Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen – Thoughts from 1st Playthrough (mostly end game)

This post contains spoilers!!!!!!!

I finished the game yesterday. It’s a pretty fun game overall and I must say that the ability to buy Ferrystones easily eliminates an otherwise most likely annoying trek around the world. I believe players of Dragon’s Dogma (pre-Dark Arisen) had to suffer through that so I’m glad I waited until DA came out.

Heh. I’m abusing the ‘stones right now with escort quests in my second playthrough since I ignored most of them during my first time around. XD I’ve strategically placed Portcrystals so it makes getting people to their destinations pretty convenient! 😀

Anyway, here are some bullet points~!

• I’ve pumped in over 100 hours into the game somehow. Some of those are “extra hours” since I spent some of them gathering ingredients to make Cloudwine. (I should have bought them in retrospect. XD) Then I realized that I had access to the Arisen’s Bond waaaaaaaaaaaay earlier and opted to go for that instead of making stupid wine for Mercedes. 😛
  .
• I’ve read somewhere before that Mercedes had some deep speech at the end of the game if she becomes the Arisen’s beloved. I got her as such but didn’t seem to think much of all the stuff said.
  .
  Oh, it was annoyingly difficult to get the pink aura around her! I must have given her at least 40 Cloudwines throughout the course of the game but since NPC affinity wanes if you don’t constantly talk to them or gift them, she kept going back down a notch to a state without blushed cheeks. One Cloudwine made her blush again but I was never able to get the aura until I presented the Arisen’s Bond to her.
  .
  I have no idea who to give the Bond to in my second playthrough; and that’s assuming I even continue until the end. (I may since I missed 2 easily obtainable trophies during the final sequence. And I love me some more trophies. :V)
  .
• The Everfall gets rather annoying after the main story is done. >:/ I dunno how people manage to get to every single section of the damn dungeon. I’ve consistently missed the Chamber of Hesitation.
  .
• Yesterday, I had the wonderful luck of landing at the Chamber of Fate once again but unlike the first time where I fought a Drake and Harpies, I got the absolutely brutal battle against the Lich, Gorechimera, and Chimera + endless groups of Hellhounds. Not only was I totally unprepared for the assault but I do believe my party wasn’t even properly set up to take them on. NO ONE was attacking the Lich even though I had a mage and sorcerer that could have hurled magic at it. 9__9 My Arisen was a Magick Archer so I did my best to wear it down. The problem was that I didn’t clue in that I should be focusing on it until much later. 😛  I tried it a second time but things went worse since party members kept getting petrified. >___> Needless to say, I stopped attempting that fight and went on through the dungeon. :E
  .
• I’ve never managed to get to the Chamber of Distress out of all 3 times I’ve gone into The Everfall. I want to fight the wyrm. But I suppose I could have just wandered around Gransys to pick a fight with the ones that spawn out there.
  .
• Overall, I’ve missed the Chambers of Hesitation, Lament, Distress, Woe, Sorrow, and Resolution. In a way, I’m glad I never went to Lament or Woe because one has the Ur-dragon while the other has a bloody Lich that summons a hell of a lot of annoying enemies.
  .
• My brain shut itself off during the whole confrontation with the Seneschal so I wasn’t entirely sure what the whole deal was with him as well as the entire dogma bit. I guess I’ll look up some ending analyses and stuff online later on.
  .
• I missed 3 side quests that barred me from getting the quest-related trophy. I could swear that I have NEVER encountered the camera pan to Aelinore after leaving the castle. But I believe it could very well have been because I didn’t LEAVE through the castle proper since I think I did things within it that got me thrown into the prison. XD (Probably accidentally picked someone up. ^^) But yeah, I missed the entire line of Aelinore quests and also Bad Business with Madeleine.
  .
• Speaking about picking people up, I did that to Simone and hurled her everywhere inside her home. Of course, guards eventually came but still, it was satisfying to abuse the stupid girl. (Not that I condone such behaviour in real life but this a game! It’s fantasy! I mean, we’re murdering humans throughout it! That can’t be right either, yeah? But I suppose that can be argued that it’s from self-defense?)
  .
• Quina also got some tossing about since her affinity got maxed out after her side quests. 9__9 I was a little freaked since I thought it would interfere with who would become the Beloved at the end of the game so I did all that I could to reduce it. While I DID manage to bring it down to neutral, the Adventure Log still showed 2 females had max affinity with the Arisen. What was strange was that Selene showed up at the Arisen’s house after the main game but she was never counted under the  log as one of the females that had max affinity. I know this to be true because I kept checking it after long after completing Witch Hunt and it only changed to 2 after Quina got her pink aura. (The number became 1 after Mercedes was courted.)
  .
  I actually had to keep picking up Quina and tossing her to make it to Prayer Falls so I could cause her to drown/get eaten by the Brine. Initially, I just threw her off a hill and onto the road where a few wolves were waiting but although she had a bloody fall and promptly got harassed by said wolves, she eventually ran off. 😦 Indeed, it would be easier to simply murder her with a weapon but it was kind of funny to move her around the map with carrying + throwing. XD I know I didn’t have to kill her but I was curious to see if I could complete the quest, A Parting Gift, if she were dead. (You can because she’ll magically reappear during the cutscene with the Mother Superior.)
  .
• Final tossing victim was Pip. I got annoyed at him cursing the Arisen for his parents’ death so I had him thrown into the big gaping hole he was standing next to. 😀
  .
• Some of the 100 hours was spent doing the From A Different Sky quests. I completed up to 21 and then decided I should go and complete the damn game. 😛 There were some locations of the badges where I just couldn’t figure out where to find them until I looked them up on-line.

  

  I realize that I can take screenshots in-game but I’m never logged into the Pawn Community so it’s easier just to take photos of the screen with my tablet. 😛.

• Man, the game froze on me whenever I caused the stout undeads behind a gate in the Catacombs to explode. I haven’t checked online to see if anyone else encountered the same problem, but it occurred twice so I take it it’s some sort of a bug. Then again, my PS3 froze one day when I was looking at something in the PS Store so maybe it’s the system. 😦

  

• Oh yes! I had my Arisen wearing a helm that covered the face completely so during the final cutscenes of the game with the dragon as well as Mercedes, I couldn’t see any facial expressions. What’s more is that when the two women kissed (my Arisen is female), the helm was being kissed. XD
  .
• Forgot to mention that I spent some quality time at Bitterblack Isle. My first attempt around level 20 – 30-ish didn’t go very well. XD Later on, around level 60-ish, I went back and explored a lot more. I actually encountered an Elder Ogre at some point and got it down to 3 lifebars. Unfortunately, during its rage session, it one-hit KO’d my character. I didn’t have any Wakestones on me so that was that. 😛
  .
  The best thing about Bitterblack Isle are the RC rewards and the chance to get the spiffy Secret Augments. I managed to get 3 of those Augments which are pretty handy. I do wish I could have gotten Adhesion and Athleticism instead though.

I guess I’ll add more to this post if I remember anything else I want to talk about regarding the first playthrough. XD