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CJacobs posted:I started as a fighter, finished as a fighter. My main pawn started mage but I ascended them to the-one-that-comes-after-mage because I wanted them to smite things with meteors. The game alternated between being incredibly piss easy and way too difficult to be fun without any real indication as to why, so I just stuck with melee to keep things simple. The final boss was the only thing that was even a challenge to a pure melee fighter because the only place you can hurt him is just barely out of your reach. Even pure flying enemies land and then flail about like idiots all the time.
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Apr 30, 2014 06:27
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Wow I actually really killed the final final boss in one combo attack (plus the finishing blow). Christ. The last hour or so of this thing could not have gone further off the rails, I swear. This is Dark Souls level of disappointment in endings. Here is my review of the game because I alluded to doing a post-mortem before: Overall I'd say I didn't like it very much. The game has almost no semblance of difficulty or balancing to speak of and it's almost a dice roll whether or not an enemy will be too tough for you to fight or too easy for you to fight, without very much in the way of a middle ground. There is in fact no way to tell whether an enemy will kill you in one hit or fifty because all of the various enemy types only have a handful of variants; the leveling system is very poorly thought out because enemies are leveled on their own time and you have no way to tell how strong they will be at a glance. I found myself running into fights I could not win and being unable to escape, having to resort to would-be save scumming to know that I could not go in a direction yet. The post-game world ups this to an insane degree by just straight-up replacing all enemies with their ascended versions in an attempt to keep the difficulty raised to match your player. If I wasn't overleveled, I was underleveled, it was too annoying to be fun. Most of the tertiary systems in the game are complete nonsense. The crafting is just complex enough to be worth having in the game but is completely outweighed by the fact that dragonforged equipment exists later on. Once I defeated the dragon and all of my equipment was ascended, I didn't have to equip another item for the rest of my entire playthrough. Crafting items became my gold dumping ground as soon as I reached the post-game because I had no need for any of it. And why would I bother? I was wearing what I usually liked to wear when it happened and suddenly I had the most powerful equipment available to me at the time. The vocations are all neat and being able to change quickly between them was a good alternative to only giving the player one save file. The combat is very stylish and all of the weapons I used had at least some form of oomph to them that made everything feel effective, when the enemy wasn't just shrugging it off because I was miles below their level without knowing it. I don't have much to say about this one in particular because it's one of the few things I actually really liked. Something I wasn't a fan of in Dark Souls is that they coerce you into committing to a playstyle by building your character from the ground up irreversibly. Dark Souls 2 fixes this a bit with respec items, but I feel like Dragon's Dogma's skill system is a well-executed alternative. The affinity system is stupid and I have a really hard time understanding why it was put into the game in the first place. You could just pass it off as "JAPAAAN  " but that's a bullshit cop-out to try and explain a lazy and poorly implemented reason for you to care about the NPCs you talk to. The game doesn't ever expect you to care about anyone but that one NPC you liked better than the rest of them, but that's only if you know the system exists beforehand and game it so that you get who you want. Every time Mercedes showed up after her miserable leaving of the plot earlier all I could do was sigh because I knew the only reason she was there was because I dumped 30 Cloudwines on her so that I didn't end up getting some random NPC I talked to more than the rest of them.Pawns are autistic morons that won't shut their loving mouths and even though you can shut yours up for the most part, you can't shut other peoples' up. Without three pawns blasting everything to rubble I don't think the game would even be possible to beat because they are such an annoying necessity that you can't do without their damage output. If it weren't for their dumb commentary I probably wouldn't have beaten the game anyway because most of my enjoyment came from them yelling about stupid irrelevant poo poo while breaking all of the boxes in peoples' houses. Again, like the crafting and the vocations, I can see what they were going for in trying to make a system that is complex but at the same time unique, but there are so many intricacies to your pawns' behavior that all that ends up really mattering is how good they are at dealing damage without getting in your way. The first time I ran to revive my pawn and she cockily exclaimed how she would have her revenge, it was cool. The fiftieth time I ran to revive my pawn in the Grigori fight because she'd been auto-KO'd by the tail swipe, it was awful. As the credits are rolling on my other monitor right now all I can think about is how little of a poo poo I gave about the plot, and the characters, and the story. They don't even try to make you care about any of it in the slightest. The game world reeks of ye olde high fantasy setting and has all the generic-monsters-hoisted-from-Lord-of-the-Rings to match. Some people can appreciate that, but in my personal opinion I felt like it was nothing but a detriment. It plays all of the fantasy setting tropes to a T and it just ended up being bland and boring. The characters are characterless save for a small handful and every single thing outside of the hub town wants to kill you just because you exist. Like I said in my post on the previous page, all I cared about was getting my heart back and when I did my want to even finish the thing only came from the fact that I felt like I had to see it through to the bitter end. And I did, and it was very bitter indeed. Maybe it was a case of it being hyped up too much. Almost everyone I talked to told me that it was a really good game and the whole reason I bought it in the first place was on faith that it would be. Most of the responses I've got from everyone, not just here, have been "if you don't like it why not just stop playing it?" And the reason is because I paid about 40 bucks total for this (I had the vanilla version, and I recently bought Dark Arisen via digital xbox download) and I want to know for sure if it was worth my money before I get all mad about it. The verdict? No. It might have been worth a rent if renting was still a thing. For all my complaints it ended up being alright, I guess, and that's all I can really say about it. And as a final eye-rolling gesture, the final achievement is named 'Closure', just before it thrusts you into NG+ so you can do it all over again without any closure to speak of. What a mediocre game this turned out to be. 
CJacobs fucked around with this message at 10:46 on Apr 30, 2014 |
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Apr 30, 2014 10:36
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Why on earth did you even finish it, then?
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Apr 30, 2014 16:54
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What's the point of the affinity system? Does it do anything or does it just give you an NPC in your house at the end?
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Apr 30, 2014 17:36
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Blast of Confetti posted:What's the point of the affinity system? Does it do anything or does it just give you an NPC in your house at the end? There's actually some vendors which give you access to extra stuff if you have high affinity with them, but other then that it's basically who you want to live with you in the postgame (Fournival is actually a really good person to get for this reason).
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Apr 30, 2014 18:06
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CJacobs posted:a bunch of words It sounds like you got owned by a video game
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Apr 30, 2014 18:12
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Bakalakadaka posted:There's actually some vendors which give you access to extra stuff if you have high affinity with them, but other then that it's basically who you want to live with you in the postgame (Fournival is actually a really good person to get for this reason). What does Fournival offer other than the magnanimous cloak?
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Apr 30, 2014 18:32
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Mad Dragon posted:What does Fournival offer other than the magnanimous cloak? He sells items that boost stats (unlimited demon's/conquerer's periapts) and stack up to 4 times which are really useful for postgame and BBI. In the postgame Fournival can be difficult to access because of plot reasons. vvv I would use the hell out of corpse tossing pawn if my 360 hadn't exploded and I wasn't on the wrong side of the world. Bakalakadaka fucked around with this message at 19:32 on Apr 30, 2014 |
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Apr 30, 2014 18:43
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I just got this like two weeks ago when it was one of the xbox sale games and I absolutely love the the hell out it. I just added myself to the spreadsheet and I'd love if someone would use my pawn, she's a level 55 fighter that I trained to basically be the spartans from 300. Also she has this weird habit of picking corpses up and throwing them at people. e: Also she specializes in murdering big things. BattleTech fucked around with this message at 19:35 on Apr 30, 2014 |
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Apr 30, 2014 19:24
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Magus42 posted:Why on earth did you even finish it, then? Because I just don't know when to quit. And also because you can't return digital downloads for a refund. I think if I play the game again I'll do it on Easy because like I said it is a very stylish game, I just wish the combat difficulty wasn't so schizophrenic. CJacobs fucked around with this message at 01:30 on May 1, 2014 |
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May 1, 2014 00:47
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Neo Helbeast posted:I just got this like two weeks ago when it was one of the xbox sale games and I absolutely love the the hell out it. I just added myself to the spreadsheet and I'd love if someone would use my pawn, she's a level 55 fighter that I trained to basically be the spartans from 300. Also she has this weird habit of picking corpses up and throwing them at people. Can't find your info on the sheet, what's your gamertag?
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May 1, 2014 01:23
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Supreme Allah posted:Can't find your info on the sheet, what's your gamertag? My GT is Mechwarrior. I'm currently trudging through bitterblack right now grinding my face against this stupi cockatrice. My pawns keep getting Petrified 
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May 1, 2014 01:32
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Added my level 25-ish (I think) pawn to the Google doc. Please take him on adventures if you want a big dumb ox with a sword and shield, he gets bored easily. I can't decide if I want to switch him from fighter to warrior, though.
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May 1, 2014 04:46
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Walrus Pete posted:Added my level 25-ish (I think) pawn to the Google doc. Please take him on adventures if you want a big dumb ox with a sword and shield, he gets bored easily. I can't decide if I want to switch him from fighter to warrior, though. Do both, augments cross classes and some perks too. I've switched my pawn about three different times and am just about to start Warrior training.
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May 1, 2014 04:49
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CJacobs posted:What a mediocre game this turned out to be. As an aside, it's not really a necessity to run with a whole party of pawns for damage output. One is already plenty, really. A full party just makes it easier to demolish everything. In any case, have you tried out Bitterblack Isle, yet? That area is pretty fun for getting more out of the game's combat.
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May 1, 2014 04:57
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Neo Helbeast posted:Do both, augments cross classes and some perks too. I've switched my pawn about three different times and am just about to start Warrior training. I decided to hold off on class changing until I maxed out my and my pawn's class ranks (and I'm glad I did if for no other reason than the strider weight-class augment) but now I'm an assassin and my pawn's a warrior. Thoughts so far: Assassins can't use ensnare/implicate, and I hate that. Implicate was my "never take damage from bandits or goblins" button  Found a fire-enchanted sword in a dungeon, which is pretty rad. Swords' basic attacks seem lacking compared to daggers, but I'll have to see how it looks once I start remembering that I bought the first pair of core skills. My pawn is suddenly a murder machine  He seemed to do okay damage before, but now that he's rocking a big goddamn hammer he's like a living nightmare for anything smaller than an ogre.And lastly, I met the thing in the forest that a couple of you guys hinted about. At night. Fuuuuuck that. The rest camp sure was a nice surprise though!
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May 1, 2014 23:59
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Walrus Pete posted:Added my level 25-ish (I think) pawn to the Google doc. Please take him on adventures if you want a big dumb ox with a sword and shield, he gets bored easily. I can't decide if I want to switch him from fighter to warrior, though. I can't find you on the sheet, what's your GT? I'll take some goon pawns out adventuring ASAP. edit - I don't know if you mentioned what console you were on so but I don't see you on the PS3 list either!
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May 2, 2014 00:36
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I finally started up Dark Arisen after getting it for free on PS+. On one hand, it's a bummer that when I first played Dragma it was on 360 and that's what all my friends played it on as well. So no friends' pawns to use on PSN, which removes the fun of gossiping about what stupid/rad poo poo our pawns did. On the other hand, it's a joy to just be playing this silly, stupid game again. Just got to Gran Soren, and it was on the way there that I was reminded of why I enjoy this game so much:  Crawling over goddamn everything. Really is good to be back at this game 
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May 2, 2014 00:37
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Walrus Pete posted:I decided to hold off on class changing until I maxed out my and my pawn's class ranks (and I'm glad I did if for no other reason than the strider weight-class augment) but now I'm an assassin and my pawn's a warrior. Thoughts so far: There seems to be this weird point in the Pawn Ai where switches from  to  when they reach a certain level. I remember when it clicked for my pawn, we got attacked by a griffin. It was wrecking house and had started to fly away when my pawn jumped off a cliff and onto its back and then murdered the poo poo out of it. She ended up falling to her to her death when it died and was so far away I couldn't get to her and revive her in time.
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May 2, 2014 01:38
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Neo Helbeast posted:There seems to be this weird point in the Pawn Ai where switches from Not really. "I'LL CLIMB ITS BACK AND STRIKE FROM ABOVE!" "I'LL CLIMB ITS BACK AND STRIKE FROM ABOVE!" "I'LL CLIMB ITS BACK AND STRIKE FROM ABOVE!" *does nothing*
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May 2, 2014 01:41
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Neo Helbeast posted:There seems to be this weird point in the Pawn Ai where switches from It might be related to pawn inclination as well. Scather and challenger pawns are a lot more aggressive than others. According to the wiki, pawns can learn scather if you rush in to fight enemies as soon as they appear, and challenger pawns develop from watching you attack and kill archers and casters before melee enemies. Mad Dragon posted:Not really. They might be asking in their clumsy way for someone to use a launch ability, try flinging them.
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May 2, 2014 02:03
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I don't think Magick Archers can do that.  Maybe I'll give my fighter pawn that ability and see what happens.
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May 2, 2014 02:43
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Mad Dragon posted:I don't think Magick Archers can do that. Actually, Magick Archers have the best skill in the game for launching pawns at enemies.
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May 2, 2014 03:25
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Cometa Rossa posted:I can't find you on the sheet, what's your GT? I'll take some goon pawns out adventuring ASAP. I just clicked the link in the second post and added myself to the bottom, I dunno why it wouldn't be showing up. But I'm on PS3, and my PSN ID is Tonlogna. oh, wait. I accidentally used the link that's apparently for people playing without Dark Arisen. Whoops I'm on the correct doc now.
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May 2, 2014 08:32
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Tried my second playthrough as a Strider and wow the game got a lot better suddenly. I think Nahxela was right and I shouldn't have taken the game as seriously as I did. I'm still sticking to my big ol rant but I feel like with this second playthrough I can definitely see the merits the game has in it.
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May 2, 2014 11:18
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CJacobs posted:Tried my second playthrough as a Strider and wow the game got a lot better suddenly. I think Nahxela was right and I shouldn't have taken the game as seriously as I did. I'm still sticking to my big ol rant but I feel like with this second playthrough I can definitely see the merits the game has in it. Not to mention that the game is actually pretty hard to simply sit down and play over a long period of time. At least for me. It's somewhat draining to play running around the map back and forth sometimes.
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May 2, 2014 11:20
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CJacobs posted:Tried my second playthrough as a Strider and wow the game got a lot better suddenly. I think Nahxela was right and I shouldn't have taken the game as seriously as I did. I'm still sticking to my big ol rant but I feel like with this second playthrough I can definitely see the merits the game has in it. Doing your first playthrough as a melee class will help make your Strider a little more tanky, and you can start combining augments from the different classes. A lot of the fun of this game for me was messing around with different combinations of gear, augments, skills, and pawns to find out which look the coolest (most important) and worked the best (mostly negligible). E: I had maxed out all vocations by level 120 or so, I really recommend playing around with different vocations to find out which ones you find the most fun. During your second playthrough it doesn't matter if you only have starter items for whatever class you're trying, you'll still crush everything up until the last third of the game. titties fucked around with this message at 12:26 on May 2, 2014 |
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May 2, 2014 12:24
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I still can't get over the fact that some gear is restricted to certain vocations. I just wanna wear all of the clothes, drat it. 
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May 2, 2014 12:26
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What level should I be to fight the Ur-Dragon? I'm currently 63 and almost to 64.
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May 2, 2014 18:51
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Neo Helbeast posted:What level should I be to fight the Ur-Dragon? I'm currently 63 and almost to 64. I think I first beat it around 83, and I probably could have done it a little earlier. Depending on your class and how often you use items you could probably take it at 75?
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May 2, 2014 18:54
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Captain Novolin posted:I think I first beat it around 83, and I probably could have done it a little earlier. Depending on your class and how often you use items you could probably take it at 75? All right, I'm going to make a few more runs at the Gorecyclops then.
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May 2, 2014 18:58
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Neo Helbeast posted:All right, I'm going to make a few more runs at the Gorecyclops then. When you do the ur-dragon, make sure you're offline, too. I think the online Ur-Dragon is still a good ways away from being killed and at this point you pretty much need to min/max a perfect class for hunting it to do any noticeable damage.
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May 2, 2014 19:04
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Captain Novolin posted:When you do the ur-dragon, make sure you're offline, too. I think the online Ur-Dragon is still a good ways away from being killed and at this point you pretty much need to min/max a perfect class for hunting it to do any noticeable damage. I'm pretty sure at this point even with a perfectly minmaxed character you still can't do noticeable damage to the online Ur-Dragon  .
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May 2, 2014 19:08
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Yeah, the online Ur-Dragon is in its 400-somethingth generation, which is several times more difficult than the offline. The offline dragon is a good way to make some gold and XP. Wakestones sell for 30k each and you get 20 for killing him. You can also sell the holy weapon it drops for a nice chunk of change.
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May 2, 2014 19:15
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Isn't there a special armor or something you can only get from the online UR? Kind of sucks for late arrivals if it's functionally impossible to do that now.
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May 2, 2014 19:17
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Supreme Allah posted:Isn't there a special armor or something you can only get from the online UR? Yeah. It used to be pretty much the best armor in the game, but BBI stuff outclasses it and looks better anyway. The undershirt of that set (which I think is still the best one on the game) is gotten from beating Grigori on Hard mode.
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May 2, 2014 19:21
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Neo Helbeast posted:What level should I be to fight the Ur-Dragon? I'm currently 63 and almost to 64. I beat it when I was at your level as an Assassin. Pop a Veteran's Periapt right before you kill it and magically gain 5 levels.
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May 2, 2014 21:46
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I haven't played this game in probably a year, but I'm thinking I might pick it up and start fresh. I assume the Dark Arisen stuff comes into play after the base game's completed so I can put off buying it. I know postgame everything basically goes to poo poo, does it stay that way when you do the BBI stuff or is BBI relatively nice and pretty again? Also, any class suggestions? I think when I stopped playing my Assassin was fine tuned to perfection, I got like eight Ur-Dragon kills back when it was sub-100 and manageable.
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May 3, 2014 01:32
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Bitterblack Isle is an entirely different zone. You can start it before or after Grigori, and it will be the same. If you start NG+ after finishing the post game, BBI will reset.
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May 3, 2014 01:37
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At some point (I think fairly early) in the course of the normal game, a message flashes 'a mysterious island has appeared why don't you go check it out tough guy'.
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May 3, 2014 01:42
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