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Dragon’s Dogma 2’s Magick Archer class makes me want to solo the gameAt the very least, it helped me unglitch a griffon
At the very least, it helped me unglitch a griffon
Image credit:Capcom
Image credit:Capcom
Yesterday I banged outthe first in a torrid trilogy of Dragon’s Dogma 2 features, centring on hands-on time with the game’s Mystic Spearhand “vocation” or class. Look out for parts 2 and 3 over the coming week. During the hands-on, I also spent 45 minutes in the shoes of another advancedDragon’s Dogma 2class, the Magic - sorry,MagickArcher. You might remember this vocation from the original Dragon’s Dogma; then as now, it combines relatively straightforward bow combat with various breeds of enchanted ammunition, for a surprisingly technical skillset that is enjoyable to faff around with.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 - Vocation Gameplay Spotlight: Magick ArcherWatch on YouTube
Dragon’s Dogma 2 - Vocation Gameplay Spotlight: Magick Archer
My favourite Magick Archer skills so far, though, are Remedy, a sorcerous defibrillator arrow that can be charged up to revive the target from KO, and Ricochet Seeker, which spits out a flurry of purple shards which, as the name suggests, bounce from the walls and roof and pierce the target repeatedly. Remedy arrow revives require you to hold still and avoid interruption while readying the shot, which is gratifying when you time it right, and potentially ruinous otherwise. Ricochet Seeker, meanwhile, makes the Magick Archer even more capable within the theoretically archer-unfriendly confines of caves. At one point, I used it to melt a jumpy, tunnel-dwelling rat-ogre boss, despite only having one pawn ally character as back-up.
While you could probably say the same of mostDragon’s Dogma 2classes, I feel like the Magick Archer will lend itself to entertaining pawn-less playthroughs, both because it is fairly flexible and because it has obvious limitations - fewer melee-range skills or defensive moves - that are satisfying to work around. One possibility I’ve yet to investigate is: can I remote-pilot Flamefang arrows into bandit camps and carry out very noisy assassinations? Can I use Flamefang for reconnaissance in dungeons? It reminds me ofThe Pathless, in which archery is of a piece with movement, and of joyfully gimmick-driven double-A affairs like the ancient 2000 AD adaptationRogue Trooper-world’s finest 7/10 game- in which you have a single gun that can be modded and transformed into all of the guns.
It also makes me think, obviously, of Hawkeye. I don’t want to wish another Marvel videogame upon the universe, but perhaps there’s grounds for a Hawkeye game here?
