Dragon's Dogma 2's producer and director, Yoshiaki Hirabayashi and Hideaki Itsuno, delved into the upcoming game's features and improvements in a recent interview with Automaton. Read on to learn what you can expect from the upcoming sequel.
Dragon's Dogma 2 Devs Reveal More Details That Take the Sequel to Newer Heights
Enhanced Open World and New Features
One of the main challenges faced during the development of the original Dragon's Dogma, from more than a decade ago, was technological limitations that hindered the creation of a seamless open world, Yoshiaki Hirabayashi and Hideaki Itsuno - producer and director of Dragon's Dogma 2- revealed to Automaton in an interview published last week.
"There were many technological shortcomings at the time in terms of creating a proper open world," the devs explained. "For example, when entering a densely populated area such as a castle or dungeon, there had to be a brief loading time to switch from the data for the distant view to the detailed data for the interior."
However, with Dragon's Dogma 2, the developers have overcome these challenges. Players can expect a seamless and interconnected experience with multiple elements of the game. "In Dragon’s Dogma, if we had two large boss monsters appear, we would struggle to get the 'small fry' monsters in there too. But in the sequel, even having three large bosses at the same time is no problem."
Crucial NPC Interactions
Along with the technical improvements, the game introduces several new features and concepts that were not possible in the previous title. Players will explore two distinct countries, Vermund and Battahl, each with its own unique characteristics and challenges. Additionally, the sequel boasts a significantly higher number of NPCs.
It was also revealed that Dragon's Dogma 2 places a strong emphasis on NPC interactions and relationships, with the Affinity system playing a crucial role in shaping the game world. Players will experience a living, breathing world where their actions and decisions impact the lives of NPCs and the overall narrative, according to the developers.
Such interactions with NPCs were "almost the entire reason why we made the game open world," shared Itsuno. "There will be many events that occur/don’t occur depending on Affinity, and relationships between NPCs will also be important. For example, if you raise your Affinity with the parent of a child, your Affinity with the child will increase as well."
Greater Map Density
"We always say that the map in Dragon’s Dogma 2 is four times the size of the previous one, but we haven’t measured it exactly, and the development team believes it to be much larger," Itsuno revealed. The number of towns in Dragon's Dogma 2 has increased dramatically, according to Itsuno.
However, he stated that the team placed greater emphasis on map density rather than size. Hirabayashi shared, "We think of Dragon’s Dogma 2 as an 'experience-driven' game, as opposed to a story-driven game. The field is not simply vast with no purpose, but is designed to provide enjoyable experiences with each minute as you traverse it. "
Itsuno elaborated further on their insights into creating the expansive, feature-rich world of Dragon's Dogma 2. "In open-world games, players often want a long-distance means of transportation such as horses. However, I think the reason why users want horses is not so much because they want to experience horse riding, but because they feel bored on the road if they’re not riding."
The developers said that merely traveling by itself will be quite an experience in Dragon's Dogma 2. "For example, nighttime is very dangerous due to limited visibility, and the fear of the night gives distances a meaning," Hirabayashi illustrated. "If you are going to spend the night traveling to a distant destination, you need to make sure to bring enough oil for your lanterns before you leave your base."
Itsuno added that players' experiences on the road could be social media content-worthy. "You can feel a sense of adventure, and I think that each user will be able to experience something different even on the same road," he said. "I think these are the kinds of experiences people will want to tell others about, which is perfect in this day and age of social media."
Refined Combat Mechanics
In the sequel, each vocation has been refined to become more specialized and focused. The devs explained that they had narrowed down the range of actions for each vocation while enhancing their abilities for more meaningful and engaging combat encounters.
Itsuno explained the philosophy behind this, saying that "In an action game, the more versatile a vocation is, the less powerful it can be. After all, if one vocation were great at everything, it would become the only choice, compromising the balance of the whole game." The developers shared that they categorized vocations into melee, long-range, and support types and made them as strong as possible in their respective fields of specialty.
Doubling-Down on Single-Player
While multiplayer options were considered, the developers ultimately decided to focus solely on delivering a compelling single-player game, as they have always envisioned and stuck by since the original Dragon's Dogma. "We have not been considering any form of multiplayer for Dragon’s Dogma 2. I think online games have their good sides; just as offline games have their own," Itsuno said. "The concept of the original game was to incorporate fun gameplay elements not found in conventional offline games while removing all the 'hassles' of online games."
