Game runs like complete dog shit, which is obvious. The gameplay itself is OK, the lack of classes from the first game really sucks but the new ones are alright. Spearhand was what I used till the end, and somehow I ended up getting the best weapon for it, I really don't know how (Btw get the shield skill for it, its OP as fuck). Magick archer was alright, didn't like how archer was treated in this since the controls for it are shit. Trickstar was eh, very gimmicky and obviously inspired by V from DMC5. Now I thought warfarer would have been sick, but somehow they fucked that class up too. So in order to use it, you need to unlock the maisters skill which allows you to swap weapons on the fly. The only issue is that, its a skill. Meaning you can only use 3 skills for 3 different weapons.
One issue I had with the gameplay was the how often you were fighting, you would be fighting one group of hobgoblins, and not even 5 seconds later you would be fighting bandits. Because of that, it tricks you into thinking the world was massive but in reality it was just padding. A few others have noticed, but controlling the MC is sluggish as all hell which sucks alot of the fun out of it. The lack of variety of mobs or even new ones is stupid, 12 years and all we get is like 5 new enemies? having of them being reskins too. One thing I noticed alot of shills on youtube say, that the game lacked markers for quests, but I don't know if its because I'm an expect ELITE gamer but I had no trouble besides one thing.
The pawns are better though, still repeat the same lines but gameplay wise they're alot more smarter. Sometimes you'll see the odd mage grabbing onto an ogre but not as often in the first one. I must have been really lucky too, since I never got the dragonsplague at all in my playthrough.
Now onto the story, or lack of one. The main motive of the story is that, you are meant to be king since you're Arisen (Stupid) but some dickhead thief got fucked up and has a scar that looks like the one that an Arisen would have, so he's in charge since the Steward wants her kid to be king so she is using him as an pawn. (You never interact with either besides once) Next thing you know, you get introduced to Phallic (I know its not his name, I just don't remember it besides it sounding like phallic) and then the negro knight tells you to investigate him. You head over to the beast city and get told by an ghost or whatever his name was, to find the SECRET lab. You head over to the SECRET lab which isn't that well hidden or guarded and get told to head to the beach, there you find this guy who wants some blue shit that turns out to control the pawns even if they're not arisen.
Next thing you know the sunken city gets lifted up and then you head into stormwind cave, there you find the OG king of Vermund who turns out to be an schizophrenic cat. He gives the godsbane and tells you to repair it. You bring it to the SECRET lab guy from the beach who tells you that he needs 15 Dragon blood crystals to sharpen it and once done he wants to give it to Phallic. After repairing it, the albino ghost negro shows up and uses his jedi mind powers on him to give it back to you.
You chase after Phallic and then a giant fucking statue comes alive and starts following him and destroying shit, this part in the game fucking sucked for me. It was a pain trying to kill this guy that it became so frustrating. The worst boss in the entire game, even though it lacked an health bar. Anyway. After killing it, you're now back at the quarry. You chase after Phallic, and somehow, that thief king pretender is with him. It doesn't once show him with Phallic but I guess he used an ferrystone or some shit. You fight him (You can just run past the King and head straight to Phallic and it skips the fight with the King and his pawns) and then Grigori shows up and does the same thing he did to the mutant midge that was Salvations boss.
Grigori pulls out your lover or whoever you had high affection with and you of course fight back, you kill him (No dragonforged items because fuck you) and then the game ends. Unless you get the hidden true ending, which you use the Godsbane on yourself when you're riding Grigori, and now you're in post game and its complete and utter dog shit compared to the first game.
First thing you should know, its on a timer. Thats right, its on a fucking time limit since the world is ending. There is no ever fall, no way of getting new gear, nothing. 12 years and all you get is a shit time limited end game. Anyway, you do all the stuff you need to do. Fight Grigori again, your pawn turns into an Dragon and now has free will. You kill him again with the Godsbane and roll credits.
Terrible fucking story, seriously its terrible. All the characters in the world lack any real personality makes it even harder to remember their names. Atleast in the first game I can remember their names. The voice acting is godawful, and i'm not someone who cares for voice actors or how bad it is. If there wasn't an Dragons dogma 1, this would have been an Okay game, but the first one had alot of quirks and dare I say it, SOUL in it. This game, it has no excuse. It had the time frame, it had the engine and even Capcoms full support in the development but it just falls flat. The lack of classes, the lack of cutscenes, the lack of an true end game, the lack of story, the lack of what most games need, and even no real unlocks after finishing the game besides keeping everything.
The short of it is, if you liked DD1, you might like this one. Depends on what you were expecting. If this is your first time playing an Dragons dogma game, you'll probably enjoy it. I don't regret buying it, but I would wait on an discount or atleast until the devs fix all the problems with the FPS. Also fuck them for making Art of metamorphosis an item you can only use twice, one for you and one for your pawn. So I modded that shit in, too bad you can't gift them because I would gift them to every pawn to fuck over their Jewish greed. I know I missed afew things, but the game is so forgettable.
