Dragon’s Dogma 2 Review – More Like One and a Half

As a big fan of fantasy settings and roleplaying games, it will be no surprise that I was elated to discover that CAPCOM would finally make Dragon’s Dogma 2 when the publisher made it official in June 2022.

I had been waiting for such news ever since I played and greatly enjoyed Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen on PC. At long last, nearly twelve years after the first installment was released on consoles, we’ve finally got the sequel in our hands. But is it really worthy of being called Dragon’s Dogma 2?

To better ponder that question, it’s worth reminding that the original entry was developed for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, whereas this one is launching on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S|X, two console generations later. As such, one would expect a massive improvement in all areas, but that’s not quite the case here.

Truth be told, Game Director Hideaki Itsuno said multiple times this sequel is to be considered a realization of the original vision. However, I kept hoping there would be more than just that. After all, he and the team also made big claims about Dragon’s Dogma 2 as a ‘fantasy world simulator‘ with significant advances in AI and physics. Unfortunately, it seems like the previous statement was the more accurate of the two.

Physics isn’t nearly as much a factor as we were led to believe. In pre-release interviews, CAPCOM talked about the possibility of destroying a bridge when a monster is on it, but that’s an exceedingly rare instance that you may never get to experience in a playthrough. A slightly more likely occurrence is when you can push huge rocks down to groups of monsters. Spellcasters may also lift small objects and hurl them at their enemies, but that is only possible if there are any in the vicinity. As such, with only four active abilities available to any class (Vocation), it may not be worth spending one slot for this purpose.

While playing the game, the AI was the more disappointing of the two supposedly enhanced areas. More than once, I couldn’t help being underwhelmed by their response to my actions. In a relatively early story mission, for example, the player character is tasked with infiltrating the royal palace of Vernworth, the capital of Vermund. As there is no real stealth system, it was all quite clunky, but that’s not the main point. Guards were patrolling the area, of course, and one reacted to my intrusion by attacking me. However, all I had to do to make it forget about me was lose it for a few seconds in the castle’s halls for the guard to seemingly forget all about me when it eventually reached the same room my character was in.

Another time, I had just completed a quest for a character called Ian, who enlisted my aid to help save his brother from the perils of the wilderness. After thanking me in a dozen different ways, not only for saving his sibling but also for showing him how to stand up to the world, Ian quickly adopted a hostile stance against my character, saying that I shouldn’t talk to him. All it took for this abrupt change was my character unsheathing his weapon in the vicinity to defend the settlement against some attacking monsters.

These are just two of several such instances in the game. Then there was what I shall call the Dragonsplague incident. At some point, you will be informed of a nasty disease that targets Pawns, the loyal and soulless companions of the Arisen. They’ll say the affected Pawns can lose control and even stop heeding the commands of the Arisen.

However, the consequences of the Dragonsplague are never really explained to the player. I thought I might have to put down Pawns after they go berserk or something along that line, but I was sorely mistaken. It happened suddenly after I went to bed in my home of Bakbattahl, the capital of the beastren kingdom of Battahl. A cutscene showed my main pawn being in pain at the control exerted by the titular dragon. When I woke up, the party was gone, which I kind of expected. The problem, and why I mention this in the AI area, is what happened to the city itself: nearly all of the NPCs had been killed, including vendors and some quest NPCs.

While the idea was interesting, the implementation was lackluster. It doesn’t really give enough information or even a chance for the player to fight back and prevent this catastrophe. What’s more, I thought I was in real trouble following the recent comments by CAPCOM. They had said NPCs go to the morgue after dying and only stay there a few days before being buried; after that time, they are gone forever. As such, I wasted three precious Wakestones (which are used to bring back characters, including your own when defeated in battle, back from the dead) to revive three of the most important NPCs.

But I needn’t have bothered. I went away to do some quests and sure enough, most of the NPCs had been revived when I got back to Bakbattahl, except for a select few quest NPCs that I still had to revive manually from the morgue, where they still were available for resurrection many days after dying. If the goal was to make a fantasy world simulator, something is amiss.

Of course, it’s not all bad. The combat AI is generally good, for instance, even though for some reason your Pawns do not revive each other (or you). It would also have been nice if there was a way to ask your fellow Pawns to focus on a target. Still, they are usually smart enough.

The biggest improvement in the Pawn system is their ability to guide player characters to certain locations once they have completed those quests elsewhere in their travels with other players. This is admittedly great, and it pairs amazingly well with the wondrous feel of adventure that is felt throughout Dragon’s Dogma 2.

This is by far the game’s most successful feature, just like with the original. Here, though, the world design is even better, and the much vaster size enhances the fantastic feeling of exploration. Moving through the world of Dragon’s Dogma 2, you can’t help but think of it as a real place (or at least one that could exist in some parallel universe), and the game design choices further heighten that sensation.

The most unlikely locations may hide the greatest treasures, rewarding players after a long and arduous trip. While this is no Soulslike game (which is a massive bonus in my book), the relatively limited fast travel means you’ll often have to brave the roads for a long while to reach your objective. Also, the more you fight monsters, the more you accumulate the so-called loss gauge. This meter progressively reduces the maximum health you can recover with consumables or magic abilities, and it can only be restored while resting at an inn or campsite. The latter will be your only option for resting in the wilderness, provided there is a nearby campsite to begin with. If not, you’ll be forced to go ahead and deal with the reduced health as best as possible.

The other major strength of Dragon’s Dogma 2 lies, once again like its predecessor, with the combat system. First and foremost, it feels great and extremely fun to play, thanks to a praise-worthy combination of animation, sound, and spell effects. The abilities of each Vocation also provide an excellent sense of class identity, allowing for many different playstyles.

After trying the Fighter, Warrior, and Thief Vocations, I ended up with the Mystic Spearhand, which combined fluid melee combat with a few useful spells. However, I was disappointed to find out that the NPC who unlocks the Vocation (it’s not available from the start of the game) does not offer any further specialization. NPCs called Maisters usually provide unique abilities or spells after completing certain tasks; I got a couple of those for the Warrior and Thief but nothing for the Mystic Spearhand. Of course, it’s entirely possible players have to find some other NPC instead; Dragon’s Dogma 2 is exactly that kind of game.

What is however undoubtedly unclear is how to change the Core Skills. Whereas Weapon Skills can be swapped easily once you are at a Vocation guild (or at a campsite), there is no discernible way to change your Core Skills. Some of those only modify existing skills, but others are supposed to change them entirely. For instance, the default for the Mystic Spearhand is Redouting Bolt, but I also unlocked Foreboding Bolt and could never use it due to the lack of any explanation.

I must also say that the lack of a dodge button threw me off at first, given that almost every action and action RPG game is equipped with it nowadays. Sure, there are other ways to defend yourself depending on the Vocation, and you could conceivably use the sprint button as a sort of awkward dodge, but it’s not the same thing.

Still, even with these caveats, fighting in Dragon’s Dogma 2 is very enjoyable. As usual with games in this genre, most of the best fights are those against bosses (except for the final fight, which is needlessly long), especially large monsters. Climbing massive cyclops or towering drakes to reach their weak points before your stamina runs out is as much of a thrill as it was with the previous game.

However, one of the areas most lacking in 2012’s Dragon’s Dogma hasn’t seen much improvement in this sequel. I’m talking about the narrative, which is somewhat of a disjointed mess. While I am forbidden by the review guidelines to share spoilers at this point in time, suffice it to say that certain story threads and characters – even major ones – are seemingly abandoned for no discernible reason.

Moreover, the quests as a whole often belong to the dreadful fetch type. This indirectly affects the journey: as exciting as getting anywhere can be, having to deliver something without any real narrative payoff is a bit of a letdown. It’s here that the lack of a proper dialogue system is felt keenly. Pawns do not really provide much insightful commentary into what’s happening, nor do they have any personal stories to discover, and both are staples of the RPG genre. As intriguing as the Pawn system is, it simply cannot compare to a party of well-written, voice-acted characters that the player can develop a true bond with.

Then there’s the fact that the increase in world size does not equate to a proportional increase in content. I finished Dragon’s Dogma 2 in 40 hours, the same amount it took me to complete the previous game. However, that game’s map was a lot smaller. This means that the content had to be stretched over in this sequel, leaving fairly wide areas of the map without any narrative content (quests) to speak of. In some respects, I wonder if this game wasn’t rushed to the market before it was ready.

That’s not to say there are no clever quests. A couple of times, you can even complete a quest with a failure, but that is mostly due to a lack of information provided to the player. While it is fair to require players to do research, the game should provide the instruments to do so.

Lastly, the Affinity system with NPCs remains as obscure as it was in its predecessor. Again, I would talk more about this, but I cannot due to spoiler restrictions enforced by CAPCOM. I’ll just say the game made me romance one character; then I showered another with gifts, but the game still randomly decided “my beloved” to be someone else entirely, an NPC to whom I didn’t even give any gifts. I find this extremely annoying; the players should be allowed to decide who they want to be with.

On the technical side, Dragon’s Dogma 2 is the first open world powered by the RE Engine. Simply put, the game’s visuals are absolutely stunning when maxed out on PC. More than once, I stopped to admire the beautiful scenery and the breathtaking draw distance, then decided to take a picture with the built-in Photo Mode. Character models are very detailed, too, and the character creator is one of the best I’ve ever seen in a game.

Sadly, there are issues here, too. The performance isn’t always satisfactory, for instance. The main issues can be found in Vernworth, the capital city of Vermund, where even a powerful PC (7800X3D, 32GB DDR5, RTX 4090) suffers significant slowdowns and stuttering. The open world itself isn’t as problematic, except for rare instances with lots of powerful spells going off at once.

It doesn’t help that NVIDIA DLSS 3 (Frame Generation) is presently nowhere to be seen despite the claim that it would have been available at launch. Dragon’s Dogma 2 is clearly CPU-bound in the busiest scenes and frame generation is the only thing that could help such scenarios.

Another minor complaint is that the support for High Dynamic Range (HDR) displays is currently borked, resulting in a washed out image. As it stands now, I had to restrict myself to SDR despite having one of the best HDR displays available.

Reviewed on PC (code provided by the publisher).

Dragon’s Dogma 2

This review may read quite negatively, but it’s only because of the lofty expectations that surrounded Dragon’s Dogma 2. The original game was an amazing foundation to build upon, and yet CAPCOM seemed content with keeping the same strengths without improving much on the weaknesses. Twelve years later, though, the effect cannot be the same.

Still, make no mistake: Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a highly enjoyable fantasy action/adventure with RPG elements that will provide you with about 40 hours of pure fun. Its peerless sense of exploration, meaty combat system, and stunning visuals will motivate you throughout the entire playthrough. Just don’t expect to find a fantasy world simulator or, indeed, a narrative worth remembering.

Buy for $69.99 from Amazon

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