Dragon’s Dogma 2 Preview: More of the Same, but Better

It doesn't take much detective work to figure out that Capcom is hedging very many bets on the success of Dragon's Dogma 2. The company's flagship RPG has overtaken its marketing as of late, and it's set and primed to become everything that the original Dragon's Dogma never had the budget or development time to become. At least, that's what it appears like on paper. In practice, it could still go either way from a regular gamer's perspective, and with the game coming out late in March, there's weeks' worth of wait ahead of us still!

With that in mind, we decided now was the time to take a look at what precious few Dragon's Dogma 2 previews there are and to whittle down their messaging to something reliable, true, and informative. How does Dragon's Dogma 2 stack up to the original Dragon's Dogma? Is Capcom's latest take on building an immersive fantasy world effective? Will the new game be everything we're all hoping it to be? Let's see how many of these questions we might be able to answer, using information from the critics' hands-on preview content!

READ MORE: Discussing PC Features in Dragon's Dogma 2

Dragon's Dogma 2 is a True Sequel to Dark Arisen

It just so happens that IGN's Mitchell Saltzman had the opportunity to play Dragon's Dogma 2 for an hour or so. According to him, Capcom is essentially doubling down on Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen's gameplay tropes and features, delivering a gameplay experience that's going to ring true to fans of the original.

Notably, Dragon's Dogma 2 is still an open-world action RPG where players create their own character (from tip to toe, skills and all) and take off on their own adventures. As was the case with the original game, here too you'll rely on your custom Pawns to take the heat off of you in combat. There's still no dodge (unless you spec your skills for it), and there's still no run-of-the-mill fast travel.

Instead, Capcom has honed in on what should, in theory, make an open-world game infinitely and constantly engaging: "Travel is boring? That's not true. It's only an issue because your game is boring. All you have to do is make travel fun," said the game's director, Hideaki Itsuno. "That's why you place things in the right location for players to discover, or come up with enemy appearance methods that create different experiences each time, or force players into blind situations where they don't know whether it's safe or not ten meters in front of them."

This approach is, from the looks of things, reflective of the greater philosophy of design applied to Dragon's Dogma 2. The game is phenomenally unrestrictive, but it does make players work for the really good stuff, and we're positively thrilled about this development.

Play Dragon's Dogma 2 on day one with 2Game's PC discounts!

More of the Same, but Improved

Judging by everything we've seen so far, Capcom isn't looking to reinvent the wheel with Dragon's Dogma 2. In fact, Saltzman himself explained that "there definitely was a sense of deja vu while playing through [the preview demo]." That's because, as we just established, Dragon's Dogma 2 is trying to do almost exactly the same things as its predecessor, except better. "If there’s one comfort that I can have as a fan of Dragon’s Dogma, it’s that Dragon’s Dogma 2 will offer up more of what I loved about that first game, and that many of those minor elements have been improved upon," Saltzman added.

Some of the truly novel additions are the Trickster Vocation (which allows you to switch between three other Vocations on the fly, but with stat maluses), easy-to-read combat finisher situations, and massively improved Pawn control UI. Previews, however, are almost universally early game showpieces, and it's a given that Capcom did not want to spoil things so far ahead of the game's release.

So, there is a bunch of entirely new content in the game for sure, it's just riffing on what was present in Dragon's Dogma. Dark Arisen.

Organic Gameplay and Exploration are Key

One of the things that Capcom is trying to truly nail down is the sense of adventure and organic exploration that, for the most part, modern games simply do not deliver on. "I was guided by my pawn to a cave full of surprisingly tough bandits guarding a bunch of treasure and valuable materials, and me and my party got absolutely wrecked," said Saltzman. "I ended up having to load up an earlier save, but this encounter excited me because even though I was being guided by a Pawn, the exploration still felt organic, and it made me well aware that the world of Dragon’s Dogma 2 was one full of danger and riches in equal measure, which is the heart of great exploration in video games."

What we're in for, then, is an experience like we haven't had since... well, since Dark Arisen first came out. The game Capcom is building here is, in broad, simplistic terms, a combination of:

All of it wrapped into a familiar, yet massively underrepresented IP. What's not to like?

Dragon's Dogma 2 is Coming to PC on March 22!

Dragon's Dogma 2 is going to be out on PC on day one, March 22! And, what do you know, it just so happens that 2Game already has a pre-order discount available! You can grab a Steam copy of the game right here, and get a delightful 13% off the base asking price on top of being able to play the game on day one.

Pre-ordering Dragon's Dogma 2 for PC also nets you a sweet bonus: the Superior Weapons Quartet DLC, which will make the early game combat gameplay a tiny bit more interesting right from the get-go. It's a win-win if you get an early copy today via 2Game, and we recommend you join us for the ride!

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It doesn’t take much detective work to figure out that Capcom is hedging very many bets on the success of Dragon’s Dogma 2. The company’s flagship RPG has overtaken its marketing as of late, and it’s set and primed to become everything that the original Dragon’s Dogma never had the budget or development time to […]