Dragon’s Dogma 2 so far makes monster fights punishing, fun, and plentiful
Capcom’s highly anticipated fantasy RPG is now mere weeks away – and our recent hands-on preview unearths a world deep in breadth but potentially lacks some focus.
10 years is a long time to wait for any sequel, but especially one with a fan base that has grown as fervent and passionate as Dragon’s Dogma’s. Since it launched back in 2012, the original title is still talked about as a bona fide cult classic within certain gamer circles, hence why anticipation is reaching boiling point to see what Capcom has cooked up with Dragon’s Dogma 2. The game releases on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC in just a few weeks on March 22, 2024, and if my recent hands-on session is anything to go by, it’s a meaty riff of the open world RPG format that veteran fans won’t be disappointed by.
I say veteran fans because, in all honesty, despite getting to play Dragon’s Dogma 2 twice now ahead of release, it still feels like I haven’t even begun to get my head around it. This being a 2024 title, you’d expect the map to be big, but I got the sense while exploring the two cities of Vermund and Battahl that I had barely scratched the surface of either. In my first preview I came away impressed at just how well Capcom has appeared to make an extremely faithful (yet modernised) iteration of the 2012 original; for instance climbing any one the giant beasts and either sinking a sword, arrow, or axe into their skull or back still feels immensely liberating in that ‘I know I’m going to regret this’ kind of way.
The same was very much true for my second go around. I started off playing as the Spearhand class, equipped with a suite of long-range melee attacks that meant I felt useful amongst my party of Pawns without getting caught up too much in the scuffle. But the class really came alive as soon I mastered a teleporting stab attack; if you thought a melee-focussed character had to be confined to the ground, think again. Stumbling upon giant trolls, birds, and yes, dragons occurs regularly in the world of Dragon’s Dogma 2, and instantly transporting from ground to air and plunging my spear downward always felt satisfying.
Like a dragon
Players familiar with Monster Hunter will have some idea as to what to expect in terms of the scale of these encounters. That said, here in Dragon’s Dogma 2 they don’t tend to drag on quite as long, lasting anywhere between 10 and 20 minutes (if you’re serious about finishing off the giant, climbable beasts that is) as opposed to the hour-long bouts found in Monster Hunter. It’s with this length of time in mind that I worry this sequel’s moment-to-moment pacing will eventually grate, given that my objectives as part of the demo almost always boiled down to heading to a certain location, only to be continually stopped by around three challenging (and sizeable) beast encounters on the way – minimum. It worked for keeping the action exciting, but in my three hours hands-on time I didn’t feel like I made much progress at all.
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Fortunately, a lot of this frustration was offset by just how genuinely beautiful Dragon’s Dogma 2’s world is to traverse. As you’d expect from a game running on the same engine as Monster Hunter World, the Resident Evil 4 remake, and Street Fighter 6, environments are absolutely packed full of detail, with bushes, hillsides, and fields catching the light beautifully whenever I was afforded the chance to wonder through them. What’s more, Battahl’s more desert-like caverns and mounds served as a nice contrast to the greenery found in Vermund. Yes, the map size might be huge – intimidatingly so – but very little of it seems to be a copy/paste job.
The Spearhand class' teleport plunge attack feels incredibly satisfying to pull off during big bouts. (Capcom)If the Spearhead’s glass cannon approach isn’t to your liking, Dragon’s Dogma 2 players who prefer distance-based play might find their itch scratched in the Magick Archer class. As far as available vocations go, it introduces a lot of variety. Especially since my level 20 preview build character came equipped with several different arrow types to deploy – ranging from Frost to Fire – which made tailoring my attacks to different enemy types a breeze. Better yet, even though my Pawn party included a restorative mage, one arrow type I came to rely upon greatly was Remedy. Whenever an ally was knocked down or low on health, firing them up to full again from a safe distance helped keep us in the fight for longer. There’s still a sense of risk, however, given that a whole revive requires a charged shot.
The final thing that stood out to me in my demo (as well as getting to try these two very different class types) was the thoughtful nature of the side missions. Early on in Vermund I was positioned in a way that had every villager swamp me with requests, either to find a missing person or sneak past the border gate. In the case of the latter I came to discover that it could be resolved multiple ways, either by wearing a beast mask, sneaking in via Ox cart, and lord knows what else. This immersive sim-like DNA reared its head again too as I visited Battahl’s Flamebracer temple, where I failed to save the priestess by sniffing out the correct assailant present in the grand ceremony. The mission carried on regardless, though, indicating a world that changes around you, as opposed to the other way around.
Overall, Dragon’s Dogma 2’s lavishness and unwieldiness ends up making it feel a lot more distinct than the majority of other recent fantasy RPGs. I just hope that the eventual narrative throughline makes this wide pool of opportunity make sense, as otherwise I fear that making any real progress will become too taxing a prospect.
Is it fun to thwack giant monsters as any one of many different vocations and classes within a luscious world? Absolutely. Right now, however, I’m still left curious about what it will all add up to. The good news is we don’t have to watch too much longer to find out.
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