Need a long RPG, Dragon's Dogma Vs. Xenoblade

[major_chaos]

So I wont bore you with the full story, but suffice to say that soon I will be having a large amount of free time where I'm stuck at home and I'm looking for an RPG. I have narrowed down the choice to either Dragons's Dogma or Xenoblade. I absolutely can't decide, and I'm wondering what the Escapist thinks. Does anyone who has played both have a feeling on which is better? Any thoughts on either game overall?

As this is a bit of an apples to oranges comparison (long RPG is really the only thing they have in common, but that's what I'm looking for) I figured I would bring up some specific questions/ concerns that I haven't had answered before to help me make an informed decision about which I would enjoy more:

Dragon's Dogma:
Difficulty? (I'm OK with challenge, and I know DD has a reputation for being hard, but are we talking above average difficulty, or Dark Souls difficulty?)

Combat depth?(is there a doge roll? manual/timed blocks? different light/heavy melee attacks?)

What is different about Dark Arisen? (I know its part DLC in that it adds a new postgame area, but I was also under the impression that it made some changes to the base game, but I could never figure out what those were)


Xenoblade:
Combat depth? (The gameplay I have watched makes the combat look a bit WoW-ish, where you take turns kicking eachother in the shins and using skill rotations and whoever has the bigger numbers wins, am I way off base with this or is it something like that?)

Characters? (I absolutely can not stand the cast in a lot of JRPGs, how tolerable are they in this one?)

Grinding? (simple enough, how much grinding does the game expect of you? this includes "optional" sidequests being borderline mandatory for you to be properly leveled/geared)

Thanks in advance for any input or help.

 

[ThePuzzldPirate]

Will help you since I played both of them(sadly one a lot more than the other.)

Dragons Dogma

1st. DD difficulty actually comes down to your parties build, have the wrong set-up and your going to have a bad time. This game has a lot less of Dark Souls "Move correctly to not die" but you still have to pay attention to what is happening. As long as you keep your equipment up to date and set you pawns...parameters(can't remember the word) to behave properly for their class, you will do fine. Your pawns are annoying but luckily, you don't have to babysit.

2.Combat is brilliant, the closest I can call this combat is Monster Hunter with skills. It's hard to talk about cause I don't know where to start other than the fact that combat is it's brightest point. Just make sure you go into the options and turn off cinematic camera cause it slows everything down.

3.Dark Arisen is DD+1, you get all of the original plus DLC plus expansion. If you haven't bought DD originally than you might as well grab this one.

Xenoblade

1.Sort of but not quite, their is a rotation of skills like you said but this game requires a lot more movement than say wow because character placement in battle decides a lot of things. There is some other things that shake it up.

2.The character are great, well voiced and a lot less angsty than I thought going in, not much different than you on that part XD. They actually feel like people and sound like friends bickering and being goof balls. quite refreshing.

3.Not much or if any from what I noticed but I was doing a lot of side quests so that can sort of count as grinding I guess?

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

Xenoblade:
Combat depth? (The gameplay I have watched makes the combat look a bit WoW-ish, where you take turns kicking eachother in the shins and using skill rotations and whoever has the bigger numbers wins, am I way off base with this or is it something like that?)

Characters? (I absolutely can not stand the cast in a lot of JRPGs, how tolerable are they in this one?)

Grinding? (simple enough, how much grinding does the game expect of you? this includes "optional" sidequests being borderline mandatory for you to be properly leveled/geared)

Thanks in advance for any input or help.

I haven't played Dragons Dogma but I've been powering away at Xenoblade for the last year or so and trust me this game is DAMN beefy.

So for Xenoblade...

Combat Depth: Seems WoWish at first but there is a lot of very interesting depth there and the game keeps adding in new twists and mechanics as the game goes on.

Characters: They're a bit simple... but they're generally likable and they tend to dodge a lot of the more annoying JRPG cliches. Though you WILL get sick of their combat banter, it gets very repetitive and you hear it a LOT.

Grinding: You'll probably need to grind at least some of the side-quests in order to get enough XP and unfortunately the quest tracking systems aren't as good as they could be, making the side activities frustrating at times.

Generally though Xenoblade is a beefy, enjoyable JRPG that I would give a solid recommendation.

 

[Guffe]

I have played Xeno
So for it, I played only the main story, stumbling over side quests while hacking random creatures while moving forward with the story, completing maybe 10% of the side missions, and it still took me 70 hours (if I remember correctly) to complete.
So if you want 100% completion with all the characters connections and friendship levels (which I totally ignored) then you have ALOT to do!
I liked the combat, it might seem like turnbased, but moving around enemies striking from different areas/angles with different characters and even manually dodging attacks was fun.
There are a lot of Bosses that are very hard compared to the average enemies you meet which is nice, the normal enemies are usually pretty easy while the every 6-9 hour boss encounter takes several times to beat (for me at least) and they usually have a twit to them, like you can't just beat at them but you have to weaken some armor or something first in a special way before inflicting real damage.
The one thing you can expect from this game are long cut scenes, I think the longest cut scene gets close to 15 minutes, most cutscenes thou are badass fighting scenes before or after important encounters so they are nice And not every cutscene is that long and they don't appear that often, mainly when the story needs filling in.
Very enjoyable game overall!!

 

[Furioso]

I haven't played Dragons Dogma, but Xenoblade is a fantastic game. On top of what everyone else has already said, it's really nice to see a Wii game that didn't need motion controls and as a result decided not to have any. The setting is also probably the most interesting setting I've ever seen in a game, where the world literally takes place on top of two giant titans that died mid combat and foliage and life grew on their dead bodies. And lets not forget the music:
That song just makes the Guar Plains a joy to explore.

 

[Candidus]

I haven't played XB, but I'll throw in a vote for Dragon's Dogma. Combat is Monster Hunter meets Shadow of the Colossus. Difficulty varies depending on your pawns and your "RPG diligence" (search every corner and complete every task, or just power through to the final boss?). Length is about 24-36 hours, but high replay value with a post-game state AND new game plus.

Add to all that, the story (and its presentation via neat camera work) is quite excellent as well.

If you go this route, make sure to get the Dark Arisen edition of the game. I'm afraid I can't be specific about the changes it makes to the core game, because I didn't have DD before Dark Arisen.

Hope that helps.

 

[MysticSlayer]

I've never played Dragon's Dogma, but I have played Xenoblade, and, as my avatar indicates, I absolutely loved the game. To start off answering your questions:

Xenoblade:
Combat depth? (The gameplay I have watched makes the combat look a bit WoW-ish, where you take turns kicking eachother in the shins and using skill rotations and whoever has the bigger numbers wins, am I way off base with this or is it something like that?)

Characters? (I absolutely can not stand the cast in a lot of JRPGs, how tolerable are they in this one?)

Grinding? (simple enough, how much grinding does the game expect of you? this includes "optional" sidequests being borderline mandatory for you to be properly leveled/geared)

Thanks in advance for any input or help.

Combat Depth: The game utilizes a WoW-like system but with a few things added. You need to position yourself in order to pull off critical hits, and those critical hits are practically necessary to build up your party meter, which is used to revive people and pull off chain attacks. You also can see some attacks before they happen, and if your party meter has at least one bar full you can make an attempt to stop it from happening (generally a good idea). A lot of other things affect the combat outside of just the combat itself, like your crystals (which can be looted, mined, or crafted) and your Party Affinity, which is basically a system of how well your party members get along and work together during crafting, combat, etc.

Characters: Compared to other JRPGs I've played, Xenoblade's cast is fantastic. The characters and their interactions felt much more organic than forced one-dimensional characteristics, especially as you watch them develop over time. In the end, it felt like they were friends interacting with each other during both the good and bad times. If you go through and do the Heart-to-Heart moments, which require the aforementioned Party Affinity, then the characters really become fleshed out and you understand just how far away they really are compared to the traditionally angst-driven characters and how there is more to them than just "the genius mechanic" and "the military muscleman".

Grinding: I did every side quest I could, some of which have a lot of grinding. I'd say that some degree of grinding is necessary, as even after all I did I was still behind the lowest leveled enemies towards the end (well, I did delay going to the final area for a time, so I might have been more prepared if I fought them rather than continued exploring the world). Bottom line is you will have to do side quests and/or grinding, but this is partly what contributes to the game's length and, for me, enjoyment. It gives a reason for exploring every nook and cranny of the world. Also, again, it offers some opportunity to build up your Party Affinity as well as the Area Affinity (how much the area trusts you and what level of quests they are willing to give you). The side quests are also what help flesh out the interactions of other characters in the world outside your own party, which, for me, helped destroy the notion that the world was just my seven party members, instead being a world with many interconnected characters.

Outside of that, the game has a lot of beautiful areas, a wonderful soundtrack, an interesting story, and a true sense that your 100+ hour experience was a real journey. There's a lot of other stuff, but I really can't go into all that. Just be warned, the lip syncing in the game is horrible, especially at the beginning and end.

Now, I'm not sure how the pricing of the game is where you live, but it is hard to find the game at a normal price anymore. On Amazon, it goes for about $100+ dollars. Just a side note in case you haven't considered the pricing of these games.

 

[Pulse]

Dragon's Dogma-

Difficulty - Challenging but fair. If you die it's usually your own fault or you took a wrong turn, but it's definitely not a walk in the park. Although I never felt I needed to grind, leveling to a suitable strength just seemed to happen as I played the game which was a definite plus for me.

Combat depth - It's deep.

Every class has a primary and secondary weapons. Each weapon can be assigned 4(or was it 3?) abilities which use stamina (running and climbing also uses stamina) which can be used on the fly in combat, be it a dash charge, a fiveshot arrow, a counter attack or summoning a whirlwind. On top of that each weapon also has basic light and heavy attacks which don't use stamina, which for some weapons vary depending on button press timing.

Stamina auto regens, if you run out you character takes a second to regain their breath.

 

[major_chaos]

Well thanks for the responses everyone. While Xenoblade does sound like an amazing game, US copies are 100$ used (before shipping!) and non of the Amazon.co.uk sellers with low prices will ship international, so unless someone knows of someplace where I can get it cheap(ish) I'm going with Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen. Once again thanks for all the responses

 

[piinyouri]

Spoiler: My responses. I apologize for the lengthy chunks of text, but I hope it answers your questions!

Dragon's Dogma:
Difficulty?

As always is the case, difficulty is a very subjective thing, however as someone who does not enjoy the Souls series because of the difficulty, I found Dragons Dogma to be not that hard.
When you first start out it can be very difficult since you don;t know the enemy patterns, how all the skills and weapons behave and what not. I've played the game through probably around 5-6 times with different classes and it's gotten so easy for me, that I tend to avoid doing side quests or picking up things like health or stamina items. Even the oft feared nighttime isnt that hard for me anymore with a fresh character right off the boat. You just have to pay attention, play smart, and know when to run the hell away.

Combat depth?

Depends greatly on which class you're playing as. The Fighter is the only class who can use a shield and is therefore the best defended of the group. It also gives them skills that can draw the enemies attention away from other members.

Strider can dual wield daggers, and scale large monsters to slash away at their weak parts.(any character can scale monsters, but striders' skill sets make them far more adept at this feat)

Rangers are all about bows and the insane stack damage from some of their multi-arrow skills.

Warriors are both one of the strongest classes attack wise as well as one of the hardiest. They use the two handed weapons and cannot use shields, but they get special skills that allow them to shrug off massive amounts of damage.

Mages are primarily a support class, as only they can use healing magic as well as enchant weapons with elemental damage. (a huge asset) You'll want at least one of these in your party.

Sorcerers are the heavy artillery. They have access to the most devastating spells in the game. They can conjure up tornadoes that pick up and throw enemies around like toys, and bring meteors down to turn the respective battlefield into a smoldering graveyard.
The remaining three classes are hybrids.

Mystic Knight is somewhat like a paladin, though they do not have any healing magic. They have their own set of weapons that only they can use.

The Assassin is an all rounded killing machine. Their strength growth is the highest of any other class and can use daggers, swords, shields, and bows.

Magick Archers are mages who use a bow that fires bolts of magic instead of ballistic arrows. I say mages because all of their damage comes from their magic stat. They gain no physical damage bonus for these bows from strength.

You are free to change classes anytime you want(after a certain point) and are not locked into one permanently.

What is different about Dark Arisen?

DA adds a number of quests in the base game that involve killing monsters from DA's main dungeon, Bitterblack Isle that have somehow found their way into Gransys. It also adds some of the monsters from Bitterblack to Gransys that you can find just roaming around.

That aside, DA itself adds a lot of content. A decent sized dungeon that is very old-school dungeon crawler like in design. It winds and twists all over the place, with nooks and crannies abound to be explored. All the new gear has been very nice thus far as well, and there's plenty of it. New skills have been added, but you achieve them differently than in the base game. In Bitterblack, you find pieces of cursed equipment and items. Uncursing these takes rift crystals(which Bitterblack will now provide with in spades. Before you had to rely on someone renting your pawn for a lengthy amount of time) and sometimes you will get either a secret augment, that is a new augment that can be used regardless of class just like the old ones, or a skill upgrade ring. These rings must be equipped in order to receive the benefit of the skill upgrade. You can only wear two pieces of jewelry, so you can only have two skills in their final form.