• Capcom has released extended gameplay footage of its upcoming RPG Dragon’s Dogma 2, as well as a launch date.
• It builds on innovative mechanics introduced in Dragon’s Dogma, a game with a passionate cult following.
• Made with the RE Engine, Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a feast for the eyes and is shaping up to be one of 2024’s biggest titles.

Unlikely cult classic Dragon’s Dogma, Capcom’s answer to the Elder Scrolls RPGs, is set to receive its sequel Dragon’s Dogma 2 on 22nd March 2024 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC through Steam.

The sequel was initially announced in June 2022 after nine years worth of silence from the developer. A small but passionate fanbase grew around the game and its enhanced edition Dark Arisen was launched in 2013.

News of the sequel sent fans into a frenzy, many believing it a miracle as the first game never made any sizeable mainstream splash, even though at first little was shown of the game in development. On Tuesday however, Capcom saw fit to drop extended footage of the gameplay of Dragon’s Dogma 2 in a massive hour-long showcase, including character and class creation, some boss fight footage and more.

Again returning is the celebrated pawn system, in which players can create and share specially crafted NPCs to aid each other in fights and the boss fight mechanic in which the player fights giant monsters by climbing them, a system initially influenced by Capcom’s megahit series Monster Hunter.

The latest trailer shows off a massively revamped graphics and effects engine – now using the RE engine – compared to the original game, as well as the returning Dragon, the big bad from the first game that starts the chain of events in the narrative.

In the showcase, there is also a scene straight out of Shadow of the Colossus, as the player scales a stone titan called Talos, attacking its weak points as they attempt to halt its advance. In terms of the new game’s story, the player will be pitched between the conflict of two kingdoms – the human realm of Vermund, and Battahl, a desert land ruled by cat people similar to the Khajiit of Elsweyr from Bethesda’s own RPG powerhouse, and the Dragon which is a herald of the end times.

Another interesting aspect of the game is that certain locations will require the player to understand certain languages. Such as the elven settlement of Sacred Arbor, in which some NPCs will require translator pawns or the players themselves to be versed in Elvish to understand. The language will be translated automatically if this is the case.

The character creation system and the pawn selection screens have also seemingly been improved, if not revamped. No longer will you have to scroll through menus to select pawns as you now enter a shadowy realm in which pawns will await for you to select them and summon them to the real world.

An open-world experience, Dragon’s Dogma 2 seems like everything fans have been clamouring for – more of the same, but better – and pre-orders are open as of today. It currently retails for R1 159 on Steam. Watch the main trailer for Dragon’s Dogma 2 here.

[Image – Steam]