All the ways Dragon’s Dogma 2 will fight against you

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a fascinating open-world fantasy role-playing game that gives players great freedom to explore and deep customization options to build their character and party. Dragon’s Dogma 2 is also incredibly restrictive. It doesn’t care much about your expectations of it based on other games you might’ve played (e.g., Elden Ring, Baldur’s Gate 3), nor does it follow many conventions of modern game design. That’s kind of the appeal, though — Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a throwback. It adheres to many of the rules defined by the original Dragon’s Dogma more than a decade ago. But as you start your journey in the kingdom of Vermund, you might find yourself wondering, Am I doing something wrong? What the hell is going on in this game? Don’t worry. It’s not just you. Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a brilliant game, but it’s not trying to cater to all players, particularly those looking for instant gratification or, like, convenience. There’s no enemy lock-on If you’re like me and have been playing some Elden Ring lately in anticipation of Shadow of the Erdtree’s arrival, you may wind up consulting Dragon’s Dogma 2’s control options early on to figure out how to target-lock enemies in combat. Here’s the thing: You can’t. [Image: https://platform.polygon.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25348420/DD2_Combat_01_png_jpgcopy.jpg?quality=90&strip=all] Sure, you can grab onto enemies to pick them up, throw them, or climb on them like you’re battling a Shadow of the Colossus boss. But you can’t, say, click in one of the analog sticks to lock on to monsters to make combat easier to wrap your head around. Fortunately, your pawns have pretty good aim. And the game may have something of a soft lock to make your attacks connect, but don’t expect Devil May Cry-style lock-on during combat encounters. You have extremely limited fast travel There’s really no easy means of fast travel in Dragon’s Dogma 2. You can find and purchase consumable items called Ferrystones that will let you teleport to other locations. But teleporting is extremely limited — there are only a few Port Crystals in the game to teleport to. Instead, you’ll have to rely on your own two feet to get around the game’s huge map. Alternatively, you can take oxcarts from town to town, but those are limited too, both in availability and speed. While riding in an oxcart, you can nap through much of the ride, but your journey may be interrupted by monster attacks or roving bandits, cutting your trip short. [Image: https://platform.polygon.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25348394/DD2___Vernwerth_png_jpgcopy.jpg?quality=90&strip=all] There are also a handful of ropeways that will let you travel through the skies of this ancient land, but ropeway travel is even more perilous than going by oxcart. Expect to be harassed by harpies and griffins while riding in the game’s few available gondolas. (Heads up that you can also get around while holding on to some flying beasts. Just don’t expect them to take you anywhere you want to go.) Dragon’s Dogma 2 game director Hideaki Itsuno told IGN in an interview earlier this year that the game’s lack of fast travel is by design. “We’ve put a lot of work into designing a game where you can stumble across someone and something will happen,” he explained, “so while it’s fine if it does have fast travel, we decided to design the map in a way that the journey [itself] could be enjoyed.” There are no difficulty options While many modern games strive to offer an array of difficulty options to appease a broad base of players, Dragon’s Dogma 2 offers only one. If you want to make the game slightly easier, hire some powerful pawns. Play as a Trickster to avoid direct combat. Just don’t expect a “story mode” level of difficulty. See those towers? You can climb them... for some cardio Dragon’s Dogma 2’s map is peppered with watchtowers that will provide a great view of the landscape. Some towers even have ballistae at the top. Those powerful weapons, your pawns will tell you, might just give you a tactical advantage. But the towers in Dragon’s Dogma 2 don’t function like the towers in other open-world games, particularly those made by Ubisoft. They won’t open up huge portions of the in-game map. And those ballistae? They’re hard to aim, take a long time to fire, and don’t actually do much damage against the game’s giant flying monsters. The towers do serve as regular resetters of expectations, and they’re often filled with treasure chests. Just don’t expect them to serve much of a purpose beyond that. All of this is to say that whatever expectations you bring to Dragon’s Dogma 2, they’ll be challenged in ways big and small. Some of those upended expectations might be annoying from a quality-of-life perspective — there are no graphics options to speak of on consoles, for example — but others are implemented specifically to sell the realism of living in this medieval fantasy world. That means the best way to experience Capcom’s new RPG is to leave your assumptions from other game experiences at the door.