TESTED GAMES

Familiar olde-worlde fantasy hallmarks meet the strangest set of companions you’re ever likely to go questing with, as a cult classic game gets another shot at the big time

There’s so much more to Dragon’s Dogma 2 than dungeons and wizards. Think of it as the action-orientated equivalent of Baldur’s Gate 3, just with weirder teammates.

The plot is pure fantasy fare: a huge, powerful dragon threatens the world, but has also created its own arch rival –the Arisen –by plucking out their heart. In the kingdom of Vermund, that makes you king… except someone else is already on the throne, claiming they had their heart stolen. It’s down to you to solve the imposter problem. And after that, the bigger, fire-breathing one.

Aside from missing an organ, the Arisen can also command Pawns –beings that exist between realms, whose sole purpose is serving you. At the outset you create one who stays with you through the story and can enter the rift to recruit others made by fellow players.

I’ve recruited some hilarious creations, some of them lifted from other games, including a knock-off Kratos and Sephiroth. They’re a bizarre, hammy and entertaining bunch, who often parrot the same lines but get around the ‘game characters don’t speak naturally’ trope because, well, they aren’t quite people.

Stubborn design decisions make getting to the good stuff hard work, though. This open world is more a network of paths hemmed in by cliffs and caverns, and you can’t take shortcuts.

Capcom’s most ambitious use of its proprietary RE engine to date isn’t immune from framerate dips on PS5, and the finnicky controls don’t help. There’s no enemy lock-on, and the camera doesn’t know where to point when you’re in tighter spaces.

Those few niggling issues aside, the overall experience will stick with you. Each epic monster fight makes you feel like an absolute boss, and there are some fantastic character classes to play around with. When it works, this is quite unlike any other RPG around.

Alan Wen

“I know I look fabulous, but I’d be lion if I said this armour was comfortable.”

They got on pretty well at first, but soon enough the conversation was dragon.

Splattery knight’s alright for fighting

It’s always an event when you get attacked by larger mythical monsters, some of them with more than one head. Unlike run-of-the-mill goblins and harpies, these beasts can be scaled, Shadow of the Colossus-style, to reach their weak points. Climbing onto a griffin’s back might mean they’ll fly you somewhere else entirely.

Generally combat is both meaty and deep –no surprise, given this game comes from the studio behind Monster Hunter and Devil May Cry. But the character classes are approachable, without the overwhelming number of weapons from the former game or the intricate combos from the latter.

You’ve got your standard sword-and-shield fighter, archer and wizard classes, but I had more fun with the quick-footed thief, who can get in there fast for some brutal takedowns.

The trickster is, as the name implies, tricky to play, because this class doesn’t deal direct damage –but it can be fun to confuse foes into attacking one another, or even to make them sprint off cliffs. The best vocations are exclusive to the Arisen, though the game keeps schtum on how to unlock them.