Dragon's Dogma 2 review: Pawn Stars

Capcom’s streak of successful franchise releases has finally brought it back to Dragon’s Dogma, the fantasy IP first introduced in 2012. With the sequel come improvements to the pawn system, combat, and story. Most notably, the Pawn system is what makes Dragon’s Dogma 2 not only a worthy sequel, but an absolute juggernaut of an RPG.

He is Arisen

Dragon’s Dogma 2 once again puts players in the shoes of the Arisen, which is essentially this world’s take on the “chosen one” trope. Tasked with overcoming a great evil, you’ll meet many allies and slay countless foes on your journey across Vermund. While it’s technically a different world from the first game, fans will notice plenty of returning creatures.

As true to the genre, Capcom gives the player a heap of freedom in building their Arisen. Not only is the character creator decked out with aesthetic customization options, but the implementation of Vocations allows a level of freedom rarely seen in RPGs.

When initially creating your character, you can pick between four Vocations: Fighter, Archer, Mage, and Thief. They each fit the standard mold of what you’d expect from a fantasy RPG, and you can unlock exclusive skills and abilities to enhance your combat abilities as you increase your Vocation rank. Additional Vocations can be unlocked as you progress through the story and meet characters that specialize in them.

What I love about this feature is that Dragon’s Dogma 2 allows you to swap Vocations whenever you like. You don’t need to roll credits or amass great wealth; just simply pay a visit to any Vocation Guild and you can switch to any Vocation that you have unlocked. What’s more, your Vocation ranks are permanent, so you can change back to your previous role if you prefer. This can also be used to unlock core abilities that are exclusive to specific Vocations.

Going on Vocation

I played an Archer for the majority of my playthrough, which meant I was often the first to spot enemies in the distance and usually initiated combat encounters. I was endlessly impressed with how much variety every fight could have, thanks to a range of unique enemies and the plethora of abilities each Vocation brings to the battlefield. As my companions would physically climb the bodies of an Ogre or Cyclops, I’d dot them with arrows from a distance, sprinkling in explosive arrows to knock them off-balance and keep them from attacking.

I had a Mage ally who would enhance our party’s weapons with an electric enchantment and provide a healing bubble when we were low on health. After a while, I became familiar with the unique behaviors of enemies and how to defeat them (pro tip: stagger those Harpies before they put you to sleep!), and felt rewarded for recognizing attack patterns and traits. You’re also incentivized to test out different abilities, team compositions, and Vocations as most enemies have distinct weaknesses and resistances. Your companions will often tip you off to the best way to approach a fight.

Mere pawns

Pawns were the defining feature of Dragon’s Dogma, and they’re better than ever in the sequel. These companions have their own Vocation, traits, and life experiences that inform just about everything they do. They’ll provide insight on specific quests, information on enemies, and lead you to treasure around the world. To illustrate the way Pawns breathe life into Dragon’s Dogma 2, I want to tell you about Shinra.

Shinra was one of the first Pawns that I hired (not counting my primary Pawn) after embarking on my journey. He was a Thief who wore a bandana over his face and fought with twin daggers. He was at a higher level than me and my main Pawn and carried us through plenty of fights during the early hours of the game. He also had the solutions to a couple of open-ended quests that I’d accepted, and overall felt like my shepherd through the early portion of the game.

The thing is, the Pawns you hire don’t level up alongside you and your main Pawn. You can travel with them all you like, but eventually, you’ll outgrow them. There came a point where my main Pawn and I far out-leveled Shinra, and it was time to bid him farewell. A few hours later, I was exploring a cave with my new and improved party when we got ambushed by Saurians. All three of my companions were incapacitated and I was struggling to fend for myself. Suddenly, I could hear blades clashing as another character appeared in the cave, attacked the Saurians, and eventually helped me kill them. Imagine my surprise when I discovered this Good Samaritan was none other than Shinra himself! He was wearing some new clothes but still rocked his signature bandana. He said it was good to see me again, and I re-hired him and we finished the quest together.

It’s these small, emergent narrative moments that feel so rare in games, but Dragon’s Dogma 2 is chock-full of them. Shinra was just one of roughly a dozen hired Pawns that left a lasting impression on me in Dragon’s Dogma 2. I could also tell you the story of a Fighter who leaped onto the leg of an Ogre, knocking it off-balance and sending both of them over a cliff to their demise. I could explain to you how I spent multiple in-game days traveling town to town in search of one of my favorite NPCs who’d gone missing until a newly hired Pawn told me they heard a rumor about where she might be staying. There are so many small moments with Pawns that make the world feel lived in.

Pawns will also converse with each other, commenting on the party’s Vocations, the region, or the weight of their inventory. Capcom has improved the flow of discussion so that Pawns don’t speak over each other anymore, but there are some lines of dialogue that you’ll be hearing hundreds of times before you roll credits. It didn’t bother me too much, but I wouldn’t blame anyone who wanted to tune their dialogue settings after a couple dozen hours of adventuring.

The social network

The Pawns you hire to aid you in your journey are companions that were created by other players and sent into the Rift. Not only will they provide valuable information and insight, but also monetary gain. When a Pawn is sent into the Rift, players can assign an objective to the player who hires them, such as killing a certain monster or traveling for several days alongside them. This will yield a reward designated by the player who created the Pawn.

Conversely, you can choose to make your main Pawn available for hire, assigning a quest and reward for those who take them alongside them in battle. What’s cool is that doing this does not preclude you from traveling alongside the Pawn yourself, as they go beyond the Rift at night while you’re asleep. In the morning, you’ll receive a report from them in which they will briefly describe their travels, show what progress was made on the quest you gave them, and present a list of usernames of the players they traveled with, and what rating those players gave. It’s a feature that creates a sense of community and cooperation while keeping the game single-player.

Time is a river

In addition to Pawns, the way Capcom handles the passage of time in DD2 strongly contributes to the game’s immersion. Not only do characters and creatures have distinct schedules and behaviors, but the world continues to move forward and progress as time passes. Several quests require you to do things in a timely manner, such as revisiting a character daily or checking in on a village after a handful of days have gone by. In some instances, there are tangible consequences for completely ignoring a quest that has time-related urgency. Of course, there is only so much time in a day, so you have to prioritize carefully.

A key factor in the passage of time is the implementation of fast traveling. If you don’t want to make the hike between towns and villages, you’ll need to either take an Oxcart or use a Ferrystone. However, Oxcarts only run in the morning and have designated routes, and Ferrystones are a rare commodity in the wild; I found one merchant selling them for 10,000 Gold a pop. Because of this, you have to be intentional and thoughtful with how you travel and spend your time. There was a real sense of accomplishment when my party made a successful return to Vernworth after a difficult quest, and I was always happy to arrive back in Melve and see some of my favorite NPCs. A lot of this value would be lost if I could just open my map and instantly teleport to any known location at zero cost.

Like in the previous game, perishable items in your inventory may ripen and eventually rot if they sit in your inventory for too many days. When taking damage in combat, the depletion of your Loss Gauge will decrease your max HP, and the only way to replenish it is by resting at an inn or campground. Your camps can be ambushed by creatures in the wild, and sleeping at an inn also provides a place to store items and lighten your load.

The power of the dogma

The one glaring issue that genuinely hindered my enjoyment of Dragon’s Dogma 2 is performance. I played on PC, and the framerate would routinely drop, sometimes by 50 percent, when I entered a town or village. The issue was at its worst in Vernworth, one of DD2’s most densely populated cities. My game chugged as I walked through the streets, and fully crashed on me four different times while inside the city.

Despite some annoying technical issues, Dragon’s Dogma 2 is an absolute feast of an RPG. It’s cliche to say, but it genuinely feels like there is something to discover at every corner. There’s a variety of ways to build your character and party, and the Pawn system feels like it should be the standard for similar games moving forward. Capcom has once again shown a deep understanding of why its games resonate so well with people, and Dragon’s Dogma 2 is one we’ll be talking about for years to come.

This review is based on a PC code provided by the publisher. Dragon's Dogma 2 launches on March 22 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.

Donovan Erskine

News Editor

Donovan is a journalist from Maryland. His oldest gaming memory is playing Pajama Sam on his mom's desktop during weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential titles in awakening his love for video games. After interning for Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a major in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He is a huge film fanatic and will talk with you about movies and games all day. You can follow him on twitter @Donimals_