Dragon’s Dogma II hit the market at the perfect time. It launched at the tail end of March, so there were a few other big releases getting dumped out to try and improve end-of-quarter financial reports, but none of them had the same Skyrim-like surface vibe as Capcom’s new RPG. It captivated a huge audience of millions, generated tons of online dissection and discussion — then quietly went away. Now, the only ones left still playing are the die hard fans…and those of us desperately hoping for a patch to fix up its many remaining technical oddities.
I liked the game at launch, but I also thought that many parts of its design were downright hostile to players. For every step forward into the future of gaming that it took, it was weighed down by decisions made ten years ago that were never reassessed. The result is a game that occasionally feels like you’re playing something from the future, before it then steps on a rake and tumbles back into the dark clunky side of rightly forgotten design choices from two generations ago.
This same generational awkwardness plagues the entire game, not just the design. Tech-wise, it in some ways a modern miracle. It has a fully ray traced lighting pipeline, with some of the most gorgeous global illumination work this…
