Highlights
- Dragon's Dogma 2 boasts a massive, seamless open-world filled with familiar gameplay and lore for an immersive experience.
- The game's expanded world is four times larger than its predecessor, offering a wide array of unique locations to uncover and explore.
- Improved graphics, better combat mechanics, deeper exploration, and unique playable races enhance the overall experience in Dragon's Dogma 2.
Dragon's Dogma 2, Capcom's sequel to Dragon's Dogma is an expansive, seamless open-world RPG featuring dragons, swords, and magic. Full of many of the same features and systems as its predecessor, Dragon's Dogma 2 is filled with familiar gameplay, character archetypes, and lore from earlier entries in the franchise.
8 Tips And Tricks For Beginners In Dragon's Dogma 2
Take note of the following tips before getting lost in the massive world of Dragon's Dogma 2.
But as with every sequel, Dragon's Dogma 2 has managed to improve on many aspects of the original game, from its unique companion characters to world design and so much more. The following features, however, tend to stand out the most.
1 Expanded World
Bigger Is Better In This Regard
The map for Dragon's Dogma 2 is roughly four times the size of its predecessor Dragon's Dogma. This is an absolutely massive area spanning the kingdom of Vermund and its neighboring state Battahl, a beastren nation. The size of the game world is a nice change from Dragon's Dogma, offering players a much more immersive experience filled with smaller locations.
The expanded size of the map allows players to experience a wider array of explorable locations with plenty of secrets to uncover along the way.
2 Better Graphics
Glasses On VS. Glasses Off
It's something of a given that a game released years after its predecessor would have better graphics, but Dragon's Dogma 2 delivers on this front. Although its color palette remains much the same with greens, grays, and browns, the world feels much richer and has a charming appearance.
The cutscenes really pop, adding to the drama and excitement of big story scenes, and even regular gameplay has a great overall look and feel.
3 Deeper Exploration
Where To Go Next?
Exploration in Dragon's Dogma 2 is a real pleasure. Although there are many places just visible on the map, some of the most interesting and unique spaces in the game have to be found through exploration.
Whether it's a hidden cavern, a secret ladder, or a dark forest glade, there are all sorts of fun and interesting locations in Dragon's Dogma 2 that require a lot of exploration to find. This rewards curious players and gives a great reason to cross the next hill.
4 Pawn Hiring System
The Pawn Shop
The ability to hire Pawns created by other players is a great choice for gameplay, giving a fun look at how other players have chosen to create their Pawns and what sorts of skills and equipment they've given to them. This is a cool bit of interaction, something that gives Dragon's Dogma 2 a unique feel.
Dragon's Dogma 2: How To Get Pawns
The unique Pawn system returns in Dragon's Dogma 2, and there are several ways to hire new Pawns to your party soon after starting the game.
And it's always cool when your main Pawn comes back from a journey through the Rift with tales and gifts from other worlds.
5 Better Pawns With More Character
Pawns With Attitude
A big upgrade, Pawns in Dragon's Dogma 2 have much more character than they used to. These Pawns actually feel like people, filling their time with the Arisen with banter and observations about the world - and even stories they've brought back through the Rift from other worlds and other masters.
Not only that, but Pawns are also much more helpful, pointing out ways to get to locations or even the locations of chests and other missable items. They can even be repeatedly customized so that the Arisen always has their perfect Pawn.
6 Seamless World
No Loading Screens
Expansive open-world RPGs are ten a penny, but many of them are broken up into chunks by loading screens whenever an interior location is reached. But Dragon's Dogma 2 has an expansive, seamless open world free of loading screens.
Loading screens aren't the worst thing in the world - except when they take forever - but the added immersion of moving seamlessly from one location to another is hard to ignore. This seamless exploration makes the world of Dragon's Dogma 2 feel so much more lived in and real compared to its predecessor.
7 New Playable Race
Playable Beastren
Although beastren are not new to the franchise, being able to play as a beastren character is. These cat-like humanoids have an entire country of their own, Battahl, so they're present in the game regardless - but it's nice to have additional options during character creation. Sometimes, playing as a human can be boring, so getting the option to go for one's very own Thundercat can be a welcome change.
Beastren are integrated well into the world of Dragon's Dogma 2 and it feels very natural playing as one. Players can even make a beastren Pawn, so even if they opt not to go for a beastren Arisen they can get the best of both worlds.
8 Character Customization
A Simple But Powerful System
Dragon's Dogma 2 came with its very own standalone character creator as a demo for the game. This proved to be a fantastic decision for Capcom as the character creator was extremely well-received thanks to its wealth of options for creating fantastic and unique characters.
Powerful but simple to use, the Dragon's Dogma 2 character creator allows for massive customization to characters, both Arisen and Pawns. The character creator is powerful enough that fans have been using it to create characters from other franchises, such as Cassandra from Dragon Age: Inquisition.
9 Better Combat
Stabbing With Style
Combat has been greatly improved from the original game. Whether it's the smooth way Magick combat works, from its spells and basic attacks, or to the way Fighters can jump upon giant enemies and bring them down, combat in Dragon's Dogma 2 has a fantastic flow that makes it fun to play.
Dragon's Dogma 2: Best Fighter Build (Best Skills, Augments, And Gear)
Fighter is a versatile Vocation that's known for impervious defense. Here's a guide covering the basics of this class in Dragon's Dogma 2.
Packed full of options thanks to its expansive Vocation system, Dragon's Dogma 2 combat is fun and challenging. Once players think they've mastered one Vocation in a playthrough, there's always another one to keep them occupied.
10 Improved AI
Learning Is Fun
Dragon's Dogma 2 features a much-improved character AI for Pawns, regular NPCs, and enemies like goblins. Pawns in particular benefit from the improved AI, learning from both their own Arisen and any Arisen who hires them out, gaining new abilities and responses to certain situations.
Not only is this a real boon for combat, but it has non-combat applications too. One player has even used this improved AI and ability to learn to play catch with their Pawns using pigs.
Dragon's Dogma 2
- Platform(s)
- PC , PS5 , Xbox Series X , Xbox Series S
- Released
- March 22, 2024
- Developer(s)
- Capcom
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG
