The Dragon's Dogma 2 Thread

[rusty_shackleford]

but want some control over it.

you do have control over it
do the quest before it expires

[Vergil]

Man, I might even pay for this game.

I don't think the libs are going to care if you pay for it or not.

[rusty_shackleford]

paying for the ****** game to own the libs

[PayStation]

Man, I might even pay for this game.

It has Denuvo, so if you really want to play it early, you have to cough up $70. Alternatively, you can wait for about a year (or maybe more) until Capcom removes Denuvo or until that Empress person fixes it.

[Falksi]

Game looks good, but the normie tears make it even better...







Get the **** out of our hobby you ******** *****. Go play baby Nintendo

Man, I might even pay for this game.

I'm going day 1 with a copy on Steam, one on PS5, and gonna buy my mate a copy for his 40th birthday too.

Even if I hate the game I want to see this wreck the charts for sticking by proper gaming principles.

[Acrux]

Even if I hate the game I want to see this wreck the charts for sticking by proper gaming principles.

The lessen they will take is not to put in the game mechanics you like. It will be to add more ****** to games.

[WhiteShark]

/v/ was saying that it has forced dynamic difficulty—that is, the game scales difficulty downward if you die a couple times and it can't be turned off. Hopefully that's false, but I didn't watch the stream of the guy who got an early copy somehow to find out.

[Magick]

but want some control over it.

you do have control over it
do the quest before it expires

Which (if the timer is short) means rushing through other content to focus on some ****** missable side quest rather than chilling and thoroughly enjoying the game.
Lemme enjoy it at own pace, and actually take in everything. Absolutely fine with challenge, besides this. Put the challenge IN the quest, rather than getting to the quest in time before it's gone for good being the challenge.

[Vergil]

Absolutely fine with challenge

(Unless it's challenging me with something that's a challenge for me)
More games should have timers on quests. If you weren't able to make something a priority right now you shouldn't have accepted the quest.

[rusty_shackleford]

Lemme enjoy it at own pace

no

if a village is being attacked by a band of orcs and you decide to go deliver groceries instead, you should have to face the repercussions

[Envergence]

I assume it'll be the same "timed" quests in the first DD, where the side quests would expire if you did not complete them before certain main quests? I always thought it was fine, and probably the best way to do it because you can still take your time rather than having to rush everything. It's just that you'll have to check a guide for the order in which to do quests, but I don't have a problem with that.

I think some escort quests were actually timed, but who gives a **** about those if you don't care about the specific NPC you're escorting. Some timed side objectives too, like rescuing someone, but that's perfectly reasonable as far as immersion goes.

[Breathe]

Man, I might even pay for this game.

It has Denuvo, so if you really want to play it early, you have to cough up $70. Alternatively, you can wait for about a year (or maybe more) until Capcom removes Denuvo or until that Empress person fixes it.

Ah yes Denuvo. I had forgotten about that. I can wait if need be.

[Magick]

Absolutely fine with challenge

(Unless it's challenging me with something that's a challenge for me)
More games should have timers on quests. If you weren't able to make something a priority right now you shouldn't have accepted the quest.

That's what I said. Timers WITHIN a quest are fine.
Just hate the ones that go on general gameplay time and appear at x hours in and disappear two hours later or whatevs. If I KNOW what's happening with a timer and can plan for it and decide when I start it, that's fine.
Also happy with quests that disappear based on other quests or certain events (again as long as that's clear / common sense).

[Konjad]

Dragon's Dogma 2's framerate issues were so rough for IGN senior editorial producer Mark Medina that he had switch from playing on PlayStation 5 to PC because he was getting motion sickness.

source

[somerandomdude]

- Easier than the 1st game?
- Lack of enemy variety, even compared to the first game?
- 4x bigger "open world" doesn't feel that much bigger?
- Performance/optimization is complete trash across the board, as expected.

[Oyster Sauce]

Play a real game, like DragonFable

[Anon]

@pokafox hey mate we've been missing you, something happened? how's that pre-order going?

[The_Mask]

More than just a retread of the 2012 original, Dragon's Dogma 2 fulfills and expands upon the promise of its predecessor - culminating in what can only be described as a generational RPG. Our review:

https://www.rpgsite.net/review/15622-dr ... a-2-review

Dragon's Dogma 2 Review
by James Galizio on 20 March, 2024

It didn't take long for it to set in that Dragon's Dogma 2 is a very special game. Even as someone ready and willing to embrace what the sequel had in store for me, after experiencing and loving the first game for what it was - there's always been the sense that the 2012 original was just a few steps removed from the RPG it could've been. Having completed Dragon's Dogma 2, there's no hesitation in stating as much now; Capcom and Hideaki Itsuno have fully realized the promise of that original release from over a decade ago, and the result is an RPG that I feel confident will stand the test of time.

But where to begin? At first glance, you'd be forgiven for failing to parse exactly what makes Dragon's Dogma 2 succeed where its predecessor might have failed - though calling Dragon's Dogma 1 a "failure" feels derogatory. For all its faults, there's a reason why the game has garnered so many fans, as well as why the allure of a follow-up had gained so much fervor behind it. Even now, the game feels like a fascinating take on the genre, that blazes its own path forward, despite its myriad inspirations. It's a series wholly uninterested in beating to anyone else's drum, such as with its deliberately restrictive fast travel system, and continued reliance on the NPC-controlled Pawn system. The goal of Dragon's Dogma is to get the player immersed in a world, and in turn, consider what they're fighting for as the Arisen. To share in the experience of everyone else inhabiting that world at the same time, and to share their knowledge and experiences through their pawns so that everyone can learn more of this world together.



And learn you shall; there were many moments that struck me with how immersive Dragon's Dogma 2's world can be, but the one that stands to mind the most is riding a ropeway, Pawn operating the machine as I'm left to my own devices to scan the Battahl horizon. A shadow of a Griffin passes over my character, yet when I turn to face it I learn that I'm not in imminent danger - but rather, the shadow was cast from the monster that must've been miles away in the distance. Below me, goblins engage with a Golem; one of its attacks misses its mark and ends up embedded in a rock face further along my path - the residual heat from the blast subsiding as I pass overhead. Meanwhile, two cyclops battle each other for dominance; oblivious to the struggles taking place around them.

Even when described, it feels impossible to properly convey the scale of Dragon's Dogma 2's world without experiencing it for yourself. Yet, Dragon's Dogma still persists in being a game about stories; of encounters, of ambushes late at night, at clutching victory from the jaws of defeat. Now more than ever Dragon's Dogma's world accommodates these stories, only enhanced by the exploration offered by the dense, expanded world; dotted with all manner of caves, shrines, and dungeons to uncover. Crucially, it feels that there's always a reason to explore whatever might be on your horizon, as there's a sense that you'll never truly know what could be waiting on the other side.



At times, this can mean the player quite literally losing their way; much like the original, night can be an unforgiving affair. Dragon's Dogma 2's world is dense, yes, but that also means that night feels even more treacherous than ever before. Even in broad daylight, enemies might hide themselves in the shade of trees, ready to pounce on you if caught unaware - others might cling to the ceiling of a cave, ready to drop down from above. While it is all well and good for players to explore off the beaten path, there's a real expectation that players have a goal in mind when out exploring the world - or, failing that, to be properly prepared for whatever might await them - even if "prepared" might be a means of escape. Returning to the roots of the original release, there is no such thing as an "Eternal Ferrystone", and purchasing the single-use stones for yourself is expensive. You can receive them as rewards for sidequests, and find them dotted across the world - but they're a resource best saved for when you truly need to use them.

While the original Dragon's Dogma had time-sensitive quests, tensions have been ratcheted up a notch with the sequel. No longer is quest progress tied to story progress, but when a quest is timed, there's a priority that you complete it as fast as possible. Dragon's Dogma 2's world will continue on without you; so be careful who you talk to, as you never might know what you might be setting yourself up for. Even for events that aren't added to your quest log, the consequences for your actions can be far wider reaching than you might realize; and the game very much expects you to stop and think about the world around you, and how it might change based on your actions. Time is very much a premium; and while oxcarts offer a cheap means of travel, they only run at specific times of day, and of course take time to travel across the world - all the while running the risk of being raided en route to your destination.



Yet for every risk that Dragon's Dogma 2's world offers, there's an equal reward. Guiding statues that dot the environment point to landmarks, many of which offer unique experiences. Special vocations, like the Mystic Spearhand and the Magick Archer require players to seek them out themselves; the world is dotted with paths that might lead to a location far before the game's story might take you there, not to mention the countless locations completely optional to explore. Much ado has been made about the game's Sphinx, and her riddles - and indeed she lives up to her namesake, offering challenges that befit the legend surrounding her.

However, it's not just the Sphinx's riddles that might vex the player's mind. While the original toyed with quests that offered unique rewards depending on how you chose to complete them, many sidequest chains in Dragon's Dogma 2 can drastically diverge depending on your choices - not to mention the types of quests that players might face are significantly more varied this time around. It's not always just combat players will be tasked with, and yet every quest ends up feeling meaningful in its own way. I'd even go as far as to say that Dragon's Dogma 2's quest design, how it interacts with the world and how it respects player autonomy, makes the game feel akin to a CRPG - when playing the game, it's striking just how much your intelligence is respected. How you're rewarded for paying careful attention to the world around you, while at the same time punished for making careless decisions.

Strikingly, many of these sidequests seamlessly blend into the main story; your actions inform the main narrative in surprising ways. Fail to protect one character, and they might find themselves absent from the story entirely; it's not like the game's narrative will completely unravel depending on your actions, but the permutations run surprisingly deep, all told - and the additional context that some side quests provide is well worth pursuing. You never know who or what might come back in quest down the line... even taken on its own, Dragon's Dogma 2's story feels better integrated with its world as a whole, and far more intriguing from the get-go.



While it might end up being a controversial change to some, the idea to lock many of the game's Vocations behind sidequests feels like a bold declaration of the type of RPG that Dragon's Dogma 2 aspires to be, and has succeeded in delivering. Both new and returning vocations greatly differ from those that came before, and at the same time, there's a real benefit to players exploring them all. Mystic Spearhand offers great burst damage, while at the same time allowing players to react and support their pawns, to help turn the tide of battle; while the retooled Archer and Thief justify their existence, separate from Strider from the first game.

As players use a vocation and rank it up, not only will they unlock skills that they can purchase at a Vocations Guild to equip, but also augments that can be equipped to any of your Vocations once acquired; think of it like a traditional Final Fantasy job system, in that sense. The same, of course, can also apply to your Main Pawn; although they're limited in what Vocations they'll be able to equip, with the likes of Trickster, Mystic Spearhand, Magick Archer, and Warfarer remaining exclusive to the Arisen. Augments, combined with unique stat growths for enhancing equipment depending on the style of blacksmith you choose offer a real depth to character building. Making use of an Elven Forge prioritizes magic damage, so maybe you'll want to seek one out when looking to enhance a staff or magic bow; though for melee weapons Battahl's style of blacksmithing may make the most sense. Or maybe you'll want to mix and match, as the needs arise?



The depth to Dragon's Dogma 2's world feels staggering. It truly feels like there's always something unexpected waiting around every corner, and it can't be stressed enough just how gorgeous this game is to behold. Watching the foliage of a forest react to the beating wings of a Griffin, light and shadow dancing through the leaves with the wind; or the glint of a sorcery illuminating your surroundings in a pitch-black cave, with only that and your lanterns to guide you through the dark. Maxed out on PC, Dragon's Dogma 2 is easily one of the most visually impressive games I've played - though that does come at a hefty performance cost.

For all the simulations that Dragon's Dogma 2 does on a regular basis, it shouldn't come as a great surprise that the game can and will absolutely hammer the CPU. Inside Vernworth, the game's first major city, there currently isn't a PC you can build that won't have regular dips below 60 FPS. On my desktop with an RTX 4090, 64GB of RAM and a Ryzen 7 7700x I had dips down to 50 FPS at times; while other towns and even cities don't dip as heavily, it still bears mentioning that Dragon's Dogma 2 is a very heavy game to run, and most players should temper their expectations heading in. I can only say that I feel, based on what the game delivers in terms of systems and gameplay that the performance is justified - but don't expect to be playing this on a Steam Deck anytime soon. In fact, if your system is anything more than a few years old, prepare to play the game at 30 FPS.

Even then, Dragon's Dogma 2 is an absolute triumph in nearly every sense of the word. There's so much more I could share about my playthrough, but this is a game best worth experiencing blind - letting your own actions dictate the story you tell. So, immerse yourself; "learn aught of this world you must protect". Dragon's Dogma 2 is a bold and brave leap forward for RPGs, inviting you to come along for an unforgettable journey that will be uniquely yours. All that awaits is that very first step.

10

Versions tested: PC. Dragon's Dogma 2 is also available for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S

Disclaimer: A copy of this game was provided to RPG Site by the publisher.

[The_Mask]

This one is a wall of text because I can't seem to get the images to paste, and because they're the promo images they posted when they first released the game, so you're not missing anything new.

Dragons Dogma 2 is an excellent sequel that builds upon the first game's core concepts to create a thrilling open-world adventure.

Read our full review: http://bit.ly/dd2review

https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/dragon ... 0-6418199/

Dragon's Dogma 2 doesn't have a traditional fast-travel system. For most open-world games, this would be a death sentence--an affront to the player's valuable time. Yet somehow, Capcom has turned the absence of this quality-of-life feature into a resounding strength. It's the game's tremendous sense of adventure and discovery that accomplishes this. Every time you leave the relative safety of a village or city, there's no telling what will happen; you just know it has the potential to be spellbinding and will be well worth your time.

As a sequel, Dragon's Dogma 2 is an extension of everything the first game achieved 12 years ago. It's an enchanting open-world RPG with varied, exciting combat and a player-created companion system that's still unlike anything else. It doesn't do much beyond what the original did, but advancements in technology have enhanced its anomalous strengths, breathing new life into its massive open world and the ways in which you and everything around you can interact with it. New ideas and innovation might not be at the forefront, but the things it does are still relatively distinct.

Now Playing: Dragon's Dogma 2 GameSpot Video Review

After a brief but intriguing prologue, your adventure begins in the country of Vermund, a land of lush green forests, alpine peaks, and the flowing currents of its many winding rivers. The royalty and noblemen of Vermund reside behind the fortified walls of its capital city, and it's from this bustling location that you can board an oxcart to a small village in the north or a checkpoint city in the west. The latter sits on the border with Battahl, an arid land, home to the humanoid cat-like beastren, where gondolas provide an occasional route over the craggy canyons below. Beyond traveling via oxcart or climbing aboard one of these sky lifts, you're left to explore this sprawling world on foot, traversing dense forests blanketed by canopies that blot out the sun, elven ruins carved into the sides of mountains, and shifting sands bathed in harsh sunlight and circled by deadly harpies.

There is a method of instant fast travel available, but it works in much the same way as it did in the first game. You can exhaust a costly resource known as Ferrystones to travel to any Portcrystal in the world, but these fast-travel points are few and far between--either as a permanent fixture or an item you can pick up and place anywhere you desire. You'll use them sparingly and spend the vast majority of your time covering large swathes of land on your own two feet. Considering the 12-year gap between the original game and its sequel, this approach to fast travel and seamless exploration feels like an even bolder decision now than it did in 2012. The open-world genre has become more codified in the interim, yet Dragon's Dogma 2 makes a concerted effort to ensure that the journey is just as important as the destination.

This is a game defined as much by the trek through an undulating gorge as it is the battle you encounter when you reach the bottom. The quests you embark on are diverse, tasking you with venturing off to rescue a boy who's been taken by a pack of wolves or accompanying an elf on their rite of passage. These quests are sometimes generic but the way they play out is anything but. You're never just engaging with one singular objective at a time; Dragon's Dogma 2 is filled to the brim with emergent moments that consistently dazzle and surprise. I could regale you with myriad tales from my 40-hour adventure without even mentioning an actual scripted questline. Defined objectives might give you the impetus to head in a particular direction, but this then unravels a thread of distinct events that occur naturally, challenging you with enormous beasts to topple or piquing your curiosity with a cave tucked away to the side of the main pathway.

I once embarked on a lengthy journey that began with the usual ambushes from resourceful goblins and roadside bandits. I thought a first encounter with the three-headed, magic-wielding chimera would be the most noteworthy part of this venture, only for a monstrous griffin to swoop down and introduce an entirely new set of problems. After hacking at the chimera's wailing goat head until it eventually collapsed in defeat, I focused all of my attention on the fearsome griffin. The immense force of this mighty creature made the nearby foliage rustle and shake every time it reared back and flapped its wings, but I managed to clamber on top of the beast and dig my sword into the back of its skull before it launched into the air and sent me spiraling to the floor.

After a time, the griffin made its escape, retreating back to the skies above, so I spent the night camping to recuperate my depleted health bar. I set out again in the morning, only to be interrupted by the same griffin, presumably with a newly formed vendetta against me. This time, after much hardship, I defeated the mythical creature before it could flee again, yet my journey was far from over. A pair of colossi sprang an unpredictable attack in the tight confines between two rocky outcrops, while the next night brought about a horde of undead skeletons whose glowing blue eyes pierced the suffocating darkness.

[Dragon's Dogma 2 is] an enchanting open-world RPG with varied, exciting combat and a player-created companion system that's still unlike anything else

None of these encounters related to one another or pertained to the quest I initially set out on, but that's the magic of Dragon's Dogma 2's open world. You're constantly pulled in numerous directions at once and it's up to you to decide which avenues to pursue. It might be a quest given to you by a villager in need, an enticing structure looming on the horizon, or a locked gate and the potential to find an alternative way inside. Backtracking is fairly common, but no one journey is exactly the same as another, so it never feels like a chore when you're retreading familiar ground.

Of course, none of this would work nearly as well if the game's other elements weren't up to snuff. Fortunately, combat is excellent across the board, providing you with a variety of unique vocations to choose from. These classes range from the sword and shield-wielding Fighter and long-range Archer, to new additions like the Mystic Spearhand--a melee/magic combo build--and the jack-of-all-trades Warfarer. It's entirely viable to pick a vocation and play the entire game as that class, but you're also rewarded for experimenting. Each vocation has special Augmentations to unlock which grant passive buffs that you can apply regardless of what class you're currently using. This means you can make a Mage sturdier, or give a Warrior greater stamina usually reserved for the Thief.

Whichever vocation you choose, there's a fantastic sense of impact behind your attacks. Axes and greatswords meet flesh with a glorious crunch--the game slowing down to let you bask in your most impactful strikes--while enemies burst into flames and tumble off cliffsides behind the power of a Sorcerer's stave. There's a hint of Devil May Cry to its most stylish and over-the-top moves, and hacking away at colossal beasts with slow but purposeful blows can't help but bring to mind the protracted battles of Monster Hunter.

Even when you're swirling through the air and conjuring piercing ice shards, the combat still feels grounded thanks to the world reacting realistically to everything that occurs within it. When I toppled a colossus and it stumbled towards a small chasm, it didn't just fall down the gap, but grabbed onto the other side, creating a desperate, makeshift bridge. Only after hacking at its fingers did it lose its grip and tumble to its demise. The camera sometimes has trouble keeping up with all of this explosive action, usually because a mage has filled the screen with fire or ice. In that sense, it's a somewhat acceptable trade-off. What's not quite as forgivable is when the camera becomes unwieldy in tight interiors or when you're clinging to the back of a terrifying beast, but at least these instances aren't too frequent and are only a minor inconvenience when you consider the ensuing thrills of Dragon's Dogma 2's fantastic combat.

In terms of story, you're once again cast as the Arisen, repeating a cycle that has occurred for generations. A fearsome dragon rules over the land and chooses you as a worthy challenger to its reign by plucking out your still-beating heart and consuming it. Your ultimate goal is to take up arms and slay the dragon, but before that can happen you need to build up your strength and contend with the disparate politics of both Vermund and Battahl. In Vermund, the Arisen is revered as a sovereign and champion of the people, tasked with protecting the land from the ominous shadow of the dragon. An imposter sits on your throne, however: a False Arisen, put in place by a queen who doesn't want to lose her power. In attempting to claim what's rightfully yours, you'll gradually unravel a mystery that threatens to impact the fate of the whole world.

It's a decent tale that propels your adventure forward, although it's light on characterization, which contributes to a persistent feeling of detachment. This makes it difficult to care about the overarching narrative, aside from an interest in unraveling the core mystery. The awe-inspiring scale of its later moments somewhat makes up for its shortcomings, while exploring the differences between the cultures of Vermund and Battahl is also compelling. The beastren nation casts the Arisen as an outsider, fearful as they are of your entourage of pawns and the misfortune they portend.

Much like the first game, these user-created companions are the game's most exceptional feature. Up to three pawns can join you on your journey, though one is a permanent fixture and your own creation. You can set their vocation and change it as you see fit, equipping skills and upgrades for them just as you would your own character. The other two members of your party are hirelings you can recruit and replace on a whim and are typically created by other players. Choosing which pawns to hire primarily comes down to a matter of party composition. Whether they're leading from the front, imbuing your weapon with magic, or blanketing the battlefield in meteors, it's hard not to love the impact they have on combat. But there's also more to them than simply being hired guns.

The time a pawn spends with other players is retained in their memory. They might recall a treasure chest they opened in another Arisen's world and then lead you to it, and they do the same when it comes to navigating quests as well. If you prioritize an objective and one of your pawns has completed it before, they'll offer to lead you to wherever it is you need to go. Rather than being weighed down by having to constantly revisit the map, you can let a pawn naturally guide you, creating an ebb and flow to your adventure that removes the need for menu screens and waypoints. They can sometimes lose their way when you're interrupted by combat, but I found that hitting the "Go" command would reset them back on the right path.

Pawns perform a similar function after defeating a certain number of a particular enemy type, too. If a pawn has sufficient experience beating, say, an ogre, they'll relay pertinent information on weak points and the nature of their attacks. You can also find and then equip different specializations for your pawn, maybe granting them the ability to translate Elvish, or forage for materials so you don't have to bother. They can still be overly loquacious at times, expressing child-like wonder at the world with a barrage of Ye Olde English dialogue. Their remarks are nowhere near as repetitive as before, though, and they're much more personable this time around, chatting among themselves about other players they've traveled with and creating a palpable sense of teamwork and camaraderie.

The most noticeable misstep derives from Dragon's Dogma 2's performance on PC. My current rig exceeds the recommended specifications (aside from the CPU), and the game generally runs at around 60fps using the game's "High" preset. Sometimes it dips into the 40s and drops even lower inside villages and cities, but it's certainly playable, if a little unstable. The problem is that this performance is consistent across all visual settings, which leads me to believe it's a matter of poor optimization. I could've used the performance bump from lowering shadow quality and the like, but doing so has no effect. Ideally, this will be rectified with a day-one patch and driver updates, but it's not ideal at the time of writing.

Even so, these performance issues did little to deter my love for this game. It's not often that a cult classic gets the green light for a sequel, especially 12 years after the original game was released. Capcom hasn't tried to make Dragon's Dogma 2 more palatable to potentially attract a wider audience, either. It stuck to the first game's core values and expanded upon them to create a bigger and better game that consistently delights in its approach to seamless exploration and the thrill of adventure. This means it feels very familiar in a lot of ways, but it's a game for those who fell in love with the original, despite its flaws, and will hopefully find an entirely new audience who perhaps never gave the first game a chance. Even after 40 hours, my heart continues to grow fonder for this special game. It's an exceptional achievement that's quite unlike anything else, and I wouldn't hesitate to place it amongst the pantheon of Capcom's very best.

[Oyster Sauce]

www.rpgsite.net

And I thought RPGHQ was a lazy name

[The_Mask]

Review: Dragon’s Dogma 2 is the most vital RPG since Elden Ring

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/rev ... lden-ring/

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is going to be a nightmare for completionists.

As you play through the utterly massive game, you can almost physically feel yourself missing out on content as story choices are made, loyalties are declared, and vital characters are killed. You’re already mentally booking your second playthrough, even though you’ll probably not begin your second journey through the world of Dragon’s Dogma 2 for eighty more hours.

It’s a game that’s rich in possibility everywhere you turn. The world is so dense that you can literally get to the end of the story, fulfill the majority of the main quest objectives, and then realize there’s a whole faction, town, or multi-part mission you’ve missed. Dragon’s Dogma 2 is begging you to explore.

Despite the twelve years since the release of the original game, Dragon’s Dogma hasn’t taken the lessons of the last decade of gaming to heart – and it’s better for it. It’s a huge, open-world fantasy action RPG, but the game that just conjured in your mind from a mechanical perspective couldn’t be further from Dragon’s Dogma 2’s reality.

Fast travel is a hard-won consumable. There are barely any mission markers, even for vital quests. Do you want to uncover a piece of the map? Well, you better walk over to it. There are no towers here, and there are no endless skill trees. When faced with a decade of open-world games coated with the same artificial flavour, Dragon’s Dogma 2 doesn’t back down; it doubles down.

So much of it feels like game design out of time—in a refreshingly positive way. Right from the off, you’re tasked with reaching the first main city. This is a trite task in any game, setting the player off on a light adventure to get to grips with the controls before introducing them to the larger stakes and the main characters.

In Dragon’s Dogma 2, you can easily lose your guide, which in turn loses a marker to follow, meaning you have to get to the first city, which includes a sub-boss fight all on your own. You begin thinking as if you’re really on this adventure. Sure, if we take the road it will probably lead us straight to the city, but our party is weak and the roads are lined with enemies.












Could we climb the hills that pen us in on all sides? Potentially, there’s plenty of Skyrim-style jumping up odd-shaped hills to go around, but there’s no way of knowing if the other side of that hill will be sheer drop, sending us tumbling to our deaths. Where are we supposed to heal? We’ve no camping items, and we’re between both towns. Did you just hear a Cyclops? Dragon’s Dogma 2 is second only to Baldur’s Gate 3 in how faithfully it recreates the organic chaos of a D&D session.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 doesn’t play the game for you. For example, if you’re tasked with going into a town and finding a specific person to talk to, you have to find that person. There’s no glowing exclamation mark. There’s little in the way of UI direction. If you want to know what to do, you can either talk to people in the town, consult your vague mission log, or just explore.

As a result, even somewhat mundane mission objectives feel far more satisfying because you’ve actually done something; you’re not just a tourist being ferried from cutscene to cutscene. Sometimes, the answer is literally to go back to a quest giver with half the information they require, which will open up a new dialogue option for them, leading you on a completely separate path. You’d need a corkboard with red string the size of Camp Nou to ferret out every possible way each mission can go.

“Dragon’s Dogma 2 is so dense that you can literally get to the end of the game, fulfill the majority of the main quest objectives, and then realize there’s a whole faction, town, or multi-part mission you’ve missed. Dragon’s Dogma 2 is begging you to explore.”

Dragon’s Dogma 2’s secret sauce is the Pawns. Returning from the first game, Pawns are AI-controlled lackeys that follow you around the game and will fight by your side. During the game, you travel with three Pawns, one of which you create yourself, and the other two created by other players.

The game world is populated by player-created Pawns that will approach you on the road and offer their services. Similarly, your Pawn will end up in other people’s games and will return with gifts and gold. You make your Pawn using the game’s incredibly deep character creator, meaning during the review period, the streets were lined with Kratos and Geralt of Rivia, not to mention Paul Atreides of Dune (to match our own Chalamet-inspired player character.)

Perhaps unsurprisingly, due to the scale of the game, there’s a fair amount of ‘jank’. While nothing we encountered was game-breaking, we had two occasions wherein the sequence of a mission broke because the character that was due to appear at a set time disappeared from the area. NPCs almost always have a set schedule, not unlike something like Fallout 3, or Skyrim, but, just like those games, this means that if they get off track, things can break.



Another pitfall is in the game’s performance. We reviewed on PlayStation 5, which targets 30 frames per second. Targets is the operative word as Dragon’s Dogma 2’s framerate begins to visibly buckle during the game’s most intense action scenes. It’s not fair to say that Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a game that performs badly, it’s just worth noting that it can get choppy during large battles.

But in truth, we can’t emphasize enough how little any of that matters when we consider our time with Capcom‘s RPG. It’s a game that seeps into every aspect of your life. You’ll find yourself thinking about it when you’re doing the dishes. You’ll play into the wee hours of the morning, only to find a random item that will surely lead to another entertaining side quest.

In many ways, Dragon’s Dogma 2 feels like the antidote to the open-world malaise of the last decade. Its confluence of stellar world-building, expansive combat, and engrossing atmosphere make it an experience that, even after you’ve rolled credits, you’ll happily go in for more, because you know you’ve barely scratched the surface of what it has to offer.

We can’t even tell you the best thing about Dragon’s Dogma 2. It’s a game that’s so full of surprises, that each time it dazzles you, you think “Surely that’s it,” but no. The game ramps up show-stopping moments throughout, but there’s one moment that players and developers will reference for decades. It’s a moment that will have your jaw smashing through your floor into your downstairs neighbour, and we can’t implore you enough to experience it and the rest of this magnificent game for yourself.

If the popularity of Elden Ring wasn’t a clear enough indicator, let Dragon’s Dogma 2 be used in boardrooms across the world as the shining example of what a modern, massive, gorgeous open-world game can be. Players want freedom. Players want to feel like they played a role in this role-playing game.

[The_Mask]

Endless discoveries paired with limitless potential - that's the verdict of our Dragon's Dogma 2 review

https://www.eurogamer.net/dragons-dogma-2-review

Dragon's Dogma 2 review - endless discoveries paired with limitless potential
There and back again.



Review by Lewis Parker Contributor
Published on 20 Mar 2024

A huge improvement over the original, and a captivating journey from beginning to end.

As I launched Dragon's Dogma 2 for the first time, I told myself that I should go into it with a more critical eye than I usually would. I think I was afraid that my overzealous love for the original might cloud my judgement. Then I blinked, and 10 hours had flown by. It was suddenly 3 a.m. on a Tuesday, and I'd been so engrossed in Dragon's Dogma 2 that I'd regressed back into the gaming schedule of my teenage years. I was now acutely aware of how tired I was, so I told myself I would save at the next available opportunity and go to bed. As I approached a nearby campsite, I spotted a troll and a dragon duking it out in the distance. I joined Team Troll, the clear underdog, and subsequently spent another 20 minutes avenging his death against the dragon. After a hard won fight, I decided it couldn't hurt to explore the nearby Ancient Battlegrounds for a few minutes.

I blinked again. It was 5 a.m. now. As I finally managed to pull myself away from Dragon's Dogma 2, I realised attempting to be unbiased may no longer be possible, because Dragon's Dogma 2 isn't bothered about appeasing those who had issues with the original game. In fact, it's trying to do the complete opposite - it's doubled down on everything that fans of the original game loved in the hopes of catering to its target audience, which just so happens to be me.

Dragon's Dogma 2 is an intentionally difficult game to summarise. From the outside looking in, it's a hack-and-slash RPG set in a fantasy world, with its grand, over-the-top boss battles serving as its main draw. In reality however, Dragon's Dogma 2 is a test in perseverance.

Every second, in every location, something is begging for your attention. Your Pawns, your AI controlled buddies that follow you around, will either be gossiping to each other or trying to catch your eye so they can point you in the direction of a nearby secret. The roads you travel will regularly, often subtly, branch off into something indiscernible in the near distance, baiting you towards what could be a treasure chest or new questline. Sometimes a massive boss monster will casually appear out of nowhere, just to glide above you before nesting in a location not too far out of reach. Maybe you'll run into a random NPC during your travels, who will offer you a quest of a time-sensitive nature that you will have to either accept and tackle immediately, or ignore and risk never being able to complete again in the future. And occasionally, all of these events will happen simultaneously, events you will have to ignore if you plan to get to the objective you initially set out to tackle in a timely manner. It's a game about opportunity cost.

This focus on "emergent gameplay", as director Hideaki Itsuno refers to it, isn't some new, groundbreaking idea, but Dragon's Dogma 2 is the purest version of the idea I've ever seen. I could regale you with dozens of stories of my adventures throughout Vermund, all of which feel completely unique to my playthrough, but I think my favourite occurred relatively close to the start of the game. I set out from Vernworth, Vermund's capital, towards the small port town of Melve. Near my destination was the Beastren commander Beren, who had previously asked me to procure some swords for him, which I had since acquired. The first time I made the trip from Melve to Vernworth, I was offered a ride in an oxcart, which I chose to accept. In doing so however, I missed the opportunity to explore the area in between, so I opted to walk back to Melve this time so I could see the sights on the way.

During my travels, I ran into a merchant on the road who asked me to escort her to a camp near Melve. Naturally, I agreed. I don't remember the merchant's name, because, less than three minutes into our walk, an ogre proceeded to use its club to rocket her into the nearest body of water. Fighting the ogre itself wasn't too tough, but, just before I killed it, a griffin swooped down from above and crushed the ogre to death. My subsequent battle with the griffin was a little more challenging, mostly because my party was underleveled and we didn't have access to any appropriate magic attacks or buffs that could have weakened it. Still, we managed to get the better of it, as a flurry of blows dealt by my main pawn Rose (as she clung to its back in midair) caused it to come crashing to the ground.

My party took advantage of its downed state and whittled it away to its final health bar. We were poised to come out of our fight victorious - until a roaming oxcart turned the corner at an alarmingly fast speed, running over and killing both myself and the griffin. I begrudgingly used my only wakestone to revive myself. The griffin wasn't so fortunate. The oxcart that had just murdered me had come to a stop in the middle of the road, presumably so they could get my insurance details. Now that my maximum health had been greatly reduced and I was out of wakestones, I once again chose to hop on the oxcart and fast travelled to Melve. Once the screen faded in and out to black, I could suddenly hear the ominous sound of boss music. The driver of the oxcart and the singular soldier that had carpooled his way there with me jumped to action, sprinting towards Melve's centre. A dragon was attempting to raze the city. Luckily, I was assisted by Melve's small battalion of troops - and, of course, one random oxcart driver.

Everyone survived the battle, except the oxcart driver, which I initially believed was some form of karmic retribution for his hit and run attempt on my life - until I realised I would be walking back to Vernworth. This is the entire game in microcosm.

The expansion of the emergent gameplay that was present in the first game isn't the only element that Dragon's Dogma 2 has chosen to improve, however. The story in the sequel is a lot more compelling than it was in the first game, and no longer suffers from a noticeable dip in quality during its middle act, which previously saw you aimlessly meandering around with no clearly defined objective. The plot also does a great job of guiding you across the map itself. Even before the first main city, Vernworth, begins to feel stale, the main questline will direct you towards the Beastren land of Batthal and beyond. There are also a couple of examples of previously hated quests making a return, but with small quality-of-life updates that make traversing them much more fun. For instance, there are a few forced stealth missions in the main story - missions that felt painfully shoehorned into the original game. The difference here is that there's a specific class, the Thief, that trivialises stealth, which you can temporarily swap to and from with ease.


Dragon's Dogma 2. | Image credit: Capcom/Eurogamer

The lack of direction many disliked in the original is still present in the sequel, but with several added caveats. Should you ever feel completely lost during a quest, you can consult a local fortune teller, who will offer you hints related to your currently selected quest in exchange for a small fee. Pawns are also far more useful in guiding you towards your objectives than they ever were in the first game. Should a Pawn in your party have knowledge of the quest at hand, simply instructing them to "Go!" will cause them to offer advice, or begin sprinting in the direction of your objective. If you don't currently employ a Pawn that has knowledge of your current quest, you can simply visit a Riftstone and filter your search results for a Pawn that does. Personally, I loved figuring this stuff out on my own, so it's great that the help you're offered is completely optional (if you're a weirdo like me who enjoys aimlessly walking around and talking to NPCs).

The biggest and most welcome change is to the Vocations, the 10 unique classes you can freely swap between during your playthrough. In the original, three of the Vocations served more as upgrades to other Vocations, rendering the original three classes you could choose somewhat irrelevant in the late game. In Dragon's Dogma 2, the Vocations have been reworked to lean more into their established roles. For instance, Warrior is no longer simply a stronger version of the Fighter class, but instead now focuses on breaking an enemy's guard through the use of charged, armoured attacks. The Fighter's role as a Tank has been emphasised in turn, by adopting certain moves that the now discontinued Mystic Knight from the first game class had.



Likewise, many fans of the original game were disappointed to find out that the Thief and Archer classes wouldn't have upgraded Vocations, but the focus on making every class feel unique and fully realised makes it clear that the new intention is to make every Vocation powerful and distinct enough by themselves. Every Vocation, once fully levelled up, feels so overwhelmingly strong that some kind of upgraded version of any of them would be laughably busted, which actually seems like a clever way of guiding the player toward trying out several different Vocations during one playthrough. Whilst your unique skills don't transfer from one Vocation to another, the unique augments you unlock by playing as a specific Vocation do - and most of these augments are designed to be broad enough in their application that several other Vocations can benefit from using them too.

The map itself has also received a huge glow-up when compared to the first game. Dragon's Dogma 2's director Hideaki Itsuno previously stated that the map is four times bigger than that of the original game, but it's not simply bigger; it's more densely packed with secrets and hidden quests, set across several uniquely designed locations with different races you can interact with. If you've played Elden Ring or Skyrim, you probably remember the first time you set foot in the Siofra River or Blackreach, astounded at how such a huge area was hidden completely from view and could be missed entirely during your playthrough. That's happened to me three times so far in Dragon's Dogma 2, and I still have so much more of the map left to explore.



Yet, just like in the original Dragon's Dogma, you are still expected to spend most of the game traipsing across the map on foot to reach different quest objectives. There are options for fast travel, but they still come with downsides. Ferrystones can be used to instantly fast travel to a handful of select locations, but they're rare and expensive. Oxcarts can be used to travel from one city to another, but the destinations they travel to never change. This means you will potentially have to get several oxcarts in a row and rest in-between certain stops along the way, as Oxcarts only operate during the day, if you want to travel to a specific city - something that you might want to avoid if the quest you're trying to reach can be failed if you take too long to complete it.

The big improvement here is that the map has been intelligently designed in such a way that even the most direct route to your objective will have several different paths you can take along the way, ensuring that multiple trips across the map will never get boring as unexplored, yet equally fast, routes will lead to new discoveries. There are also several shortcuts you can unlock as you travel, some of which can save you up to 20 minutes of traversal. I know it's considered laughable when a video game reviewer compares other games to Souls games, but the depth to the interconnected nature of the map did give me flashbacks to my first time playing Bloodborne - except in Dragon's Dogma 2's case, it's on a much wider scale.

Sadly, I do have one small criticism, although thankfully it is a lot less detrimental than it might initially appear to be. I did run into some performance issues on PC, specifically in regards to some occasional frame droppage. Now, I should note that I never ran into any drops in frames in the open world and managed to run at a pretty consistent 120FPS, so oddly this was never an issue during combat. I only ever experience drops in frames during my time in the two biggest cities in the game, and these drops did seem specific to certain locations within those cities, such as in Vernworth's town square. However, I was running the game with all of the graphical settings at their highest, so I was able to completely offset these drops in frames with some slight tweaks that barely impacted how pretty the game looked - changes I could revert once I left said cities.



Outside of this, Dragon's Dogma 2 ran smoothly, looked incredible, and I honestly can't think of a single bug or glitch I encountered during my playthrough. Considering how beautiful Dragon's Dogma 2's world is, both from a graphical and visual design standpoint, to be frank I'm surprised I didn't experience further performance issues beyond this. During that dragon attack in Melve I spoke of earlier, a mage in my party cast a screen-encompasing blizzard, covering the dragon in a frosty texture as the light from the spell and the dragon's fire reflected off the nearby ocean in tandem - all while 20 or so NPCs helped attack said dragon alongside us. Yet, not a single dip in frames occurred. Hopefully the frame rate issue within certain cities is something Capcom can fix in the near future, because outside of this critique I can confidently say that Dragon's Dogma 2's performance on PC was perfect.

As of writing this, I'm roughly 60 hours into Dragon's Dogma 2. 60 hours was more than enough time to complete Dragon's Dogma 2's main story, to max out four of the available vocations, and to explore just over half of the locations on the map, but I'm still fairly certain another 60 hours of playtime lay ahead of me - and that's not even taking a second playthrough into account. Yet, going into specifics about some of the things I experience during my playtime would feel wrong - not because I'd be spoiling plot details, but rather because I'd be spoiling gameplay mechanics that have yet to be revealed.

Last year, I published a retrospective piece on Eurogamer about why a lot of people gave up half way through playing the original Dragon's Dogma. I noted that Dragon's Dogma hides a lot of its mechanics from the player, only choosing to reveal them when either the time was right or when the player accidentally stumbles across them. In Dragon's Dogma 2, this same mentality of "show, don't tell" is back, only more so. There are so many weird and wonderful hidden mechanics operating in the background of this game, things that haven't been publicised or bragged about by the developers anywhere that I've seen. It's so rare to see restraint of this kind from a publisher, to hide all of these tiny little tidbits from players when announcing any single one of them could have easily spurred a news article into existence that would have generated further buzz for the game, but the frequency at which I uncovered them only further enhanced the magical feeling of discovery Dragon's Dogma 2 is trying to inspire.



Dragon's Dogma 2 is such a compelling experience going in blind that I am asking, borderline begging, you not to spoil it for yourself. It's a game that dares to let the player make mistakes, and locks you into making these mistakes with its autosaves. Yet, the mistakes aren't meant to punish you. They're meant to educate you - and they have an odd way of rewarding you in turn. Considering Dragon's Dogma 2's length and the sheer breadth of the explorable locations and quests within it, you are expected to get things wrong sometimes. I did, frequently. But those brave enough to take Dragon's Dogma 2 up on its challenge will be rewarded with a world that reacts in kind to the errors they make. That might truly be the most unique thing that Dragon's Dogma 2 offers players, a world which adapts and changes based on the decisions you make through simply playing the game, opposed to other RPGs that have you influence outcomes through dialogue choices.

It might have seemed a little heavy-handed how often I compared the first Dragon's Dogma to Dragon's Dogma 2 during this review, but there is no better, more apt way to describe this game than by saying "it's like the first Dragon's Dogma, but better." If you're a fan of the original, you'll no doubt be thrilled to hear that, but if you weren't I would suggest you attempt to discern whether or not the aspects of the first game you didn't enjoy have been addressed in the sequel.

If initially difficult combat (that gets even harder at night), quests that can be permanently failed (due to the lack of a manual save option), or having three ye olde British NPCs (who repeat the same 30 conversations ad nauseum) follow you around for the entire game is what led you to quit the first game, then unfortunately I would suggest you steer clear from the sequel. But if you were simply turned off by the plot, or the fast travel mechanics, or how little there was to explore in the open world, then I implore you to give Dragon's Dogma 2 a try. This is genuinely a game like no other I've ever played before, because the only other game like it is the original Dragon's Dogma - a game that now feels irrelevant due to the improvements the sequel has made to every aspect of the original formula.

I do think a lot of what Dragon's Dogma 2 does scratches an itch for me, and that some of the things I love about it are specific to me. But the longer I've played it the less I've worried about my own bias towards it. Even if I hadn't have played the first Dragon's Dogma, I can tell you with complete certainty that I'd have come to same conclusion I have now, and I'd have given Dragon's Dogma 2 the same score I have now, simply because no other game in recent memory has inspired the same feeling of captivation and wonder in me. The joy of discovery lies within all of us, and Dragon's Dogma 2 succeeds in evoking that magical feeling in a way no other game has before it.

A copy of Dragon's Dogma 2 was provided for review by Capcom.



Dragon's Dogma 2 accessibility options
Contrast and brightness options in the graphics menu. Independent sliders for music, sound effects and dialogue, including the option to change the language for both subtitles and audio. Tutorials are displayed as pop-ups, which can then be read again through the menu. Options for disabling and altering motion blur, depth of field, and camera sensitivity. Options for inverting X/Y axis. UI elements can be customised or disabled entirely. Controller support, alongside settings for both vibration and button remapping.

[Mortmal]

I hope you're right, but I'm reading terrible reviews. They mention catastrophic performance, CPU-bound issues, with little difference between a 4060 Ti and a 4090. Some say the game can be completed in 20 hours. I don't know what to think anymore; it's hard to trust anyone these days. I miss my paper magazines from decades ago with trustworthy reviews.

[KnightoftheWind]

You can tell who has standards/self-respect and who doesn't when "/ourguys/" bought Baldur's Gate 3 in droves and proceeded to cope with it's vapid degeneracy for weeks. Buying Dragon's Dogma 2 to "own the libs" is precisely the sort of logic most modern, hopelessly addicted gamers will do.

[Acrux]

You can tell who has standards/self-respect and who doesn't when "/ourguys/" bought Baldur's Gate 3 in droves and proceeded to cope with it's vapid degeneracy for weeks.

You literally have the gay vampire as your avatar.

► Show Spoiler

I'm still a BG3 pureblood, btw

[KnightoftheWind]

You can tell who has standards/self-respect and who doesn't when "/ourguys/" bought Baldur's Gate 3 in droves and proceeded to cope with it's vapid degeneracy for weeks.

You literally have the gay vampire as your avatar.

► Show Spoiler

I'm still a BG3 pureblood, btw

But I'm not Vergil, HE'S Vergil. Tsk, typical racist.

[rusty_shackleford]

bought

huh

There's no way to play this slop without paying money

[aweigh]

[NEG]

Anyone going to work on deblacking the game?

[NEG]

I miss my paper magazines from decades ago with trustworthy reviews.

lol, I started reading online user reviews at the Codex because I was tired of all the fake reviews in print.