I fuckin love Dragon's Dogma. I love NPC companion systems in general in games, and DDDA was one of the only games I've seen where you can have a party of NPCs that autonomously interact with the world. They'll engage in fights of their own volition, buff or heal you on their own, will open chests, destroy boxes, and loot on their own, and the ways you can modify their behavior by teaching them is very interesting.

Granted, they were never smart enough about buffing or healing, which often made me want to go Mage because I could do the job far better than them, but playing a game where I can play support and healer for an NPC party is another thing I love about DDDA that you don't often see in other games.

Very stoked for the sequel.

I haven't actually finished DD1 but that's 100% on my attention span, it's an amazing game and I'm super excited for the sequel! Never played anything quite like it, the way you explore and how dark and terrifying nighttime is will always stick with me. I started on that hard difficulty setting way back when, forgot what it's called, and it was a really fun ride right up to the point I suddenly stopped playing for no particular reason I can recall.

Oh and it's got some of the coolest spells I've ever seen in a game. Take something like the tornado spell. Most games would hand you a moderately sized green wind burst or something and call it a day, DD actually gives you what feels like a city destroying one you take ages to cast lol. Most of the ones I remember are like that and I love them so much.

I am certainly interested in the 2nd game. Should I play the 1st game before then? I heard mostly good things about DD1.

For anyone else new to this series (like me) :

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon's_Dogma

ETA:

https://youtu.be/EIWTssbhr9U

I just bought the switch port but I haven't started it yet. I have been looking for a good fantasy RPG tho.

You shouldn't buy capcom games.

I bought dragon’s dogma: dark arisen for the switch a year or two ago. It’s pretty fun and the pawn system is a good innovation over npc party members in other games. I liked the voice lines they’d rattle off every so often… “goblins ill like fire!”

I’m currently working my way through Elden ring on PC, which is a lot more punishing combat-wise, but definitely has superior level design. I’ll come back to DD to finish the story at some point.

I like it a lot, but the pawn system is a bit of an hassle. You have to invest some time planning out and spec-ing and searching pawns, which makes it a bit complex.

I got stuck in the first game where a boss would just utterly destroy my team. I tried a few times and never got close to winning. Maybe I'll give it another shot

Monster hunter with a dark souls theme and a hard medieval setting. Need I say more?

I tried the first one when someone told me it was like Dark Souls with better coop. Felt more like Monster Hunter than Dark Souls tho. While not bad, it wasn't what I was looking for.