Dragon’s Dogma 2 feels like a perfect second try at the original – but could the ‘Isekai’ theories be true?
Published on 5 Mar 2024
The original Dragon’s Dogma is one of my personal favourite games – but I can’t deny it has a few shortcomings. What’s surprising is in the brief time I got to speak with him I learned Hideaki Itsuno, Dragon’s Dogma 2’s director, felt exactly the same way. To him the original game is a flawed example of the dream game he’s always wanted to create, which is why I assume he only spoke of Dragon’s Dogma 2 with an infectious glee.
So much of what I experienced in the time I played Dragon’s Dogma 2 gave me a very strange, but comfortable feeling of deja-vu. Have you ever gone back to play a game from your childhood, only to feel disappointed that it didn’t look or play as well as you remembered? Dragon’s Dogma 2 feels like the inverse of that sensation: as if I’m replaying the original ten years later, but it feels better and looks prettier than I remember.
My adventure in Dragon’s Dogma 2 began in the city of Battahl, a large Beastren settlement with striking similarities to the original Dragon’s Dogma’s Gran Soren. The Beastrens are a newly playable race in the sequel, something Itsuno-san was keen to include from its outset. ‘I was really glad to implement them into the game in the scale I always wanted to,’ he told me. ‘Not only do different Beastren characters appear throughout the game, but you can play as one as well. This is the level I wanted to bring the Beastren to originally, but was never able to achieve in the first game, as they only had a small appearance in the original.’
The save file I was provided with had been meticulously set up to provide me with the most straightforward experience for my preview. My Arisen was a Magick Archer and a Beastren, outfitted with good equipment, and I had three equally well equipped pawns at my disposal. Directly in front of me was Battahl’s main gate, my path into the open world. To my right, there
