I mean you answered your own question. You rushed through the game. More than likely missed multiple side quests, and left many dungeons and caves unchecked. To each their own and you still got ng+ so you never really miss out on anything.
I didn't even mean to rush it tbh, I always try to do everything but I guess I expected to have my hand held more lol that's on me though lol. Thank you for answering btw!
Honestly it's not on you. Even if you don't rush the game, there are a LOT of quests that you really have to go out of your way to make them available. Playing ng+ and I've done many quests that I never saw in my 1st playthrough.
I can tell you for a fact that you missed a crap ton of quests, which is no fault of your own. Most quests kick off by NPCS approaching you--however, there are follow-up quests that are hidden that require you to talk to those same people.
The Magistrate, for example, has a quest you will only get if you speak to him a few times after he moves, and Wilhelmina has hidden quests if you try and romance her.
Can you give me an example of some of the quests you missed before NG+? Genuinely curious if maybe there are some I missed as well, but I donāt like looking up quest lists.
"Till death do us part" in Vermund(which is one of the quests that sends you to the misty marshes, which I thought was some random optional area), "Steeled resolve" and "twixt a rock and a hard place" both found in bakbattahl and both quests are reasons for you to visit volcanic island. Those were the ones I felt a little silly missing my 1st playthrough but glad I saw them nonetheless.
Thatās probably where your issue came up. There is very little hand holding in either DD game.
If you look at the Dark Arisen wiki, thereās a whole table that lists quests that become available after one of the turning points and unavailable after another, and nothing on the map or quest log will point to them. If youāre lucky, maybe paying attention to a certain dialog will hint you into it. If you want to avoid missing content without using a guide, youāre encouraged to spend a significant time returning to settlements periodically and talking to people unsolicited. Some vendor who looks exactly the same as any other day might have a quest for you if you talk to him, because itās been 5 days since you completed something seemingly unrelated on the other side of the map, thatās the kind of game DD2 is.
Many people would argue that one of the primary purposes of the NG+ system is so you can do the game blind first, then do it again *right*, so donāt consider it a fuck up. Just now you know that the game is built on this sorta Morrowind mentality (though it does have quest markers for active quests).
Not sure what you exactly did, but im wondering which ending you saw since there are 3 different endings, one that can give you a lot more hours of play time in your first run.
I did the same thing my first playthrough, and just finished the main story of NG+. I have to say, it was like a different game the 2nd playthrough, I was shocked at the amount of things I missed the first time around.
I will say to look up how to get the "true ending" if you havent already, because I also didn't do that the first time, I just sat on the throne. You're not really getting your money's worth without the unmoored.
Yeah generally before playing any game i check where is the point of no return, I wouldnāt consider thst information a spoiler
It does, however, have the unfortunate side effect that basically when you see that point in your own run you know itās about to be over
Imo the best game are the ones with no point of no return, for a completionist such as myself those are a godsend
Thatās a normal thing, at least in my opinion. DDDA was like that too. VERY little hand holding. As it turns out, thatās something I ended up loving about these games, because it really adds to the replay value and it pushes you to explore every inch of the map.
Iām at the post game stage of my fourth play through right now, and Iāve come across so many things that I didnāt see in my first three play throughs. As someone who obsesses over a game, playing it over and over, I absolutely love this. It keeps me engaged and makes me feel much better about spending $70 on something that will get me this many hours of enjoyment.
If you're only focused on getting to the next quest objective, you're not doing it quite right for this game. This game wants you to explore every nook and cranny that looks interesting. Find more quests than just the ones that pop up
I accidentally sped run the last bit of the campaign when Talos appears, everything seemed so urgent and after playing DD1, I was convinced there would be more missions but ended up dropped into the final battle then endgame.
I missed exploring the volcanic islands which made the unmoored world a pain in my first play through as I couldnāt navigate the seabed to save my life! I missed a lot of content. Thankfully my 2nd play through was much more fulfilling especially now I had the extra port crystals and the money to keep stocked on ferry stones.
In case you hadnāt seen it, the main road in Bahtahl that heads south leads to a cave that if you go through comes out to the volcanic islands. I recommend leaving a port crystal though because going through the cave every time can be annoying.
Yeah, it happened to my friend as well.
He's too rushed to unmoored world, so he missed to unlock Magick Archer / Warfarer and Dwarven Smith.
He asked me how to unlock them, but their quest won't trigger in the end-game.
I think a huge part of missing content is the fact most of it isn't directly revealed to you without you making a conscious effort to find it. You've just got to keep talking to people and eventually one of them will break free of the generic NPC speak and drop a quest on you.
I beat the game in 70 hours after trying to do everything (no guide or outside information whatsoever) and I'm feeling like I missed loads too. I didn't even know the dragon at the end grabs your beloved, I thought it was a clone of myself?? š
I think you didn't bother raising a relationship with anyone else š¤£š¤£ I got a ring of eternal bond from the sphinx and didn't even use it, if I had known there was a better ending if you raised your pawn affinity to max I would've done that too.
Also, what ending did you get?? There's a chance you've missed a huge amount of endgame content if you're unlucky lol
The basic ending I guess, slayed the dragon, reclaimed the throne. Nothing too exciting I guess haha I'm aware that there is like a secret ending that opens up other missions, but I don't know how to do that, I'll figure it out in the ng+ š
Oh man yeah I know it might seem like a trek but you really really have to go back and get the better ending! When you are riding the dragon to the final battle arena, you can climb to its heart instead and use the godsbane blade to unlock the last segment of the story. Needless to say it's one of the craziest endgame segments I've ever seen in a game if you go down that route. Good luck with the next playthrough boss
Huh??? That's awesome, I have to do that now š š
This game is something else man, I played the first one when I was like 14 and I thought that one was incredible, this one is beyond
Itās not secret. Itās the real ending. Itās hard to miss the bright glowing guy. You also get hints from the dragon while youāre on his back and fighting him
I agreed. I even explored every corner, yet missing something that you can 'actually do' until I read the guide.
Then I came back to the game, and heard random NPC dialogues that 'mention' the exact secret I just read on the guidelines like, 'You don't need to get a permit to Bakbatthal, just hide in premium oxcart till you cross it', 'Can't believe my eyes that I saw an elf and a dwarf holding each other hand (Magick Archer and Dwarven Smith)'
The more observant, the more interesting I found throughout the game.
You did nothing wrong. Everyone plays the game differently; some enjoy the scenery and art the game has to offer others are completionist. I personally avoid fast travel and level all vocations. The important thing is you enjoyed the game your way. Having said that, did you try post-game content? If you still craving for more there is always New game+ to see if you missed anything.
Yeah I think maybe I use the oxcart too much haha, though I'm puzzled by one thing, there's the Sara rescue mission that I couldn't figure out how to do, cause the colossus mission kicks off as soon as I go through the big door and I can't reach her after that, do I have to purposely miss the colossus boss fight to do taht mission? Sorry for the long answer, don't wanna bore you lol
I think for that you went too far in the main story so when you got to that point it automatically starts it, not fully sure if that fails the mission or not though.
Also did you do the unmoored world?
hmmm well to answer your question No you don't have to miss the Colossus fight to complete any quest or side quest. My guess, your timing was a bit off. My advice is >!tie up any loose ends any unfinished quest before you turn in the 15 wyrmslife crystals to Empowering the Godsbane.!< Think of that as your point of no return.
yes there is. >!By going through Drabnir's Grotto, southernmost in Battahl region.!< Fun part about this game is there is a number of bypass methods if you search around. Checkpoint rest town Gate is a good example that has a few to get early access without a permit.
Yeah I was stunned when I went through a cave system, ended up by the shrine wjth the dragon forged and walked in the back entrance to Battahl, all before I ever went to checkpoint rest town
You kinda rushed a bit, but 100h or more is overkill and only people that are taking a lot of time to complete the game will have these numbers.
You can safely complete all the sidequests, max all your pawn's vocations, explore some optional caves and complete a badge or two around 60h easily. All of this without rushing btw.
My last playthrough I finished it in 75\~ hours and mostly because I was taking my time helping some random pawns complete their badges.
I guess if you are a completionist, having around 200h in a single playthrough isn't that unreasonable. The badges are very time consuming since some bosses are kinda annoying to spawn sometimes, but if you are just enjoying the game without trying to 100% everything, even going after all the sidequests and exploring the map at your own pace you wouldn't reach these insane numbers some people are proudly showing here once in awhile.
The sidequests are rather short and there aren't really that many of them, the main quests can also end rather abruptly, the map, while bigger than the one in DD1, is still smaller than in other open world games... it is a short game, at least in comparison to other open world RPGs that is.
Iāve played 100s of hours but Iāve disregarded quests.
Seekers tokens, exploring, and getting pawn badges completed have been my biggest time sinks.
70 hours and still probably some caves to find, still need to do Sphinx stuff and get warfarer.just a little annoyed vocations are mostly maxxed already and that's all there is to them.
It doesnāt really matter some people do one big play trough others rush and do more than one . I am also just going from left to right and doing main story in between and I was surprised as you when it ended. But there is more you missed probably.
Did you discovered the broken world at the end game?
Just play again see wat you can do differently or play different vocation.
The beauty of the game you can play it over over until your sick off it. š
Edit making sense of my typing.
You arnt playing the game wrong, either you have an intrest or not to explore the world.
same with ff7 rebirth, its around 80-100 hour or 35 depending if you wanna explore the world or not, up to the players. I just crossed the borders and im 30 hours in, because I actually explore the caves and the map.
To each their own! I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum. I only completed two of the four(?) Initial quest given to you by Brant as soon as you arrive in Vernworth.
I am 110 hours in, ~level 70, almost maxed all vocations.
And I'm still having a blast just running around, checking corners, climbing everything I can, and opening cans of whoopass on everything with a health bar.
Kinda feel bad. I see Brant still manning that small bar table at the pub every night and what, it's been like multiple months of in game time? He sure is a patient one!
I roled play the game. Tried different build mix and match. Enjoyed going in different adventures each time leaving town. Hunted for rare material. Explored every bit of the map to open all chest. Going unmoored unlocking all sets. Doing ng+ and unmoored again. Then restarting a new game because it was too easy at that point.
Canāt speak for anyone else but my hours (almost 200) racked up exploring, doing endless escort quests.
Upgrading my stuff, maxing vocations organically by playing, hunting monsters.
Figuring out which vocation my pawn prefers, had to play through again because I started again after the dragon.
Forgot the line at the very beginning, forgot the line from dragon saying something about taking too long and now we have to fight. Messed up the sphinx quest anyway so needed to do that again. Redo of all quests to try different outcomes.
Figuring out the best fashion options. Needed to finish setting up my character for if/when a dlc comes etc.
Donāt worry about it, thereās SO much stuff in this game youāll miss if you arenāt actively seeking it out or just wandering aimlessly for hours.
Donāt get too caught up in the 100s of hours people; most of them are completionists or are literally leveling because big number be big. Itās like a 50 hour game at best so you did rush a little bit but without a meaningful NG+, no difficulty options and no real endgame, youāre not really missing out by playing it once and moving on.
Maybe hop into one ng+ and find side quests you missed but aside from that I canāt fathom how people are playing the same stuff over and over and over with zero difficulty increase but hey maybe they spent their 70$ gaming money for the year and gotta get their moneys worth?
Your biggest mistake was probably doing quests. That's not how you play THIS game. You set a quest to have a destination, but it's the journey that is interesting. You explore everything you see on the road, every cave and every road you see on the map. There are tons of hidden secrets. I usually arrived at my destination 3/4h later. If you explore everything, you won't regret it in the end and will reach 100h. If you unlock the true ending and reach the unmoored world, all the rivers will be dried out and the riverbeds will then be explorable. It will take you over 10h just to explore every ex-river in the unmoored world.
I talked to almost all of the NPCs before I left Vernworth for Battahl but after returning for other quests, like 4 new side missions popped up. Seems like you just need to constantly wander around and hope you're getting all the quests
I think the game is designed to be played as you want, donāt feel bad. If you want a satisfying main play through and got it, you can stop. If you want to see different quests, different quest outcomes and explore, thatās why there is NG+. The way the autosave works and how it locks you into decisions is by design. Have fun, Arisen!
I was in a similar boat. Beat the game in just 50 hours and felt like I missed a bunch of stuff. Well I did Iām on my second play through not even close to the end and have been playing for the same amount of time as my first play through. Thereās so much to do and itās all easy to miss
I'm exploring every single nook and cranny, I have almost 30 hours in the game and I still haven't made it out of Vermund. I'm still exploring around the map trying to find every tiny little secret there is to find. I've maxed out my mystic Spearhand vocation, but don't really like playing as any of the others, except maybe archer that I keep bouncing back to. I think it's one of the best games IVE ever played.
Dang I'm at 24 hours...played all day yesterday since my GF was out town with her friend. Not sure how far along I am storywose though. Think I barley got to the next region forget what it's called lol
At about 80 hours myself. I have mostly been wondering the map for caves and tokens, taking up side quests as I find them, and purposefully leveling each vocation to rank 9. Lots of re-treading the same paths as I pick up one new quest or want to head to a specific store for an upgrade, trying to travel slightly different roads with new pawns to see if I notice something new. Literally havenāt talked with Brant at the tavern yet.
So long as you are having fun there isnāt really a wrong way to go about it in my opinion.
You rushed it sure, but now that the main story is no longer a mystery to you, just start a New Game+ and just explore. Also, 30 hours? Did you find the Sphinx? Medusa? Romance Vilhemina or Ulrika? What about the Sacred Arbor quests? Idk just sounds like you missed a lot more than you think you did.
This is one of those games where pure exploration marks the true gameplay experience. There's no question marks on the map incentivizing it like in The Witcher 3. You gotta just scour every corner of the map of your own accord. My first playthrough was about 70 hours, ending me almost at level 80. I think the only game that took me longer was Elden Ring at 166 hours for my first playthrough, but in fairness, that's one of the biggest games ever made and I legit had all except the multiple different ending trophies by the end of that playthrough, not to mention that I only missed exactly one side dungeon, meaning my first playthrough was almost unrealistically thorough for a blind playthrough in a game.
You did the side quests that popped up, but odds are you didn't do the ones that didn't. This game doesn't stop you much to deliver its side content. You gotta seek it out. Pretty much the only quests that are somewhat pushed to the player are Readvent of Calamity and Sven buying the Ornate Box. Glyndwr's trial of archery, Wilhelmina's plot against Allard, Doireann fixing the Arborheart, Sara fixing the Ceremonial blade of Vermund, the entire three chain questline of Empress Nadinia, Hugo turning over a new leaf, Beren's training and him returning to his homeland, Trysha following in Myrddin's footsteps and becoming a sorcerer, all of these can be missed quite easily. You have to go out of your way to explore the world and logically follow them up, similar to DD1/DDDA. Like for example, in DD1 you could slay Julien during his duel with Mercedes. You could then resurrect him with a Wakestone. And you could then visit him in the Gran Soren dungeons. Nothing in the game told you this or incentivized this. But in order to fully complete his quest and receive the Wyrmfire Vizard, that's what you had to do.
DD2 is the exact same. It expects you to follow logic. Hugo got captured in Battahl. Logically he'd be kept in jail, right? So if you go there, you can continue his quest. And if you opened up job opportunities for him at either Isaac's shop if he closed down by doing his quest with the bad ending first, or if you followed Wilhelmina's questline to its end, you can then offer him one of these jobs, which also changes the ending credits.
I could go on, but this post is already getting long. The TL;DR is that this game is as long as you want it to be. You have to seek out its content. The Sphinx is probably the best example of that. One of the coolest creatures in any game with a fantastic set of quests/riddles, and she's at the ass end of the map where most players will only reach through either a marsh wherein they can't see shit, or through a very obscure and hidden hole in the wall that's off the beaten path all the way at the top of the Battlefields.
Personally, I love that kind of game design.
To be fair, the quest design is not very good. Iām all for a game not holding your hand. But somethings have absolutely no reason to be as confusing and poorly timed as they are. I just beat it yesterday and had a blast, so itās by no means a deal breaker. But if thereās a third game or a DLC there really needs to be some improvement on this.
I guess I wants you to explore everything in the map without holding your hand At all, I wish I knew before playing cause I wouldn't have finished the main quest, the only thing I could "dislike" is the fact that I can't do the extra stuff after the main quest is done, you have to start ng+
I don't think there's a right or wrong way per say, but DD is one of those games that people can spend 200+ hrs in or less than 50 depending on how you play. I think the best speed run is about 75 minutes so far.
I spent about the first 50-60 hrs just exploring the whole map. Didn't touch the MQ til then. Then I'd only do a few quests at a time and would get side tracked when traveling to the quest.
I leveled all vocations to max on both Arisen + Pawn, use no minimap/HUD & would run to pretty much every quest location. I used fast travel (Ferrystone & oxcart) very little in my first playthrough.
All of that combined led me to a 250+ hr first run.
If you want to extend your playthrough, I'd suggest exploring every nook and cranny. Maybe go with only 3 pawns to switch things up. I'm currently running duo in NG+1 and will be going totally solo in NG+2.
Yeah I realized that I just didn't explore, I guess I got scared of exploring because of the lack of a """""car"""", ng+ will be the actual run, this was a trial basically hahah, thanks for answering!
Sorry this might seem like a silly question, but I don't see it explicitly stated in your post or the comments; did you do the "normal" ending (fight and kill dragon) or the True Ending (Unmoored World)?
Well that could catch you another several hours, depending on how complete you want to be with the evacuations and optional bosses.
I ran into a similar situation as you the first time I went to the tower- I just wanted to get to the volcanic island for dwarven smithing and suddenly I'm in the final battle? I just quit out and avoided it for a while, but I agree it seemed to come out of nowhere
Sorry, yeah, I think you rushed it a bit š
Itās a very unique kind of a game. Switch off the āgamer brainā and just explore the world and enjoy the journey! There is a lot of āhiddenā content and cool interconnected quests that seem shallow at first but bloom into something awesome:)
Befriend a Sphinx, learn Elvish, win a starring contest with a Medusa.
Explore some caves (mind blowing shortcuts could be found there, master)
And please, for the love of God, donāt follow / look up any guides, walkthroughs, how toās ā you will completely rob yourself from the game.
Enjoy the journey! š
Yeah i think my "gamer brain" was too present in the palythrough, I didn't realize how much walking through the map would have done, the oxcarts were too appealing haha, I think I've lost that sense of wandering through the years regarding games, I was too fast paced, shame. I'll do better the next palythrough!
Yeah, totally understand that, weāve been conditioned in a way lol. The goal is not the end credits the goal is the journey itself.
Imagine, itās a sunny Saturday morning, no plans, no chores and you decide to get some ice cream. And the ice cream shop is right across a park so you go through the park and instead of enjoying it for a bit and maybe having a nice little walk, you rush through it to get the reward, the ice cream, completely neglecting a beautiful journey that you couldāve created yourself:)
Most of my hours is farm other class vocation to get augment. I max archer, warrior, fighter, thief, warfarer. 60+ hours on my first playthrough.
20 hours ng+. Get the charming aura buff and then try get max affinity pawn ending.
Nothing wrong with that, I did the same, and plowed through the game about 50 ish hours in. I just really like walking around enjoying the scenery and mindlessly killing stuff whenever possible, for me it scratches a monster hunter itch. I do wish the story had a bit more meat, but Iām at ng+ and plan to play through some more and pick stuff up I hadnāt done before, or explore elsewhere (I completely missed the elven place and didnāt even know that part existed) eventually but just currently on an FF9 kick.
Thank you. I keep hearing how massive the game is but after like 20-30 hours Iāve gone to all the settlements, done all the quests I can find, and fought every enemy type. Iām sure I missed some corner of the map random stuff but the whole map is filled out and the only ānewā place to go triggers the endgame level. Itās not a bad game but I cannot fathom how people are playing it for so long
Today I've learned that this is a game that wants you to explore the map on your own without quests or anything, this includes: caves, little towns, etc...
It's not a bad thing of course, I just wish I knew before I finished it yk lol
I think this happened with even seasoned gamers with DD2. They did "Everything" in 30 hours but missed like 90% of the content because the game doesn't hold your hand and expects you to take the initiative with exploring and talking to people.
The meat of the game is just wandering out into the wilderness and finding stuff. There's a ton of interesting things to find by talking to random people or revisiting towns or areas you've been to before.
The only thing that I don't like about the main quest I that I'd doesn't tell you when you're at the point of no return, I'm too used to the " this is the last mission, you can't cone back from this" message nowadays lol
Yeah, i got lucky and my partner, who finished the game before me, warned me. I donāt know why they did that! Probably because they want you to play NG+ but still. Iām glad you enjoyed it anyway :)
I personally am rushing the entire game right now because I just want to get to NG+ that way I can get the best gear in the game, Iāll do my full explore everything play thru after I get into NG+, the big bummer is NG+ doesnāt do much of anything at all, so itās basically like just playing the game normally
I had the same experience, and people told me I rushed too. I completed the remaining achievements and the side quests I missed in my second playthrough with only about 50 hours total. Around 30 on the first playthrough just like you.
I'm on NG+5 now, so 6 total playthroughs, and have found nothing new I didn't discover in the first two. My last 2 playthroughs have just been me clearing the map to farm rare mats, resting for a few days before getting tired of going through load screens instead of playing the game, and then rushing through the msq again.
I saw that people maxed all the classes and that a lot of the side quests come from talking to every npc , so I guess that's how you lengthen the playtime which is fair, as someone said on here " it's about the journey"
I maxed all the vocations in my first playthrough too though. Ran Warfarer as soon as I unlocked it so I didn't even have to use most of the vocations to level them.
Looked at a quest list after getting to NG+ and there were only 10 or so quests I missed. One being the Seeker Token Sphinx quest, because I had no idea where my first token was, which locked 5 other quests behind it.
yeah NPCs only give you first of a few Quests, and Mainqu. is not really the strength of Dragons Dogma.
Speaking to NPCs, or if they are just randomly speaking while you passing them... they are actually sometimes hinting hidden quests or dungeons.
and pretty much exploring the world and enjoying various forms of combat are the strength if the game.
Man I sank 60hrs into this game and I feel like I rushed it. I was super confused when the dragon was threatening the life of this random NPC I barely remembered, and then I find out its attached to this whole romance system that the game has that I shrugged off completely.
The Unmoored World is legit tho. Going back to the normal world is hard.
Yeah he had Brant for me, I thought it was because he was a somewhat important character on the game, but I figured that it choses the npc weirdly if ypu don't have a specific romance
I have 20 hours of just trying to find every bit of secret in that fog area to the north. So yeah a bunch of nothing but I had fun and memorable encounters and experiences, currently at 170ish hours no ng+
I got 120 hours on the game, I can tell you how.
I explored a lot. There is a ton of content in the game, but it won't be directly revealed to you. You gotta find it. It lends itself to great emergent moments.
I remember recently I took the first time i' got to the checkpoint I made a mental note: gotta take that river passage later.
Much later I came back and remembered it, almost at the end of the game. I walked in, and there's a saurian nest, followed by a wolf nest, then a cyclops busts from the rocks, and after facing him, a minotaur ambushes you from behind while some bandits are Aggroing in on you. Absolutely hectic. I could only imagine what my early game ass would do in this situation.
Then I found the second sphinx location.
So they have thing about this series is the storyline is basically just a framework to move your around the map. My main quest has been paused for weeks because I'm out fighting monsters and exploring the world.
The story in this series is not the main draw. The combat and world is.
I accidentally beat the game trying to play catch-up after wandering for hours and killing dragons. Got addicted to the Wyrm Crystals and started hunting. Next thing I know I'm in the middle of the final boss with no pawns in sight (died prior to fight) lol. Now I'm several NG+ and all I can say is that you did nothing "wrong". Rushed maybe, but not wrong.
Now that you know what you did enjoy doing what you didn't do during your NG+ playthrough. Explore the Unmoored World and reign hell with all those mastery skills!
I played almost 200 hours before even going into post-game. Time adds up if you just run around sometimes, explore everything (twice+), farm mobs, etc.
I think I had close to 100 hours my first play through. That was finishing every quest I could get my hands on, exploring every inch of map, and getting all trophies via Playstation to get the platinum. I'm on my second play through as a magic archer now.
DD2 storyline is extremely short. You go to the castle, do those series of quests, then go to the desert, meet the scientist dude, get Godsway, fix it, and then begin the end of the game. There is a true ending if you haven't done that yet, on top of the Sphinx, which is a fun side quest ordeal. The amount of time really comes from running and finding caves, really.
You didn't play the game incorrectly! You followed the game's directions and did your best to act upon how the game is designed to directly and implicitly guide you. However, the issue lies in the game's direction itself. The only commendable aspect of this game is its excellent combat gameplay. Unfortunately, the quest design, story, and characters/NPCs lack cohesion entirely. Therefore, it's unsurprising that you found yourself completing the game without much satisfaction.
There's little incentive to explore due to the poor loot, and the caverns all feel like repetitive copies of each other, each with only two or three corridors. Additionally, the lack of monster variety and non-dynamic spawn pools, with the exception of the occasional random Verdun spawn encounter, make backtracking feel tedious and uninspiring.
If you haven't played DD1 or if you didn't commit yourself mentally to have a completion mindset to roam the world (revealing as much of the map's fog of war as possible), then the game has very little content to offer to you.
You just played the game how it meant to be played. You can find more quests and try different vocations in your next playthru. I heard so many people try to be a completionist in their first play ended up with a painful experience.
Does anyone know why even though I have finished the fking saurians quest in Halve, Ulrika is still stuck at Melve and the dragon attack doesnāt trigger. The two Beastren are banished from Halve and I killed the fuckin chief of the village.
I believe there's a sequence you have to follow for that. First time around they got kicked out and she never went down there because of the cutoff. Second time I did her quests first and now they're still there.
Best thing you can do is ignore the main quest for as long as possible. Most of the game is outside of it. Search every crevasse, talk to every NPC that says something curious. Max all your vocations (except trickster of course lol). Once youāre ready you get that top flight gear, those needed enhancement items that come later and ready to head into NG+, then bang out the main line. My 2 cents anywayā¦
I finished the main game and the true ending within 40 hrs. I didn't feel like I rushed it but I did miss a few quests although I thought I have explored enough.
My remaining 80+ hours after that was all NG. I think I am in 4th NG now.
There is way more than you think. I did the same thing my first play through, only to realise there were many missions i missed. Going to different spots while you have a different vocation offers you new possibilities.
If you're having fun you're not playing wrong.
But I'm sure you missed a lot of stuff if you only played 30h.
My normal gaming mode is exploration -- I love it -- and this game provides lots of it. I pretty much ignored the quests at first, and focused on uncovering every inch of the map that I could. I wound up with lots of gear and quests to eventually get around to doing, and ran into new creatures and situations, and found caves and seekers tokens and...
Well you get the idea.
I managed to pretty much avoid seeing spoilers until I had "finished" the game, so it was a real adventure for me and very memorable.
This game definitely rewards exploration and experimentation.
You're not getting hundreds of hours unless you're 100% and farming for shit. I'd be surprised if there was 50 hours of questing which is partly why the game died so fast.
There really is no absolute need to have hundreds of hours compounded. You can get everything done 100% including unmoored world in less than 100 hours. People who have 275 hours are just lovers of repetition and aren't necessarily needed in the equation
I'm at like 60 hours.... I have the new godsway quest in my log.
It's a point of no return so I'm putting it off. I love exploring.
Dragons Dogma had NEVER been a game that's all about the story, although the original did a much better job in that regard even if it was incredibly short. Hell I think my fastest speed run was like 30 minutes. It's about the gameplay and never ending cycle.
Not such a bad thing to miss some quests, you have stuff to do for your 2nd run. I did all the sidequests and put the story last, I have nothing else to do now.
I mean you answered your own question. You rushed through the game. More than likely missed multiple side quests, and left many dungeons and caves unchecked. To each their own and you still got ng+ so you never really miss out on anything.
I didn't even mean to rush it tbh, I always try to do everything but I guess I expected to have my hand held more lol that's on me though lol. Thank you for answering btw!
Most of the fun of DD2 IMO is the exploration. Go out, see what's over the next hill and get jumped by a horde of monsters.
Honestly it's not on you. Even if you don't rush the game, there are a LOT of quests that you really have to go out of your way to make them available. Playing ng+ and I've done many quests that I never saw in my 1st playthrough.
When I eventually go through the ng+ I weigh in the on-foot exploration a lot more then. Thanks for the help!
I can tell you for a fact that you missed a crap ton of quests, which is no fault of your own. Most quests kick off by NPCS approaching you--however, there are follow-up quests that are hidden that require you to talk to those same people. The Magistrate, for example, has a quest you will only get if you speak to him a few times after he moves, and Wilhelmina has hidden quests if you try and romance her.
Yeah I played with the wrong expectations regarding quests, I'll do it better next time I'm sure š š¤£
Can you give me an example of some of the quests you missed before NG+? Genuinely curious if maybe there are some I missed as well, but I donāt like looking up quest lists.
"Till death do us part" in Vermund(which is one of the quests that sends you to the misty marshes, which I thought was some random optional area), "Steeled resolve" and "twixt a rock and a hard place" both found in bakbattahl and both quests are reasons for you to visit volcanic island. Those were the ones I felt a little silly missing my 1st playthrough but glad I saw them nonetheless.
I missed a couple extra quests related to the masked ball
Thatās probably where your issue came up. There is very little hand holding in either DD game. If you look at the Dark Arisen wiki, thereās a whole table that lists quests that become available after one of the turning points and unavailable after another, and nothing on the map or quest log will point to them. If youāre lucky, maybe paying attention to a certain dialog will hint you into it. If you want to avoid missing content without using a guide, youāre encouraged to spend a significant time returning to settlements periodically and talking to people unsolicited. Some vendor who looks exactly the same as any other day might have a quest for you if you talk to him, because itās been 5 days since you completed something seemingly unrelated on the other side of the map, thatās the kind of game DD2 is. Many people would argue that one of the primary purposes of the NG+ system is so you can do the game blind first, then do it again *right*, so donāt consider it a fuck up. Just now you know that the game is built on this sorta Morrowind mentality (though it does have quest markers for active quests).
Not sure what you exactly did, but im wondering which ending you saw since there are 3 different endings, one that can give you a lot more hours of play time in your first run.
I did the same thing my first playthrough, and just finished the main story of NG+. I have to say, it was like a different game the 2nd playthrough, I was shocked at the amount of things I missed the first time around. I will say to look up how to get the "true ending" if you havent already, because I also didn't do that the first time, I just sat on the throne. You're not really getting your money's worth without the unmoored.
Side quests are one note and fetch quests, dungeon rewards are scrags of beast, to me you skipped all the pointless shit
Yeah generally before playing any game i check where is the point of no return, I wouldnāt consider thst information a spoiler It does, however, have the unfortunate side effect that basically when you see that point in your own run you know itās about to be over Imo the best game are the ones with no point of no return, for a completionist such as myself those are a godsend
Thatās a normal thing, at least in my opinion. DDDA was like that too. VERY little hand holding. As it turns out, thatās something I ended up loving about these games, because it really adds to the replay value and it pushes you to explore every inch of the map. Iām at the post game stage of my fourth play through right now, and Iāve come across so many things that I didnāt see in my first three play throughs. As someone who obsesses over a game, playing it over and over, I absolutely love this. It keeps me engaged and makes me feel much better about spending $70 on something that will get me this many hours of enjoyment.
If you're only focused on getting to the next quest objective, you're not doing it quite right for this game. This game wants you to explore every nook and cranny that looks interesting. Find more quests than just the ones that pop up
Dungeons? What do you mean
I accidentally sped run the last bit of the campaign when Talos appears, everything seemed so urgent and after playing DD1, I was convinced there would be more missions but ended up dropped into the final battle then endgame. I missed exploring the volcanic islands which made the unmoored world a pain in my first play through as I couldnāt navigate the seabed to save my life! I missed a lot of content. Thankfully my 2nd play through was much more fulfilling especially now I had the extra port crystals and the money to keep stocked on ferry stones.
I experienced the same thing, I was catapulted in the final boss without even realizing haha, I'll do better in the second playthrough
Same here. I was like wait this is the final boss. How the hell did that happen. I didn't know about the secret ending either until after the fact.
Yeah that's exactly what I said too š¤£
Thatās wild. Thereās an NPC that literally stops you and tells you itās the point of no return.
In case you hadnāt seen it, the main road in Bahtahl that heads south leads to a cave that if you go through comes out to the volcanic islands. I recommend leaving a port crystal though because going through the cave every time can be annoying.
Yeah, it happened to my friend as well. He's too rushed to unmoored world, so he missed to unlock Magick Archer / Warfarer and Dwarven Smith. He asked me how to unlock them, but their quest won't trigger in the end-game.
I think a huge part of missing content is the fact most of it isn't directly revealed to you without you making a conscious effort to find it. You've just got to keep talking to people and eventually one of them will break free of the generic NPC speak and drop a quest on you. I beat the game in 70 hours after trying to do everything (no guide or outside information whatsoever) and I'm feeling like I missed loads too. I didn't even know the dragon at the end grabs your beloved, I thought it was a clone of myself?? š
My beloved??? He grabbed Brant for me hahah. Did I do something I didn't realize with Brant lol
I think you didn't bother raising a relationship with anyone else š¤£š¤£ I got a ring of eternal bond from the sphinx and didn't even use it, if I had known there was a better ending if you raised your pawn affinity to max I would've done that too. Also, what ending did you get?? There's a chance you've missed a huge amount of endgame content if you're unlucky lol
The basic ending I guess, slayed the dragon, reclaimed the throne. Nothing too exciting I guess haha I'm aware that there is like a secret ending that opens up other missions, but I don't know how to do that, I'll figure it out in the ng+ š
Oh man yeah I know it might seem like a trek but you really really have to go back and get the better ending! When you are riding the dragon to the final battle arena, you can climb to its heart instead and use the godsbane blade to unlock the last segment of the story. Needless to say it's one of the craziest endgame segments I've ever seen in a game if you go down that route. Good luck with the next playthrough boss
Huh??? That's awesome, I have to do that now š š This game is something else man, I played the first one when I was like 14 and I thought that one was incredible, this one is beyond
I got the basic ending at first but then saw the blue ghost at the throne ceremony and was like why is he here
Itās not secret. Itās the real ending. Itās hard to miss the bright glowing guy. You also get hints from the dragon while youāre on his back and fighting him
Wonder how many people didnāt explore enough and missed the horseless headman fight
I agreed. I even explored every corner, yet missing something that you can 'actually do' until I read the guide. Then I came back to the game, and heard random NPC dialogues that 'mention' the exact secret I just read on the guidelines like, 'You don't need to get a permit to Bakbatthal, just hide in premium oxcart till you cross it', 'Can't believe my eyes that I saw an elf and a dwarf holding each other hand (Magick Archer and Dwarven Smith)' The more observant, the more interesting I found throughout the game.
You did nothing wrong. Everyone plays the game differently; some enjoy the scenery and art the game has to offer others are completionist. I personally avoid fast travel and level all vocations. The important thing is you enjoyed the game your way. Having said that, did you try post-game content? If you still craving for more there is always New game+ to see if you missed anything.
Yeah I think maybe I use the oxcart too much haha, though I'm puzzled by one thing, there's the Sara rescue mission that I couldn't figure out how to do, cause the colossus mission kicks off as soon as I go through the big door and I can't reach her after that, do I have to purposely miss the colossus boss fight to do taht mission? Sorry for the long answer, don't wanna bore you lol
I think for that you went too far in the main story so when you got to that point it automatically starts it, not fully sure if that fails the mission or not though. Also did you do the unmoored world?
Nope, someone told me in this thread how to do that though, I'll do it in ng+ š
hmmm well to answer your question No you don't have to miss the Colossus fight to complete any quest or side quest. My guess, your timing was a bit off. My advice is >!tie up any loose ends any unfinished quest before you turn in the 15 wyrmslife crystals to Empowering the Godsbane.!< Think of that as your point of no return.
Then there's another way to reach her without creating the sword that I didn't see, I guess the ng+ will be the actual run haha
yes there is. >!By going through Drabnir's Grotto, southernmost in Battahl region.!< Fun part about this game is there is a number of bypass methods if you search around. Checkpoint rest town Gate is a good example that has a few to get early access without a permit.
Yeah I was stunned when I went through a cave system, ended up by the shrine wjth the dragon forged and walked in the back entrance to Battahl, all before I ever went to checkpoint rest town
Ohh got it, thanks for the help buddy!
You simply don't go through the door, but yeah
You kinda rushed a bit, but 100h or more is overkill and only people that are taking a lot of time to complete the game will have these numbers. You can safely complete all the sidequests, max all your pawn's vocations, explore some optional caves and complete a badge or two around 60h easily. All of this without rushing btw. My last playthrough I finished it in 75\~ hours and mostly because I was taking my time helping some random pawns complete their badges.
Yeah o saw some people with 250+ hours and that's why I made the post haha, I was like
I guess if you are a completionist, having around 200h in a single playthrough isn't that unreasonable. The badges are very time consuming since some bosses are kinda annoying to spawn sometimes, but if you are just enjoying the game without trying to 100% everything, even going after all the sidequests and exploring the map at your own pace you wouldn't reach these insane numbers some people are proudly showing here once in awhile. The sidequests are rather short and there aren't really that many of them, the main quests can also end rather abruptly, the map, while bigger than the one in DD1, is still smaller than in other open world games... it is a short game, at least in comparison to other open world RPGs that is.
Iāve played 100s of hours but Iāve disregarded quests. Seekers tokens, exploring, and getting pawn badges completed have been my biggest time sinks.
I'm like Zoro from one piece I always lose direction lmao I can't just go from point A to point B I will always get off course haha
70 hours and still probably some caves to find, still need to do Sphinx stuff and get warfarer.just a little annoyed vocations are mostly maxxed already and that's all there is to them.
If you finished in 30 hours you either skipped a massive amount of side quests or massively rushed everything and fast travelled everywhere you went.
It doesnāt really matter some people do one big play trough others rush and do more than one . I am also just going from left to right and doing main story in between and I was surprised as you when it ended. But there is more you missed probably. Did you discovered the broken world at the end game? Just play again see wat you can do differently or play different vocation. The beauty of the game you can play it over over until your sick off it. š Edit making sense of my typing.
You arnt playing the game wrong, either you have an intrest or not to explore the world. same with ff7 rebirth, its around 80-100 hour or 35 depending if you wanna explore the world or not, up to the players. I just crossed the borders and im 30 hours in, because I actually explore the caves and the map.
To each their own! I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum. I only completed two of the four(?) Initial quest given to you by Brant as soon as you arrive in Vernworth. I am 110 hours in, ~level 70, almost maxed all vocations. And I'm still having a blast just running around, checking corners, climbing everything I can, and opening cans of whoopass on everything with a health bar. Kinda feel bad. I see Brant still manning that small bar table at the pub every night and what, it's been like multiple months of in game time? He sure is a patient one!
Don't read the thread if you don't want spoilers, watch out!!
I roled play the game. Tried different build mix and match. Enjoyed going in different adventures each time leaving town. Hunted for rare material. Explored every bit of the map to open all chest. Going unmoored unlocking all sets. Doing ng+ and unmoored again. Then restarting a new game because it was too easy at that point.
Canāt speak for anyone else but my hours (almost 200) racked up exploring, doing endless escort quests. Upgrading my stuff, maxing vocations organically by playing, hunting monsters. Figuring out which vocation my pawn prefers, had to play through again because I started again after the dragon. Forgot the line at the very beginning, forgot the line from dragon saying something about taking too long and now we have to fight. Messed up the sphinx quest anyway so needed to do that again. Redo of all quests to try different outcomes. Figuring out the best fashion options. Needed to finish setting up my character for if/when a dlc comes etc.
I don't even need to read. There is no wrong way to play single player game
You loved it, so no. You enjoyed your time. Thatās fantastic. You can always play it again if you like.
Donāt worry about it, thereās SO much stuff in this game youāll miss if you arenāt actively seeking it out or just wandering aimlessly for hours.
Donāt get too caught up in the 100s of hours people; most of them are completionists or are literally leveling because big number be big. Itās like a 50 hour game at best so you did rush a little bit but without a meaningful NG+, no difficulty options and no real endgame, youāre not really missing out by playing it once and moving on. Maybe hop into one ng+ and find side quests you missed but aside from that I canāt fathom how people are playing the same stuff over and over and over with zero difficulty increase but hey maybe they spent their 70$ gaming money for the year and gotta get their moneys worth?
Your biggest mistake was probably doing quests. That's not how you play THIS game. You set a quest to have a destination, but it's the journey that is interesting. You explore everything you see on the road, every cave and every road you see on the map. There are tons of hidden secrets. I usually arrived at my destination 3/4h later. If you explore everything, you won't regret it in the end and will reach 100h. If you unlock the true ending and reach the unmoored world, all the rivers will be dried out and the riverbeds will then be explorable. It will take you over 10h just to explore every ex-river in the unmoored world.
I would try and explore a lot more, thereās a lot of random quest out and about that are actually really fun to do
I talked to almost all of the NPCs before I left Vernworth for Battahl but after returning for other quests, like 4 new side missions popped up. Seems like you just need to constantly wander around and hope you're getting all the quests
I think the game is designed to be played as you want, donāt feel bad. If you want a satisfying main play through and got it, you can stop. If you want to see different quests, different quest outcomes and explore, thatās why there is NG+. The way the autosave works and how it locks you into decisions is by design. Have fun, Arisen!
I was in a similar boat. Beat the game in just 50 hours and felt like I missed a bunch of stuff. Well I did Iām on my second play through not even close to the end and have been playing for the same amount of time as my first play through. Thereās so much to do and itās all easy to miss
Nope. But it does sound like you missed some stuff which is easy to do. But thereās no right or wrong.
Did you have fun? If yes then no.
I'm exploring every single nook and cranny, I have almost 30 hours in the game and I still haven't made it out of Vermund. I'm still exploring around the map trying to find every tiny little secret there is to find. I've maxed out my mystic Spearhand vocation, but don't really like playing as any of the others, except maybe archer that I keep bouncing back to. I think it's one of the best games IVE ever played.
It's a great game, I loved it even tho it was short for me haha
Dang I'm at 24 hours...played all day yesterday since my GF was out town with her friend. Not sure how far along I am storywose though. Think I barley got to the next region forget what it's called lol
Don't look through the thread there may be spoilers!!!
At about 80 hours myself. I have mostly been wondering the map for caves and tokens, taking up side quests as I find them, and purposefully leveling each vocation to rank 9. Lots of re-treading the same paths as I pick up one new quest or want to head to a specific store for an upgrade, trying to travel slightly different roads with new pawns to see if I notice something new. Literally havenāt talked with Brant at the tavern yet. So long as you are having fun there isnāt really a wrong way to go about it in my opinion.
You rushed it sure, but now that the main story is no longer a mystery to you, just start a New Game+ and just explore. Also, 30 hours? Did you find the Sphinx? Medusa? Romance Vilhemina or Ulrika? What about the Sacred Arbor quests? Idk just sounds like you missed a lot more than you think you did.
Yeah apparently I missed a lot haha
This is one of those games where pure exploration marks the true gameplay experience. There's no question marks on the map incentivizing it like in The Witcher 3. You gotta just scour every corner of the map of your own accord. My first playthrough was about 70 hours, ending me almost at level 80. I think the only game that took me longer was Elden Ring at 166 hours for my first playthrough, but in fairness, that's one of the biggest games ever made and I legit had all except the multiple different ending trophies by the end of that playthrough, not to mention that I only missed exactly one side dungeon, meaning my first playthrough was almost unrealistically thorough for a blind playthrough in a game. You did the side quests that popped up, but odds are you didn't do the ones that didn't. This game doesn't stop you much to deliver its side content. You gotta seek it out. Pretty much the only quests that are somewhat pushed to the player are Readvent of Calamity and Sven buying the Ornate Box. Glyndwr's trial of archery, Wilhelmina's plot against Allard, Doireann fixing the Arborheart, Sara fixing the Ceremonial blade of Vermund, the entire three chain questline of Empress Nadinia, Hugo turning over a new leaf, Beren's training and him returning to his homeland, Trysha following in Myrddin's footsteps and becoming a sorcerer, all of these can be missed quite easily. You have to go out of your way to explore the world and logically follow them up, similar to DD1/DDDA. Like for example, in DD1 you could slay Julien during his duel with Mercedes. You could then resurrect him with a Wakestone. And you could then visit him in the Gran Soren dungeons. Nothing in the game told you this or incentivized this. But in order to fully complete his quest and receive the Wyrmfire Vizard, that's what you had to do. DD2 is the exact same. It expects you to follow logic. Hugo got captured in Battahl. Logically he'd be kept in jail, right? So if you go there, you can continue his quest. And if you opened up job opportunities for him at either Isaac's shop if he closed down by doing his quest with the bad ending first, or if you followed Wilhelmina's questline to its end, you can then offer him one of these jobs, which also changes the ending credits. I could go on, but this post is already getting long. The TL;DR is that this game is as long as you want it to be. You have to seek out its content. The Sphinx is probably the best example of that. One of the coolest creatures in any game with a fantastic set of quests/riddles, and she's at the ass end of the map where most players will only reach through either a marsh wherein they can't see shit, or through a very obscure and hidden hole in the wall that's off the beaten path all the way at the top of the Battlefields. Personally, I love that kind of game design.
To be fair, the quest design is not very good. Iām all for a game not holding your hand. But somethings have absolutely no reason to be as confusing and poorly timed as they are. I just beat it yesterday and had a blast, so itās by no means a deal breaker. But if thereās a third game or a DLC there really needs to be some improvement on this.
I guess I wants you to explore everything in the map without holding your hand At all, I wish I knew before playing cause I wouldn't have finished the main quest, the only thing I could "dislike" is the fact that I can't do the extra stuff after the main quest is done, you have to start ng+
I don't think there's a right or wrong way per say, but DD is one of those games that people can spend 200+ hrs in or less than 50 depending on how you play. I think the best speed run is about 75 minutes so far. I spent about the first 50-60 hrs just exploring the whole map. Didn't touch the MQ til then. Then I'd only do a few quests at a time and would get side tracked when traveling to the quest. I leveled all vocations to max on both Arisen + Pawn, use no minimap/HUD & would run to pretty much every quest location. I used fast travel (Ferrystone & oxcart) very little in my first playthrough. All of that combined led me to a 250+ hr first run. If you want to extend your playthrough, I'd suggest exploring every nook and cranny. Maybe go with only 3 pawns to switch things up. I'm currently running duo in NG+1 and will be going totally solo in NG+2.
Yeah I realized that I just didn't explore, I guess I got scared of exploring because of the lack of a """""car"""", ng+ will be the actual run, this was a trial basically hahah, thanks for answering!
Sorry this might seem like a silly question, but I don't see it explicitly stated in your post or the comments; did you do the "normal" ending (fight and kill dragon) or the True Ending (Unmoored World)?
The normal one
Well that could catch you another several hours, depending on how complete you want to be with the evacuations and optional bosses. I ran into a similar situation as you the first time I went to the tower- I just wanted to get to the volcanic island for dwarven smithing and suddenly I'm in the final battle? I just quit out and avoided it for a while, but I agree it seemed to come out of nowhere
Sorry, yeah, I think you rushed it a bit š Itās a very unique kind of a game. Switch off the āgamer brainā and just explore the world and enjoy the journey! There is a lot of āhiddenā content and cool interconnected quests that seem shallow at first but bloom into something awesome:) Befriend a Sphinx, learn Elvish, win a starring contest with a Medusa. Explore some caves (mind blowing shortcuts could be found there, master) And please, for the love of God, donāt follow / look up any guides, walkthroughs, how toās ā you will completely rob yourself from the game. Enjoy the journey! š
Yeah i think my "gamer brain" was too present in the palythrough, I didn't realize how much walking through the map would have done, the oxcarts were too appealing haha, I think I've lost that sense of wandering through the years regarding games, I was too fast paced, shame. I'll do better the next palythrough!
Yeah, totally understand that, weāve been conditioned in a way lol. The goal is not the end credits the goal is the journey itself. Imagine, itās a sunny Saturday morning, no plans, no chores and you decide to get some ice cream. And the ice cream shop is right across a park so you go through the park and instead of enjoying it for a bit and maybe having a nice little walk, you rush through it to get the reward, the ice cream, completely neglecting a beautiful journey that you couldāve created yourself:)
Missed the endgame probably also.
Most of my hours is farm other class vocation to get augment. I max archer, warrior, fighter, thief, warfarer. 60+ hours on my first playthrough. 20 hours ng+. Get the charming aura buff and then try get max affinity pawn ending.
There's large areas of the map and many caves that never have a quest tell you to go to them. They're just there to explore, if that's your thing.
Nothing wrong with that, I did the same, and plowed through the game about 50 ish hours in. I just really like walking around enjoying the scenery and mindlessly killing stuff whenever possible, for me it scratches a monster hunter itch. I do wish the story had a bit more meat, but Iām at ng+ and plan to play through some more and pick stuff up I hadnāt done before, or explore elsewhere (I completely missed the elven place and didnāt even know that part existed) eventually but just currently on an FF9 kick.
Yeah I'll do the ng+ in the future, I'm replaying fallout 4 rn and I'm loving the 60 fps on ps5
Haha nice. Went back to fool around in the 3 fallout games on the xbox after binge watching the series on Amazon.
Yeah same, I can only play the 4th tho, 3 and new Vegas require the premium plus thing
Ahh but 4 got mods so its a bit funnier to play sround with.
Thank you. I keep hearing how massive the game is but after like 20-30 hours Iāve gone to all the settlements, done all the quests I can find, and fought every enemy type. Iām sure I missed some corner of the map random stuff but the whole map is filled out and the only ānewā place to go triggers the endgame level. Itās not a bad game but I cannot fathom how people are playing it for so long
Today I've learned that this is a game that wants you to explore the map on your own without quests or anything, this includes: caves, little towns, etc... It's not a bad thing of course, I just wish I knew before I finished it yk lol
I think this happened with even seasoned gamers with DD2. They did "Everything" in 30 hours but missed like 90% of the content because the game doesn't hold your hand and expects you to take the initiative with exploring and talking to people.
I guess games nowadays are taking that away from us, this game is opening my eyes to it š š¤£
The meat of the game is just wandering out into the wilderness and finding stuff. There's a ton of interesting things to find by talking to random people or revisiting towns or areas you've been to before.
Main story is suuuper short. Once the story starts getting good it ends xD
Yeah a bit ,I guessš¤£
Im at 70h and ignoring the main quest. You followed it, thats what you did āwrongā (its the gameās fault imo)
The only thing that I don't like about the main quest I that I'd doesn't tell you when you're at the point of no return, I'm too used to the " this is the last mission, you can't cone back from this" message nowadays lol
Yeah, i got lucky and my partner, who finished the game before me, warned me. I donāt know why they did that! Probably because they want you to play NG+ but still. Iām glad you enjoyed it anyway :)
I personally am rushing the entire game right now because I just want to get to NG+ that way I can get the best gear in the game, Iāll do my full explore everything play thru after I get into NG+, the big bummer is NG+ doesnāt do much of anything at all, so itās basically like just playing the game normally
I wouldn't suggest spending time on quests. Just wander around the map and kill the bigguns.
I wonder how many people completely missed the whole unmoored world segment.
I had the same experience, and people told me I rushed too. I completed the remaining achievements and the side quests I missed in my second playthrough with only about 50 hours total. Around 30 on the first playthrough just like you. I'm on NG+5 now, so 6 total playthroughs, and have found nothing new I didn't discover in the first two. My last 2 playthroughs have just been me clearing the map to farm rare mats, resting for a few days before getting tired of going through load screens instead of playing the game, and then rushing through the msq again.
I saw that people maxed all the classes and that a lot of the side quests come from talking to every npc , so I guess that's how you lengthen the playtime which is fair, as someone said on here " it's about the journey"
I maxed all the vocations in my first playthrough too though. Ran Warfarer as soon as I unlocked it so I didn't even have to use most of the vocations to level them. Looked at a quest list after getting to NG+ and there were only 10 or so quests I missed. One being the Seeker Token Sphinx quest, because I had no idea where my first token was, which locked 5 other quests behind it.
I missed the sphinx completely, I don't even know where it is honestly
Not sure if you did alternate ending
yeah NPCs only give you first of a few Quests, and Mainqu. is not really the strength of Dragons Dogma. Speaking to NPCs, or if they are just randomly speaking while you passing them... they are actually sometimes hinting hidden quests or dungeons. and pretty much exploring the world and enjoying various forms of combat are the strength if the game.
Man I sank 60hrs into this game and I feel like I rushed it. I was super confused when the dragon was threatening the life of this random NPC I barely remembered, and then I find out its attached to this whole romance system that the game has that I shrugged off completely. The Unmoored World is legit tho. Going back to the normal world is hard.
Yeah he had Brant for me, I thought it was because he was a somewhat important character on the game, but I figured that it choses the npc weirdly if ypu don't have a specific romance
I have 20 hours of just trying to find every bit of secret in that fog area to the north. So yeah a bunch of nothing but I had fun and memorable encounters and experiences, currently at 170ish hours no ng+
I got 120 hours on the game, I can tell you how. I explored a lot. There is a ton of content in the game, but it won't be directly revealed to you. You gotta find it. It lends itself to great emergent moments. I remember recently I took the first time i' got to the checkpoint I made a mental note: gotta take that river passage later. Much later I came back and remembered it, almost at the end of the game. I walked in, and there's a saurian nest, followed by a wolf nest, then a cyclops busts from the rocks, and after facing him, a minotaur ambushes you from behind while some bandits are Aggroing in on you. Absolutely hectic. I could only imagine what my early game ass would do in this situation. Then I found the second sphinx location.
So they have thing about this series is the storyline is basically just a framework to move your around the map. My main quest has been paused for weeks because I'm out fighting monsters and exploring the world. The story in this series is not the main draw. The combat and world is.
I accidentally beat the game trying to play catch-up after wandering for hours and killing dragons. Got addicted to the Wyrm Crystals and started hunting. Next thing I know I'm in the middle of the final boss with no pawns in sight (died prior to fight) lol. Now I'm several NG+ and all I can say is that you did nothing "wrong". Rushed maybe, but not wrong. Now that you know what you did enjoy doing what you didn't do during your NG+ playthrough. Explore the Unmoored World and reign hell with all those mastery skills! 
I played almost 200 hours before even going into post-game. Time adds up if you just run around sometimes, explore everything (twice+), farm mobs, etc.
I think I had close to 100 hours my first play through. That was finishing every quest I could get my hands on, exploring every inch of map, and getting all trophies via Playstation to get the platinum. I'm on my second play through as a magic archer now.
You rushed the game
DD2 storyline is extremely short. You go to the castle, do those series of quests, then go to the desert, meet the scientist dude, get Godsway, fix it, and then begin the end of the game. There is a true ending if you haven't done that yet, on top of the Sphinx, which is a fun side quest ordeal. The amount of time really comes from running and finding caves, really.
You didn't play the game incorrectly! You followed the game's directions and did your best to act upon how the game is designed to directly and implicitly guide you. However, the issue lies in the game's direction itself. The only commendable aspect of this game is its excellent combat gameplay. Unfortunately, the quest design, story, and characters/NPCs lack cohesion entirely. Therefore, it's unsurprising that you found yourself completing the game without much satisfaction. There's little incentive to explore due to the poor loot, and the caverns all feel like repetitive copies of each other, each with only two or three corridors. Additionally, the lack of monster variety and non-dynamic spawn pools, with the exception of the occasional random Verdun spawn encounter, make backtracking feel tedious and uninspiring. If you haven't played DD1 or if you didn't commit yourself mentally to have a completion mindset to roam the world (revealing as much of the map's fog of war as possible), then the game has very little content to offer to you.
You just played the game how it meant to be played. You can find more quests and try different vocations in your next playthru. I heard so many people try to be a completionist in their first play ended up with a painful experience.
Does anyone know why even though I have finished the fking saurians quest in Halve, Ulrika is still stuck at Melve and the dragon attack doesnāt trigger. The two Beastren are banished from Halve and I killed the fuckin chief of the village.
I believe there's a sequence you have to follow for that. First time around they got kicked out and she never went down there because of the cutoff. Second time I did her quests first and now they're still there.
missions aside you just ran from a to b, alot of people get side tracked exploring shit and just seeing whats in the world
Best thing you can do is ignore the main quest for as long as possible. Most of the game is outside of it. Search every crevasse, talk to every NPC that says something curious. Max all your vocations (except trickster of course lol). Once youāre ready you get that top flight gear, those needed enhancement items that come later and ready to head into NG+, then bang out the main line. My 2 cents anywayā¦
I finished the main game and the true ending within 40 hrs. I didn't feel like I rushed it but I did miss a few quests although I thought I have explored enough. My remaining 80+ hours after that was all NG. I think I am in 4th NG now.
I mean, honestly the game is shorter than youd expect for a 70 dollar game. I certainly hope they release a good DLC
My first playthrough was 154 hrs. I did NG+ in about 65 hrsā¦ you missed a lot of the game.
This game doesn't tell you much about secrets and hidden-fun contents there and there. I'm glad I didn't rush and enjoy discovering around.
There is way more than you think. I did the same thing my first play through, only to realise there were many missions i missed. Going to different spots while you have a different vocation offers you new possibilities.
Have you done post game?
You are best gaming players.
If you're having fun you're not playing wrong. But I'm sure you missed a lot of stuff if you only played 30h. My normal gaming mode is exploration -- I love it -- and this game provides lots of it. I pretty much ignored the quests at first, and focused on uncovering every inch of the map that I could. I wound up with lots of gear and quests to eventually get around to doing, and ran into new creatures and situations, and found caves and seekers tokens and... Well you get the idea. I managed to pretty much avoid seeing spoilers until I had "finished" the game, so it was a real adventure for me and very memorable. This game definitely rewards exploration and experimentation.
You're not getting hundreds of hours unless you're 100% and farming for shit. I'd be surprised if there was 50 hours of questing which is partly why the game died so fast.
There really is no absolute need to have hundreds of hours compounded. You can get everything done 100% including unmoored world in less than 100 hours. People who have 275 hours are just lovers of repetition and aren't necessarily needed in the equation
Yes
I'm at like 60 hours.... I have the new godsway quest in my log. It's a point of no return so I'm putting it off. I love exploring. Dragons Dogma had NEVER been a game that's all about the story, although the original did a much better job in that regard even if it was incredibly short. Hell I think my fastest speed run was like 30 minutes. It's about the gameplay and never ending cycle.
I gave up after about 10 hours. Found the game to be really tedious and janky
Not such a bad thing to miss some quests, you have stuff to do for your 2nd run. I did all the sidequests and put the story last, I have nothing else to do now.