Dragon’s Dogma 2 Review

Talos in Dragon's Dogma 2

Early on in Dragon’s Dogma 2, I climbed a ladder and started jumping around on slanted roofs, hoping to come across secrets and treasures. Dragon’s Dogma 2, not a fan of my shenanigans, immediately told me that I was an absolute moron for trying to do something so silly, and my character slipped on a slightly slanted roof, plummeting about 10 feet onto their face and immediately dying.

“Heck yes,” I thought to myself. “Dragon’s Dogma is back.”

It’s hard to know where to begin with Dragon’s Dogma 2. I could tell you it’s a little bit like Monster Hunter, but that’s not really giving you the full picture. I could tell you it’s like an action-RPG version of Baldur’s Gate 3, but that might lead fans of that game into a false sense of security. I can tell you with certainty that it’s one of the best games I’ve ever played, and I will be thinking about it every single day until the day I die. That much is absolutely certain.

But I might not be the best person to tell you about Dragon’s Dogma 2, at least not alone. While I did play the first game, it took five cracks at it before it finally clicked, and even then it felt like I wasn’t really getting the most out of the experience. Dragon’s Dogma 2 was much more immediately my kind of game, and I absolutely adored every moment of it, but if I were to write unaided, I would spend thousands of unfocused words talking about how my cat-like Beastren mage spent dozens of hours flinging spells from afar, throwing rocks at goblins, and reviving my trusty pawn after she died fifteen seconds into every single fight.

It would be a self-indulgent review, and while there’s a time and a place for that, I thought maybe I’d try to do things a little differently. That’s why I sought help from a close friend, somebody who I would describe as Dragon’s Dogma’s biggest fan. I asked that friend what they wanted to know most about Dragon’s Dogma 2, and they provided me with a list of demands, through which I have funneled my knowledge of the game to provide answers that, hopefully, will help make sense of this grand adventure I’ve been through.

Is there enough enemy variety to stop the large world from getting stale? And has the enemy selection grown enough from the first game?

Dragon’s Dogma 2 has a spectacularly large world. Or maybe it doesn’t. It’s actually hard to get a good feel for how big the world actually is, but it certainly feels large. Traversing from one place to another in any other game is like going from point A to point B, a means to an end or the necessary legwork to get to the important stuff. Here, the traversal isn’t just a part of the game, it’s the main gameplay loop. You gear up in town and set out on your adventure, which may take you to a cave or a town or a mountainside, but actually getting to that place is fraught with danger, as much a challenge as anything that lies on either side.

Enemies are a big part of that, and there’s a decent enough selection of enemies spread throughout the world, but you will be coming across a lot of the same creatures throughout your journey. It doesn’t feel stale, though, because it’s not just enemies you have to worry about — it’s the terrain, the time of day, the allies you have by your side, and the strategies you have available to you at any given moment. While many of the mobs will stay the same, your encounters with them will be entirely unique every time you come across them. I truly don’t know how Capcom has done this, it feels like magic to me, but when I saw my 10th cyclops, my first thought wasn’t “ugh, another one?” but instead “oh boy, how am I going to take it on this time?”

Does the drop to a single weapon type per class make it feel like you’ve lost too many options?

Great question, thanks for asking! For a bit of background here, vocations in the first Dragon’s Dogma had access to a number of different weapons, but now they only get one. For example, a Strider in Dragon’s Dogma had access to both a bow and daggers, while those weapons have been split up entirely into two separate classes in the sequel. It’s easy to assume that this would make each vocation much simpler, taking away options in combat, but if anything the opposite is true.

You know how I said in my intro that Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a little bit like Monster Hunter? This is where it feels most like Monster Hunter, in its weapons systems. Every vocation, and thus every weapon, feels like the fully-fledged combat system, with a bunch of different skills, abilities, and attacks to combo together to take down enemies and even explore the world. Much like Monster Hunter, the more time you spend with a vocation and its weapons, the more you feel at home, capable of feeling out the strengths and weaknesses of your chosen skill set, and applying those in battle.

But also like Monster Hunter, you’re free to switch things up — in fact it’s encouraged. At certain points you’ll be given quests that outright require you to use a specific vocation, and it probably won’t be the one you’re already using. This is the game telling you to stick your neck out and try new things. You could, theoretically, play through the game with just one vocation the whole way through, but you’d be doing yourself a massive disservice. Switching vocations often and learning new ways to approach every situation is part of what makes Dragon’s Dogma 2 so exciting, and I feel like there’s so much depth to every single vocation, from the basic all the way up to the ridiculous hybrid vocations, that you could play for a hundred hours and not even scratch the surface of what everything has to offer.

Is there more of a story this time around?

Boy is there. But maybe not in the way you’re thinking, too. There is a big, overarching main storyline that weaves in and out of every aspect of the world, but there are smaller stories that connect in fascinating ways. Side quests feel less like a checklist to complete and more like a lens through which you experience all the world has to offer — it all feels very cohesive and exciting.

The biggest (and perhaps best) thing that Dragon’s Dogma 2 does is weave its gameplay into its narrative, and vice versa. Your individual story as you journey through the continent is just as important as the story the game itself is laying at your feet, and the game pulls no punches in reminding you of that. It’s the little things, too, like how the ability to pick up NPCs and enemies becomes a way to interact with the story, to really be a part of it. And the way you approach every situation will be different from everyone else playing, too — chatting with my coworkers has revealed on an almost daily basis that almost every quest in the game can be completed in half a dozen different ways, and we all naturally did most of them differently.

Has the pawn system been noticeably improved from the first game?

I’m honestly not sure if I could say it’s been noticeably improved, as such, but it does do great things. Pawns are a bit of a resource, coming in from different worlds – in fact, other players’ worlds – to help you through a particular section of the game. Your main pawn is with you throughout your entire journey, but the extra two? They don’t level up, so you’ll probably have a few hours with them, maybe a dozen at a stretch.

So sure, I’ll hire Sephiroth to come help me take down a goblin hideout and clear the roads of Cyclopes. But pretty soon, poor old Seph is going to fall behind in levels, and then it’s time to enter the rift and swap Final Fantasy 7’s primary antagonist out for Chonko the catboy archer. I may see Sephiroth again in the future, when he’s stronger and his skills come in handy again, but Chonko and I, well, we have a palace to siege. This ties into what I was saying earlier, where every combat encounter is going to feel a little bit different, and it’s really impressive how pawns feel both entirely vital and completely disposable. That’s a tough balance to strike, but it works, somehow.

Also, pawns are incredibly annoying, chattering constantly about the most stupid things, but I kind of love them for that.

What’s the performance like?

This might be the only actual “flaw” that Dragon’s Dogma 2 has, but even then I would hesitate to say it’s a big issue. The game does run at 30fps on my Xbox Series X, and sometimes has drops here and there when I’m casting huge spells and sprinting through large cities. But here’s the thing: I do not care. Seriously, not one bit.

In recent years, specifically with action games like this, I’ve become much more sensitive to lower frame rates. I played Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth on performance mode despite it looking a bit rubbish because the 30fps quality mode made everything feel sluggish and importantly made me motion sick. But there was never a point in Dragon’s Dogma 2 where I thought “this is good, but I wish it was running at 60fps.” It didn’t make me motion sick, it didn’t feel sluggish, and every single second of gameplay had me enraptured to the point where it could have been running at 15fps and I still would have enjoyed the absolute heck out of it. Performance is stable enough to never be a problem for me, because I was just having way too much fun all the time to notice or care.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is one of the best games I’ve ever played. It’s better than the first game in every single way, and it’s better than any game I’ve played this year — in a year with Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, both of which I loved, that’s impressive. I genuinely have no idea what could possibly be added in a future sequel, because as far as I’m concerned, Capcom has crafted the perfect Dragon’s Dogma game.

Score: 10/10

Related: Dragon’s Dogma 2 Gets Sensational Overview From Hollywood Star Ian McShane