Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen Developers Say They Aren’t Nerfing Dragonsplague—Just Making It More Clear

I really like Dragon’s Dogma 2, however I’ve been cranky recently. Don’t get me unsuitable. I’m stoked for the upcoming Darkish Arisen DLC. Not solely was the announcement sudden to start with, however what we’ve seen up to now appears genuinely very cool. No, what’s obtained me cranky is what the replace is doing to Dragonsplague, one of many scariest and coolest mechanics within the base sport. It’s my opinion that the developers are nerfing it. The builders themselves say in any other case.

This comes from an e mail interview I performed with DLC director Kento Kinoshita and producer Naoto Oyama. In it, I swung proper out of the gate on my present bugaboo, Dragonsplague. For context, Dragonsplague is a illness that your Dragon’s Dogma 2 pawns, or NPC followers, can contract. It begins off benign, giving them important buffs in fight and making them bolder and fewer obedient. But when allowed to progress, it’s going to finally rework the contaminated right into a dragon who will nuke a whole metropolis. When Dragon’s Dogma 2 first got here out, the city-burning got here as an enormous shock to anybody it occurred to, and as phrase unfold, gamers realized they needed to be on their toes to detect a attainable an infection and kick their plagued pawn off a cliff earlier than it might unfold. The consequence was a scary but cool environment of hysteria round selecting up pawns on-line, or any dragon encounter: would my pawns get contaminated? Might they be already?

Dragon’s Dogma 2 has since been up to date to make it a bit of simpler to inform who has the plague, together with the addition of glowing purple eyes indicating the illness earlier than you recruit them on-line, a bit of tutorial warning explaining what Dragonsplague does, slower illness development, and an added Informal Mode to the sport that stops the village-destroying solely. I already felt most of that was extreme (Informal Mode is nice, the remaining…eh!), however folks had been complaining, so certain, wonderful. However with the upcoming DLC and several other updates within the lead-up to its launch, extra Dragonsplague mitigations are coming. There shall be extra info within the menus about buffs to pawns with the plague, and a potion to treatment Dragonsplague solely is being added.

To me, that seems like a nerf on high of a nerf. Kinoshita sees it in a different way.

“We’ve got not lowered the detrimental affect of Dragonsplague itself, and the core gameplay of getting gamers weigh the dangers and rewards to make their very own selections—which was the unique intention of the mechanic—stays unchanged,” he stated. “For the reason that sport’s launch, there has all the time been a profit the place Pawns are strengthened by Dragonsplague, however we confronted the problem of not having communicated this adequately to our gamers. With the title replace, the stat boosts from Dragonsplague will now be mirrored within the precise numbers, and it has develop into simpler to inform if a Pawn is bothered based mostly on their conduct.

“By means of these changes, gamers can now benefit from the risk-reward dynamic in a a lot clearer manner—similar to deciding whether or not to go away an bothered Pawn as is to prioritize a fight benefit, or finest timing to make use of the Dragonsbaulk Draught to heal them.”

With this rationalization, I can kinda see the place he’s coming from. As a substitute of being cautious of a thriller illness with horrible impacts, this encourages gamers to gamble with Dragonsplague, holding it on the pawn so long as attainable earlier than curing it, however risking destruction in the event that they take too lengthy. That makes some sense to me, however I’m nonetheless wistful for the great ol’ days of abject terror. Alas.

I spoke with Kinoshita and Oyama on plenty of subjects associated to the Dragon’s Dogma 2 DLC. As an example, they instructed me that whereas it ought to be comparatively straightforward for many gamers to entry the DLC by talking to Brant in Vernworth, if you happen to’re within the sport’s true ending world state (if you realize you realize), you received’t be capable to settle for the DLC quests. You’ll have to complete the sport, after which begin a New Recreation+ playthrough.

“That being stated, in future title updates, we plan to introduce a characteristic that means that you can begin a New Recreation Plus carrying over your development even from the center of a playthrough, and likewise a characteristic that permits you to skip the opening a part of the story,” Kinoshita stated. “By using these new choices, it is possible for you to to entry the brand new content material very easily.”

From Oyama, I obtained affirmation that there are extra new monsters within the DLC than have been proven within the reveal trailer, and whereas some new monsters are reskinned current monsters, others are completely new. He didn’t supply any additional element on which of them or what number of or the rest. I additionally requested the pair if the participant group had performed something that stunned them as devs, and Oyama responded: “Even with the prevailing character customization elements, we’ve seen examples on social media the place gamers cleverly used tattoos to make them look naturally like bangs. We by no means anticipated this type of utilization, and we had been really amazed by that stage of creativity.

“With the Darkish Arisen Enlargement, new variations for hairstyles and tattoos may also be added, so we’re actually wanting ahead to seeing what sorts of characters gamers will proceed to create with this freedom and share on social media sooner or later.”

So sure, the devs are watching your artistic tattoo utilization!

The Dragon’s Dogma sequence has an attention-grabbing pedigree. Each Dragon’s Dogma and Dragon’s Dogma 2 had been directed by Hideaki Itsuno, a storied Capcom chief additionally identified for his work on Satan Might Cry. Kinoshita, nonetheless, directed the primary Dragon’s Dogma‘s DLC, additionally known as Darkish Arisen, as he’s directing this one. Itsuno, in the meantime, departed Capcom in 2024 after 30 years on the studio, and is now main Tencent’s LightSpeed Studios. I needed to listen to from Kinoshita and Oyama about why the staff cut up the course of each video games in such a method to start with, and likewise to listen to if something had modified since Itsuno left.

Kinoshita responded to my first query, although I’m probably not certain he answered it:

“Leveraging my expertise working as a planner on the bottom sport, I strategy this challenge with the angle of what an growth ought to be, and the way we will present content material that gamers will really get pleasure from.

“Within the unique Dragon’s Dogma: Darkish Arisen, our strategy was to develop on the primary Dragon’s Dogma by providing a extra combat-focused, deeply replayable expertise. Equally, after the discharge of Dragon’s Dogma 2, we obtained numerous suggestions from gamers saying, ‘We wish to get pleasure from extra adventures and fight on this world.’ Due to that, we’re creating this growth DLC with pleasing fight content material as one in all its core pillars.

“That being stated, merely creating one other Bitterblack Isle wouldn’t supply something new. Subsequently, whereas utilizing a loot-based fight gameplay loop as our base, we developed the sport in order that gamers can expertise this within the solely new discipline of Norgan, moderately than by means of dungeon crawling.

“I imagine a very powerful factor is to protect the core of that distinct Dragon’s Dogma id, whereas striving to create a enjoyable sport that solutions the expectations of our gamers.”

Oyama, equally, was a bit obscure, although his response advised that not a lot has modified with out Itsuno there.

“Led by director Kento Kinoshita, who additionally directed the unique Dragon’s Dogma: Darkish Arisen, the content material of the title updates and new parts took form naturally as we pursued our imaginative and prescient of what an growth title for Dragon’s Dogma 2 ought to be.

“Whereas our strategy could differ from the bottom sport within the sense that we’re crafting this growth to ship the content material our gamers want based mostly on their post-launch suggestions, now we have many staff members—together with the Director—who’ve been concerned with the Dragon’s Dogma sequence for a very long time. Due to this, we imagine we’ve been in a position to transfer ahead with improvement whereas holding the core of Dragon’s Dogma intact.”

Dragon’s Dogma 2‘s Darkish Arisen growth is deliberate to launch on October 9, alongside a brand new Nintendo Change 2 model of the sport that may come bundled with the DLC. A title replace is on the way in which later this month that may repair some bugs, enhance efficiency, and *sigh* make changes to Dragonsplague.