Controversies surrounding microtransactions notwithstanding, Dragon’s Dogma 2 has got off to an impressive start. On top of widespread critical acclaim (with Metacritic score of 89 on PC and 86 on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S), the long-awaited sequel has also been pulling in players in sizeable numbers. Over the weekend, it hit a peak of over 228,000 concurrent players on Steam, making it the biggest ever launch on the platform for a single-player Capcom game, and the third most concurrently played game by the company to date, behind only Monster Hunter World and Monster Hunter Rise.
And once you dive into the action RPG’s open world offerings yourself, it doesn’t take long to see just why it’s capturing the attention of people in the way that it is. Not only is it a massive open world experience that uses its bevy of interacting systems to deliver unforgettable emergent gameplay, it’s also a game that adheres to its vision uncompromisingly by removing a bevy of core gameplay features that most other games would look at as non-negotiable quality-of-life necessities. The end result is an utterly unique and immersive game that delivers a brand of gameplay that you’re not going to find in too many other games out there.
But though Dragon’s Dogma 2 is as unequivocally unique in its core gameplay offerings as it is, it does have plenty of elements that bear more than just a passing resemblance to other open world RPG behemoths. And the two genre giants that it perhaps has the most in common with are FromSoftware’s 2022 masterpiece Elden Ring, and Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls series. In fact, it’s hard not to be impressed by how effectively it manages to capture the unique strengths of both while managing to make them feel like a cohesive part of its own distinct open world experience.
Take, for instance, Dragon’s Dogma 2’s complete aversion to holding your hand or providing any guidance, an area in which it feels awfully similar to Elden Ring (though to be fair, even the first Dragon’s Dogma was like this, long before Elden Ring was a thing). During quests, the game gives out minimal attention that it expects you to pay attention to, failing which making progress becomes a roadblock in and of itself. Outside of quests, it sticks to its rules uncompromisingly, and should you run afoul of them, death can come swiftly and in a number of devastating (or hilarious) ways. Even the smallest of actions can often be left unexplained, and you, as the player, are expected to just play the game figure out for yourself what it is that you’re supposed to do, and how exactly you’re supposed to do it.
At the same time, Capcom’s fantasy epic does attempt to meet players halfway in certain ways that make it feel more approachable than something like Elden Ring. Certain objectives in certain quests can often be tackled in multiple different ways; you don’t lose any XP or currency when you die; crucial items such as Ferrystones and Wakestones, though rare, can still be found in sufficient quantities if you explore enough; outside of cities, there’s an abundance of campsites where you can rest and recuperate.
Beyond all that, there’s also the fact that combat, though certainly not a cakewalk (especially if you get into it with an enemy far higher than your level), doesn’t scribe to the same bone-crushing mentality of a FromSoftware game. Of course, that bone-crushing approach is very much the point of a FromSoftware Soulslike and is exactly what makes them as good as they are- but for someone who wants to play a game that follows the same design sensibilities of something like Elden Ring, where players are left alone to discover anything and everything for themselves, but doesn’t want to deal with its understandably intimidating approach to difficulty, Dragon’s Dogma 2 strikes almost the perfect balance.
As similar as Dragon’s Dogma 2 to Elden Ring in some ways, though, in others, it’s entirely different- like how dynamic and interactive its world feels, and how heavily it emphasizes emergent gameplay. In that regard, it instead hues more closely to the aforementioned Elder Scrolls games. Other than the obvious exception of the narrative choice-driven nature of Bethesda’s series, in fact, it’s startling (in the best way possible) just how similar Dragon’s Dogma 2 feels to it.
That is down in large part to the fact that many of the game’s central systems are AI-driven. NPCs follows their schedules and react to the things that you do around them, enemies roam the world and can get involved in dynamic battles involving multiple sides, and all of it is underpinned by a sense of permanence pervading the entire experience. NPCs that die stay dead (though there are, of course, ways to bring them back), and certain things only happen at certain times of day. All of this is on top of the Pawns, AI-controlled companions who each come with their own unique quirks and personality traits, adding an incredible amount of dynamism and unpredictability to the experience both in and out of combat.
Watching such systems interact with each other to see what results they produce has been a core part of the identity of the Elder Scrolls franchise for as long as anyone can remember at this point, and Dragon’s Dogma 2 delivers a very similar brand of emergent gameplay. It throws you into a rich, massive, systemically dense fantasy world that exists and evolves independently of you, encouraging you to tinker with its many nuances to see how it reacts. Sure, we’ve seen plenty of other emergent open world experiences in recent years – most notably Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom – but thanks to the emphasis it places on AI-driven systems, it feels far, far more similar to Bethesda’s fantasy RPG series than anything else.
Open world games are a dime a dozen these days, and there’s no shortage of the kind that don’t utilize that design style to its fullest potential. Of course, it goes without saying that the kind of systems-driven, emergent style that Dragon’s Dogma 2 and others like it go far isn’t going to be the right choice for every open world game out there- but so often we get open world experiences that only hint at similarly reactive gameplay, but fail to make it a fully integrated part of their core loop. The fact that Dragon’s Dogma 2 does that, and does it as comprehensively and uncompromisingly as it does shouldn’t go unnoticed.
Ultimately, when a game bears similarities with behemoths of the open world space like Elden Ring and The Elder Scrolls, and captures some of their biggest strengths in its own distinct manner as effectively as Dragon’s Dogma 2 does, it’s easy to see that it’s going to go down as a benchmark for future similar games to aspire to for years to come. Long time fans of Capcom’s action RPG series will, of course, argue that a lot of this has been true ever since the first game came out, but in building on those foundations in an abundance of meaningful ways, Dragon’s Dogma 2 has allowed its core strengths to shine brighter than ever before- to the point where it’s become clear that it stands head and shoulders above most open world games we’ve ever laid our eyes on.
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