Dragon's Dogma II (2024)

Dragons dogma 2 has been a weird experience for me as I went from enjoying it to hating it to loving it, despite it coming across as ridiculously unfair when I was early into the game, this being mainly due to it's loss gauge, incredibly expensive supplies, restricted travel options, punishing combat & ingredients spoling over time.

What seemed unfair to me at first became common place as I gradually got used to the games mechanics & learned how to survive and thrive in the games punishing but engaing open world.

I have stuck with the thief vocations since the beginning only picking up a new vocation to snag augments for my build and I am currently shredding though monsters like paper, most of them being monsters that I struggled with originally like gryphons & even drakes.

So If anyone has picked up the game & is struggling don't give up stick with it because it only gets better though it still has it's problems, also I would suggest checking out dragons dogma 2 things you need to know videos.

This game seems kind of wild:

Even before the release of Dragon’s Dogma 2, Capcom revealed the existence of Dragonsplague. It is a contagious disease that only infects pawns (the NPC party members of the game). Capcom warned that when the disease reaches a terminal stage it will result in a “devastating calamity.”

Now that Dragon’s Dogma 2 is out and in the hands of players, we know what that calamity entails. If a player rests while having a pawn in their party that has reached the terminal stage of Dragonsplague, a cutscene will play in which that pawn transforms into a dragon and massacres the population of the area you’re currently in— including merchants and quest-giving NPCs.

How To Spot Dragonsplague, Dragon’s Dogma 2’s Pawn-Infecting Illness

I can’t help but find descriptions of this game intriguing. From Paste’s article, In Dragon’s Dogma 2, You’re a Stumbling Meat Puppet in a World That Hates You (And That’s a Good Thing):

Because of these limitations on moving through the world, you’re forced to fully engage with the contours of this sizeable backdrop, battling goblins, harpies, and eventually far more intimidating creatures as you cut a swathe to your destination. Due to the scope of battles and the lack of a universal dodge, even the most skilled warrior will take dings and scrapes along the way. Sure, there are plenty of healing tools at your disposal: you can carry medicines in your pack and assuming you have a Pawn in your party dedicated to healing (which you probably should), they’ll do their best to keep your HP topped off. But every time you get hit, you lose a bit of your max health that can’t be healed in the field, the wear and tear of the road slowly accumulating until you are so fragile a goblin’s sneeze will bowl you over. This grants each expedition a tangible sense of attrition as your constitution is whittled down by scrapes and bruises. Crushing blows carry over from one scuffle to the next, imbuing each battle with additional consequence.

Thankfully, this damage isn’t permanent— things aren’t that cruel. You can recover by getting some rest. But, in the open world, this can only be done at campfires spread out at set locations. Taking a nap also requires having a tent, which is single-use, costs money, and takes up a lot of inventory space. And if you hit the hay before clearing out the area, you can expect your beauty sleep to be interrupted by an ambush. As a trek goes on for an extended period, there is a palpable sense of fatigue, creating constant small moments of joy when you finally see a trail of smoke rising in the skyline, a diegetic way to let you know where you can find your next respite.

That sounds like a huge pain in the ass but also simultaneously appealing. I like the layers of friction they are playing with, presenting systems that immediately seem alienating but that likely deepen the experience for some. I think I can understand why some critics are really enamoured with this game. I hope it gets patched before long. I’d also love it if they dropped the anti-cheat DRM so I could access it on Steam Deck.

Who is surprised that gamerz™️ angry about Dragon’s Dogma 2 chose to harass two women that did voice work for the game? It’s kind of curious that every time these children claim they are mad about some “legitimate problem in games” they head straight toward harassing women, or other marginalized groups. It’s almost as if they just want to harass people and hide behind smokescreens like “MTX” or “poor game performance” or whatever the current discourse is that they decide to glom onto. And then whatever legit criticism exists gets drowned out by these chuds and any potentially worthwhile conversations about game development get replaced by conversations about harassment at the hands of gamerz™️ yet again. It never ends.

Dragon's Dogma 2 Voice Actor, Official Pawn Spammed With Messages About Microtransactions

If anyone wants a hyperbole-free take on the graphical issues in Dragon’s Dogma 2, check out Digital Foundry’s review:

A key takeaways for PC users is either to ignore the poor performance in the city areas due to the lack of optimization, or wait for patches. The game is severely CPU limited and even beastly contemporary CPUs struggle to deliver in areas like the game’s main city. However, it seems the RE engine has some room to squeeze out some greater optimization, so hopefully Capcom will patch it.

This is game is getting demolished.

According to Youtubers, despite dlc for fast travel is available as a purchase, the game supposedly has ways for fast travel. According to some Youtubers, even a 4090 struggles with fps in settlements but smooth 60 fps with the wilderness but as explained by Capcom, the game is CPU heavy. Ryzen 9 5950X with 4090 get to as low as 20-30 fps in settlements.

Never played a Dragons Dogma game but seeing some pretty negative stuff about their micro transactions. Adding the micro transactions after reviews have gone out and then issuing a statement addressing performance and telling people who have concerns about mtx that items can be earnt in game or be paid for with "we apologise for any inconvenience" is astonishing.

Regardless of whether the previous game had mtx, and regardless of whether items can be found in-game, creating problems within a single player game and then creating solutions in the form of micro transactions and then releasing that post-review previews is scummy.

You can download the character creator and create your character in anticipation for the game. Smart move, so you can spend an hour creating your character now instead of when the game comes out.

https://store.steampowered.com/agecheck/app/2674810/

I played around a bit and it's nice and extensive. I love that you can customise a lot of your body as well as the face.