As of today, the 1st of April 2024 this game has some serious problems with optimization. There are workarounds like locking fps to 40 or 30 and such, but the experience inside the cities is different than outside them. Most battles take place outside the towns though, so no problem there.

As a veteran of Dragon's Dogma since its ps3 release (DD on ps3, then DDDA and later DDDA on PC), i have to say it's the same game but better. Sidequests have been improved, main quests are as long as the old game and this time no weird cut scenes (Aelinore, i seriously dislike you since 2012). The enemies are pretty normal and after a point in time the world changes, as in the first game. I miss the dragon interactions but on the other side after playing the old game time after time, i don't miss them that much. Would love some more human enemy types. The pawn system got improved and now i can find specific pawns from the community.

One big negative (and i hope some of the big heads in developing this game sees this) is the downgrade of the equipment. For many people, the meta used to be Fashion's Dogma. Separate slot for clothing and armor. This allowed for many combinations of gear so not only our Arisen, but our Pawn and hired Pawns felt unique. Now most pawns are that warrior with the one eyed helmet, that flamey spikey ball weapon etc. I had to take my pawn's upper armor off so it can look a bit cool. Then he died a few times in other worlds and he doesn't get hired much, but anyway. BRING FASHION'S DOGMA BACK.

The save system is the same with the first game. Nothing new there. Camp sites are a good thing, And a great opportunity for photos. People expect to have multiple saves because other games do it but i see the problem with having many pawns and such. Maybe an offline only mode could help with this. A save file for normal play and then unlimited for offline campaigns where the player doesn't access the online rift.

Last but not least, microtransaction's are not needed in the game, they barely are useful since you get most stuff early. Fast travel with Oxcarts is awesome and can be used to reach destinations from their ambush places. In the first game there was always walking everywhere. Ferrystones were nowhere to be found and wakestones were endgame items. (You could get some earlier with dragon's gaze but meh). The eternal ferrystone was a Dark Arisen item and i think only if you transferred save files in the ps3 version. In the PC it was a standard. I guess it will be back in a future DLC ;).

I really enjoyed my first campaign of this game. It lasted over 60 hours and now i shall continue with vocations, badges, tokens and a trial to reach max affinity with everyone :o .

I expect a hard mode and a speedrun mode to come out in the future. Also a way for us to see other Arisen too. (In NG+ the old game had the Senechal be someone else's arisen. That was cool.)

See you later, fellow Arisen.

As of today, the 1st of April 2024 this game has some serious problems with optimization. There are workarounds like locking fps to 40 or 30 and such, but the experience inside the cities is different than outside them. Most battles take place outside the towns though, so no problem there. As a veteran of Dragon's Dogma since its ps3 release (DD on ps3, then DDDA and later DDDA on PC), i have to say it's the same game but better. Sidequests have been improved, main quests are as long as the old game and this time no weird cut scenes (Aelinore, i seriously dislike you since 2012). The enemies are pretty normal and after a point in time the world changes, as in the first game. I miss the dragon interactions but on the other side after playing the old game time after time, i don't miss them that much. Would love some more human enemy types. The pawn system got improved and now i can find specific pawns from the community. One big negative (and i hope some of the big heads in developing this game sees this) is the downgrade of the equipment. For many people, the meta used to be Fashion's Dogma. Separate slot for clothing and armor. This allowed for many combinations of gear so not only our Arisen, but our Pawn and hired Pawns felt unique. Now most pawns are that warrior with the one eyed helmet, that flamey spikey ball weapon etc. I had to take my pawn's upper armor off so it can look a bit cool. Then he died a few times in other worlds and he doesn't get hired much, but anyway. BRING FASHION'S DOGMA BACK. The save system is the same with the first game. Nothing new there. Camp sites are a good thing, And a great opportunity for photos. People expect to have multiple saves because other games do it but i see the problem with having many pawns and such. Maybe an offline only mode could help with this. A save file for normal play and then unlimited for offline campaigns where the player doesn't access the online rift. Last but not least, microtransaction's are not needed in the game, they barely are useful since you get most stuff early. Fast travel with Oxcarts is awesome and can be used to reach destinations from their ambush places. In the first game there was always walking everywhere. Ferrystones were nowhere to be found and wakestones were endgame items. (You could get some earlier with dragon's gaze but meh). The eternal ferrystone was a Dark Arisen item and i think only if you transferred save files in the ps3 version. In the PC it was a standard. I guess it will be back in a future DLC ;). I really enjoyed my first campaign of this game. It lasted over 60 hours and now i shall continue with vocations, badges, tokens and a trial to reach max affinity with everyone :o . I expect a hard mode and a speedrun mode to come out in the future. Also a way for us to see other Arisen too. (In NG+ the old game had the Senechal be someone else's arisen. That was cool.) See you later, fellow Arisen.