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If 'Rescue Jim from the cave' isn't the first quest I want a refund

You probably should’ve mentioned that there are benefits to being a smaller character as well, or else this video makes it sound like everybody ought to be as large as possible. At least in the first game, there were also benefits to being a smaller character like naturally faster stamina regen, smaller hit box making it easier to dodge, and even fitting into spaces that have loot that larger characters can’t. You can always use your pawns as pack mules, so if you manage your inventory well you could be better off going for these advantages instead of increased carry capacity. Of course, there were also benefits to larger characters you didn’t mention besides carry weight - longer legs allowed you to wade in shallow water without your lantern going out, longer reach in general actually affected your attack box for swinging your sword in the air up at flyers etc. Also, there is a benefit to being weighed down by too much loot. The stuff you are holding affects your actual total weight, and your said total weight affects things like how much you are blown around by wind, and how quickly you can make a monster fall over by grabbing its leg or whatever. Of course this is all in the first game, so I don’t know how much of it applies to the sequel, but it would be odd if they didn’t still have benefits to being smaller at least!

As a kid I grew up playing Zelda Majoras mask blind, so when I first played dragons dogma 1 when it first released, I immediately fell in love with it. The exploration, random encounters, and consequences of your actions is what makes a play through rememberable.

Having been a veteran to open world games the first thing I did was go map out my local area and grind places that had relatively easy monsters to take down and note the areas that had free useful resources, then I searched all the nooks and crannies of the first starting town and major city because the devs love hiding good starter loot in strange places so climb and keep your eyes open. I can't stress this enough do not be afraid of running away to live another day or run past a really hard fight to open up your map and explorable area, after all your super squishy in the beginning I haven't played this game yet but if it's anything like the first one kill all the cows outside of town also all the boars,deer's rabbits and birds they usually drop meat and things that early on can be life savers. That 's my two cents on the matter but one last thing just take your time to enjoy and savor all the richness of the world and what the team has created it's not a race but it's about the journey good luck and I'll see you in the rift.

I quit and it sat for 6 years. Then I picked it up a month ago figured it out and I'm almost done with it, and I love it. I'm ready for part 2.

Archer starting for sure, that kick was crazy lol i like that its not just shooting off arrows, theirs tactics if enemies get to close, ty for this.

Pawns learn by watching you play as well so your play style will effect how they play. So say you hoard your food till it goes off a lot then your pawns will learn too do that bad habit as well. On flip side if just chug down all your healing item in a single fight they might learn to do that bad habit as well. So think carefully how HOW you are playing if you don't want your pawn learning from your bad habits.

I had a terrible habit of short cutting of cliffs in one…and my poor pawn started doing it but she didn’t understand what cliffs were safe to jump off of.

When the first dragons dogma came out I was instantly in love. I felt like it really rewarded exploration and that's something few games do.

I did not have your experience because after the prologue when I started playing I realized things like that might happen so I watched guides like yours and others to prepare myself. Just as you intend with this video. Great job man! I absolutely love DD dark arisen. Can't wait for this one ❤

As someone who played MH and DS. Remebr no roll, so climb that thing!

It reminds me of the Dragon Age series honestly. Especially Inquisition. There is so much to be aware of and manage and not a game to be rushed through. I am super excited for this.

You are the man. Your videos are always unique, many times bringing something to the topic that no other content creator brings, and truly player-focused. Keep up the top notch work!!

Thank you for that video. I struggled exactly the way you described it for DD1 ! Plus the quest system that I found messy at that time. I am sure that you're coming beginner guide will help. Thank you !

My experience was pretty similar. Got Rook with me, gone to the encampment killed 2 goblins on the way. Did tutorial in the encampment without triggering hydra fight quest. Its already night when I finished. Didnt think anything of it, gone out, met bandits in the fork of the road, fought them and aggroed the wolves nearby while running around during the fight, because I couldnt see anything during nighttime. Got my ass handed to me. Back to checkpoint. Decided to go back to the village to do some exploring or quests(also during night). Going back met goblins again, in bigger numbers, during the fight aggroed wolf pack nearby AGAIN and got destroyed. After that I noticed the mechanic of the night=more monsters. Waited for a daytime in the camp and the rest of the game pretty smooth sailing(except for the pawn inclinations mechanics).

There´s much more with pawns. Like the metal golem in the forrest in first DD. It´s a optional boss,but if you were not prepared,he was unbeatable. You had to destroy those small crystals scattered around the area. If you were a sorcerer or magik archer,you had a problem,because those crystals were magic immune and some of them were unaccesable for melee builds.But if your pawns had utilitaian and/or migitator incinations, the fight becomes peace of cake.It´s really easy to mess your main pawn behaviour as well. Like if you are picking items during a fight,your pawn copies that and it becomes really bad if your tank pawn is piking flowers in combat instead of tanking :D So new players,be carefull ;)

Carry weight usually gets quadrupled in the first 5minutes in any single player rpg I play 😂

One of the loading screens of the first game says "death is swift for the unprepared". That is dragon's dogma. It can be brutal at first, but if you give it a chance and make an effort to understand its mechanics, you will experience one of the best RPGs ever made.

Thanks for the beware of these mechanics guide , it’s perfect . Simple clear and to the point

Great video addressing most of the initial mental hurdles of the game. 🍻 preparedness is key

It was a tough first experience for me back in 2012. But, I kept at it and from the game learned to prepare for my quest or just traveling about in the world. I actually feel in love with this game due to the fact that you had to prepare, upgrade your equipment, and upgrade your pawn. I'm glad they have made a camping system for your group and I personally like how they make you travel the world and not just quickly hit a button and boom back in town. I look forward to DD2 and exploring the world with my Beast man

I had a similar experience, both with Dark Souls and Dragon's Dogma. Now I love them. It isn't that they're hard or bad, but they're so different from other games it catches you off guard.

Cheers for this helpful video, Fextra! Straight to the point as well. This game is going to be an absolute blast 🔥

Remember: Dont throw away things just because they expired. Rotten Meat for example can be made into backfat to help fuel your lantern.

My story was similar I played dark arisen at launch and put it down for about a year and then picked it up and played it all way through the post game. It's crazy how timing. The way you feel, what your wanting to play at that time can change your perspective with a game. You could hate it today but love it tomorrow.

I used to be excited for this game now im also terrified, and that’s probably a good thing. I thought this video was click bait but turned out you had way more informative info than other videos iv seen on DD2 thanks for the video

Uh oh! Fextra has arrived to make our DD experience 3ven more awesome. Dude was basically in my ear for all of Elden Ring, hope he'll be as pr3sent for Dogma.

Exceptional video. Thanks

I had the same experience with Dragons Dogma. I didn't pick it back up until Dark Arisen dropped but when it clicked I fell in love. It is now one of my all time favorite games. I wish the level up system was the same as the first though. You had to play the long game in determining your character. It kept everything so fresh

Excellent video!

This video makes me more eager to play this game. Thank you.

Love your stuff! This game looks amazing. Taking time off work to power game it. Maybe Dragons Dogma 2 will do better even with the survival type gaming like supplies going bad since more people are accustomed to it today.

A moment of silence for Jim... I got into the first game straight away - although I had the same experience as you with Dark Souls initially (despite having loved Demon's Souls.) The challenges you face in Dogma are part of the reason it's so great to me. Good advice in the video, too. There's surely aught of use for all here.

Very informative!

*Clanking into cave cause you heavy with fatty loot, sees dead body* "Damn it Jim!"

Plot twist: Jim is actually a dragon that has discovered advertising a quest in the city is the best way to get adventurers to come to you like a Door Dash delivery.

Thank you for the heads up.

That’s brazy cause this was how my first playthrough went like. Went in blind on the hardest difficulty like a dummy but came back a few weeks later and I can’t stop telling people how great this game is as well as how great the second one will be

Omg thank you for this video I was so afraid and didn’t know but now I know. You are the expert

I love you Fextralife, always

I really enjoyed DD DA and am looking forward to this one. The depth of the mechanics (food goes bad, big guys get tired quicker, etc.,) make it so much more engrossing and realistic. It's a welcome change from games where I become the vendors major supplier because of my ridiculous carry weight. Looking forward to your videos and best use of pawns. cheers

I'm stoked for this even without having to watch this. Been waiting for a long time for a second Dragon's Dogma myself. I loved how much your character height affects a lot more than people think. The smaller you were, the more areas you could actually get to. Make your character bigger and you had more carry weight and stamina management. I'm glad they're keeping that. Makes multiple playthroughs very enjoyable.

That was my exact experience on the first game. I loved it but I got myself in a spot where I found it extremely hard to move forward or go back. I put it down and never picked it up again.

I think it was my second playthrough I forgot all about a certain event. When you leave the first town in DD1, there's a merchant on the road who gets attacked by goblins. I decided to go off the beaten path and explore before following the road. Unbeknownst to me, that merchant had spawned in and gotten killed while I was looking for random treasure and I missed out on a shop that opens later. The game can be mean, but man is it fun.

You just described perfect gameplay experience :D

I had a similar experience with the first game. I then dived into DS and almost beat the game before i realized how much of the game i had missed. That game made me come back to DD and I loved it much more

Great video, I tried dragons dogma a few times over the Years and it never clicked, but i will be giving this one a go 😅

I’m glad I watched this, because your experience is prob exactly what would’ve happened to me. But not guaranteed I would come back after a break because of how much is out there. I’ll take extra care to be patient.

Brilliant video 📹 Game looks hard. 😮

Def need the beginner guide, don’t want to start off with a bad experience.

The fact that food expires (or any inventory items) is pretty cool. The explanation of why you don't want to be to large makes sense. But why would anyone ever make a large character then? Are there weapons, armor, or items that require a large character to use?

The intricate mechanics section is actually hilarious 😂 I can hear a lot of pain in every chapter of that story. Thanks for the warning

The strider was my absolute favorite class from DD1, i'll definitely start with that

This is refreshing and so very helpful even moreso than what you guys normally do! If I had a dollar for every time I saw someone buy a game then bitch about it not being fun or their type of game. Well done boys.

So what I've got from this video is that this video is telling me what I need to expect before playing the game, so to sum up this is what I should expect, so thanks I guess I was just being told what I should expect before playing so I know what to expect before I play, cheers!

I´m glad I found DD1 a year after release, bc I immediately had a blast with it for 200+ hrs

The time has come next week! I can’t wait for its release!

You summed up my experiences with both DG1 and Dark Souls...

Hey, just had to put up with a 2015 960 gpu lately so I went for it in preparation for the hype, and welp, am at your initial encounter part haha ( big souls fan though, glad I stumbled upon this to give it more love maybe down the line, so many games to plaaaaay :p )

I loved DD1. Making incremental progress away from Gran Soren. Each trip going farther and farther and feeling like a true expedition uncovering more of the map b4 my supply of warish ran dry and I had to retreat. Best advice I came up with. - Carry meds for various Stat debuffs, particularly petrification as it kills slowly if you don't have a mage with halidom(?). - Reuse & Repurpose. Rotten meat becomes backfat for lantern fuel. Keep in mind to combine items can make them more effective. - Diversify your party. Mages are EXTREMELY useful with the right skillset.

Hoping there's more than two combo inputs for melee in this game. Loved the flow of combat with having to delay the second button press to get a sick swing or two in.

DD2 hype!!

I nearly gave up on the first game. In the end I farmed some of the weak goblins outside of the first village. Upgraded my weapons as quick as possible and, like you said, balanced my party. If you are melee try to have a ranged pawn. Mage is good for healing.

I got my behind beat badly at first. Then when I found my groove, it was super fun. I'm looking forward to Friday.

The first experience you describe here somehow got me to wanna play even more, becouse it showed that your actions and planing actually has an impact on events in the game, like youre actually in a fantasy world, and youre not getting guided handhold by the game for the first 5 hours only for the game to then throw random things at you, or boring you with meaningless side quests

thank you for this information about traveling that might end up in wasted time and no success in the quest!

I had a blast 12 years ago with the graphics and “fps” back then. Learning, growing and over coming challenges was always the fun part of any video games I’ve ever played so. Bring it on!!

I bought DD day one, I played for several weeks and after that I hated it. But like some many others, I came back to it read things online and then I absolutely loved it. Logged so many hours into that games so many playthroughs

Dragons dogma 1 made me so frustrated (bandit fight), but its one of my favorites now. Definitely reaching the midgame where vocations and builds start to come together helps with the fun.

I had a similar experience, but rather than a few weeks it went on for several years. I bought it on the 360 when it came out but really didn't get into it, and dropped it multiples times shortly after the Hydra. I wasn't until 2019 when I bought it on the Switch that I really gave it the time of day and fell in love with it completely

I have a feeling a lot of people are gonna be put off by this game. Despite everything being told to them in advance. They'll complain about fast travel, item encumbrance, etc.

I am excited for guids /tips and tricks for the game, that helped a lot by elden ring. I didn't hade the money to buy it by lunch and I w8 1 month to be able to afford it, i watched videos till I bought it and I hade a great start, i will buy dd2 week later

When I first played DD, I was having a hard time figuring out the controls, the systems, and the direction of the game. But I'm just such a huge sucker for games that leave the adventure up to you, and I was quickly sucked in and didn't care about the little issues. This game is an adventure fantasy in the truest sense, and your experience will be completely unique to you. Even though everyone has the same story to play through, there will be so many small experiences in between the story quests that your friends will likely never see, but they in turn will have their own unique experiences. And that to me, is what makes this game truly stand out and worthy of the time you put into it.

Running dark arisen now and I'm loving it

Its surprising on how many of these videos I've seen as DD2 gets closure to launch. It really gives me the impression that the DD1 community really wants people to like the game as it is and not compare it to other series, something that most people have a habit of doing, and in doing so engage with the game in ways not meant to be done. Either way, great video and I'm looking forward to launch day!

man, i remember the first time i played this game 5-6 months ago, i died so many times and it frustrated me for hours. but i kept pushing on and persevered, the part this all happened is that road towards Witchwood (coming from the direction of the encampment). that road is filled with so many bandits and all of my equipment came from the merchant in the encampment, which are not that strong to begin with. i wanted to finish a quest around that area first before going to Mercedes heading towards Gran Soren.

That mystic spearmen is calling my name

All of this is why I like that game universe. It's essentially an adventuring light sim. If you go out half assed unprepared with a group of low level pawns with all the same vocation you are gonna get your ass handed to you and you are gonna fail your quest. And often you can be doing everytthing right and still take 3 in game days to do the quest because it doesnt put a marker on your map to show you exactly where you need to be. "There is a bandit camp somewhere near the western road before the light house, take care of it so banditry goes down for the caravans" And you end up the first two days finding a tower with skelletons and a cave full of bears or what have you instead of your intended objective and its still massively useful to tackle these problems so you do but by the time you get out its dark out and you are out of everything so you go back to town and try again in the morning. And by the time you finally succeed in this seemingly simple side quest 3 to 4 days have passed you leveled up and upgraded all your gear and now that bandit camp you finally find it and put an end to it and complete the quest. Nothing is a straight line and you WILL fail and you WILL have to use your brains to complete quests. That's why DD is special. It really makes you feel like an adventurer out in a dangerous world.

I don't find any of these things an issue. If anything, how this game works is what makes me like it even more. Its a full on strategic type rpg, and thats how it should be. That's what sets this franchise apart from all the others and its what makes Dragon's Dogma one of, if not the most iconic games out there and im hella ready to dive into dd2.

So in short: "Do not get distracted". If you are on a quest, do the quest. If you are out farming resources, farm that stuff. If you wish to fight, then go fight. But pick one not all.

I just started playing dragons dogma and it took me a good minute to get used to the systems. Was trying to play it like a souls game but once I got the hang of it I'm liking it a ton. Looking forward to getting into second one

Yep same experience with you on Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen! Wolves swam me like bees and I always get one shot by the Assassin Bandit! I learned that day that Mage was really not for beginners! hahaha

Thanks Fextralife for the eye opening video on the first game. Yea i definitely got stuck once i was on the road with my pawns and getting slaughtered on a uphill road with some enemies in the way. Guess i will be reinstalling and give it another try after watching your very informative video. As for DRAGON'S DOGMA 2 i will wait til i upgrade my i7 8700, RTX 2060 pc later this year. To think i could have upgraded last summer for STARFIELD. Fortunately that game plays great even with not meeting the 8gb of vram on my RTX 2060. Don't think that will be the case with DRAGON'S DOGMA II but i got the first game to try again not to mention close to two thousand games on STEAM along with GOG and physical versions of games going back to the early 1990's. Oh yea and DAGGERFALL UNITY finally completed about a year ago i think. Love the Pawn system in DRAGON'S DOGMA. Really feels life like and will be interesting to see how fleshed out they are in the sequel especially if they were aiming for a BALDUR'S GATE III level of depth with them. Also the food and ingredient collecting like in THE ELDER SCROLLS is also nice. The combat though kicked my tail. Hopefully i will have better luck this time around. Happy Gaming ☕🍕

So, this bizzo with the char size and the stamina from DD will be translating also into DD2? Did they say this, cos I didn't even know about this affectation in the orig, and I was playing that one from launch (as I will be its succesor next week). Thanks for the infos, btw. 💙🧿

Fast travel in DDDA wasn't limited at all. Just find the forever ferry stone, and you get two trleport locations at the start. One at the starting village another at the main city. You then can set up 10 personal way points to fast travel to.

One thing you could do in the first game was manually save before something happened and if you die you could reload that save state. As opposed to relying on the games auto save states.

If you're worried about optimal party composition... By endgame, don't be. The director has gone on record saying that one of his favorite party compositions is four sorcerers, but that it can be hard to run that because of lack of healing... So he mentioned taking Warfarer to be able to heal while using the multicast with three sorcerers. But he also mentioned you might get wiped by hobgoblins that way. Good against bosses though! 8D As soon as I heard that, I knew... This was the one.

I loved the first one once I began to understand it, the initial hurdle of the game is quite a big leap, but once you get used to it there isn't really another game like it that will fill the gap. It feels very unique and individual, the amount of playstyles that you can change to almost at will is refreshing, and most of the quests feel like a challenge due to the lack of guidance. When you hear a pawn say that they understand where to go was always a relief. I do wish I would have experimented more as I recently found out about rusted weapons, but it will be great to play the second one and see what changes they have implemented. I've kept myself away from spoilers except for the classes, I want a fresh experience that isn't skewed by what I believe it will be.

This was my experience on PS3 when Dragon's Dogma first came out. When I replayed on PC recently, I collected healing items that do not expire, hired good pawns and took it slowly to build my character and MAGE pawn. Night became a farming opportunity. My only issue on PC is the unbelievably tortuous systems for accessing storage and horrible keyboard support.

Loved DD1 when it first came out. Re bought it on every console and pc. Will look forward to DD3 and hope it doesn’t take 20 years. 🐉

My Dragon Dogma experience was honestly not rough at all. Got it a year after launch blindly without knowing anything about because I used to trust games a lot more. And I loved it from the moment I heard that bad ass rocking intro music that is no longer present. Played it all the way through.

Do you have a video or know of a video like this but for elden ring because i really want to enjoy it but after playing 7 playthroughs (and ABSOLUTLEY LOVING) sekiro i cant get used to the slow movement and dodging as it just gets on my nerves?

How soon do you folks expect can we access a third and forth pawn? Thinking about starting as a thief, with a mage as main pawn, but I don't want to spend too much time without having a fighter in the party. And is it true that unlocking an augment for one class lets you apply it to another?

I only ended up playing the original because of the free demo on PS3 back in the day. I remember enjoying the beginning fight against the chimera so much I wanted to see what other monsters were in the full release. Played the game like a MH title, complete with my big ass sword. Eventually found out Warrior was very good and staggering and knocking down enemies, coupled with Grapnel and some other spells/abilities from different classes, I made a party comp that focused on heavy stagger moves to stunlock heavy foes, and then annihilate them with Arc of Obliteration. That's when I fell in love with the game

Solo leveling fans this is your game.

A question; am I right in assuming that players won’t be joined by all 3 pawns immediately? The way I imagine it would be getting your main pawn towards the start and then getting 2 more at certain intervals in the game, or is it the case that you’re just thrown in with 3 pawns immediately including the main one?

that bad scenario of rescuing Jim actually sounds like a good time but also any adventuring party in an anime that isn't the main OP character

I'm old but it's the first game that I sat down with my mom and showed her what games were about. I was staying with her through some treatments she was going through and she was receptive so I set it up and we started off from the Character Creator , helping me make my arisin and pawn. I set off down the first path , it started getting dark , the stupid wolves messed me up, I couldn't see where I was going , everyone was dead and i fell off a cliff in a blind panic ! I was so embarrassed , and I was a gamer Bro ! Needless to say my mom had a wonderful time laughed her butt off and understood gaming and the love I saw for the future of Gaming.

I had a similar experience with the demo of DD1. I totally hated it. But then the more I hear about the game the more it seems like something I would have really liked.