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Kingdoms of Amalur is kinda ruining Dragon's Dogma for me.

B

Baroquemantic

Member
I recently completed Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. It was my first western RPG. (I very briefly tried ES:Oblivion, but hated the mechanics.) Anyway, I really enjoyed playing KoA. Sure, there was plenty of repetition in the mission structure, but the combat was so fun that it made up for it, in my opinion. Also of importance, the user interface is more streamlined and easier to come to grips with.

Like KoA, I also had Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen thanks to PS+. It's been sitting partially downloaded on my PS3 for months now, and a few days ago, I finally decided to d/l the rest and give the game a shot, now that I'm a + member again, and because of how much I've seen it mentioned and praised on this forum.

So now that I've started playing DD, I'm just not feeling the combat. It's by no means bad, but it doesn't feel as fast and fluid as KoA. I'm also not a fan of the UI. I understand that this game has more functionality and is much more involved though, so expecting it to be a similar experience to KoA is unfair on my part.

Still, I plan on continuing to play DD, as I can definitely see the potential. It's just that I haven't hit that moment of epiphany yet; it hasn't clicked for me yet. Perhaps starting another RPG so soon after completing one was not the best course of action. That, plus I feel like KoA is a good 'My First WRPG'. It's simpler mechanics certainly lend credence to that.

Edit:

Baroquemantic said:
Sooo, I've put some more time into DD and, yeah, the combat's pretty great. I still like Amalur's combat a lot, but DD is definitely more challenging and rewarding. Climbing onto the big enemies in the game is awesome too. I kinda wish I'd gone with Strider as my vocation instead of Fighter though. I looked at some videos of it and it looks a lot more fun. Once I get to a point where I can switch, I'll probably do so.

So yeah, no ruining going on. Just me being impatient and not giving the game a fair enough shake.
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Ive only played KoA and thought it was okay, but i thought dragon's dogma combat was awesome? At least thats what ive heard

like some of the best
 
Every time I've encountered the sequence of words from this thread, Dragon's Dogma and KoA were reversed.

I wasn't really into DD when I tried it, but the combat felt pretty good even in the first couple of hours.
 
Dragon's Dogma and Kingdoms of Amalur style gameplay are totally different, as are their general mission structure.

KoA ends up playing kind of like an offline MMO, DD is more like a Japanese developer's take on the Skyrim type games. But to me the combat in DD is waaay better than any of the Elder Scrolls games, although not with the sheer depth of options naturally you see in a game like Morrowind (which is awesome)

I definitely vastly prefer DD, but I enjoyed my time with Kingdoms of Amalur until about 2/3 of the way in when all the missions started blurring together. The game was a cake walk by the time you were 20% through though, poor balance.
 
You get some of the better skills later for each class. I'd also suggest trying a different class if you don't like the combat. It's different enough from class to class that it might change your mind.
 
Yeah the little I played of Dragon's Dogma (About 1 or 2 hours) didn't really impress me much gameplay wise. I've seen some stuff from it that looks pretty cool though so I think I'll just try to push through some more at another time.
 
Huh, I had the opposite experience. I tried Amalur, but I barely got out of the long tutorial dungeon. I thought the combat to be shallow and the player's movement to be overly-limited (can't jump except where you're told, invisible walls everywhere, etc.). Plus the whole aesthetic of the game reminded me way too much of World of Warcraft.

That was over a year ago, so I don't remember much. Does Amalur's combat become more complex at all?
 
Flame Lord said:
Yeah the little I played of Dragon's Dogma (About 1 or 2 hours) didn't really impress me much gameplay wise. I've seen some stuff from it that looks pretty cool though so I think I'll just try to push through some more at another time.
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I don't know if it's the case, but sometimes people may not enjoy the class more than the gameplay, so if you play again, it might be a good idea to try another class.
 
How far are you?

Combat wise, sure, I can see why you might have a slow start. When you reach the main city, though, is where combat gets real good. Where you start experimenting with other classes, gaining skills, and fight more creatures varying in how you go about attacking them.

Fight a Griffin and you should start to feel it.
 
sappyday said:
Weird considering the general consensus is that DD's combat is one of the best in a ARPG in a long time.
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IIRC all I did was crawl on people's back and mash thousand kisses or something like that. Or atleast that killed things the quickest.

Dark Souls is much better if we're counting that.
 
Keep in mind, there's a pretty slow build to when the combat gets truly excellent in DD. When you first FIND your first giant enemy, not when it's just slapped in front of you, does that game get real.

KOAU is an okay game, but once you get into the meat and potatoes of DD combat, it doesn't even compare.

Also, if you aren't climbing any everything, you're doing it wrong.

Mr. Smiley said:
How far are you?

Combat wise, sure, I can see why you might have a slow start. When you reach the main city, though, is where combat gets real good. Where you start experimenting with other classes, gaining skills, and fight more creatures varying in how you go about attacking them.

Fight a Griffith and you should start to feel it.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'd say the Griffin is where the combat really starts to shine.
 
Mr. Smiley said:
How far you?

Combat wise, it has a slow start. I would say it isn't until you reach the main city where combat gets real good. Where you start experimenting with other classes, gaining skills, and fight more creatures varying in how you go about attacking them.

Fight a Griffith and you should start to feel it.
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gty_andy_griffith_jef_120703_wmain.jpg
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?
 
Well KOA is very underrated and deserved better sales it's like dragons age but with actual combat instead of just a sim.
However I would say Koa is a bit bland, Jack of all trades, master of none...

But dd especially dark arisen is super intense and even scary, very well done combat. Dark arisen is the game, vanilla dd is the tutorial
 
Don't worry OP. The combat starts off average but then just clicks with you and becomes one of the best combat systems found in an RPG.

It actually had the opposite effect on me. I like amalur and then decided to play DD, went back to amalur but the combat wasn't as good.
 
KoA had better combat, I'm with you there OP.

Why not try something that plays quite different, Bloodborne or Souls series?
 
Sorry OP, you're not well. There's no room for opinion here. Kingdoms of Amalur's combat is terrible in comparison to Dragons Dogma. That's being generous, when compared to Dragon's Dogma, actually. It's pretty weak without that context, but next to Dragons Dogma, it's like playing with Morrowind's combat or something.

You're not well, sir.

In all seriousness, I doubt many people will share this opinion with you, but I also hate RE4, Binary Domain and Vanquish's shooting. And that's not a popular opinion here. It just sucks that KoA has tarnished a really cool RPG for you
 
Baroquemantic said:
I recently completed Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. It was my first western RPG. (I very briefly tried ES:Oblivion, but hated the mechanics.) Anyway, I really enjoyed playing KoA. Sure, there was plenty of repetition in the mission structure, but the combat was so fun that it made up for it, in my opinion. Also of importance, the user interface is more streamlined and easier to come to grips with.

Like KoA, I also had Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen thanks to PS+. It's been sitting partially downloaded on my PS3 for months now, and a few days ago, I finally decided to d/l the rest and give the game a shot, now that I'm + member again, and because of how much I've seen it mentioned and praised on this forum.

So now that I've started playing DD, I'm just not feeling the combat. It's by no means bad, but it doesn't feel as fast and fluid as KoA. I'm also not a fan of the UI. I understand that this game has more functionality and is much more involved though, so expecting it to be a similar experience to KoA is unfair on my part.

Still, I plan on continuing to play DD, as I can definitely see the potential. It's just that I haven't hit that moment of epiphany yet; it hasn't clicked for me yet. Perhaps starting another RPG so soon after completing one was not the best course of action. That, plus I feel like KoA is a good 'My First WRPG'. It's simpler mechanics certainly lend credence to that.
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You should try Witcher 2 if you have a gaming pc
 
I definitely plan on continuing to play. I'm only a couple of hours into it. I forgot to mention this, but I do love how things are really different at night time in DD. Really exciting having to use a lamp. Also, I like the pawn system, though I wish the game had co-op.

And yeah, DD's combat is miles better than what I played of Elder Scrolls.

Edit:
Zolo said:
You don't remember the Berserk cameo?

Berserk seems to be on the brains with all the recent topics on it. There is actual Guts and Griffith armor/weapon in the game though.
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Woah, that's awesome. I love Berserk. One of my favorite manga ever.
 
Baroquemantic said:
I definitely plan on continuing to play. I'm only a couple of hours into it. I forgot to mention this, but I do love how things are really different at night time in DD. Really exciting having to use a lamp. Also, I like the pawn system, though I wish the game had co-op.

And yeah, DD's combat is miles better than what I played of Elder Scrolls.

Edit:

Woah, that's awesome. I love Berserk. One of my favorite manga ever.
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The character creator also has a Guts premade, if I remember correctly.
 
I enjoyed Amalur a lot, but didn't quite manage to finish before migrating to current gen. If I ever set my PS3 back up, it's one that I definitely intend to finish (along with Dark Souls and Ni No Kuni).

However, in my opinion it's not in the same league as Dragon's Dogma. The combat in DD is so much more fun and varied, there's a ton more depth and it's way more challenging too. DD has the best combat in any action RPG game/series, alongside the Souls games.
 
Baroquemantic said:
I definitely plan on continuing to play. I'm only a couple of hours into it. I forgot to mention this, but I do love how things are really different at night time in DD. Really exciting having to use a lamp. Also, I like the pawn system, though I wish the game had co-op.

And yeah, DD's combat is miles better than what I played of Elder Scrolls.

Edit:

Woah, that's awesome. I love Berserk. One of my favorite manga ever.
Click to expand...

Have you been experimenting with different vocations? You can change them at Gran Soren. There are 9 in total, and they all play fairly differently.
 
I said a similar thing and another user jumped on me. The combat is excellent in Dragon's Dogma except for tanky characters or the plain fighter vocation.

The funnest vocations in the game:

Strider
Archer
Magick archer

Have your pawn start out as a mage and then move them up to sorcerer. Give them the best wind attack so they cast tornadoes.
 
Exact opposite for me. I gave up on KoA after about 10 hours (and I only stuck with it for that long because a friend recommended it and I wanted to give it a fair chance) but got completely hooked on DD. I really enjoyed just running around finding huge monsters to climb and kill. I also liked that I could change classes during the game, added a lot of variety.
 
I liked both Dragon's Dogma and Kingdoms of Amalur (the second mostly for its combat and the fact that it was one of my first western ARPGs). Their takes on combat diverge quite a bit, and not only that, but DD's is much more developed.

I played KoA after DD, though.
 
Creaking said:
Have you been experimenting with different vocations? You can change them at Gran Soren. There are 9 in total, and they all play fairly differently.
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Not yet, but I plan on doing so eventually. I'm not big on mage classes in games, so that's out of the equation.

MormaPope said:
I said a similar thing and another user jumped on me. The combat is excellent in Dragon's Dogma except for tanky characters or the plain fighter vocation.

The funnest vocations in the game:

Strider
Archer
Magick archer

Have your pawn start out as a mage and then move them up to sorcerer. Give them the best wind attack so they cast tornadoes.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the tip.

----

I do remember seeing a GIF of a player jumping on and fighting a Griffin, which I thought was awesome. Can that (mounting enemies) be done with any vocation?
 
I've played both of these games! I really enjoyed both!

Ironically, both games suffer from the exact same problem - the first 10 hours is absolutely wonderful, and everything after that is completely trivial due to very, very poor enemy difficulty balancing. I am pretty sure I played both on the highest difficulty and it made no difference.

If I had to choose one, I would choose Dogma though. The classes in Dogma are absolutely a delight. I suggest staying away from Magick Archer or Mystic Knight. I remember they took a very specific set of stats and playstyle to work, and both had gimmicks that essentially made most fights very easy to cheese.
 
I couldn't get into KoA combat, shit had no impact or umph. After playing Dragons' Dogma every single last RPG needs to step their shit up with BB/DS being the exception.

Dragon Age:Inquisition would have been so much better if it's combat system was as good as DD.
KoA might have been fun if it had DD's combat system.
 
Baroquemantic said:
I do remember seeing a GIF of a player jumping on and fighting a Griffin, which I thought was awesome. Can that (mounting enemies) be done with any vocation?
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Yes, but the Strider vocation is the most efficient at it. I believe R2/RT is the button for grabbing, which can be used to hoist objects, downed monsters (if you hold the grab button here, you can pin a monster's arms for one of your pawns to strike it), and even people into your arms. If the monster is sufficiently big enough you'll climb on them instead, but you lose stamina as you're clinging on.

Baroquemantic said:
I'm not big on mage classes in games, so that's out of the equation.
Click to expand...

All right. You may want to give it a shot anyway, 'cause Dragon's Dogma is one of the few games to do mage classes in a satisfying manner. Everything you cast feels powerful, and has both auto targeting aim and free aim. There are charging times for spells, during which you aren't very mobile. However, that's just a buildup to an extremely satisfying payoff. Arch-mages take both of these elements to the next level. Powerful spells take a long time to cast, but they're absolutely insane once you do.

The classes that aren't straight mage are great too though. Mystic Knight and Magick Archer are really cool, and combine the physicality of the swords and daggers classes with some really creative magical attacks.
 
What's with all the KoA combat hate? I thought it was pretty damn fun pulling off those unnecessarily over-the-top combos. I wouldn't say it's as deep as a character action game ala Devil May Cry, but it still made the combat a blast to play.
 
KoA felt like auto-play stuff, Dragon's Dogma is the real deal "you have to input moves". Maybe thats the core of the problem? DD is coming from DMC dna, KoA from click-click-click MMO whackery.
 
What class are you playing in DD? Strider (and then Assassin) is extremely fun to the point I thought every other class was hot garbage; also, it is somewhat analogous to the type of combat Amalur has.

I too enjoyed Amalur quite a bit in spite of its shortcomings and the combat was a major component of that. I remember using chakrams quite a bit and it being pretty great.
 
I tried playing ragons Dogma, but the pawns incessant waffling turned me off it. I just couldn't put up listening to their shite constantly
 
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