Dragon's Dogma 2 - Before You Buy

welcome back to another episode of

before you buy the show where we give

you some straightup gameplay and our

first impressions of the latest games

releasing just a few years ago I'd have

told you this isn't going to happen but

it's here I'm playing it it's Dragon's

Dogma 2 against all odd the original

game from 2012 is a deeply weird kind of

janky experience that was begging for a

more refined followup that never really

materialized until now almost 12 years

later nacom could have easily taken the

safer route and turned this into a

medieval fantasy themed Monster Hunter

game but instead they made a

relentlessly faithful followup to the

original that is still a little weird

and a little janky but utterly

enthralling it is not a perfect game but

Dragons Dogma 2 is one of the most

intriguing and exciting AAA games I have

played in a very long time there are

things about this game that some people

are going to hate for sure uh it's got

some obtuse quests some pretty Oddball

gameplay systems that go relatively

unexplained

uh some inconsistent frame rate and

extremely lowkey opening hours but in a

lot of ways this is kind of the anti-pa

it ziggs where most games zag and while

that may be disorienting for some out

there I'm going to say I really like it

so what the hell even is this game it's

hard to explain if you haven't played

the first one if you have it's like that

it's an action RPG where you make your

character pick a class and explore a big

open world on the most basic level it

sounds IND distinguish able from most

high-profile action RPGs but this game

it's really not exactly like anything

else out there um the combat's a little

like Monster Hunter where a lot of the

beasts you take on are these gigantic

enemies that you can climb on target

weak points etc etc but instead of going

it alone or with a party of other

players Dragon's Dogma has you team up

with three pawns these are AI controlled

allies that have their own complex rules

governing their behavior there is no

multiplayer in this game so if that's

what you're looking for you're not going

to find it um I would argue there's

plenty of other things to look for

though uh there's the quests which tend

to be very open-ended uh and the

extremely systematic game world with day

and night cycles and NPCs with schedules

it's sort of like Monster Hunter had a

weird baby with Skyrim but I I don't

know that that accurately captures how

odd this game is it's one of those

things where you just have to play it or

at least see it for a while to get

what's really going on unlike the first

game which took way too long get you

into the open world this one starts with

a short prologue where you create your

character using the game's frankly

really impressive character creation

tools and then pretty well drops you

into the game if you so desire you can

totally ignore the main quest and start

exploring in random directions it's up

to you as an example of just how open

this game can be there's a quest where

this Soldier is escorting you back to

the capital in any other game this would

be some scripted thing where you're

forced to follow this guy but there's

nothing stopping you from going off the

beaten path and getting him killed by

mistake and if you fail the quest

there's no no restarting you just have

to make your way to the capital on your

own later on there's a gate that keeps

you from entering a southern section of

the map in any other game this would be

locked By plot progression but in Dragon

Dogma 2 there's other ways of getting

past there's just a level of Freedom you

rarely see in a game that is on this

scale there's multiple ways to resolve

quests you can access certain locations

earlier than you're supposed to you can

kill plot critical characters and

everything just keeps going the actual

presentation on all this stuff is isn't

always that impressive to be fair uh

there are a few full cutcenes um but

your character is a classic mute RPG

protagonist most of the dialogue is done

through basic text you know the old text

box technique and a character's just

standing somewhere you know it's

functional but pretty Bare Bones

compared to the presentation in a lot of

other modern RPGs the game is just

really unusual in that most of the main

quests are pretty flat and simple go

here and get that sort of things rarely

does a main quest even directly force

you into a fight most of the combat in

this game is incidental to exploring

rather than a driving force of the story

um it's not like Monster Hunter where

every main quest is to hunt a new

monster it's more like you're going

somewhere and they're just so Happ to

see a monster in your way side quests

can be a little more complex with

multiple possible outcomes depending on

what you decided to do this game never

gives you a Bethesda style drop- down

list of choices the things you do are

entirely up to you and it's both

liberating and potentially frustrating

depend on exactly how you drive with it

for an example of what I'm talking about

there's a quest called hunt for the jite

orb where a guy had this orb stolen from

I mean he had an orb and somebody took

the orb there's two guys who want it and

you could just find the orb and hand it

over to either of them if you want but

if you really want to resolve the quest

the best way you go to the local item

forger and get a duplicate made of the

orb and you give the crappy one to the

jerk and the real one to the nice guy

and you get a better reward none of how

this plays out is signposted or

explained other than the general Quest

area where these guys appear um beyond

that it it just leaves you up to figure

this stuff out and when you do it feels

awesome I really like knowing that

everybody is satisfied with their orb

even though one of the orbs is clearly

inferior they don't know that and I

don't have to stick around to find out

if anybody gets orb regret I just move

right on the game does have a few

systems to help you out though like the

pawns for example who depending on their

experience may be able to guide you

during a certain Quest but that usually

just boils down to taking you to a

specific place and I mean that's it this

can be extremely helpful During certain

Quest don't get me wrong but they're not

going to explain any fine details of

anything for you there's also an oracle

who's about equally as helpful uh and

when I say that what I mean is not that

helpful on the subject of Pawns yes

they're better than they were in the

first game and yes they don't talk as

much they still talk too much and repeat

certain lines a lot like do you really

need to point out that same ladder every

time I pass by it I don't think you do

but overall again they talk a lot less

and act more intelligently in battle

pawns are what make combat in Dragon

Dogma feel unlike any other RPG because

you're rolling with a team of three AI

assistants that can only be given four

vague commands like come here and help

which might make them sound kind of

worthless but if you built a solid team

they can practically win battles for you

you can obtain pawns from these Rift

Stones there's one main Pawn you design

yourself and then you can bring along

two guest pawns which are the ones you

obtain by using Rift stones and spending

in-game currency called Rift crystals

pawns on your own are always free um but

higher level pawns cost more and

depending on your settings the ones you

see in the rift will either be pawns

created by other players or pawns

created by Capcom there's a whole lot to

talk about here with these things how

they work what they do but I'm going to

give you the short version here and say

that they work they work really well

actually and while you'll be swapping

out guest pawns a lot cuz they can't

gain experience in your world finding

new and better pawns is always

satisfying another thing I appreciate is

there's surprisingly not that much menu

busy work in this game there's basic

crafting but you're only making a few

specific items there's skills and

different jobs to unlock but those are

only accessed at certain vendors and

while there's a lot of different armor

and sets of weapons to find there's no

randomization on stats or anything it's

not a loot game you're only getting so

much stuff and it's a big relief so most

of your time get this is spent doing the

actual fun parts of an RPG fighting

monsters and exploring the world there's

a lot to explore in this game too the

world map is very very large it's full

of little secrets and tons of unique

little things too they clearly put a lot

of effort into making this an enjoyable

world just to be in um it's dense

without resorting to covering the map in

Ubisoft style icons so a lot of what you

end up doing feels natural because

you're the one who found it you're not

just marking objectives off a checklist

you're doing things because you want to

do them at least that's what I assume

maybe there's something wrong with you I

don't know but yeah and there's tons of

cool stuff to find I haven't played a

game rewards your curiosity like this

since Elon ring like there's some really

really crazy stuff tucked away in the

corners of this world and yeah well

you're wandering around you are going to

deal with a pretty constant onslaught of

enemies mostly some combination of

wolves goblins Bandits harpies with a

random giant monster thrown in good

measure like a cyclops or a griffin the

world is just dense with enemies and

ambushes so it can get a little

exhausting after a while I'm not going

to say it can't it'd be a bigger issue

if the combat wasn't so damn good and

and make no mistake it's very good no

matter whether you're playing as a

warrior an Archer a thief a mage or one

of the more exotic hybrid classes you're

going to have a ton of tools to work

with every class has a few basic attacks

but the many special moves you can

unlock really change how your character

works as you rank up your class you

unlock flash year more over the top

abilities and it really works well one

important thing to keep in mind is that

if there's one thing this game isn't

it's dark souls there's no Dodge button

by default and no lock on so how you end

up playing is pretty fundamentally

different you can climb on top of

monsters and stab them or grab their

legs and push them over everything's

fully affected by physics which can

sometimes work out in your favor and

sometimes really work against you

battles can be chaotic and crazy the

terrain you're fighting on can make a

huge difference in battle as you explore

and fight monsters you're overall health

slowly drains from scratch damage and

the only way to heal it is to rest at an

inn or make Camp the addition of camping

also makes Dragon STG but to an obvious

pick over the original um you're no

longer forced to wander around in the

Pitch Black Knight and it doesn't just

restore your health without having to

take a lengthy trip back to town for an

inn it does other stuff you got the

prerequisite cooking menu only this time

you're cooking real meat it's such an

odd but Charming inclusion to make all

the cooking cut scenes full motion video

like actual video footage of cooking of

meat it's another way this game is just

doing its own thing and there's a lot of

combat uh because there is a lot of

wandering around there's very few

options for fast travel uh there are ox

carts which can transport you between

major cities and it's a very rare

expensive stones that can be used to

instantly teleport but that's it which

means you're going to be doing a lot of

hiking which would be worse but the

world is it's honestly So Beautiful to

explore and the combat is so enjoyable

having to walk through certain parts

multiple times doesn't quite have the

sting it does in certain other games

this is a stunning game at times too the

environment are incredibly detailed

overall and at any given moment you'll

be at a Grand Vista that's hard not to

just stop and stare at for a while I'm

playing it on PS5 and while the visuals

are excellent for the console the frame

rate isn't quite there if you're on the

Wilderness it mostly stays above 30 but

in certain dense areas like the main

city the frame rate is going to tank I

wish the game had some kind of

performance mode to make up for this but

it doesn't if you want 60 frames per

second Dragon's Dogma 2 um it's not

going to be on console that's that's not

happening that's not how you're going to

get it you got to get it on PC but I

I'll also say that the 30 frames per

second didn't really bother me didn't

hurt the experience of playing it at the

very least the performance is a lot

better than the original game on Xbox

360 um now that game that was a chugger

as someone who's usually pretty

sensitive about games that aren't 60

frames per second this one really wasn't

so bad it it might be that I I've played

the original a lot and this feels a lot

like the original except for it doesn't

crap out the way that the original did

all the time and like there's some games

that Target 30 frames per second they

feel like they're in slow motion or

underwater um this game feels really

responsive at that frame rate so it's

it's pretty tolerable at least to me I

haven't seen any bugs like I don't love

that frame rate but man not one bug so

far that's amazing for how complex this

game is I've definitely seen a lot of

oddness like certain enemies barely

hanging off a ledge or NPC shuffling

into place or awkwardly facing the wrong

direction to talk during a quest or

something but that doesn't mean it's not

working right that's just a little bit

of that Jank I kind of expected that

bugs and Jank or different things and

there were parts of the game where I

thought maybe like a trigger was missing

um maybe a real bug but uhuh wrong that

was just me being dumb I'm just so used

to RPG's handholding you through quests

uh that when a game makes me figure it

out it feels wrong which I guess is kind

of really sad actually but it's also it

makes me really happy that this game

trusts me I don't know that there's

something about that that makes me like

it more even though it might be a little

bit more frustrating I do think that is

going to cause some people not

necessarily to drive with the game it

does expect a lot out of you like I said

I like that but not everybody is going

to many things are are are they're not

explained or just expect you to

experiment to figure it out and the

actual main plot isn't super interesting

at least at first it eventually goes to

some pretty wild places but that first

or so hours there's not a really large

amount of attempt of getting you

invested it's one of those games that's

so confident in what it is that it

doesn't even try to rope in new players

and to me that's just it's so good the

lack of tutorials the straightforward

opening the unmarked Secrets open-ended

quests it expects a lot from the player

it trusts the player to be able to do

those things and if you're willing to go

with it there's a whole lot of fun to be

had here they did not dumb it down to

capture a wider audience it's a game

that's unlike almost every other open

world game out there and while there are

some boring and awkward moments it's

overall a game that I would highly

recommend to anybody who loved the

original or wants an open world game

that's a little less formulaic than we

normally get it's frustrating and it is

confusing at times but it's the good

kind of frustrating and confusing the

kind that keeps you coming back from

more because when you figure it out

you're like thank you ccom for letting

me do it I did it thank you it's an

excellent game over overall uh but what

the hell's going on with the uh generic

fantasy music over the title screen what

the hell is that I don't understand that

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very much for watching this video I'm

Falcon you can follow me on Twitter

Falcon the hero we'll see you next time

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