Dragon's Dogma II (2024)

God damn I love this game. Walking my party from Melve to Vernworth I ran into a handful of goblin patrols, some pretty angry saurians (including a poor group just defending their nest that I happened upon because my pawn wanted to show me a cave they found) and then my campsite was attacked half-way through my night's rest. Following that I ran into a minotaur and an ogre and managed to finish them both off despite the minotaur's ability to one-shot my warrior (multiple times). Every battle felt hard won but deeply satisfying.

This game is so CPU constrained that even GeForce Now struggles to run above 60fps in the game's cities. Makes me feel better about the fact that my i5-12400F and 6650 XT can manage 60fps in the wilds without issue and just over 30fps in the cities. Capcom has said they plan to address CPU issues, as most reviewers agree the problem likely comes down to poor optimization.

I love this game. I love the way my Arisen and my pawns slap palms after a successful fight. I love taking down (a non-scripted encounter with) a cyclops even though I’m only a couple levels in and fighting tooth and nail to stay alive. I love how beautiful the countryside is. I love the higher stakes of a health pool that constantly dwindles and can’t be restored with simple curatives. I love getting ambushed from multiple sides and barely getting away unscathed but still triumphing. I love that my pawns actually interact and talk with each other, and even occasionally scold each other for certain displays. I love that my pawns actually try to help beyond just engaging in combat and that I can give them instructions. But mostly I just love how much damn fun I’m having.

It's a shame Capcom created item DLC and started an entire kerfuffle about microtransactions, because it's clear the game is balanced without them and that the purchasable items are not something essential that was carved out of the game to force people to pay for them, they are additions to reduce some of the intentional friction for those who want a bit of an easier time. It's very clear that the game doesn't require these items, because anything useful can be purchased in-game. It's a shame that this dominated the conversation at launch. Thanks Capcom Execs!

I’ve taken an immediate liking to this, unlike with the first. Now that said, I probably owe a great debt to the first for ingratiating the series design to me and essentially preparing me to enjoy the sequel. Regardless, I like a lot of the changes I’ve encountered so far, especially as part of combat. Combat does feel quite good and I particularly enjoy that there is a combination of auto-lock aiming and manual aim for ranged classes, which makes playing with a controller a fair bit easier than it was in the first game. That said I probably won’t stick with a ranged vocation since I do want to get some stabby stabby thief time in, and there’s no ranger vocation this time around. I’m looking forward to the feel of melee combat.

Been playing this the last few nights, and like the first one, I’m just not really that into it. There are some decisions in the quest design and exploration that I can theoretically appreciate, much like I theoretically appreciate, say, Morrowind for similar reasons. You can get some memorable stories of your own out of a game that’s this punishing and non-handholdy and open. I just don’t enjoy this nearly as much as some people seem to. The combat is fine but not very exciting to me, the behavior and dialogue of pawn companions (arguably the game’s signature mechanic) sometimes makes no sense in a frustrating/annoying way, and frankly I just find the game a bit too much of a hassle to figure out and navigate for how much fun I’m actually having. And there’s this mild layer of “jank” over the experience that is somewhat off-putting as well. Its unconventional and hardcore aspects can only really work if you’re into the combat and world, which haven’t done much for me. I’d like to get further in before judging it but just don’t want to at the moment.

My pawn and I make a great team! I’ve played 13 hours of Dragon’s Dogma II on ps5 and I love it so much.
I haven’t used any of those ferrystone fast travel things because I just enjoy exploring the world on foot getting into random fights.
If you’d like to use my level 22 archer pawn, her ID is HK2WJPOZ133Y