User blog comment:AeonsLegend/Ideas for Dragon's Dogma 2/@comment-3498155-20140304060452

The far-too-quickly plateauing difficulty is a big issue, agreed. In fact I just started an actual New Game, not New Game+. Btw RPGs really should take a page from Namco's "Tales" series in this respect, i.e. the Grade Shop. You can customize your New Game+ experience. That's huge.

Stats are a problem, indeed. I also agree skills should play a more important role - right now any player can max their vocations before level 100. This pretty much kills whatever incentive is left to retry afresh. Hell, I was desperate enough to do it because I got tired of one-shotting most critters.

Actually the stat growths aren't too bad - even at +4, with 199 level ups (1 to 200) that's just under +800, whereas most players tearing through BBI have stats at least twice that. Supplemented by gear though. I'd rather not make gear less important than simply leveling up mindlessly by grinding. Gear is another issue, we need more sidegrades. Currently if you want to use, say, an ice-enchanted 1-h sword, you only have 1 choice. This is the whole JRPG "big, bigger, biggest" linear item progression which translates into 90% of a game's equipment being obsolete by the endgame. I despite games where you can point to weapon X and armor Y, "these are the 'best' items". Sure, it takes effort to design more sidegrades, but this is where things like crafting and customizing come into play. It's not like the devs need to do everything themselves.

Imagine if you could boost that early-game short sword's power, or speed. At the very least this system would make mid-tier items also viable for the endgame, and an endgame with choice is a good endgame, vs a cookie-cutter "everyone wears King's Platemail and Emperor's Helmet because those are the best armor" kind of endgame. I'd certainly feel more excited that new playthroughs will actually FEEL like playing the game anew, instead of, "oh, i've gotten those things and worn them before, yawn". After all, we can all already max all vocations long before the level cap, that's already one avenue of difference tossed out. Imagine if vocations had not two, but a dozen skill upgrades per skill! This would mean specializing would be a good idea, because if you simply tried to learn everything all your skills would be pathetically low. It would actually MEAN something to choose melee as a specialization, maxing all your fighter and warrior skills, and only devoting a few slots to learn dodge moves from the strider class, for example. Right now my level 200 character is the same as your level 200 character, albeit for a small difference in stats. +/- 200 points in strength doesn't matter when the total attack rating is like 3000. So, yeah, the current system where the arisen can eventually max all vocations is definitely flawed.

-

I've posted a blog or two about other, smaller annoyances - mostly UI-related stuff. Things like improving inventory management. No more stupid moments like this: "have I bought this helm before? No? Ok, here's $1 million... oh wait, I actually have it already, but it's 1-star, so it didn't count". Well shit, you just burned 1 million gold because the game was too stupid to tell that yes, despite your item being enhanced compared to the one in the store, the base item is actually the same. Granted, perhaps most people actually don't bother to buy extra gear and only when they need them, but many of us like to be prepared ("better buy this now, who knows if other vendors stock it") and others are just plain collectors. As if the game throwing a ton of money at you isn't a hint already, what else are you going to spend that money on?

Finally, the game world. I think weather was a tad out of scope, considering even now I can get the game to lag during sudden rushes of action (e.g. sprint around a corner right into a large goblin camp). I'm pretty sure the hardware would stutter terribly if you tried to insert rain, let alone fancier things like snow. If the sequel comes out on the next gen platforms though (Xbone, PS4) then oh god yes they should have weather. After all there's already that windy passageway on the way to Bluemoon tower. Clearly wind effects are already available. It would be nice if there was more wind elsewhere, albeit with less effect. Want to show off next gen hardware power? Make our capes flutter in the breeze, dammit. Casting Levin during a thunderstorm would be awesome, not to mention Maelstrom. Heck, with increased skill tiers I mentioned above there would be room for weather-affected and non-weather affected skills. Like say low level fire spells' burning effect could be washed out by rain, while high level fire spells would keep burning mercilessly.

...wow, this post really got away from me. Ta.