SPOILER - Ending is a HUGE disappointment

[Herr Engel]

now before clowning me, im comparing the ending of the game to the first game. it might be a good ending/good game standalone, but definetly not as a successor to dd1.

anyway, remember in DD1 when Grigori wasnt just a huge threat, he was actually wise and threatening? not only his voice, but his voicelines instilled fear and respect, he was so well spoken and having him talk to you was just an experience in itself.

now cut to DD2, you see him once in a flashback and then next time just at the end. Lord Phaesus summons a plagued dragon for some reason, grigori falls from the sky too and kills the dragon. Phaesus gets unconscious and then grigori says some random ♥♥♥♥ and pretty much sums up how you have to decide between walking away and sacrificing someone or fight him.
no real "speech", more like "sacrifice him or kill me".

in DD1 he was so majestic, so big and threatening. here it seems like... i dont know, just like a random encounter?

anyway, there is no immediate aggression if you decide to fight him, not big "pre-fight" like the first game where you end up clinging to his back - he literally invites you to climb on his back, saying that this is predetermined that they will fight much like a ceremony, but in the air hes talking about how i am too late to stop him???

fast forward to about 5-10 minutes and i killed him since he uses like ~3-4 moves in total. (it is EXTREMELY easy to kill him, since he only spews fire infront of him for a solid 5-10 seconds where you can just climb on his head and deal massive damage).

so he dies, some random yapping and youre sovran. what happened to the queen? her son? the fake sovran? did they not fight back in the slightest??

best thing? there is no post game. no everfall, no changed enviroment, no nothing.
you can restart with your current equipment or load the save before fighting him. im not even sure if you keep your seekers token progress, would be pretty sad to lose them too.

the whole buildup to the fight was mediocre at best. the Talos fight felt like it was scripted and the entire game ive only met goblins, ogres and trolls.
rarely ive seen griffins on the ground to fight and only once a chimera.
didnt see any medusa or sphynx, didnt see the headless even tough ive travelled at night most of the time and no "suprise" monsters they didnt show. (to be fair, i didnt explore THAT much, but still explored enough to see almost all different areas and wouldve expected some more variaton besides different breeds of goblins).

i dont know, the game felt very short and almost like a fanfic lol.

still enjoyed it, but it doesnt even come close to the first game.

positives are that the world is definetly not as empty + the graphics. didnt really care much about the beastren personally.

[Arlion]

This was the bad end, if you talk to the guy after killing the dragon you can go back to the flight to the fight. During the flight climb to the dragons heart and use the godsbane to start the real end game.

[Holynevil]

talk to what guy?

[BeachWookie]

The Pathfinder, you have to talk to him during the ending coronation scene.

[Herr Engel]

Originally posted by 𐂃𐂃:

Wow. It seems like you didn't even listen to what dragon says in both games.
The dragon's loss is predetermined if you decide to fight it, because only Arisen with enough will can actually resist the dragon's temptation of saving/sacrificing the loved one. And that will is strong enough to defeat the dragon.

Of course there are some "outliers" like Dragonforged; Daemon from Bitterblack Isle; the new guy in underwater castle in DD2.

The actual game starts after seppuku with godsbane

welp, im man enough to admit that i was wrong, there is a post game and i shouldve listened. but i still think grigori from the first game way way better, just more well spoken and majestic in general

[Zosimei]

You aren't wrong. I felt exactly the same way - the ending came out of nowhere, as you said there was no build-up to the encounter with the Dragon and his character was a non-entity and then he dies (in either ending).

I was honestly so shocked that it was the ending I kept waiting for the Dragon to fly off and talk about fighting me later. If you'd asked me before that encounter how much of the game I thought I had completed I would have said "based on everything I guess about a third of the way through". This is based on the fact I was only Level 40-odd, I had only levelled up 2 and a half Vocations and most of all so many major plot points were not resolved. And yet suddenly Final Boss > Credits just out of absolutely nowhere. It caught me off guard more than any game I've ever played, it felt unbelievably abrupt.

And yes I talked to the guy and am in the "end game" now but that doesn't change that all the political intrigue plots never got fulfilled and while I had done many quests most of them were largely inconsequential to the main plot (even though some were brilliant like the Poison obsessed guy, it's not related to the plot).

My current feeling is that this game should never have been made. It feels like the team said:

"Let's make Dragons Dogma 2 - we don't have any ideas but I'm sure we'll think of something."
RATHER THAN
"We have an important idea for this story so we absolutely should make Dragons Dogma 2".
There's a world of difference between those things.

And this isn't even to talk about the gameplay downgrades from the first game, the Vocation system is a total mess, the movement is floaty and slow and animation locked instead of being snappy and responsive, they all but removed the auto-target system which was great in the first game (playing melee is just a nightmare, constantly randomly swinging at nothing when the Enemy is right next to you). I'm levelling Archer vocation now and while it's not much fun at all (very basic), it at least doesn't have the frustrations I had with Thief/Fighter/Warrior.
Why are ALL weapons locked behind currency now? In the first game you could defeat an epic boss and get rewarded with amazing gear, now you just buy EVERYTHING from the vendor.
The enemy variety is atrocious made doubly awful by enemy density in low level areas.
I could go on, but I won't... but I could.

The Pawn system is amazing and hugely improved from the first game, the Quest system is great but the main plot ruins it. That's about the only positive things I can say, trust me no-one wanted to love this game more than me but it is what it is.

[Desna]

Real ending you have to use the godbane sword near the dragon heart while you're flying on his back. Then you get what they call 'post game' not sure why it's called that considering game isn't over.

Unfortunalely, there isn't as much to do as i would have hoped in the newly changed map. Overall i enjoyed the game, i just wish you actually had to explore and kill unique bosses to get the best gear instead of just buying it.

[LMN8]

I had teh same experience of the ending, Level 45, just chugging along, tbf not enjoying the game that much but the ending is awful, abrupt and doesn't feel like an ending at all. I get the bit about using the godbane but seriously if you are going to tuck the "proper" ending away like that that's just piss poor game design - which frankly matches the rest of it.
Over-hyped bug-ridden poor game.

[AvasNem]

Originally posted by LMN8:

I had teh same experience of the ending, Level 45, just chugging along, tbf not enjoying the game that much but the ending is awful, abrupt and doesn't feel like an ending at all. I get the bit about using the godbane but seriously if you are going to tuck the "proper" ending away like that that's just piss poor game design - which frankly matches the rest of it.
Over-hyped bug-ridden poor game.

Its not realy an endgame if its a rouge like and on a time limit. I hate that combination. Really bummed me out. A huge new world with tons of new gear where you have to rush through. And it ends always the same. Either you complete it and start NG+ or you die and start NG+. Whoever thought that was a good idea should never work on a game project ever.