Dragon's Dogma 2: A Masterclass in Exploration and Adventure | MMORPG.com

System · March 20

Dragon's Dogma 2: A Masterclass in Exploration and Adventure | MMORPG.com

Dragon's Dogma 2 delivers an immersive RPG adventure with its vast world and polished combat, complemented by a revamped Pawn system for enhanced camaraderie. With extensive character customization and dynamic gameplay, it stands as a masterclass in exploration and adventure.

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slowz2secret · March 20

9.5 wow, is no that too much for a generic open world rpg?

Pher0cious · March 20

I just played this for 2.5 hrs. Im giving it a 8/10. Already frustrated with a bunch of things.

No dodge? Really?..... The witcher 3 has 2 dodges

No proper lock on target for archer? There is the auto aim but I have no idea what my character is going to shoot at..... really?

No proper way to delete save from the menu. Had to dig through folders looking for id numbers just to delete save..... really?

Definitely NOT a 9.5

Sovrath · March 20

slowz2secret said:

9.5 wow, is no that too much for a generic open world rpg?

Given how great the first game was, if this is an evolution of that game then it’s appropriate.

Scot · March 20

slowz2secret said:

9.5 wow, is no that too much for a generic open world rpg?

I think we should see a score above 9.0 maybe twice a year, we get far too many of them. But it is within one of the Metacritic score so not that different from the average.

Aeander · March 20

Sovrath said:

slowz2secret said:

9.5 wow, is no that too much for a generic open world rpg?

Given how great the first game was, if this is an evolution of that game then it’s appropriate.

Dragon's Dogma 1 is actually next up in the queue. As in I'd be playing it now if Unicorn Overlord didn't surprise take all my time.

Already have DD2 to play in future too. Will get to it after I finish Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth and/or BG3.

Angrakhan · March 20

Can't wait to start! And of course, I'm out of town the weekend it launches. Just seems to be the way things go for me. Oh well, being a single player adventure, I'm not in a race with anyone. Already made my character in the character creator, so I'm ready to roll!

Emeraq · March 20

Having a blast with the first game, have it on steam and Switch and surprisingly switch is a great port. Trying to finish it but no way I'll be able to before DD2, but have that one preordered... Would it be bad to alternate the two?

Sovrath · March 20

The second one is in an alternate universe so there won’t be spoilers. It will probably just be more expansive.

peanutabc · March 20

The optimization is good on PC from most of my experience.

However, an issue with performance becomes extremely noticeable – sometimes unbearably so – when in a major city like Vernworth.

so which is it?

MrJatobi · March 20

peanutabc said:

The optimization is good on PC from most of my experience.

However, an issue with performance becomes extremely noticeable – sometimes unbearably so – when in a major city like Vernworth.

so which is it?

Pretty clear to me: Optimization is good from *MOST* of my experience. But major cities I have issues."

Don't see the issue there.

Good review, can't wait to play. DD1 was awesome, had its flaws but was a great game.

cameltosis · March 20

Good review. It's not a series I am familiar with at all, but I've been spotting a lot of pictures from the character creator so it got me somewhat interested.

What I found missing from this review is information about gameplay. Like, actual facts and descriptions of the gameplay, rather that just how it made you feel.

So, some questions:

1) What sort of combat mechanics?
Is it action combat? Turn based? Tactical? In the moment, what options do you have as a player? Is it the usual dull basic attack / power attack / block / dodge? Are there active skills for the player to use? If so, how many do you have access to in combat? What about contextual stuff? You mention climbing up the minotaurs back and smashing in the top of his head, ripping off his horns. Did you control that? Or was it a case of "get it to 10%, then press a button to do a finishing move"?

2) What sort of roleplaying exists in the game, and how good it is?
I saw mention of different classes for combat, plus some extra non-combat roles like the elven translation stuff. How different do the classes actually feel? Do your tactics for fights have to change a lot depending on your combat role?

What about personality roleplaying, like in the Witcher 3? By this, i mean roleplaying where you get to make choices about your characters personality: am I generous? Am I happy? Am I callous? If it has this style of roleplaying, does it actually make an difference, or is it just surface level choices that are ultimately meaningless like most RPGs?

3) Story-driven or not?
I hate story-driven games. I've long maintained that computer games are a bad medium for telling stories, so I have no patience for playing an RPG that is heavily focused on a story. I want to *play* a game, not *watch* a game.

So, what is the ratio like for gameplay vs story? For every hour you waste reading / watching / listening to story, how many hours of gameplay do you get? I can put up with a little bit of story, especially if I can skip most of it, but too much text and cutscenes drives me mad.

Sovrath · March 20

cameltosis said:

Good review. It's not a series I am familiar with at all, but I've been spotting a lot of pictures from the character creator so it got me somewhat interested.

What I found missing from this review is information about gameplay. Like, actual facts and descriptions of the gameplay, rather that just how it made you feel.

So, some questions:

1) What sort of combat mechanics?
Is it action combat? Turn based? Tactical? In the moment, what options do you have as a player? Is it the usual dull basic attack / power attack / block / dodge? Are there active skills for the player to use? If so, how many do you have access to in combat? What about contextual stuff? You mention climbing up the minotaurs back and smashing in the top of his head, ripping off his horns. Did you control that? Or was it a case of "get it to 10%, then press a button to do a finishing move"?

2) What sort of roleplaying exists in the game, and how good it is?
I saw mention of different classes for combat, plus some extra non-combat roles like the elven translation stuff. How different do the classes actually feel? Do your tactics for fights have to change a lot depending on your combat role?

What about personality roleplaying, like in the Witcher 3? By this, i mean roleplaying where you get to make choices about your characters personality: am I generous? Am I happy? Am I callous? If it has this style of roleplaying, does it actually make an difference, or is it just surface level choices that are ultimately meaningless like most RPGs?

3) Story-driven or not?
I hate story-driven games. I've long maintained that computer games are a bad medium for telling stories, so I have no patience for playing an RPG that is heavily focused on a story. I want to *play* a game, not *watch* a game.

So, what is the ratio like for gameplay vs story? For every hour you waste reading / watching / listening to story, how many hours of gameplay do you get? I can put up with a little bit of story, especially if I can skip most of it, but too much text and cutscenes drives me mad.

Well, here a review that might help.

Since I haven't played it I can only comment on what the 1st game had and this game seems like it's just a continuation and expansion of that game.

Combat is "action" but it's also driven by how well you've prepared. What healing do you have, do you have a pawn (npc party member) that has the right spells or abilities, etc.

In some cases you can be put to sleep or blinded so do you have items that can negate those effects?

There is the left click and right click attacks but also some "skill" attacks that you can utilize.

I would say your tactics have to change. If you have a mage you're going to have to stay out of the fight or constantly put yourself in a good place so you can cast longer spells. Warrior (I think that's considered the two handed fighter) gets to wade right into battle but there are some longer attacks that have to be charged so you better be in the right place. Jumping down and grabbing the larger monsters will help to get to vial areas. The new non-combat class is a whole other thing. You can create ghosts of yourself, illusionary cliffs where you can lure your enemies, etc.

AS always one must temper expectations.

The first game had it where, if you treated a particular npc well they were your "test" at the very end. Sometimes you can make decisions that you think will benefit you, like copying a quest item so you can use/sell it only to have that decision bite you in the butt later.

I've never known a video game that allowed for you to be happy and sad and then have that affect what happens. Perhaps there are some but I've played a lot and have never seen one.

I don't agree with you about games and stories but there is a main story and then there are side quests. If it's like the 1st game then you'll have some shorter quests that have very little story. Can you play the game through without touching on the story? I doubt it. Then again, I don't know of any that allow you to do that except maybe the elder scrolls games as you could feasibly play through them and touch the story only briefly.

ACG gives it a "most fun game he's played in 2024" I assume that's a buy.

Here's FExtralife who gives it a 8.8. I think some of his points are eye rolling but I'm also used to harder games. For example he didn't like that his cart was destroyed and he had to run back to town.

If that's a plus for you (like it is for me) then that could sway your decision. Same if it's a "minus."

samooryesord · March 21

I 100% agree with this rating. 9.5 is deserved.

Neoyoshi · March 21

As a vet of the first game, I'm not really worried; as I've already read/heard from multiple sources this is very much a lot of the same, but only better and more refined with very few loading screens; like.... almost no loading screens.

But that doesn't mean everyone will universally praise it, because Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen wasn't/isn't for everyone; there is going to be jank people will get annoyed by where others find it endearing.

There's going to be systems that don't make a lot of sense to the average western crpg player because this is still at it's core: a Japanese-created video game.

My only hope is that this new Dragons Dogma picks up new future-devoted-cult of the dragon members fans.

ValdemarJ · March 21

Early reports on reddit are that there are performance issues across platforms. Some people might want to be aware before they shell out $70.

Personally, the possible issue with some performance problems doesn't bother me. It will get smoothed out soon enough. I'm in the middle of a couple of other games, so I'm not in an hurry to play anyway.

My concern is that by the time I'm ready to play DD2, Eiyuden Chronicles: Hundred Heroes will release on GamePass around the same time.

Sovrath · March 21

ValdemarJ said:

Early reports on reddit are that there are performance issues across platforms. Some people might want to be aware before they shell out $70.

Personally, the possible issue with some performance problems doesn't bother me. It will get smoothed out soon enough. I'm in the middle of a couple of other games, so I'm not in an hurry to play anyway.

My concern is that by the time I'm ready to play DD2, Eiyuden Chronicles: Hundred Heroes will release on GamePass around the same time.

I'm never really bothered by performance issues. Heck, the very first doom used to slow down on my friend's computer and we didn't think anything of it. We just figured the computer was doing it's best. We were just stoked to be killing demons.

I've heard it's in cities where with some systems it can slow to something like 40 frames per second. Which isn't really any bother for me. Now, if it was 10 ...

GarrickDR · March 21

peanutabc said:

The optimization is good on PC from most of my experience.

However, an issue with performance becomes extremely noticeable – sometimes unbearably so – when in a major city like Vernworth.

so which is it?

Most of my experience was not spent in the cities.

If you'd kindly direct your attention to where I said, "...more than half of my game time was probably spent discovering a treasure chest or a cluster of materials..."

GarrickDR · March 21

Neoyoshi said:

As a vet of the first game, I'm not really worried; as I've already read/heard from multiple sources this is very much a lot of the same, but only better and more refined with very few loading screens; like.... almost no loading screens.

There really aren't any loading screens at all. You load into your save, and that's kinda it.

Eldrach · March 21

I will stay away from this game for at least 6
months. From all the reviews i’ve seen - this game is full of gamebreaking bugs atm. Like major -> will miss vital parts of the game bugs

GarrickDR · March 21

cameltosis said:

Good review. It's not a series I am familiar with at all, but I've been spotting a lot of pictures from the character creator so it got me somewhat interested.

What I found missing from this review is information about gameplay. Like, actual facts and descriptions of the gameplay, rather that just how it made you feel.

Totally understand, and that's a fair critique. However; I'm not here to info-dump on things that can be gleaned from the Dragon's Dogma website, or their myriad videos specifically showcasing each vocation's combat skills (I even included links to our previous articles where the videos are), or a generalized Wiki.

As for the rest:

That's a fair question regarding its Role-Playing elements, as you're right that I didn't expound on it. The choices you make are determined by your actions, not your "words". You're not going through a branching path of dialogue choices to reach a predetermined outcome like in some RPGs, as if it were some kind of digital choose-your-own-adventure book. You might get a quest to go save a kid from monsters and if you dally too much (or get distracted by a glistening cave in the distance, beckoning you forth to discover the treasure it hides within -- like me), then you might just find that you arrive too late... this could have consequences, like the requesting merchant not being available anymore or maybe you'll miss out on an exclusive reward. That's just a minor example. There were several instances where I thought I was making the "right" choice, but an unexpected result happened that left an impact on the world.

Regarding story: of my now 100+ hours, maybe 3 hours total have been spent reading/listening to dialogue? There are only a handful of cutscenes - the longest of which was maybe 30 seconds? It's so quick, I wasn't even paying attention so I'm probably incorrect about that. But if gameplay is your priority, then you (probably) won't be disappointed.

Hope this helps! For anything else, I'd recommend watching streamers and other content creators when Dragon's Dogma 2 officially launches before making the decision that you want to purchase it for yourself. Thanks for the questions, though!

GarrickDR · March 21

Eldrach said:

I will stay away from this game for at least 6
months. From all the reviews i’ve seen - this game is full of gamebreaking bugs atm. Like major -> will miss vital parts of the game bugs

Luckily, I did not have any of these issues. Or, if I did, I wasn't even aware of it.

Eldrach · March 21

GarrickDR said:

Eldrach said:

I will stay away from this game for at least 6
months. From all the reviews i’ve seen - this game is full of gamebreaking bugs atm. Like major -> will miss vital parts of the game bugs

Luckily, I did not have any of these issues. Or, if I did, I wasn't even aware of it.

That is good - from reading the PC gamer review i saw he lost hours of gameplay because of broken scripts, he even couldn’t finish a bunch of quests as they permanently broke. I can wait for 6 months - which will give them time to patch stuff like that and give me a smoother experience

Scot · March 21

Eldrach said:

That is good - from reading the PC gamer review i saw he lost hours of gameplay because of broken scripts, he even couldn’t finish a bunch of quests as they permanently broke. I can wait for 6 months - which will give them time to patch stuff like that and give me a smoother experience

I don't think it will take 6 months to fix, but it is solo player so like you I have no need to buy it yesterday. Be patient and play a polished game.

Acornia · March 21

Steam release time is shown as 20:00EDT/17:PDT 21 March (today). So those that are going to play on steam have fun.

cheyane · March 21

I am going to go back and try to play the first game and I shall get myself a small boost from a mod that helps me perhaps have an advantage. I know sacrilegious but quite honestly action games are totally beyond me. If I want to actually play this and make some progress I need some assistance. I still want to play them no matter how horrible I am at them.

I like the whole atmosphere and sometimes cool stories these games have. I will always thank Guerilla Games for Horizon Zero Dawn a game that allowed me story mode. I just loved that game and the fact that I could play it and use my limited skill and still make progress. I really loved the story and gameplay.

I will never be good at games that require skill because I suck and I know this. I still want to play though. I remember someone on Steam chiding me about asking whether a game had an easy mode as I was responsible for cheapening games for others. It baffled me because it was a single player game and who exactly was I hurting. He said I was ruining it for those that accomplish stuff at hard and even harder difficulty. I don't get how me doing something in easy or story mode affects you. May be the ethos escapes me.

Still fuck them I will play how I want.

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