Dragon's Dogma 2 creates 'fake' players to rent your Pawn if no one actually wants to hire them.
15.03.2024 - 18:07 / polygon.com / Hideaki Itsuno
Nearly 12 years after game director Hideaki Itsuno released Dragon’s Dogma on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, Dragon’s Dogma 2 is finally almost here. Since the original game debuted, Capcom has released Dragon’s Dogma spinoffs, semi-sequels, and ports to varying degrees of success, but the highly anticipated sequel looks poised to break out.
Publisher and developer Capcom has been on a hit streak lately, thanks to investing in strong franchises like Resident Evil, Monster Hunter, and Street Fighter. However, the company’s fortunes weren’t so favorable in 2012 when Dragon’s Dogma debuted. Back then, Capcom was experimenting and often failing, either critically or commercially, to find global success.
Dragon’s Dogma landed amid a year of big swings and misses for the company. The Resident Evil franchise was at one of its lowest points with multiple poorly received releases that year, including Resident Evil 6, which critics called “a franchise-diminishing disappointment,” and Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, blasted as “an insult to Resident Evil fans.” Only Resident Evil: Revelations, a 3DS-only side story that stuck to the survival horror core, kept the franchise relevant that year.
Capcom seemed confused about what to do with its rich vein of properties in 2012 in particular. It’s the same year that it worked with FromSoftware to deliver Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor, an abysmal, Xbox 360 Kinect-only spinoff of its hardcore mech action franchise — you know, the one famous for its dedicated 44-input controller — and reimagined the Lost Planet franchise as a manga-inspired shooter with EX Troopers, a deviation from the serious sci-fi presentation of the previous games.
The company’s identity crisis extended to many of its oldest franchises, including releasing a social mobile game based on Mega Man and going crossover-crazy with Project X Zone, Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright, and Street Fighter X Tekken. The latter, in particular, was a commercial misfire despite the popularity of both franchises, and it was knocked by players for its heavy-handed monetization tactics.
One bright spot in that dour year was Asura’s Wrath, the CyberConnect2-developed action game that delivered an astonishing, over-the-top spectacle. But even that game had a strange wrinkle; players couldn’t experience the full story and “real” ending unless they paid to play its DLC.
In hindsight, 2012 feels like an inflection point for Capcom. The year prior, the company pumped out both Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and the expanded Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, with only a nine-month window between them. It later blamed low sales of Street Fighter X Tekken on “cannibalism” in the fighting game genre, of which Capcom itself was
Dragon's Dogma 2 creates 'fake' players to rent your Pawn if no one actually wants to hire them.
fans looking to play through a piece of history or just embark upon a classic quest are in luck as a version of one of Gary Gygax's original adventures is now available for free. While Wizards of the Coast does encourage role-players to create their own fantasy worlds, the company also releases plenty of pre-written tales to flesh out its fantasy world and serve as prompts for those who may not wish to create entire worlds. Fortunately, those who may be hesitant to purchase one of these tomes can now check out a classic adventure for nothing.
The Red Dragon is the final boss of main story, and it is a challenging fight for which you should come prepared. Make sure to buy the top-of-the-line gear for yourself and your personal Pawn.
Baldur's Gate 3 is an enormous game, with so much content it still feels like we could keep uncovering new lines of dialogue and secrets for months, if not years to come. However, it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that plenty of content was cut from the final release, too, including several explorable locations, such as the first area in the original Baldur's Gate – Candlekeep.
Dragon's Dogma 2's most divisive feature, the dreaded Dragonsplague, was first thought about 10 years ago but couldn't be realized because of the technological shortcomings of the time.
Did X-Men '97 retcon a major character from the original animated series? Well, yes...and the marketing materials already kind of spoiled the reveal.
Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater won't change the story or fundamental game design of the original Konami game.
It's taken 12 years, but Dragon's Dogma 2 is finally swooping onto store shelves this week, and judging by the early review scores, the wait has been worth it.
The amount of time that has elapsed since The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD’s release is now equal to the length of time between the original game’s release for GameCube and Wind Waker HD’s release for Wii U.
Aspyr's has brought both of Pandemic Studios' acclaimed 2000s-era games to modern devices. As well as remastering the wealth of content from the base games, which covered iconic moments from the original and prequel trilogies through their single-player campaigns and a variety of multiplayer modes, Aspyr has incorporated many other bonus features for both newcomers and more experienced players to enjoy, creating a more complete package across all modern gaming platforms.
The Resident Evil franchise has evolved multiple times, much like one of its infamous bosses that you have to blow up with a rocket launcher. For instance, while the new games come with modern camera controls, the original Resident Evil games (or is the plural Residents Evil?) had a fixed angle camera. The tradeoff for the slower and more awkward gameplay was a more deliberate framing of scenes, with each environment carefully set up to build maximum tension.
23 years after RuneScape classic, its creator is back with a relaxing MMORPG said to have anti-grind gameplay and "hours upon hours" of free content.