During a 10th Anniversary Celebration for the action RPG Dragon’s Dogma, director Hideaki Itsuno announced the development of a long-awaited, new addition to the series: Dragon’s Dogma 2. The game, developed by Capcom, has Itsuno returning to spearhead the production alongside veterans of the previous game’s development team, including art director Daigo Ikeno and project lead Kenichi Suzuki.
Whilst details are sparse at the time of this writing, the new title is confirmed to be using Capcom’s RE Engine, which has been the basis for Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, Devil May Cry 5, and Monster Hunter Rise. The announcement came during a talk where Itsuno reflected on the first game of the series, an ARPG borne of his appreciation of tabletop RPGs and a wish to evoke the feel of the adventuring party in a single-player game.
This was the motivation behind the Pawn system, one of the stand-out features of the first game. Pawns are AI-driven, player-designed companions that can be hired by other users, and they’re designed to learn from the enemies they encounter and become more effective over time. This, and their tendency towards quirks, quickly set the Pawns apart from average AI companions.
Another feature setting Dragon’s Dogma apart is a grapple system, allowing players to both grab smaller enemies and scale larger ones with a Shadow Of The Colossus-style climbing mechanic. Clinging to the back of a monster to remove its head or throwing a smaller foe off a cliff creates a combat experience far different from the average ARPG, and there are high hopes that this capacity for rethinking classic mechanics can carry forward into the sequel.
