Sooo... turns out I'm really bad at keeping schedule with upcoming releases, given that for some bizarre reason I expected Dragon's Dogma 2 to be a January release- Whereas instead I'm going to be waiting a few more months before getting my hands on the game I've waited a near decade for. Still, it's gratifying to see the surge of interest in this, new series, which I've always held to the highest regard- seemingly in spite of it's forgotten nature. Ever since it was brushed under the cultural wave which was the 'Skyrim' release, I knew Dragon's Dogma would be a series that needed to fight for it's attention, and given that the game originally won out my attention over the equally as brilliant Borderlands 2- the game was as much a heavy hitter in my book as any other generation defining console game. I just never realised it managed to worm into the headspaces of any other player like it had with me until reading all the equally as unhinged players desperate for a bit more of that unique ambrosia once again.
Dragon's Dogma impressed originally with it's sense of scale of how that actually factors into it's gameplay systems, rather than existing as a visual representation of power and scale. You could feasibly beat a dragon by stabbing at it's toes as in any other RPG on the market, but it would be much more effective to scale it's back when it isn't looking and plunging your sword into it's eye socket before the lizard can throw you off. Grappling feels like it should be one of those gimmick concepts that totally overshadows the breadth of the rest of the game, but the sheer utility it affords you, dynamically creating memorable battle moments, justifies the mechanic all on it's own. We've already seen, with their Colossus of Rhodes inspired boss, how this is legacy that the Capcom team recall and are feeding into. Team Ico should be proud of the solid foundations they no doubt inspired.
Of course, the 'box' feature which most people remember the game for would be it's Pawn system. The online system within which players share their personally built companion character with the world in such that they enter other people's games and share the knowledge of their experiences, as well as their combat vocations, with the team. A very diverse way of creating a party slightly sullied by the fact that every pawn feels roughly similar, like emotionless dolls who fight because they're told to- rather than members of a collaborative party who are working towards the same goal out of shared interests. That's probably why I don't remember them as fondly as everyone else. Once you've the same voiced character, with a slight octave change, in the same party- the magic starts to fade.
As such I find the proposed improvements to the system coming with Dragons Dogma 2 to be interesting, but ultimately not something to rest my hopes and dreams on. In a developer interview we've seen acknowledgements from Itsuno that Pawns used to repeat themselves too often, and how that is something they've tried to address directly with more voice actors and repetition redundancies. There will only ever be so far a system like this can feasibly go towards making these AI controlled companions feel unique, and I suppose my heightened cognisance of that reality dampens any hope I want to have about what they might achieve. At the end of the day, without relying on some incredibly complex AI generative system, all we can rely on is the recreation of appropriate 'Game Feel', a variable totally impossible to judge without hands-on playtime.
Just hearing the testimony of the developers however manages to paint a very confusing image of what it even is that they are going for with this game- to the point that I wonder if Dragon's Dogma 2 is even going to resemble the same play structure as the title I love. For example, just their comments on the dynamic nature of NPC interaction has me head scratching, as I'm trying to decipher exactly what is meant by 'affinity' interactions that can lead to NPCs 'fighting over you'. They tease systems wherein relationships between NPCs can permeate your good deeds, so that doing a good turn for one person makes you friendly with all their acquittances too. And apparently when two people who come around your house "to play" as part of this system (god knows what that means) "A fight might break out." Is this what a game like this even needs?
Personally hearing confusing testimony like this brings to mind memories of of early days of FABLE, when we heard stories about acorns that could grow into trees over the course of the game- despite there being no functional purpose for an idea like that existing. Such ideas became whittled down and removed as the game can into clearer focus, which made a liar out of the man who babbled about it in Interviews. (That's Peter M, of course.) The same happened with Hello Games and No Man's Sky. These comments are being made in the months before DD2 drops, so it really does seem like we're fast past the stage of experimental feature pulling- but do I really believe in some complex system of NPC affectations that lend nothing to the core fantasy of the Dragon's Dogma product? Honestly, I don't know. It certainly sounds roundly bizarre.
At the very least the forest isn't being lost through the trees; everytime I here Itsuno sit down and talk about the things that matter I nod to myself hearing the thoughts of a man who gets it. This isn't one of those wonder games that was made by an accidental collision of conflicting ideals that no one in the team quite understands how to live up to or replicate, like Saints Row 2- Itsuno seems to know what made that original great. Even just his comments on Fast Travelling made me smile. Yes, there are slightly more ways to get around the world for this new game, but actually going on the journey on your own two feet is the ideal way to get around. "Travel is boring? That's not true. It's only an issue because your game is boring. All you have to do is make travel fun."
Dragons Dogma 2 sits at the conflux of a lot of elements, and I do wonder whether or not the game will live up to the promise we all have held in our hearts all this time. I know that myself I wanted to see our interactions with boss monsters get a focus for a sequel, so already this game isn't quite what I had envisioned all those years. (I wanted to see aquatic mythical beasts get brought to life. Maybe next time around, eh?) At the very least I know for certain that Itsuno is working on the game he always wanted to make, which is worth quite a lot considering this is the game who helped bring the Devil May Cry Franchise into the cultural eminence within which it currently resides. Slip a little bit of that grandeur and style our way, and I'll be one happy dragon slayer!
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