Dragon’s Dogma 2 is an RPG that knows that, due to open worlds and certain Western RPGs, players have become accustomed to optimizing everything to points incompatible with enjoyment. It is a common occurrence to take all possible side quests. Use fast travel even to go to the next village. Seek to maximize resolving everything as quickly as possible, even at the cost of fun. And Hideaki Itsuno’s new game is designed with exactly that in mind.
One of the ways it does this is by completely removing fast travel. Although in Dragon’s Dogma 2 it is possible to fast travel between points, it is limited to a series of stones, very scarce, that we have to place ourselves. This means that, even if it is possible to use fast travel, we always have a specific awareness of what we are doing: when we use it, it is because we have carefully planned its usefulness in advance. We cannot abuse the mechanic.
Another way in which this idea has been implemented is by introducing missions with a limited time. Once we accept them, we have to complete them within a predetermined amount of time that, although generous, is not infinite. This means that we cannot stack all the missions we want to solve them all at once, but rather we will have to address them individually with the importance they deserve.
Something that works because Dragon’s Dogma 2 has an extremely well-crafted world and missions. If this were the typical open world with inane missions and endless kilometers where nothing happens, it would be terrible. But being full of quality content, by doing this, it forces the player to approach the game in the most fun and satisfying way for themselves.
Now, many people could confuse this with the idea that they want to make the game more realistic. Forcing us to do things as we would in the real world. Something that it’s not. Because the interesting thing is that it does it so that we have to actively involve ourselves in their world. So that we can’t, even if we want to, ruin the fun for ourselves.
A video game is not a job or a task. It is something we do to enjoy. That’s why it doesn’t make sense to try to optimize it, trying to achieve as many objectives as possible all at once whenever we have the opportunity. If you feel the urge to do so, maybe it’s because the game is not designed in an interesting way or you are not considering it from the right perspective. Something that Capcom has understood and that, fortunately, Dragon’s Dogma II knows how to communicate.
