I Won't Be Playing Dragon's Dogma 2 (2024)

I feel like I’m the only person who has no inclination whatsoever to play Dragon’s Dogma 2. I’ve felt this way since playing a demo at Tokyo Game Show last year – while my colleagues trying their hand at being the Arisen at preview sessions were raving about the experience, I just didn’t get it. While I found combat interesting and invigorating, I felt like I was missing some crucial piece of knowledge that would make it really click with me. I was bored, mostly.

Now, reading criticism and praise for the game, I find myself even more put off. No, it’s not because of the microtransactions. I’ve been in the game long enough to know a review bomb shouldn’t put me off a new release. While like editor in chief Stacey Henley, I think single-player games shouldn’t be blatantly cash-grabby, microtransactions don’t compromise the actual quality of the game or affect my desire to play it. (I wouldn’t have bought them anyway.)

It’s more that all the things that people love about the game are things I don’t really care about. Everybody is raving about the open world, how fast travel is disincentivised, and insisting that the journey is the whole point. I get this on an intellectual level. People who love adventuring and the unexpected would love this game. But I’m sick of open world games, with very few exceptions. I’m tired of fetch quests, escort quests, kill quests, the whole kit and caboodle. Dragon’s Dogma 2 has plenty of these, and sure, things might surprise you while you’re on the way there, but that’s not appealing to me.

During my demo, I was almost immediately given a fetch quest. I was already frustrated by the lazy quest-writing – god, I hate fetch quests – and then I nearly got killed by a big troll while I was making my way there. Some would throw their hands up with joy at the fact that Capcom has made a game completely unafraid to murder you for any reason. I, however, felt nothing but frustration.

This particular issue flagged a major flaw in the game, one that puts me off the game more than anything else and has been highlighted by my colleagues. The writing just isn’t that good, and good writing is something I prioritise when deciding what games to play. As long as the rest of the mechanics aren’t so bad that I struggle to get through a game, good writing and excellent storytelling can tide me through.

Dragon’s Dogma is not known for good storytelling, and the sequel did not redeem itself in that area. NPCs are boring and one-dimensional, while quests feel considerably more on-rails than the rest of the game and are rote and predictable. The main storyline is dry and poorly paced, precisely because the gameplay is so open-ended. Perhaps the game was never meant to be about story, since nobody plays Dragon’s Dogma games for the story. It still plays to its strengths, especially in its gameplay mechanics, those strengths just don’t appeal to me.

I get the sense that I find this game unappealing for the same reasons Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom didn’t click with me. You get killed a lot in the early game, there’s very little direction, and it’s easy to get frustrated and give up. Dragon’s Dogma 2 is similar in how unforgiving it can be and how self-directed adventuring can be. Others love these things about it, but I don’t. There’s good friction and bad friction, and this is the latter for me. That doesn’t make any of these games bad by any means, but they’re just not for me.

When it comes to good friction, there are plenty of things that sound cool: Dragonsplague is a really cool feature that forces you to sit up and pay attention. Fake items do the same. Save locks force you to deal with the consequences of your actions, and having quests progress outside of your interference is a great step forward in how RPGs might handle side-quest hoarding in the future. But also, your pawns won’t shut up, you’re fighting the same enemies all the time, and, I can’t say this empathically enough, the quests feel pointless.You all can go on getting outed for being gay by your pawns, but I’ll be staying far away.

Dragon's Dogma 2

Dragon's Dogma is the long-anticipated sequel to Capcom's action RPG. Once again taking on the role of the Arisen, the game promises full customisation in how you create your character and play through your story.