Valentine's Day is the day for lovebirds to flock together. If it sounds romantic, it probably is. That is for those with the other halves. There is a reason why I made fun of myself by calling myself an incel. That was how I felt in my school years. Of course, people do mature. The same goes for me. I'm no Thorfinn from Vinland Saga, but I did grow up to be someone who can live without relationships. Give me a choice, and I want friends I can confide in. As it turned out, however, I don't. Is it the end of the world? Well, the answer is no. My mental fortitude is such that I can live in isolation. I know it sounds weird, but the likes of Guts from Berserk were never that fictional. If there is any advice I can give, it'd be this: Don't just survive, but live. To survive is to be an animal. To live is to be human.
Recently, I came across a post involving Swifties gushing about how Taylor "no Gone in 60 Seconds jokes, please" Swift's songs represent women. Then they asked men whether there was anyone like that for them. My answer to such a question is this: It is good enough to see part of myself in this person or that character. I don't have to validate myself by seeing my entirety in one place or another. Living with dignity means you don't subject yourself to comparisons with this person or that person. Your life is not the other person's life. It is not meant to be a pitiable facsimile of another individual.
With that said, there are songs in which I do see part of myself. Unlike the Swifties, I don't base my preference on one singer or the other. I base my taste on songs, not the singers. Before I start this post, I decided to put up two scenes of Vinland Saga. The first reminded me of our world, while the other reminded me of what kind of man I want to be.
NOTE:
Because I don't keep track of the songs I've shared before in this blog, there's a high chance of songs repeating themselves.
The Year of the Dragon has arrived. It is coming, the day Dragon's Dogma 2 will be released. Because I'm a henjin, I will talk about Dragon's Dogma 2 instead of the Year of the Dragon.
Denunvo DRM
Firstly, let's get the controversy out of the way. Much to the dismay of many gamers, Dragon's Dogma 2 will be running on Denuvo DRM. Why the controversy, you may ask. The issue lies in a weird consistency of games running at lower performance with Denuvo. Say, for example, a game should run on 60 fps. But because of Denuvo DRM, it performed at 30 fps instead. For gamers, Denuvo DRM is a factor. But how influential? We can reference Devil May Cry 5, where the game was released with the Denuvo DRM lock. Within 2 weeks of release, Itsuno "Itstylo" Hideaki announced that DMC5 had sold 2 million copies.
Apparently, at least 2 million gamers had no issues with Denuvo DRM. But before you jump straight into the dragon's maw, I advise you to check your computer specs (if you're playing this on PC). While yet to be confirmed, word has it that Denuvo DRM can be terribly taxing on the hardware. I was lucky that my current Aftershock PC was bought last August. In short, the specs are still very new and more than enough to handle the game. But if you're not confident of your PC's specs, you should hold off until Capcom removes the Denuvo DRM lock. It will eventually happen as Denuvo charges a hefty fee for its DRM service. The logic behind this is to prevent gaming pirates from hacking the game within a certain period. The point is that gaming pirates will eventually crack the game, so gaming companies are clearly out to earn as much profit as possible before it happens. Considering the criticism of making games effectively run at 30 fps instead of the standard 60 and the vast fee involved, sticking with Denuvo is risky. Is it too dangerous? We should ask the 2 million gamers buying DMC5 within 2 weeks of release.
Baldur's Gate 3 fans, brace yourselves. FF14 fans, prepare yourselves. Itsuno may have some beef with your fast travelling choices. In a classic Elon "the X-man" Musk manner, he delivered a scathing verdict on fast travelling. Of course, this is NOT to say that Baldur's Gate 3 is boring. The same goes for FF14. Instead, this comes to mind Itsuno's vision of how to make travelling great again. A likely manner in which he's going to execute his #MTGA vision is unpredictability. It's like being Karolina "no pun jokes on her last name, please" Shiino or Yamazaki "the first alphabet of YKK" Taku, where you got jumped on by Shukan Bunshun, aka the Shihan of exposé. Instead of Shukan Bunshun, however, you got jumped on by random encounters from gibbering goblins to a massive troll (don't ask me whether Shiino or Yamazaki will be playing Dragon's Dogma 2, although the latter is probably too old for that. That is unless...). Imagine spending your first 30 hours dealing with this kind of stuff. That's definitely more engaging than having nothing to do. Not only that, you have no say which monstrous bastard(s) you will fight. Different monsters, different ways of killing them. In this sense, the early game will possibly be very intense.
Hey, you awake?
Remember the opening scene in Skyrim where you're (sorta) riding on a cart? In Dragon's Dogma 2, an ox cart takes you from Settlement A to Settlement B. Of course, there's a risk of the carriage getting attacked by random encounters. But this is precisely what Dragon's Dogma 2 should be about, no? No matter where you go, you'll get jumped on. But compared to wandering blindly in a world map four times larger than the first Dragon's Dogma map (and some may say twice as large as Skyrim's map), taking Grab Ox is the better option. But there's a catch: You don't get to decide where the ox cart is heading because that's Itsuno's job. Unpredictability is the alternate name of Dragon's Dogma 2. Exploration-wise, it may be better to wander in the areas around whichever settlement you're at so long you can reach back by night time. This is where ox carts come into the picture, allowing you to get your feet wet with minimal risks. At the same time, there's every chance that Vocation Maisters would be in this settlement or that settlement instead of bumming around in the wilds like a badass hobo. How long you should stay in one area depends on you.
If I buy it...
...which Vocation would I start off with? I prefer Thief as I like classes/builds running with two knives instead of a sword and shield. While this is clearly a personal thing, another choice would be Archer. The reason is that, unlike the Mage, the Archer is more towards ranged damage and support than ranged nuking. In Ukrainian speak, the Mage is like HIMARS, while the Archer is like the Javelin. As someone more comfortable with fast-hitting attacks, I wouldn't be surprised if I'd function better as an Archer than a Mage. At the same time, the Archer's support properties may mean I have more flexibility. Beyond basic Vocations, I'm looking at Mystic Spearhand and Warfarer. Depending on the learning curve, Warfarer may be beyond my ken.
As for Mystic Spearhand, I have a soft spot for spear-wielding classes due to Celtic mythology involving the likes of Cú Chulainn and Diarmuid Ua Duibhne (I blame the Fate series for this). This is also the driving factor behind me maining the Dragoon job in FF14. On a lesser-known note, the Mystic Spearhand's weapon is also the same as that of the Eternal Guard of the Warhammer Fantasy fame (i.e. one of my favourite units in the series). As for Sigurd being black instead of white, this has nothing to do with the Maister being a Mace Windu minus the Pulp Fiction. Race is not a factor, although I'm always one for creative diversity (note that I say creative diversity instead of inclusivity because I'm a henjin incapable of understanding the socio-political games being played in today's creative industry).
Some thoughts involving the Vocations trailers
The trailers looked great, that's for sure. If there's anything I could glean from the Fighter's trailer, it'd be the question of whether shield usage is ability-based. I say this because, during my years of playing Neverwinter Online, there was such a thing called class property. Each class has its own unique property set aside from the abilities. We may see something similar if shielding is vital to the Fighter's gameplay. Not just one Vocation but also for the rest. At the same time, it'd be interesting to see whether dodge rolling will be executed in a different manner. Will it retain the button input system from the first Dragon's Dogma game or something simplistic like double-directional input? Something tells me it'd be the former, although only time will tell.
As for the Thief, I see some movement-based attacks together with a few moments of wait-and-strike. This is possibly how a Thief is going to be played. You don't rush in like a berserker. Rather, you process the fight and react accordingly. If it means standing there for a few seconds, it means standing there for a few seconds.
Regarding abilities and attacks, I suspect we will have a four-button input approach just like the previous Dragon's Dogma game. This would allow better concentration in terms of mastering your playing style. However, this also creates a question from the perspective of PC usage. Namely, how is the mouse clicking going to function? A possible answer is that instead of four hotkeys for the abilities and attacks, two of them will be assigned to left-click and right-click, while the remaining two will be done via the keyboard. This would create a streamlined approach while maximising mouse usage.
Final thoughts
I may or may not do another post of DD2 depending on what I process and how much fuel I have in my wordsmith's tank. After all, the Vocation trailers for Archer and Mage have yet to come out. Will I be preordering the game? I'm still deciding on this. Given that this is only the second DD game and the first one to come out for Windows (I suspect Mac users are going to hate Itsuno for this unless they have an Xbox or PS5), it's likely that certain ease would be made for new players. And yes, the music is clearly great. Taylor "no Gone in 60 Seconds jokes, please" Swift is a global class act, but I don't have to be a Swifty to appreciate great music.
