as spoiler free as possible
When I started Dragon's Dogma II, I fucking hated it. I was sitting at like an internal score of like a 3 or 4. I thought that it was too obtuse, or difficult to understand. If it came out on Friday, I probably felt that way until Monday. Monday was when I went back to work and I could sit and think and read about the game in order to better parse what my experience was missing. I read countless articles and tweets about various facets of the game, voraciously reading bits and pieces about how certain mechanics were supposed to function or what the intended feeling is. I managed to keep myself pretty unspoiled as well.
It was only after then that I really started to understand how the game ticks. And every day I played this past week, I enjoyed it a little more. and more. and more. Until I finally started to hit a point this weekend where I began to overlook its flaws in the pursuit of the bigger picture.
Dragon's Dogma II is a sequel to a game very similar in nature. I didn't play the original or Dark Arisen, but I'm aware that there are certain feelings that all these games elicit.
Despite the fact that DD1 came out years ago, Dragon's Dogma II feels like a direct response to the nature of open world games today. It falls into a lot of the same trappings, but has better responses when it comes to player agency and the desire to explore. Above all, it has an amazing yet very spoilery response to the nature of it being a sequel at all, with an endgame/end sequence I'm never going to forget. I don't even have it in me to discuss certain mechanics or flaws the game has (I'll sneak in one - this game needs optimized!), but that's just because everything really comes together by the end of the game. Everything collides and meshes to create an open world game that has just actually blown my mind when it comes to how these games should be constructed.
I want to continue/finish speaking in general terms, mostly because I don't want anyone to come into the game with certain expectations about different mechanics. At a certain point, I think a lot of how the game interacts with the player is a part of the experience that should not be divulged. They should not have even advertised the certain interaction that Cyclops monsters have with gaps (I'll let this one slide since it was shown before the game came out). I think if anyone is reading this and you feel frustrated, or really put out by the game - by all means, just stop playing. But, if you really try to meet it at its level, and meet it at its expectations of realism, then I think you will also come to the realization that open world games should probably not be the same after this game. Masterpiece.
When I started Dragon's Dogma II, I fucking hated it. I was sitting at like an internal score of like a 3 or 4. I thought that it was too obtuse, or difficult to understand. If it came out on Friday, I probably felt that way until Monday. Monday was when I went back to work and I could sit and think and read about the game in order to better parse what my experience was missing. I read countless articles and tweets about various facets of the game, voraciously reading bits and pieces about how certain mechanics were supposed to function or what the intended feeling is. I managed to keep myself pretty unspoiled as well.
It was only after then that I really started to understand how the game ticks. And every day I played this past week, I enjoyed it a little more. and more. and more. Until I finally started to hit a point this weekend where I began to overlook its flaws in the pursuit of the bigger picture.
Dragon's Dogma II is a sequel to a game very similar in nature. I didn't play the original or Dark Arisen, but I'm aware that there are certain feelings that all these games elicit.
Despite the fact that DD1 came out years ago, Dragon's Dogma II feels like a direct response to the nature of open world games today. It falls into a lot of the same trappings, but has better responses when it comes to player agency and the desire to explore. Above all, it has an amazing yet very spoilery response to the nature of it being a sequel at all, with an endgame/end sequence I'm never going to forget. I don't even have it in me to discuss certain mechanics or flaws the game has (I'll sneak in one - this game needs optimized!), but that's just because everything really comes together by the end of the game. Everything collides and meshes to create an open world game that has just actually blown my mind when it comes to how these games should be constructed.
I want to continue/finish speaking in general terms, mostly because I don't want anyone to come into the game with certain expectations about different mechanics. At a certain point, I think a lot of how the game interacts with the player is a part of the experience that should not be divulged. They should not have even advertised the certain interaction that Cyclops monsters have with gaps (I'll let this one slide since it was shown before the game came out). I think if anyone is reading this and you feel frustrated, or really put out by the game - by all means, just stop playing. But, if you really try to meet it at its level, and meet it at its expectations of realism, then I think you will also come to the realization that open world games should probably not be the same after this game. Masterpiece.