Capcom's hugely underrated open-world action RPG Dragon's Dogma has been gone for a long time. The PS4 and Xbox One generation, however, saw a successful turnaround for some of Capcom's most popular franchises, and while Dragon's Dogma wasn't one of them, there are plenty of reasons as to why Dragon's Dogma 2 should be that game for the PS5 and Xbox Series X generation.
Dragon's Dogma creator Hideaki Itsuno recently teased his next project after making a comeback with Devil May Cry 5 in 2019. Since then, Itsuno has also shown an interest in making a Dragon's Dogma 2, leading to many speculate that this next game is indeed the next entry in the Dragon's Dogma franchise.
Lack of Next-Gen Open World Games from Capcom
Open-world games have grown to become one of the popular genres in video games in recent years. Due to their widespread appeal, some of the best-selling games of last-gens are these open-world games. But instead of going this route, fans witness Capcom revitalizing some of its most successful franchises to date last-gen. This includes Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, and Monster Hunter. The latest iterations of these franchises have found immense success in the west, yet none of them are open-world games.
Many would recall Capcom's incredibly ambitious and visually impressive demo of a working title named Deep Down, which looked oddly similar to Dark Souls and Dragon's Dogma. Unfortunately, Deep Down never saw the day of light, leaving a massive void in Capcom's arsenal of open-world games. With the demand for open-world games, an unprecedented high, and Capcom having the resources to develop one on its highly powerful RE Engine, a Dragon's Dogma sequel seems like a no-brainer.
Plenty of Room for a Sequel
When it was first released, Dragon's Dogma loomed in the shadow of The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, though the game introduced plenty of new features to make a name for itself. The marriage between the game's fast and fluid real-time combat and its unique boss encounters made Dragon's Dogma a fun game to play. Moreover, its unique asynchronous online component in the form of the pawn system added a new twist to the party-based combat system. All of this didn't allow Dragon's Dogma to achieve greatness, thanks to a muddled narrative, forgettable characters, and a plethora of performance issues.
On the other hand, Itsuno's Devil May Cry 5 was utterly satisfying and polished gameplay and visual experience on the last-gen consoles. Its next-gen variants only showed a glimpse of what Itsuno's team is capable of. A Dragon's Dogma 2 could feature an even more expansive open-world with more opportunities to take down its unique hybrid creatures. It could double down on the social system introduced in Dragon's Dogma, taking cues from other asynchronous multiplayer games such as Death Stranding and Bloodborne.
The recent Netflix anime adaptation of Dragon's Dogma also proved that there's enough lore here to tell a mature plot full of morally grey characters. As such, Dragon's Dogma 2 has a lot of potential for telling a more intriguing story this time around that complements its solid gameplay foundation.
A recent Capcom leak suggested that Dragon's Dogma 2 is real and is targeting a 2021 release. With The Elder Scrolls 6 years away, it's Dragon's Dogma's chance to pave the way for the next-gen of open-world fantasy action RPG with its hardcore gameplay, overhauled pawn system, and a solid 60 FPS performance on the PS5 and Xbox Series X. Fortunately, Capcom is attending E3 2021 and if the leak is real, then a Dragon's Dogma 2 announcement might as well be on the horizon.
Dragon's Dogma 2 is not known to be in development.
