Warning: this post will be about something that happened to me today while playing Pokémon.  Due to quite literally growing up with Pokémon, I lack the filtering processes to know if what I am about to say is too complex for most, but it must be said.

I picked Pokémon Heart Gold back up recently, as my interest in soloing Monster Hunter Freedom Unite has waned severely now that I’m in the high rank.  Over my vacation I tried explaining to my friends why I consider Heart Gold to be one of the best versions since the difficulty is pleasantly high, it has a good critter assortment, Pokéwalker functionality and… well fuck, man it’s just the best version.

Where I’d left off I was taking my time, trying to get my preferred natures for all my favorites.  I re-rolled for a modest Cyndaquil, captured an adamant Magikarp (now a Gyarados), and of course an impish Wooper.  I don’t bother with EV’s or IV’s when playing through the story, but nature is easy enough to control and gives a slight leg-up.

This morning I arrived at Route 36 and discovered a patch of grass where Growlithes appeared.  Now, I’ve had a softspot for this guy since Pokémon Red, so I had to catch one.  I got setup to do my nature run, which meant buying ten Pokéballs for a Premiere Ball (best looking balls A++++), having one open spot, and capturing a worthless Growlithe just to prevent the Pokédex entry text from coming up with each attempt.  I then set my DS’s time back a few hours so it would stay morning — that’s when Growlithes can be found.

I ran away from billions of fucking Stantlers, more than once wondering, “who in the actual fuck likes Stantler?”  I reset several hundred times, and then… the unthinkable happened.  I glanced down from my lunch to see a group of stars swirl around an oddly colored Growlithe.  There was a solid second in which my brain didn’t make the connection – finally I realized: this was a shiny Growlithe.

It wasn’t found via trading, gameshark, or the Masuda method.  This was legit.

Now one complication I was having while seeking out my adamant Growlithe was that at level 14, the little guy still knew roar.  Roar is an attack that scares your trainer and their pokémon away, even though my pokémon was a fucking ghost and I’m a grown ass man (who plays Pokémon).  I could play this one of two ways, put the thing to sleep, or whittle down his HP.  The strongest pokéball in my possession was a Great Ball — not exactly something to bank on — so I needed to get it in the red.

Here’s a turn by turn breakdown of what happened, with emoticons to show my feeling at the time:

• Wild Growlithe appeared! ٩(˙▿˙)۶ *realize it’s shiny* இɷஇ<omg
• Ghastly used Hynosis! ( ઁ❥ઁ) <please work
• The wild Growlithe fell asleep!  The wild Growlithe is fast asleep. ヾ(｡╹ω╹｡)ノ <it worked!
• Ghastly used Night Shade  (灬╹ω╹灬) <He’s down about 40%!
• The wild Growlithe is fast asleep. (ㆁωㆁ*)<just a couple more turns…
• Ghastly used Night Shade °( ◕ ω ◕ )° <Now he’s in the red!
• The wild Growlithe woke up! (ㆆᴗㆆ)*✲ﾟ*｡⋆
• The wild Growlithe used Roar.  ⊙▃⊙

For an equally graphic representation of how I felt, here is how it went down on twitter (read bottom to top):

The worst part?  Since it was my lunch break, and I was sitting at my deck, I couldn’t curse with the full extent of my vocal cords.

Yeah, I know; it’s silly to get too bent out of shape about something so relatively trivial.  I didn’t acquire a string of 0′s and 1′s, but I still have shelter, food to eat, and all those other necessities.  Maybe venting is the best way to move on.  Thanks for listening to my sad, sad story of how the shiny Growlithe got away.

This week we discuss the following, of which there may be extremely minor spoilers (my apologies for the sound of wood chopping in the background):

• Xenoblade Chronicles
• Monster Hunter Freedom Unite
• Dragon’s Dogma Demo
• Diablo 3

Sorry for the lack of a small talk video last week!  I admit I don’t have much of an excuse, other than I was getting geared up for a mini vacation!  Joel was kind enough to invite me and a group of our chums to stay at his Dad’s place on a small lake in the Berkshires.  I know, I’ve openly slagged Massachusetts on the site before, but the isolated spot we were at more or less protected me from everything that I hate about the state.  Here are some pics of our antics:

Here we are, praying to the local beaver deity.

Here’s the first, albeit smallest, catch of the trip.  Don’t worry, it was catch and release!

And here I am relaxing in a hammock on a small island we boated out to.  I didn’t even get sunburned… too badly.

With Dragon’s Dogma‘s release a week away, I’m still deeply pondering which classes I will select for my main character and pawns.  If you know me, you are aware that this is never a decision I undertake lightly.  Thus, a few weeks ago, I began a campaign to educate myself on the game’s classes to create a guide which could assist others in making the same important decisions.  After reading this you will have an understanding of the vocation system, the 9 vocations, as well as what character types and players would be best suited for each.

Let’s start with some basic information:

• Your pawn and main character’s jobs, or vocations, are not permanent and can be changed at an inn.
• There are three starting vocations, three advanced vocations, and three hybrid vocations (only available tor your main character) for a total of nine different vocations
• If that seems daunting, it’s important to know that right off the bat, only the basic vocations will be available to you.
• Unlocking higher level vocations (either advanced or hybrid) requires Discipline Points, earned by completing quests, killing monsters, etc.
• Once a vocation has been unlocked, you can change to it at any inn without paying additional Discipline Points.

With all this in mind, the goal of picking a jobclass should hopefully feel less daunting.  Now we can get into the nitty-gritty details!  For the sake of keeping things simple, we will start with the basic vocations and move on to the more advanced classes as we go.

BASIC VOCATIONS

FIGHTER

Specialty: Dishing out damage with a sword while blocking or deflecting enemy attacks with a sturdy shield.
Weakness: Slow moving, weak to magic.
Note: Capable of launching other melee units onto flying enemies, attracting agro, and being the party’s mule.
Recommended If: You like hitting stuff with swords and having a lot of HP to work with.

For more videos of Fighter attacks, click here.

STRIDER

Specialty: Speedily inflicting damage from afar with a bow, or up close with lightning quick dual daggers.  Can also set traps and inflict status effects.
Weakness: Relatively low damage per blow, cannot block when in melee range.
Note: Excels at climbing onto enemies to locate and attack weak spots — can unlock the ability to double jump and dodge roll.
Recommended If: You favor a quick, sneaky classes with a few tricks up its sleeve.

For more videos of Strider attacks, click here.

MAGE

Specialty: Inflicting ranged elemental attacks, status effects, and curative spells.
Weakness: Low defenses, HP, and long spell casting times.
Note: Can Levitate and cast spells in mid-air.
Recommended If: You like to be a ringleader — boosting or healing your allies while taking advantage of enemy weaknesses.

For more videos of mage attacks, click here.

So, with that, we have our three starting vocations, each capable of transitioning into an advanced vocation.  Note that some skills from basic vocations may carry over to advanced vocations.  Generally these are weapon skills, meaning if we advanced a Fighter into a Warrior, they may retain some attacks or skills.  For that reason, it makes sense to transition similar jobs, rather than wholly unrelated ones.  Making your frail Mage take up a two-handed greatsword may be possible, but most likely not ideal without some effort.

ADVANCED VOCATIONS

WARRIOR

Specialty: Tanking and dishing out earthshattering blows with two-handed weaponry (greatswords and warhammers).  Not bad at crowd control.
Weakness: Loses the advantages that come with a shield.
Note: Can knock enemies down to extend the punishment. Resilient to knockdowns and stun.
Recommended If: You like big swords, big numbers, and watching your enemies go flying like ragdolls.

For more videos of Warrior attacks, click here.

RANGER

Specialty: Loosing arrows from afar with incredible accuracy — some inflicting status effects.
Weakness: The Ranger doesn’t progress any further with dagger skills, meaning you’ll rely more heavily on your bow.
Note: Upgrades from a shortbow to longbow — said to be a good dungeon crawling class.  Did I mention accuracy?
Recommended If: You like watching a skirmish from a distance, taking advantage of openings to deal punishing damage or well-timed support.

For more videos of Ranger attacks, click here.

SORCERER

Specialty: Dealing massive, AOE, elemental damage and a slew of status effects.
Weakness: Poor defense and LONG casting times create a big window of vulnerability.
Note: Sacrifices knowledge of the healing arts to focus on offensive spells.
Recommended If: You are a true strategist who can create a well-oiled team, capable of backing you up long enough to deal some serious pain.

For more videos of Sorcerer attacks, click here.

That’s it for the basic and advanced vocations.  The next set of jobclasses are only available to your main character.  For that reason, more than any other class we’ve explored, you’ll need to ask yourself, “does this class sound fun?”

HYBRID VOCATIONS

MYSTIC KNIGHT

Specialty: Powerful magical offenses with defenses to match.  Can cast spells and enchant allied weaponry with a dash of swordplay to make things interesting.
Note: Capable of blocking nearly anything with a powerful magical shield — only unit capable of enchanting the weapons of the entire party.
Recommended If: You like magery, but are looking for stalwart defenses.

For more videos of Mystic Knight attacks, click here.

MAGICK ARCHER

Specialty: Loosing powerful arrows from afar, or executing advanced dagger slashes from melee range.
Note:  Can lock on to multiple units and use homing arrow skills.  Can also equip a staff and thus, cast magical spells.
Recommended If: You like the Strider/Ranger jobs for their speed and agility, but want access to magic spells and advanced dagger techniques.

For more videos of Magick Archer attacks, click here.

ASSASSIN

Specialty: A jack of all the deadly arts — capable of wielding dagger, bow, sword, and shield effectively as well as poisons and explosives.
Note:  Can equip more weapon varieties than any other.
Recommended If: You get bored easily and want a deep bag of tricks when it comes to how you kill your foes.

For more videos of Assassin attacks, click here.

Now that you have the various vocations in mind, there’s another key element to consider when creating your characters: body size.

Depending on the height and weight of a character, they will be given different physical advantages or disadvantages.

Advantages of a heavy character include:

• Increased carrying capacity
• Increased resistance to wind or force-based attacks
• More resistant to being knocked off a monster

Advantages of a lightweight character include:

• Increased stamina recovery rate
• Increased movement speed
• Decreased hit-box size

Advantages of a tall charter include:

• Increased weapon reach
• Increased “grab” range

From this we can get an idea of what body types would work best for which vocations.  Initially, I’d thought it would be entertaining to have a very short, thin character swinging around an enormous, two-handed greatsword.  In actuality, that character would probably be very encumbered by their gear, and would be less effective in terms of range, and ability to stay on their feet.  For this reason, all Warriors should be on the large, stocky side for maximum efficiency.

Likewise lightweight characters are better suited to vocations that rely more on evasion and stamina recovery than brute strength.  For this reason, I’ve made my mage somewhere within the “S” range shown above, which will help avoid blows and recover stamina.  If you’re still not sure on which class you’d like to go with, it’s best to keep your physical build somewhere in the middle.

*NOTE* If you’ve already designed your characters using the Dragon’s Dogma demo, you can re-enter the creator at any time to make edits to your main character and pawn.

It’s also worth noting that you can alter your main character and pawn at any time in Dragon’s Dogma by paying 5,000 rift crystals:

(click to enlarge — sorry the quality isn’t better)

I hope reading this has helped dispel some confusion and aid your transition into Dragon’s Dogma when it’s released worldwide by the end of the month.  I’d like to reassure anyone who may be feeling overwhelmed by all this information: it’s important to reiterate that any vocation decisions you make are NOT permanent.  Experiment, explore, and don’t be afraid to try everything — that’s the only way you’ll find the right fit for you.

Special Thanks:
Shaine of Bit-speak for helping compile tons of info
nahxela of Monster Hunter Podcast/SocialDissonance.com for providing additional details

Other Credits:
Dragon’s Dogma Wiki
Giant Bomb’s Dragon’s Dogma entry

Related Entries:
Dragon’s Dogma Demo Impressions

Every Friday I make a post containing links to interesting articles I have found throughout the week. If you already follow me on Twitter, then you will have probably seen most of the following links. Don’t forget to like the Kotowari Facebook page as well.  Enjoy!

LOOK

•  Persona 4 Arena fightstick from Hori!  Words… cannot express how much want I have.
• Hori Metal Gear Solid 3DS accessory set is on sale on Amazon today.
• A Harley Davidson, swept into the ocean from the 3/11 tsunami in Japan, washes ashore in Canada – Harley Davidson rebuilds it and sends it back to its owner.
• According to one analyst, Xenoblade Chronicles was the third bestselling title in April – a well deserved accomplishment.
• In the market for a car AND a Vita?  Look no further!
• Would you believe it’s been 6 years since Final Fantasy Versus XIII was announced?
• Lions make bad pets, believe me.
• What surprises you the most about humanity?
• I need this Kitarou Revoltech, you guys.
• I bought a book by the same author who wrote Ge Ge Ge no Kitarou (Shigeru Mizuki) this weekend.  I would recommend it.
• You can read an excerpt on NPR’s website.
• Buy this Leon Kennedy jacket, heck; buy two.

WATCH

Lollipop Chainsaw cosplay commercial. Why not?

Yup, pretty excited for Dragon’s Dogma.

Sleeping Dogs — come for the car chases, stay for the meat hooks and buzz saws.

The first concrete details concerning Sony’s Vita exclusive, Soul Sacrifice, surfaced today via Famitsu.  Until now we’ve had vague trailers and concept art showing scarred (yet stylishly clad) humans doing battle with some enormous, frightening abominations.  Now, we have screenshots of the same thing!

To view the rest, definitely check out the full Famitsu article here.

Here are some things to note about the game:

• You can customize your main character.  There is said to be a lot of options for your appearance.  At a glance, we can see a few and confirm that both male and female avatars are available.
• As for the story, you assume the role of a magician’s slave who was to be sacrificed.  At the moment before execution, a mysterious book called the Golam Book appears and you… ride it to freedom I suppose.
• Via this book, you go on quests where it’s possible to co-op in teams of up to 4 player2s.
• Using the Golam book you can increase your magic abilities by offering magical items (presumably drops).
• Finally, the game’s producer was revealed to be Keiji Inafune.  You may recall him as the ex-Capcom brass who, after years of lashing out against the Japanese gaming industry, is putting his money where his mouth is.  For his sake, (and all Vita owners) I hope this one’s a hit.

Now that the pesky, albeit exciting details are out of the way, I have to point out a discovery I made not long ago concerning how certain sites chose to talk about Soul Sacrifice.  Since the word “soul” appears in the title, a number of sites came to the conclusion that Soul Sacrifice was in the same universe as Dark Souls or Demon’s Souls.  Personally, based on the earliest character designs, I found this hard to swallow.  But I took the highroad and waited until there was enough information about the game before writing a thing.  IGN specifically took… well the other road.

Take a look at this, and no — NOT the delicious new signature sides from Wendy’s:

As you can see, IGN didn’t waste time waiting for pesky details, more concrete than a vague teaser trailer.  Nope, they just attached a heavily searched game title to a relatively unknown one.  Jeez guys, at least slap a question mark at the end like everyone else!

Back to Soul Sacrifice; it gives me a distinct Monster Hunter vibe.  Maybe Monster Hunter‘s system meets Baroque’s world, with outfits from Digital Devil Saga?  I am excited to see more from this mysterious and hopefully innovative title.  Now to go pick up some Wendy’s and play Dark Souls.

From afar, I like to poke fun at the mess that Kingdom Hearts has become.  If you aren’t convinced of the sorry state of Square’s Disney-infused franchise, just take a look at this and try to not get a nosebleed (BRB I need some tissues lol).  That doesn’t mean I don’t have fond memories of playing the first two games — quite the contrary — I loved them immensely.  So today, when Tetsuya Nomura was quoted in Game Informer regarding the future of the series, I can’t help but listen with trepidation:

“We have been invited to make [Kingdom Hearts] games on different new platforms, and every time we have created titles making sure that they are highly compatible with the platform,”

“The PS Vita is definitely a powerful device that is very interesting, but because of it’s high power, there isn’t much of a difference with a console.”

“So even if we were to make a game, we would have to be very careful about how to create it for that device. I also feel that it’s about time that Kingdom Hearts should go back to being on a console.”

-Source: NeoGaf

Now before you go scattering your Goofy confetti or opening your Donald Duck champagne, allow me to be the wet towel of reading between the lines.  First off, this in no way confirms Kingdom Hearts 3 — a lot of sites have already heedlessly arrived at that conclusion (1, 2) for reasons completely not related to SEO, I’m sure.  There is a distinct possibility that Kingdom Hearts will return to consoles in some alternate bullshit pre-prequel sidestory, like Kingdom Hearts Pooh’s Conquest Mark. III Love Edition 69/2.  You know what — I’m gonna patent that title as soon as I’m done writing this just to ensure that will never happen.  Another thing to keep in mind: it’s probable that this game is at about 0% completion.  This quote sounds very hypothetical and without much of a foundation to jump up and down excitedly on.  That’s right — put that Donald Duck champagne back in its Moogle wine chiller.

I guess, more than anything else, I’m trying to manage my own expectations.  I want to believe I will soon see Kingdom Hearts 3 on the PS3, looking great and rehabilitating the wounded animal that has become the series’ overarching… story.  In short, this is a promising development, but I remain ever skeptical.

Last night I finally had the time to plunk down on the couch and play the Dragon’s Dogma demo I’d downloaded last week.  It was much shorter than I’d anticipated but still gave me enough of an impression to write about.

First thing I need to get off my chest: the character creator portion of the demo saves your avatars for if/when you purchase the retail version of Dragon’s Dogma.  This is one of the most forward-thinking features of any demo I’ve ever played.  I’m the type to resign the first day of owning a game of this scale to getting my character just right, which can take hours.  Not only do you need to make a protagonist in Dragon’s Dogma, you also need to customize your pawn, or constant AI companion.  That means twice as much time traversing menus.  Well, whoever the genius was behind this demo allowed you to save once you’ve completed your protagonist, so you can customize your pawn at your leisure.  I’ve yet to even settle on so much as a gender for my pawn, so it may be a while.  I can’t say enough good about character creation in this game — it’s user friendly (although there is a slight learning curve for traversing the menus), robust, and solid enough that no matter how crazy you get, the result is more or less recognizable as a human.

There are two playable portions to the demo, both highlighting dramatically different environments.  The first I experienced were the ruins of a dungeon — broken stone structures and darkness as far as the eye could, or couldn’t see. An NPC prompted me to turn on a lantern which threw long shadows across the floors: it’s evident care was taken in darkness/lighting effects and it added tension to the otherwise familiar fantasy ambiance.  I saw enough to convince me that Dragon’s Dogma may not be showing us much new in terms of fantasy environments, but the innovative presentation sets it apart.

Battle initially felt rather simple, but became increasingly complex.  There were two attack buttons: one quick, the other slower but stronger.  Different classes can wield different gear — one character I played used a sword and shield, the other dual daggers with an offhand short bow.  Switching between the two was fast and intuitive.  I could also jump.  In the entirety of the demo, not once did I jump for a reason other than to say to myself, “Oh, you can jump.  That’s kinda cool.”  I can’t say with any certainty that this mechanic is useless (a dodgeroll certainly would be more welcome), but I can say the demo didn’t make it seem useful.

Interacting with your pawns is a massively important part of combat.  Not only do they (frequently) vocalize tips, as well as what they’re doing (…as well as what they plan on doing…)  But they also create openings for you to exploit.  For instance, they may use fire to down a flying foe, or hold an orc allowing you to execute a fatal stab (complete with cool slowdown effect).

This teamwork aspect becomes important when faced with a large, imposing boss.  At one point during a battle with a Griffin, a pawn told me to jump on his massive greatsword and he’d launch me onto the winged beast’s back.  I then stabbed my way up to the its head, where I turned its white feathers black with blood.  Meanwhile my mages set its wings ablaze, grounding it long enough for other melee units to finish the job.  This combination of an emphasis on teamwork and reacting to different enemy behavior gave me a special joy generally only derived from Monster Hunter.

Dragon’s Dogma has some potential, the demo made that clear.  It takes the tried and true open-world fantasy game and builds upon it by making environments more real, and combat more rewarding and interactive.  Capcom may be striking out a lot lately, but I daresay they got their act together for this one.

NOTE: Dragon’s Dogma US Release date: May 22

What’s this, a chance to bore you all with my nostalgia?  That’s right: Legend of Dragoon is hitting the Playstation Network today, and for the affordable price of $5.99 — that works out to about $1.50 a disc, which is mere pennies per enjoyment-filled hour.

Legend of Dragoon had no infallible brand attached to it in an era when epic JRPG sequels dominated the console landscape.  Yet it came alive via a highly imaginative world with a deep and sordid history (Joel and I spoke at length regarding two aspects of the game’s history on DVGH).  The lifeblood of the game’s world was without a doubt its cast of characters — their stories sometimes hopeful, sometimes unflinchingly tragic, but always memorable.

LOD’s battle system was the first I’d ever experienced that made use of timing mechanics.  I was no longer on the sideline watching my avatars slap each other with swords — no, I was the one telling them how to do the slapping.  Finally, a masterfully executed transformation system raised the bar for boss battles, keeping the game balanced yet challenging.  And so I completed Legend of Dragoon (multiple times no doubt), resigning it to a special spot among my collection of treasured games never to be forgotten.

I haven’t revisited the game since the days of the Playstation, so I am eager to get it on my PSP Go and experience it once more through new eyes.  If you’re a fan of PS One era JRPGs, dragon lore, and changing discs like a Jersey Shore DJ, I can’t recommend Legend of Dragoon enough.

Image credits: Sarah!

Every Friday I make a post containing links to interesting articles I have found throughout the week. If you already follow me on Twitter, then you will have probably seen most of the following links. Don’t forget to like the Kotowari Facebook page as well.  Enjoy!

LOOK

• The future of Monster Hunter in the west is… still not clear.
• Xenoblade Chronicles is a great game, but a lot of people aren’t happy with its appearance.
• Oh, nothing — just THE GIRL OF MY DREAMS. *hawk screech*
• Kraft Mac & Cheese noodle architecture is serious business.
• If you’re in New York City, you may want to stop at the Nintendo store and check out this sweet Mother/Earthbound display.
• Dark Souls makes friends of us all.
• Sen, of Sen’s Fortress, did an AMA on Reddit.  Sounds like keeping up such an elaborate fortress is no easy task…
• The Anor Londo archers explained
• The Dragon’s Dogma demo dropped.  Check out the first character I made with it (1, 2)
• Tut tut, looks like rain. Bear rain.
• The Japanese cover for Cave Story 3D is flipping brilliant
• Amazingly detailed Boss figure from Metal Gear Solid 3

WATCH

What. The fuck. Is this.

A closer look at Dokuro, a cute Vita game on the way.

This Rayman (hold on — hear me out) trailer leaked and reveals some new features of the Wii U

This week we discuss the following, of which there may be extremely minor spoilers:

• Xenoblade Chronicles
• Monster Hunter Freedom Unite
• Dragon’s Dogma Demo