Have you ever seen a game that really looks like it will be exactly your kind of thing, and then it gets near universal praise so you think, “yeah, I’m gonna give it a go,” and then you play the game and… it just doesn’t click for you? That’s exactly what happened to me with Dragon’s Dogma 2 recently, and for the most part it’s been a point of frustration. For one, games aren’t cheap these days, so it’s not exactly fun to lay down the funds for one and feel unsure of it. It’s also because I really want to be on its wavelength, and I haven’t been exactly sure why I’m not. But then I remember this has happened before, with one of my now favourite games, and one of FromSoftware’s best: Bloodborne.
You see, I got Bloodborne about a year after it had come out, and it was my first ever Soulslike. My only experience with the genre prior to this was playing the opening section of Dark Souls when I was 14 which left me with a feeling of “why would anyone want to play something so needlessly hard?” So, safe to say, I wasn’t all that clued in to how the genre was meant to work. I understood at that point that the difficulty was the whole point of it, and it’s not like I’d never played hard games before, but at this point in time where Soulslikes weren’t as plentiful, Bloodborne was unfamiliar to me.
I probably spent 10 hours alone just in the section that leads you towards Father Gascoigne, with at least three quarters of that not even being me attempting to fight the experienced hunter. In time I did beat him, but when I got to Vicar Amelia, I just hit a wall – and I know what you’re thinking, but don’t even dare to comment “you just needed to get good.” It wasn’t really about getting good, it was more that I didn’t know what kind of hunter I wanted to be. Which weapon should I use, how should I move, have I made a mistake? These were all questions I couldn’t answer, and it wasn’t until about two attempts later that something changed.
I managed to get to Father Gascoigne without much trouble, and I didn’t need to grind all that much, so no cheesing took place. Vicar Amelia went down easy enough too, and so did many other bosses. In part it was probably time that helped, but also I feel that I was just better at understanding what the game wanted from me, and what I wanted from it in exchange. Which is exactly the problem I’m facing with Dragon’s Dogma 2 right now.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m having a good time. Tripping up a cyclops to then stab it to all hell in the head is good, classic Video Games, and throwing pawns and enemies alike never gets old. But… I don’t know what kind of Arisen I’m meant to be right now, and I certainly have no idea how to come to a conclusion. Maybe I need to mess around with the different vocations more, but even then, what kind of a playstyle do I want to have?
I’m not going to give up just yet, there’s still much more of the game for me to see, and there’s still the chance I’ll have my eureka moment. Still, I think there’s a comfort in knowing that I’ve done this whole song and dance before, and I can feel that Dragon’s Dogma is exactly my kind of game. Maybe I won’t click with it today, tomorrow, or even next week – but I do know I will when the time is right.