Dragon's Dogma 2

[Phoenixmgs]

I don't think I even remembered they were making this game anymore. I recall so many years ago there was a Dragon's Dogma 2 but it looked like a Dark Soul's MMO (I think) dungeon crawler. The graphics looked great but the combat looked slow and Souls-like and you were indoor confined dungeons, though the magic looked cool. And that wasn't Dragon's Dogma and I wrote that off. I think I knew about them re-doing the game to what it is now but I'm honestly not sure. Yesterday the video embedded below popped up in my feed and I checked it out of curiosity expecting some live-service bullshit.

But the game looks fucking awesome and just straight-up Dragon's Dogma. I'm loving how there's not really fast travel and only a single save file. As Luke says in the video, it sounds like the team is very confident in the design and vision of the game. Looks like the questing will be improved, which it wouldn't take much because the 1st game had pretty horrible questing. The only thing that looks a bit disappointing is it looks like the game will take some beefy hardware to play and I'm not sure my PC can handle it and I don't have a PS5. It's been like 5-10 years since I've been interested in a AAA game.

 

[meiam]

Lack of fast travel is something I'm really happy with. I already play open world like that because otherwise it kinda take away the main point of the open world. But there's a lot of open world that clearly expect people to just fast travel everywhere so they set up quest that consist of nothing but fast travelling back and forth across the same region. By specifically removing the option it (hopefully) means that dev actually took that into account when designing the world and quest.

So pretty excited about it, can't wait to do some magic archery again, hopefully they fix my one annoyance with the game which was the very limited number of skill you could have equipped at once, which made it really hard to justify using some very niche skill (like the magic archer has this massive flare skill that illuminate the night/dungeon, which were really dark in game, it was really cool but when you can only have 3 skills it was hard to justify it).

 

[CriticalGaming]

I am going to play this despite not really gelling well with the first game which I played for about an hour way after it released. I really hope this game doesn't feel as chunky as the original did, kind of like how Demon's Souls and Dark Souls were clunky until they started to get their ideas better laid out.

As for the open world design, I'm actually worried about the lack of fast travel. Because experiencing an open world slowly only really works for a first time. But once the game starts asking you to revisit old areas I want a way to get back quickly because if I have to walk through an old low level part of the world as slowly as I did when it was new then it's annoying and pointless. Additionally if the game never asks you to go back to previous areas, then that also defeats the open worldness of it and it might as well be a linear experience instead.

I said this when i spoke of the first Insomniac Spider-Man game, but that game had a great open world system because it allowed each activity to unlock and give you new reasons to web swing around. Not only because traversal of the city was fun, but also it led to new collectibles or fights or puzzles to do. Which is a good way to utilize the world. Spider-Man had a fast travel system, that I never used because it was too much fun to just web swing around.

The question for DD2 becomes, will traversing the world be so fun that the lack of a fast travel option wont matter because it's fun enough to run around that you don't really want too. Furthermore will the open world itself be continuously interesting enough that you'll be will to drag ass through it several times to do the content. Honestly from what I've seen, I don't think it's going to work out. I feel like DD2 will suffer from tedious game design choices that will bounce players away.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Didn't the first game not really have fast travel and it was awful because you constantly had to run back and forth across the entire map dodging by the same enemies over and over?

 

[BrawlMan]

Max and Easy Allies have their own impressions and previews. Those game takes s more old school approach and it's even less hand holding than Elden Ring. So if any of you want old school style difficulty, there it is. Max even said it feels like a earli 2000s MMO, and it just throws you in there.

​

 

[Phoenixmgs]

I am going to play this despite not really gelling well with the first game which I played for about an hour way after it released. I really hope this game doesn't feel as chunky as the original did, kind of like how Demon's Souls and Dark Souls were clunky until they started to get their ideas better laid out.

As for the open world design, I'm actually worried about the lack of fast travel. Because experiencing an open world slowly only really works for a first time. But once the game starts asking you to revisit old areas I want a way to get back quickly because if I have to walk through an old low level part of the world as slowly as I did when it was new then it's annoying and pointless. Additionally if the game never asks you to go back to previous areas, then that also defeats the open worldness of it and it might as well be a linear experience instead.

I said this when i spoke of the first Insomniac Spider-Man game, but that game had a great open world system because it allowed each activity to unlock and give you new reasons to web swing around. Not only because traversal of the city was fun, but also it led to new collectibles or fights or puzzles to do. Which is a good way to utilize the world. Spider-Man had a fast travel system, that I never used because it was too much fun to just web swing around.

The question for DD2 becomes, will traversing the world be so fun that the lack of a fast travel option wont matter because it's fun enough to run around that you don't really want too. Furthermore will the open world itself be continuously interesting enough that you'll be will to drag ass through it several times to do the content. Honestly from what I've seen, I don't think it's going to work out. I feel like DD2 will suffer from tedious game design choices that will bounce players away.

I don't recall the first game being clunky. It was one of the smoothest combat action systems in an RPG and probably still to this day. It wasn't as silky smooth as a great character action game though.

Didn't the first game not really have fast travel and it was awful because you constantly had to run back and forth across the entire map dodging by the same enemies over and over?

I know they gave you like a stone in a patch (or DLC) that gave you unlimited fast travels as fast travel was in the game but just limited to a resource. It really didn't come into play much IIRC until later in the game or trying to 100% complete it. Part of the design of the game was that the world would get deadlier at night and you had to prepare and plan for trips at night. Again, IIRC, there wasn't a lot of back and forth trips for most of the game.

 

[meiam]

Didn't the first game not really have fast travel and it was awful because you constantly had to run back and forth across the entire map dodging by the same enemies over and over?

Not really, the game didn't have that many quest actually (it was cut short mid dev). You only needed to go back to the same area maybe 3-4 time, and those were the "major" area. The enemy also changed at night so there was a bit of variety from that.

 

[BrawlMan]

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[Dreiko]

That MMO thing wasn't Dragon's Dogma 2 it was something like Dragon's Dogma Online, totally different project.

 

[Gergar12]

That MMO thing wasn't Dragon's Dogma 2 it was something like Dragon's Dogma Online, totally different project.

And they didn't even let westerners paly it. Booooooooo.

Also no transmog system in DD2.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Not really, the game didn't have that many quest actually (it was cut short mid dev). You only needed to go back to the same area maybe 3-4 time, and those were the "major" area. The enemy also changed at night so there was a bit of variety from that.

Maybe you didn't need to do it that often but it took a really long time. One of my main memories from the game is running from that one city to the other one for like 15 minutes while my pawn said stupid stuff to me and being really bored.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

I am going to play this despite not really gelling well with the first game which I played for about an hour way after it released. I really hope this game doesn't feel as chunky as the original did, kind of like how Demon's Souls and Dark Souls were clunky until they started to get their ideas better laid out.

Yeah I'm kind of in the same boat here. I started DD three times and quit after a couple of hours each time. My problems mostly came down to the inherent tedium and feeling of "homework" that comes with the genre and the bland looking world. The gameplay is supposed to be its strong point and while it was ok it wasn't enough to compel me.
For whatever clunkiness and annoyances of Dark Souls, that game had just enough of interest to push me forward, with its combat and design being more visceral or something.

I'm interested in DD2 because I like the promise of updated graphics and gameplay and fighting with NPC's and exploring a world, but I'm wary because of my negative experience of the first game so we'll see. Anyway I got three games coming up I wanna play first that will take up all my time into the summer likely so by the time I consider DD2, the hype cycle should wear itself out.

 

[BrawlMan]

That MMO thing wasn't Dragon's Dogma 2 it was something like Dragon's Dogma Online, totally different project.

Max didn't say DD2 was an MMO. Only that the way the game guides you by not giving you any direction and then you figure everything out in your own feels like an early 2000s MMO. Combat-wise, the game loses the jank, and plays so much better than the first in that regard. That was his main summary.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Max didn't say DD2 was an MMO. Only that the way the game guides you by not giving you any direction and then you figure everything out in your own feels like an early 2000s MMO. Combat-wise, the game loses the jank, and plays so much better than the first in that regard. That was his main summary.

Yeah combat gameplay will be key for me.
My hang-up for now is that the footage I'm seeing doesn't impress me, but it impresses everyone else *shrug*
I dunno I see like a giant stepping on some dudes and the dudes just get up... I see a monster getting hit a hundred times and still standing there with no effect... I see multiple health bars and long grueling combat encounters. I see stuttering animations.

Either my gamer brain is warped or Sony games have spoiled me with how smooth they are. Rise of the Ronin and Wu Kong- those trailers also have not impressed me. They look like original Dark Souls or Skyrim to me. But what do I know, we'll see.

 

[CriticalGaming]

Ive been so hyped on ff7 that i dont know of any games releasing after Stellar Blade. So i hope come more bangers come out and this year doesnt sputter and die off early.

DD2 i feel is going to be hugely hit or miss for people. In fact i think all three games between this, Rise, and SB are going to very niche with certain people.

 

[BrawlMan]

I dunno I see like a giant stepping on some dudes and the dudes just get up... I see a monster getting hit a hundred times and still standing there with no effect... I see multiple health bars and long grueling combat encounters. I see stuttering animations.

Either my gamer brain is warped or Sony games have spoiled me with how smooth they are. Rise of the Ronin and Wu Kong- those trailers also have not impressed me. They look like original Dark Souls or Skyrim to me. But what do I know, we'll see.

I can't speak for every single other footage, but Max's recorded gameplay doesn't really have much stuttering last I checked. DD has always had a bit more grounded combat and methodical compared to most other games. From what I've seen, it's usually the giant monsters that take longer to kill, but not the medium sized or smaller ones.

Ive been so hyped on ff7 that i dont know of any games releasing after Stellar Blade. So i hope come more bangers come out and this year doesnt sputter and die off early.

DD2 i feel is going to be hugely hit or miss for people. In fact i think all three games between this, Rise, and SB are going to very niche with certain people.

I'm sure they'll be fine. All of them. The good news is that they're all going for their own thing. Ask for other games coming out, there's plenty but a lot of them are smaller games. That's fine by me! Besides, I'm excited for the smaller games anyway.

 

[CriticalGaming]

I'm sure they'll be fine. All of them. The good news is that they're all going for their own thing. Ask for other games coming out, there's plenty but a lot of them are smaller games. That's fine by me! Besides, I'm excited for the smaller games anyway.

When's Sparking Zero?

 

[BrawlMan]

When's Sparking Zero?

Late 2024 or early 2025. Still no official date yet. You'll be waiting a while for that next DBZ game.

 

[CriticalGaming]

Late 2024 or early 2025. Still no official date yet. You'll be waiting a while for that next DBZ game.

Oh dang...well fuck whistle. I was eager to Kamehameha some fuckers. Oh well. Soon.

 

[BrawlMan]

Oh dang...well fuck whistle. I was eager to Kamehameha some fuckers. Oh well. Soon.

Until then either pop in FighterZ, or start digging for your 360/PS3, ps2, or Wii. Assuming you got them or had them together. Xenoverse 2 is a nice substitute, if you're into that.