Info about Dragon's Dogma 2:

Official game description:
Dragon's Dogma 2 Deluxe Edition
===============================
Items in this set can also be purchased separately. Please be aware of duplicate purchases.  
The Deluxe Edition includes the base game and the add-on "A Boon for Adventurers - New Journey Pack".  
A Boon for Adventurers - New Journey Pack:  
\- Explorer's Camping Kit - Camping Gear  
\- Dragon's Dogma Music & Sound Collection - Custom Sounds  
\- Harpysnare Smoke Beacons - Harpy Lure Item  
\- Heartfelt Pendant - A Thoughtful Gift  
\- Ambivalent Rift Incense - Change Pawn Inclinations  
\- Makeshift Gaol Key - Escape from gaol!  
\- Art of Metamorphosis - Character Editor  
\- Wakestone - Restore the dead to life! (A)  
\- 1500 Rift Crystals - Points to Spend Beyond the Rift (A)
About the Game
==============
Note: There are other sets that include this item.  
Set forth on your grand adventure, Arisen!  
Dragon’s Dogma is a single player, narrative driven action-RPG series that challenges the players to choose their own experience – from the appearance of their Arisen, their vocation, their party, how to approach different situations and more. Now, in this long-awaited sequel, the deep, explorable fantasy world of Dragon’s Dogma 2 awaits.  
On your journey, you’ll be joined by Pawns, mysterious otherworldly beings, in an adventure so unique you will feel as if accompanied by other players while on your own adventure.  
All of these elements are elevated further through physics technology, artificial intelligence (AI) and the latest in graphics, to create a truly immersive fantasy world in Dragon’s Dogma 2.  
**Action that challenges your creativity**  
Wield swords, bows, and chant magick.  
The vocations in Dragon's Dogma 2 give you the ability to approach combat the way you want.  
**Company in your single-player experience**  
Players can customize their own main Pawn, who will always accompany your Arisen,  
and enter a covenant with up to 2 additional Pawns from other players through the network.  
**Facing the monsters in this world**  
Beyond the town borders, you will encounter diverse monsters that inhabit the lands.  
You will need to decide between engaging in battles or finding alternatives;  
so be aware of your party’s setup, the terrain around you, and the monsters you face.  
**Inhabitants of this world**  
Travelers, merchants, soldiers and other folk go about their daily lives.  
Preoccupied by their own objectives and motives, they all exhibit different emotions.  
At times, they may lead you to a quest by approaching you and asking for a favor.

Release date: Mar 21, 2024

Categories: Action RPG, Open-World Exploration, Character Customization, Character Progression, Third-Person Shooter, Hack and Slash, Environmental Combat, Boss Fights, Monster Climbing, Party-based Combat, NPC Relationships & Romance, Skill Progression, Vocation-based Gameplay


- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price: No data
- Playtime Metrics: No data
- Time-to-fun: No data
- Player Archetypes: No data


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Rewarding exploration and vast world (weight 0.96): The game's open world is expansive, visually stunning, and filled with secrets, encouraging organic exploration and discovery. Limited fast travel and hidden quests further enhance immersion and replayability.
- Improved sequel with refined mechanics (weight 0.66): The game builds on its predecessor with significant improvements in graphics, combat, pawn AI, and world design. Players appreciate the modernized gameplay while retaining the charm of the original.
- Unique and immersive pawn system (weight 0.6): The pawn system is a standout feature, offering AI companions that learn, adapt, and interact with players in meaningful ways. It enhances replayability, emotional attachment, and strategic depth, while fostering a sense of community through shared pawns.
- Engaging and polished combat (weight 0.58): The game's combat system is widely praised for its fluidity, weight, and variety, with dynamic interactions against large monsters and diverse enemy types. Players highlight its satisfying mechanics, strategic depth, and accessibility for both casual and hardcore audiences.
- Engaging story and emotional depth (weight 0.56): While not universally praised, the story is noted for its emotional impact, engaging twists, and satisfying true ending. Side quests often add more depth than the main narrative, contributing to a memorable experience.
- High replayability and mod support (weight 0.44): The game offers extensive replayability through diverse vocations, hidden quests, and emergent gameplay. Mods significantly enhance the experience, addressing issues and adding new content, making it a long-term investment for players.
- Exceptional character customization (weight 0.24): The character creator is highly detailed, offering unmatched freedom in customization for both players and pawns. This feature is frequently highlighted as one of the best in the genre, adding depth to role-playing.
- Emergent gameplay and sandbox freedom (weight 0.2): The game encourages creative playstyles and emergent storytelling, with physics-based interactions, environmental traps, and unscripted events. This sandbox approach prioritizes player agency and personal experiences.

Common complaints:
- Poor story and narrative execution (weight 0.96): The game’s story is widely panned as disjointed, rushed, and lacking coherence. Players highlight weak character development, plot holes, and an abrupt or unsatisfying ending, making it hard to stay invested in the narrative.
- Limited enemy and boss variety (weight 0.88): Combat encounters are criticized for relying on reskinned or recycled enemies (e.g., goblins, lizards), leading to repetitive and unchallenging gameplay. Boss fights are also described as poorly designed or lacking depth.
- Repetitive and unengaging quests (weight 0.85): Players frequently criticize side and main quests for being repetitive, vague, and lacking depth. Many describe them as fetch quests with excessive backtracking, poor rewards, and unsatisfying conclusions, diminishing long-term engagement.
- Technical and optimization issues (weight 0.46): The game suffers from poor optimization, frequent crashes, and performance problems (e.g., FPS drops, stuttering), even on high-end hardware. These issues persist post-launch and disrupt gameplay.
- Flawed pawn AI and mechanics (weight 0.27): Pawns (AI companions) are criticized for repetitive dialogue, poor decision-making (e.g., jumping off cliffs), and intrusive behavior (e.g., obstructing combat). Their lack of depth and intelligence breaks immersion.
- No fast travel or tedious traversal (weight 0.26): The lack of a fast-travel system or its restrictive implementation forces excessive walking, backtracking, and reliance on expensive teleportation stones, making exploration frustrating and time-consuming.
- Lack of innovation from first game (weight 0.26): Players feel the sequel fails to evolve significantly from the first game, with missing features (e.g., armor layering), nerfed mechanics (e.g., skill slots), and a sense of being an enhanced remaster rather than a true sequel.
- Restrictive save system (weight 0.12): The single save slot and manual save system are widely criticized for being punishing and inflexible. Players risk losing progress due to crashes, quest failures, or irreversible mistakes.
- Hollow world and NPC interactions (weight 0.11): The game world feels empty and soulless, with NPCs lacking depth, purpose, or meaningful interactions. Many areas and characters are described as lifeless or underdeveloped.
- Predatory microtransactions (weight 0.09): Players criticize the inclusion of microtransactions (e.g., for fast travel or cosmetic items) in a full-priced single-player game, calling them exploitative and unnecessary.
- Developer neglect post-launch (weight 0.09): The game is perceived as abandoned by its developers, with minimal post-launch support, no DLC, and unresolved bugs or performance issues, despite its AAA price tag.

Gameplay feedback:
- Pawn System Enhances Gameplay (weight 0.4): The pawn system provides AI companions that assist in combat, exploration, and quests, replacing traditional multiplayer with dynamic interactions. Players can customize, share, and borrow pawns, adding depth to gameplay and strategy.
- Exploration-Centric World Design (weight 0.36): The game features a vast, open world with verticality, hidden secrets, and environmental interactions. Exploration is encouraged through minimal hand-holding, dynamic events, and a focus on discovery-driven progression.
- Action-Oriented Combat System (weight 0.35): Combat is real-time and physics-based, with class-specific mechanics, climbing enemies, and environmental interactions. The system emphasizes weighty hits, flashy combos, and strategic depth but lacks fluidity for some players.
- Quest Design Lacks Clarity (weight 0.34): Quests often feature vague objectives, fetch/kill mechanics, and minimal guidance, requiring exploration or external help. Branching paths and timed elements add challenge but can frustrate players due to unclear markers.
- Vocations Enable Diverse Playstyles (weight 0.31): The vocation (class) system offers unique abilities, hybrid roles, and situational skills, allowing players to switch playstyles dynamically. Some vocations are unlocked late, adding replayability but requiring grinding.
- Monster Climbing Mechanics (weight 0.19): Players can climb large creatures to target weak points, adding tactical depth to combat. This Shadow of the Colossus-inspired feature is a standout but can feel repetitive due to limited monster variety.
- NPC Relationships Add Depth (weight 0.09): NPCs have routines, affinity systems, and dialogue that influence quests and endings. Romance options and micro-interactions enhance immersion, though some interactions feel binary or limited.
- Skill Slots Limit Build Flexibility (weight 0.08): Classes have restricted skill slots (e.g., 4 active skills), forcing players to prioritize abilities. This adds strategic depth but may frustrate those seeking build variety without grinding.
- Escort Missions and Boss Fights (weight 0.07): Escort quests and boss encounters are core mechanics, with some missions featuring recurring villains. Boss fights emphasize climbing and weak-point targeting but can feel repetitive due to enemy reskins.
- Character Customization Options (weight 0.07): Players can customize appearance, armor, and weapons, with cosmetic-only gear allowing visual flexibility. The character creator offers detailed options (e.g., face sculpting) but may lack depth for some.

Performance notes:
- Severe optimization issues (weight 0.42): The game suffers from widespread poor optimization, including frequent crashes, frame rate drops, and underutilization of CPU/GPU resources. These issues persist despite hardware capabilities and long development time, affecting both high-end and mid-range systems.
- High system requirements (weight 0.22): The game demands high-end hardware (e.g., RTX 4090, 8+ core CPU, 8GB+ VRAM) for stable 60 FPS at max settings. Mid-range or older systems often require settings adjustments or hardware upgrades.
- DLSS/FSR dependency (weight 0.11): Stable performance often requires DLSS or frame generation, particularly for NVIDIA RTX 40-series GPUs. FSR is less effective, and some players report ghosting or added latency with these technologies.
- Stutters and microstutters (weight 0.07): Microstutters and frame spikes occur in specific areas (e.g., caves, Rivage Cavern) or during combat, even on high-end hardware. Some players recommend locking at 30 FPS to mitigate instability.
- Mods improve performance (weight 0.05): Mods are frequently recommended to address performance issues, such as FPS drops or crashes. Some players note that mods are necessary for a smoother experience on certain GPUs or hardware configurations.
- Graphical and pop-in issues (weight 0.04): Graphical problems include blurry visuals, poor shadow/lighting quality, and severe NPC/terrain pop-in, particularly in cities. Some issues (e.g., shadows) can be resolved with driver updates.

Recommendations:
- Ideal for action RPG fans (weight 0.39): The game is highly recommended for fans of action RPGs, exploration, and immersive gameplay, particularly those who enjoy titles like *Elden Ring*, *Monster Hunter*, and *Dragon’s Dogma*. Its combat, customization, and open-world design appeal to this audience.
- Prioritize gameplay over story (weight 0.38): Reviewers suggest focusing on exploration, combat, and sandbox-style play rather than quests or narrative. The game’s strengths lie in its immersive world and action, not its storytelling.
- Requires patience and immersion (weight 0.36): The game rewards players who embrace its slow-paced exploration, lack of hand-holding, and immersive mechanics. Avoiding guides and mods initially can enhance the experience.
- Best purchased on sale (weight 0.36): Many reviewers suggest waiting for a discount, as the game is not perceived as worth its full price. A sale price (e.g., 50% off) significantly improves its value proposition.
- Niche appeal limits audience (weight 0.19): The game is not recommended for players seeking polished, conventional experiences or rich narratives. Its unique mechanics and flaws make it appealing primarily to fans of the genre or series.
- Hardware demands limit accessibility (weight 0.16): The game is recommended primarily for players with high-end PCs, as performance issues and optimization flaws are common on lower-spec systems.
- Mods enhance experience (weight 0.13): PC players are encouraged to use mods to improve performance, visuals, and quality-of-life features. Mods can mitigate flaws like camera issues or stamina limitations, making the game more enjoyable.
- First game may be superior (weight 0.06): Some players recommend *Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen* over the sequel, citing better performance, engagement, or overall experience, especially for those with lower-end hardware.
- DLC and updates desired (weight 0.05): Players express hope for future DLC, expansions, or patches to address flaws, add content, or improve performance. Some suggest waiting for these updates before purchasing.
- Microtransactions non-intrusive (weight 0.02): While the game includes a microtransaction store, reviewers note it is avoidable and does not impact the single-player experience, making it a non-issue for most players.

Other player notes:
- Mixed views on microtransactions (weight 0.03): Microtransactions are a polarizing topic: some players criticize their presence and obtuse design, while others note they are optional and non-intrusive. Cosmetics and Rift Crystals are common purchase options.
- Developer neglect concerns (weight 0.02): There is significant criticism of the developer's focus on other projects (e.g., Monster Hunter) and lack of updates or content for this game, leading to perceptions of neglect.
- Guides and mods for quests (weight 0.02): Players rely on external guides and mods (e.g., Riddle of Rumination Marker) to navigate quests effectively, suggesting the base game lacks clarity or accessibility.
- DLC availability and criticism (weight 0.02): Players mention the existence of optional DLC for additional items, though details are vague. Some view this as a way to expand content, while others see it as unnecessary for core gameplay.
- Save backups recommended (weight 0.01): Players advise backing up saves due to mission-altering bugs, indicating instability or progression risks in the game.
- Anti-cheat in single-player (weight 0.01): The inclusion of anti-cheat (Denuvo) in a single-player game is criticized as unnecessary and potentially intrusive, with no clear benefit to players.
- Cosmetic comparisons to other games (weight 0.01): Some players draw comparisons to Street Fighter 6's cosmetic system, though the relevance to this game's microtransactions or customization is unclear.

Emotions:
- Frustration (weight 0.31): Players experience significant frustration due to poor optimization, frequent crashes, and performance inconsistencies like micro-stutters and FPS drops. Additionally, repetitive and poorly designed quests, unclear guidance, and punishing mechanics (e.g., health reduction after death, restrictive save systems) exacerbate the negative experience.
- Disappointment (weight 0.16): The game fails to meet expectations due to its lack of polish, repetitive content, and underdeveloped systems. Players highlight issues like shallow storytelling, uninspired quest design, missing features from the first game, and poor optimization, which detract from the overall experience and leave them feeling let down.
- Excitement (weight 0.11): Players feel excitement from the game's unique and dynamic combat mechanics, such as climbing enemies and unpredictable boss encounters. The immersive world, engaging exploration, and innovative pawn system also contribute to a sense of adventure and novelty that captivates players during the early to mid-game stages.
- Satisfaction (weight 0.08): Satisfaction stems from the game's engaging combat, flexible class customization, and rewarding exploration. Players appreciate improvements over the first game, such as refined mechanics, emotional story payoffs, and the ability to overcome challenging enemies or complete quests after initial struggles.
- Enjoyment (weight 0.06): The game provides enjoyment through its fun and creative combat mechanics, immersive world-building, and dynamic interactions with pawns. Players also appreciate the sense of progression, diverse build options, and the overall sandbox-style gameplay that encourages experimentation.
- Nostalgia (weight 0.04): Longtime fans of the series experience nostalgia due to the game's retention of beloved elements from the first game, such as its adventuring spirit, memorable soundtrack, and unique world interactions. The game evokes comparisons to classic RPGs and personal memories tied to the original *Dragon's Dogma*.
- Joy (weight 0.03): Players feel joy from the game's freedom, exploration, and unique mechanics like the pawn system. Discovering hidden locations, engaging in emergent storytelling, and forming emotional connections with companions or the world contribute to moments of pure delight.
- Appreciation (weight 0.02): Players appreciate the game's attention to detail, immersive world design, and innovative systems like the pawn mechanics. The modding community's efforts to improve the experience and the developers' vision for a dynamic, player-driven adventure also garner admiration.
- Amusement (weight 0.02): The game amuses players with its quirky and unpredictable moments, such as pawns making humorous comments, emergent gameplay situations (e.g., accidentally angering a dragon), or unique combat interactions like climbing enemies or using them for transportation.
- Hope (weight 0.01): Players express hope for future improvements, such as DLC expansions, mod support, or sequels that address current issues. The game's potential to evolve into a polished triple-A title with minor fixes or additional content fuels optimism among fans.
- Anger (weight 0.01): Anger arises from poorly designed systems, such as ineffective classes, restrictive fast-travel options, and punishing mechanics like progress loss due to bugs or save system limitations. Microtransactions and perceived developer neglect also contribute to player frustration.
- Awe (weight 0.01): The game inspires awe through its breathtaking world design, cinematic combat encounters, and immersive mechanics like climbing and fighting massive monsters. Moments of unexpected beauty or scale, such as battling an intelligent dragon, leave players in admiration.
- Boredom (weight 0.01): Boredom sets in due to repetitive side quests, monotonous travel mechanics, and a lack of engaging content. Excessive backtracking, uninspired enemy encounters, and a slow pacing loop contribute to a tedious gameplay experience.
- Annoyance (weight 0.01): Players feel annoyed by minor but persistent issues, such as intrusive pawn dialogue, greedy monetization (e.g., high inn costs), or technical quirks like a zoomed-in camera or lack of FOV customization. These frustrations detract from immersion without being game-breaking.
- Love (weight 0.01): Players express love for the game's unique blend of combat, exploration, and RPG mechanics. The immersive world, dynamic pawn interactions, and overall sense of adventure create a deeply engaging experience that resonates with fans.
- Gratitude (weight 0.01): Gratitude is directed toward the modding community for improving the game, as well as the developers for creating a sense of companionship and adventure. Players also appreciate unobtrusive monetization and recommendations from friends that led them to the game.
- Frustrated (weight 0.01): This emotion mirrors 'Frustration' but emphasizes punishing design choices, such as permanent quest failures, progress loss due to save system issues, and poor optimization that leads to crashes or unplayable moments.
- Confusion (weight 0.01): Players feel confused by inconsistent game design, unclear quest objectives, or missing NPCs and events in post-game content. Mixed reviews and a lack of understanding for negative feedback also contribute to a sense of bewilderment.
- Curiosity (weight 0.01): The game's deep lore, unique mechanics, and open-world exploration spark curiosity. Players are intrigued by hidden quests, class customization, and the potential for emergent storytelling within the game's vast world.
- Surprise (weight 0.01): Players are pleasantly surprised by the game's depth, content, and unique mechanics, especially when their expectations were low due to mixed reviews. Unexpected moments, such as dynamic encounters or experimental design choices, also contribute to this emotion.}