Dragon's Dogma 2 constantly switches between being the greatest adventure of all time and the jankiest game you can find. It offers a unique experience while struggles with some bad design choices.
The open world
The world design is the best part of the game. The player is constantly presented with options, caves to explore, enemies to fight or quests to solve. There are also only a few fixed spawn points, which means you an always be suprised by one or two giant enemies, which will lead to a lot of action and fun while exploring!
The vocations
The vocations are the job system here. There is one for everyone: Heavy hitting fighters, fast rogues, mages and sorcerers, spear wielders and tricksters. The gameplay of each one feels unique and fun and you get passive abilities that you can transfer to your character when changing the vocation which allows some build variety for every character.
The Pawn system
At the very start of the journey you get to creat one pawn, an NPC that journeys with you all the time and fights with you. Furthermore you can hire 2 more pawns, which are created by other players. Here you can mix and match your group so that it reflects your play and fighting style. The Pawn AI ranges from great assists to "i jump down this cliff and die!" - but in combat they are generally super useful. The biggest issue is that the Pawns repeat the same 5 voice lines over and over again, which can be daunting in a 50+ hour journey.
The Fast Travel
One of the biggest discussion points in the game! There is no fast travel as we know it from almost all other open world titles. Bigger cities are connected with Ox Carts that you can use to travel around, but there are no points to fast travel to otherwise. You do need a Portcrystal and a Ferrystone. Portcrystals are extremely rare and hard to find, but when you aquire one you can place it anywhere you are and travel to that location - as long as you use and have a Ferrystone (which are also rather rare but you can also buy them from some merchants). I personally did enjoy the system as it encourages exploration but it can get tedious aswell.
Auto Save
The save system however is a big design flaw. There are no manual saves. There is an auto save system that saves regularly, or you sleep at an inn to save. However what can happen: You will get stuck on the map > your auto save is at the stuck place > you have to load the Inn save instead > you lose hours of gameplay (maybe). Happened to me and the only solution is to have a ferrystone with you all the time to port away then. No manual saves however are just a bad design choice if you can get stuck rather easily on some areas.
Story and characters
For me, the weakest part. The story feels like the most basic and generic medieval plot and while there is moer to it, the mains tory never grabbed me.
Same goes for the characters. Basically no memorable characters and all of them are rather bland. No real stand outs unfortunately.
If you are looking for an amazing adventure and fun exploration, which is presented in a unique way, DD2 is definitely a game for you!
The open world
The world design is the best part of the game. The player is constantly presented with options, caves to explore, enemies to fight or quests to solve. There are also only a few fixed spawn points, which means you an always be suprised by one or two giant enemies, which will lead to a lot of action and fun while exploring!
The vocations
The vocations are the job system here. There is one for everyone: Heavy hitting fighters, fast rogues, mages and sorcerers, spear wielders and tricksters. The gameplay of each one feels unique and fun and you get passive abilities that you can transfer to your character when changing the vocation which allows some build variety for every character.
The Pawn system
At the very start of the journey you get to creat one pawn, an NPC that journeys with you all the time and fights with you. Furthermore you can hire 2 more pawns, which are created by other players. Here you can mix and match your group so that it reflects your play and fighting style. The Pawn AI ranges from great assists to "i jump down this cliff and die!" - but in combat they are generally super useful. The biggest issue is that the Pawns repeat the same 5 voice lines over and over again, which can be daunting in a 50+ hour journey.
The Fast Travel
One of the biggest discussion points in the game! There is no fast travel as we know it from almost all other open world titles. Bigger cities are connected with Ox Carts that you can use to travel around, but there are no points to fast travel to otherwise. You do need a Portcrystal and a Ferrystone. Portcrystals are extremely rare and hard to find, but when you aquire one you can place it anywhere you are and travel to that location - as long as you use and have a Ferrystone (which are also rather rare but you can also buy them from some merchants). I personally did enjoy the system as it encourages exploration but it can get tedious aswell.
Auto Save
The save system however is a big design flaw. There are no manual saves. There is an auto save system that saves regularly, or you sleep at an inn to save. However what can happen: You will get stuck on the map > your auto save is at the stuck place > you have to load the Inn save instead > you lose hours of gameplay (maybe). Happened to me and the only solution is to have a ferrystone with you all the time to port away then. No manual saves however are just a bad design choice if you can get stuck rather easily on some areas.
Story and characters
For me, the weakest part. The story feels like the most basic and generic medieval plot and while there is moer to it, the mains tory never grabbed me.
Same goes for the characters. Basically no memorable characters and all of them are rather bland. No real stand outs unfortunately.
If you are looking for an amazing adventure and fun exploration, which is presented in a unique way, DD2 is definitely a game for you!