Getting squished by an ogre, investigating a phantom oxcart, and unraveling the ancient mystery of the Arisen are all part of a hard day’s work in Dragon’s Dogma 2. If players want an utterly engrossing action RPG adventure, look no further than Capcom’s latest. Bold, dense, and unforgiving, Dragon’s Dogma 2 feels like a fantasy game plucked straight out of a time when the genre was at its most creative, but that also means it comes with a fair amount of jank. For what it’s worth, plenty of gamers would have it no other way.
The original Dragon’s Dogma is a cult classic these days, lauded for its deep combat mechanics and immersive world while also being a janky game. Dragon's Dogma 2 is more of the same except on a much larger scale, both for better and for worse. Those who have already bought into Hideaki Itsuno and Capcom's vision for what an action RPG should be will likely find Dragon's Dogma 2 to be everything they want and more. However, newcomers must dive in with an open mind and prepare for a true trial by fire to appreciate an exceptionally creative and immersive RPG in an already stacked year for the genre.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 Continues the Cycle of the Arisen
In an almost direct continuation of the 2012 game, Dragon's Dogma 2 follows the same premise as Dragon's Dogma 1. Every few years, a big bad dragon swoops in to kill a seemingly insignificant citizen, eventually eating their heart and turning them into the Arisen of prophecy with the power to control Pawns and partake in the cosmic cycle of death and rebirth. This time, however, there is a slight twist on the formula wherein a fake Arisen, now revered as the Sovran in the Kingdom of Vermund, has seized power under mysterious circumstances.
Dragon's Dogma 2's main story is simple, fascinating, and disjointed all at the same time. At its worst, most of the main characters are either one-dimensional figures who don't do much besides tell the Arisen where they should go to find the next MacGuffin or are introduced as seemingly important characters before being dropped by the narrative as quickly as they're made relevant. It's up to a lot of headcanon and emergent stories that occur throughout the world to make up for some of Dragon's Dogma 2 narrative shortcomings. That is unless they played Dragon's Dogma 1.
While it's not entirely necessary to have played the original 2012 game to understand Dragon's Dogma 2's story, there are tons of Easter eggs in reference to the first game and a massive amount of lore drops in the sequel that have wide-sweeping implications over the ending of the first game and how it relates to the second. The second half of Dragon's Dogma 2 is all sorts of wacky and experimental, overall being where the real meat of the main story resides. As such, a lot of the opening chapters are quite a disappointment for being so milquetoast in comparison to how intense the final chapters are.
Nonetheless, Dragon's Dogma 2 has a much more compelling narrative than the first. It's still quite straightforward in the grand scheme of things but frontloads enough of the central mystery and adds enough twists to keep most players locked in for the long haul. Moreover, Dragon's Dogma 2 is more about living in the world and exploring its nooks and crannies than trying to beeline the story to the end. The main story is only a means to a larger adventure that the player will write on their own.
Dragon's Dogma 2 goes deep instead of wide with its worldbuilding, featuring only two major kingdoms in Vermund and Batthal, each with a distinct culture and people. In Vermund, the general public reveres the Arisen, giving them the highest seat in the kingdom and finding them as a savior to the realm. The people there are much like any other fantasy culture, filled with feudal peasants and merchants who always have something to complain about. In the south, the bestial people in Batthal do not care much for the Arisen but do have a heavy disdain for the Arisen's Pawns. As a spiritual people, Batthalians don't think too highly of Pawns, who seem to be supernaturally tied to the Arisen and lacking any will.
The interplay and counterbalancing of the two cultures in Dragon's Dogma 2 was always one of the most interesting aspects of the whole story. Batthal, in particular, fleshed out the universe in smart ways, frequently asking the Arisen if they are part of the problem or the solution. Otherwise, it asks the player if Pawns are even ethically correct despite their enthusiasm to help the main character. Without any real narrative beats to give a definitive answer, it's up to the players to decide that for themselves. Exploring these themes and these people is where Dragon's Dogma 2 creates a much more compelling tale.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 Is a Throwback to a Very Creative Time for the Genre
Oftentimes, Dragon's Dogma 2 came across as an old-school RPG, an Xbox 360-era RPG, and only in small ways did it feel like a contemporary RPG. Dragon's Dogma 2 is exceedingly bold in its vision for a game where players are simply tossed into the world, and the rest is up to them to figure out. There is no handholding here, and the only way forward is to investigate and talk to everyone in the vicinity to figure out what to do next. In that sense, it's very much a classic RPG, which some players may love while others may find frustrating and obtuse.
On the more contemporary side, Dragon's Dogma 2 has a treasure trove of combat systems, dynamic world events, mechanics, and "things" happening at any given time that it feels like playing an RPG from the Xbox 360 era when game engines started getting more robust, and developers were putting every idea they could into games. That magic that players may have felt when realizing that all NPCs in Oblivion have their own schedules is reinvigorated in Dragon's Dogma 2 because it is the same concept but on a colossal scale.
Dragon's Dogma 2 Player Creates Link and Zelda in the Game
A creative Dragon's Dogma 2 player uses the character creator to put Zelda and Link into the game, as they appear in Breath of the Wild.
Many times, players will wake up to discover a drake is terrorizing the city or a horde of goblins has decided today is the day they kill all the townsfolk, and it's up to the Arisen to save the day again and again. Where that invisible safety barrier exists in other games, it doesn't exist in Dragon's Dogma 2 because why should it? As a result, things are liable to get crazy at any moment . Sometimes, simply walking by the countryside becomes a terrifying venture as a griffin overhead has to decide if it's hungry for a dinner of Arisen and Pawns or if it has other matters to attend to. Dragon's Dogma 2 is not necessarily about what the player does to the world but what the world does to the player, and that tension keeps the game alive and exciting.
As cliché as it is to say, Dragon's Dogma 2 truly makes players feel like they're on an adventure. By crafting such a dynamic world while forgoing modern conveniences like waypoint navigation, a simple fast-travel system, or even detailed quest logs, Dragon's Dogma 2 opens the door to an endless chain of emergent gameplay moments. Seemingly mundane gameplay notions - like speaking to an NPC who may seem significant to the current quest - may end up leading to a separate massive questline that completely derails what the player initially meant to do but creates an entire Odyssey's worth of events that the player won't soon forget. Everything is memorable in Dragon's Dogma 2 when nothing is concrete.
The other side of this very hands-off approach to gameplay is that it can cause a lot of confusion and frustration that not all players will receive too kindly. Dragon's Dogma 2 is about the journey rather than the destination. Trying to take the easy way out is not the intent behind most of its gameplay scenarios. In fact, Dragon's Dogma 2 is a surprisingly hard game that punishes those who want to take the easy route at every turn and don't take the time to plan ahead or know when to rest. Things like the fast-travel oxcarts are routinely punished by enemies on the road, so it's not like they're a quick-fix solution to getting around, while the actual quick-fix solution in Ferrystones is exceedingly rare. Players who feel like they can slap together any old group of pawns will quickly fall to any intermediate foe because the game wants players to fiddle with different party strengths and weaknesses.
But it's in those potentially frustrating situations where it seems like the game is stacking the odds against the player or deliberately withholding information where Dragon's Dogma 2 feels strongest. It respects the player's intelligence and knows that if players are patient with it and willing to engage with it on its level, they will succeed and be rewarded. As much as players may feel like the game is obtuse and misleading, Dragon's Dogma 2 only wants players to explore every part of the game to their own benefit. The result is that no small task in Dragon's Dogma 2 is ever mindless or simply feels like going through the motions.
On paper, Dragon's Dogma 2 may have what seem like fetch quests, but in practice, every fetch quest is a potential adventure that can go in any direction as long players let the game sweep them off their feet--sometimes literally. Thinking back on all the strange antics and multiple hour-long tangents that occurred when trying to do something as simple as delivering a letter was half the fun of the experience and a huge part of the game's charm. Dragon's Dogma 2 wants to immerse players in ways that players haven't been immersed in for a while, and players who give it the time will have a one-of-a-kind experience. It's just getting there that could be a hurdle for some players, much like the first game.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 is the Original but Improved in Every Way
Of course, it wouldn't be Dragon's Dogma without the franchise's deep combat system, hectic monster battles, and unique Pawn mechanics. Dragon's Dogma 2 does it all bigger and better than last time. Similar to Capcom's Monster Hunter, every fight in Dragon's Dogma 2 can be a true spectacle, often taking everything a player has to beat an enemy, even with due preparation. But it also has so much more to offer. The game never tells players certain things, like how ramming into a Cyclops at full speed could topple it or how making their character a massive ball of muscle in the character creator increases their chances of doing that. Small things like that are up to the player to figure out, and it's a seemingly endless list. Much like its overworld exploration, combat in Dragon's Dogma 2 rewards ingenuity and thinking about its systems in ways that many games never explore.
However, combat can feel a little too heavy and clunky in Dragon's Dogma 2 at times, with little to make up for that jank. As a game that almost purposefully feels dated, that also means that modern niceties like a lock-on system or dodge-rolling mechanics are missing. Dragon's Dogma 2 offers a basic control scheme that some players will likely find rigid and unforgiving and is often something to contend with in the middle of combat. Outside of the shield-bearing Vocations, there are almost no defensive options in the game, so players should ensure they stock up on healing materials in case they get locked in some enemy's chain of spells. It'll happen a lot.
Dragon's Dogma's Pawn system is back, again proving that Capcom's take on the RPG party formula outclasses many in the genre. What makes the Pawn system in Dragon's Dogma 2 so good is the simple fact that they are actually useful in ways other games seemingly never picked up on. Pawns will often point out things the Arisen missed while traveling or will go ahead and open a chest on behalf of the Arisen, acting as living, breathing characters instead of DPS machines. But Pawns are also complex in mechanical ways. Most impressive is how they learn and adapt to the player. Pawns will adjust their tactics and learn how to fight in accordance with the player's fighting style as long as players are willing to physically teach Pawns what to do. It's unique and unlike anything else in gaming right now.
The Vocation system is back with some returning favorites, like the Fighter and Mage in the basic lineup. Meanwhile, classes like the Mystic Knight have been given a facelift as the Mystic Spearhand. Mystic Spearhand, in particular, was a favorite during our review period, featuring tons of variety in combat and also just being one of the flashiest and coolest Vocations of the lot. However, from playing around with all ten vocations throughout the game, that same sentiment can be extended to almost all the classes.
Vocations like the Mage play in a totally different manner than the Thief, while something like the Trickster fundamentally changes how players should even think about combat. There is a massive amount of depth and replayability with every Vocation in Dragon's Dogma 2, and it can be daunting to try and learn some of them just from how drastically they change up playstyles. What's more, for a game that is so punishing in almost all other aspects, Dragon's Dogma 2 is surprisingly accommodating for players who want to try a little bit of everything. Well into the endgame, we were still unlocking new vocations but never felt like we lagged behind in power when switching to them, thanks to how well the game balances its leveling and Vocation mechanics.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 Is Stretching the RE Engine to Its Limits
With so much going on and so many systems under the hood, it often feels like Dragon's Dogma 2 is biting off more than it can chew and isn't always on the money with every mechanic. There were multiple instances throughout the main story where the game wanted to change its mission structure, but it ultimately fell flat because the game couldn't support the ambition. For example, there are a handful of main story quests that require the use of stealth, except Dragon's Dogma 2 doesn't really have a functional stealth system despite its best efforts. All that players can do in these missions is awkwardly walk right past the guards and merrily stroll along as if the whole stealth element even mattered in the first place.
In other cases, the game presents platforming sections that don't fit with the stiff movement mechanics and then compensate by either being super easy or otherwise feeling totally unnecessary. These were fewer in number but were never any less awkward to play. Whenever Dragon's Dogma 2 starts to stray outside of its core strengths in combat and exploration, it seems to buckle a little too much.
On the performance side is where Dragon's Dogma 2 can get very ugly. We can only speak for the PC experience right now, and so far, it could be better. On a high-end rig with an RTX 4090, the game often struggles to hit 60fps in the main city areas with upscaling while also being host to some bad stutter that seems to get worse the longer the game runs. Additionally, the PC port currently doesn't scale well on high or low settings and has some serious bugs with its ambient occlusion and ray tracing options.
Worst of all are the pop-in issues. Dragon's Dogma 2 is a significantly livelier game than its predecessor, with more NPCs and animals, but it can't handle all the new hustle and bustle very well. Whole NPCs, oxcarts, and monsters routinely apparate right under the player's nose and have a habit of taking away from an overall immersive experience. There is so much going on in Dragon's Dogma 2 at any given moment that it's hard not to feel like the RE Engine is getting stretched quite a bit.
It is admirable how Dragon's Dogma 2 never compromises in its vision for an RPG that plops players into a world, gives them a weapon, and lets them go nuts while a million different mechanics are firing off in the background for them to discover. There is no engaging with Dragon's Dogma 2 on the surface level because doing so would be missing half the game. It's about immersion and discovery in ways that the RPG genre doesn't emphasize like it used to.
But it's not all glory for Dragon's Dogma 2, and it certainly won't be for everyone. The game is purposefully slow and asks players to be deliberate about every action they take and to consider all options when doing even the smallest of tasks. Those who can't level with Dragon's Dogma 2's purposefully obtuse and dated nature might not be the right fit for this game. Add in all the jank and technical issues, and Dragon's Dogma 2 can be a tough sell for anyone who hasn't bought in on its premise over the past ten years. But that hardly takes away from how well it executes what it sets out to do. In that, it is best in class.
After a whirlwind 40 hours with Dragon's Dogma 2, it is clear that Capcom has created a flawed masterpiece that might not be for everyone. However, for those that this game speaks to, they will love it to pieces. So, in a way, it is the perfect sequel to Dragon's Dogma. From its unique twist on the RPG party system to its laissez-faire gameplay mechanics that reward players who are willing to think outside the box and dig into every corner of the game, there is nothing quite like Dragon's Dogma 2, and there probably won't be for a long time.
Dragon's Dogma 2
Reviewed on PC
- Released
- March 22, 2024
Set forth on your grand adventure, Arisen!
Dragon’s Dogma is a single player, narrative driven action-RPG series that challenges the players to choose their own experience – from the appearance of their Arisen, their vocation, their party, how to approach different situations and more. Now, in this long-awaited sequel, the deep, explorable fantasy world of Dragon’s Dogma 2 awaits.
On your journey, you’ll be joined by Pawns, mysterious otherworldly beings, in an adventure so unique you will feel as if accompanied by other players while on your own adventure.
All of these elements are elevated further through physics technology, artificial intelligence (AI) and the latest in graphics, to create a truly immersive fantasy world in Dragon’s Dogma 2.
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG
- Top-notch emergent gameplay
- Rich combat mechanics
- Unique approach to RPG parties via Pawns
- Deep and well-balanced Vocations
- Simple story with a lacking first half
- Can be obtuse and clunky
- Bad pop-in issues and technical performance
Dragon's Dogma 2 is available March 22, 2024, for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. The Best War Games was provided with a PC code for this review.