When I first loaded up Dragon’s Dogma 2, I went into it without preconceived ideas of what the game would or should be. Back when the original Dragon’s Dogma was released, I’m not sure what I was doing, but it somehow fell between the cracks of my gaming library, which is where it’s stayed in the years since.
So, going into Dragon’s Dogma 2, I was a blank slate, and like Frodo, before receiving that fateful visit from Gandalf, I had no idea of the adventure that lay before me. Now, I’m not even sure where to start writing about Dragon’s Dogma 2, and that’s probably because it’s the last thing I want to do.
What I want to be doing right now is playing Dragon’s Dogma 2 with the same reckless abandon I have been all week because no matter how many hours I put into the game, how many bedtimes I miss or how many quests I complete, I never feel wholly sated and there is always just one more thing I want to do before turning off…
Nailing down just what it is about Dragon’s Dogma 2 that makes the game feel as unique as it does feels impossibly challenging, and that’s because it’s not one thing; it’s the combination of everything that works together to create a game that’s just about as perfect as they come.
The last time I was so in awe of a game was when Baldur’s Gate 3 was released, and if I’m being completely honest, I thought it would take quite a while longer before another game would come along and steal my heart that same way.
When you take Dragon’s Dogma 2 at face value, it’s your run-of-the-mill hack-and-slash-and-cast RPG fantasy game with over-the-top monster battles as its main selling point, but in reality, it’s so much more than that.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 is, at its very core, an adventure and a mighty one at that. From the moment you step into the game, something epic is calling for your attention, and there is never a single moment that will leave you feeling like there’s nothing to do.
Instead, your AI-controlled companions, known as Pawns, will be pulling you toward nearby secrets. The paths you travel will be branching off into the unknown that promises the reward of treasure or even more adventure for those who explore it, and sometimes one of the most epic creatures the gaming world has ever offered will causally catch your eye, and you’ll find yourself making a beeline straight for it.
More often than not, all these things will happen all at once, leaving you to scramble to try and do everything and more in a seemingly impossible time frame. Taking about Pawns, while there’s no direct version of multiplayer in the game, Pawns are very much the helpful sidekicks I wish for all AI-controlled companions in games to be.
Not only do they help to turn the tides of battle significantly, but they’re also able to gather resources and talk you through quests and objectives when you might feel stuck. But the real magic comes in with how the Pawns work.
While you will never encounter another human player in Dragon’s Dogma 2, the same can’t be said for your Pawn – something that never fails to amaze even hours in.
So basically, all Pawns can be sent through an extra-dimensional plane known as The Rift to aid and join other real players on adventures.
During this time, your Pawn will learn from their experiences and bring back that knowledge to further aid you. By this, I mean they will show you things and secrets that other players discovered while journeying with them.
And while this isn’t a wholly new approach, it feels so incredibly innovative because it’s just not a feature you come across all the time, and that’s a pity.
Another thing that Dragon’s Dogma 2 also does so very, very right is the game’s plot and pacing, which guides you across the world and ensures you’ve moved on before things start to feel stale.
While the game will never hold your hand like so many other RPGs tend to do, it does offer enough discrete support that you should never feel completely lost and confused.
Pawns are one way this support is given, but another is by including fortune tellers who are always ready to offer a few hints about your current quest in exchange for a small fee.
Then there are the ten totally unique classes, known as Vocations, that players can swap between on their journey.
These Vocations not only add some variety and depth to the game but make you feel almost overwhelmingly strong in all the right ways – never to the point that everything is just a cakewalk, but enough so that it feels like the hours you’ve spent in the game have really counted.
Now Dragon’s Dogma 2 is an RPG, which means much of your time in the game will be spent trekking across the map, going from quest to quest and back again. Thankfully, the game includes various ways for players to travel fast, each with their own pros and cons.
Ferrystones let players instantly travel between locations, but they’re expensive and rare; on the other hand, Oxcasts can be found while randomly running around the map and hoppi9ng on will allow you to travel between two cities for a small fee, but they do take time, something that you might not have to spend.
Now, while I was writing this review, there were things that I couldn’t wait to tell everyone about, including one of my favourite mechanics of any game I’ve ever played, but I haven’t. I’m not going to because, as I’ve been writing, I just haven’t been able to shake the pure, unadulterated fun I had discovering this mechanic for myself.
You need to experience it for yourself, just like I did; many games benefit from players going in blind, but Dragon’s Dogma 2 revels in it. Everything about the game and how it unfolds is so incredibly well thought out and compelling that it’s best discovered through trial and error instead of reading about it.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a game that wants you to mess around, encourages it and then locks those mistakes in with autosaves. Instead of the game doing this as a form of punishment, it allows players to truly learn where they went wrong and figure out how they will act differently in the future.
They say that life isn’t about how many times you get knocked down but how many times you stand back up again, and that’s precisely what Dragon’s Dogma 2 wants you to do: stand up again and again, each time slightly more knowledgeable than the last.
So no, I’m not going to tell you about some of the most incredible and engaging plot points and mechanics that kept me coming back time and time to the game, even when I didn’t have the time or energy to do so but was powerless to resist.
What I’ll leave you with is this: not since Baldur’s Gate 3 has a game managed to have such a firm chokehold on me and made me want to discover and explore everything that it had to offer, and that’s where the magic truly lies, and the game, comes alive.
