Dragon's Dogma 2 Negative Reviews: Players' Biggest Complaints

Let’s start by saying that Dragon’s Dogma 2 is an amazing open-world RPG, filled with side quests, collectibles, and content. The visuals are impressive. The combat is fun and exciting. There is no set way to play the game, defeat enemies, or complete missions. Unfortunately, the game has its flaws and most players are not happy with how Capcom has dealt with the launch.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 has hit a peak of 227,103 concurrent players at the time of writing, breaking Capcom’s previous records. Many fans have been standing up and praising the game, saying it's exactly what they wanted. It’s Dragon’s Dogma Dark Arisen only bigger and better. Despite this, I’m not sure you can hear them over the amount of bad reviews that have piled up.

It seems you can put players' complaints into three issues. They are the problems with microtransactions, the performance, and having only one save slot. There are other problems but let’s focus on the main ones.

Secretly launching a plethora of micro transactions right after the game officially launches.

Horrible PC performance regardless of hardware.

No way to delete your save game and start again.

Capcom has fallen real hard since the original Dragon's Dogma, stay away.

- Steam review by Canolgon

Dragon’s Dogma 2: Microtransaction Complaints

The idea of microtransactions in a single-player RPG, with a price tag of $70, has left a sour taste in many gamers' mouths. The fact that Capcom hid this until the launch has also frustrated fans. Some people are saying this is the biggest issue with the game.

Microtransactions are becoming more popular among developers to try and make some extra cash from their games but it seems there is a limit to what gamers will accept. Not everyone has the spare funds to not only buy the game, but pay to play it as well.

Single-player game. Micro-transactions. Yes, I know you can earn the ability to edit your character in-game and I know Capcom has done this before. It doesn't mean it's acceptable and the amount of people I see trying to defend single-player microtransactions just makes me sad. It crosses a line I'm not comfortable with and it's only going to get worse from here, friends.

Gameplay seemed okay from the little I saw. It does not have the optimization that would be expected of a $70 game.

­-Steam review by Cloudy 

You can find all the items in the game instead of buying them through microtransactions. Some things are harder to locate but they are out there. If you don’t want to pay, you can still play the game and take the time to find everything you need.

The problem is some gamers worry that within a few weeks, Capcom will release a patch that decreases the drop chance of these items, making real money the only way of playing the game. This is just speculation but it shows that the developers are losing their fans’ trust.

Refunded my preorder with disappointment. Was excited for this release, but as these publishers continue to push money-grabbing tactics I will no longer be participating in their business model. The micro-transactions and the fact they hid them until launch makes me appreciative of Steam's refund policy (and willing to go against my better judgment and preorder).

As for the optimization issues, I can't speak on them as I only made it 40 minutes in with the only issue being the long initial launch of the game.

Maybe on a Steam sale in a few years...but honestly, I'll probably have forgotten about the game by then.

-Steam review by Lost Intelligence 

Dragon's Dogma 2: Performance Issues Complaint

Players' next complaint about Dragon's Dogma 2 is that performance problems occur in big towns. It turns the beautifully designed game into a clunky mess. Every character in a scene is taxing the CPU more than it should.

Capcom has announced that they are working on the problem and will address crashes and bugs as soon as possible. They will solve the issue in a later patch. Players appreciate that, but why didn't they fix it before the launch? After all, fans weren't allowed to pay $50 now and $20 more next month. 

I am a massive fan of Dragon's Dogma 1, and I know I'm going to love this game.

As a short summary, even though this game seems amazing if it runs well, don't even buy it on sale.

I am not having half the problems others are with this game, it is running extremely smoothly except for when I'm in the biggest city in the entire game. Fortunately, I paid out for a top-of-the-line rig, so this is probably why I'm not personally struggling.

No game should be designed around people who can afford the best hardware, and no game should have frame drops at all on the best hardware at the time. It's simply sloppy.

-Steam review by FunionKnight

Dragon's Dogma 2: One Save Slot Complaint

The last large complaint we should take a look at is the fact that you have only one save slot available. You cannot restart the game in any way. Considering Capcom filled the game with so much content, it would be nearly impossible to experience everything in the same playthrough, yet they have made it extremely difficult to start your journey again. 

Can't create a new game after making your first character. Nothing more to say. 

-Steam review by Bunny Bullets

That means no revisiting your favorite moments or trying to see how you could have done things better. Your choices are permanent. It seems the developers have mistaken an RPG for real life where there are no do-overs.

There seems to be a way to delete your save file manually on your PC but many players insist that shouldn't be necessary. Again, Capcom has announced a patch incoming dealing with this problem. Will it be too late to keep players? 

All of these issues are solvable. Everyone can agree on that, but most players seem to think it's too little too late. Capcom has released the game. They added microtransactions. The performance is an issue unless you have the top-of-the-line hardware. You cannot start a new playthrough in the game.

We all expect bumps in the road of a launch and even though Dragon's Dogma 2 is a great game, some developers' mistakes are simply too much for most fans to deal with. With time, we can only hope to return and see the masterpiece our expectations promised.

The best way anyone can sum up what a large portion of Dragon's Dogma 2 players think is by quoting a review found on Steam.

Hey Capcom,

You can purchase a "good review DLC" for $1.99.

-Steam review by JC

At the time of writing 51% of reviews are negative and most of the positive comments include issues. Gone are the days when a release date meant launching a finished game. We are not beta testers. We should be buying the final product.