When you boot up Dragon’s Dogma 2, you get all the standard boilerplate warnings, a Capcom logo, and then the game’s title screen. Except it’s technically not the game’s name, because it’s missing a 2.
11.03.2024 - 13:43 / gamingbolt.com / Hideaki Itsuno
Much has been said about Dragon’s Dogma 2, especially with new previews and a free Character Creator going live last week. However, the scale of the experience is still relatively unknown, especially given that the world is four times larger than the original. Speaking to Automaton-Media, director Hideaki Itsuno discussed certain feats possible on current-gen hardware.
Despite how impressive the first game is, there were “many technological shortcomings at the time in terms of creating a proper open world. For example, when entering a densely populated area such as a castle or dungeon, there had to be a brief loading time to switch from the data for the distant view to the detailed data for the interior, which prevented a seamless playing experience.”
In Dragon’s Dogma 2, all dungeons, towns and house interiors are “seamlessly connected,” echoing a previous statement about the lack of loading screens while exploring. Other new features include a “dramatically higher” number of NPCs (over 1,000 confirmed during Capcom Highlights Day 1). There can even be more bosses on-screen at a time.
“In Dragon’s Dogma, if we had two large boss monsters appear, we would struggle to get the ‘small fry’ monsters in there too. But in the sequel, even having three large bosses at the same time is no problem, so the player can experience stumbling upon the next boss while running away from the previous one. Running away will now come with a risk, adding a dose of realism to the chase.”
More realistic AI behavior is another big jump over the previous game, but it’s also interesting to hear about the new race, the Beastren. Planned for the first game, the team “struggled to include a large number of fur-covered characters. We were not able to implement it.” The sequel features the race and their nation of Battahl while allowing for Beastren Arisen.
While that doesn’t affect the main story, Itsuno confirmed, “Attitudes towards Beastren differ greatly depending on the country, so we have made this difference visible in some aspects. Also, certain strategies for progressing in the game may develop differently depending on whether the Arisen is human or Beastren.”
Dragon’s Dogma 2 launches on March 22nd for PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC. Head here for more details.
When you boot up Dragon’s Dogma 2, you get all the standard boilerplate warnings, a Capcom logo, and then the game’s title screen. Except it’s technically not the game’s name, because it’s missing a 2.
Capcom took to the Steam forums to address Dragon's Dogma 2 player backlash after the game was review bombed. Most of the negative criticism is due to the appearance of several microtransaction items after Dragon's Dogma 2 was released on Steam, including some that jeopardize all the claims that director Hideaki Itsuno and the team have made about the game's intended design.
It's been almost 12 years since the first Dragon's Dogma dropped on PS3 and Xbox 360, and four years since the anime, but it's finally time to return to the world of the Arisen.
In the run-up to the release of open world RPG Dragon’s Dogma 2, developer and publisher Capcom has revealed that it is aware of inconsistencies in the game’s frame rate performance on PC in particular. In a statement to IGN, Capcom has revealed that it is looking into ways in which it can improve the performance of the game.
Capcom's highly anticipated fantasy RPG, is finally due to be released on March 22, 2024, more than a decade after the release of the original game, but PC players may want to hold off on purchasing the game for now. Recent reports indicate that the game experiences severe frame rate performance problems on the platform.
The Dragon's Dogma 2 devs have revealed that the new Beastren race has been on their minds since back in the Xbox 360 and PS3 days.
is already known to feature a map much bigger than the original game but not even the developers can agree on how much the space has grown. While the first boasted an expansive open world for players to explore at their will, it was also criticized for feeling empty and barren given the vast amount of space players needed to traverse to reach major locations. Capcom has confirmed that the sequel is looking to fix this issue by not only expanding the map but also including more interesting landmarks to discover.
We know that Dragon’s Dogma 2 has a much larger world than initially claimed, “more interesting and engaging Vocations” over the first game and up to three simultaneous bosses on-screen. With all the details about Pawn Specializations, the Dragonsplague and Vocation Maisters, one has to ask: What about Affinity?
Capcom and director Hideaki Itsuno’s vision for the original Dragon’s Dogma was to develop a purely single player experience that, through the use of its AI-controlled companions known as Pawns, would emulate the feeling of an MMORPG with other players. The upcoming, long overdue Dragon’s Dogma 2 is set to expand on its predecessor in a number of ways – from a larger open world to how much content it’ll offer and much more – but that focus on delivering a purely single player experience isn’t changing.
If it weren’t obvious already, Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a big game. Capcom has discussed how the world is four times larger than the original and the sheer amount of side content, which some may players may end up skipping. However, when speaking to Automaton-Media, director Hideaki Itsuno revealed that it may actually be much larger than initially announced.
From newcomers like the Mystic Spearhand and the Trickster to returning favourites like the Fighter and the Warrior, Dragon’s Dogma 2 is set to offer a number of different Vocations for players to play as, each offering a completely different play style. Unlike the first game, however, in the sequel, each Vocation is going to be much more limited in what it’ll be able to do, in that each of them will generally specialize in a single weapon type.
Dragon's Dogma 2 will let you permanently kill off NPCs, unlike the first game which had them respawn and recover from death after a week of in-game time.