So Dragon’s Dogma is hard. Maybe it’s just because I haven’t recruited any stronger pawns (allies who you can hire into your party) since the beginning of the game, but we’ve been getting our asses handed to us by bandits more regularly than I’d like to admit. Maybe it’s because I’ve been venturing off into a world I’m not yet strong enough to tackle.
After Skyrim I assumed I could get anywhere in Dragon’s Dogma right away if I was clever enough, but levelling up is definitely a much more important feature here. While Skyrim’s level-up system is more about rounding out your skills, DD’s levels go the typical RPG way of increasing your base stats. Guess it’ll be a while before I can strike out into the wide world of Gransys.
On the upside, I’ve collected a couple good fish-out-of-water stories! The first of which occurred right after I arrived in Gran Soren (the capital city). I poked around the residential area for a bit and then took on all the quests that were immediately available from the inn’s quest board. One in particular was an escort job, and the fella that needed my help (Roderigo or something?) joined up right then and there. I figured I’d best help him out first so that I didn’t have a liability tagging along for too long.
Turns out his destination was halfway across the world. Crud.
But I assumed that my party would be able to hack it. At the very least we could just run away from everything until we reached our destination and come up with a battle plan once we were safe. Spoilers: that didn’t work.
Our first issue was when we came across some saurians chilling in a brook. Being called “saurians” makes them sound like awesome dinosaur monsters, but really they’re just lizardmen. My party had faced off with these guys before, and they’re tough, but nothing we weren’t able to handle. Or so I thought. These saurians happened to be the advanced versions (sulfur saurians) that spend most of their time invisible. They were also considerably more deadly and had better defense. The species loses most of their defensive powers if their tails are severed, but we were barely able to disable and fell one of the beasts before they overwhelmed us.
I ran away as fast as I could, my helpless escortee trailing behind. But as I tried to call my party to escape with me, I noticed that Erika and Ema were downed, so I had to run back to revive them. I had to run back and forth a few times, because usually as I’d revive one ally, another would be struck down. It’s too bad there isn’t actually a “run away” command. Being limited to being able to call your pawns to “come” makes for difficult escapes.
Being more wary of my surroundings now that I knew we were in very hostile territory, I made sure we stayed on the beaten path as we traipsed through a forest towards our goal. Unfortunately, I soon espied the first non-plot “boss” monster that I’d seen, a cyclops. While I’d helped a bunch of soldiers slay a cyclops early in the game, I wasn’t confident that my party would be able to handle the monster at this point; our supplies and strength were equally drained from the encounter with the saurians.
Fortunately, the cyclops had just woren from a nap in the road, so he didn’t notice us. We were still forced to make a detour through the woods if we were to remain unnoticed. Then the bandits saw us. It was close, but we managed to evade them and get back onto the road, but the cyclops had heard the signs of a scuffle, and was loping over to investigate. He didn’t see us, but we were pinned in a corner. The road let us to a rock facing, and the only wa around it was a twisty road that went right through the bandits’ turf. Backtracking and going the other way around the wall would have put us right on the cyclops’ dinner plate. We were in deep.
I made the call to take on the bandits. They were just humans, right? We were in rough shape, but we should have been able to manage. And for a while we did. We slew the first wave of bandits easily, but the fight drew the cyclops’ attention again and he suck up behind us and started stomping my pawns into paste. Between trying the escape the cyclops and revive my fallen allies, I didn’t notice the rest of the bandits closing in on our rear flank. I decided that my pawns would have to fend for themselves, and that as long as I could escape with my charge, I could re-summon them once I made it to town.
I ran as fast as I could, and then I heard Veronica (my right-hand woman) yell out something about a monster that looked like it was composed of several other beasts. Before I was able to process the information, the chimera lunged out from the trees and everything went red.
I’m not sure if I consider it lucky that I’d last saved right outside of Gran Soren. On one hand, I’d lost about half an hour of play time and a good amount of experience. On the other hand, I wouldn’t have to fight my way back through the forest and all my supplies were intact. I think that may have worked out for the best. It was then that I decided to let my tag-along pal around with us for a bit longer. Until I could find a safer path to his destination, anyway. The direct road there was definitely not the one we wanted to take.
Fortunately, he hasn’t been the liability I figured he would. Monsters aren’t particularly attracted to him, and the ones that are are quickly distracted by Veronica’s “shield summon” skill. He’s rather adept at staying away from danger too. I mean, he’ll often waltz right through the middle of a battle, but come out the other end completely unharmed. It’s somewhat impressive, to be perfectly honest. I’m beginning to think he might be able to survive until we’ve grown strong enough to get him where he needs to be.
Or, of course, I could always fire Erika and Ema and hire a couple new pawns who are more on par with myself and Veronica. As it is they’re probably bigger liabilities than what’s-his-face. It’s just hard to split up with companions that you’ve been through so much with. It’s really too bad that subordinate pawns don’t level up.