Agent_4Seven
Tears of Nintendo
So, after playing for almost ~140 hrs and finishing the game, I've quite a few thought about the game and let me start by saying that it's really good a fooling you at presenting itself to you as a much better than original game, while if fact and in some aspects it sure it, but in so many others it is most surely not. But first things first. I'll be covering each aspect of the game in-depth and in the best possible way I can, but I know that not a lot of people here like to read mountains of text, so here's a quick summary, but I'd like to emphasize that these are just very basic and surface level points and if you wondering why something here, not there etc., I'm sorry, but you need to read the whole thing to find out specifics and much more in-depth thoughts. Also, there will be some spoilers so keep that in mind as well and the review is so big that it'll be in two parts with two posts. But with all that out of the way, let's begin with...
Now, let's begin the review proper. I'll start with positive things first, the first of which is....
Combat and Vocations in Dragon's Dogma "2" is basically somewhat identical to what was in original X360/PS3 game, except this time we have a couple of new classes (one is missing from the game, which is Mystic Knight with great shields and stuff) and animation quality as well as movements stuff was upgraded to modern standards. So this time around we've Fighter, Warrior, Mystic Spearhand, Thief, Mage, Sourcerer, Archer, Magick Archer and Trickster and Warfarer. I haven't played as a Mage, Sorcerer, Archer, Warfarer, Thief and especially Trickster, so I don't have anything to say about these classes. Fighter I think is one of the worst classes when it comes to Capcom's attention to it, what I mean by that is that as well as Warrior, this class simply doesn't have any magical weapons whatsoever, ZERO, shields included. Now, I know that Mage can cover you on that front but here's the thing, there's no guarantee that every pawn will have all elemental buffs for every situation and scrolls are very limited, not to mention that casting spells as a warrior or a fighter is not ideal way of doing things cuz they need to be at the frontline and always actively killing things, not casting spells to get the elemental buffs to fit specific combat situation. I've played the game as a Fighter at first for about 30 hours and then decided to switch to Warrior. Man, the warrior is insane killing machine, slow as fuck and can't cover the air at all, but when it comes to hitting thing hard and staggering, it's one of the best classes in the game, though you need to learn how to play as a Warrior properly to maximize damage and crownd control. I had a lot of fun playing as a Warrior, but it really sucks when it comes to flying enemies and it practically useless if you want to climb and hit bigger enemies and especially their weak points, Fighter and Mystic Spearhead (and I'm sure that Thief as well) are much better at this and way faster. So Warrior is only good for dealing massive damage and staggering (especially if you upgrade weapons using dwarven technique - late game stuff, not available in early / mid game), somewhat for crown control and nothing else. Climbing huge monsters is a big thing in Dragon's Dogma, cuz it is one of the most effective ways to kill them faster and Golem for example is impossible to kill faster with a Warrior, not to mention that it's the worst enemy in the game is killing him is a fuckin' chore and bore fest.
So, as soon as I unlocked Mystic Spearhead I instantly switched to it and man, it's so much better than warrior and fighter. Not only do you have way better mobility and basically have air dash move to help with exploration, but you also have some pretty op and extremely fast combat spells and moves so there's like zero time lag in combat while doing it, it's probably the most satisfying direct combat class in the game period, I had a shit ton of fun playing as Mystic Spearhead and also one other cool thing about it is that it also has magical weapons, so you can easily kill slimes without Mage or Sorcerer's help with their buffs, scrolls etc. But I do think that magick balls you can shoot are pathetic and only useful as a fully charged shot, I wish there was more to this basic skill like chain lighting and stuff, but unfortunately this was locked behind other stupid ability which I haven't even used cuz I don't like how it works and wasting skill slot. Here's the thing about the Mystic Spearhead and it's kinda funny actually.... it's so OP (especially if you're using magic shield) even before the end game that I've decided to switch to Fighter to have some resemblance of challenge, even though I sacrificed much needed movement upgrades and speed in the process. I ended up playing a pretty significant late and endgame chunk of the game as a fighter and finished the game without switching to any other class. I've played as an Archer for a bit, liked it and decided to give it a shot in NG+ (more on that later). I also played the game as a Magick Archer for quite a few levels and... I just don't like this class at all. I mean, Magic Archer is basically a boring af Archer with mecha-like auto-targeting magical arrows which can hit multiple enemies / weak spots etc. I tried to give this class a chance but it's just not for me, as well as Trickster. So, what, you're not allowing other classes to wear all armor sets which makes no sense, but here you have a significantly compromised class which is completely wasting one ability slot to use different weapons while at the same time can't use supers of other classes and on top of that is very limited to only 3 ability slots? SERIOUSLY? FUCK YOU WITH THIS BS! This class alone clearly shows that armor restrictions make no sense, add nothing to the game and only makes it worse by limiting player freedom and options of how they want to play the game. I can't stress this enough, it's very bad design and it makes no sense whatsoever.
What I don't like about the combat, is that even though it's fun and enjoyable and they've added the best close combat class which is Mystic Spearhead, the core of it is almost exactly the same as in original game, so there's no any significant changes as to how it works, there no way for you to alter it in any way to make it better, you can't use crafting system to upgrade weapons and add elemental damage to them etc. Not only that, there's also so much annoying stuff about it which makes it very frustrating at times. So, stamina is your worst enemy in the game, literally, and there's only one way for you to restore it - very small amount of items you can craft, you always have very few of them, there's no potions to restore only stamina and magic classes can't restore stamina for you as well. Very often you'll be stunlocked when out of stamina and enemies can slother you in seconds and there's nothing you can do. Not only that, but pawns can only restore a tiny bit of your stamina if they'll touch you, but they're not always doing that even if you're asking for help. As if that's not enough, staggering is also one of the worst enemies in the game cuz you can be staggered by just one hit and then a few enemies can hit you multiple times and you can't do shit! There's no dodge move of any kind, you can't roll at all, the games doesn't have any kind of slow time mechanic and perfect dodge system, so regardless of any class you're playing expect maybe Thief, cuz I've seen how bandits dodging attacks, so I guess you can do it as a Thief. WHY THE FUCK you can't dodge, roll or side step as a Fighter, Warrior or Mystic Spearhead? WHY THE FUCK CAN'T YOU?! IT MAKES NO FUCKIN' SENSE! But as if that's not enough to frustrate the fuck outta you, say hello to a fuckin' slide mechanic which can literally suck all the fun out of combat (and exploration, more on that later) and make you pull your hair out in rage. What a complete brain dead idiot and moron thought that it was a good idea to add this to the game? How did it even get through testing and QA and end up in the launch build? WHAT THE FUCK? FOR WHOM IT IS FOR? I can't tell you how many times sliding stuff completely destroyed combat encounters and all the fun I had, cuz yeah, there's nothing better than to slide into a bottomless pit, fall from a ledge etc. while performing super moves or any other combat stuff for that matter, right? NO! And it happens so many times that you literally move away to a more open space just so you don't have to deal with this frustrating af BS. I hope that people responsible for this will suffer in hell. Another huge issue is that combat wasn't designed for tight spaces such as caves and stuff, so you also have to deal with various, annoying af and frustrating camera issues in caves and during normal exploration of tight spaces outside in open world.
I can't help but to compare combat in DD"2" to FFXVI, cuz both of them were made and designed by Capcom or ex-Capcom combat designers, yet DD"2" combat is so much better overall cuz you've much better and different options and classes, while in FFXVI you can only spam the same abilities and basic combat moves the whole game, even the fact that you can lock on during combat and dodge with slowing time stuff doesn't make it better. But it's not the only comparison to FFXVI, more on that later. Ultimately, combat is definitely one of the best parts of DD"2", it's such a shame though that there's nothing more to it outside of new classes and there's also quite a few very frustrating parts of it only mods can fix, but even they can't fix everything, like completely turning off slide stuff in and outside of combat, camera issues etc.
But let's talk about another best part of the game, which is Pawns and Pawn System.
I FUCKIN' LOVE PAWNS AND PAWN SYSTEM! Literally and objectively the best AI party system in gaming period (ancient, old and modern)! It is so, SO MUCH IMPROVED in DD"2" in comparison to the original game like you wouldn't believe. You can say - Agent, but wait, it was pretty good in the original game already and there's no match to it still outside of this remake, so.... what's even improved and added and how can you make it better? Well, let me explain. So first of all, remember how annoying and talkative pawns were in the original game, they talked all the time in combat and basically wouldn't shut up ever. Well, there's nothing like that in DD"2" at all, they obviously talk and comment on things, saying the same things (which is already addressed via patch) etc. but in no way it is so bad as in the original game and it's NEVER annoying to make your ears bleed. So, there's no need for mods to make them shut up. What's also cool about Pawns and Pawn System in DD''2'' and them commenting things is that they have a lot, A LOT more personality now based on various specializations and behaviour, so Calm pawns will be way different than Straightforward ones and so on in terms of how the act, how they look at you, at the world, what's going in it etc. It's so fuckin' good and fascinating to watch, hear and experience, that no language in the world have enough words to discribe how good this system is and how much I love it. Pawns can comment on that you carry too much weight and maybe you should let them carry stuff for you, they can comment on their past experiences based on their experience with other players and with you while talking to other pawns, they can talk about specializations, vocations and such, and that they feel much better and more confident now that they're helping you while being a warrior, sorcerer etc. Paws can also comment on your actions, quest outcomes, on what's happening in the world, they can guide you to caves and locations they know of based on experience with other players and it basically eliminates the need for map markers etc. cuz it's a much better, way more realistic and organic system ever build for a game. But as if that's not enough, Pawn's personality can make very mundane, repetitive stuff in the game so much not a problem at all cuz of just how they react to things that it's never an issue anymore and it can also very positively affect your personal mood in real life as well. I mean, again', as if you can't tell, I FUCKIN' LOVE PAWN'S AND PAWNS SYSTEM!
There was this one Pawn (but not the only one) I fuckin' adore and I traveled with her for dozens of hours even though she was undeleveled (more on that later), Imagine extremely lighthearted, very cozy and comfy beaster pawn Warrrior which is very supportive of you, sees the world in super positive light, has this really cute voice, extremely adventurous to the point that every second is an adventure to her and she sees treasure chest everywhere. OOOOOOH! LOOK! MATSER! A TREASURE CHEST!.... Oh, no, he-he-he, I'm sorry master, don't mind me, it's just a regular crate. And there's so much stuff like this I even stopped counting, IT NEVER GETS OLD AND ALWAYS LIGHTEN UP YOU MOOD AND KILL STRESS IN SECONDS LIKE IT'S NOTHING! Whoever made all this possible 12 years ago and now 12 later made it even better should be promoted to the highest possible rank, get paid for life and be blessed by every kind of miracle in existence. I want to meet this person, shake his or her hand and hug him or her to death. What I also want to do is show my appreciation for the pawns in the game, but I can't do that at all, cuz there's no system like that, you can only fist bump / high five and that's it after combat encounters and it's such a shame. I want to hug Pawns to show how much I love what they do, for who they are and to show them that I am grateful that they catched me after I fell off the cliff or something, I want to give them gifts without sending them away, I want a deep bond system which can let them love you more as well, work together better etc. I think it's a real missed opportunity that system like this is not in the game and I just don't like how pawns react to you as a player like they're slaves and must obey your every command, I personally think that it's very insulting in regards to Pawn and I always feel bad when they're saying that they must obey and stuff. What I also don't like is that there's no way for you to lock other players pawn states and choose between the pawn you last had (vocation, personality etc.) and not the current and up to date, cuz remember this warrior pawn I talked about, well, she was killed, I got so upset cuz I loved her to death and guess what... main player changed her vocations, personality etc. and I can't hire this pawn I loved to death anymore and I hate this with passion! Why can't you choose different pawn states and be forced to choose what other players did after you hired their pawn and played for dozens of hours? Clearly Pawn was different before and has changed since last you hired him or her, but since you also have a world, why can't Pawns be stored in it on a server somewhere and offer you a choice? Why? I don't like this one bit and if we'll get a true sequel I want this to be improved cuz it's a huge issue for me personaly.
All in all, Pawns and Pawn System is an absolute killer feature of DD''2'', it's immensely and significantly improved as well as expanded in way more ways than one in comparison to original game. But there's a huge issue in terms of narrative in regards to pawns but I'll get to that later when i'll get to the story and stuff related to it. But for now, I want to talk about the world and exploration, how much they were improved etc.
The world is one of the aspects of DD"2" which was also significantly improved in terms of how you explore it and the way you look at exploration as a whole. Capcom was clearly inspired and looked at games like Breath of The Wild and Tears of the Kingdom cuz you see the influence almost everywhere. There's a lot of verticality to the world and locations so it is practically never just flat land, there's a lot of canions, high cliffs, mountains, bridges (which can be destroyed both accidentally and on purpose ib combat) a lot of hidden passages, roadways, caves etc. which you simply can't see by just looking at the world from a high vantage point. So it's almost always a welcome surprise to find something cuz what you see from above is just a tiny surface, and points of interest which are in fact full of stuff for you to find and discover. But unlike Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom for that matter, the world in DD"2" even though is vast and has a sense of scale, but at the same time it's more compact and more densely packed with stuff, cuz in BOTW it's mostly just a lot of empty space with goblin camps here and there and occasional chests, so it feels empty in the end. What Capcom did in DD"2" is exactly the way I would've approached fixing BOTW's world problems (or basically any open world game made by Ubisoft). I'll talk about dungeons and stuff in just a bit, but the main takeaway is that exploration in DD"2" is never boring, uninteresting or none eventful, actually quite the opposite and I love it and the fact that the world design is so much better is just the icing on the cake. You want to explore the world, you want to find and discover stuff and with a much better paws and pawn system it's even more compelling and exciting. But... yeah, there's a problem... or actually quite a few of them.
See, Capcom sure made the world and exploration significantly better in DD"2", but they failed to make the majority of ruins, crypts and caves exciting to explore cuz by design they are very bad, boring and repetitive. I mean, maybe there's no 100% identical caves and crypts in the game (at least I don't remember seeing plain and blatant copy & pastes), but it's almost always just straight and boring corridors or a few rooms with enemies here and there. There's a few vast cave complexes for sure and they're much more than just straight corridors and it's cool, there's a lot of verticality to them, there's quite a few floors there and stuff, but the overwhelming majority of caves are very bad. The same pretty much can be said about ruins, so they're nowhere near as good as in Elden Ring even, where pretty much majority of ruins and crypts were different with environmental puzzles for you to solve, tough enemies and bosses (even though the same ones but with a twist sometimes) to fight, exciting stuff to find etc. etc. One other thing I wanted to say about ruins, crypts and caves is that 99% of them don't even have something cool for you to find, be it new and cool gear, weapons, armor etc. it's mostly just crafting materials, potions, magic scrolls and extremely rarely a weapon or some piece of gear, but even then one other problem in regards to all of this is that the absolute and vast majority of weapons, armor and other gear is only available to buy from vendors, so forget about finding anything they're selling in caves, crypt or ruins, unless designers put something there and it'll always be there waiting for you which is 1% out of 100. This is not good at all and bad design. I mean, maybe Capcom thought that getting money and stuff by exploring the world is the way to go here so that we can then go and just buy better gear, but personally I don't think it's good design, cuz it's not exiting to just go and buy stuff (which is insultingly overpriced), cuz you haven't found it yourself and it wasn't given to you as a reward for exploration, you just bought it from the vendor. Interesting thing though, FFXVI also suffers from exactly the same problems, but it's much worse there cuz you can't buy anything but weapons and you only have one great armor set in the whole game which is the very first one. Unfortunately for DD"2" and Capcom, it won't be the last comparison to FFXVI I'll be making.
So yeah, as much as it pains me to say it and even more so to see in the game, Capcom dopped the boll hard when it comes to designing vast majority of caves, crypts and ruins in DD''2'' and outside of what Spynx can offer in terms of riddles, there's not a single environmental puzzle in the game at all be it in open world, during story quests, side quests etc. To be fair though, even dispite all of these major shortcomings the world explorations is still exiting in DD"2", so there's that. But let's talk about how the world (and the game) actually looks and what you can do with it with mods on that front in the second part of the review below![Backhand index pointing down :point_down: š](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f447.png)
The Good:
1) Combat
2) Variety of classes with uniqe skills, abilities and movesets
3) Pawns & Pawn System
4) Updated, unique and expanded gameplay mechanics and systems
5) Great and addicting exploration
6) Excellent visuals & art design (mostly environments, NPC's aren so good)
7) Exceptional armor and wapon designs across the board and variety of classes
8) Visual presentation - even better with lore friendly mods
The Mixed:
1) Very limited interactions with Pawns - it's mostly just fist bumps and such (which 50% of the time don't work) after the battle and nothing else to show your appreciation or love for the pawn based on what they do
2) Pointless level up system with +2 to this and that
3) I don't feel like weapon upgrades add anything to the game or combat (maybe except knockdown power), since at the mid-endgame all of the enemies will die after the same amount of hits as in the early game and it's not good or adds to the challenge, enemies will simplu adapt to any of your weapon upgrades
4) You can't do anything with weapons and armor beyond just upping their stats, so you can't add any element type to weapons you like and make them more powerfull, you can't add any elemental resistances to any armor or shileds to add more protections from various elements
5) You can't lock pawn vocations and levels when and after you hire them
6) Paying anything more than 500 gold to sleep in the Inn is unsulting POS and BS
7) Pointless option to buy houses in the cities outside one quest, insane prices as well.
8) Though fun, but still repetative creature battles with zero set-piece moments or anything relabeling something similar
9) Not enough drastic changes in how combat works and what it offers on the base level
10) Shpinx
11) Completely pointless timer in the endgame
The Bad:
1) Enemy variety (you mostly be fighting the same mobs and bandits the whole game)
2) Hydra is nowhere to be found in the game
3) You can only find one Medusa in the whole game in one specific spot on the map and nowhere elese
4) Drakes literally nailed to specific locations, not flying anywhere (unless you agro them), can't randomly attack you outside of the locations they were placed by designers - why on earth dragon's can't fly over the map, Capcom?
5) Out of all bosses in the game (of which there aren't many), Griffins have the most unpredictability and mobility, can move around the world freely
6) Extremely bad magical weapon variety and availability - for example you literally won't find a single sword or a shield with magical properties (fire, ice, lighting, holy etc) for example, so warriors and fighters are basically fucked - mage or sourcerer's magical buffs and magical spells you can use don't count cuz it's not an effin' answer to the problem
7) Lack of presets vith various skills you can switch between in combat based on situations - you're forced to use bonfires or vocation guilds to change your skills. 4 available skills to use at a time is simply not enough!
8) Very bad, bland, uneventful and repetitive dungeon and ruins design (indoors)
9) Completely pointless affections system with gifts (vendors don't count)
10) Almost complete lack of interactivity with the world outside of combat and during exploration and quests - puzzles, environmental puzzles etc. etc.
11) Most quests in the game is either go kill everything or go talk to someone and go back
12) Visually cool and new areas to access (which are mostly just dried out river beds) but overall very bad and boring af endgame (true ending)
13) Insane prices for weapons, armor and items even with 10% discounts
14) Pointless NG+ at this point and until sory Expansion/DLC will be released in time even if you haven't found a few quests and such
And the Ugly:
1) Absolutely abysmal technical state and performance on all paltforms and especially on PC on high end hardware and 3 DRMs, one worse than the other
2) Practically unplayable and much less enjoyable without installing QOL mods
3) Stamina system in and outside of combat - FOFF!
4) Encumbrance and weight system - FOFF as well and eat shit!
5) Constant inventory managment
6) Practically useless crafting system - you literally don't need it if you have a mage in the party and mostly everyone has mage in theit party
7) Extremely annoying, very restrictive sliding mechanic which not only can ruin exploration for and finding secrets, but also combat!!! You can't turn it off via mods as well. Fuck everyone who implemented it into the game.
8) Very restrictive fast travel system and stupid Portcrystal & Ferrystone mechanic. You can use one other way of travel, but unless you B-line the story and will focus on exploration instead, you won't have any other means of travel to the later locations and you can't to Vulcanic island that way at all.
9) Very bad, almost none existant, absolutely unmemorable and terribly written story and characters - you literally don't care about everything what's going on in the game story wise and same goes for all of the characters
10) Vey bad and almost none existant story presentation - there is some cool stuff, but there's so little of it that it literally doesn't count at all
11) TERRIBLE, dialogue system and presentations which was practicaly and visually unchaged from the X360 game
12) Horrible, needles, pointless, borring and annoying af escort quests
13) Bad quest designs here and there - for example you can't access some really cool and devastating spells for mage or a sorcerer cuz the game does not tell you that it's a quest and there's no way for you to figure it out that it is - it looks like some randoms stuff in open world, or completely missable elf quest which can soft lock you in the endgame and there's no way for you to know that before hand and that this quest even exists, cuz there's not even a single hint in the game to tell you about it
14) Literally can't name you a single memorable quest in the game outside of finding Shpinx and her puzzles, which is a journey in itself to even fing her.
15) Even though pawns and pawn system was improved, it's still very badly explained and showed story wise in any meaningful way, moreover, I think what they do with pawns is frankly insulting to them with slave-like mentality and such and there's no way for you as a player to change that in anyway
16) Idiotic designs with no lock on system, meaning that most of your attacks and supers won't do shit and will miss enemies and you can't cancel anything
17) No dodge etc. in combat to move away from enemies
18) Absurd stagger and pin down systems - you can be stunlocked or pinned down with 0 stamina and literally massacred by enemies and bosses if you don't have items to restore stamina and pawns not always and not most of the time are good and quick enough to react and fix this. I can't even tell you how frustrating all of this is.
19) Insulting beetles with pathetic weight increases
20) Even more disrespectful and insulting is Seeker Coins system and rewards - such a giant waste of time and slap in the face
1) Combat
2) Variety of classes with uniqe skills, abilities and movesets
3) Pawns & Pawn System
4) Updated, unique and expanded gameplay mechanics and systems
5) Great and addicting exploration
6) Excellent visuals & art design (mostly environments, NPC's aren so good)
7) Exceptional armor and wapon designs across the board and variety of classes
8) Visual presentation - even better with lore friendly mods
The Mixed:
1) Very limited interactions with Pawns - it's mostly just fist bumps and such (which 50% of the time don't work) after the battle and nothing else to show your appreciation or love for the pawn based on what they do
2) Pointless level up system with +2 to this and that
3) I don't feel like weapon upgrades add anything to the game or combat (maybe except knockdown power), since at the mid-endgame all of the enemies will die after the same amount of hits as in the early game and it's not good or adds to the challenge, enemies will simplu adapt to any of your weapon upgrades
4) You can't do anything with weapons and armor beyond just upping their stats, so you can't add any element type to weapons you like and make them more powerfull, you can't add any elemental resistances to any armor or shileds to add more protections from various elements
5) You can't lock pawn vocations and levels when and after you hire them
6) Paying anything more than 500 gold to sleep in the Inn is unsulting POS and BS
7) Pointless option to buy houses in the cities outside one quest, insane prices as well.
8) Though fun, but still repetative creature battles with zero set-piece moments or anything relabeling something similar
9) Not enough drastic changes in how combat works and what it offers on the base level
10) Shpinx
11) Completely pointless timer in the endgame
The Bad:
1) Enemy variety (you mostly be fighting the same mobs and bandits the whole game)
2) Hydra is nowhere to be found in the game
3) You can only find one Medusa in the whole game in one specific spot on the map and nowhere elese
4) Drakes literally nailed to specific locations, not flying anywhere (unless you agro them), can't randomly attack you outside of the locations they were placed by designers - why on earth dragon's can't fly over the map, Capcom?
5) Out of all bosses in the game (of which there aren't many), Griffins have the most unpredictability and mobility, can move around the world freely
6) Extremely bad magical weapon variety and availability - for example you literally won't find a single sword or a shield with magical properties (fire, ice, lighting, holy etc) for example, so warriors and fighters are basically fucked - mage or sourcerer's magical buffs and magical spells you can use don't count cuz it's not an effin' answer to the problem
7) Lack of presets vith various skills you can switch between in combat based on situations - you're forced to use bonfires or vocation guilds to change your skills. 4 available skills to use at a time is simply not enough!
8) Very bad, bland, uneventful and repetitive dungeon and ruins design (indoors)
9) Completely pointless affections system with gifts (vendors don't count)
10) Almost complete lack of interactivity with the world outside of combat and during exploration and quests - puzzles, environmental puzzles etc. etc.
11) Most quests in the game is either go kill everything or go talk to someone and go back
12) Visually cool and new areas to access (which are mostly just dried out river beds) but overall very bad and boring af endgame (true ending)
13) Insane prices for weapons, armor and items even with 10% discounts
14) Pointless NG+ at this point and until sory Expansion/DLC will be released in time even if you haven't found a few quests and such
And the Ugly:
1) Absolutely abysmal technical state and performance on all paltforms and especially on PC on high end hardware and 3 DRMs, one worse than the other
2) Practically unplayable and much less enjoyable without installing QOL mods
3) Stamina system in and outside of combat - FOFF!
4) Encumbrance and weight system - FOFF as well and eat shit!
5) Constant inventory managment
6) Practically useless crafting system - you literally don't need it if you have a mage in the party and mostly everyone has mage in theit party
7) Extremely annoying, very restrictive sliding mechanic which not only can ruin exploration for and finding secrets, but also combat!!! You can't turn it off via mods as well. Fuck everyone who implemented it into the game.
8) Very restrictive fast travel system and stupid Portcrystal & Ferrystone mechanic. You can use one other way of travel, but unless you B-line the story and will focus on exploration instead, you won't have any other means of travel to the later locations and you can't to Vulcanic island that way at all.
9) Very bad, almost none existant, absolutely unmemorable and terribly written story and characters - you literally don't care about everything what's going on in the game story wise and same goes for all of the characters
10) Vey bad and almost none existant story presentation - there is some cool stuff, but there's so little of it that it literally doesn't count at all
11) TERRIBLE, dialogue system and presentations which was practicaly and visually unchaged from the X360 game
12) Horrible, needles, pointless, borring and annoying af escort quests
13) Bad quest designs here and there - for example you can't access some really cool and devastating spells for mage or a sorcerer cuz the game does not tell you that it's a quest and there's no way for you to figure it out that it is - it looks like some randoms stuff in open world, or completely missable elf quest which can soft lock you in the endgame and there's no way for you to know that before hand and that this quest even exists, cuz there's not even a single hint in the game to tell you about it
14) Literally can't name you a single memorable quest in the game outside of finding Shpinx and her puzzles, which is a journey in itself to even fing her.
15) Even though pawns and pawn system was improved, it's still very badly explained and showed story wise in any meaningful way, moreover, I think what they do with pawns is frankly insulting to them with slave-like mentality and such and there's no way for you as a player to change that in anyway
16) Idiotic designs with no lock on system, meaning that most of your attacks and supers won't do shit and will miss enemies and you can't cancel anything
17) No dodge etc. in combat to move away from enemies
18) Absurd stagger and pin down systems - you can be stunlocked or pinned down with 0 stamina and literally massacred by enemies and bosses if you don't have items to restore stamina and pawns not always and not most of the time are good and quick enough to react and fix this. I can't even tell you how frustrating all of this is.
19) Insulting beetles with pathetic weight increases
20) Even more disrespectful and insulting is Seeker Coins system and rewards - such a giant waste of time and slap in the face
Now, let's begin the review proper. I'll start with positive things first, the first of which is....
![aTDsVum.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/aTDsVum.jpg)
Combat and Vocations in Dragon's Dogma "2" is basically somewhat identical to what was in original X360/PS3 game, except this time we have a couple of new classes (one is missing from the game, which is Mystic Knight with great shields and stuff) and animation quality as well as movements stuff was upgraded to modern standards. So this time around we've Fighter, Warrior, Mystic Spearhand, Thief, Mage, Sourcerer, Archer, Magick Archer and Trickster and Warfarer. I haven't played as a Mage, Sorcerer, Archer, Warfarer, Thief and especially Trickster, so I don't have anything to say about these classes. Fighter I think is one of the worst classes when it comes to Capcom's attention to it, what I mean by that is that as well as Warrior, this class simply doesn't have any magical weapons whatsoever, ZERO, shields included. Now, I know that Mage can cover you on that front but here's the thing, there's no guarantee that every pawn will have all elemental buffs for every situation and scrolls are very limited, not to mention that casting spells as a warrior or a fighter is not ideal way of doing things cuz they need to be at the frontline and always actively killing things, not casting spells to get the elemental buffs to fit specific combat situation. I've played the game as a Fighter at first for about 30 hours and then decided to switch to Warrior. Man, the warrior is insane killing machine, slow as fuck and can't cover the air at all, but when it comes to hitting thing hard and staggering, it's one of the best classes in the game, though you need to learn how to play as a Warrior properly to maximize damage and crownd control. I had a lot of fun playing as a Warrior, but it really sucks when it comes to flying enemies and it practically useless if you want to climb and hit bigger enemies and especially their weak points, Fighter and Mystic Spearhead (and I'm sure that Thief as well) are much better at this and way faster. So Warrior is only good for dealing massive damage and staggering (especially if you upgrade weapons using dwarven technique - late game stuff, not available in early / mid game), somewhat for crown control and nothing else. Climbing huge monsters is a big thing in Dragon's Dogma, cuz it is one of the most effective ways to kill them faster and Golem for example is impossible to kill faster with a Warrior, not to mention that it's the worst enemy in the game is killing him is a fuckin' chore and bore fest.
So, as soon as I unlocked Mystic Spearhead I instantly switched to it and man, it's so much better than warrior and fighter. Not only do you have way better mobility and basically have air dash move to help with exploration, but you also have some pretty op and extremely fast combat spells and moves so there's like zero time lag in combat while doing it, it's probably the most satisfying direct combat class in the game period, I had a shit ton of fun playing as Mystic Spearhead and also one other cool thing about it is that it also has magical weapons, so you can easily kill slimes without Mage or Sorcerer's help with their buffs, scrolls etc. But I do think that magick balls you can shoot are pathetic and only useful as a fully charged shot, I wish there was more to this basic skill like chain lighting and stuff, but unfortunately this was locked behind other stupid ability which I haven't even used cuz I don't like how it works and wasting skill slot. Here's the thing about the Mystic Spearhead and it's kinda funny actually.... it's so OP (especially if you're using magic shield) even before the end game that I've decided to switch to Fighter to have some resemblance of challenge, even though I sacrificed much needed movement upgrades and speed in the process. I ended up playing a pretty significant late and endgame chunk of the game as a fighter and finished the game without switching to any other class. I've played as an Archer for a bit, liked it and decided to give it a shot in NG+ (more on that later). I also played the game as a Magick Archer for quite a few levels and... I just don't like this class at all. I mean, Magic Archer is basically a boring af Archer with mecha-like auto-targeting magical arrows which can hit multiple enemies / weak spots etc. I tried to give this class a chance but it's just not for me, as well as Trickster. So, what, you're not allowing other classes to wear all armor sets which makes no sense, but here you have a significantly compromised class which is completely wasting one ability slot to use different weapons while at the same time can't use supers of other classes and on top of that is very limited to only 3 ability slots? SERIOUSLY? FUCK YOU WITH THIS BS! This class alone clearly shows that armor restrictions make no sense, add nothing to the game and only makes it worse by limiting player freedom and options of how they want to play the game. I can't stress this enough, it's very bad design and it makes no sense whatsoever.
What I don't like about the combat, is that even though it's fun and enjoyable and they've added the best close combat class which is Mystic Spearhead, the core of it is almost exactly the same as in original game, so there's no any significant changes as to how it works, there no way for you to alter it in any way to make it better, you can't use crafting system to upgrade weapons and add elemental damage to them etc. Not only that, there's also so much annoying stuff about it which makes it very frustrating at times. So, stamina is your worst enemy in the game, literally, and there's only one way for you to restore it - very small amount of items you can craft, you always have very few of them, there's no potions to restore only stamina and magic classes can't restore stamina for you as well. Very often you'll be stunlocked when out of stamina and enemies can slother you in seconds and there's nothing you can do. Not only that, but pawns can only restore a tiny bit of your stamina if they'll touch you, but they're not always doing that even if you're asking for help. As if that's not enough, staggering is also one of the worst enemies in the game cuz you can be staggered by just one hit and then a few enemies can hit you multiple times and you can't do shit! There's no dodge move of any kind, you can't roll at all, the games doesn't have any kind of slow time mechanic and perfect dodge system, so regardless of any class you're playing expect maybe Thief, cuz I've seen how bandits dodging attacks, so I guess you can do it as a Thief. WHY THE FUCK you can't dodge, roll or side step as a Fighter, Warrior or Mystic Spearhead? WHY THE FUCK CAN'T YOU?! IT MAKES NO FUCKIN' SENSE! But as if that's not enough to frustrate the fuck outta you, say hello to a fuckin' slide mechanic which can literally suck all the fun out of combat (and exploration, more on that later) and make you pull your hair out in rage. What a complete brain dead idiot and moron thought that it was a good idea to add this to the game? How did it even get through testing and QA and end up in the launch build? WHAT THE FUCK? FOR WHOM IT IS FOR? I can't tell you how many times sliding stuff completely destroyed combat encounters and all the fun I had, cuz yeah, there's nothing better than to slide into a bottomless pit, fall from a ledge etc. while performing super moves or any other combat stuff for that matter, right? NO! And it happens so many times that you literally move away to a more open space just so you don't have to deal with this frustrating af BS. I hope that people responsible for this will suffer in hell. Another huge issue is that combat wasn't designed for tight spaces such as caves and stuff, so you also have to deal with various, annoying af and frustrating camera issues in caves and during normal exploration of tight spaces outside in open world.
I can't help but to compare combat in DD"2" to FFXVI, cuz both of them were made and designed by Capcom or ex-Capcom combat designers, yet DD"2" combat is so much better overall cuz you've much better and different options and classes, while in FFXVI you can only spam the same abilities and basic combat moves the whole game, even the fact that you can lock on during combat and dodge with slowing time stuff doesn't make it better. But it's not the only comparison to FFXVI, more on that later. Ultimately, combat is definitely one of the best parts of DD"2", it's such a shame though that there's nothing more to it outside of new classes and there's also quite a few very frustrating parts of it only mods can fix, but even they can't fix everything, like completely turning off slide stuff in and outside of combat, camera issues etc.
But let's talk about another best part of the game, which is Pawns and Pawn System.
![Wm4KpVd.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/Wm4KpVd.jpg)
I FUCKIN' LOVE PAWNS AND PAWN SYSTEM! Literally and objectively the best AI party system in gaming period (ancient, old and modern)! It is so, SO MUCH IMPROVED in DD"2" in comparison to the original game like you wouldn't believe. You can say - Agent, but wait, it was pretty good in the original game already and there's no match to it still outside of this remake, so.... what's even improved and added and how can you make it better? Well, let me explain. So first of all, remember how annoying and talkative pawns were in the original game, they talked all the time in combat and basically wouldn't shut up ever. Well, there's nothing like that in DD"2" at all, they obviously talk and comment on things, saying the same things (which is already addressed via patch) etc. but in no way it is so bad as in the original game and it's NEVER annoying to make your ears bleed. So, there's no need for mods to make them shut up. What's also cool about Pawns and Pawn System in DD''2'' and them commenting things is that they have a lot, A LOT more personality now based on various specializations and behaviour, so Calm pawns will be way different than Straightforward ones and so on in terms of how the act, how they look at you, at the world, what's going in it etc. It's so fuckin' good and fascinating to watch, hear and experience, that no language in the world have enough words to discribe how good this system is and how much I love it. Pawns can comment on that you carry too much weight and maybe you should let them carry stuff for you, they can comment on their past experiences based on their experience with other players and with you while talking to other pawns, they can talk about specializations, vocations and such, and that they feel much better and more confident now that they're helping you while being a warrior, sorcerer etc. Paws can also comment on your actions, quest outcomes, on what's happening in the world, they can guide you to caves and locations they know of based on experience with other players and it basically eliminates the need for map markers etc. cuz it's a much better, way more realistic and organic system ever build for a game. But as if that's not enough, Pawn's personality can make very mundane, repetitive stuff in the game so much not a problem at all cuz of just how they react to things that it's never an issue anymore and it can also very positively affect your personal mood in real life as well. I mean, again', as if you can't tell, I FUCKIN' LOVE PAWN'S AND PAWNS SYSTEM!
There was this one Pawn (but not the only one) I fuckin' adore and I traveled with her for dozens of hours even though she was undeleveled (more on that later), Imagine extremely lighthearted, very cozy and comfy beaster pawn Warrrior which is very supportive of you, sees the world in super positive light, has this really cute voice, extremely adventurous to the point that every second is an adventure to her and she sees treasure chest everywhere. OOOOOOH! LOOK! MATSER! A TREASURE CHEST!.... Oh, no, he-he-he, I'm sorry master, don't mind me, it's just a regular crate. And there's so much stuff like this I even stopped counting, IT NEVER GETS OLD AND ALWAYS LIGHTEN UP YOU MOOD AND KILL STRESS IN SECONDS LIKE IT'S NOTHING! Whoever made all this possible 12 years ago and now 12 later made it even better should be promoted to the highest possible rank, get paid for life and be blessed by every kind of miracle in existence. I want to meet this person, shake his or her hand and hug him or her to death. What I also want to do is show my appreciation for the pawns in the game, but I can't do that at all, cuz there's no system like that, you can only fist bump / high five and that's it after combat encounters and it's such a shame. I want to hug Pawns to show how much I love what they do, for who they are and to show them that I am grateful that they catched me after I fell off the cliff or something, I want to give them gifts without sending them away, I want a deep bond system which can let them love you more as well, work together better etc. I think it's a real missed opportunity that system like this is not in the game and I just don't like how pawns react to you as a player like they're slaves and must obey your every command, I personally think that it's very insulting in regards to Pawn and I always feel bad when they're saying that they must obey and stuff. What I also don't like is that there's no way for you to lock other players pawn states and choose between the pawn you last had (vocation, personality etc.) and not the current and up to date, cuz remember this warrior pawn I talked about, well, she was killed, I got so upset cuz I loved her to death and guess what... main player changed her vocations, personality etc. and I can't hire this pawn I loved to death anymore and I hate this with passion! Why can't you choose different pawn states and be forced to choose what other players did after you hired their pawn and played for dozens of hours? Clearly Pawn was different before and has changed since last you hired him or her, but since you also have a world, why can't Pawns be stored in it on a server somewhere and offer you a choice? Why? I don't like this one bit and if we'll get a true sequel I want this to be improved cuz it's a huge issue for me personaly.
All in all, Pawns and Pawn System is an absolute killer feature of DD''2'', it's immensely and significantly improved as well as expanded in way more ways than one in comparison to original game. But there's a huge issue in terms of narrative in regards to pawns but I'll get to that later when i'll get to the story and stuff related to it. But for now, I want to talk about the world and exploration, how much they were improved etc.
![Dhzmx4T.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/Dhzmx4T.jpg)
The world is one of the aspects of DD"2" which was also significantly improved in terms of how you explore it and the way you look at exploration as a whole. Capcom was clearly inspired and looked at games like Breath of The Wild and Tears of the Kingdom cuz you see the influence almost everywhere. There's a lot of verticality to the world and locations so it is practically never just flat land, there's a lot of canions, high cliffs, mountains, bridges (which can be destroyed both accidentally and on purpose ib combat) a lot of hidden passages, roadways, caves etc. which you simply can't see by just looking at the world from a high vantage point. So it's almost always a welcome surprise to find something cuz what you see from above is just a tiny surface, and points of interest which are in fact full of stuff for you to find and discover. But unlike Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom for that matter, the world in DD"2" even though is vast and has a sense of scale, but at the same time it's more compact and more densely packed with stuff, cuz in BOTW it's mostly just a lot of empty space with goblin camps here and there and occasional chests, so it feels empty in the end. What Capcom did in DD"2" is exactly the way I would've approached fixing BOTW's world problems (or basically any open world game made by Ubisoft). I'll talk about dungeons and stuff in just a bit, but the main takeaway is that exploration in DD"2" is never boring, uninteresting or none eventful, actually quite the opposite and I love it and the fact that the world design is so much better is just the icing on the cake. You want to explore the world, you want to find and discover stuff and with a much better paws and pawn system it's even more compelling and exciting. But... yeah, there's a problem... or actually quite a few of them.
![x46qm78.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/x46qm78.jpg)
See, Capcom sure made the world and exploration significantly better in DD"2", but they failed to make the majority of ruins, crypts and caves exciting to explore cuz by design they are very bad, boring and repetitive. I mean, maybe there's no 100% identical caves and crypts in the game (at least I don't remember seeing plain and blatant copy & pastes), but it's almost always just straight and boring corridors or a few rooms with enemies here and there. There's a few vast cave complexes for sure and they're much more than just straight corridors and it's cool, there's a lot of verticality to them, there's quite a few floors there and stuff, but the overwhelming majority of caves are very bad. The same pretty much can be said about ruins, so they're nowhere near as good as in Elden Ring even, where pretty much majority of ruins and crypts were different with environmental puzzles for you to solve, tough enemies and bosses (even though the same ones but with a twist sometimes) to fight, exciting stuff to find etc. etc. One other thing I wanted to say about ruins, crypts and caves is that 99% of them don't even have something cool for you to find, be it new and cool gear, weapons, armor etc. it's mostly just crafting materials, potions, magic scrolls and extremely rarely a weapon or some piece of gear, but even then one other problem in regards to all of this is that the absolute and vast majority of weapons, armor and other gear is only available to buy from vendors, so forget about finding anything they're selling in caves, crypt or ruins, unless designers put something there and it'll always be there waiting for you which is 1% out of 100. This is not good at all and bad design. I mean, maybe Capcom thought that getting money and stuff by exploring the world is the way to go here so that we can then go and just buy better gear, but personally I don't think it's good design, cuz it's not exiting to just go and buy stuff (which is insultingly overpriced), cuz you haven't found it yourself and it wasn't given to you as a reward for exploration, you just bought it from the vendor. Interesting thing though, FFXVI also suffers from exactly the same problems, but it's much worse there cuz you can't buy anything but weapons and you only have one great armor set in the whole game which is the very first one. Unfortunately for DD"2" and Capcom, it won't be the last comparison to FFXVI I'll be making.
So yeah, as much as it pains me to say it and even more so to see in the game, Capcom dopped the boll hard when it comes to designing vast majority of caves, crypts and ruins in DD''2'' and outside of what Spynx can offer in terms of riddles, there's not a single environmental puzzle in the game at all be it in open world, during story quests, side quests etc. To be fair though, even dispite all of these major shortcomings the world explorations is still exiting in DD"2", so there's that. But let's talk about how the world (and the game) actually looks and what you can do with it with mods on that front in the second part of the review below
![Backhand index pointing down :point_down: š](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f447.png)
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