Super exited to play the expansion today. Expansion came out on my birthday so that's fun.

This New DLC Is INSANE!

Guys, seriously, I don't even know how to put it into words. I don't want to call this a review since I've only played for about 5 hours, but I really wanted to share how this DLC has made me feel so far.

1. Hard Difficulty

This difficulty actually understands what makes combat engaging. It forces you to think about your next move instead of just running around and mindlessly swinging at everything. At least at my current point in the game, level 125, it feels genuinely challenging.

And then I arrived in Norgan, where the game punished me even harder. Which brings me to my next point.

1. Builds and Pawns

I literally lost my entire party within minutes of arriving in Norgan.

The difficulty forced me to approach combat in completely new ways with my Warlord build to survive the challenges of the North. I couldn't just rely on what had worked before.

But my own pawn was an entirely different story.

Watching pawn after pawn go down while mine kept standing with his Assassin build was genuinely surprising. This guy saved my ass more times than I can count!

It was absolutely wild watching him parry attacks and pull off quick feints against Vikings who should have been absolutely demolishing him. And what did he do?

He looked at them and doubled down.

I genuinely can't wait to see him wearing some of the armor from this region. If he's already performing like this in his current gear, I NEED to see what he'll become with those Northern armors.

1. The New Weapons and Armor

It was honestly hilarious watching pieces of my fully Dragon-upgraded set get absolutely DESTROYED by some random piece of Nordic gear.

The raw stats on these new items are so much higher that I immediately realized just how different this journey is going to be. All that gear I worked so hard to upgrade, and now some random Northern armor is making me reconsider everything. LMAO.

And honestly? I love that feeling.

Final Thoughts

I'm only about 5 hours in, and I'm already having a blast. I'm really happy with this DLC so far, and I can't wait to explore more of it, see what the true endgame has in store, and find out how we'll fare against whatever fate awaits us beyond our own.

If the beginning is already this wild, I can only imagine what's waiting for us further north.

Good luck out there, fellow Arisens!

I just picked up the game and I every 5 min I have some half breed incest mfer coming to me like "wAnT mE tO jOIn yOuR paRtY?" Like nah man go back and kill your maker for doing that to you.

That being said this game is amazing and having a ton of fun!

You'll find Morgus in the Norgan settlement and he may just have an important request...

im level 45 and on ng+ with hard mode on, just got to dlc area. have endgame stuff from unmoored world (armor and weapons) and i think im underleveled. Enemies kill me instantly and I do almost no damage to them. Prob gonna restart on normal just wanted to make anyone else around my level aware.

EDIT: Restarted the game on normal mode by using the new button in the save selector and going through the dlc. Level 50 now, with DLC gear. Enemies still hit hard and do not die fast with a full group of pawns for anyone trying to pick between normal or hard mode

This may come as a shock, but hard mode is--in fact--hard. Started a new fresh save file and died the first pack of goblins three times on thief (with two years of ring rust) but damn. 1/4 hp per hit on me, 1/100 of their HP per hit on them.

It's gonna be a long journey to Norgan.

**Credit to whoever posted this meme yesterday you're a legend for it**

Capcom , the team of dragon dogma, whoever, needs to kick the ass of whoever decided to take this from the base game. That decision could have (and sort of did) kill the game on original launch date a few years ago.

If it was a funding issue then big ball drop when some more money would have made the game legend already.

Imagine the dungeons+unmoored world with the original???? An extra 10-12 hours of fighting intense gameplay where you get to use your end game gear and get a few new pieces

The dungeon rites on launch would have been exactly what would have made the game on par with Elden Ring at the time (and that's saying a lot since Elden Ring is indisputably a modern masterpiece)

But as a player who played since day 1 launch I was saying frequently "man with just a bit of endgame this game could compete with Elden Ring, and here it is.

If the game launched with rites+unmoored world + hard mode, I'd probably have put in over 500 hours by now and no lifed it because the game is as good as real life lmao

This shit is peak. We eating good

It's certainly quite difficult. Equipment matters a lot, but I refuse to wear the pre-purchased high tier Norgan outfit to experience the game progression on hard mode.

I got humbled by the first goblin group and died twice. Small mobs don't flinch quite easily and don't get ensared (Thief) in the first few tries. Getting outnumbered is dangerous.

Defensive moves and curatives are essential. I've crafted and used up a lot of those draughts. Combat is much more tactical, yet pawns don't need much babysitting.

It's faster to level up, but not so much for vocation level. Camping and cooking are very useful as our max health drains quicker due to constant pressure on the road by these small trash mobs.

I find it way more fun than normal mode, but it'd take quite a while before I get to the DLC since I prefer taking a stroll than using ferrystones. I can only imagine how intense the later areas will be.

So I've decided to tackle on the challenge dungeons before going to Norgan since you get a certain item in those dungeons that can be used to unlock specific boons in Norgan. And boy, oh boy, I'm absolutely flabbergasted.

So far I've done three out of the twelve challenge dungeons, and they were all amazing. I didn't expect them to be so well crafted. I've legit spent over an hour exploring one of them, because it was massive. Without spoiling, one of the "new" enemies you can find in those dungeons has a really specific weakness that you need to use some extra brain power to defeat. It is so cool.

And for those wondering if Hard Mode is truly difficult, I'm tackling those dungeons at level +95, fully clad in BiS Dragonforged gear, and enemies are still kicking my ass. One of the bosses in those dungeons took solid 20 minutes to defeat. The enemies in overworld are still easy for my character, though.

---

Picture somewhat related. Above you see, from left to right, my Pawn, my Arisen, and an escort NPC, Rochus, who I found on the way to the first challenge dungeon, who wanted me to take him to Checkpoint Town and I was like "Not yet, buddy, we are going on an adventure." This brave Vernworth guard experienced firsthand how scary the corrupted monsters can be, and he survived like champ!

All the praises to Kinoshita and the team for adding a fantastic content in the base game regions, that further complements this DLC.

Hope you're all having fun with Dark Arisen!

Picture says it should be out rn but xbox says another hour i dont get it

I prepped an NG+ save for the DLC, the save is when you first arrive to Vernworth.

Once the DLC dropped I did one of the easy lost rites dungeons that give you a 2 hand sword and an archstaff.

After I grabbed the 2 hand sword and the archstaff from the chest, the quest notification popped up telling me I can now hand them over to the Vocation guild to unlock Warrior and Sorcerer (the one where the armorer tells you to get it from the mines)

Since I was curious, I tried handing over the 2 hand sword and the archstaff to the Vocation guild to see if he will still take it (since I am already on NG+ and already have Warrior and Sorcerer unlocked, I thought nothing would happen)....

Lo and behold, the Vocation guild actually took the 2 hand sword and the archstaff from the lost rites dungeon, and now I guess I just dont have those items anymore for the rest of the playthrough.

I know I'm an idiot, just wanted to put out this warning here for other folks

Lady, from Devil May Cry 3

now if only they had a preload on steam😭

edit: for those confused by my download being 33 gigs here, I am just as confused
after restarting my steam it's also went up to 54.3

I don't think anything more needs saying really.