Dragon’s Dogma 2

The first game never clicked with me. I hated that the running animation was slower than the movement which gave the feeling of running on a travelator or wearing roller blades. The character’s feet would slide across the ground for half a metre as they made contact. “Literally unplayable”.

It was wonderful to discover that this game’s movement had been fixed for me. In fact, it seems to be made on the same engine as Monster Hunter World, because all of the movement, animations, and gravity felt the same as MHW (a game I really loved).

My memory of MHW might be fading, but things like charging up a greatsword attack, or digging through rubble for treasure felt like they used similar, if not identical animations. The these glimpses of familiarity really helped ease me into the game so I’m spending less time getting a feel for the game, and more time enjoying it.  

The way I would describe Dragon’s Dogma 2 is “Monster Hunter World, but in a Skyrim open world fantasy setting”. There’s item gathering, mining, crafting, cutting off monster parts, stamina, and my favourite inclusion: FMV cooking.

Note: I started writing this on the 29th of March, and it is now the 26th of June. I fell off this game hard, and as such stopped writing this entry. For the sake of publishing something I’m just going to conclude my current thoughts here and move on.

The game was fun while it lasted. Combat and gameplay was really enjoyable, but the plot felt like an afterthought. Lack of standard fast travel wore out its welcome by the end of my time playing it (even with all the ferry stones). And it may have been a lot more engaging if I didn’t groan every time I had to travel from one end of the map to the other.

There may be a future in which I return to Dragon’s Dogma 2, but I’m pretty flat out with other hobbies and Life right now.