Dragon's Dogma 2 - Dark Arisen Expansion Details

[00:00] [music]

[00:06] What's going on everybody? Mortem here.

[00:08] This time bringing you a video about

[00:10] Dragons Dogma 2, which got some exciting

[00:13] news over the past couple of weeks,

[00:14] which is primarily that it is getting a

[00:16] big Dark Arisen expansion this October.

[00:19] However, that raised a few interesting

[00:21] questions, I think for me personally and

[00:24] a lot of other people as well who were

[00:26] disappointed with the base game of

[00:28] Dragons Dogma 2. And to that end, to

[00:31] provide a little bit of context here, I

[00:33] reviewed Dragons Dogma 2 when it

[00:35] released. And I ultimately gave it a buy

[00:37] on sale as there were a few things in

[00:40] there that I just didn't really enjoy.

[00:42] it kind of dropped off a cliff once you

[00:43] got to the desert part of the game,

[00:45] reducing the number of active skills you

[00:47] have and a few other things that were

[00:49] just overall kind of a nuisance that

[00:52] brought down the experience and honestly

[00:54] made it feel a little more like a

[00:55] remaster of the original than a proper

[00:57] sequel. And while I have honestly

[00:59] detailed that in a lot of different

[01:01] videos, it just so happens that

[01:03] relatively recently we got this

[01:05] announcement of this expansion and the

[01:07] Dark Risen expansion for the original

[01:09] game did a lot towards making that game

[01:11] what people know it for today, myself

[01:13] included. I played it long after that

[01:15] expansion had been added. And so it only

[01:17] seems fair then that I inevitably cover

[01:20] this DLC and talk about what it does for

[01:22] the game. As to be honest with you, the

[01:24] mood around it is overall pretty

[01:26] positive. And given how much I had high

[01:29] hopes for Dragons Dogma 2, I sincerely

[01:31] hope that this big expansion DLC winds

[01:34] up breathing that same life into the

[01:37] sequel here, even if it doesn't seem

[01:38] like it is going to address some of the

[01:40] stuff around the story as I mentioned.

[01:42] However, simply too early to say there

[01:44] for sure. But to that end, I want to

[01:46] talk a little bit about the update

[01:48] they've already put out as of June 9th,

[01:49] the upcoming update on August, and then

[01:51] what the expansion itself should be

[01:53] adding in October on October 9th in

[01:55] particular, I think. But do bear in mind

[01:58] this is not new information. I'm a

[02:00] little bit behind the ball on this one.

[02:01] I knew I wanted to cover it, but I had a

[02:03] lot of pressing stuff going on the past

[02:04] couple of weeks. But the interesting

[02:06] thing about life is that you can in fact

[02:07] just do things. So, here we are. Now,

[02:10] while the expansion is pretty exciting

[02:12] news, there's actually a couple changes

[02:13] coming in the August update in

[02:15] particular that are of note to me that

[02:17] I'm very much looking forward to.

[02:19] However, as I mentioned, the June 9th

[02:21] patch already added a few things, like

[02:23] for instance, expanded some of your

[02:25] options for fast travel, adding new port

[02:27] crystals, adjusting the price of ferry

[02:29] crystals, making changes to ox carts,

[02:32] and overall uh in theory at least,

[02:34] making fast travel a more, let's say,

[02:37] convenient experience. On top of that,

[02:39] they also introduced and adjusted the

[02:42] balance on a few different items. in

[02:44] particular. Looks like they increased

[02:45] the stats you could get on items that

[02:47] would drop from dungeons. And they also

[02:49] added a new specialization for your

[02:52] pawn, the guardian specialization, which

[02:54] will do things like fend off raids that

[02:56] could happen on ox carts, as well as

[02:58] just dispatching smaller enemies that

[03:00] would attack camp or reducing the health

[03:02] of larger enemies. Overall, some good

[03:05] changes in there. They also made changes

[03:07] to some UI stuff and also fixed some

[03:10] bugs and things as well. And actually,

[03:12] to be honest with you, most of this

[03:13] patch was bug fixes, which I thought was

[03:15] interesting. And then, of course,

[03:16] there's the upcoming August update. This

[03:18] one is not out yet, but we do have an

[03:20] idea of some of the things that is going

[03:21] to adjust. Namely, most excitingly for

[03:24] me actually, it's going to bump up the

[03:26] active skills back to six, allowing you

[03:29] to simply do more and have more

[03:31] abilities and things on offer, which

[03:33] should go a long way for just doing more

[03:36] in combat and giving you more options

[03:38] overall in and of itself. Now, if that

[03:40] wasn't enough, it also looks like

[03:41] they'll be adjusting the dragon's

[03:43] plague, the illness that could befall

[03:46] your pawns in particular. They mentioned

[03:49] that they're going to be adding

[03:50] treatment options seemingly to allow you

[03:52] to get rid of it more easily, but they

[03:54] were also vague on some of the other

[03:55] changes that are apparently coming to

[03:57] this, like they've mentioned some things

[03:58] about making it benefit you in some way.

[04:01] And then they should be adjusting the

[04:03] save system as well to allow you to save

[04:06] more freely, it would seem. But again,

[04:08] details on the specifics of all that

[04:10] don't seem to be forthcoming at the

[04:12] moment outside of those generalities.

[04:14] Presumably, that one will also come with

[04:16] some bug fixes, which all combined with

[04:19] the update since launch as well should

[04:21] hopefully solve some of the performance

[04:23] problems people reported with this game

[04:25] as well. But obviously, we will see how

[04:27] that actually winds up panning out. Then

[04:29] there is the upcoming expansion itself,

[04:32] Dark Arisen. So, this is going to do a

[04:34] few things that they have detailed. In

[04:36] particular, it's going to add some stuff

[04:37] to character creation, which I thought

[04:39] was interesting, mostly because

[04:40] character creation for this game was

[04:42] already very robust. But on top of that,

[04:44] they're adding 12 new dungeons to the

[04:46] base game, the area that is already

[04:48] available. So, there will be even new

[04:50] things to explore there. But the main

[04:52] bit of content is going to be the new

[04:54] area to the north, Noran, I believe it's

[04:56] called. And it looks like this will

[04:58] function not entirely uh dissimilarly I

[05:01] should say from the Dark Risen expansion

[05:04] from one or Bitter Black Isle where

[05:06] we're going to be trying to get to the

[05:07] bottom of a mystery surrounding the

[05:09] fallen dragon there. And along the way

[05:11] we'll be picking up relics that can then

[05:13] be appraised and provide a certain

[05:15] amount of gear progression through that

[05:17] system as you move through the DLC

[05:19] itself. They also detail that there is a

[05:22] character that you'll be uh presumably

[05:23] teaming up with in some fashion who is

[05:25] after whatever is going on with this

[05:27] fallen dragon, but it would hardly be a

[05:29] dragon's dogma title if the answers were

[05:32] forthcoming. But that is a rough

[05:34] approximation of what is going on in

[05:36] this game at the moment. And from there,

[05:39] I just kind of wanted to take a minute

[05:40] to talk about a couple of other things.

[05:41] And I will say that while all of this

[05:43] certainly does sound good and I'm

[05:44] excited to check it out, it doesn't

[05:46] appear to me at least that they are

[05:48] going to be doing anything about the

[05:50] lackluster second area, the sort of

[05:52] desert area, which could honestly stand

[05:54] to be reworked in my opinion. That place

[05:56] was a real letdown compared to the

[05:59] opening half of the game, which is

[06:00] actually pretty good. As for the rest of

[06:02] it, I have high hopes. It is being

[06:04] directed by the same person who directed

[06:06] the original one for the original game

[06:08] as well. And a lot of people really

[06:10] loved Bitter Black Isle in the original

[06:12] game. So hopefully they managed to

[06:14] recapture some of that here. But beyond

[06:16] that, I really just wanted to say that

[06:18] I'm glad they didn't abandon it all

[06:20] together. It originally released back in

[06:22] early 2024. And so while it took 2 and

[06:25] 1/2 years, they did seemingly put a lot

[06:27] of work into this expansion and trying

[06:30] to take in feedback as they did that,

[06:32] addressing things like stuff with the

[06:34] weapon skill even outside of the

[06:36] expansion. And so I guess overall I'm

[06:38] just hopeful that this will be a better

[06:40] experience overall for the title, even

[06:43] if it doesn't exactly fix the launch day

[06:45] wos like the performance and the things

[06:47] I've already mentioned. And so while it

[06:49] certainly is a case of reinforcing the

[06:51] idea that the best bet for people is

[06:53] usually to wait for the better version

[06:55] of the game to finally come out, I will

[06:57] also say that I had pretty much written

[06:59] this off. I just kind of assumed after

[07:01] all this time they were just going to

[07:02] let it lie and be what it was. And I'm

[07:04] happy again to see that was not the

[07:06] case. And as I mentioned, it feels only

[07:08] fair that after I was uh less than

[07:11] thrilled with the base game that I take

[07:12] a look at this expansion when it drops

[07:14] and see if it makes the game better in

[07:17] the ways that were important to me.

[07:18] Anyway, but with that said, I would love

[07:20] to know what you think about this stuff

[07:22] down in the comments section below if

[07:24] you're planning on checking this out for

[07:25] yourself or anything else you want to

[07:26] add, I suppose, which naturally means to

[07:28] like, comment, subscribe, all that

[07:30] YouTube jazz. But regardless of any of

[07:32] that, truly just thank you so much for

[07:34] watching. I really do appreciate it. May

[07:36] you wander in wisdom and have an amazing

[07:39] day.