im about 50 hours in and this is recapturing the same magic that dragons dogma 1 had. it’s nearly, nearly everything i’ve ever wanted in a game and will go down as one of my favorites of all time but i still don’t believe this is seeing the full potential of what dragons dogma can be. still a 5 though

this game does open world adventuring best, and its not close. fast traveling is difficult, you will need to pack for the journey, and it will be tireless. 90% of your health bar will be grey and it’s going to feel so good camping for the night and getting rid of all that lost gauge. it’s fucking sweet. the combat is far and away the best for its genre, and is a bit of a saving grace because there is a lack of enemy variety on the roads and the encounters themselves are not too difficult. the engaging the combat completely makes me forget about that though! im just having too much fun

despite their sometimes insanely awful pathfinding, i can’t sing enough praises for the pawn ai system. i love their bantering between each other and their sometimes snarky remarks towards the player. the way they learn from you and other players, guiding you across the world to help you find secrets you’ve yet to uncover halfway across the massive world. there’s nothing like dragons dogma man

this game has consequences. like actual consequences your average Gamer wasnt prepared for. if you don’t pay attention you wake up and your entire town will be massacred. yes this is a funny and inconvenient mechanic but have you tried reading and observing? in most open world games you can play god. you can go around doing whatever you want with very little consequence, reload a save to correct a fuck up and then continue to your quest marker. not here! i love that this is the developer’s world, and you play by their rules.

i love dragons dogma 5/5 10/10 please get kinoshita to direct the expansion again and it’ll be my favorite game of all time

this is easily, Easily, the best soulslike to date, and the only one that i felt the need to complete. the combat is closer to something like sekiro with how the game forces you to learn to parry.
the level design here is reminiscent of classic souls level design, with shortcuts seamlessly leading back to your stargazer (bonfire). i actually had a lot of fun looking around and finding little hidden rooms with loot in them. they nailed that feeling perfectly
really enjoyed the story as well, much more straightforward than your average souls game and easy to follow. i still recommend reading item and weapon descriptions if you're interested in the lore though. i hope the studio continues making games that are retellings of childrens fairytales.
my only gripe with the game is the boss design. visually, theyre memorable and look excellent. but for the love of god can someone tell these devs that not every single boss needs a second phase?? it took me around 25 hours to beat the game, but a majority of that must have been on the final few bosses. by the end it felt pretty exhausting and i was glad to be done with it
the records you can play at the hub are also excellent. they went above and beyond with the music
looking forward to the wizard of oz soulslike fellas

listen man im used to plotholes in yakuza and i’ve learned to love how messy and chaotic their stories can be. i want to love this so much because the cast is fantastic as usual and there are some very well done emotional beats but holy fuck i can’t get over how bad they botched this story. it’s not even “silly” stupid like rubber bullets or falling from a 20 story building and surviving or getting shot point blank in the head and also surviving. it’s just outright bad here. no loose ends tied, a lot of “so what the fuck was the point of that” moments. this also made all the events in gaiden just feel completely pointless. and it made the new poster boy for LAD games feel like a side character. there’s just so much im not happy with in terms of story and characterization

that being said, it has by far my favorite turn based combat system ever. just a straight up improvement in every way over 7. the substories were great too, especially ‘let it snow’ which is probably my favorite substory ever now. i wasn’t a fan of their dungeon redesign, it just feels copy pasted and claustrophobic and getting through it was more of a chore than anything else.
going around hawaii for the little social link bonds was also really fun. the conversations they have almost always make me laugh or smile and i happily did every last one. i just wish the story didn’t fall flat on its face

yamai is literally my goat btw top 3 with akiyama and majima PLEASE don’t do him dirty in future games

yeah this shit is just the goated star wars game and they should do everything their power to try and top this one. the story is a little unremarkable but i REALLY enjoy the mantis crew. greez and merrin are great. also the last 2 chapters and last couple of bosses were presented very well. exploring some more planets wouldve been cool, but the last couple of setpieces are visually stunning

ok but what i really loved and didnt expect to was the amount of exploration that wasnt just "climb here and grab the collectible." they involved puzzles (pretty good ones at that), platforming (which is REALLY fun in this game ESPECIALLY WITH A GRAPPLING HOOK), and pretty fun ableit samey minibosses. i did this one side quest that led me to a massive fucking underground maze where 3 bounty hunters kept taunting me behind barricaded doors and one had a pet rancor. i made the rancor eat her. although it wasnt quite the scale of elden ring, stumbling upon these random mazes and dungeons really reminded me of my fist elden ring playthrough. they were clearly made with love.
also the side conversations that droids and stormtroopers have are insanely funny and you should sit through them all.

every game should have a grappling hook. thanks for reading

should be the standard for open world games. exploration does not get better than this. everyone remembers taking their first elevator to siofra river

but mostly everything post morgott felt rushed. farum crumbling azula is easily the worst area in the game. it’s just not interesting or fun to explore aside from placidusax. you’re also met with the worst boss fights in the last stretch (godskins, fire giant, & that awful terrible final boss). having underwhelming final areas and final bosses seems to be a reoccurring theme with fromsoft though, with few exceptions.
i appreciate how many unique bosses there are but i also don’t want to fight a ulcerated tree spirit for the 8th time
rest of the game rules so hard though