[0:00] [music]
[0:06] What's going on everybody? Mortem here.
[0:08] This time bringing you a video about
[0:10] Dragons Dogma 2, which got some exciting
[0:13] news over the past couple of weeks,
[0:14] which is primarily that it is getting a
[0:16] big Dark Arisen expansion this October.
[0:19] However, that raised a few interesting
[0:21] questions, I think for me personally and
[0:24] a lot of other people as well who were
[0:26] disappointed with the base game of
[0:28] Dragons Dogma 2. And to that end, to
[0:31] provide a little bit of context here, I
[0:33] reviewed Dragons Dogma 2 when it
[0:35] released. And I ultimately gave it a buy
[0:37] on sale as there were a few things in
[0:40] there that I just didn't really enjoy.
[0:42] it kind of dropped off a cliff once you
[0:43] got to the desert part of the game,
[0:45] reducing the number of active skills you
[0:47] have and a few other things that were
[0:49] just overall kind of a nuisance that
[0:52] brought down the experience and honestly
[0:54] made it feel a little more like a
[0:55] remaster of the original than a proper
[0:57] sequel. And while I have honestly
[0:59] detailed that in a lot of different
[1:01] videos, it just so happens that
[1:03] relatively recently we got this
[1:05] announcement of this expansion and the
[1:07] Dark Risen expansion for the original
[1:09] game did a lot towards making that game
[1:11] what people know it for today, myself
[1:13] included. I played it long after that
[1:15] expansion had been added. And so it only
[1:17] seems fair then that I inevitably cover
[1:20] this DLC and talk about what it does for
[1:22] the game. As to be honest with you, the
[1:24] mood around it is overall pretty
[1:26] positive. And given how much I had high
[1:29] hopes for Dragons Dogma 2, I sincerely
[1:31] hope that this big expansion DLC winds
[1:34] up breathing that same life into the
[1:37] sequel here, even if it doesn't seem
[1:38] like it is going to address some of the
[1:40] stuff around the story as I mentioned.
[1:42] However, simply too early to say there
[1:44] for sure. But to that end, I want to
[1:46] talk a little bit about the update
[1:48] they've already put out as of June 9th,
[1:49] the upcoming update on August, and then
[1:51] what the expansion itself should be
[1:53] adding in October on October 9th in
[1:55] particular, I think. But do bear in mind
[1:58] this is not new information. I'm a
[2:00] little bit behind the ball on this one.
[2:01] I knew I wanted to cover it, but I had a
[2:03] lot of pressing stuff going on the past
[2:04] couple of weeks. But the interesting
[2:06] thing about life is that you can in fact
[2:07] just do things. So, here we are. Now,
[2:10] while the expansion is pretty exciting
[2:12] news, there's actually a couple changes
[2:13] coming in the August update in
[2:15] particular that are of note to me that
[2:17] I'm very much looking forward to.
[2:19] However, as I mentioned, the June 9th
[2:21] patch already added a few things, like
[2:23] for instance, expanded some of your
[2:25] options for fast travel, adding new port
[2:27] crystals, adjusting the price of ferry
[2:29] crystals, making changes to ox carts,
[2:32] and overall uh in theory at least,
[2:34] making fast travel a more, let's say,
[2:37] convenient experience. On top of that,
[2:39] they also introduced and adjusted the
[2:42] balance on a few different items. in
[2:44] particular. Looks like they increased
[2:45] the stats you could get on items that
[2:47] would drop from dungeons. And they also
[2:49] added a new specialization for your
[2:52] pawn, the guardian specialization, which
[2:54] will do things like fend off raids that
[2:56] could happen on ox carts, as well as
[2:58] just dispatching smaller enemies that
[3:00] would attack camp or reducing the health
[3:02] of larger enemies. Overall, some good
[3:05] changes in there. They also made changes
[3:07] to some UI stuff and also fixed some
[3:10] bugs and things as well. And actually,
[3:12] to be honest with you, most of this
[3:13] patch was bug fixes, which I thought was
[3:15] interesting. And then, of course,
[3:16] there's the upcoming August update. This
[3:18] one is not out yet, but we do have an
[3:20] idea of some of the things that is going
[3:21] to adjust. Namely, most excitingly for
[3:24] me actually, it's going to bump up the
[3:26] active skills back to six, allowing you
[3:29] to simply do more and have more
[3:31] abilities and things on offer, which
[3:33] should go a long way for just doing more
[3:36] in combat and giving you more options
[3:38] overall in and of itself. Now, if that
[3:40] wasn't enough, it also looks like
[3:41] they'll be adjusting the dragon's
[3:43] plague, the illness that could befall
[3:46] your pawns in particular. They mentioned
[3:49] that they're going to be adding
[3:50] treatment options seemingly to allow you
[3:52] to get rid of it more easily, but they
[3:54] were also vague on some of the other
[3:55] changes that are apparently coming to
[3:57] this, like they've mentioned some things
[3:58] about making it benefit you in some way.
[4:01] And then they should be adjusting the
[4:03] save system as well to allow you to save
[4:06] more freely, it would seem. But again,
[4:08] details on the specifics of all that
[4:10] don't seem to be forthcoming at the
[4:12] moment outside of those generalities.
[4:14] Presumably, that one will also come with
[4:16] some bug fixes, which all combined with
[4:19] the update since launch as well should
[4:21] hopefully solve some of the performance
[4:23] problems people reported with this game
[4:25] as well. But obviously, we will see how
[4:27] that actually winds up panning out. Then
[4:29] there is the upcoming expansion itself,
[4:32] Dark Arisen. So, this is going to do a
[4:34] few things that they have detailed. In
[4:36] particular, it's going to add some stuff
[4:37] to character creation, which I thought
[4:39] was interesting, mostly because
[4:40] character creation for this game was
[4:42] already very robust. But on top of that,
[4:44] they're adding 12 new dungeons to the
[4:46] base game, the area that is already
[4:48] available. So, there will be even new
[4:50] things to explore there. But the main
[4:52] bit of content is going to be the new
[4:54] area to the north, Noran, I believe it's
[4:56] called. And it looks like this will
[4:58] function not entirely uh dissimilarly I
[5:01] should say from the Dark Risen expansion
[5:04] from one or Bitter Black Isle where
[5:06] we're going to be trying to get to the
[5:07] bottom of a mystery surrounding the
[5:09] fallen dragon there. And along the way
[5:11] we'll be picking up relics that can then
[5:13] be appraised and provide a certain
[5:15] amount of gear progression through that
[5:17] system as you move through the DLC
[5:19] itself. They also detail that there is a
[5:22] character that you'll be uh presumably
[5:23] teaming up with in some fashion who is
[5:25] after whatever is going on with this
[5:27] fallen dragon, but it would hardly be a
[5:29] dragon's dogma title if the answers were
[5:32] forthcoming. But that is a rough
[5:34] approximation of what is going on in
[5:36] this game at the moment. And from there,
[5:39] I just kind of wanted to take a minute
[5:40] to talk about a couple of other things.
[5:41] And I will say that while all of this
[5:43] certainly does sound good and I'm
[5:44] excited to check it out, it doesn't
[5:46] appear to me at least that they are
[5:48] going to be doing anything about the
[5:50] lackluster second area, the sort of
[5:52] desert area, which could honestly stand
[5:54] to be reworked in my opinion. That place
[5:56] was a real letdown compared to the
[5:59] opening half of the game, which is
[6:00] actually pretty good. As for the rest of
[6:02] it, I have high hopes. It is being
[6:04] directed by the same person who directed
[6:06] the original one for the original game
[6:08] as well. And a lot of people really
[6:10] loved Bitter Black Isle in the original
[6:12] game. So hopefully they managed to
[6:14] recapture some of that here. But beyond
[6:16] that, I really just wanted to say that
[6:18] I'm glad they didn't abandon it all
[6:20] together. It originally released back in
[6:22] early 2024. And so while it took 2 and
[6:25] 1/2 years, they did seemingly put a lot
[6:27] of work into this expansion and trying
[6:30] to take in feedback as they did that,
[6:32] addressing things like stuff with the
[6:34] weapon skill even outside of the
[6:36] expansion. And so I guess overall I'm
[6:38] just hopeful that this will be a better
[6:40] experience overall for the title, even
[6:43] if it doesn't exactly fix the launch day
[6:45] wos like the performance and the things
[6:47] I've already mentioned. And so while it
[6:49] certainly is a case of reinforcing the
[6:51] idea that the best bet for people is
[6:53] usually to wait for the better version
[6:55] of the game to finally come out, I will
[6:57] also say that I had pretty much written
[6:59] this off. I just kind of assumed after
[7:01] all this time they were just going to
[7:02] let it lie and be what it was. And I'm
[7:04] happy again to see that was not the
[7:06] case. And as I mentioned, it feels only
[7:08] fair that after I was uh less than
[7:11] thrilled with the base game that I take
[7:12] a look at this expansion when it drops
[7:14] and see if it makes the game better in
[7:17] the ways that were important to me.
[7:18] Anyway, but with that said, I would love
[7:20] to know what you think about this stuff
[7:22] down in the comments section below if
[7:24] you're planning on checking this out for
[7:25] yourself or anything else you want to
[7:26] add, I suppose, which naturally means to
[7:28] like, comment, subscribe, all that
[7:30] YouTube jazz. But regardless of any of
[7:32] that, truly just thank you so much for
[7:34] watching. I really do appreciate it. May
[7:36] you wander in wisdom and have an amazing
[7:39] day.