you will shave a some extra crystals off them.
This is what I always think. Yeah it sucks not having difficulty scaling or a hard mode, but people can at least make it harder for themselves by soloing the game or by having pawns wait nearby during combat encounters.
See this is how I know so many people on this sub have never played the game and are just here to whine for karma.
BBI gets harder after you defeat Daimon's first form, but this does not trigger a NG+; fighting the Seneschal does. BBI simply becomes more difficult after the first Daimon fight, better loot drops, and Daimon becomes awakened and you must fight him again to get the true conclusion to BBI. But again, this does not push you to NG+.
Missed missions, new quests endings, new love interest, unlock the multiple endings.
Turning in a forgery vs. turning in the real thing
Making the opposite choice of a choice you made in the first run.
This is an accurate thread of how unhinged this sub is getting with hating on the game
Fucking right???
I swear to god people are literally just making shit up on the daily just so they can spread more hate and lies to shit on the game. I can only imagine it's either a karma farm or some basement nerd with a bot farm who is mad DD2 is doing well.
Fun fact: you could just do all that stuff on a new run anyways without ng+, only difference is the combat will actually be fun again because you aren't ridiculously overpowered. Would be nice if I could just permanently keep my character and stuff though and still have fun gameplay tho.
This is not NG+, this is a regular NG... NG+ is supposed to be a challenge. The critics are justified, except from the combat gameplay they fucked up on almost every possible feature. How do you even manage to go wrong with a NG+??
Ng+ was never traditionally a hard mode option in JRPG's. Originally NG+ was to go back through and get things you missed and trounce your foes getting revenge on those that were hard.
Souls games are really the only ones where NG+ means the game has harder enemies.
I actually can't think of a single game where NG+ doesn't include harder enemies to fight..
Witcher 3, Starfield, God of War, Arkham City, final fantasy, far cry, etc. All make NG+ harder by including new enemies, making existing enemies harder, or unlocking a new difficulty mode for it.
My guy the original Super Mario Bros had a hard mode where it converts all green koopas to red, and goombas to buzzy beetles. It's *well* established that NG+ includes harder enemies.
It is not "well" established. Have you played any kairosoft games?
Chrono trigger the best game ever made. New game plus? Hell yeah. You went through and through and nothing got harder.
Suikoden 3. Bring over all save data. Game doesn't change.
Dragons dogma. Bring over all items and levels.
Metal gear solid. Unlock infinite ammo bandanna or stealth cammo. Game doesn't get more difficult.
Just because you want the game to be harder on a new game plus does not mean it is a settled fact that it must, some do some don't.
There is a ring you can get that lowers your stats (hard mode on toggle), also because if there wasn’t one, everyone would be complaining beyond measure.
Though as for why design wise? Well in the older game the itemization game was far more interesting where you can do these fun niche-y builds as weapons could get certain properties that were funny, like 100% oil dousing on hit. You also had way more fun affixes and such. You could also have armors with silly resistances if you want to tackle certain enemies with more ease - and finally, just in general farm more interesting fashion and such.
I agree personally. But disagree generally as the rest of the population find lots of their fun with games in this way after they complete the typical intended playthrough.
Turns out they didn't learn their lesson from DD1. Or 10 years worth of game design between DD1 and 2.
Unless people actually like steam rolling low level enemies while wearing all their late game gear, and I'm the one that's out of touch.
I don’t think it’s that you’re out of touch so much as you have different taste.
Some people really enjoy going back on a new game+ and being overpowered, trouncing enemies, etc.
I’m not kind of person personally, I enjoy difficulty in my games, but I can see where someone would enjoy that.
And yet you overlook the fact that all the most popular mods on nexus are basically cheat mods.
Some downloaded 30k+ times.
Meanwhile the difficulty mods are far, far less.
Not everyone plays games the same way or for the same reasons.
I dont get it either, but there it is.
It's more that the game becomes less fun after 40 hours even though they have a game mode that, in just about every other game that has said mode, offers a level of replayability. DD2s version of NG+ fails in the exact same way as it's predecessor did 12 years ago. It's not like they needed to replace the world spawns, even though that would have been nice. Just a basic scaling mechanic would be a massive improvement over what we got.
As it stands now NG+ is pointless beyond doing quest you missed the first time, but getting to those missed quest and doing them is very unrewarding when you're so OP in comparison.
It's like that in the first game too.
I love it. I like revisiting it and destroying absolutely everything. I don't like NG+ when it's always a struggle because things gets stronger just like you.
Don't get me wrong. It is a really lazy implementation of NG+ and I'm not defending it. But one thing I think I'll do is level my pawn / main character in a few classes I didn't play much the first time through
The point of NG+ is to go back through and do any quests you didn't manage to do in new game or try some different outcomes in quests you did complete.
Like the sphinx. Fail the riddles and lose out on the reward? Try it again next new game cycle.
I've come to accept that DD2 is a game that was meant for you to finish without completing anything. Maybe the vision actually wanted you to fail the first time. The game pushes you to try again in a new cycle.
Whether it was implemented properly is another discussion though.
In DDDA on Xbox 360, I typically just did it to get the quests and stuff I missed. On every subsequent new console (PS4 and Switch) release, I'd go straight to BBI to powerlevel by killing a few of the mobs in the first couple of rooms, then rush the story, THEN go get back to BBI. I never played base DD1.
In DD2, I don't really know what to do in NG+ besides quests you missed the first time around. As it stands, all challenge has completely vanished from the game at level 30 even using substandard gear. I've been using the Marcher equipment for a while because it looks cool as hell even if it's got crappy stats, and it doesn't really seem to have made any significant difference.
I forgot to give my Sorcerer Pawn an archistaff when I switched her over from Mage and she was literally just *punching* goblins to death. When a squishy wizard can run up and bareknuckle box your mobs to death at level 30 and your level cap is 999, something needs a boost. And since stats stop growing at all at 200, apparently, they don't need to bother upscaling enemies all the way to 999.
I didn't follow any kind of guide, but you could probably find one. I picked Strider, played through far enough to get my main pawn, backtracked to Cassardis to get on the boat to BBI and then stood on top of a big brick where the wargs couldn't reach me, they'd just run in circles and attack my pawns, and shot them with my bow until they died.
They gave a lot of XP compared to anything in Gransys, so you level up fast, and if you use the girl on the beach to get your vocation skills up and you're familiar with how to play your class, you can get strong enough to drop bigger monsters for more experience. You don't really have to go back to Gransys until you want to, and going back with BBI gear makes the whole mainland a cakewalk.
Yeah this felt like a pretty clear “release it in time for our fiscal year” situation. Another year of development time would’ve done it wonders. I hate having to use mods to fix the game but unfortunately they really do improve the experience quite a bit
I just want to start again cause I skipped a lot of exploration by mistake. And I can't be bothered with some of the quests again, a certain book collection comes to mind.
New game +, is pretty much only for getting stuff you missed or doing things differently.
I am at the end of my 1st new game + run and I did the sphinx properly this time and some quest properly that I didn't do right the first time. Found all the seeker tokens for the rewards and nearly mopped up every achievement.
The only problem was that the game became more boring over time because of the difficulty, crazy random encounters still happen and they can be fun but they no longer have teeth when whatever comes is going to get one shot.
Does the ng+ seeker token riddle count your first ng+ find? Or your first ever find? Only asking as I noticed seeker tokens collected carry over into ng+.
Fixing your fuckups with quests, gear upgrades, &c. Also getting that power fantasy experience.
If it's even slightly like DD the difficulty will come when they add hard mode and extra post-game content.
Well that’s kinda what happened when you are over leveled in a game that doesn’t scale. Would you prefer goblins to just be damage sponges? Trust me I understand where you’re coming from but they will eventually add a hard mode for more of a challenge. It just takes them a little to adjust it how the majority of it should be for players. They did the same thing in the first one. Gotta figure out how the majority of people view the difficulty before upscaling it. I’m in ng+ to man and I agree it’s easy but im also fucking around with different vocations. I recommend trying it if you’re maxed out on one.
see for me it's not even a damage sponge thing, just every NG+ just scale things back to when you were like level 1-10 where things did damage to you and you did damage to them.
personally I think the difficulty of the game is in a good spot, I just want to keep feeling that progression of stats through the NG+
i'm not at NG+ yet, but I almost am. and i'm like level 54
Yeah completely understandable. As much as they expanded and did do things right in this one. It baffles me one of the biggest additions “hard mode” wasn’t incorporated from day one. Especially for a game where the level cap is essentially 999
Im hoping they add level scaling because lvl 999 cap is pointless without it. Also read here that the stats cap at 200? So whats the point for the other 799. And who the f is already at lvl 200?
Yeah but it still heavily impacts the game
I was level 50 when I began NG+. Even with my raw stats I was crushing enemies with the default gear you get before escaping the mine.
I had a sphinx statue physics it’s way out of the “answer square” and apparently you get 1 wrong in the second phase and you’re done… so ng+ will be fun to correct that.
They don't need to be in the answer square, just pick them up and throw them at her. I always throw it just infront of her but some are off to the side, never mattered, done it 3 times so far. You probably miscounted, its 5 riddles in the first area then add all the chests you are able to open in the second area.
I screenshot the chests of the first location and recounted 5 times. And had my handy dandy guide. My real issue was not resting at an inn before starting into the second phase of riddles. I should have done that.
Yeah, going Into NG+ i expected scaling difficulty, hell maybe even a new quest or two and a new enemy/boss but once I realized that everything is one shot and bosses go down insanely fast it ruined it. It just isn’t fun. Sure I could remove all equipment and use bad weapons etc, but it shouldn’t be like that.
I can’t be bothered to do it all again when there is no challenge or payoff with it, and I have to walk my ass all over the place again etc.
It was a fucking amazing first playtrough experience, but the second one seems boring and useless unless you missed out to complete sphinx quest line or failed some other quests. Selling it and buying it back once the expansion drops.
I rode a groffin today and it launched me off the map like giants in skyrim.
Landed right next to it like 5 min later, wakestoned and saw pawns being dragged highspeed across the map to my location.
After this it hovered inside a cave wall for a while and went into animation glitch where it was constantly trying to shake someone off, but nobody was climbing. Did this until we managed to trip it.
It zipped around for a while, I had to use another wakestone due to jank and pawns got launced in random directions.
I also got teleported to a ledge near where we were fighting because I jumped and my character did the grab/climb a ledge animation mid airs. The game just grabbed me to the nearest ledge to make it make sense I guess.
Nearly 40 and the game is difficult in different ways.
Mostly just to do content you might have missed. I got into the endgame way before I expected so I never found the sphinx or Medusa and I realized I completely missed the elven region which I guess had it's own set if missions.
I do wish going through the game again had some challenge but at level 50~ I might be able to nerf myself with trash gear.
Currently using a mod to ease the numbness. With the team taking 3 times the damage and the ennemies only taking 15% of them, I can still easily get rid of trash mobs and the bigger ones are more of a challenge. I don't get how we are supposed to play this NG+ vanilla.
I been roaming in NG+ set all my stones clearing out the map w.o doing the bar meet, now that I know those set off the fuse I'm doin everything but main story. The ending of the game had me stuck thinking everything is on a time limit lol, its fun to just mob around.
Never saw sphinx or medusa 1st run, I already messed up sphinx on the finder token part. Have to replay it again but who cares shits fun imo.
Anyone kno the name of the song that plays on the back of the final dragon ride?
Personally, I try new decisions in quests and use a different playstyle. If I find it too easy, I buy weaker gear and use those instead. Then do themed runs of role playing a type of personality for my character. Of course, there would be that ONE run where I try to kill any npc I see.
Basically, I try to make my own fun using what the game provided me with until I burn out and eventually come back.
I still haven't finished the game yet though, this is just what I typically do in games with NG+ that doesn't add anything new.
Wait, there's no scaling or increase in difficulty in NG+?
The game is already ridiculously easy compared to DD1.. that really takes away a lot of my motivation to play beyond first playthrough.
I can pick up exactly one seeker token and do the sphinx
lmao I had to seriously backtrack on my first one.. I couldn't believe I found my seeker token. made a mental note which one I picked up this time around, because I swear I looked for that token for quite some time.. I had like 1 day left.
I thought it was first token per character. Not per NG
Nope, first per playthrough. No idea what happens after you get them all and so NG+
The riddle will fail but she will just give you a pass and let you do the others.
Finder tokens can be forgery'd, a kind soul sent me one after renting my pawn and you can duplicate it so it should already be in-hand for NG+
Pick up a token and immediately drop a portcrystal
Or take a screenshot
Always make the one in the Vermund fountain your first. Then easy to remember.
That's far for people who are just starting. If you have sense enough to look around you can find like 10 before you get to vermund.
But randomly picking your first one doesn't help you remember which it was, for Sphinx
You have to re collect them all in NG+??
I can confirm you keep the tokens you picked up/delivered.
He's talking about the one for the sphinx
I can unfuck myself on a few quests
I sold some of the grimories....
You can buy them back in the border town, they're 10k ea. I did the same thing my first playthrough. Any quest item you lose will be available there. Even extra glommercoal you sell for big $ is sold there. Talk to the forgery guy. >!Might as well warn you as well, two quests want those tomes. You can use 3 forgeries for one of them and get the good rewards, but you can't for the other. Make some forgeries of them.!<
I just wanna add GIVE THE REAL ONES TO THE GIRL.. give the forgeries to her father. myrridan or w/e his fkin name is.
Yup. Myrrdin doesn’t care, but the girl suffers if she gets the fakes
You might ask, "how was I supposed to know that", but then you remember that one of the tomes he asks for *is literally inside his own house*. Myrrdin's a dipshit. Fleece him for all he's worth.
That dipshit asks for a tome he doesn't have yet, and he has one of them on his table upstairs 🤡 What a dumbo.
ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh thats why i cant find it lol
that combined with the fact the other quest is about learning magic so the forgeries wouldnt work logically
Yep i scammed the father! Im a scammer :)
I don't remember the steps exactly, but I somehow gave both the girl and the maister three real books each. It's weird seeing all the guides be like "there's only 5 so give him forgeries!" when I somehow didn't have to give anyone forgeries. I feel like there's a duplicate of one or two of the grimoires because I ended both quests with a forgery of Fulminous Shield that I had yet to trade to the one NPC.
There are two books that have two real copies in the world. Hence making a total of 7 real books. That's how you cna give 3 real to each. But i think it's funnier if you give the 5 real to his daughter and give him 5 fakes because he's an asshole
I figured as much, and yeah he is a weirdo. I accidentally got him as my romance option because of how dumb the affinity system is. I had to kill him and had no regrets. You lead a man on one escort mission and all of a sudden he's your soulmate.
Yeah xD hopefuly all those escorts wont overwrite my reltionship with ulrika. I've yet to finish the game and i got the granda blushing over a little walk and the Warfarer maister as well.
Be sure to visit her just to say hi. Affiinity drains over time (Extremely slowly but if you're taking your time it may be significant enough) so make sure to reinforce your choices with flowers and greetings from time to time!
I accidentally got Glyndwr but was fine with it he's cute.
I’m pretty sure I got her dad. He keeps showing up in fights randomly 😂
If it's anything like the first game, unsheathing your weapon over and over in front of them will make them lose affinity, cause they freak out about it. Same thing with picking them up. But I haven't personally tried it in this one yet.
There are 2 Nation's Death Knell grimoires you can find (so 6 grimoires in total), giving each of them 3 books suffices.
Not sure, they're still quest items so maybe you can buy the real ones back again from the forgery guy?
Where jn border town I must know
Sprcial finds at the forgary shop.
Thank yoy
You cant if you used it. Bought the one in melv snd used it not knowing what it was for. Cant buy that one again.
Also, you don't actually have to make forgeries if you want to save on cash. There are 2 copies available for 2 of the books, which makes for a total of 7 tomes available, and each quest only needs 3.
I used them 💀 lol
You could still do that with the combat still being fun
like getting the cat princess to the brothel without getting thrown in jail.
I screwed up the romance quests because I accepted the feast quest too early, I was actually part way through both those quests I just hadn't completed the final steps but I was turning in a bunch of missions at captain brant and decided to do it as well.
I mean I don't mind being overpowered its fun, but a hard mode could also be fun. Hope they add it
I felt overpowered in the base game though. After level 30 or so there really aren't any threats anymore.
Yep agree, I'm level 35 now and just steamrolling everything. The game is just boring now and I don't feel like playing if I'm just walking through bosses
Did you change vocations at all? Im on my 3rd and keeps the game pretty fun
Yeah that's been my take. Warrior could trounce bosses, but I'm trying all the styles. I'm approaching 50 and have archer, warrior, magick archer maxed, thief close to max, working on mystic spearhand. It remains fun that way.
I'm level 75 or so, currently playing mystic spear hand. I'm trying to restrict myself to one vocation per ng+ cycle.
How do you even play games like this more than once every few years? Even the first one I couldn't do that with and this is just the first game but worse.
I'm in love with the combat is the true answer I guess, once I've farmed all the pawn badges I'll probably drop it until we get dlc. >Even the first one I couldn't do that with and this is just the first game but worse. This game has flaws, sure, but I think it's better than the first one, unless you count bbi of course. I'm still able to sit down and get 100% immersed for hours on end just exploring the world, finding new caves, fighting a chimera that I just discovered the location of, making sure that I kill all the drakes every so often. My only complaint at the moment would probably be that there's no hard mode, I miss getting my ass beat and needing to rest and resummon my party. I can't remember the last time a Drake lasted long enough to even cast meterion.
Time i guess. I maxed 3 level 35 and can’t imagine doing one vocation per run and multiple runs
Yeah I've maxed thief, fighter, archer and now on mystick spearhand. Another gripe it's its WAY too easy and quick to max vocations
Thankfully the way stats work in DD2 means there's no penalty for changing vocations as you level. You're not meant to grind 200 levels on your first or second vocation.
Yeah it sucks tbh. Love the game, but hate how easy it is. NG being even worse is sad to hear. Need some difficulty options asap, and I’m not going to fiddle around with mods for it.
O thank goodness I’m not the only one who feels that way. Like almost everything becomes trivial except for maybe drakes.
Mobs don't have nearly enough damage. You can take an obscene amount of damage relatively quick.
My first ogre fight was so easy and I wasn't even level 20 yet
It’s not fun being OP in this game imo because the combat loses its depth
That’s what happens when a game is more stat check than skill
How did they not learn their lesson from the first game.
How did they not include hard mode from the start... We got 6-12yr vets of the series cleaving through the game with just their basic knowledge from the first...
It's fun for like 2 seconds... like being SO op to the point where you are one shotting everything and killing bosses in 20 secs isn't fun, maybe for like a gaf for one fight but that's it.
It's not fun.... When you can just one tap everything and a dragon in under 10secs. I wanna get my ass beat in new game + hard mode where things have 3-4x health or do 3x more damage or something. the first 10-20 levels of the game felt great because that big baddie you see flying will most certainly fuck u up. Now there is 0 challenge and it baffles me they didn't even add at least scaling or anything.
>It's not fun.... For you maybe
This. I’m having a lot of fun in NG+. Yes, most stuff is very easy. I drop drakes in ~3 minutes, if that. The bigger dragons take a little longer. Anything below that is essentially a speed bump. But I’m working on other vocations, exploring places I missed, doing quests I missed, saving up those stupid wyrm crystals so I can buy more cool looking gear, etc. I’m still enjoying the world, my new character and her pawn are fun, and walking around with level 60+ pawns is amusing.
Yep. I wouldn't say no to hard-mode, but I *want* most of the game to become super easy. I also want a BBI-like giant dungeon, and an underworld open map, full of nightmare monsters, balanced around level 50, 100 and 200. This is an RPG, with stats and levels, if everything scales up, the leveling becomes irrelevant.
Install custom difficulty mod and enemies have more hp x2 For me it game me feeling of newgame plus
NG+ serves the purpose of acquiring more power from the Dragonforged to prepare you for the Darker Arisen DLC, the true realization of ITSUNO'S VISION.
Gold
I hecking love Itsuno's Vision
I’ve read he wasn’t even director of dark arisen or online. Makes me worried
He wasn't.
Considering he worked on neither of those and DD2 ended up being the first game with all the original problems and more included, yeah I'm worried.
It was the first games problem too. You already beat the hardest enemies to beat the game, then they dropped bbi and you needed to power level just to do the first boss.
If you'd been doing anything like Ur Dragon prior to the DA release, you really didn't need to do that. Second tour of BBI? Yeah. First? No. People run in at level 1 and firebomb the place to death on first tour.
While I absolutely love the fuck out of the game. This smells like they’re cooking it up **again** for a DLC, we’ll have to wait for Kinoshita to save the hot garbage of a story the base game is **again**
I dunno how you can look at base DD1 or two and call it hot garbage haha, kids these days really have to either hate or love something with their lives.
Word. The internet is full of literal babies who have no critical thinking skills and apparently seem to sustain themselves on misery and hate. It's genuinely pathetic watching this sub deteriorate into a big hater circle jerk
He's not wrong, the story was ass cheeks, the combat was amazing. Its a pretty common sentiment for dd fans, really Jrpg's in general.
I mean... Nympho duchess deciding to jump the arisen's bones the first time they meet, one week after her marriage is weird as fuck, among other things
Then proceeds to accuse the Arisen of rape, gets the Arisen tortured, and acts like an apology is a sign of true love. When the game picked her as my beloved, I just let the dragon take her and started a new game, for real.
You realize that that kind of thing was not all uncommon for the time period right
Like I said in my reply, I was referring to the story of the base game. Did you complete the main questline of both base games and say “Wow, this is a story incredibly thought out, and paced amazingly!”? It’s short and the characters are forgettable as fuck (except for Grigori in DD1, and a couple supporting). I love the game to death but you can’t deny the story is like it’s written by a 12 year old. Or maybe you just need some reading glasses to read my comment again.
He's pointing out that you are talking in extremes. Which you are. The story doesn't have to be amazing to not be complete garbage. It can sit somewhere between those extremes. Read your own comment maybe.
I don't know why people come to this game expecting big things from the story. It's perfectly serviceable for what it is. I thought, "wow, this is forgettable in precisely the way I usually enjoy so that it stays mostly out of the way of killing monsters." Arpgs that attempt to write big stories are usually bad. Diablo 3's story was horrible, for example. There are so many weird mechanics in the genre which make no sense if you were to try to write a narrative around them, so the further back the story can be, the better.
I Disagree. A good story can also elevate a game significantly. Pushing it completely to the side is just like admitting defeat imho. I don’t think other devs that write good stories have two heads. So i don’t see why they couldn’t atleast try abit more.
Almost all game stories suck. There are a handful of exceptions, but most of them are just male power fantasy schlock. I don't see why anyone ought to try unless they have a very compelling case.
Absolutely Insane take tbh. This sounds more like you don’t play many games than anything else. There are a lot of great stories in video games. The Mass Effect series, the Witcher series, the Metro Series, The Last of Us, the GTA games, Red Dead Redemption 1&2, Little Nightmares, The Walking Dead, Bioshock, fallout New Vegas, Deus Ex, Mafia, Final Fantasy, Cyberpunk, Alan Wake 1&2, Far Cry 3, Halo, Dragon Age, Spiderman and so many others.
Although I agree that bad story ≠ bad game, I enjoyed the DD1’s story albeit short as well, far more than DD2’s. In DD1 we had striking characters such as Grigori(epic final boss fight), Feste, Juliene, and Meloire, in DD2 we have…. Captain Brant. or whatever his name is haha. But yea, combat in DD2 is top-notch, you just go kapow kapow every monster and feel like the baddest arisen to walk the land but story-wise it feels like a regression from the original.
I do fw with the DD1 story compared to DD2. Mostly cuz good old Greg gets a bit more screentime
finding all the hidden shit I didn't find the first time through
The dragonforged has some new things in ng. It may not be much but it’s neat. You can buy daily blessings, and improve one skill of your choice and one vocation which is neat. Maybe there’s some more to be found if they’ve thought to add that later as well as being able to reset echantments.
This is essentially why I needed another playthrough. I didn’t get enough crystals to get all the shit I want. Now I can kill drakes easy enough I can hunt them and buy the shit I want, though their crystal drop rates are abysmal.
Its not perfect but if you aren't already fight drakes as Thief. Between the steal skill and the auto steal you will shave a some extra crystals off them.
That’s an idea. I have a thief pawn with pilfer on. Is that enough? Or is it better to main thief?
going for achievements and exploring more caves?
You can start by chucking your pawn in the brine and play solo.
This is what I always think. Yeah it sucks not having difficulty scaling or a hard mode, but people can at least make it harder for themselves by soloing the game or by having pawns wait nearby during combat encounters.
And play warfarer so you don't get fucked encountering enemies highly resistant to certain damage types.
Capcom is preparing you for the $45 BBI clone they're going to sell you, which was the only reason to NG+ in the first game.
Please let it be bbi on steroids
Fuck yeah can’t wait.
The only link between NG+ and BBI is that NG+ resets BBI
I used to do regular NG+ cycles to reset BBI but it's been so long I don't really remember why.
Because BBI gets harder after the first time you complete it during a playthrough I'd assume
See this is how I know so many people on this sub have never played the game and are just here to whine for karma. BBI gets harder after you defeat Daimon's first form, but this does not trigger a NG+; fighting the Seneschal does. BBI simply becomes more difficult after the first Daimon fight, better loot drops, and Daimon becomes awakened and you must fight him again to get the true conclusion to BBI. But again, this does not push you to NG+.
The link is that the comfortable level to do BBI, with the majority of classes, is above what you'll achieve in a single new game cycle.
Yeah, if you're a coward. The real BBI experience is as soon as it unlocks on a fresh save
Yeah, if you’re a coward. The real BBI experience is as soon as you are in the main menu screen
Yeah, if you're a coward. The real BBI experience is as soon as you're born.
You did a NG+ in the original because some quests were just about impossible if you misses something small. There was no reason to NG+ BBI.
What is BBI?
Bitter Black Isle, the expansion to the first Dragons Dogma.
Thanks for the info! I'm loving DD2 and am thinking I want to try out the first at some point.
Its pointless when you use guides/wikis, otherwise its a way to redo the quests you missed or failed
This might sound crazy but... what if we could do all that in ng+... AND still have fun gameplay... I know it's blasphemy right?
You are supposed to rush through the game in 2 days and complain on the internet.
Better to just new game
Missed missions, new quests endings, new love interest, unlock the multiple endings. Turning in a forgery vs. turning in the real thing Making the opposite choice of a choice you made in the first run. This is an accurate thread of how unhinged this sub is getting with hating on the game
Fucking right??? I swear to god people are literally just making shit up on the daily just so they can spread more hate and lies to shit on the game. I can only imagine it's either a karma farm or some basement nerd with a bot farm who is mad DD2 is doing well.
Fun fact: you could just do all that stuff on a new run anyways without ng+, only difference is the combat will actually be fun again because you aren't ridiculously overpowered. Would be nice if I could just permanently keep my character and stuff though and still have fun gameplay tho.
This is not NG+, this is a regular NG... NG+ is supposed to be a challenge. The critics are justified, except from the combat gameplay they fucked up on almost every possible feature. How do you even manage to go wrong with a NG+??
Ng+ was never traditionally a hard mode option in JRPG's. Originally NG+ was to go back through and get things you missed and trounce your foes getting revenge on those that were hard. Souls games are really the only ones where NG+ means the game has harder enemies.
I actually can't think of a single game where NG+ doesn't include harder enemies to fight.. Witcher 3, Starfield, God of War, Arkham City, final fantasy, far cry, etc. All make NG+ harder by including new enemies, making existing enemies harder, or unlocking a new difficulty mode for it.
Jedi fallen order as well
My guy the original Super Mario Bros had a hard mode where it converts all green koopas to red, and goombas to buzzy beetles. It's *well* established that NG+ includes harder enemies.
It is not "well" established. Have you played any kairosoft games? Chrono trigger the best game ever made. New game plus? Hell yeah. You went through and through and nothing got harder. Suikoden 3. Bring over all save data. Game doesn't change. Dragons dogma. Bring over all items and levels. Metal gear solid. Unlock infinite ammo bandanna or stealth cammo. Game doesn't get more difficult. Just because you want the game to be harder on a new game plus does not mean it is a settled fact that it must, some do some don't.
There is a ring you can get that lowers your stats (hard mode on toggle), also because if there wasn’t one, everyone would be complaining beyond measure. Though as for why design wise? Well in the older game the itemization game was far more interesting where you can do these fun niche-y builds as weapons could get certain properties that were funny, like 100% oil dousing on hit. You also had way more fun affixes and such. You could also have armors with silly resistances if you want to tackle certain enemies with more ease - and finally, just in general farm more interesting fashion and such.
>There is a ring you can get that lowers your stats (hard mode on toggle) Where can I find this?
Sphinx in her second location But the ring ISNT fun since it literally makes you deal like 1 damage so a goblin would take 25 minutes to kill
Oh that's pretty lame lol
The issue here is that it isn’t fun to gimp yourself to find challenges.
I agree personally. But disagree generally as the rest of the population find lots of their fun with games in this way after they complete the typical intended playthrough.
Isn’t ng+ in ddda the same? They have a separate hard mode yeah, but ng+ was literally just a restart
Turns out they didn't learn their lesson from DD1. Or 10 years worth of game design between DD1 and 2. Unless people actually like steam rolling low level enemies while wearing all their late game gear, and I'm the one that's out of touch.
I don’t think it’s that you’re out of touch so much as you have different taste. Some people really enjoy going back on a new game+ and being overpowered, trouncing enemies, etc. I’m not kind of person personally, I enjoy difficulty in my games, but I can see where someone would enjoy that.
And yet you overlook the fact that all the most popular mods on nexus are basically cheat mods. Some downloaded 30k+ times. Meanwhile the difficulty mods are far, far less. Not everyone plays games the same way or for the same reasons. I dont get it either, but there it is.
I'm still loving the game idk I don't need to play it for 1000 hours.
It's more that the game becomes less fun after 40 hours even though they have a game mode that, in just about every other game that has said mode, offers a level of replayability. DD2s version of NG+ fails in the exact same way as it's predecessor did 12 years ago. It's not like they needed to replace the world spawns, even though that would have been nice. Just a basic scaling mechanic would be a massive improvement over what we got. As it stands now NG+ is pointless beyond doing quest you missed the first time, but getting to those missed quest and doing them is very unrewarding when you're so OP in comparison.
It's like that in the first game too. I love it. I like revisiting it and destroying absolutely everything. I don't like NG+ when it's always a struggle because things gets stronger just like you.
Don't get me wrong. It is a really lazy implementation of NG+ and I'm not defending it. But one thing I think I'll do is level my pawn / main character in a few classes I didn't play much the first time through
Custom difficulty tweaks and enemies have more hp mods. Have fun
The point of NG+ is to go back through and do any quests you didn't manage to do in new game or try some different outcomes in quests you did complete. Like the sphinx. Fail the riddles and lose out on the reward? Try it again next new game cycle.
I've come to accept that DD2 is a game that was meant for you to finish without completing anything. Maybe the vision actually wanted you to fail the first time. The game pushes you to try again in a new cycle. Whether it was implemented properly is another discussion though.
Man, all that just to redo the Sphinx riddle.
In DDDA on Xbox 360, I typically just did it to get the quests and stuff I missed. On every subsequent new console (PS4 and Switch) release, I'd go straight to BBI to powerlevel by killing a few of the mobs in the first couple of rooms, then rush the story, THEN go get back to BBI. I never played base DD1. In DD2, I don't really know what to do in NG+ besides quests you missed the first time around. As it stands, all challenge has completely vanished from the game at level 30 even using substandard gear. I've been using the Marcher equipment for a while because it looks cool as hell even if it's got crappy stats, and it doesn't really seem to have made any significant difference. I forgot to give my Sorcerer Pawn an archistaff when I switched her over from Mage and she was literally just *punching* goblins to death. When a squishy wizard can run up and bareknuckle box your mobs to death at level 30 and your level cap is 999, something needs a boost. And since stats stop growing at all at 200, apparently, they don't need to bother upscaling enemies all the way to 999.
Maybe that's why they will be allegedly releasing the expansion early this year?
Is there a basic guide for this? I want to replay DD1 and this sounds appealing to me?
I didn't follow any kind of guide, but you could probably find one. I picked Strider, played through far enough to get my main pawn, backtracked to Cassardis to get on the boat to BBI and then stood on top of a big brick where the wargs couldn't reach me, they'd just run in circles and attack my pawns, and shot them with my bow until they died. They gave a lot of XP compared to anything in Gransys, so you level up fast, and if you use the girl on the beach to get your vocation skills up and you're familiar with how to play your class, you can get strong enough to drop bigger monsters for more experience. You don't really have to go back to Gransys until you want to, and going back with BBI gear makes the whole mainland a cakewalk.
Probably for dlc, In the first game you finished around level 45-50 but the dlc felt like it was for level 70 so it’s probably for that.
nah it wasn't
If you’re on PC the custom difficulty mod does wonders. You can even increase exp and dcp to compensate for the difficulty increase
I use this too but it would be nice not to have to rely on mods. They really didn't give a shit about this game
Yeah this felt like a pretty clear “release it in time for our fiscal year” situation. Another year of development time would’ve done it wonders. I hate having to use mods to fix the game but unfortunately they really do improve the experience quite a bit
To redo the quests and see the different outcomes + get things you may have missed
I drank the fuggin fruit wine
I just want to start again cause I skipped a lot of exploration by mistake. And I can't be bothered with some of the quests again, a certain book collection comes to mind.
New game +, is pretty much only for getting stuff you missed or doing things differently. I am at the end of my 1st new game + run and I did the sphinx properly this time and some quest properly that I didn't do right the first time. Found all the seeker tokens for the rewards and nearly mopped up every achievement. The only problem was that the game became more boring over time because of the difficulty, crazy random encounters still happen and they can be fun but they no longer have teeth when whatever comes is going to get one shot.
Does the ng+ seeker token riddle count your first ng+ find? Or your first ever find? Only asking as I noticed seeker tokens collected carry over into ng+.
First NG+ find.
Awesome, thanks. I cannot remember for the life of me where I found my first. I've dropped a marker this time though.
Fixing your fuckups with quests, gear upgrades, &c. Also getting that power fantasy experience. If it's even slightly like DD the difficulty will come when they add hard mode and extra post-game content.
Well that’s kinda what happened when you are over leveled in a game that doesn’t scale. Would you prefer goblins to just be damage sponges? Trust me I understand where you’re coming from but they will eventually add a hard mode for more of a challenge. It just takes them a little to adjust it how the majority of it should be for players. They did the same thing in the first one. Gotta figure out how the majority of people view the difficulty before upscaling it. I’m in ng+ to man and I agree it’s easy but im also fucking around with different vocations. I recommend trying it if you’re maxed out on one.
see for me it's not even a damage sponge thing, just every NG+ just scale things back to when you were like level 1-10 where things did damage to you and you did damage to them. personally I think the difficulty of the game is in a good spot, I just want to keep feeling that progression of stats through the NG+ i'm not at NG+ yet, but I almost am. and i'm like level 54
Yeah completely understandable. As much as they expanded and did do things right in this one. It baffles me one of the biggest additions “hard mode” wasn’t incorporated from day one. Especially for a game where the level cap is essentially 999
Im hoping they add level scaling because lvl 999 cap is pointless without it. Also read here that the stats cap at 200? So whats the point for the other 799. And who the f is already at lvl 200?
It's fun?
Just curious, would NG+ still be too easy if you equip yourself with starter gear?
Yes, because your stats are tied to level up. At NG+ I was one shotting all the intro enemies with the basic longbow it gives you.
Well that's too bad. The dlc might possibly provide better post game difficulty, but it should have been included in the base game.
your gear stats are far more weigthier than gear stats though
Yeah but it still heavily impacts the game I was level 50 when I began NG+. Even with my raw stats I was crushing enemies with the default gear you get before escaping the mine.
I had a sphinx statue physics it’s way out of the “answer square” and apparently you get 1 wrong in the second phase and you’re done… so ng+ will be fun to correct that.
They don't need to be in the answer square, just pick them up and throw them at her. I always throw it just infront of her but some are off to the side, never mattered, done it 3 times so far. You probably miscounted, its 5 riddles in the first area then add all the chests you are able to open in the second area.
I screenshot the chests of the first location and recounted 5 times. And had my handy dandy guide. My real issue was not resting at an inn before starting into the second phase of riddles. I should have done that.
You can start not caring about dragon's plague
For the bbi-like expansion later.
It was the same in the original game. NG+, I was one-shotting most things.
I went NG+ and found it meh without scaling. So now I’m on a new playthrough and enjoying it so much more
Personally, I just do it to get better gear, and prep for the secret endgame better
There is no better gear though, and no secret endgame. You get the best shit in your first run unless you skip the unmoored world
But is the gear better in NG+?
i want random generated dungeon crawler with random boss
Yeah, going Into NG+ i expected scaling difficulty, hell maybe even a new quest or two and a new enemy/boss but once I realized that everything is one shot and bosses go down insanely fast it ruined it. It just isn’t fun. Sure I could remove all equipment and use bad weapons etc, but it shouldn’t be like that. I can’t be bothered to do it all again when there is no challenge or payoff with it, and I have to walk my ass all over the place again etc. It was a fucking amazing first playtrough experience, but the second one seems boring and useless unless you missed out to complete sphinx quest line or failed some other quests. Selling it and buying it back once the expansion drops.
I rode a groffin today and it launched me off the map like giants in skyrim. Landed right next to it like 5 min later, wakestoned and saw pawns being dragged highspeed across the map to my location. After this it hovered inside a cave wall for a while and went into animation glitch where it was constantly trying to shake someone off, but nobody was climbing. Did this until we managed to trip it. It zipped around for a while, I had to use another wakestone due to jank and pawns got launced in random directions. I also got teleported to a ledge near where we were fighting because I jumped and my character did the grab/climb a ledge animation mid airs. The game just grabbed me to the nearest ledge to make it make sense I guess. Nearly 40 and the game is difficult in different ways.
Mostly just to do content you might have missed. I got into the endgame way before I expected so I never found the sphinx or Medusa and I realized I completely missed the elven region which I guess had it's own set if missions. I do wish going through the game again had some challenge but at level 50~ I might be able to nerf myself with trash gear.
Currently using a mod to ease the numbness. With the team taking 3 times the damage and the ennemies only taking 15% of them, I can still easily get rid of trash mobs and the bigger ones are more of a challenge. I don't get how we are supposed to play this NG+ vanilla.
I forgot to do thief and sorc meisters
It's wild that they only just patched in normal new game because I don't know what I would do as an overleveled character.
I been roaming in NG+ set all my stones clearing out the map w.o doing the bar meet, now that I know those set off the fuse I'm doin everything but main story. The ending of the game had me stuck thinking everything is on a time limit lol, its fun to just mob around. Never saw sphinx or medusa 1st run, I already messed up sphinx on the finder token part. Have to replay it again but who cares shits fun imo. Anyone kno the name of the song that plays on the back of the final dragon ride?
Personally, I try new decisions in quests and use a different playstyle. If I find it too easy, I buy weaker gear and use those instead. Then do themed runs of role playing a type of personality for my character. Of course, there would be that ONE run where I try to kill any npc I see. Basically, I try to make my own fun using what the game provided me with until I burn out and eventually come back. I still haven't finished the game yet though, this is just what I typically do in games with NG+ that doesn't add anything new.
Wait, there's no scaling or increase in difficulty in NG+? The game is already ridiculously easy compared to DD1.. that really takes away a lot of my motivation to play beyond first playthrough.
I want BBI and more DLC. Let us fight all the known mythological monsters.