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Could this be a turning point for the series ? Earlier this month on Sept. 5, BioWare held a hands-on capture event for the latest, highly-anticipated, release in their long running Dragon Age franchise. At this event, media members and content creators were invited to play and capture footage of their time playing. With the embargo now lifted on Sept. 15, a deluge of videos, articles, and tweets have surfaced about the game - and they're overwhelmingly positive. Jade Valkyrie , a content creator who was present at the media event, was effusive in their praise. "From my early hands-on experience, I can confidently say that this game is everything we hoped for - and more. There [are] improvements across the board for many types of Dragon Age fans," Valkyrie stated in her most recent Youtube video . For myself, Dragon Age: The Veilguard felt more like a myth than a real game prior to this summer. We knew BioWare was working on it, but they have been very tight-lipped over the last 10 years. Since the release of Dragon Age: Inquisition in 2014, the series has been completely dormant in the gaming space. This year, however, we've been treated to trailers, podcasts, and articles all about DATV . I felt so much excitement over the reveal trailer in June, that I played through all of the games again, read some of the comics and even did a deep-dive on all the lore and codex entries. YouTuber @ GhilDirthalen , who was also at the capture event, has really helped me through this mania by providing an assortment of videos and playlists that cover everything from world lore to theories about where this is all going. You can also catch their latest videos about the preview event, if you're looking for some information and impressions of the game. As far as what I've seen today? The game looks better than I ever imagined it would. DATV looks absolutely stunning in every shot we've seen. I have heard some longtime fans complain about the way DATV looks, stylistically. I think it looks amazing, even if there has been a definite shift in style from Dragon Age: Origins to now. It just looks beautiful in motion, and thank God for those updated hairstyles in the character creator. From the characters to the effects on screen, DATV is full of eye-candy. The gameplay they've shown off so far has me excited. Combat looks fast-paced and fun, but also has a nice depth to it that I'm itching to explore. The role-playing portion of this RPG looks great, too. There are a lot of backgrounds and factions to choose from, and new exciting characters to bounce those ideas off of. Combat and characters are the real highlights for me. Twitch streamer Saira , also known by @sairaspooks on Twitter , noted, “this was important to me, and [I]’m sure it’s going to be important for some of you too. not only can you pet assan forever, you can also play rock paper scissors with manfred! make sure you say hello to them whenever you return to the lighthouse 💜”. Overall, Dragon Age: The Veilguard is shaping up to be an amazing game, and BioWare’s best title in a decade (maybe even longer, actually). Early impressions make it clear BioWare just might be on the cusp of something incredible. Will this be the series’ big break? I don't know if it will outpace Inquisition in sales, but I can't wait to get my hands on it when it releases on Oct. 31, 2024. Image Credits: BioWare/Electronic Arts

Can the franchise recover some of its standing? Sept. 18, 2024 - Square Enix has released a financial results briefing that was held on May 13, and those results come as a blow to fans of the prestigious JRPG franchise. Stating "profits did not meet our expectations," Takashi Kiryu, president and representative director of Square Enix lamented the lack of growth in their Digital Entertainment segment. Focusing on their HD games sub-segment specifically, Kiryu continued "The HD Games sub-segment failed to better its profitability, posting operating losses in every year of our previous medium-term plan. In addition to this, we did not manage our title portfolio across the company as well as we could have, which I believe resulted in opportunity losses due to cannibalization between our own titles." Final Fantasy XVI had an excellent DLC come out earlier this year. With Final Fantasy XVI and VII Rebirth releasing only around half a year apart, Kiryu believes the games may have stepped on one another, but Square is taking steps to address this. "In the case of the HD Game sub-segment, sales of individual games will remain the key variable, but we believe that we will be able to exercise some degree of control over that volatility by carefully curating our pipeline over the next three years,” Kiryu assured investors. Kiryu said, “By also working steadily to improve our profitability, we intend to offset the weakness in SD games to achieve overall profitability.” Kiryu also mentioned a shift to a multiplatform strategy as part of their effort to increase profitability. With Final Fantasy XVI' s release on Steam on Sept. 17, 1024, final numbers are still in flux. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth released earlier this year to critical acclaim. Both Final Fantasy XVI and VII Rebirth were excellent entries in the series, but it seems that quality did not translate to sales. You can read our write up on Final Fantasy VII Rebirth here , and our review of the Final Fantasy XVI DLC The Rising Tide here . Square Enix has a lot of games on the docket over the next few years, but questions remain on what direction their flagship series will take moving forward. Profitability is obviously their main concern, but how will they balance those decisions with the creativity and quality the series has exemplified over the last 37 years? Time will tell, but you can be sure Square will continue to find ways to make Final Fantasy a prestige IP. Kiryu continued, "Engaging with content can move us. This is a sensation that, with the passage of time, forms unforgettable memories that help shape the values that ground us. It is our belief that this chain of events enriches our lives. We arrived at the conclusion that continuing to deliver content that can provide our customers with unforgettable memories that enrich their lives is our Group’s mission and reason for being." Image Credits: Square Enix

Re-leash the Beast The day I Am Your Beast released, I was walking the trails of the woods with my dog, when I noticed a nest, filled with baby birds, had fallen off the branch it had been resting on. My dog was the first to notice, sniffing around the poor fledglings, causing those that could to flutter a few feet away. As I collected the birds to place back into their nest, their mother was constantly swooping in and out, trying to stop me from harassing the children. After a few minutes, I managed to place the nest in a safe holding spot nearby and got everyone back inside. Feeling pretty good about what we had done, my dog and I made our way back home. Over the last few days, I've gone and checked on those birds, they all seem happy and healthy. It is nothing more than coincidence or happenstance that I found those birds, much like it was only by coincidence that I found this game, or by happenstance that the game itself starts off with our character, Harding, stumbling upon some soldiers who had just killed an innocent bird. Sometimes, random events can lead to big changes in our lives. For Harding, it not only created a whirlwind of death and destruction, but also a journey of healing and friendship. Publisher:  Strange Scaffold, Frosty Pop Developer:  Strange Scaffold Platform:  Played on PC Availability: Released September 10, 2024 on Steam. I Am Your Beast is the latest game from indie developer Strange Scaffold, creators of titles such as Clickholding and El Paso, Elsewhere . This entry, however, might be their most exciting yet. As a high-energy first person shooter, I Am Your Beast combines brutal action with ruthless efficiency to create a wonderfully frenetic experience. I often found myself on the edge of my seat, trying to scrape time off each bite-sized mission, aiming for my best score yet. The basics are this: each level is a short excursion with an objective (kill guys, reach a destination, etc), you receive a grade score based on the time it takes to complete a level, and there are bonus objectives in each level. Your "time” can be reduced through killing enemies, with different methods offering different time bonuses. Getting through the story levels the first time is always easy enough - there's very rarely a need to be exacting in your methods in the first go. But the real meat of the game comes from replaying the levels and trying to sand off the edges of your run. Getting that S rank can often be a real test of not only your skill, but your patience as well. Luckily, there's no real randomness to these levels - enemies, equipment, and objectives are always in the same place. So, the onus lies on you to find the best route and rack up your score where you can, using the tools at your disposal. There are also challenge levels that offer some fun scenarios outside of the scope of the story. I did not complete all of the available challenges in my time with the game, but the ones I played were just as fun and exciting as everything we got in the story experience. Strange Scaffold has made some promises to add content to the game, so if you enjoy what is here already, it feels pretty safe to say you're in for even more frenzied fun down the line. Beyond the core gameplay loop itself, there remains a lot to love about this game. Something as simple as the hitstun/ brief stoppage when you land a headshot can really add to the experience. In many ways, the little flourishes in animation and sound that happen as you race through a level elevate the totality of the experience. There's just such a POP to everything going on here that I could help but laugh as I blew up a helicopter, or rocketed a group of agents unaware of my presence, watching them disperse into bits. I Am Your Beast always remains a visceral, merciless barrage of bullets and blood at hyperspeed, and I am enthralled by every moment. Each design choice feels like the right one, every ounce of this game belies a clarity of purpose in form and function. From the placement of items or objectives, to the way the colors blend or contrast, there's a real deliberate effort to make everything you need discernable. The music in I Am Your Beast is probably not its high point, but it is very good, nonetheless. Each track fits the moods the story or scenarios intend to create. High-energy sounds for those fast paced levels, somber or tense tones when needed. I would say that it serves its purpose well, but I didn't come away with any particular sounds that stuck with me beyond my time in game. There is a lot going for the game in other sound design aspects, however. Every shot from my gun, or barrel explosion, or leap from a tree was accentuated by what the sound design team put in place. I Am Your Beast also has a story, but I fear it is pretty barebones. The player character, Harding, is once again called to action by his former boss, but Harding declines. This sets in motion a plot revolving around Harding's former boss trying to rope him back into the fold, and Harding battling his commander's guerrilla army in avoidance of that. While there not be much going on in terms of storytelling, they really deliver on the other aspects of the scenes. The voicework and writing is exemplary, both in the cutscenes themselves and beyond. In the story scenes particularly, we are given a great range of emotions, all delivered well, and the dialogue just feels so natural. In the missions themselves, we are treated to so many laugh-out-loud one-liners, I found myself smiling even when I was struggling with the mission itself. An assortment of deadly encounters await you in the missions and challenges I Am Your Beast provides. And so, I guess that leaves us with another question: If the story of I Am Your Beast is so thin, and the game doesn't seem to be saying much at all - is it still an artistic experience worth having? I'm here to tell you, yes. I Am Your Beast is pure art. This game made me feel joy, anxiety, excitement, and even frustration. Not every game, movie, or song has to have a deeper meaning to be worthwhile. Sometimes, it's good enough to just bust some heads, and, much like my experience with the birds, sometimes you just come away feeling like you were really good today. They lived. Verdict I Am Your Beast is a visceral, exciting, and often silly first-person shooter that is worth every bit of your time and then some. Responsive controls, a unique visual flair, and an enthralling pace create a joyous experience that gives you just as much as you are willing to put into it. The game has a simple design that leaves something to be desired in terms of narrative and music, but make no mistake – these short form excursions are wildly entertaining. Image Credits: Strange Scaffold and Taylor Rioux

Sail the Seas of Loss and Healing If you've ever played a Thunder Lotus Games project before, the stunning artwork and beautiful animations of Spiritfarer should come as no surprise. What may surprise fans about this work is just how easy-going it is, comparatively speaking. In a world of rogue-lites, rogue-likes, and souls-likes, sometimes a relaxing experience can be a breath of fresh sea air. You could use any number of game genres to describe what Spiritfarer is, or tries to do, but in many respects, those labels seem to fall a bit short. In my best effort to box-in the experience, I would say Spiritfarer is a base management game with some minor platforming elements where you’ll sail the world to help departed souls find peace through completing their quests and help them pass on to the afterlife. Spiritfarer is clearly meant to be an easier, relaxing/cozy game, versus something more action oriented like Jotun or Sundered - Thunder Lotus Games' previous projects. As the game progresses, you’ll befriend many souls, learn about their trauma, and help them through their final wishes. You can also play co-op, although I did not have the opportunity to do so myself. Publisher:  Thunder Lotus Games Developer:  Thunder Lotus Games Platform:  Played on Switch, PC Availability: Released August 18, 2020 on PC Switch, PS4, and Xbox One, and October 4, 2022 for iOS and Android The game starts with you, Stella, and your partner/cat Daffodil taking over the job of Spiritfarer from Charon. He presents you with something called the Everlight and sends you on your way to find a new boat to carry out your tasks. You soon find a boat, get it fixed up, and begin your journey in earnest. The game does a really great job of onboarding you into the experience, and even as you progress and open up the world and get new abilities and ship functions. Characters will explain every new mechanic themselves, offering you a bit of development and insight into the characters themselves - all while teaching you the nuts and bolts of the management aspect of the gameplay. Your ship starts off with only a few functions – You can do a simple fishing mini- game, sail to new locations, and sit on a couch. You receive a blueprint table early on that can allow you to upgrade your ship. Eventually your ship will have the capacity to mine, cook, harvest, farm, and craft items that can be used for many different things. Some items are good gifts, others are used to upgrade your ship, etc. I'm a sucker for fishing in games, even if it is extremely basic (as it is here), so I took it slow in the beginning; collecting items lost at sea while sailing and hauling in a few nice meals consumed my early hours. Between islands, there is plenty of time to do the tasks you need, whether that’s quests for your spirit pals, or any other of the various management functions. I never felt rushed as I played through the game.  Other management games really seem to push you toward efficiency to get the results you want – something I’m not too fond of, because it feels like chores to me – but Spiritfarer ’s more laid back approach allows you to take these at your own pace without penalty. You really get to steer your own experience; doing the tasks in any order and at any pace you choose. The calmness and ease with which you can approach the game really lends itself to a system like the switch and it's mobility. It's kind of the perfect couch game. I do quite appreciate the freedom in design of the ship itself. Each new room you get can be placed on the deck, but you are given full control over the height and position of each new room - allowing for a lot of creative applications in design for your vessel. I have seen some really cool designs online, but I'm quite boring in this regard; I just stacked the rooms on top one another in perfect rows like shipping containers, organized by function and size. There's no right way to do this, and I think that's neat. Daily tasks and work keeps you busy - all needed to get materials to advance. The art of Spiritfarer is easily its greatest strength, in a game full of them. I truly cannot overstate how stunning the visuals are here. Each of the characters have a fun, unique style to them that breathes personality with each animation. The vistas and sunsets are a wonder to look at, and the way they've made each and every scene just BLEED style is truly something worth beholding. That strength isn't limited to the pictures on screen, either, as the music is quite phenomenal. While generally soothing, and light-hearted, there are great pieces with an ominous air, or even expressing deep sadness. Each note goes so well with the scenes they accompany, I'm almost in awe. Truly, no misses here. Despite the game being 4 years old at time of writing, I think it would be a disservice to really talk in-depth about the story for anyone who may not have played it yet. The way the characters stories are presented, the thoughts and feelings they might evoke, and the masterful way it all intertwines with the overarching story are all best experienced. It feels like something that could be so personal to each player, I would be remiss to go into spoilers about it. If you have an inkling of a desire to play the game, do it blind. Trust me on that. While the beginning of the game might feel very barebones in it's narrative presentation, it really comes around and ties in beautifully. The little vignettes the characters offer speak to a lot of experiences many of us have encountered. Even if we have not seen these exact scenarios play out in real life, we can see ourselves and our lives in them in many ways, as we have all dealt with loss in one way or another. I often found myself thinking of lost family and friends as I played the game. It was a bit bittersweet. You cherish those moments you have so much more when those you love have left you, but it brings the pain of loss when you remember. Everything about the game oozes style. What complaints, then, could someone have about this game? Well, from my perspective, here are a few things I took issue with: The game is almost too simple, many in-game tasks start to feel too much like busywork, and it's a slow start to get into any semblance of over-arching story beats. It is easy to see how these points are just matters of personal preference - there is nothing technically wrong with any of the mechanics, progression, or stability of the game itself. I just kind of don't vibe with some of these things. Frankly, I generally don't enjoy base management style games in general; so, something like Spiritfarer might be immediately flagged as a bad fit. The art and quality of the developer's previous work is what drew me in. So, it might seem a bit unfair to dock the game for then having base management game mechanics. However, I do feel like if they had made those mechanics more interesting or, at the very least, less time consuming, I would have liked the game more. Thematic dichotomies are well expressed - there's great visual storytelling within the game. In fact, the simplicity of it's core mechanics is a huge detriment in this same regard. Because the busywork of base management is so omnipresent, something interesting or beautiful the first few go-arounds quickly morphs into tedium and monotony. I do understand that the game is going for a more laid-back approach, so asking for too much complexity might be abject idiocy. I find it hard to pin-point what I feel they should have done different - should it be more complex? Faster to do? Should we have to do the tasks less often? I don't have a real, concrete answer - doubly so since these games are just not made for me - but I do know I don't like whatever this is. Finally, while the story is legitimately wonderful once it all comes together, it takes a bit too long to really get anywhere at all. I feel like even if you beeline the major points, you're just kind of wandering for a little too long. It seems a bit directionless, but that may not be accidental. I have to wonder if this is intentional, as so much of the game is pointing to it's overall thematic elements; could this feeling of being directionless and being adrift tie into what the game is meant to portray? It is hard to say, but if you feel like it is purposeful, it's easy to excuse. Verdict Spiritfarer is a beautiful game, with some truly stunning artwork, music, and writing that is ultimately lifted up by what you bring into the experience. While there are some elements I don’t personally vibe with, it is an otherwise engaging and deeply moving game that should command your attention, and bring you many moments of joy, or even sadness. Thunder Lotus has once again proved they have an excellent command of their voice, using all aspects of their game to create something worth everyone’s time.

A Naked Dash of Discovery Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown is the latest installment of the Ace Combat flight simulation games by Bandai Namco, and the first since 2014’s Ace Combat Infinity. It also happens to mark the first time I have ever played a flight simulation game at all (even one as supposedly arcadey as this). As a genre that I had never really had any interest in exploring until another reviewer I trust mentioned how much they loved this game, I was a bit befuddled – but, boy, was I missing out.             Ace Combat 7 combines exciting dogfights, stealth flying missions, and base destruction with great music, clean visuals, and some really solid voice work to create an astounding experience, even for newcomers like me. With a multitude of missions, jets, weapon types, arenas, and objectives, the core experience of Ace Combat 7 never gets old, even if I found myself frustrated at times. Luckily there are multiple difficulty modes, and no penalty for changing from one to the other if you switch. Publisher:  Bandai Namco Developer: Bandai Namco Studios Platform:  Played on PC Availability:  Released January 18, 2019 on PS4 and Xbox One, February 1, 2019 on PC, and July 11, 2024 on Nintendo Switch To put this up front, I am not good at this game. After I completed the main story for the first time, I hopped online and got smoked. I can’t aim a damn thing properly, and barely get around flying, but I managed to pull myself through the game’s story mode, and eventually finished off the side missions from the DLC as well. My piloting skills were especially suspect in the beginning – trying to figure out how to get around, worrying about roll, pitch, and yaw – all while flying and seeing how those things affect your turning and speed in any direction, etc…well, it was a bit overwhelming at first for me. However, I decided to stick it out, because I got a feeling on that first mission that I couldn’t really shake. It was like I just knew that something great was here, I just needed to get my feet wet a little more.             Unfortunately, that process took a bit longer than I would have liked it to. One of my biggest complaints is that the game does a poor job of really onboarding you into the Ace Combat experience. Tutorials for basic maneuverability options and controls don’t even show up until several new missions in. Some things are just straight up not explained at all. I felt like I was flying by the seat of my pants for a huge part of the experience. I played on easy for about half of the story and, in that time, I had only died once to anything other than a spectacular crash into a mountainside or lawn. It was definitely a struggle for me, but once it clicked, I found that some of the movements I struggled with became almost second nature. Beautiful vistas await you as you soar through the skies             As a child, I always laughed at my dad when we’d play something like Mario Kart or Gran Turismo and his body would contort for every twist and turn he took on the course. It was as if he believed that tilting himself and the controller in the direction he wished to go would will the car or kart to do the same. Yet, here I was, thirty-three and counting, twisting myself along with the jets as missiles flew by my cockpit, ducking and weaving as I raced through a canyon. I know my wife must have loved seeing me in action. Truth be told, I get motion sick quite easily now – much to my dismay when it comes to VR or other games I’ve wanted to play – but I did not feel anything during this game that I would consider sickness. I like to think that my tortuous movements helped with that.             The gameplay loop for Ace Combat 7’s story mode is simple – New mission begins with a cutscene, which then leads to a mission briefing where your objectives and map are laid out to you. Usually a good idea to listen well to this, as the briefing will give you a better idea of what types of weapons you might want to bring, or plane types you might want to fly. Then, you’ll head into some menus where you can buy new planes, parts, etc., before moving onto your prep – where you select your plane and weaponry. Missions usually fall into some combination of these 3 types – dogfights (that is, plane on plane battles), Stealth flying, and objective destruction. The dogfights are definitely more my speed. Zipping through the thunderous skies, blowing up an enemy jet, and swinging around to take on a new one is exhilarating. Crawling through a chasm at 1/18th my normal speed hoping not to be seen is not. I can see a world where speedrunners or great pilots love these missions and work their hardest to fly through in record time and love every second. But that’s not me – I’m built different (worse). Once the mission ends, you might have to land the jet, and then it’s on to the next one. Some scenarios might require a more deft flying touch.             There is a story here, and it is fine. The game’s old now, but at the risk of spoilers, I’ll keep it vague. Cutscenes can feel disconnected to what you the player are doing in the gameplay, but I think it works. I didn’t find anything too profound – there is a war, and you have to fight it – but the direction things took was enough to keep me invested. I think those moments all pay off in a way at the end, so it’s definitely not something I would skip.             Flight controls are tight, if not a bit obtuse at first, but once you get some of the basics down, you’ll be soaring upside down or sideways with relative ease. Weapons are vast and varied, but all function mostly the same with a few exceptions. You have your standard missiles, a machine gun, and a special weapon. This special weapon can be anything from more anti-air missiles, bombs, air to ground missiles, or even a railgun (my personal favorite for dogfights). Different missions might call for different weapon types to get through effectively. Generally speaking, the dogfights are where the game really shines. It’s so fast and fun, and the music never disappoints – always seeming to pick up and work in sync with the moments in-game. The soundtrack here is truly special. I feel like its among the very best I’ve ever heard, period. Songs like Daredevil, Charge Assault, 444, and Archange elevate the experience well beyond what I would have envisioned. They manage to create moods both intense and emotionally moving at times, in spaces you didn’t know you’d want them to. Keiki Kobayashi really provides us with something special here, and I hope if you pick the game up, you’ll enjoy it just as much as I did. Multiplayer is an afterthought for me. There are a few differing modes – A free-for-all Battle Royale, and Team Deathmatch. They function as you would imagine them to. Dogfights in team or solo settings, with points awarded for kills - top scores win. I did not put much time into it, but it’s basically the same as a dogfight in the story, but the pilots are better. Unfortunately, the MP Is not very active on Steam. I was only ever able to see a few lobbies at a time in the searches. You might have better luck on the switch version. A great atmosphere that is elevated by superb music and exciting. Verdict Ace Combat 7: Skies unknown is an excellent game. As my first foray into the combat flight simulation genre, I was almost always engaged or enthralled with the hectic experience. Notable standouts in the game here are the music, dogfights, and customization. I am left in awe of some of the moments you get to zip through, and it has created a new fan out of me – not just for Ace Combat games, but flight sims in general.

A beautiful, but flawed, wonder. Into Free(dom) Dragon's Dogma 2 feels, in many respects, like a game on the edge.  Capcom’s follow-up to 2012’s cult classic Dragon’s Dogma is a game that feels like it could teeter into a disaster-piece at any given moment, yet somehow retains enough focus and identity to squarely land on the stable side of the cliff. By design, the game has many points of friction baked into the gameplay experience - extremely limited fast travel, expensive economy (items, inns, equipment), diminishing health reserves, slow travel, dangerous fall damage, and more. And yet, I never felt like I was being punished in the way one might assume if they had only read about the game, rather than played it. Each one of these might look like a "flaw", but it's actually imperative in the flow of the game's core experience. The exploration might be a slow, methodical trek across a vast open world, but it's never boring. Every step brings something exciting around the bend - from packs of wolves who might drag you off to your doom, to hidden coves of treasure and beasts - there's a real sense of adventure and exploration here that is hard to find in a game today. It's not a survival game in the sense that you need to make shelter, or manage a hunger meter, but it can sometimes feel like you're really fighting to survive a hostile wilderness as you roam. I sometimes found myself just hoping to find a campsite, or wondering if I should head back to town or keep pushing forward as the night approached. Frolicking in the fields of Vermund. To be frank, this game is quite easy past the early game. Beyond the first few hours, I never came close to dying. I took long trips for days and days in the wilds without stopping (mostly due to my compulsive need to explore every cave and cliff I came across). So while the points of friction I mentioned earlier might sound like it is going to make for a tough experience, I can assure you it is not a truly punishing game. And even if you do die, carrying a wakestone can revive you. If you don't have any on hand, you'll just load from the most recent autosave, which the game does pretty frequently in my experience. Despite being a pretty normal experience difficulty-wise, the wilderness and night can still feel dangerous. I always took great care around high cliffs especially- fall damage being the greatest threat to my health most often. Nighttime, by the way, is really awesome! It's so dark, that without a lantern you can't see anything really. And even with a lantern your vision is pretty limited. Dangerous beasts lurk in the dark and you can often stumble into an encounter you didn't see coming. I was once wandering through a forest, lantern in tow, when suddenly I heard a voice "Arisen...", a faint light appeared in the darkness...that's a dragon. Moments like this are somewhat common, but they are always exciting. Minotaurs, chimeras, griffins, ogres and more can ambush you and it keeps night feeling dangerous, even if it never actually is. The primary mechanical focus of the game is combat, which is still excellent when compared to the first Dragon's Dogma. Really, there is not much difference between the two in the overarching way combat and exploration works - you and your pawn have a vocation (job) that levels up independently of your character level. This vocation determines your stats, abilities, damage types, and even the types of exploration available to you (mages can levitate and thieves can scale/jump off walls, for instance). You don't need to worry so much about what you level up as in Dragon's Dogma 2 - your stats will automatically adjust based on vocation according to your character level. With a total of 10 vocations available to you, there are a good number of options in terms of playstyles, and you're never locked into just one. Each vocation has unique skillsets, each with enough variety to craft a playstyle more suited to your own preferences within the confines of the vocation itself. The animation work done on all of the skills available to you make combat so interesting and engaging, it never really gets boring - even when you’re fighting your 100th pack of goblins of the day. The fights remain exciting in large part because the enemies also have a lot of different behaviors and abilities. Goblins can throw rocks, spears, do lunging attacks and more, all while running away in fear or using pack tactics. Wolves will hit and run, or grab you or your pawn and carry you off. And so on, and so on. The unending dynamism keeps things interesting no matter where you are, or what class you are playing. Pawns- AI controlled companions that follow, fight, and gather on your behalf - are a nice way to connect players, without directly interfering with a player’s single-player world. You will be able to bring your main pawn (self-created and managed), and 2 pawns from the riftstones, which include both Capcom provided pawns and the pawns other players have created. Pawns have a limited number of vocations available to them, but they are able to have specializations that grant them some abilities or behaviors otherwise unobtainable. Additionally, inclinations allow you to customize your pawn’s behavior more acutely. The AI is not perfect, but I think it is more than functional in terms of being a useful party member. If you played the first game, they function very similarly here. There are, of course, other minor mechanics and systems in play in the game that just don’t matter much. Romance and affection exist, but they are so underutilized and inconsequential it’s not really worth diving in depth on them or considering them as a major part of the experience. However, if systems like that interest you, you should be aware they exist in name only here. Earlier I mentioned how this feels like a game on the edge of being a very bad game, but that edge cuts both ways. For all of its wild successes and phenomenal gameplay, Dragon’s Dogma 2 falls short of being truly great. It is a game on the precipice of all-time greatness - greatness that, I feel, is pretty attainable if some minor adjustments are made in DLC or expansions. And while it is disappointing that it never quite reaches the highs I feel it could, there is hope it might in the future. My most identifiable complaints lie in two areas. First, enemy variety is disappointing. The enemies that are present in the game are a thrill, to be sure, but there are fewer types of enemies when compared to the first game, even when you count subtypes and offshoots (e.g. Hobgoblins vs Goblins). The game could really use a few more small enemy types, but would immensely benefit from additional large or huge enemy varieties. Large enemies introduce a fun, dynamic experience in each fight with their scalability, and having more you can climb or ride or engage with would really liven up the experience in a significant way. Second, there are not enough quests, and the ones that exist can often feel uninteresting.. A lot of fetch quests, monster culling, and escort quests - with very little variety beyond that. When you do get something more unique it’s really a breath of fresh air. That isn’t to say things like monster battles or escorting shouldn’t be included in the larger structure of any additional quests, but quests could stand to be more diverse. The main questline is pretty barebones - both in variety and length. There just aren’t enough things to do in the game in a directed sense. This is most notable in the second major area of the game and late game, where the main story really just kind of ends without any buildup or resolution to some seemingly major questions about the world. There are fewer relevant side quests here as well. The expanses themselves are so full of care and wonder, and yet I can’t help but feel the characters and story are so egregiously underbaked. As this is meant to be a spoiler-free review, I won’t go into specifics, but I was left asking things like, “what happened to (major characters A, B, and C)? Did anything in (Area X) lead anywhere? Did I just miss it?” A battle with a griffin, one of the few large enemy types available to fight. Performance is a sticking point for many people, and unfortunately, Dragon’s Dogma 2 suffers here. I am playing on PC, so mileage may vary, but even with relatively high end hardware on 1440p I run into some choppiness and 30 fps average in towns or cities. For field exploration I can get a solid 60 on mostly high settings (messing around with some setting for optimization is necessary, in my opinion). Variability is high here, so I’m not really sure what the answer is for Capcom, but changing my settings didn’t really seem to help much unless I went below what I would consider a reasonable threshold for my current hardware. If you are okay with a 30 FPS threshold for stable framerates, it seems attainable on most modern systems. I will not be doing an in-depth tech review here, but if it concerns you or you want to learn more, it is definitely worth looking into. I would be remiss if I did not mention the “DLC” currently available for the game. At time of writing, there are a plethora of microtransactions available for purchase that will give you an assortment of minor consumables. These items are easy to obtain in the game, and are largely inconsequential to the experience. Purchasing these is a waste of money, and will not benefit you in any meaningful way. Capcom’s decision to include them is a bit baffling, and bad business practice on the corporate side of things, but as they are immaterial to the gameplay experience, they will not be affecting my review of the game. Any ethical concerns over DLC feels like a separate battle to fight and the controversy surrounding the DLC in this game in particular feels strange- considering it is not uncommon for Capcom to do this in any of their games in the last several years. Why Dragon’s Dogma 2 is bearing the brunt of the frustration over microtransactions, I do not know. However, if we are to look past the DLC practices in other major titles, it feels necessary for me to do the same here. I think if the DLC had been a sort of “pay to win” situation, it could affect my outlook, but as it is, I feel no obligation to consider it. Image Credits: Capcom and Taylor Rioux