After spending many, many hours playing Dragon’s Dogma 2, here’s what you need to know in the Soundsphere review.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 is going to attract two types of gamer, those who enjoyed the first one and are keen to see how Capcom has improved upon it, and those who enjoy open world medieval-themed RPGs and fancy trying a new one. Both are in for a shock.
For returning players, Dragon’s Dogma 2 makes no effort to fix some of the more obtuse parts of its predecessor and if you found the dialog of the pawns to be a bit stilted, or the fast-travel system to be frustrating, or the lack of lock-on in combat to be strange, then we’ve got bad news for you, all this is back in Dragon’s Dogma 2.
Those who are new to the franchise and come to this game after playing the brilliant Final Fantasy VII Rebirth or many of the other modern open-world RPGs that exist, such as Elden Ring, are going to find Dragon’s Dogma 2 to be a very different beast. We’d also hazard a guess that the mechanics described above will prove initially frustrating.
But don’t let any of this put you off.
Dragon’s Dogma 2’s world is designed to be lived in rather than played.
Take your time to learn the mechanics
Dragon’s Dogma 2 is designed very deliberately and its more obtuse and seemingly baffling ideas have been implemented for a reason. The most controversial of which, the limited fast travel, is also its most crucial. Fast travel is available in Dragon’s Dogma 2, but like the first game, it requires players to reach a certain point in the story, have the required items and be prepared to cough up a large wad of cash for the luxury.
This is not a simple case of opening your map, clicking on a waypoint and magically teleporting to your intended destination, like you can do in so many other games. There are oxcarts you can ride in to get from one settlement to another, and by dozing off in the back you can essentially fast-travel, but you can also be woken up on the road by attacking monsters, forcing you into action. The more you engage in these features, the more you’ll begin to appreciate them, and that’s the key to enjoying Dragon’s Dogma 2.
Just like FromSoftware’s Souls games, Dragon’s Dogma 2 is trying to throw off the norms and conventions of the genre and wants you to engage with its mechanics for the most rewarding experience. This is what you need to do in Dragon’s Dogma 2, and once you surrender to this, you’ll soon find yourself having not just a good time, but a wonderful one. This is not Skyrim, or the Witcher 3, it’s a different game entirely, so you’ll need to work with Capcom here and let go of what you know.
The lack of fast travel for example exists to encourage you to explore and really get to know the world around you. Don’t just play the game, live in its world. Every journey you make is part of this, and as with real life, you’ll need to plan your route and when it gets dark, make camp out in the wilderness and cook some meat for your buddies. Tough monsters roam the roads and woodland at night, and making camp is much safer. At day break, continue your journey. You can always take the oxcart back once you reach your destination.
The dynamic world is unpredictable, which is always exciting.
A dynamic world
Living in the world of Dragon’s Dogma 2 and exploring is a great way to complete side quests, level up and build wealth rather than endlessly following quest markers. In time, you’ll be able to fast travel more frequently as you’ll have the items and funds you need, but you’ll be surprised how often you choose not to, adventure awaits in the vast open world, and who knows what you’ll find.
This leads us to the main draw of Dragon’s Dogma 2, its dynamic world. This is a game that places lots of emphasis on random encounters in an ever fluid world. Now this could mean nothing much happens between one journey to the next, or it could mean a whole lot of things happen. It also means that you could see one boss monster battling another boss monster from a distance, allowing you to either join the fray, or hang back and pick off the survivor.
It’s never dull and it makes exploration so much more fun than in other games of this genre, and many of those are pretty special. This is why the game places some early limits on fast-travel, Capcom doesn’t want you becoming too reliant on it and missing out on some truly spectacular content. The more time we spend with Dragon’s Dogma 2, the more we love it. Which is exactly what happened with the first game.
That being said, it’s not perfect and some aspects do feel slightly last gen or too close to the original game. We want to say that the absence of a lock-on system in combat is a deliberate move, designed to make us better fighters. But when you consider Elden Ring and the Dark Souls games all featured this mechanic and we still managed to “git gud”, that argument starts to ring hollow. Pun intended.
You can play as other races other than humans.
Not for everyone
It’s more likely that Dragon’s Dogma 2 is updated Dragon’s Dogma 1 assets, which itself borrowed heavily from Capcom’s own Monster Hunter games. When you consider a lock on system was added to Monster Hunter World, the absence of the system in this game just starts to feel bizarre. However, it genuinely did make us better fighters in the long run, but we still feel the game should have included this pretty basic mechanic.
NPCs and pawn dialog also sounds odd, each character sounds like they’re larping, but it can often be so cringe it’s funny. But in other situations you’ll really wish your pawns would stop obsessing about every ladder they see. However, the AI is generally very good – in the absence of multiplayer – and the fact that pawns remember things from their travels with other players is pretty radical. They’ll even tattle on them on some occasions!
We got off to a shaky start with Dragon’s Dogma 2, but we respect it for sticking to its guns and delivering its updated vision for what an open-world fantasy RPG should be. It’s certainly not for everyone, but the more time you invest into this game the more rewarding you’ll find it. The dynamic world alone is worth the price of admission and we look forward to seeing how it moves the needle in this genre – because it’s absolutely going to do that.
