The game has sold much better than expected (over 2.5 million units in eleven days), which has allowed, of course, investing it in new games… Just kidding! In giving more money to investors and shareholders! Scary, right?!
I remember with great affection the time when the word “investors” was only part of a boring adult vocabulary that I would never have to understand. But the world has insisted that, if we want to understand even the slightest bit how the film or video game business works, we embrace the concept: investors happy because movies are destroyed, investors happy because people are fired, investors happy because they get what they want… Well, those things. The key to the matter: the happiness of gentlemen who are already millionaires when they earn more millions.
For Capcom investors, happiness has had a name: Dragon’s Dogma 2. And it’s because the game has sold much better than expected (over 2.5 million units in eleven days), which has allowed, of course, to invest it in new games… Just kidding! In giving more money to investors and shareholders! What a scare, huh?!
Capcom also highlights the success of ‘Street Fighter VI‘ and, in general, the benefits that the programmers’ work has brought (who, by the way, will not receive this bonus). The good news in this obscene capitalist party is that they are probably already preparing to make DLC for ‘Dragon’s Dogma 2’ with the intention of entertaining the players… No! So that next year the investors can earn even more! This is the dynamic now!
The first quarter of 2024 has left us with great candidates for the Game of the Year (or GOTY) award. Games like Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Helldivers 2, or Final Fantasy VII Rebirth currently have all the chances of winning said award. Well, almost all. Because less than two weeks ago, another huge contender was released: Dragon’s Dogma 2.
The talk of social media for various reasons (both good and… not so good), the sequel to Dragon’s Dogma has arrived with a bang. But what’s its secret? If you ask me, this humble writer who invested hundreds of hours in the first Dragon’s Dogma, the answer is clear: Capcom has taken the first part of the saga and improved it in every way.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 has managed to adapt a huge amount of gameplay features and mechanics from its first installment, adjusting them to a new world, a new environment, and a new story. In this way, those who already played Dragon’s Dogma back in the day will find a game that will feel familiar to them in many aspects. But what characteristics from the first Dragon’s Dogma are repeated in this sequel? These are the 4 most outstanding ones.
Pawn system
Dragon’s Dogma introduced us to the pawn system back in the day. At the beginning of the game, our Arisen (a human whose heart was stolen by the Dragon, making them immortal) meets/creates their pawn, a being similar to humans that will accompany us in all our adventures, leveling up and improving their skills just like the Arisen themselves.
The particularity of these beloved companions is that we can share them with other users (including our friends), accompanying them in their adventures as well. Although the online aspect of this system is at least limited, by sharing our pawns we can obtain rift crystals, a special currency in the game that we can use to buy unusual items. If you find yourself stuck with a boss, try summoning a pawn to help you in your battle.
Scaling enemies
Do you see that giant enemy? You can climb it. Yes, you heard right: you can climb an enemy as if it were a mountain in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. While it is a mechanic that we have already seen in games like the beloved Shadow of the Colossus, climbing enemies is possibly one of the hallmarks of the Dragon’s Dogma series, and one of the most beloved aspects by its fans.
Most enemies have weak points that you can attack to make battles easier. Cyclops, for example, are weak in their eye, while griffins will fall to the ground if you damage their wings (or set them on fire). Depending on your class, you can attack them from a distance with arrows or magic, but what can you do if you can’t? Climb their bodies and hit them hard with your weapon. Just be careful with your energy.
Transporter Crystals
In the first Dragon’s Dogma, the community was divided between those who loved its fast travel system and those who deeply hated it. Are you one of those who liked it? I hope so, because Dragon’s Dogma 2 brings it back. The fast travel system in the Dragon’s Dogma saga revolves around crystals and teleportation stones; to travel from one place to another in an instant, you will have to use teleportation stones, which you can find in dungeon chests and some stores, and with which you can travel to the crystals you have placed on the map.
Yes, placed. The peculiarity of this fast travel system is that you will have to place the fast travel points yourself, manually placing them wherever is most convenient for you. While we will collect quite a few transport stones on our adventure, finding the crystals will not be so easy, and we can only place a maximum of 10. Think carefully about where you want to put them, and remember that you can pick them up whenever you want and move them to any other location.
The Piélago
Do you remember those games where you die when you fall into the water (your character can’t swim, you know) or where a message pops up telling you that you can’t go any further? In the Dragon’s Dogma saga, there is a similar limitation: the dreaded Brine. The Brine is Dragon’s Dogma’s way of not letting you venture into certain areas by swimming, preventing you from going into deep waters under the threat of being swallowed by a mysterious… “something”.
This thing will swallow us if we swim where we shouldn’t, it will leave us on the shore and send our pawns back to the fault. The positive aspect of this is that it also affects enemies, so if you want to get rid of an enemy “easily”, grab it and throw it into the water (if it’s small) or lure it to take a deadly plunge (bye bye, griffins).
Dragon’s Dogma 2, the highly anticipated sequel to one of the most beloved action RPGs of the PS3 and Xbox 360 generation, was released this week and it comes with a lot of controversies. While the game has been extremely well received by the specialized press, being directly pointed out as one of the candidates for the 2024 GOTY, many users who have already played it have a radically different opinion for several reasons.
In addition to the implementation of microtransactions in the game(something that already happened with the first Dragon’s Dogma), PC users who started playing Dragon’s Dogma 2 encountered constant performance issues that would be related to the high CPU consumption by each of the NPC (non-playable characters) in the game. And what has the fanbase come up with to “solve” the problem? Well, exterminate the NPCs, of course.
According to Capcom, as explained to IGN: “In Dragon’s Dogma 2, a large amount of CPU usage is assigned to each character and the impact of their physical presence in various environments is dynamically calculated. In certain situations where numerous characters appear simultaneously, CPU usage can be very high and affect the frame rate. We are aware that, in such situations, adjustments that reduce GPU load may currently have a limited effect; however, we are studying ways to improve performance in the future.”
With this in mind, Dragon’s Dogma 2 players on Reddit started making a list of NPCs that you can kill without any impact on the game. Well, and memes. A lot of memes. The list includes characters that are not vendors or part of game missions, such as the guards you can see in the cities.
“This idea is crazy,” replied a user in the same thread on the Dragon’s Dogma 2 subreddit. “The optimization is so bad that there are people who want to commit a massive genocide to get more fps“. “I can’t wait for a week to pass and someone to post the game running at 60fps after massacring everyone,” another user said jokingly.
After several rumors and a recent leak, we now officially know that Dragon’s Dogma 2 will be released on March 22, 2024, for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X, putting an end to over a decade of fervent fan anticipation. Capcom revealed both the release date and new details about the game during a digital presentation held on Tuesday night.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 director Hideaki Itsuno and game producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi showcased the new features in the sequel, including a striking addition to the bestiary: the Talos, a colossal bronze warrior emerging from the sea.
Developers demonstrated various ways to defeat the Talos: jumping onto it from the edge of a cliff and fighting while clinging to it (similar to Shadow of the Colossus); approaching it on winged mounts and attacking from a distance with spells and ranged weapons.
Capcom also revealed a new vocation, the Trickster. This character class, exclusive to the Arisen (the player-controlled character), can use an incense burner in combat to conjure illusions, causing enemies to fight among themselves, and to support the player’s pawns to be more effective in battle.
The Trickster, a “sly vocation” capable of manipulating the course of a battle without directly engaging anyone, joins the confirmed vocations in Dragon’s Dogma 2: Fighter, Archer, Thief, Mage, Mystic Archer, and Mystic Knight.
Capcom also showcased their new character creator, allowing players to customize their Arisen and main Pawn. According to the developers, the company has employed new photogrammetry technology to enhance the photorealism of avatars created by Dragon’s Dogma 2 players.
Lastly, the developers teased a bit of the game’s storyline, revealing that it is set in a world parallel to the original Dragon’s Dogma.
As the Arisen, players will find themselves caught between the beliefs and plots of two rival nations: Vermund, the human kingdom, is in the midst of a power struggle for the throne, with a false Arisen installed by the regent queen Disa; in Battahl, humanoid beasts view Pawns as a source of misfortune. However, both nations see dragons as a threat to their survival.
In May 2012, gamers were going crazy over Capcom‘s latest title. No, I’m not talking about a new installment of Street Fighter, Resident Evil, or Devil May Cry, but about Dragon’s Dogma, an action RPG where we had to seek and confront a powerful dragon that stole our heart (quite literally).
With gameplay inspired by the successful Dark Souls but adding countless completely innovative mechanics that would set a precedent in the coming years, both the game and its DLC, Dark Arisen, won the heart (metaphorically this time) of a gaming community grateful for a breath of fresh air.
After numerous requests and pleas to Capcom to continue the saga, it wasn’t until last year that the company announced Dragon’s Dogma 2 for 2024. Just a year later, we got a more in-depth look at how the game would shape up, including how some of its new vocations would function.
However, while many predicted we’d have to wait practically until late 2024 to try it, mostly due to the absence of a specific date, Dragon’s Dogma 2 might actually arrive in just a few months.
According to the Twitter account @VGAR_SA, the General Authority for Media in Saudi Arabia (GAMR) recently classified Dragon’s Dogma 2, giving it an age rating of +18. This not only suggests that the video game will contain violent scenes and other mature themes but also hints at an imminent release.
These suspicions align with information found in a Q&A session for investors by Capcom, where the company stated that an “unrevealed” title would be released by the end of their fiscal year, ending in March 2024. Yes, it could be another game we know nothing about yet, but in cases like this, the saying “where there’s smoke, there’s fire” tends to hold true.
