Não existe outro jogo que eu conheça fazendo o que é feito em dragon's dogma, seja o primeiro ou sua sequencia, seu mundo é fresco e parece se auto moldar as minhas andadas tudo parece uma grande maquete esperando pra ser passada por, apesar de seus problemas ele tem uma mão forte guiando sua criatividade e ideias.

Ele foi ótimo para mim ao ser aproveitado durante um longo período sem a necessidade de se rushar ou correr para o terminar, isso foi um traço que me chamou muita atenção nele e me lembrou dragon quest, franquia que possue esse mesmo tipo de "estrutura", inclusive não quero de deixar de falar o como esse e o primeiro jogo são uma grande reimaginação das ideias de dragon quest III+dragon quest ix obviamente bem diferente e original mas não consigo ignorar esse sentimento.

Nessa ultima sessão quero falar sobre seu grande spoiler e segredo fique avisado!!!.
O final de dragon's dogma II anda em uma linha tênue em ser incrível e bagunçado, seu ultimo desafio é um teste pra arrancar do jogador todo seu conhecimento e recursos acumulados durante a aventura e isso em conceito é maravilhoso, tenho só um grande problema de como começam a aparecer uma quantidade estúpida de inimigos por metro quadrado fazendo a exploração ser prejudicada.
Mesmo com isso seu final e mensagem pro jogador apesar de ser batida é linda, o ultimo "boss" ser apenas uma cutscene sendo um adeus para o seu mundo e o jogador é lindo.

Survival horror games wish they could give me the same level of "edge of my seat tension to jumping out of my seat release" as I experienced waiting for the title screen of Dragon's Dogma 2 to say "Dragon's Dogma 2".

Dragon's Dogma 2 is a game I have a metric fuckton to say about, to the point that I kind of hate having to open by discussing its rocky launch. Capcom's unfortunate habit of higher-ups forcing their devs to add microtransactions into a game, that are seemingly intentionally made as useless as possible to counteract this, is nothing new. The fact there was active misinformation about their nature, owing both to Dragon's Dogma being far more niche than an RE, MH or DMC, and people not fact checking, was. The golden rule applies as ever; if you think you need to spend real money on a port crystal, Rift crystals or jail key, don't. Everything is readily available in game, you'll be fine. They even turned the ox cart you escort early in the original into a fast travel point between towns, so not only do you have options, you can choose to watch the world roll by as you go, or, possible monster interference notwithstanding, doze off and arrive in mere moments. Isn't that grand?

Aside from that, the PC version was also a hot mess, which is a lot harder an issue to shrug off. DD2 is a pretty huge game, far more so than the modern REs or DMC5, all of which were running on the same engine and providing stellar experiences on PC. Monster Hunter is the closest comparison, and I think both World and Rise's PC ports went through similar states of needing to be fixed up, but one was a PS4 and Xbox One title, and the other launched on the Switch. DD2 leads the charge as, to my recollection, Capcom's first strictly 9th gen title, with a huge, interconnected world with nary a load screen in sight while venturing on foot, and it runs at 30FPS on consoles with the odd dips. Definitely surprising, given it's directed by a man known for prioritising 60FPS gameplay with the most popular titles he's helmed, but it was never too egregious from my experiences.

But hey, from what I heard, it ran like absolute piss on PC at launch, so maybe it was a callback to how DD1 ran on PS360 at launch? No idea what the technical stuff under the hood is like, nor the state of the PC release at time of writing, but if push comes to shove, it might do you good to hold off until some further patches, or a discount, if that's your only option. Denuvo and some pretty absurd spec requirements probably aren't helping, either. What a damn shame, since Dark Arisen's PC port played a huge factor in a ton of eyes being put on the game over the years.

But getting away from what transpired around launch, what is Dragon's Dogma 2? It's Dragon's Dogma with a fucking budget. The original game was woefully incomplete, roughly 50 to 60% of its planned content just straight up missing. Plot points get picked up and dropped off, the game's finale is massively padded, we never got to go to the moon. There was always that want, from myself, and people playing at launch in 2012, to see what the game could've been like if given a full budget and dev time. Rather than take the approach of a DMC5 to the original's DMC4, however, DD2 feels more like Itsuno getting a mulligan. As such, a lot of similar structural beats will feel pretty familiar to returning players, complete with a lot of story relegated to the oodles of side quests, and spoiler alert, the moon still remains out of our grasp. Can you imagine how sick it would've been to bring the RE Engine's abbreviation (REach for the moon) full circle like that? For shame.

Don't take me likening DD2 to a mulligan as a negative, mind. Warts and all, DD1 is one of the best games I've ever played, and I'll talk more on that swiftly. But I'll openly admit, there were parts of me that were left ever so slightly wanting. Wanting those vocations from the now dead DD Online, or the beastmaster vocation we all thought V from Devil May Cry 5 was a testing ground for. Wanting another bombastic J-rock title theme. Wanting pawns and NPCs to be that little bit more quotable as in the original. Okay, those last two are nitpicks, but that's besides the point. There was a part of me that wanted some of, if not all the DDO vocations to get a second lease on life, but alas. I'll just have to wait for fans to get private servers rolling. Maybe the game was over schedule due to the pandemic, maybe Capcom just wanted it out for the end of the fiscal year to bolster their quarterly reports a touch. Itsuno stands by the game not being unfinished, so I'll trust him, but regardless. Whatever the reason, it made a small part of me yearn for just a little bit more Dragon's Dogma.

But that's only because I love Dragon's Dogma. And on a gameplay level, Dragon's Dogma 2 is more Dragon's Dogma. Everything from the original is here and accounted for. The game's unique approach to adventuring, asking you to watch the limits of what you're carrying and picking the right time to set out on your trek, should you not choose to fast travel, returns with a vengeance. A turnoff for some, especially with no infinite ferrystone this go around, but I was eager to cock a leg because of how much fun I was having exploring the world and going around boiling goblins and saurians with my sorcerer. The pawn system returns, and is just as cool as ever, allowing a still entirely single player game to feel like it has its own community, with pawns recruited by other players gaining quest or enemy knowledge and using their tactics or acting as guides on your own adventure. Could've done without the loss gauge, a new mechanic preventing HP from being recovered until the party rest at either an inn or campfire, but you could always argue that's another point in favour of the game for making it feel like an adventure, or preventing you from growing complacent and spamming your heals or relying on your trusty Mage.

And then there's the combat. DD1's left and right hand skills might be gone, and in some respects, I missed it. Especially now there's 4 skills on the face buttons, rather than 3, the thought of having 8 total on top of the regular moves on offer, was an itch the game really left me yearning to scratch... but it never got under my skin much, because DD2 is using DD1's combat and building on it. Vocations new and old, climbing on monsters to target their weak points or stagger them, synergy between player and pawn when casting magic simultaneously, it's all here and with more to offer. Sure, I wish there was more enemy variety; goblins, saurians, bandits, harpies, knackers and oozes being the lion's share of basic mooks, and the odd boss monsters throughout the world, from ogres, cyclops and griffins to the odd dragons, are here too, but when I'm having as much fun as I am both during exploration and combat, it's honestly something I'm more than willing to let slide from the amount of enjoyment I'm getting.

Through most of the game, I was swapping between the old familiar vocations of Fighter, Sorcerer and Magick Archer, but the brand new Mystic Spearhand became a quick favourite with its unique approach to combat, offering a telekinetic grab on smaller foes to be used like ammo, timing inputs for follow ups and teleports, to even an AOE move that just makes your party invincible for a couple seconds. It's kinda cracked. The Warfarer was my endgame pick, juggling Fighter's sword and Magic Archer's bow for handy coverage of both ranged and close quarters. It's not quite the full on vocation switch I'd dreamt of, especially given its ability to swap weapons takes up a skill slot and only leaves you with three to pull from your unlocked pool therein, but I had the goofiest grin on my face as I peppered enemies with my auto targeting magic projectiles, swapped weapons, and closed the distance for a Blink Strike.

And I didn't even use all the vocations, either! My pawn was running wild with the Thief vocation into the end game, and it's focus on huge damage and its sick grapple hook were awesome to see, but I never got to try it firsthand. Nor did I try the similarly new Trickster vocation, or returning Mage, Warrior or Archer. There's even entire chunks of the game I missed; new bosses like Medusa and the entire Sphinx side quest I never experienced, along with the crackhead mechanic of the Dragonsplague, wherein your pawn can go apeshit and wipe out an entire town if you're ignorant to the signs.

And in spite of an almost 65 hour playthrough now under my belt, I already want to go back again. I wanna get those trophies I missed, do those side quests I skipped over, try the other vocations, just like how I felt with the original game last year. That's one of the best things I can say about a game; that even after a lengthy first playthrough like that, that I already want to get right back into it and go another round. I almost feel thankful the PC version isn't too optimised on the Steam Deck yet; otherwise I fear I'd literally never be able to put the fucking thing down. I haven't even talked about things concerning the postgame, where Itsuno's true crackhead (endearing) vision comes into play. With its own unique mechanics that almost seem designed to punish the complacent player, I want anyone reading this to experience that shit blind like I did. It's not another Everfall, that's all I'll say.

And that's exactly what Dragon's Dogma 2 is. Itsuno's vision. The one that he couldn't make a reality with the budget, time and hardware afforded to him over a decade ago. To the many who bounced off the original Dragon's Dogma for many a reason, you probably aren't going to be swayed by the sequel's commitment to some of its more contentious, less friendly mechanics. But that's because Dragon's Dogma wasn't meant to be a massive, mainstream RPG hit. Hideki Kamiya, when developing the original Devil May Cry, claimed he'd rather have 10% of people love DMC, than to have 90% of people like it, and I wouldn't be surprised if Itsuno was thinking along a similar line of logic. Dragon's Dogma wasn't meant for everyone. But goddamn it, it was meant for me, and I'm so happy to have had such a great time playing both the original, and now its sequel that makes that humble little 7th gen JRPG feel like a mere tech demo in comparison. An all timer that I'm ecstatic to have experienced.

Itsuno-san, I fucking kneel.

Sorprendentemente, la respuesta a "Qué pasaría si le diéramos pasta y tiempo al equipo del DD1" no es que harían un mejor juego. DD2 es un mundo abierto de puta madre con por algún motivo menos bichos rondando que en el primero, con unas clases más limitadas y con un """Post - game""" peor, aunque donde el primero brillaba en las últimas horas siendo el resto normalillo, aquí hay un juego consistentemente bueno que intenta una jugada similar al primero tirando las cosas raras de cara al endgame y no llega a alcanzar esos niveles tan altos.

A falta de DLC (que lo tendrá), es cuestión de cambiar unos defectos por otros, es una secuela muy sólida y con mucho respeto al original, pero se le escapa la grandeza al solo arreglar las partes más truchas del original sin meterle el boost a muerte a todo lo bueno que tenia.

Really happy that I ended up enjoying this game much more than I expected. I played like 6 hours of the first game and was not into it at all, so spending $70 on this game was a pretty big risk for me, but for whatever reason, I was quickly invested into DD2 and stayed engaged throughout my entire playthrough. Very different from your traditional open-world game, and I'm glad that Capcom wasn't afraid to take the risk of keeping out some pretty common modern-day QoL features of a typical game like this, and kept true to it's philosophy for the franchise of a more punishing and slower-paced experience, and ultimately I think they were quite succesful.

The world itself is nothing too interesting, with only really 2-3 different areas aesthetically, but it is still quite beautiful and while there are certainly games with better exploration, I did not find myself getting bored in the open-world, except maybe once or twice having to run somewhere near the end of the main story when I ran out of Riftstones. There are some interesting landmarks and worthwhile secrets here and there, quite a bit that I'm sure I missed as well, and overall the experience of going from one destination to another is pretty enjoyable.

I'm making no bold statement by saying combat is the highlight of DD2, but it really is great. The closest comparison I felt throughout was of Monster Hunter, rewarding a mastery of your vocations, patience, and occasional and extremely satisfying opportunities for big damage or awesome plays. The difficulty throughout the game felt pretty fair, with a good sense of exhilarating power fantasy by the end as you rip through boss health bars, and some pretty cool endgame fights as well. I played two different classes mainly: Warrior and Mystic Spearhand. Both of these were quite fun and had a lot to master; Warrior was definitely my favorite, but they both felt great once fully upgraded, with lots of tools. Enemy variety wasn't the best, there's only maybe six or seven different types of bosses (not including the endgame content), although discovering a new one here and there was super exciting. You also end up fighting variants of the same like three or four smaller enemies, which was a little disappointing, but not fully unacceptable.

While the overarching plot of the game is pretty whatever, I actually found a lot of the subplots and side characters quite interesting and well-written. I wasn't blown away by anything in the story but the characters and certain side-quests do make the world feel alive, which was an issue I had with the first game. As I'd expect most players would, I did end up growing pretty attached to my own pawn by the end, and was very happy to have him with me throughout my journey.

I think I could recommend this game to most people, even though it is not your traditional modern-day action RPG, which I think might actually be a selling point to some. The generally reasonable difficulty level also I don't think would bar too many people who might be intimidated by the game's unique approach to open world.

Generously ~8.5/10

Empecemos por los puntos negativos:
El juego de base no está bien optimizado y por suerte en PC con los mods se soluciona los problemas que tiene, como el balanceo de dificultad, la poca libertad de asignación de habilidades, FOV, stamina, etc...

Puntos positivos:
- Gráficos:
Se ve genial, para ser un mundo abierto, tiene pantallas de carga nulas, y gráficos muy buenos, las texturas son geniales. Como punto negativo pongo el ray tracing, el cual se ve bastante bien pero de base está puesto a una calidad más baja. El DLSS en este juego también es horrible. Por otra parte, para hacer screenshots, usando un mod puedes activar PathTracing, dándote unas fotos muy buenas.

Jugabilidad:
Sencillamente genial, me ha gustado bastante, he probado muchas clases hasta el nivel máximo y me he divertido (que tenga dificultad elevada por mods ayuda a su disfrute). Como parte negativa, solo 4 habilidades para asignar cuando tienes un abanico de unas 15-20 habilidades por clase mínimo... Deberían haber puesto otra pestaña de 4 habilidades asignables por lo menos... (Yo hice esto con mod).

Sonido:
La BSO me parece bastante buena aunque no he encontrado ninguna que destaque.

Historia:
Una chusta narrativa, las quests no dejan de ser un poco de recadero... Decepción absoluta en este punto y por donde le bajo nota. Luego como Lore si tiene uno interesante.

Rendimiento:
Bastante pobre si no tienes una serie 4000 con Frame Generation.

Nota personal:
8,5/10

So much of this game is basically the same as the first one, one of the most similar sequels separated by 10 years ever made. But I love the first game, so that's okay. There's not really anything like these two games. The most interesting thing about them to me is that they seem to be part old-school dungeon crawlers where you explore the dungeon while managing your party's resources/health and making decisions about how far you want to go before turning back, but here the dungeon is a big open world. I love the atmosphere of this game, and of course the combat system. I agree with the common criticismthat better enemy variety would be a huge improvement, but the combat is strong enough that I still always had fun just tearing through the enemies they gave me. And it's a shame the graphical performance isn't better. But the other common criticisms are virtually all incorrect, the story is neat and also minimal because this game isn't mainly about story, it's about exploration and combat. The obtuse systems are fun and interesting. The fast travel system makes the game more deliberately paced, and makes journeys more considered and rewarding. Dragon's Dogma 2 isn't for everyone, but I had a wonderful experience playing it.

My greatest disappointment of 2024.
This was my most anticipated game of 2024, if not ever and Capcom managed to screwed it up badly.

The original Dragon's Dogma, despite being one of my favourite games, wasn't perfect, but it has charm and passion which is squeal is mostly devoid off.

Lack of enemy variety, uninspired side quests, poorly written half fast main story, the game despite being unfortunately running at 30fps barely runs consistently, some of worst difficult management ever as you either overpowered or a weakling that gets bodied regardless of level, poorly realised post game content.

The music, visuals and to a lesser extent gameplay were fine, but they don't save the game from being a subpar mess.

Stuff like this is the main reason why I don't preorder games anymore.

Having played it's predecessor before the sequel I could not help feeling like there were opportunities missed in this entry just like in the first. It feels very different from the original. But they share a lot of the same design philosophies. Where the game really shines over the original it's the graphical fidelity and overall world as well as some QoL improvements. The camp mechanic really lends itself to the cross country adventure. It's a real shame that they removed the layered armor system from before as there was depth stripped from the original.

On one hand I'm mad that it has less content that the first game, that some classes have disappeared, that others are less fun...

But on the other, god it's so much fun. I'm on my 4th run and I just can't stop replaying it over and over. Becoming stronger and stronger and absolutely destroying big monsters that were big threats the first time I met them.

This game gives the exact same feeling that the first game gave when it released, and for that reason alone, Dragon's Dogma 2 is a big success.

its nothingburger plot and open-endedness make DD2 feel like a blank playground. a more fully realised version of the 'skyrim without fast travel' playthrough everyone conceptualises and fizzles out on, it didn't take a huge amount of time for me to eventually yearn for convenience for conveniences sake. the game design quirks at the start of the game eventually became annoyances, the combat eventually became dull, the enemy variety that i swore to myself wouldn't be an issue became an issue to me. the game world remained fascinating and exploration stayed as magical as it always was but after enough queries to google.com of "is the game broken or am i doing something wrong" and "fps boost dragons dogma 2" i figured that I'd had my fun.

a game that felt unequivocally not for me

Pre warning: I have not finished this game yet.

Ok I am finally back on the backlog train after being completely derailed by balatro. This was the game I was playing concurrently with it. This is an overall fairly enjoyable game that I would only recommend to people who are willing to work hard for the fun they can get out of a game.

This is probably the most important thing I can say in this review, dragon’s dogma 2 makes you work to extract the enjoyment out of it. It is the product of a creative sticking to their vision even though it goes against many of the tropes and ideas that modern games are built upon. For instance, you have almost certainly heard this by now but this is an open world game with no easy to access fast travel mechanics. The game does have fast travel via ferrystones and Oxcarts, but these both have stipulations that mean you won’t always have access to them. Hence walking to and from places to finish quests will be a large part of your experience in this game. I don’t completely hate this, it means you have to be very thoughtful with the order in which you do things and have to think logistically about resources and where/when to use them. Difficulty and obstacles are always a challenge for developers to balance. Too much difficulty and the player gives up but too little and the player will not respect the game or beat it too easy and move on.

Dragon’s dogma instead opts to those multiple wrenches at your gameplay experience that force you to pay close attention to what is going on around you. For instance much ado has been made over the dragon’s plague mechanic where your pawn’s can become sick and if you go to sleep when they are sick, well they can destroy a whole village worth of NPCs effectively hard locking you out of quest progression and ending your time with the game. Personally I love this, even though you are playing a game I appreciate a game not completely validating you, life won’t completely validate you. Even though you might be playing for some escapism, I personally prefer the emotional experience of being humbled by a game. Dragon’s dogma is filled with an uncanny indifference towards the player. It’s filled with much uncanny awkwardness in general. When I played the original dd, I thought to myself there is no way this was intended to be this awkward and weird of a game. I was completely wrong, dd2 shows that the vision was completely intentional. Pawns are in someways like robotic children, they say words but with no feeling around them, they incessantly babble, but they are always helpful. Then there is the FMV meat cooking videos. The fact that you can pick up and carry NPCs to certain locations to retrigger their quests. This is a very video gamey video game. Something the medium has lost touch with in many ways.

So yeah dragon’s dogma 2 isn’t for everyone. I myself will have to come back to it someday.

Dragon’s Dogma 2:

Spoilers for both the first game and this one in regards to the dragon ONLY. No other story beats.
BE WARNED

I recently played Dragon’s Dogma 1 in preparation for the sequel. It was always a game that I would hear people talk about and it always seemed right up my RPG loving alley. Finally after years of having it in the backlog, I played an experience like no other. What the first game could do in the year it was released is nothing short of spectacular. My anticipation for the sequel was lit aflame and now I can talk about if it all lived up to that burning.

The sequel reflects the first games cycle of endless Arisen, the character made by the dragon to fight it in an eternal battle. Sometimes the playable character, other times certain NPC’s around you. Taking what the first game built up, the sequel sticks to the roadmap that was given to us all previously. You are the Arisen, your heart has been taken by a dragon and you must defeat it in order to keep the cycle continuous unless you mayhap find, another way.

The story for its most part, is just a copy and paste of the first. This to me, is either seen as a genius way to say “The cycle never ends” or it is a lazy attempt to fill in a games world with the same story beats so they could earnestly “remake” the original. I almost felt like I was playing the same game at points in how the game tracks as a plot line. However, there is something missing from this that the first game nailed and with a discussion with a friend, I realised what this was. The dragon.
In the first Dragon’s Dogma, Grigori was a constant reminder to you, the playable character. He would taunt you, show up throughout the story and speak whispers in your mind. He would play with you and that made him a much more interesting threat. It also helped his voice actor David Lodge gave Grigori one of the best dragon performances ever.
In this sequel however, the dragon is so much of an afterthought that it feels just…kind of there. It doesn’t do anything. I honestly forgot the dragon was meant to be why I was in this predicament in the first place.

Unrelated to the dragon, there is a moment near the end of the game that makes you give a character a certain object that makes no sense whatsoever and they do not explain to you why on earth you’d ever give this character that object with everything the game makes you believe about them.
The story is a mess and is the greatest weakness to an otherwise fantastic game, which I will go into now because this review is sounding too negative!

The overall gameplay of Dragon’s Dogma 2 is so fantastic and fun. I almost never used the fast travel or carts that could dart you between towns. I loved running around with my main pawn, my friends and (insert random pawn from the rift here) as we ran across the landscape of each location. It was a blast to try out all the different vocations and see which class really stuck with me. Each one was so unique in the way it handled combat and traversal. Shout out to Mystic Spearhand for making me do sick flips and gauging out Cyclops eyes faster than I could breathe.

The combat in this game feels really good and there are a lot of extremely enjoyable in game moments that happen with the different kind of “mini boss” varieties. One enemy will jump onto a wall and if you have clinged onto them, you will go with them and can knock them down to the floor to wail on them with all your might. Drakes will smash through the ground they’re on and you can go down with them on crumbling stone.

There are a lot of fantastic gameplay elements that give a great sense of adventure in the main open world locations you will explore. I must note that the only issue I did have running around was that the enemy variety is quite limited. Despite a lot of terrain switches in the large locations, you will ultimately see the same enemies repeated without much of a difference. It is a shame that there couldn’t be more added in but it personally didn’t bother me TOO much, however it is worth noting.

Two other big issues that folks had I would like to bring up was Dragonplauge. I had a hilarious time with this in game disease because despite pawns being infected with it, before the patch that made it less likely, I never saw it. I wasn’t careful with inn sleeps either. The hidden disease that would make pawns kill an entire town while you slept sounded so awesome and people hated it online. I never saw it and thus, cannot form an opinion on it at all despite that, this is such an awesome idea that would have been so cool to talk about at school with friends and they wouldn’t believe you that it was real. I love the concept personally.

The second issue was Capcom slapping the publisher “WE MUST MAKE MONEY” hammer and dropping microtransactions at launch for a single player game. I must make this clear, this is a publisher issue and Capcom do this with ALL their games. It is not a practice I think should exist and honestly, I hate that it is here at all.
However, you don’t need them. Not a single microtransaction in this game is needed and can be easily avoided. It isn’t hard to get anything you could buy with real life money. It is a shitty business practice and should nave have seen this game but I will not knock it down because of it. Itsuno would never have wanted these here and it shows, because it really is easy to live without them.

I had an absolutely fantastic time with Dragon’s Dogma 2 overall. Maybe it was due to having my friends pawn along with me. Maybe it was because I loved the first game so much, I just needed more of it.
It has MAJOR flaws overall but I had a great time going for the platinum and hope that we do see some DLC or even just big updates to expand what they have here. It may not be as good as the first but my golly, the gameplay is just so much fun. I can’t help but love it.