So, Dragon's Dogma 2, in my perspective as someone who came from the days when it was console exclusive, it's a pretty decent follow up to a cult game.

Optimization is a bit spotty yes, story is a bit mediocre (but let's be fair, Dark Arisen's Storyline is an exception instead of example.) But there's a lot to redeem it's short comings with it's improvements to combat and how vocations play, visual variety in the environments, and even the small things they added to make things feel more lively (I'll forever be happy with the new pawn interactions)

I do have my own personal gripes with it compared to the Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen, like the loss gauge being unrecoverable by curative items (save for a few), The Dragonsplague afflicting your pawns, how wyrmforging works now.

But they didn't really kill my mood for the game or it's vibe, I was having fun all the way through and nothing really sharply made me dislike the game. I hope it gets an expansion that addresses a lot of issues people have with this game like they did for the original Dragon's Dogma as I want to play this game more but I don't want to immediately milk it for all it has.