Dragon's Dogma 2 Is Polarizing Its Community, And It's Not Just the Microtransactions
Dragon's Dogma 2 Is Polarizing Its Community, And It's Not Just the Microtransactions
Plenty of big, AAA releases don't stick the landing at launch. It's far rarer to see a AAA game's community genuinely divided over whether or not a game is groundbreaking or an utter disaster. But weirdly, that's what's happening with Dragon's Dogma 2.
Wait dragonsplague is new information to me
There's no way to tell if a Pawn has Dragonsplague while in the Rift before hiring them, but once they are hired, the signs start to become apparent. If left unchecked, then eventually resting at an inn will trigger a cutscene where the Pawn in question transforms into a shadowy dragon and nukes an entire city, which can include killing off quest-critical NPCs.
That's, uh, incredibly fucking stupid. Dunno what I expected from a studio that clearly doesn't care about its players' time, but "your pawn can turn into a dragon and nuke an entire town" sure wasn't something I'd anticipate. Even if it can't actually softlock the game, I cannot imagine continuing to play after my pawn decides to turn into a dragon with no actual warning. A bunch of people are defending it saying that there are symptoms you need to watch out for, as if not noticing your pawn's eye color or idle animation is a mistake worthy of a potentially game-ending consequence. But hey, at least you can always start a new save file if yours gets bricked by bad pokerus... Right.
"bad pokerus" gave me a good chuckle.
Not mentioning micro transactions there are many other valid complaints to be made. Most vocations (classes) have less skills they can equip, loss of double jump, terrible enemy variety, loss of quality of life features, no end game, locking vocations as means to artificially increase playtime, terrible performance... The list goes on
It is worse than dark arisen in many ways but somehow costs $70
artificially increase playtime
I hate this so much. Same problem I had with Starfield and Horizon 2. If your campaign is short, own it. In the time it takes to beat the first Dragon's Dogma, you could play Spec Ops: The Line, Titanfall 2, both Portals, and Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. A good story doesn't need 30 hours to tell unless the game is absolutely jam-packed with content, and a really big world that takes a long time to travel across is not content.
FR, first game locked advanced classes behind getting to the capital, which took like an hour of game time so who carres (I think it was a good thing cause it let you learn the ropes with the basic classes). Dark Arisen just let you chance to advanced vocations from the get go. DD2 has 2 vocations that unlock in the last area which takes 20+ hrs to reach organically.
Good, hope gamers get burned by this. It’s easy to avoid buying shit games.
I suspect that a lot of people buy the hype and convince themselves that they are entitled to a good experience. When the inevitable happens, everyone gets angry but just does the same thing again with the next hype, never learning a lesson.
Make no mistake: the studios have the market cornered and don’t have any reason to change unless people change their spending habits.
I'm in the camp of: I love the first game and was so happy they made a second one that I bought it even knowing all the potential issues. I'm still having a blast in the second one but the issues it has are very real and not defensible imo. I don't recommend anyone buy it because of the issues but damn the gameplay really has its moments and is super awesome at times.
That's just like your opinion man, I'm having a blast. The performance issues suck but I can live with it since it's only in the city where I'm just talking to NPCs. Everything else is fun as hell
It's more of a Dragon's Dogma 1.5 rather than an actual sequel, they didn't improve on any of the issues the original had while adding some new ones.
I'm very underwhelmed.
My understanding is that the micro transactions can mostly be earned in game for free. That aside I have taken a stance and refuse to play any game that has them. They are cancer for gaming and I don’t want to support it in any form.