Do you remember March this year, a period of time that simultaneously feel like it took place both five minutes and and entire century ago? Dragon's Dogma 2 came out during it, and it might be worth giving a go now of you haven't thanks to to a big patch and free trial.

If you didn't give DD2 a go at launch or bounced off of it pretty quickly, that's ok, but you might have missed out on something pretty great, especially if you're into games where you've constantly got to ask for directions like you're on a family holiday in the countryside and your dad's left the map back in the cottage.

From June 27 or 28, depending on which of the three platforms involved - PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC - that you're on, and all the way up until July 18, you can play the first two hours of the game for free. Don't worry, if you get through that and then decide you want to carry on by buying the thing, you'll be able to use your free trail save data with the full game.

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Dragon's Dogma 2 seemingly has a path-tracing renderer hidden with it, and there's now a mod that lets you turn it on.

Now, right out the gate, I should be clear that just because something is in a game doesn't mean that it's cut content. Sometimes certain things just exist as tests, or were just earlier versions of something that still exists. Having said that, earlier this month it was discovered that Dragon's Dogma 2 has a path-tracing feature that gives the game much more realistic lighting. Last week, a modder by the name of EXXXcellent reached out to Digital Foundry about their mod that activates the feature, and the latter went hands on with it to see exactly how the game shapes up with all that new lighting.

Right out the gate, it really does look quite good. Reflective surfaces like metal and bottles have a much more realistic look to them, shadows have a lot more definition to them, even just brickwork and cobblestones look great. Character models and things like hair get a real boost too, overall it really works with the game's visual style, though there are some indoor areas that actually look worse due to a lack of light. But here comes the but. But! This unsurprisingly comes at the cost of performance.

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Dragonsplague annoying you in Dragon's Dogma 2? The game's next patch will make it slightly less frequent, and a bit easier to spot.

Dragon's Dogma 2 is very much a game that is doing exactly what it wants to do, even if it is a bit player hostile sometimes. One such bit of design that has caused a number of players some friction is dragonsplague, an illness that pawns can contract that in one part makes them stronger and more effective in combat, but on the other if left to fester those same pawns might go on to kill entire villages. It's actually quite a cool bit of design, with the disease spreading amongst pawns from save file to save file thanks to the game's online capabilities, though some have taken to creating mods that make it easier to determine how infected a pawn is.

Thankfully, as laid out in patch notes for an upcoming update, it seems like the disease won't be quite as infectious as it currently is. As shared on the game's Twitter, the next update will "reduce the infection frequency of dragonsplague" and adjust "infection signs to be more visible." An example of this is that "when infected, glowing eyes will be more noticeable." There's also an option being added that lets you zoom in on the faces of your own player character, as well as pawns, so hopefully that will let you more easily see if they have dragonsplague.

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The Dragon’s Dogma 2 Case of Sculptor’s Block quest seems straightforward, until you speak to the artist in question and hear his rather unusual request. The process of petrifying a griffin is pretty arduous and time consuming, though once you know where to look, the battle’s more than half over already.

Our Dragon’s Dogma 2 Case of Sculptor’s Block guide outlines how to start Klark’s quest, where to find Fulvio, and how to find and petrify a griffin.

If you’re looking for more quests to tackle and haven’t managed to start A Case of Sculptor’s Block, you’re in luck. It’s one of the more straightforward quests you can tackle early in Dragon’s Dogma 2.

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You there. Do you like Dragon's Dogma 2 and watching two things that aren't you fight each other? Well, if you've ever wanted to see what happens when an ogre decides it's just about had enough of a pack of goblins or a griffin and don't want to rely on random chance to make that dream come true, a new mod looks like it can help.

Yup, while coming across a couple of enemy gangs going at it isn't too uncommon in the base version of DD2, when you rock up, their attention usually shifts to caving in the head of your Arisen or ripping them to shreds, making it a bit hard to just sit back and watch the chaos unfold. So, the option to make enemies a bit more agressive towards each other, especially when attacks go awry, sounds pretty useful for the average mischief causer.

Enter modder alphaZomega's 'Monster Infighting'. It's inspired by the feature of the same name in the classic Doom games, in which tricking monsters into battling each other by cleverly making attacks meant for you set off a bit of an inter-baddie scuffle is a bit of an art.

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Dragon's Dogma 2 is an early but solid contender for GOTY – we said that might be the case during preview, and we’re certain of it now. It’s a game of uncompromised vision, and where the original looked at the likes of Fable and Oblivion and asked “what does Capcom’s version of that look like?”, the sequel responds: “why don’t we make Capcom’s version of Dragon’s Dogma instead?”.

The original game is full of compromises. Content cut short for time or RAM. An entire planned beast race that never made it in. Only two inhabited settlements, one of them a tiny tutorial village. And squeezed onto creaking hardware that could barely run it. Well, the more things change, etc. To anyone with an interest in the original game and its development, it’s clear that Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a labour of love, and a hugely successful do-over for an idea that didn’t quite materialise on the first attempt.

Which is why, as explained in the video above, I’m not convinced by the circulating idea that Dragon’s Dogma 2 is some kind of cynical money-grab. Yes, the microtransactions are stupid, pointless, and opportunistic. But if they’re a dealbreaker, that’s a whole lot of baby getting thrown out with the bath water.

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If there was ever a game that needed a walkthrough, it’s Dragon’s Dogma 2.

As the prophesied Arisen, you travel alongside a party of summoned Pawns who act as magical guides and allies throughout Dragon’s Dogma 2’s vast world. As you complete DD2’s varied roster of brilliant and surprising quests you will take on gigantic monsters, fend off brutal ambushes, unravel deep political plots and solve mysteries in just about every village, town and city you visit.

But that’s not all. It’s become something of a video game cliche but, in the esoteric world of Dragon’s Dogma 2, your choices matter. Characters can permanently die through random events in the world, as well as the outcomes of quests, so you need to be decisive and thorough in your actions to make sure you get the desired outcome from your epic adventure.

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There's so much to discover in Dragon's Dogma 2 that it's easy to get lost in just the opening area. However, what already seems like a sprawling open-world is just one part of Dragon's Dogma 2's huge map.

To the south of Vermund is the mysterious desert country of Battahl, filled with even more caves to explore, secrets to unearth and loot to collect.

The Arisen can't just wander into Battahl whenever they please though - there are a few important steps you need to complete first. Here's what to do.

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In the lore of Dragon's Dogma 2, it is the Arisen's destiny to defeat the elder dragon, but that doesn't mean regular people don't get hurt along the way.

Early on in your adventure the town of Melve is destroyed by the dragon, with scorched fields and burned out buildings now covering most of the settlement.

However, once you return to Melve you find the townspeople locked in battle with a horrid drake. To defeat the lesser dragon, focus on the quivering pustules covering its body. They will eventually burst as weak points that deal extra damage.

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As your journey through the dense and dangerous world of Dragon's Dogma 2 progresses, you find the Claw them into shape quest. In the north of Vermund the Arisen meets the legendary warrior Ser Beren, who is in need of new recruits and weapons to arm them with.

Ser Beren's tent is located to the north of the town of Melve, far to the north of the city of Vernworth.

Take the path from Melve through the Moonglow garden to speak to him. Beren needs a couple of things from the Arisen, and bids them to collect them and return to his tent. First, you need to find Beren a new, willing student to train, as well as three regular swords.

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Near the beginning of your journey through Dragon's Dogma 2 you receive the Monster Culling quest, pitting you against groups of deadly monsters around the vicinity of Vernworth.

At the behest of Captain Brant, to begin seeding the idea that you are the true Arisen, you must prove your prowess on the battlefield by aiding soldiers scattered around the continent against various creatures.

First, you need to defeat the goblins at Trevo Mine to the northwest of Vernworth, then the saurians in Harve Village to the west, then help with a delivery over on Vermund’s eastern edge.

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Along with Disa's Plot and An Unsettling Encounter, The Stolen Throne is one of a trio of Dragon's Dogma 2 quests that see you engaging in some light espionage to uncover the motives and methods of Disa, Vernworth's queen regent and a major antagonist of the game.

These quests aren't necessarily sequential and The Stolen Throne can be completed before or after the other two, or indeed in the middle if you prefer; but as the most audacious bit of social stealth you'll be required to perform, it has the feeling of a finale. That's how we played it, and thus how this walkthrough will treat some recurring characters and locales from the other two quests, but you shouldn't see too many differences if you choose to tackle it earlier in your time in Vernworth.

The Stolen Throne is a key quest in Dragon's Dogma 2, so beware major story spoilers below!

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Dragon's Dogma 2 shares a few elements with immersive sims, in that you’re given a lot of freedom in how to tackle quests, and the opportunity to come up with clever solutions to problems.

But what if the problem is that you don’t want to use any weapons to fight off the game’s many monsters?

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The Dragon’s Dogma 2 Saint of the Slums quest has several moving parts – and no shortage of misinformation floating around – though the rewards are worth your trouble. Aside from the satisfaction of bringing a poisoner to justice, you get a hefty bag of gold.

A few sites claim Saint of the Slums is a timed quest. It isn’t. It doesn’t have the timed quest marker, for one thing, and I spent at least two in-game weeks messing around with other quests and faced no consequences for it.

Our Dragon’s Dogma 2 Saint of the Slums guide goes over how to enter the basement and find evidence so you can bring the abbess to justice.

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As useful as they can be, Dragon's Dogma 2's pawns tend to natter on a bit, so thankfully there's a mod that stops them from talking too much.

Picture this: you're walking along a dirt road, happy as can be, having just beaten a gang of goblins, enjoying some peace and quiet when all of a sudden you hear it… "Look Arisen, a chest!" Then again, "Look Arisen, a ladder!" And again, and again, and again. Chatter like that would get on anyone's nerves after a while (they've certainly got on mine), and while I appreciate how helpful Dragon's Dogma 2's pawns are, I wish they would talk just that little bit less. Lucky for me, and anyone else in a similar predicament, there's a mod that can fix exactly that.

The mod in question is quite simply named ShutUpPawns, a mostly "does what it says on the tin" type mod, though it is actually a bit more complicated than just turning off the dialogue. Essentially, the mod lets you put various lines of dialogue into a blocklist so they won't tell you about every single ladder and chest under the sun, as well as other bits of dialogue. It lets you fine tune specific bits of dialogue so your pawns can just tell you about chests, for example, because I certainly don't need to know about every single ladder we come across. On top of that, you can also prevent your pawns from high fiving you, though personally I'd leave that in just because I think it's a cute little touch.

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Dragon's Dogma 2 is the kind of game major publishers just do not make anymore. The sort of divisive project that’s so thoroughly committed to its bit, you’re either on board with it or you’re out. Even if you may not be thrilled with every decision made to get it there, you have to at least appreciate its gusto.

Lucky for me, I am as on board with its madness as I am fascinated that Itsuno and co. managed to convince Capcom to give them the money and development time needed to bring it all to life.

If I want to be flippant or reductive, I’d say Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a game that isn’t concerned with your feelings about it. The vast majority of big games today are built to enshrine you as the only character that matters before you could even press a single button. The world, its people, the systems that govern it are all made specifically for you to experience. Outside that context, they’d have no reason to exist, and no purpose of their own.

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Nameless Village is one of those quests in Dragon's Dogma 2: the type that gives you a starting point and an end goal, but where the individual steps aren't really explained until you've already completed them. It's stressful enough trying to prove your right to the throne of Vermund as the true Arisen without worrying if you've missed out on something critical, so below we've put together a step-by-step walkthrough to help you make the most of your time in this curious little settlement.

Beware spoilers below the video for Dragon's Dogma 2's main storyline and the Nameless Village quest.

Nameless Village will be added to your quest list during one of your regular check-ins with Captain Brant during the Vernworth questline. He's heard a rumour that the false Sovran, a man known as Arthur, has origins that can be traced back to the eponymous village with no eponym. So he adds investigating the area to your list of tasks. Luckily, there's no particular time pressure associated with any of Brant's extensive list of rather time-consuming quests.

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Finding the Dragon’s Dogma 2 Sphinx riddle solutions is your ticket to some excellent loot and some pretty basic junk, but hey, it’s free junk. The trouble comes from actually figuring out the Sphinx riddles. Some play tricks with logic, others are so straightforward that you might miss the solution, and one is just a downright pain to deal with.

You only get one shot at answering each riddle, so make sure you save before forking your answer over. If you're quick enough, you can reload and try again, should you make a mistake. Just don't be too hasty to attack the giant monster. She might have boss vibes, but you'll need to postpone the battle until the last minute.

Our Dragon’s Dogma 2 Sphinx riddle solutions guide explains how the Sphinx quests work, where to find the Sphinx, and whether you should fight it.

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There've been a couple of aspects of Dragon's Dogma 2 that've proven a bit like Marmite, and one of them's the Dragonsplague. There's just something about the possibilIty of having your infected pawns go on a city-felling rampage that some folks find more of an annoyance than a challenge. Thankfully, a new mod looks like it can help out in pretty funny fashion.

To be fair, having to worry about your party members' eyes turning red after a clash with a drake or dragon has been a nice little distraction from DD2's main talking point around release, that being those microtransactions that aren't cool, but do mostly affect stuff you can just grab in-game. Though, sometimes you want that inherent terror to be a bit more cartoonish.

Enter modder rthomasv3's 'Dragonsplague Counter'. What does it do? Well, to put it simply, it makes it incredibly easy to tell exactly which of your pawns have Dragonsplague. Literally, all you've got to do is look at them, because their infection level's been helpfully slapped right onto the middle of their forehead.

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The Dragon’s Dogma 2 Sphinx riddles at the Mountain Shrine are probably the ones you’ll encounter first, and they’re a devious bunch of brain twisters. One is literal to an almost ridiculous degree, though some are so vague and misleading that it’s almost impossible to know what the Sphinx is after, especially if you don’t frequent the Rift often.

Our Dragon’s Dogma 2 mountain shrine Sphinx riddles guide explains what you need to solve each riddle and the best order to do them in.

You can tackle the riddles in any order, but we’ve listed them in the order that makes your life easier. Make sure to visit a Riftstone of Fellowship before setting out for the shrine, and recruit a Pawn with the name SphinxMother, SphinxFather, or SphinxParent. You’ll save time and a Portcrystal if you do.

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Performance woes and silly balance-breaking cheat DLC be damned - Dragon's Dogma 2 is bloody excellent. It’s a special game, for my money one most keenly defined by its willingness to cast a blind eye to more or less everything that has happened in the world of big-budget RPGs since the original game arrived back in 2012.

The result is a game that’s refreshingly prickly, gloriously hokey, and often utterly delighted by its own silliness - while playing it all with the straightest face. In many ways Dragon’s Dogma 2 feels like a game that fell out of that PS3/360 generation, just with a modern technology boost. Playing it makes me yearn for another Capcom series of that era. It’s time, of course, for a Dead Rising Reboot.

I actually reckon that DD and DR are bedfellows born of the same experimental mindset that clearly ran rampant at Capcom in the early part of the PS3/360 console generation. The similarities are superficial, but they’re also undeniably there - not just in both games’ use of Capcom’s MT Framework engine, but in an attitude to development. At a time when games were generally streamlining and shooting for an ever-lowering barrier of entry, the first Dead Rising and Dragon’s Dogma both didn’t mind being a little obtuse and difficult.

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Have you ever seen a game that really looks like it will be exactly your kind of thing, and then it gets near universal praise so you think, "yeah, I'm gonna give it a go," and then you play the game and… it just doesn't click for you? That's exactly what happened to me with Dragon's Dogma 2 recently, and for the most part it's been a point of frustration. For one, games aren't cheap these days, so it's not exactly fun to lay down the funds for one and feel unsure of it. It's also because I really want to be on its wavelength, and I haven't been exactly sure why I'm not. But then I remember this has happened before, with one of my now favourite games, and one of FromSoftware's best: Bloodborne.

You see, I got Bloodborne about a year after it had come out, and it was my first ever Soulslike. My only experience with the genre prior to this was playing the opening section of Dark Souls when I was 14 which left me with a feeling of "why would anyone want to play something so needlessly hard?" So, safe to say, I wasn't all that clued in to how the genre was meant to work. I understood at that point that the difficulty was the whole point of it, and it's not like I'd never played hard games before, but at this point in time where Soulslikes weren't as plentiful, Bloodborne was unfamiliar to me.

I probably spent 10 hours alone just in the section that leads you towards Father Gascoigne, with at least three quarters of that not even being me attempting to fight the experienced hunter. In time I did beat him, but when I got to Vicar Amelia, I just hit a wall - and I know what you're thinking, but don't even dare to comment "you just needed to get good." It wasn't really about getting good, it was more that I didn't know what kind of hunter I wanted to be. Which weapon should I use, how should I move, have I made a mistake? These were all questions I couldn't answer, and it wasn't until about two attempts later that something changed.

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Dragon's Dogma 2 has had a bit of a rough launch, with all the microtransactions discourse and the performance issues on PC and consoles. While that may have stopped some players from picking it up, millions already have.

Today, Capcom announced the number of copies the game has sold so far, after about ten days from release.

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The other day — and don't worry, I've already secured permission to tell this story — I observed one of VG247's own, in a moment of ardour during a discussion of the wondrous merits of Dragon's Dogma 2, to utter the following statement: "F**k Baldur's Gate 3."

And fair enough, to each their own, but as I turned back to trudging the length and breadth of the twin kingdoms of Vermund and Battahl on foot (because there are no mounts or fast travel, in case you haven't heard), fighting off procedurally generated enemies every six or seven steps, my esteemed colleague's words made me realise something. I'm homesick for Faerûn.

Baldur's Gate 3 was one of my favourite games of 2023, but due to a number of circumstances — not least of which was the release of Dragon's Dogma 2 — I've only managed one proper play session since returning from my Christmas break. It's been in the back of my head for a while now that I missed it, but at this moment, I realised I was missing it a lot.

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On Friday, Dragon's Dogma 2 received its first post-launch update. Unsurprisingly, this one isn’t massive, but it does address a couple of the early gripes many players had with the game.

The patch finally adds an option to start a new a game when a save file already exists. Dragon’s Dogma 2, just like its predecessor, does not allow for multiple save slots. This is unlikely to change, but what the sequel didn’t ship with was the ability to start a new save and overwrite your existing one.

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CD Projekt chief financial officer Piotr Nielubowicz says that he doesn't see a future for the dev's single-player games where it introduces microtransactions.

We're generally past the days of single-player games having scores of microtransactions for tat you don't really need, but it doesn't mean they're completely gone. Luckily, it doesn't sound like you can expect microtransactions in future Witcher or Cyberpunk single-player games, as in a recent interview with StockWatch.pl (via JuiceHead), CFO Nielubowicz spoke about the company potentially using them. "We do not see a place for microtransactions in the case of single-player games," Nielubowicz said. "But we do not rule out that we will use this solution in the future in the case of multiplayer projects."

It's obviously reassuring to know that tentpoles like the Witcher series won't suffer from microtransactions, as they do feel like a thing of the past - y'all remember Oblivion's horse armour? Obviously multiplayer games haven't been freed from the curse of microtransactions, and as Nielubowicz mentioned above they aren't ruled out from CD Projekt's multiplayer titles, but it's a step in the right direction.

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The Dragon's Dogma 2 Jadeite Orb quest presents you with what looks like an ethical conundrum: Who you give the Jadeite Orb to. The best candidate seems obvious - until you factor rewards into the equation.

Our Dragon's Dogma 2 Jadeite Orb quest explains what you get for giving the Jadeite Orb to both characters and how to get around the tricky situation of only one orb existing.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 Jadeite Orb location

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Everybody loves a good whole-plot reference, and it seems that the writers of Dragon's Dogma 2 are no exception! The side-quest The Beggar's Tale, available from the time you start exploring the city of Vernworth, sees your Arisen giving their best Sherlock Holmes impression (plus a party of pawns as willing Watsons, naturally) while investigating how a street performer scrabbling for tips in the Merchant's Quarter somehow always has loads of ready cash.

There are a few steps to this quest, as well as a choice near the end that results in different story outcomes and different rewards. So, read on for our full walkthrough of The Beggar's Tale quest in Dragon's Dogma 2. Beware spoilers, naturally.

The Beggar's Tale side-quest begins in Vernworth's merchant quarter, in the square with the dragon fountain at its centre. During the day, a man named Albert will be standing beneath the fountain statue, telling stories in exchange for tips.

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Oi, you. If you're one of the folks who've had a bit of a moan about Dragon's Dogma 2's DLC, as we're all perfectly entitled to do about any game, now's your chance to tell Capcom what you might like it to do when it comes to additional DLC that could arrive for the game.

Yep, a games company is asking you for input on a game, try not let all of the power go to your head at once. This is actually something Capcom, it its credit, does pretty regularly, having previously asked about the likes of Resident Evil remakes and classic Capcom IPs such as Dead Rising. Whether much ends up coming of your input is another thing, but it's nice to feel heard at least.

You can find the fresh survey about DD2 here, just make sure you've set aside a bit of time first, because it's fairly chunky, although you have got until April 21 to fill it out. The bit you probably care the most about is on the third and fourth pages of it, once you've gotten through answering stuff like how you heard about the game and what you've thought of it so far.

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There's a lot to love about Dragon's Dogma 2, obviously. The game is a cut above a lot of other games we've seen come out in recent months (yeah I'm including Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth too), and we reckon it's due to some truly unique quirks and charming little features you can find sprinkled all over Capcom's latest action RPG. You want an example? For my money, you've got to love the live action cooking scenes.

That's why I was pleasantly surprised when the good folks over at Eurogamer ranked each of the cooking cutscenes in order of worst to best, which you can watch in the video above! Not only is it packed full of meat puns (as you'd expect), but it'll also help you get a troublesome achievement / trophy if you follow it along yourself.

Obviously the rotten meat goes at the bottom but you may be surprised which ranks near the top. This reminds me of a university story. Did you know one of my old flat mates once ate undercooked sausages in front of four people, and pretended they were cooked? We were making fun of him not being able to cook sausages properly, and instead of admiting he couldn't even over-cook food, he forced his way through three raw sausages to prove a point. He was later ill, obviously. He didn't even get a trophy for it - he flunked out of third year I think. £25,000 down and no trophy...

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Dragon’s Dogma 2’s Prey for the Pack quest is one of the RPG’s more confusing challenges. The people meant to help you find a missing child are rather vague about what they saw and know, and since you’re racing against the clock to save the kid, it’s easy to make a mistake and ruin the whole thing.

Our Dragon’s Dogma 2 Prey for the Pack guide walks you through each of the quest’s steps and points out where to find Rodge.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 Prey for the Pack

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Dragon's Dogma 2's Oxcart Courier quest is a bit of a tutorial for the oxcart fast travel system — but this is DD2, so don't expect it to go easy on you just because it's attempting to teach you something. Sure, the idea is simple enough, but there are plenty of hazards along the procedural road ready to mess up your day.

Whether you're unsure how to deal with mini-bosses along the road or are wondering where to find Ser Lennart once you finally reach Melve, we've collated our experiences here to help you out in our Oxcart Courier quest walkthrough.

To begin this quest, you simply need to return to the North Vernworth Oxcart Station after arriving in the city from Melve. I waited a few in-game days and had some good chats with Brant first, so if the quest isn't showing up for you yet, that might be a factor.

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Yeah, get a load of that headline, art people. With your paintbrushes, your easels, and your pointless degrees. We, a group of people with equally expensive degrees that might honestly be a tiny bit more useless have made some art using Dragon's Dogma 2's very nice character creator.

Obviously there's more to DD2 than just trying to recreate your nan, or your cat, or your favorite member of the Bee Gees, but quite frankly, you can get lost in just picking your nose all on its own. So, that's what we've gone and done.

Jim and his friend, er, let me look this up, Owen O'Donnell of The Infinite Review, teamed up to take a look at some of the characters us at VG247 and a couple of other people who either are or have been associated with Gamer Network at some point in time have created in Dragon's Dogma 2. Every character showcased and analysed in the kind of depth you can only expect from a man who actively grimaces whenever he has to reveal his own pick on our podcast - despite the fact he's in control of it - and one of that man's mates was definitely created in Dragon's Dogma 2.

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In Dragon's Dogma 2, you'll more likely than not end up killing an NPC. Sometimes it won't be your fault - a gryphon will swoop in and snatch their life away. Othertimes, well...

As such, it's a good idea to familiarize yourself with how to revive NPCs in Dragon's Dogma 2.

You can either revive an NPC the moment you find them, or wait until their body is whisked away to a morgue in a major city. Either way you'll need Wakestones, which are a scarce resource solely used for reviving dead NPCs across the world.

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In Dragon's Dogma 2, there are main quests and there are side-quests. Then there are quests like The Ornate Box: seemingly trivial little side-stories which the game nevertheless presents so insistently that it's impossible to ignore it forever.

The problem is that you don't have a lot of reason to trust the quest giver in this instance, so when he asks you for a large sum of money on a very vague pretext, your instinct might be to say a flat "no" and try to move on. But if you want to know more about the potential consequences of this decision before you make your choice, read on below for our full walkthrough of The Ornate Box quest in Dragon's Dogma 2.

Beware story spoilers for Dragon's Dogma 2 below.

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You. Yes, you. Do you need money in Dragon's Dogma 2? Well, first of all, stop getting so many haircuts, and second of all, you'll be glad to hear that one player's apparently worked out out how you can make even more money from the fruit-based cash farming method some players are employing.

Yep, if you're after an easier path to becoming a DD2 millionaire than by teaching pawns how to kill an ogre without getting pounded into pulp, it turns out that making sure folks in DD2 are easily able get their five a day is the way to go.

So, if you're out of the loop, this fruit selling exploit looks to have originated on YouTube, where creators having put together tutorials with entirely unhyperbolic titles like 'INSANE Dragon's Dogma 2 GOLD GLITCH, 300,000 PER HOUR, best money glitch so far' showing you how to do it. The basic gist is this: buy a bunch of apples and grapes in Melve, waiting a bit, then fast travelling to Bakbattal and timing that just right so that they're all ripe when you arrive and can be sold for the maximum profit.

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If you’re playing Dragon's Dogma 2, you’ve more than likely come across catapults. Well, did you know you can use them for more than just tossing things at your enemies? And no, we’re not talking about putting one of your pawns in there and throwing them across the map. That doesn’t work, apparently.

What you can do, is use the siege device to launch a projectile onto the map to unlock new paths or areas, as X user Peppo demonstrates.

I just found out you can use catapults to unlock new parts on the map in Dragon's Dogma 2! #DD2 pic.twitter.com/RhH1OsiDEg

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Big Western style open-world RPGs from beloved Japanese studios who tend to be known for other things (inhale) are like buses: there's none for ages, and then two come along at once! See also: Clinton-era disaster movies about Earth getting clobbered by an asteroid. See also: Clinton-era disaster movies about America getting clobbered by volcanoes. See also: those ones about the White House (former home of Bill Clinton) getting clobbered by some guys with guns. I dunno. You don't read this anyway.

Listen. It's just an excuse for everyone to shout at me. Listen at your own inconvenience here.

Stay tuned for a new episode of The Best Games Ever Show every Friday. Subscribe right here on VG247, or wherever you get your podcasts:

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Dragon's Dogma 2 can sometimes be a bit like real life - sometimes everyone has the plague, and you never quite have enough money. Unsurprisingly, folks who’re keen not to have to save up their gold every time they want to try out a new hairstyle are already finding ways to quickly earn a fortune.

Weirdly, it feels like a lot of the chatter around DD2 since it came out has been linked to finances in some way. I’m mainly talking about the furore surrounding those controversial microtransactions, which was arguably a bit overblown, given that a lot of the stuff affected can be found in decent quantities just by playing the game and modders have quickly stepped up to provide alternatives.

Now, however, some players have found a way to use the game’s pawn system a bit like an investment scheme, and apparently it’s pretty lucrative, provided you don’t mind teaching a few hapless helpers how to slay monsters like a Witcher. Yep, someone call Gerry from the Riviera, DD2’s pawn babysitters are coming for his job, and they don’t need any mutations, unless you count Dragonsplague as one.

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Unlocking Dragon's Dogma 2 Warrior vocation and Sorcerer vocation is a bit different than you might expect. We've already told you about Dragon’s Dogma 2 best starting vocation, but if you wanted to experiment with more classes, you're going to have to put a bit of legwork in - and we don't just mean leveling up and fighting monsters.

You can unlock more classes later in the game – like the powerful Mystic Spearhand – but to begin with you will have a choice of four: Archer, Mage, Thief, Fighter. Warrior and Sorcerer act as a nice stop-gap between the vocations, if you know how to access them.

But in order to get access to these more powerful versions of Fighter and Mage, you have to complete a quest, first: Vocation Frustration.

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Hello. Dragon's Dogma 2 has had its fair share of woes and contrversies around launch, but it's ok, Capcom has some fixes coming. Some of them might be stuff you've heard alluded to before, but they're coming, ok?

Even if you weren't too bothered about its controversial microtransactions, since a lot of the stuff affected can be found in decent quantities just by playing the game, there've been some perfance-related issues and minor omissions that've rigtly frustrated people. Thankfully, some patches that might help with some of that is already on the way.

"To all Dragon's Dogma 2 players," Capcom said in tweet accompanying a bit of a roadmap oulining its current plans update-wise, "We're planning to release patches including the following updates and fixes in the near future, and will release them as soon as they are ready for distribution on each platform. Thank you for your patience and support!"

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There’s a good chance Dragon's Dogma 2 has just consumed an entire weekend of your life, but that’s ok, we don’t blame you. Well, assuming you haven’t been put off by the performance issues or microtransactions. If the latter’s the case, a new mod’s definitely worth checking out.

Even if the furore about them was arguably a bit overblown, given that a lot of the stuff affected can be found in decent quantities just by playing the game, you can understand why people weren’t fans of the idea of potentially being tempted into paying for stuff. Thankfully, there's now a mod that can help you totally avoid feeling any pressure of that nature.

The mod in question is ‘Crazy's Shop’, by XxCrazyPotatoxX, whose name is straight out of a 2009 Call of Duty deathmatch. What does it do? Well, you know useful stuff like rift crystals, ferrystones, wakestones, and camping kits - which makes up a lot of those optional purchases, it adds more of those to the inventories of vendors in Vernworth than you could ever realistically need.

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How to change your appearance in Dragon’s Dogma 2 is something you can easily overlook if you ignore a tutorial or forget it amidst the dozens of other details you need to keep track of. Despite the post-launch buzz around Dragon’s Dogma 2 microtransactions, you can change your entire appearance, and your Main Pawn’s, without spending any real-world money. It just costs in-game currency.

We explain how to change your appearance in Dragon's Dogma 2 below and point out how to get the Art of Metamorphosis required to do it.

You have a few options for changing your appearance, though they all center on the barber’s shop. Major cities have them, and you can find them by opening your map and looking for the scissors icon.

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The Dragon’s Dogma 2 Heel of History quest is a confusing one at first, even more so if you make the mistake I did of listening to a certain resident of the slums. Completing the quest seemingly unlocks more storylines in the area and starts peeling back some of the Church of the Gracious Hands’ mysteries. Plus you get a few thousand gold, which is even better.

Our Dragon’s Dogma 2 Heel of History guide explains how to start the quest and where to look for Malcolm.

How to start Heel of History in Dragon’s Dogma 2

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Fair warning up top: this walkthrough contains main story spoilers for Dragon's Dogma 2!

So you've arrived in Vernworth in Dragon's Dogma 2, and Brant has pledged his loyalty to you as the true Arisen. Once you've settled into the city, he invites you to meet with him at the Stardrop Inn after nightfall to discuss your next move.

Brant presents you with three options: go monster hunting in the wilds to earn yourself the love of the people (huh, wonder where Capcom got that idea from), infiltrate the palace to find out what the regent's up to, or infiltrate the jail in order to free a respected magistrate wrongly imprisoned for supporting your cause.

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Crafting Dragon’s Dogma 2 Fruit Roborant is a fundamental action you’ll want to get in the habit of doing whenever you have the ingredients at hand. It’s a useful restorative that won’t spoil, unlike some materials, and you need it for an important early-game quest as well.

We’ve outlined how to craft Fruit Roborant in Dragon’s Dogma 2, including where to find the ingredients and what the Roborant item does for you.

What is Fruit Roborant in Drgon’s Dogma 2?

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Dragon's Dogma 2 doesn't really have a defined prologue questline, but there's definitely a point where the game's minimal tutorialistic hand-holding comes to an end. While travelling from Melve to Vernworth in the company of Ser Gregor, an intense combat encounter along the way prompts him to reassess his doubts about your honesty, and he offers to let you and your party of pawns continue on your journey unescorted.

It's the first time that DD2 offers you something that feels like a branching choice along its main storyline, and if you've found yourself literally standing at this fork in the path wondering which road to travel, you're not alone. Worry not though: we've seen both outcomes, so we're here to offer you a glimpse into your potential futures, if you'd like to know what you're in for when making this choice.

As with all quest walkthroughs, beware story spoilers from here on in, albeit minor ones in this instance.

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Dragon's Dogma 2 is packed full of side-quests and exploration activities, allowing you to spend long periods of time ignoring the main story and just enjoying the massive variety of its open world if that's what you prefer. However, you're not obliged to take on every single side-quest you encounter — in fact, the game explicitly cautions you against agreeing to too many quests at once — and sometimes you might be left conflicted about whether it would be better to refuse a request.

A very early example of this conundrum comes when you're waylaid in the village of Melve by a young girl called Flora, who asks for you to share a few simple items with her. But given that resources are tight this early on, and that Flora herself seems a little shady, what should you do?

As with all quest walkthroughs, beware story spoilers from here on in, albeit incredibly minor ones in this instance.

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Dragon's Dogma 2 is here, and one of the first things you’re going to notice about it may not be how obtuse it can be. That’s because, before you even get into the game itself, you may be surprised to learn that there’s a host of DLC items ready for you to spend your hard-earned cash on. Players are having a pretty nasty time dealing with this information, and review-bombing the game because of it.

Having microtrasnactions in single-player games certainly isn’t new, not even for Capcom, but the number of add-ons available for purchase may cause you to take a step back, especially how a bulk of them just went live on digital stores alongside the main game. It's already caused a bit of an outrage amongst players, and helped tank the game's Steam review rating.

So what are they, and do you need them? We’re going to answer these questions and more in this guide.

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Dragon's Dogma 2 has just been released and, er, people are certainly talking about it, though a lot of that chatter isn’t positive. You see, reviews for the version of the game on Steam are already mostly negative, citing performance issues and a huge day one DLC lineup that’s rubbed people the wrong way.

Now, largely thanks to the whole 30 fps on consoles discourse and debate about whether slaughtering a bunch of innocent NPCs would be a good way to try and improve your fps numbers on PC (they were joking, put the sword down), we already knew the game was taxing on hardware. But, now the DLC’s entered the fray too, and, er, there’s lots of it.

Let’s kick off with a picture of how negative the reception to the game over on Steam has been so far. As of writing, the game has just jumped back up to a ‘mixed’ overall verdict, with only 40% of the 6,300-ish reviews it’s racked up so far being positive. As alluded to earlier, the majority of the reasons cited for giving a big thumbs down are related to performance, microtransactions, or both.

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You might think booting up a fresh Dragon's Dogma 2 game and picking your first vocation would be an easy choice – there’s a way you want to play the game, a vibe you have in mind, and it’s all plain sailing, right? Not necessarily. The initial vocation choice you need to make is tricky; it determines the starting gear, your starting weapons, and your starting skills – all things you will rely on quite heavily in the opening hours of the game.

You can unlock more classes later in the game – like the powerful Mystic Spearhand – but to begin with you will have a choice of four: Archer, Mage, Thief, Fighter.

Souls players migrating over to Capcom’s sequel may want to go for the Fighter class as their initial vocation, since it seems to align more closely with how most people play in the Miyazaki games. But it’s actually another one of the base classes that Dragon’s Dogma’s own Hideaki Itsuno recommends for beginners.

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You might be aware that things are changing here at Gamer Network. As well as a certain looming sale that became public knowledge a few weeks back, we're also shuffling things around to unify our video teams from across all the brands, making a sort of videography supergroup that encompasses everyone from Dicebreaker to Eurogamer.

That may not really be important to you folks, but it means I get to work more often with our friends across the network, which includes showing up for Eurogamer's Dragon's Dogma 2 livestream with Ian Higton, whose work I've long been a fan of.

On Thursday, we teamed up to take a look at the opening hours of Dragon's Dogma 2, including pawn creation, early side quests, and making that precarious initial journey to the capital city. Having already started my own playthrough about a week earlier, it was fascinating to see just how much of the early-game content I'd missed, and how much I'd stumbled upon that Ian hadn't. There are many forks in the road in Dragon's Dogma 2, as ever.

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If you want to know how to fast travel in Dragon's Dogma 2, there are a certain number of prerequisite things you need to do first. It’s not as simple as other open world games where you can just boot up the world map, select a location and teleport there – the systems-driven nature of Dragon’s Dogma 2 means that you need to think carefully about how (and why!) you want to get across the continent in a pinch.

Fast travel is tied to Ferrystones; rare items that can either be found in the world or purchased from certain vendors. These items are consumable, and can only be used once – you need to be careful not to use them all up frivolously and be stuck in the middle of nowhere, all your pawns dead, and your pack weighing heavily on your aching back.

But there is a fast travel option for you in the game. I’d advise avoiding it in the early hours; trekking around and making use of ox carts is likely better when you just need to get between the likes of Melve, Vernworth and Harve. When you open up Battahl – the kingdom of the Beastren – and need to get between there and Vermund, a quick journey becomes essential.

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Look, I know we all like to make some absolute monstrosities in the character creator when we boot up a new game, but you might want to think about how that’s going to affect your day-to-day life in Dragon's Dogma 2 when you start it up.

One of the first thing’s you’ll be asked to do in the game – and what many people have already done, since the game’s character creator was released early for vain players to tinker with their avatars ahead of time – is generate your in-game player. The Arisen. The character that will represent you when you take to the lands of Vermund and Bhattal to unpick a knotty story of royal intrigue and sinister fantasy meddling.

But be aware: the creations you make early on will have ramifications throughout the rest of the game. They’re nothing too major; the race you choose and the class(es) you select won’t lock you out of certain areas or quest lines, but the more atomic elements of combat and exploration will be impacted by the way you choose to shape your Arisen.

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Dragon's Dogma 2 is mainly about two things: pawns and vocations. The pawn system can be a knotty beast, so we’ve explained that in our Dragon’s Dogma 2 pawn guide at the link. As for vocations, well, they’re a job system by any other name – if you’ve played other RPGs, you’ll have a good understanding of how different classes work in Dragon’s Dogma 2 (and if you need a hand with the best starting vocations, we've got you there, too).

The vocation system can be a complicated thing if you over-think it, but at its core it’s relatively simple. There are 10 classes you can choose from, and each have their own strengths and weaknesses – some are great when you get up-close-and-personal, some excel at range, and some are pretty decent no matter where on the battlefield you find yourself.

The Mystic Spearhand is the latter. In fact, it’s one of the best classes in the game. So we’re going to help you find it, equip it, and make the most of it.

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Perhaps the most unique feature of Dragon's Dogma 2 is the pawn system. Unlike many other RPGs, you aren't able to take direct control of your party members in DD2; instead, party members other than the Arisen (a.k.a. your player character) are known as pawns. Pawns are computer-controlled allies and companions with a variety of temperaments and skills who will stay by your side throughout (almost) the entire game.

Your main pawn is a character you create alongside your Arisen at the start of the game, with access to all the same customisation options and possible vocations. They level up independently of your character but will likely stay more-or-less in step with you in terms of capability as you progress through the game and are your second permanent party member, albeit one you don't control directly.

Hired pawns, on the other hand, fill out the remaining slots in your party. They can't level up and therefore are likely only to be your companions temporarily, but nevertheless they are extremely useful allies during combat and exploration. The really cool thing, though, is that hired pawns don't have to be randomly generated: if you're playing online, other players' main pawns will show up in your hiring pool, allowing you to enjoy a bit of cooperative play-by-proxy in this otherwise firmly single-player game.

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Early on in the game, Dragon's Dogma 2 issues you with an ominous warning: some quests are time-sensitive, so you should avoid taking on too many at once.

For those of us who routinely activate every side-quest they come across in an RPG, complacent in the belief that quest-giving NPCs will obligingly hang around in the same place for months waiting for us to scroll back to the bottom of our quest log if that's what it takes, this warning can strike fear into the heart.

However, as with many things in DD2, timed quests aren't quite as opaque as the game would have you believe. Here's how to deal with timed quests in Dragon's Dogma 2.

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Dragon's Dogma 2's save system is perhaps best described as esoteric. As a game that prides itself on its opacity, it's not about to allow you to spam save, but you're not precisely locked in to your last savestate either. It's something that's likely to trip up the unwary newcomer at times, especially in the first few hours of the game, and I don't mind admitting it got me a few times.

Not to worry, though, we've done the hard work of trial-and-erroring the ins-and-outs of DD2's save system so you don't have to. Read on for Dragon's Dogma 2 saving explained.

Dragon's Dogma 2 only allows you to have one save file at a time. This can come as a bit of a shock if you're used to RPGs like Baldur's Gate 3 that essentially allow you to have as many save files as your system storage can handle, giving you plenty of opportunity to reload if you don't like an outcome, or even to run a few alt campaigns alongside one another.

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More than in many other RPGs, inventory management and carry weight in Dragon's Dogma 2 is very important. Striking the right balance is hard; you need to walk around the wilderness plucking ingredients and gathering materials, but you’ll soon notice that plundering ore and picking apart ruins will weigh heavily on your back.

Things get even worse when you’re playing a class that relies on heavy armour or weaponry to dish out and soak up damage – my Mystic Spearhand’s battle gear alone takes up a vast section of what she can carry. But there are a few ways and means of spreading the weight across your party and allowing your team to run like Gimli, Legolas, and Aragorn over the hills and cliffs or Vermund and beyond – if you know what you’re doing.

Let’s break down how encumbrance in Dragon’s Dogma 2 works – and what you can do to make your long journeys a bit easier on the body.

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Dragon's Dogma 2 and Rise of the Ronin are both “western style” open world games from acclaimed, beloved Japanese studios who don’t usually do this sort of thing. On paper, they have a lot of similarities: deep combat systems, vast landscapes to explore, visuals that push current gen consoles to the limit, and an intrinsic love of cats. In practice, despite their obvious crossover appeal, they’re wildly different beasts.

So, which should you buy? Well, if you haven’t got a PS5, the question is moot on account of Rise of the Ronin being a PlayStation exclusive. But assuming you’ve got a PS5, which should you buy? Our expert reviewers Alex Donaldson and Sherif Saed have joined me in the comparison video above to help you decide for yourself. Contains loads of gameplay footage. Like and subscribe etc.

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Dragon's Dogma 2 lands tomorrow, but hold on to your excitement, handheld PC gamers, because your new pride and joy won't be the perfect travel companion for this adventure.

That’s because your handheld is likely unable to run the game well in the first place.

According to RPGsite, outside of streaming Dragon’s Dogma 2 from another PC or a console, you won’t be playing it on handhelds such as Steam Deck, the ROG Ally from Asus, or even Lenovo Legion Go. If you own the Ayaneo 2, a gaming handheld more powerful than Steam Deck, you’ll be able to run the game, but this handheld too has its problems, so it’s not recommended either.

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Dragon's Dogma 2 is a big game and one that’s pretty demanding on your hardware. For PC players, the most noticeable problem looks to be struggling frame rates, something Capcom’s already said it’s looking into. It’s ok though, some fans have got their own morally dubious plan.

Yep, after the whole 30 FPS on consoles discourse, we’re now into a new stage of performance-related patter, with those of us who’ve invested far too much money in big boxes wondering just how little we’ll have to pay for heating over the next few months. The good news is that some big brains - both official and very much unofficial - are already thinking about how to help out your ailing CPU.

First of all, the official help, you know, from Capcom itself. In a statement to IGN, the publisher has said that it’s aware of the issues, which it says may well be linked to how the game handles rendering NPC characters.

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Dragon's Dogma 2 is due to launch imminently, to the great excitement of fans of the original who've had an agonising 12-year wait for the sequel. As with all big games, though, the pesky existence of time zones makes it difficult to know exactly when you're going to get your hands on it wherever you happen to live.

The good news is that Dragon's Dogma 2 is getting a simultaneous global launch, which means that your friends in other countries don't get to jump in ahead of you on this occasion. I mean sure, it's a single-player game, but it's nice to know that you can start recruiting pawns lovingly crafted by your fellow Arisen from Los Angeles to Auckland straight away, since everyone will be in it together, albeit at very different times of day.

Read on below for a list of Dragon's Dogma 2 global launch times across different regions.

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Dragon’s Dogma 2 is uncompromising.

It took me a long time to settle on a single word that I could use to describe this curious role-playing game. Even stretching beyond a word, Dragon’s Dogma 2 practically defies easy definition. There’s a huge laundry list of games that it is a little bit like, but few that it is actually really similar to - so that shorthand is ineffective.

In the good old days, Capcom’s marketing department would’ve briefed that Dragon’s Dogma is so unique that it renders traditional genre names obsolete. We’d be getting press releases telling us that it isn’t just an action-RPG, but instead is something like a ‘Full Action Reactive World RPG’, or some nonsense like that.

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Hideaki Itsuno doesn’t want you to call Dragon’s Dogma a cult hit. Speaking to the legendary developer behind Capcom’s new RPG powerhouse as well as classics like Power Stone, Rival Schools, and Devil May Cry, I’m stopped short when I describe the 2012 original in those terms.

“I'd like to think we don't need to call it that anymore,” Itsuno suggests with a thoughtful tilt of the head.

“It's been a long time since the first game came out, and over the years I think it's sold its way and made its way into many gamers' hearts. Hopefully now that we're on the eve of releasing Dragon's Dogma 2, we can finally just say that it's a popular, well-selling series that lots of gamers love, rather than treating it as a cult concern.”

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Getting to delve into a big game’s world for the first time usually feels pretty special. Sadly, with all the clips of Dragon's Dogma 2 that’ve been buzzing around ahead of its release later this week, fans aren’t sure it’ll be able to enjoy the kind of wholesome community vibes that Elden Ring had immediately after its release.

What do they mean? Well, it’s the fun period you can sometimes get with a huge, new open-world adventure where pretty much everything you and your mates stumble across is extra cool because none of you have seen it before. Every quest is fresh and every boss requires you to do some learning on the fly so you can beat ‘em.

This is the kind of experience a number of fans on the Dragon's Dogma subreddit are hoping they’ll get in the immediate aftermath of DD2's release, as the community pours through the floodgates and starts digging into the game for the first time, without the ability to find out everything they could want to know about it via a wiki. It’s a bit of a subjective feeling that comes with titles like this one; it’s cool to be able to see people posting about interesting stuff you’ve not seen or done yet, than an actual practical thing, but you can see why folks like the idea of this kind of ‘honeymoon period’, if you will.

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Warning: Spoilers for Dragon's Dogma 2 may follow.

It’s Dragon's Dogma 2 release week. That’s exciting, right? Well, what isn’t so exciting is the fact that, thanks to some leaks, there’s a bunch of potentially spoilery footage of the game now buzzing around on the net, and it might accidentally reveal to you that well…this looks like a game for Dragon’s Dogma fans.

Yup, this game about not riding a horse, that looks a bit like a Dragon’s Dogma game, and has Dragon’s Dogma in its name might appeal to people who like a bit of the Dragon’s Dogma. Ok, we’re being a bit facetious, but it is quite an amusing conclusion to have reached after deep-diving into an hour and a bit worth of leaked footage at this stage of the game.

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Dragon's Dogma 2 doesn't make it easy to get around its world, but the game's director hopes that the world is enticing enough so that it doesn't matter.

Fast travel? Who needs it! Ok, a lot of people probably, as open world games can often be massive and a bit of a pain in the derriere to get around, but it doesn't mean it isn't interesting when games try to force you to explore nonetheless. Dragon's Dogma is one such game, as while it does have fast travel, it won't be easy to start. Game director Hideaki Itsuno knows that players want to be able to get around easily, but he did recently share some thoughts with Automaton as to why that might be. "In open-world games, players often want a long-distance means of transportation such as horses," Itsuno said.

"However, I think the reason why users want horses is not so much because they want to experience horse riding, but because they feel bored on the road if they’re not riding. Therefore, our goal was to prepare a path so enjoyable that players would not feel the need for a horse. We have built in a lot of “fun” into the map so that players will not get bored along the way, and our development policy was to make it so that it would actually be a shame to ride a horse (laughs)."

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If you spend far too long picking out the perfect moustache whenever you fire up an RPG, you’ll be glad to know that Dragon's Dogma 2’s got you covered. How so? Well, Capcom’s released a nice character creation tool that’ll let you create the Arisen you’ll be using in the game right now.

Yup, all those hours you were going to have to spend making sure that your character looked absolutely perfect before you kicked off your adventure no longer have to be a release day chore. Ok, so we can’t fully guarantee you won’t want to tweak your eyebrows on March 22, but it’s something.

Revealed during yesterday’s Capcom Highlights broadcast, which you can watch in full below, the Dragon's Dogma 2 Character Creator and Storage tool is currently available to download on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC. Armed with it, you can “customise the looks of your main character, the Arisen, and the looks and inclination of your companion, your Main Pawn.”

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Is a 401K and government bonds just too boring an investment option for you nad your familly? Well good news! Capcom is riding a financial high following the publishing of previews for Dragon's Dogma 2, which have helped catapult its stock price to the highest level it has been at in a year. Exciting news for those with a gamer's mind for investment, and a milestone for the company's recent stint of popular releases.

The valuation for Capcom stock hit 6,168 Japanese Yen (or $41.70) on March 7, only two days after preview coverage for the upcoming fantasy action RPG were published by various critics (including us - we loved it). Capcom also announced huge boosts to salaries for Japanese staff on March 6 (thanks VGC). With a seemingly good game about to arrive, and staff salaries getting a bump, it looks like the suits of Wall Street value the Japanese developer and publisher quite highly.

This is obviously great news for the company, which has had an incredible past 12 months all-in-all. Street Fighter 6 launched back in 2023, raking in many accolades from fighting game fans and general gaming enthusiasts alike. Monster Hunter Now has also been trucking along, proving a continuing success in the mobile market, with Capcom seemingly cracking the code to making a great AR experience.

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Ok, so, Dragon's Dogma 2. It’s currently slated to run at something like 30 fps uncapped on consoles and, well, naturally there’s already debate going on online as to whether that’s a thing that’ll really have a properly tangible impact on people’s ability to enjoy the game or not.

Before we really get into this, it’s important to note that Capcom’s latest blockbuster certainly isn’t the only title in recent memory to see its console frame rate be the subject of some intense discussion. Starfield’s the big one that immediately springs to mind, and to be fair, I could see the arguments on both sides of the equation for that one.

Now, following the arrival of previews for it yesterday - you can and should give ours a read - DD2’s attracted similar chat. The thing that’s properly kicked it all off is the confirmation - via Game Informer - from director Hideaki Itsuno that it’ll run at something close to 30 fps on consoles.

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I want to talk to you about guts. Not the Berserk character, though Dragon’s Dogma 2 does have very big swords. Nor the courage to jump at a beast five times your size to try to take it down - though Dragon’s Dogma 2 has that, too. And definitely not guts in the British parlance, where to be gutted is to be racked with disappointment. Dragon’s Dogma 2 definitely doesn’t have that.

But, no - I’m talking about a gut feeling, I suppose. I’ve been doing this job for a long time. Decades, it pains me to admit. And I think my radar is pretty good. I trust those innards of mine. Sometimes I see something - even something that looks quite good - and I think ‘this ain’t gonna work’. Other times, I play a short demo of something and just know, deep down, that this is going to be an absolute banger. Most often, I end up being right, if I do say so myself.

With that all established, let’s talk about Dragon’s Dogma 2. I already previewed it, but in one last beat before it releases I got to play another three hours of the game. It’s the latter. It’s a banger. I can tell that this game is special.

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Capcom is hosting a double-duty livestream event called Capcom Highlights this month, in which some of its biggest games like Dragon's Dogma 2, Street Fighter 6, Monster Hunter Now, and Monster Hunter Stories will feature.

With broadcasts set on to take place on both March 7 and March 11, each game will get 15-20 minutes of time dedicated to it. While no strict content plan has been laid out for the games as of writing, the official Capcom Highlights website refers to these video segments as providing the "latest info". The event will represent "an update on the current state of Capcom".

So what is being shown when? Well, first up on March 7 you've got a double-feature of Dragon's Dogma 2 and Kunitsu-Gami Path of the Godess. This is set to go live at 3PM PST / 6PM EST / 11PM GMT / 00:00 CEST.

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Feel like you can't wait any longer to play Dragon's Dogma 2? Well, you might not have to, as it seems like a demo might be on the way.

After a lengthy wait for the long sought after sequel, Dragon's Dogma 2 is finally out in about a month. The problem is, when you get this close to a game's release you often find yourself thinking "ok, but can I just play it now?" Dragon's Dogma 2's release date isn't getting moved up, unfortunately, however! As spotted by some fans on the game's subreddit, an update added to the game's backend on Steam appears to suggest that a demo might soon be on the way. Dragon Dogma 2's changelist, as seen on SteamDB, shows a new "unknown app" that upon further inspection shows its billing type is described as "free on demand."

To be clear, Dragon Dogma 2's billing type itself is described as "store or CD key," so a new app that is supposedly free does potentially imply a demo - or at the very least, some kind of downloadable free app. It wouldn't exactly be very surprising if the game does have a demo. Plenty of Capcom's games have demos these days, including last year's Resident Evil 4, and on top of that the original Dragon's Dogma also had a demo so you could try out the classic RPG.

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As part of a wide-ranging CES conference update, PC graphics behemoth Nvidia has revealed a further expansion of its ‘RTX’ support in gaming - which could be huge for the performance of the included titles on PC.

At CES, Nvidia announced another fourteen titles that’ll be joining the family of games with ‘RTX’ features, allowing those with the latest Nvidia graphics cards to experience better performance and visuals.

Leading the pack is Diablo 4, which will receive both Ray Tracing and DLSS support.

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Capcom's upcoming and long awaited sequel Dragon's Dogma 2 will seemingly be the developer's first $70 title.

Since the launch of the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, developers have slowly been transitioning from a $60 to a $70 price tag, often citing increased development costs as the reason behind the change. Looking at listings of Dragon's Dogma 2 on the PlayStation and Microsoft stores, it appears that Capcom is finally embracing that change right before it heads into a new fiscal year. Last night, Capcom officially confirmed that the game would be launching March 22, one of the studio's last big releases before the 2024-25 financial year kicks off.

Now, to be clear, yes it's annoying that games are getting more and more expensive, especially when a lot of us are having to pinch our pockets a bit more. At the very least, though, Capcom does often hold some pretty hefty sales for its games post launch - Resident Evil 4 Remake, which only released back in March, was as much as 50% off for Black Friday, which you certainly can't be too upset about considering it's up for game of the year at The Game Awards.

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Capcom provided a new look at Dragon's Dogma 2 yesterday during a dedicated showcase, along with confirming a March 22 release date, which leaked two weeks ago.

The long-awaited sequel arrives on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S on March 22 and the game can be pre-ordered now.

During the showcase, Dragon’s Dogma 2 director Hideaki Itsuno and producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi unveiled the new trailer featuring gameplay alongside the new Trickster Vocation. The trailer showed new enemies and deeper insights into the story and gameplay choices you will make as you delve deeper into the game's world.

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Ahead of the Dragon's Dogma 2 showcase today, the release date for Capcom's upcoming RPG sequel has been posted to the game's Steam page.

According to the Steam page, the game is set for release on March 21, 2024 - a day ahead of what the PEGI rating stated two weeks ago.

What we know about the game is that, like Dragon's Dogma, the sequel will be a single-player game with Pawns at your side, making it feel like a co-op title. Secondly, it will again feature role-playing mechanics set in an open-world environment.

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Good news Capcom fans: A Dragon's Dogma 2 showcase is set to go live later this month, on November 28.

In it, we can expect director Hideaki Itsuno and producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi to take us through a short 15-minute slice of the game, which'll provide plenty of brand new information on it, as well as giving us a chance to take in some fresh gameplay.

In a short 21-second teaser you can watch right now right now, Capcom offers a taste of what to expect from the upcoming showcase.

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I hate to navel-gaze about the nature of this job, but game previews are strange. Sometimes they’re easy, sometimes they are hard fought. Dragon’s Dogma 2 is one of those previews that hasn’t come easily.

That’s why this preview is a little bit late, actually – I’d rather try to come at you with something good, and considered, than just guff out a generic impression in a rush amidst the madness of Tokyo Game Show. During TGS, I got to play Dragon’s Dogma 2 at Capcom’s UK offices, experiencing an extended and slightly less limited version of the build that was available on the TGS show floor for around an hour. But… it’s a tough game to write about.

It’s tough because, as a proof-of-concept, this Dragon’s Dogma 2 demo is simple. It’s arguably too simple. What do I mean by this? Well… it’s the first game. It’s the first game, but better. The first game was a misunderstood gem, a cult classic. The second aims to bring the things that made it so to a wider audience.

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Capcom has dropped a hot new gameplay trailer for Dragon's Dogma 2 as part of TGS 2023. The game is playable by attendees on the show floor, so it's about time the rest of us got a deeper look at the sequel to one of the most beloved action RPGs.

To get this out of the way early, Dragon's Dogma 2 still doesn't have a release date. Today's footage doesn't feature any updated information there, but what it does have is nearly nine minutes of new gameplay.

The focus of this particular trailer is showcasing the four main vocations (classes) available at the start of the game. If you played the original Dragon's Dogma, you'll be familiar with the fighter, archer, mage, and thief.

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With the imminent release of Starfield, people the world over are about to fill their boots once again with Bethesda’s signature style of go anywhere, do anything game. Unless they don’t have an Xbox or a decent PC, that is. But Bethesda aren’t the only studio who have had a crack at that particular style of vast open-world RPG: indeed, they’ve inspired plenty of copycats and homages over the years, and are often namechecked by other developers when talking about open world game design.

So Bethesda aren’t the only studio who create Bethesda-style games. Who, then, aside from them, has made the best one? That’s the question we’re asking our esteemed panel on this, the latest episode of VG247’s Best Games Ever Podcast, the show where we performatively argue about this sort of thing for your entertainment. Or bemusement. Whichever.

You could also simply read the summary below, if you're the sort of person who skips to the last page of a book (a wrongun, a reprobate, a Bad Seed).

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After years of yearning, Dragon's Dogma fans are getting a sequel, and to please them even more, a new look at gameplay for Dragon's Dogma 2 was shown during the Capcom Showcase.

Gameplay clips show plenty of magic, an encounter with a massive dragon, swordplay, and other fighting and fantasy nuggets you would expect from the game.

The clip also features the game's director Hideaki Itsumo going over the reveal trailer before diving into the two characteristics Dragon's Dogma 2 will inherit from the first one.

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Been waiting to see what Dragon's Dogma 2 looks like in its pure, gameplay form? Well then you've come to the right place, pawn, because Capcom has finally pulled back the veil on its highly-anticipated action-RPG.

We first heard about Dragon's Dogma 2 back in June 2022, when it was unvieled during the sort-of E3 week we enjoyed in the summer.

The game did not get a release date then and, I am sorry to say, it does not have one now, either.

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Devil May Cry 5 as the first big reveal of 2018? We'd be into it.

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Capcom has said "opinions and feedback" from players of the Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen PC port could "increase the chances" of Dragon's Dogma 2 being made.

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Dragon's Dogma director Hideaki Itsuno has expressed interest in a PS4 sequel to his original RPG-action romp. He's also interested in working on Rival Schools 3 and Devil May Cry 5.

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