Dragon’s Dogma 2

Keeping it short, sweet and simple.
Combat, exploration and raw RPG elements? Best I've ever played, felt incredible and I loved every minute of it.
Story? Awful, actually awful. Just ignore it, focus on the gameplay and make your own story in your head or something.

After 66 hours of playtime I have finally beaten Dragons Dogma 2 (True Ending) and to be honest, this game turned out to be way better than I anticipated. Let me preface this review by saying that I've never played the first Dragons Dogma so I had no idea what to expect, the only thing I was aware of were the mediocre reviews which haven't changed in months so I was quite skeptical. However it's been a while since I've played a fantasy RPG and ignoring the reviews, this game looked quite promising so I gave it a shot.
I'll start off with the negative just to get it out of the way:
The story, characters and quest design are utter d@gshit, bottom of the barrel garbage. Considering how seemingly focused this game is on its world building and story telling, it's laughable how little effort they actually put into writing good characters or a coherent story. It starts off somewhat promising with a solid prologue and the lore of the world seems interesting enough, but that's about where it ends. As soon as you reach the capital you quickly start to realize that Capcom must have hired crack addicts to write the story for them, because nothing that characters say or do and nothing that the game tells you to do over the course of the main story is in any way engaging or fun from a story telling or quest design standpoint:
Fetch quest after fetch quest, running from point A to point B etc. etc. and the pay-off is 3 lines of dialogue telling you to go somewhere else again. Nothing interesting happens, ever (until you reach the end, then it gets kinda good-ish). There are barely even any cutscenes, the vast majority of dialogue is accompanied by uninspired, oblivion-style camera zooms toward whoever is currently talking, it makes the already uninteresting dialogue even more boring to listen to PLUS you have to press a button after every single goddamn line to progress. Am I playing an MMO? What's going on here?
And yes I have watched lore videos, read articles and explanations about both DD2 and DD1 to try and make sense of the story and while I mostly get it now, other than the overall concept of the world itself and the cycle, I still think it's incredibly uninteresting. I think it's comparable to Fromsoft games in many ways, though the reason why Fromsoft's stories work and Dragon's Dogma's doesn't, is that Fromsoft doesn't try to shove its story down your throat, it's essentially optional, whereas DD2's story is a huge part of the game. And while cryptic, Fromsoft's stories are still well thought out and make sense once you actually try to understand them, even if a lot of it is left up for interpretation, Capcom just didn't even bother thinking about whether or not something actually makes sense but simply expects you to accept it.
Now, story aside, what's the gameplay like? It's absolutely incredible. DD2 genuinely has some of the most fun and engaging gameplay I've ever seen in a video game, the world somehow feels incredibly alive despite it's dull story and characters, the exploration feels rewarding (more on this later) and the combat is so extremely fun I don't know if I'll be able to go back to some of my favorite RPGs like The Witcher 3 or Skyrim again, because it's not even remotely a competition. There are 10 different vocations (I have maxxed out 2 of them) that all play and feel completely differently with a different moveset, playstyle, about a dozen different skills each, different weapons and armor, you can essentially become whoever you want. The character customization is also fantastic.
When I first saw combat of DD2 I thought that climbing on top of enemies looks fun but also feels like a gimmick you'll probably get bored of fairly quickly. I was so wrong. There is nothing more epic than fighting a Griffin, jumping on its back and slamming a huge hammer into the back of its head to make it stagger and fall to the ground, it never gets old. On top of all this there's also the pawn system which essentially allows you to have 1-3 NPC followers at all times. It made exploring the world a lot less lonely, plus they made combat not only easier but also a lot more fun and dynamic, it's a great feature. The movement in DD2 is also incredibly good. The climbing, running, jumping etc. feels just right with the perfect amount of inertia, even simply traversing the world is fun in and of itself.
Now I've seen a lot of people complain about the fact that exploration feels unrewarding and while I get where they're coming from, I can't say I agree. You don't get bombarded with gear in every single cave and outpost like in Elden Ring for example, but instead you'll find a lot of upgrade materials and other useful items with the occasional weapon or piece of armor every few hours, most of your gear you'll have to buy in cities and then upgrade with the materials you found while out exploring. I honestly really like this concept of getting new equipment, it feels more grounded in a way and when you DO find a weapon that also just so happens to belong to the class you're currently using, it feels even more special. One issue I have with the gear system however, is how the game prevents you from wearing armor that belongs to a different class until you get the Warfarer at the end.
Another complaint I've read about a lot is the lack of enemy variety and quite frankly, this has not once bothered me during my entire playthrough. Obviously it's not on Elden Ring's level of enemy variety, but the only reason Elden Ring has so many unique enemies is because its combat is incredibly simple and straightforward. Sure you have hundreds of different weapons, but they don't offer you anywhere near as much variety in playstyle as DD2's class system does. In Elden Ring, the way you fight enemies is dodge, dodge, hit, dodge, dodge, hit, which is completely fine and works well because it makes up for that by just having a sh1t ton of enemies. DD2 does it the opposite way, it doesn't have nearly as many unique enemy types, but instead offers you a combat system that you won't ever get bored of after dozens if not hundreds of hours of gameplay. Keep in mind there are 10 classes and I've only maxxed out 2 after almost 70 hours of playtime.
Before getting to the last popular complaint I quickly want to address how beautiful this game looks. The graphics are just phenomenal, the vegetation looks incredibly realistic and dense, the textures are clean and the particle effects add so much life to the magic, explosions and the like, it truly feels next gen. The game does have some performance issues, but it generally wasn't an issue for me and even in the worst cases didn't drop below 30fps on a 2060S on almost max settings. Really the only problem I've had were the SSR which left some pretty intense artifacts when moving the camera so I had to turn it off.
Lastly, the final complaint I want to talk about is the lack of different biomes and my honest answer to that is: have we played the same game? If you seriously believe that this game is lacking biome variety, then go back to Skyrim, go back to Fallout 4 and go back to The Witcher 3 and tell me how they're any different. Yes half of DD2's map is populated by forests and fields, but so is Skyrim's map and so is The Witcher 3's map, yet they all "make up for this" by having sub-biomes in those forests and fields which despite them generally looking very similar, still manages to give all of them a unique atmosphere and feel, both from a visual- and gameplay standpoint. Not to mention the second country which offers a massive canyon / desert-like area and a volcanic island.
In conclusion: to me who hasn't played the first title, Dragon's Dogma 2 is an incredible game, with fantastic gameplay, exploration, graphics and a sense of adventure that not a lot of RPGs can replicate, but it is unfortunately held back by an utterly atrocious storyline, terrible quest design and forgettable characters. Still-
8/10

being almost 70 years old normally i cannot play games like this as my manual dexterity just is not on par. however having AI control my partner and my two hirelings allows me to form a well rounded party and when tough fights come they make up for any slack from me. i have over 240 hours in this game and have loved every minute of it. i wish there were more games like this for those of us with physical imitations. this game is completely playable as long as you have a sharp mind more than a sharp sword. Cudos to Capcom. other than thaty i will spend about 10 seconds on saying what every one else has. the graphics are stunning,the gameplay is smooth,the storyline is enticing for me a 11/10

I've tried to figure out if this game was a disappointment or not since it came out. A few people I know are pretty firmly in the camp of "yes it is" but I'm quite a bit more torn. In most respects, it is exactly what I expected from a sequel to Dragon's Dogma. The enemy variety is a bit better, the classes are interesting, the pawns are actually less annoying if you can believe that (they are still so annoying though) but is this really enough? I'm not sure, In my country of Canada the game is ninety five dollars. the game is $95. This videogame is five dollars short from being one hundred dollars. and on release I paid that (I didnt feel that bad because I had just gotten my tax refund, but still) Is it worth that? I dont think so. But did I enjoy this game? Yes, quite a lot. Is it repetitive? Yeah, it is, but having just replayed the first game, I felt massive improvements in nearly every single way. The combat is better, the variety of enemies is better, the skills are more interesting. The end game fell short. Its like a reverse Dragon's Dogma. The first game was just OK until the endgame where it becomes something much more, this game is good until the endgame where it falls flat and becomes less. I think this game did disappoint me. But only after 48 hours of playing it. I think thats a lot of value to get out of a game. But its still a bit of a sour aftertaste.

They finally did it. It took them 6 months but the game finally runs well. After the latest update my fps at the very least doubled in populated cities

I was really on the fence if I should give a recommendation or not on this game. This is probably both one of the best and most frustrating gaming experiences I have ever had at the same time. I don't think I have experienced a product that is so impressive and at the same time so sloppy.
I absolutely adore the first Dragons Dogma and I actually replayed it again just prior to starting up Dragons Dogma 2. Upon playing the first Dragons Dogma I reflected again over how incredible immersive your companion Pawns where in how they commented on things in the environment in a context dependent manner.
After playing Dragons Dogma 2 though it is just so frustrating to feel like the Pawn behavior is a huge step back from the first game. They CONSTANTLY repeat the same dialogue lines over and over and over again, and most of it is even nonsense and non helpful, like telling you for the 1000 time that you can combine stuff when you are 100 hours into the game and have already done this 1000 times before. I keep saying shut the **** up in annoyance constantly. This never ever happened in the first game even after playing 100 hours and they never annoyed me.
It is really insufferable how much they repeat the same lines over and over again. I also find that there is much less context dependent comments on unique environmental features like in the first game, but that is less of an issue when compared to the constant nag. Also even the context of when they speak is extremely sloppy. Many times I make camp and 3 seconds after having camped some Pawn makes a comment on how we probably are not in need of camping just now. Or they ask if I need guidance to a cave when I stand 1 meter from the opening of it. It is constant and incredibly annoying.
It is such a shame because the game is incredible immersive in most other aspects but this completely and utterly ruin all that illusion of an immersive real world with these Pawns. There are other issues with the game, but for me this is really the main gripe.
Repeating dialogue is really an immersive killer in most games, but it is really critical here since having the Pawns behave in a natural manner is such a big part of the game and something that was really nailed in the first game and such an unique feature of what that game was and how it stood out from other. Just implementing some cooldown on how often dialogue can repeat would go a long way to making the Pawns feel less fake and artificial which is the complete opposite of what should be the goal here.
The game really feels like some masterpiece painting by a great artist and then some clowns come in and throw faeces all over it. The repeating dialogue almost single-handedly takes one of the most immersive worlds I have seen in a game and completely demolish it. Anyhow that is my main gripe.
Some other pros and cons though:
Pros:
- Extremely beautiful graphics with amazing looking animations
- No loading between areas or going into towns or dungeons etc
- Beautiful music when exploring
- Good controls and characters have a sense of physics to their movement
- Quests are not entirely hand holding like in most other games and sometimes you actually have to think for yourself
- No cheap quick travel, and like in the first game the quick travel system is actually implemented in the game world, especially love how when you throw a ferrystone up in the air and it hits a roof it fails to trigger, in-game logic increases believability and immersion in he game world (though I understand if it can be a bit constraining to some players and probably they "nerfed" the portalstones etc to be able to sell them as microtransactions (bad))
- Nice system I have not seen before where many quest givers actually initiate conversation with you in a natural manner as you go near instead of having a system with fake looking "!" markers above their head like in most other games
- Elves in this game actually look like how Elves are supposed to look like
- Great character creator and from my understanding some of the actual physical elements of your character like their height and weight determine movement speed to some extent
Cons:
- Again the repeating dialogue of the Pawns almost destroy the game but enough said about that
- The game has performance issues (especially in cities) and even DLSS does not seem to make much of a difference
- "Microtransactions"
- Dungeon (cave) design are really really really repetitive and are only caves really in different sizes. One of the best aspects of the original Dragons Dogma was how incredible good the level design was in some of the dungeons with atmospheric elements like flowing streams in the floor or just a huge sense of detail both in design and soundscape to some of them. The lack of variety in dungeons and locations really hurt the sense of wonder and exploration as when you have seen the first cave you have pretty much seen them all
- Difficulty is really trivial and most of the time it feels like just swapping annoying flies when dealing with the enemy mobs (except for some of the huge ones that are more bullet sponges until you have the equipment for them). Having pretty much infinite potential for healing with items does not help with quick buttons that just refills your health instantly without even needing a drink or eat animation etc just destroy all aspects of any difficulty. The developers should really look at implementing something more akin to how healing is handled in Dark Souls/Elden Ring. The permanent reduction of healing that needs to be refilled by sleeping is a good feature though imo.
- The sound mixing is atrocious and probably the worst I have ever seen (heard). You have to constantly adjust the volume down or up as you get your ears blown out with the combat music in battle that drowns out all other sound
- Mobs of enemies are placed way to frequent in the game world which just feels fake and artificial and you can barely move a step until there is another group of enemies are on you. Because the difficulty is so trivial they more become an annoyance than something that feels like a treat as you try to traverse around the environment
- Enemies also respawn way to frequent. It would be nice to actually be able to clear out areas, especially in the routes of the Oxcarts to make travel easier without getting jumped by enemies. It feels like enemies respawns in areas after just a day when really it should be after a week ingame at the least
- Capcom made human Pawns are incredibly ugly and just look unfitting to the game. It does not help that "for some reason" like half of all the names are not matching the genders of the characters so you will have males named Lisa or Sofia and females named Peter and Gregory etc
- While the initiation of dialogue is a great thing for quest givers etc this is also used on Pawns you meet on the road and they interrupt you with a conversation if you get to near which can be extremely annoying
- The game has incredible vistas with huge mountains so it is a massive bummer to discover that much of it has invisible walls that prevents you from going to many places.
- Not a fan how shopkeepers stand in place 24/7 even at night. Some more routine in their behavior would be welcome and having closed at night etc
- The feature of having to have a Pawn that understands Elvish and that can interpret to the player as they speak would be an incredible original idea if implemented right. Imagine as an Elf speaks in a foreign language to the player and your Pawn conveying what is said to you in "real time". It would be really unique idea that would enhance the believability of the game world. However how this was implemented in the game just flushed all that potential down the toilet by just having what they say in text if you have a translator. And you even have to go to options to turn Subtitles on if you have them off or you will not even see what they say anyway.
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A sidegrade by most measures, while I do believe that the reception this game had was an exaggeration born out of misinformation and some poor memory, it is certainly true that this game failed to evolve the series in a meaningful way, and changed Dragon's Dogma reputation from "that unfinished game with lots of potential" to "that unfinished series with lots of potential".
The game improves on a few facets of the original game, the Warrior vocation is a lot better, graphical fidelity of facial features is genuinely impressive, the map is way bigger but does not feel less dense, there's a lot more optional dungeons, I really like some balance changes like the Loss Gauge, and sidequests were all around more interesting.
But there's a few downgrades too, no Mystic Knight, a few less spells, less clothing slots (a change similar to the downgrade from Oblivion to Skyrim), and most notably, the game becomes really easy to tackle very early on compared to DD1, even if DD1 was pretty easy itself.
Most offensively to some though, and with reason, is that the game did not progress meaningfully enough for the long wait that some people went through. It feels incredibly unfinished story wise, it clearly lacks a balance pass for the amount of enemies in some areas, as their overabundance is fatiguing at times, and loot tables make exploring generic dungeons a bit anti-climatic, as all the best gear is in shops anyways.
I still recommend the game, but with a big caveat, all I wanted was more Dragon's Dogma, I like the gameplay loop, I love the pawn system and all of its quirks, I love that it feels like setting out on a genuine adventure where completely unpredictable but cool things can happen, like being flown by a griffin to the other side of the country because you grabbed on to him at the wrong time, or using a Cyclops as a bridge because you knocked him off balance at the right time. It's an unique game and I still think it's worth experiencing what it offers, it's just that unfortunately what it offers should have spent more time in the oven.
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