Dragons Dogma 2

Back in 2012, a now almost legendary game arrived in a not-so-flattering state. This game was Dragon's Dogma. One of the only games that makes playing a sorcerer in a video game actually feel like you can tear down the heavens on your foes. It was praised not only for its magic combat but also for its fantastic melee combat.

But at the end of the day, this game was incredibly flawed, and because of time constraints in development, it was pretty much unfinished and had one of the most rushed final parts of a game to date.

A few years later, Dragons Dogma: Dark Arisen was released to remedy some of these issues, and it's generally considered to be a big improvement over the original. This is the version of Dragons Dogma I played, and it is the one I will be comparing the long-awaited sequel to.

Now here we are. 12 years after the release of the original game in the series, I've recently finished the epic continuation of the series. Dragon's Dogma 2. And I have opinions about it (shocker, I know). So let's dive right into my highly professional and curated thoughts.

The game is (kind of) stunning.

What I am trying to say is that the game in itself is absolutely beautiful. The render distance and sense of scale in the world are something that sets Dragon's Dogma 2 apart from many other open-world games, even by today's standards. It certainly is a massive improvement over the original game, which had an extremely limited world size and unfortunately never managed to convey the scale of itself all too well.

The big negative, however, is the extreme reliance on upscaling technologies to get the game to run at a somewhat acceptable framerate on consoles and, in part, on many PCs too. The upscaling makes the game look soft and grainy most of the time. There is also a lot of ghosting when moving around with your character, most notably from your weapons, which you can see in the image below when looking at the tip of the spear.

This is a huge shame because the environments and graphics of DD2 really deserve better, and due to the nature of console and PC hardware getting better every generation and year, it will undoubtedly look as good as it deserves one day for most players; that day just isn't today.

The story and quest design

When I first dropped into the game, I really felt like I was going to be getting a fully realized vision of what the first game was supposed to be. There are cutscenes, characters being introduced, betrayal, and some amazing scenery. I was really hopeful that we would be getting something really good here this time around.

For context, the story in Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen is so fractured and unfinished that at times it feels like playing a Souls game, except the story was never meant to be discovered and theorized by VaatiVidya; it simply is not there most of the time. It was quite the fever dream experience, and while the beginning and end were cool and nice, everything in between fell head first after the first 10 meters of a 100-meter race.

Unfortunately, I have to say they kind of managed to make the same mistake again. I loved the opening of the game, but everything from 5 hours in to the last 5 hours was bland, boring, and repetitive, with nothing of consequence ever really happening at all. The ending was really cool and touched upon some of the subjects brought up in the first game, so overall, I was happy with the execution there.

Looking past the main story, the best part about Dragon's Dogma 2 is definitely the side quests. There are many quests that unlock follow-up quests later down the line. They feel rewarding both in loot and experiencing the fates of the characters that live in the world. They feel authentic and lived in, and some of the stories can take some big twists, especially if you don't resolve them in time.

Gameplay

Once again, the combat is the standout feature in the game, with most things from the first game being expanded upon and smoothed out to feel even better. Climbing up on a huge ogre and firing an arrow into its skull from on top of its head, proceeding to do a backflip down to one of my pawns that caught me to make sure I don't take any fall damage, is one of the coolest things I've done in a game.

Some new vocations (the equivalent of classes in Dragon's Dogma) have also been introduced, and the Mystic Spearman, which combines both fast-hitting physical attacks as well as magic attacks with its combined staff and spear, was really fun, and I hope more games will introduce classes like this in the future.

The pawn system that was introduced in the original game is of course at the center of this game as well and is even further expanded with pawns being able to now help you craft items, translate elven language, and provide support in combat. When your pawn has been summoned to another player's world to help them out, they will comment on the experiences they've had and the personality of the player in question.

These things just add so much to the experience, and the world really captured me at times, making hours go by in an instant. Saying goodbye to a pawn because you need something else after you have traveled with them for 20 days honestly feels so bittersweet. I hoped to see them again in the future, but deep down, I knew that this was the final goodbye, as they wished me good luck on my journey and disappeared into the blue void of the riftstone.

PS. When finishing a fight your pawns can reach out their hands for a high five when you walk past them. This is so satisfying.

Conclusion

Despite all of the positives I have rained on the game, I do still feel that, at its core, this is just Dragons Dogma: Dark Arisen, but more polished. And if that would have meant the game was polished to perfection, then it would have been a great review. but despite being in development for 8 years, it still feels just like that unpolished gem from 2012, just 12 years later.

They've had so much time and a lot of budget to make this game everything the previous game couldn't be, and at the end of the day, it's just more of the same with some bonuses on the side. I won't lie; it is a bit disappointing. I still love the game and had a blast with it, but I had hoped to see a fully realized vision of what Dragons Dogma could be, and that just isn't here.

To cap it all off, I will say that I do think it is the best game in the series, and if you are a newcomer, this would be the best place to start, but there's just so much that could have been improved on that I just can't help but feel they could and should have done more. I am eager to see what else they will do with this title and the series as a whole after this, because I want more.

I hope you've enjoyed my somewhat structured ramblings about Dragon's Dogma 2 and as a final gift, here's my character as they looked during the last fight in the game.

-Tim