Capcom announced today that the singleplayer narrative-driven action-RPG Dragon's Dogma 2 is set to arrive on March 22, 2024. Word of the release date came as part of a presentation offering a deeper dive into the game, including a look at new enemies and "insights into the story and gameplay choices players will make as they delve deeper into the immersive fantasy world."
We said when we got our first look at Dragon's Dogma 2 gameplay that it "sure looks like Dragon's Dogma," and Capcom affirmed today that it "mirrors" the first game. But it's set in a "parallel world" populated by two nations with differing ideologies: The kingdom of Vermund, where the regent has installed a false Arisen—essentially a potential challenger to the Dragon—to maintain control over the population, and Battahl, home to the beastren, worshippers of the Lambent Flame.
Today's showcase, hosted by Dragon's Dogma 2 director Hideaki Itsuno and producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi, provided a first look at the new Trickster vocation, as well as the Warrior and Sorcerer vocations returning from the first game, and revealed several of the game's new enemies, including the massive Talos, "a towering bronze golem capable of wreaking untold destruction with a single step," as well as the spectral Dullahan and dragon-like Drake.
Dragon's Dogma 2's "intuitive and deep character creator" character creator was also on display: At the start of the game, players will have the opportunity to create both their Arisen in-game avatar and their Main Pawn, the not-quite-human followers who will accompany them through the game. Players will be able to customize their Pawn's personality, which will impact their behavior and conversational choices throughout the game, and Capcom said Dragon's Dogma 2 will make use of photogrammetry "to enhance the realism of each characters’ appearance."
The original Dragon's Dogma was released in 2012, but only for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. In 2015, we included it in our list of console exclusives that must come to PC, and a year later it happened as Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen, which includes both the base game and the Dark Arisen expansion. Despite being "rough in spots," we liked it a lot, calling it "a uniquely enjoyable RPG" in our 81% review.
We've been waiting for a sequel ever since, and the long-awaited announcement earlier this was met with immediate excitement. We expressed hope when it happened that this time a PC version would arrive alongside the console releases, and now we know: Dragon's Dogma 2 is available for pre-purchase now on Steam. Check out some screens in the gallery below.
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