3/5 ★ – Lord_Hazenberg's review of Dragon's Dogma 2.

Dragons Dogma 2 is an unfortunate victim of history repeating itself. Even more unfinished than its predecessor to where it literally feels like half of a game. I played this on PS5, and it took around 30 hours to achieve the “true” ending. There have been telltale signs of this game’s doomed release. Only a team of around 400 people worked on this, which is a quarter of the size of Capcom’s other big releases like Resident Evil or Street Fighter. March also marked the end of Capcom’s business quarter, therefore pushing out a release for a sales bump is highly probable. But neither of those details excuse charging $70 for this game. The story is barely existent and even more so than the first game’s. Terrible quest structure, not one memorable character, & a hidden endgame that is time limited. Both characters on the cover art have 1 appearance each then disappear from the game entirely. Graphics are pretty, but it’s beyond obvious that Capcom’s RE engine is not fit for an open world. Inconsistent frame rate on all platforms, & constant crashing problems for PC players. Speaking of the open world, the northern map is fine but the southern map is the victim of rushed development. Enemy encounters happen almost every 20 seconds in the desert region. I feel like this was intended to increase play time because of how short the main story is. Combat is fine but it’s worse than Dragons Dogma 1. *possible spoilers ahead* As far as my mentioning that this feels like half of a game, allow me to expand upon that. The main menu calls the game “Dragons Dogma,” but it changes to “Dragons Dogma 2” once you trigger the hidden endgame. I believe the main story was intended as a remake of the first game, and the endgame was meant to be the true meat of the sequel. But sadly that was not meant to be as the endgame has you fight 2 bosses twice each, and the super exciting final boss of an evil pot that summons reskinned goblin mobs. *end of spoilers* TLDR; Dragons Dogma 2 is a major disappointment that has slivers of a promising experience. It falls short of Dragons Dogma 1 in every regard other than character creation & graphics. What was slightly unfinished in 2012 had its own niche charm, because it still felt like a full experience with ways to improve. Now an even more unfinished sequel in 2024 has zero charm or excuses when Capcom is charging even more for it.