It has been 12 years since Capcom released the sequel, but Dragon’s Dogma 2 has finally arrived and I could not be more enthralled with a game. I genuinely can’t say enough good things about the world of Dragon’s Dogma 2. It’s beautiful to behold and full of secrets, caves, encounters, and stories that only you will get to tell. I will try not to spoil anything in this review, but I will say that this is a game you must play to experience the storytelling.
The world isn’t just your normal RPG / D&D storytelling form. NPCs run up to you with their problems asking for your help, and while some asks are petty and can be ignored until you feel like it, others have a time limit of sorts, because someone is in danger. This may sound chaotic to some, but this is exactly how things should be.
Since time is real, spending two to three hours doing a side mission to level up a crafting skill when someone’s life is in danger is just wrong. Quests will often give you information about what you need to do, and a rough area you need to be in, and then just let you figure it out from there. I had to follow a massive trail of flower petals in one quest to find someone, and that experience was awesome.
There’s very little fast travel in Dragon’s Dogma 2 by design. Yes, you can ride on oxcarts between specific places, and you can use the rare Ferry Stones to warp to similarly specific spots, but for the most part, you and your accompanying Pawns are going to be getting your Forrest Gump on, by doing a lot of running.
It may seem daunting compared to many other games, but fortunately for the player, every trip you take here will be different. Maybe this time a whole dragon will appear. Maybe you’ll come across a cyclops and an ogre fighting to the death and feel the need to get involved. Hell, maybe you’ll fall to your death and be sad because who knows when the game saved last. All these things make the world of Dragon’s Dogma 2 feel truly alive, and it’s just pure joy to exist in.
You’ve still got the same mix of amazing monsters to fight compared to the 12 year older version. Most of these have variants you’ll come across, and the bosses are still these enormous things that you can climb on and poke at. Each class allows you to take them out in different ways. Having four starting vocations is a nice touch, as it used to be that the thief and archer were in one class.
I will say that the new hybrid vocations are a lot of fun though. The Mystic Spearhand lets you whirl around like Darth Maul from Star Wars, while also being able to teleport. The Trickster uses an incense censor to fight and can conjure up a clone (such as Shaco from League of Legends) and do all sorts of tricky things.
Then there’s the Warfarer (or who I call the Jack of all Trades) who gets access to everything all of the time but has lower stats. In the first Dragon’s Dogma, stats were based on your previous vocation as you leveled up, and it was hell to min-max a build. Here, you change your base stats as you change vocations, and it’s so much better. Combat feels great no matter which class you’re playing as, and each class demands something a little bit different from you.
When it comes to fighting in Dragon’s Dogma 2, it’s simply astounding. I would think of it like Skyrim mixed with Dark Souls. There is a lot of dodging and parrying, then looking for a chance to spring an attack. However, this game brings in things that you may not expect. I was fighting an Ogre and was about to kill it when a Hippogryph landed and started attacking us both. As I dodged and weaved out of nowhere, there was now a wolf on me too.
Fighting is by no means all you’ll be doing here. Aside from exploration, you’ll also have to engage in a little bit of sneaking around, some serious political intrigue, investigations, and helping out people with things like looking after a house. Dragon’s Dogma 2 wants you to think it’s alive, and while the non-story NPCs struggle to manage this, the world, the way you can influence the story, and the story itself will make you feel truly immersed.
On PC, the game looks phenomenal and runs beautifully. You’d expect as much when you’ve got an RTX 4070. Every part of the map is well-rendered and distinguishable from everywhere else. Despite the size, you’ll quickly learn the lay of the land based on unique paths and features, all of which are worth stopping to see. The decision to remove some fast travel makes sense once you see how good everything looks.
Capcom hit the nail on the head with Dragon’s Dogma 2. It’s everything you want or could ask for in an RPG gaming world. There is beauty in the scenery and playing of the game, chaos in the fights, and mastering your character.
Without a doubt, love was put into this game that I haven’t seen in any other game I’ve played for a long time. Not just for the game but for their player’s experience. This has every potential to be Game of the Year, and we are just getting started.
This review was written based on a PC review code for Dragon’s Dogma 2 provided by Capcom.
