After more than a decade-long wait for the sequel, Dragon’s Dogma 2, the cult-classic open-world action RPG developed by Capcom has finally arrived! Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying.
Dragon's Dogma 2 Review Overview
What is Dragon's Dogma 2?
Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a single-player, open-world, medieval fantasy action RPG that plays similarly to older games where the focus on exploration, flexibility, moment-to-moment gameplay, and combat take the spotlight. Whether it be exploring non-familiar territory, managing your time and gold, and adjusting on the fly to whatever’s thrown at you, it’s a game that aims to let you live an actual fantasy experience of being an adventurer in the worlds of Vermund and Battahl.
After a fierce battle ensues with the appearance of The Dragon, it chooses you to be an Arisen, binding you to its very being by eating your own heart. You must slay the dragon to take back your heart while being embroiled in a monarchical power struggle as the Kingdom of Vermund has a fake Arisen as King. On the other side of the world, the Kingdom of Battahl believes the Arisen to be the cause of the recent calamities, but you’ll need to join forces with the empire to defeat the draconic threat.
Dragon's Dogma 2 features:
⚫︎ Huge open world with a focus on interesting moment-to-moment gameplay
⚫︎ Giant boss battles and intense combat with fluid action RPG elements
⚫︎ AI-party members that help and guide you
⚫︎ In-depth character creation and customization
⚫︎ Limited fast travel system that highlights proper travel planning
⚫︎ Very few loading screens to ensure a smooth experience all throughout
For more gameplay details, read everything we know about Dragon's Dogma 2's gameplay and story.
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Dragon's Dogma 2 Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
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 Amazing Moment-to-Moment Gameplay Weakness-Focused Intense Combat Pawn System Wastes No Time to Start Almost No Loading Screens |
Slower Paced Gameplay No Lock-On Performance Issues |
Dragon's Dogma 2 Overall - 96/100
Dragon’s Dogma 2 is this year’s ultimate fantasy RPG experience and a strong contender for Game-of-the-Year (GOTY). With a massive open world focused on "experience-driven" gameplay, it’s a game that’s not only interesting to explore but also focuses on unique interactions from both the enemies and the NPCs. It’s the best medieval fantasy action RPG experience to date, and after waiting for more than a decade, It’s my personal pick for this year’s GOTY and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Dragon's Dogma 2 Story - 10/10
With the premise of an ultimate quest to slay the Dragon, the game wastes no time in getting you involved in the power struggle that ensues in the kingdom and how your existence is a threat to the royal family. Other than the main questline, the side quests will have you interacting with the world and people around you, where the result is entirely up to you. The game immediately warns you that your actions have consequences where small accidents can lead to devastating results.
Dragon's Dogma 2 Gameplay - 10/10
The gameplay consists mostly of traveling the world on foot and intense combat that focuses on exploiting enemy weaknesses. With a massive open world and two kingdoms to explore, it’s always going to be a long trek going anywhere even with the use of the game’s Oxcart system. The dev team made sure to make traveling fun by alleviating these long distances by giving you something to explore or fight in each part of the world.
Dragon's Dogma 2 Visuals - 10/10
The gigantic open world comes with different environments of caves, deserts, forests, and cities to explore. This is highlighted by the game’s amazing visuals which is a testament to the RE Engine’s power to create photo-realistic environments and characters. Character designs and area designs are amazing and they make you feel like it's a living fantasy RPG with how everything looks from the bustling capitals, monster lairs, and even small villages around the world.
Dragon's Dogma 2 Audio - 10/10
The game’s audio design is simply superb. The sound effects are weighty and perfect, the voice acting is varied and proper depending on the kingdom and speaker, and the music hits just right especially when it plays its trademark fanfare when you gain the advantage in big fights. There’s nothing much to say other than it elevates the fantasy RPG experience to a whole new level.
Dragon's Dogma 2 Value for Money - 8/10
With a AAA price tag of $70 dollars, this game justifies it with a whole world to explore, monsters to fight, and NPCs to interact with. However, this also comes with a gigantic warning that this game is more stable on consoles and is very demanding on PCs. There’s no denying that this game should be the standard that open-world RPGs should strive for in terms of a whole package, but hopefully not a standard that the industry follows in terms of its performance across the board.
Dragon's Dogma 2 Review: The Ultimate Medieval Fantasy Action RPG Experience
To preface this review, the first Dragon’s Dogma game is one of my personal favorite games of all time. This alongside being a big believer that the game will make a comeback someday. That day has finally arrived after twelve long years and I’m glad that they decided to double down on their original game design as Capcom already had struck gold with the first game’s overall feel despite being a game from 2012. Dragon’s Dogma 2 is able to recreate and enhance that feeling of wonder and excitement by continuing to implement its core design of highlighting distance and numerous interesting moments of the gameplay.
Being a massive open-world game, the game is no stranger to long-distance treks to different mountainous regions, dark cave systems, and populated cities and villages. What makes it special is that traveling is massively restricted most of the time, requiring you to walk great distances as opposed to having a vehicle or teleporter at the ready at all times.
Director Hideaki Itsuno pointed out that players want a means of transportation of long distance via horseback not because they want to ride a horse but because they feel bored on the road. It’s always been a "feature" of the original 2012 game of having limited means of travel as they wanted to give the trips around the world meaning.
Traveling at night on foot is terrifying and you would always want to stick to the roads most of the time as straying from the path could mean encountering a deadly enemy out of nowhere. These design decisions are prevalent in this game and I’m 100% for this design as this is what you’d experience if you were to be in that situation as well.
Although you travel great distances across the world, it doesn’t mean that you have nothing to do. This is highlighted by the popular "40-second rule" in game design which is having something noteworthy happen in the world after 40 seconds. Not once was I bored of just walking around as I always discover something to look at, explore, or defeat in my travels. It also helps that the Pawns in the game have more interesting dialogue depending on their inclination and specialization.
It also helps that the combat is still as heavy and unique as the first game which is defined by the ability to climb massive monsters and grab most objects like people, huge stones, and even other monsters. The dev team has focused on each vocation having its own specialty like the Fighter being the defensive specialist with perfect parries and knockback potential using its shield, the Thief being the climbing specialist of the vocations able to easily clamor onto the bodies of monsters and hit their weak points, and Mages and Sorcerers being your typical magic support and artillery respectively.
Itsuno has already mentioned before that the previous game was only a part of the overall vision as hardware and technological limitations prevented the fruition of the ultimate fantasy RPG. With the current level of technology and upgrades that we have now, they are finally able to make that vision come to life. This is the game’s ultimate form so to speak, and one that I am lucky enough to experience firsthand, and hope that everyone gets to try it as well.
Pros of Dragon's Dogma 2
| Things Dragon's Dogma 2 Got Right |
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Amazing Moment-to-Moment Gameplay Weakness-Focused Intense Combat Pawn System Wastes No Time to Start Almost No Loading Screens |
Amazing Moment-to-Moment Gameplay
One of the main focal points of Dragon’s Dogma 2 is the ability to keep the player’s attention on interesting points in the map repetitively regardless of how long you’ve already been walking. I’m glad to say that this is the game where you appreciate downtime as much as the active time that you’re playing the game. The sense of relief of finding a potential campsite during the night or the sense of heroism when you finally have the advantage against a tough foe is unmatched. These reasons, aligned with the interesting areas to explore, make the moments of glory and rest shine all the more.
Weakness-Focused Intense Combat
Dragon’s Dogma has always been known for having a unique combination of Monster Hunter, Devil May Cry, and to some extent, Resident Evil’s combat resulting in this game’s weakness-focused combat. Combat scenarios are always risky in the game, as fights with a common goblin can prove fatal if you don’t execute the proper targets immediately. Find the enemy’s weak points, strike fast, and hit hard. These are the keys to victory in most encounters in the game.
Pawn System
The Pawn System of the game is what makes the game semi-multiplayer as your created Main Pawn gets enlisted by other players to support them in their journey. You benefit from your Pawn’s journey across the rift by getting experience on certain quests and monsters in order to guide you on your way. Given that they’re AI and uncontrollable, you can steer them to a preferential way of supporting you by their inclination and specialization. Some Pawns focus on killing the biggest targets, while some focus on supporting the team in some way. I’ve always thought that this is one of the game’s aspects that’s hard to balance, as AI companions always tend to be hard to work around. It’s great to see that this has improved, as having a support-focused Pawn myself, they made sure to always keep the party topped up and buffed with elemental weapons at all times.
Wastes No Time to Start
The game immediately puts you into the action after the game’s intro rather than a long drawn-out prologue. The side quests you encounter at the start of the game also serve as an advanced tutorial, teaching you different ways to approach encounters like bombing and poisoning a saurian nest as opposed to outright killing them and destroying their eggs. There’s a lot to do in the game and it’s good that it wastes no time to let you play the game.
Almost No Loading Screens
Over 90% of the game, you won’t be experiencing any loading screens of any kind. It’s only when you decide to reload the game due to a mistake or a death. This is always a pro for me as there’s almost no interruptions to the gameplay whatsoever.
Cons of Dragon's Dogma 2
| Things That Dragon's Dogma 2 Can Improve |
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Slower Paced Gameplay No Lock-On Performance Issues |
Slower Paced Gameplay
The longer you go through the game, the more you’ll feel the weight of the great distances you have to cross and the big fights become a normal occurrence out in the open. The pace of the game’s traversal and combat isn’t fast, and some might think it to be too sluggish. If you can get through the hurdle of the game’s speed, then I guarantee you will have an enjoyable experience overall.
No Lock-On
As a longtime player of Dragon’s Dogma, I’m used to the game’s combat as it remains similar to the first game. However, the first game had a lock-on system which was not super useful, but appreciated nonetheless. It was removed in Dragon’s Dogma 2, requiring you to use the movement to guide your attacks toward your intended target. This can be a bit of a learning curve to some people playing the melee vocations, but definitely not a problem for the ranged ones.
Performance Issues
The biggest offender of this game is the game’s performance. This review was made using the PlayStation 5 and the frames per second (FPS) were noticeably dropping during combat. It’s not a massive drop-off to make it unplayable, but noticeable enough to be worthy of note. Others have already reported that the other ports are demanding in terms of specs, especially on PCs. Be warned that the console versions are more stable than the PC port at the moment, and will need some time for them to be able to fix these issues.
Is Dragon's Dogma 2 Worth It?
Yes. Absolutely Worth It For One of 2024’s Greatest Games
This is my pick for 2024’s GOTY. It has been ever since it was announced to be released this year. I’m very much biased towards this game’s overall design and gameplay as the previous game is part of my list of favorite games of all time. The price of playing the game is steep, priced at $70 dollars as well as demanding specification requirements just to be able to run the game, but it’s a price I’m willing to pay to experience this game to its full potential.
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Dragon's Dogma 2 FAQ
How Long Does It Take To Finish Dragon’s Dogma 2?
The game will take you roughly more than 30 hours to finish the game, alongside other side quests. To fully complete the game, it may take upwards of 50 hours as you’ll need to max out every vocation and have a positive affinity with many NPCs which will require you a lot of time and money.
How Much Memory Space Do I Need to Install Dragon’s Dogma 2?
You’ll need roughly around 70 GB of free space to install the game.
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Dragon's Dogma 2 Product Information
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| Title | DRAGON’S DOGMA 2 |
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| Release Date | March 22, 2024 |
| Developer | CAPCOM Co., Ltd. |
| Publisher | CAPCOM Co., Ltd. |
| Supported Platforms | PC, PS5, Xbox Series X |
| Genre | Action RPG |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| ESRB Rating | 18+ |
| Official Website | Dragon's Dogma 2 Website |
Nice review, however I expected the price to be better