Dragon's Dogma II - "They’re masterworks, all – you can’t go wrong"

[Raghar]

Gonna keep it short:

Denuvo, bad optimisation, micro transactions

DO NOT BUY.

$1.99 to edit your character appearance in a single-player game after spending $80.00. Your character appearance is on their servers so deleting your save files from \STEAM\userdata\NUMBER\2054970\remote\win64_save and making edits within the character creator, even with Cloud saves off, does not apply to your in-game character.
Microtransactions in a single player game

Can't delete save data/ start a new game if you mess up your character during creation either.

Hey Capcom,

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

I really want to like this game. I played the original on the ps3, i bought dark arisen on ps3 when it came out, i got it again on pc, and i was hyped when it was finally announced. I expected jank, I expected some performance issues, but nothing that couldn't be handled with some tweaking of the settings, I was willing to play the game at minimum settings despite my computer, in theory, being more than capable of running this at high settings and solid 60fps. I thought, it would be minor, and only effect me if i did try those high settings.

I did not expect the game to barely push 40fps in the wilderness at minimum settings with DLSS on Ultra Performance.
This was bad. I did not want to write a negative review, but when the first cutscene is so out of sync that the dragon starts talking to me before the knight has finished his speech, I should have known something was wrong.

I don't need to talk about why micro transactions in a game like this are worthless, plenty of other reviews here mention them, i don't feel a need. I'm just sad.

I still have some faith that the dev team will work hard to patch the game and optimize it so that these performance problems will someday be a thing of the past, only mentioned in passing in regards to this games launch, just a bad memory, but until then, this review will stay as is. I don't believe the micro transactions are going anywhere, as much as we want them to go, its almost certainly a mandate by Capcom executives, and if Itsuno had a say, he wouldn't want them either.
You can blame developers for bad performance and optimization, but the only people who deserve your ire for the micro transactions are the businessmen, not the hard working men and women who tried their best to get this game to where it is currently, even if it is a performance nightmare.

Was putting together a compatibility guide for playing the game under Linux/Steam Deck which required me to use various Proton versions. Apparently each of these counted as an individual PC and triggered the Denuvo tamper protection. Now I can't play at all on any of my systems for the crime of trying to help more users enjoy the game.

Way to kill your fans love for the franchise by adding all this ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ DLC it's like a meme at this point and somehow DD1 did nearly everything seemingly better, I'm not concerned about breathtaking graphics at all, I want to play the game without trying to navigate in a town without hitting 23 FPS on Riva Statistics. I don't really want to spend the time to dismantle the game mechanics and dissect the game as it is piece by piece but to some extent I feel like I should spend more hours before writing a review but unfortunately right off the bat I feel like something was lost and DD2 is just a failed imitation of a product development side management simply doesn't have capacity or the patience to understand. It does take skill and a huge team to put this ♥♥♥♥ together with talented people who really understand backend, but it would seem you forgot to include the fun part of a game and users right now can be happier playing modded Skyrim than spending $60 on whatever the ♥♥♥♥ this game is, it's no longer original DD1 infact you doubled down on the ♥♥♥♥ people didn't like from the previous game which was stunlocks and sluggish channeling.

It would've been better to maybe come up with new intellectual property instead of choosing DD

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ knew this ♥♥♥♥ was a red flag with that digital deluxe ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, with so many people speaking out about DLC and being tired of failed releases, predatory micro transactions, and failed tribute to original intellectual property that you would exercise extreme caution and almost try to stick to things closely even like menuing, combat fluidity, etc., this DLC ♥♥♥♥ is grounds for public execution and you're lucky there are diehard users still loyal to Dragons Dogma Franchise who will human centipede whatever content ungulated by daddy Capcom.

Somehow Dragons Dogma Online seemed to have gotten it better, how the ♥♥♥♥ dude

As some random ♥♥♥♥ who likes the franchise, this ♥♥♥♥♥ with me

- Ridiculously inconsistent FPS and poor performance
- Absurd DLC
- Confused combat direction and combat fluidity

Better advancements in modern hardware is not an excuse to disregard optimization practices equivalent to splitting hairs obviously to an extent I know common practice to retopo assets, LOD up the ass, and be mindful of camera distance vs texture resolution, but that extra ♥♥♥♥ when you have that one dude who talks about optimization for thread processing, CUDA, and the likes of engine backend level ♥♥♥♥ is the guy you do not rush ♥♥♥♥ with.

Although I probably will not purchase this ♥♥♥♥♥♥ DLC it's a scar to the franchise and you pretty much just jumped into a pool that is the embodiment of the Steam Hall of Shame, and although probably not going to be on the board you just yourself there in spirit right next to Overwatch 2.

I am very tolerant towards ♥♥♥♥ like games at the end of the day because bills suck ass and the epitome of life is being a wage slave but I just feel understanding of user experience is somewhat lost now.

Dragon's Dogma was never known for captivating story telling but when you get rid of the fun ass janky combat from DD1 you don't have ♥♥♥♥ and are trying to put a lot of chips in with a bad hand in poker and hoping people will fold under the close resemblance of DD1, rich graphical overhaul, and good camera work.

I'm not even sure what or who to annoyed at, what if the development team originally had a better vision and was ♥♥♥♥♥♥ over by higher ups making bad shot callouts they aren't even held accountable for, this ♥♥♥♥ sucks to get older and see the industry put it's consumers through the ringer whilst affirming what people have been saying about companies that grow in size spread further than their original foundation.

It seems the luster of games is something companies are tone-deaf to as a final product.

And that was gist of negative steam reviews on release.
Looks like it one of these days when Steam users are able to show an objective criticism.

 

[malx]

i get a constant black screen issue every 20 minutes or so on pc lol this game is unfinished I feel like a cuck for buying it.

 

[biggs]

■The option of starting a new game
We are looking at adding a feature to the Steam version of the game that will allow players that are already playing to restart the game. We will announce more details as soon as we can.

Once they have finished salivating and thinking over how they can monetize a basic feature.

 

[Fedora Master]

"Pay to adjust your character" is really outjewing the Jews.

 

[cvv]

It's p. bizarre to see the no. 1 global bestseller on Steam has been a game with a red rating, for a whole day now.

Meanwhile Forbidden West that came out simultaneously with DD2 is dropping.

 

[Turisas]

It's p. bizarre to see the no. 1 global bestseller on Steam has been a game with a red rating, for a whole day now.

Meanwhile Forbidden West that came out simultaneously with DD2 is dropping.

Got it pozgifted and it's been ok so far (other than shitawful FPS in the capital city) but I rated it negative out of spite anyway. Suck it down!

 

[Raghar]

"Pay to adjust your character" is really outjewing the Jews.

Don't downplay Jews.

 

[Lord_Potato]

■The option of starting a new game
We are looking at adding a feature to the Steam version of the game that will allow players that are already playing to restart the game. We will announce more details as soon as we can.

Once they have finished salivating and thinking over how they can monetize a basic feature.

A very innovative "Feature of starting a new game", lol. These guys are a joke

 

[mediocrepoet]

I always find it interesting how the most vocal critics around here are the ones who haven't even played the game.

The majority of those who have have a positive or relatively balanced opinion on the game while the people who haven't are having some sort of shitposting and rating circle jerk.

Anyway, if you liked the first game and are letting yourself be swayed by garbage like this, you're missing out.

 

[Lord_Potato]

I always find it interesting how the most vocal critics around here are the ones who haven't even played the game.

The majority of those who have have a positive or relatively balanced opinion on the game while the people who haven't are having some sort of shitposting and rating circle jerk.

Anyway, if you liked the first game and are letting yourself be swayed by garbage like this, you're missing out.

So, can you start a new game? Asking about a Steam version, of course.

 

[mediocrepoet]

I always find it interesting how the most vocal critics around here are the ones who haven't even played the game.

The majority of those who have have a positive or relatively balanced opinion on the game while the people who haven't are having some sort of shitposting and rating circle jerk.

Anyway, if you liked the first game and are letting yourself be swayed by garbage like this, you're missing out.

So, can you start a new game? Asking about a Steam version, of course.

Just as well as you can in DD1.

 

[Tacgnol]

I always find it interesting how the most vocal critics around here are the ones who haven't even played the game.

The majority of those who have have a positive or relatively balanced opinion on the game while the people who haven't are having some sort of shitposting and rating circle jerk.

Anyway, if you liked the first game and are letting yourself be swayed by garbage like this, you're missing out.

I think the game itself is good, but I left a negative review on Steam because fuck Capcom.

They don't deserve an easy reception with this. They were well aware the game was plagued with performance issues pre-release, and they chose to release and push this predatory MTX anyway.

I might remove my negative review if they fix the performance issues.

 

[Tyranicon]

I'm bummed out that the game is getting a shit reception, but there were so many signs that the launch would be popcorn material.

I predicted this well before release. Incompetency has a stench to it.

-follows the marketing campaign-

-notices all the regular signs of decline-

I feel like this game is going to be a shitstorm when it releases.

 

[Moink]

HumbleBundle refund was pretty quick at least, I'll get it when it's on sale with all the DLC in 2 years.

 

[Yosharian]

Ok so I started playing this and got as far as the little outpost where you can hire pawns.

• I have seen no audio problems in cutscenes, and the opening intro and tutorial was basically flawless
• I have seen some graphical glitches, mostly solved by tweaking my settings to turn off some things
• I turned everything to max and got around 65-75 FPS with DLSS quality on.
• I tweaked some settings and was able to improve this to 80-95 FPS, sometimes hitting highs of 100-ish, with very little loss of fidelity, but honestly this game isn't too impressive graphically
• (note that this ISN'T performance in the capital)
• In the outpost I'm seeing some frame drops already to maybe 55-60 at times, it's definitely the NPCs that are causing it

My rig for reference: 7800X3D, 3080, pretty fast RAM, fast SSD.

My main issue is that the FOV is kinda horrible and I'm not a huge fan of how the camera behaves in combat, maybe I'll get used to it, not sure yet. I am liking the game so far, it's neat.

The mouse acceleration is tolerable but it's definitely annoying. I was able to make the camera much more responsive by altering both the standard camera settings and the mouse camera settings, no idea why there's two sets of camera sensitivity settings.

 

[Tacgnol]

I'm bummed out that the game is getting a shit reception, but there were so many signs that the launch would be popcorn material.

I predicted this well before release. Incompetency has a stench to it.

-follows the marketing campaign-

-notices all the regular signs of decline-

I feel like this game is going to be a shitstorm when it releases.

I gave them the benefit of the doubt as most of their recent releases have been good performance wise. I think the biggest thing was the denuvo related bug in RE Village.

That said, there were very obvious signs pre-release that they were struggling to optimise the game. All the comments about the game not running above 30 FPS and the super high specs they were pushing to run at 60 fps on PC.

• I tweaked some settings and was able to improve this to 80-95 FPS, sometimes hitting highs of 100-ish, with very little loss of fidelity, but honestly this game isn't too impressive graphically

I would be interested to see your settings if you don't mind sharing them.

 

[Morgoth]

Bad performance and Microtransactions aside, I do respect what the game tries to accomplish. They'll get my money once patches have fixed the most grating issues.

 

[mediocrepoet]

I think the game itself is good, but I left a negative review on Steam because fuck Capcom.

push this predatory MTX anyway.

Yeah. It's not, really, as has been repeated throughout this thread. Your criticism is, "Wah, I could spend money I don't want to or need to to for stuff that basically does nothing." Good on you, I guess.

I might remove my negative review if they fix the performance issues.

I think this is a valid complaint, but I think given the reason for it (simulating mass, etc.) it may actually lead to the game being dumbed down for whiners.

Hopefully there will be some manner where they can disable those calculations in town or something. It comes up often though like when you run into a person and knock them back because you're huge, etc.

 

[notpl]

I think the game itself is good, but I left a negative review on Steam because fuck Capcom.

push this predatory MTX anyway.

Yeah. It's not, really, as has been repeated throughout this thread. Your criticism is, "Wah, I could spend money I don't want to or need to to for stuff that basically does nothing." Good on you, I guess.

I might remove my negative review if they fix the performance issues.

I think this is a valid complaint, but I think given the reason for it (simulating mass, etc.) it may actually lead to the game being dumbed down for whiners.

Hopefully there will be some manner where they can disable those calculations in town or something. It comes up often though like when you run into a person and knock them back because you're huge, etc.

If your argument is "only stupid/impulsive people would pay for these" then you are agreeing with him that it is "predatory." That is what that word means in this context. The whales who spend their life's savings on gacha games are idiots as well - the companies enabling them are still villains and their practices should be illegal.

 

[d1r]

I am not feeling so well, guys...

Dragon’s Dogma 2 fans warn Denuvo is bricking the game on Steam​

 

[Lord_Potato]

A truly glorious disaster! Bringing more popcorn!

 

[d1r]

I, I am still having fun though!!

 

[Yosharian]

I'm bummed out that the game is getting a shit reception, but there were so many signs that the launch would be popcorn material.

I predicted this well before release. Incompetency has a stench to it.

-follows the marketing campaign-

-notices all the regular signs of decline-

I feel like this game is going to be a shitstorm when it releases.

I gave them the benefit of the doubt as most of their recent releases have been good performance wise. I think the biggest thing was the denuvo related bug in RE Village.

That said, there were very obvious signs pre-release that they were struggling to optimise the game. All the comments about the game not running above 30 FPS and the super high specs they were pushing to run at 60 fps on PC.

• I tweaked some settings and was able to improve this to 80-95 FPS, sometimes hitting highs of 100-ish, with very little loss of fidelity, but honestly this game isn't too impressive graphically

I would be interested to see your settings if you don't mind sharing them.

Spoiler

Main points:

• DLSS helps a lot, I went for Quality but I did see framerate improvements by going deeper in, I'm wary of going too far with it cos the game already looks a bit 'soft'
• Sharpness doesn't seem to be doing much
• Ray Tracing doesn't seem to cost very much and improves the graphics a decent amount, I don't usually go for it but it's not too expensive here
• Screen-Space Reflections produced some buggy graphical glitches so I turned it off, water looks a lot flatter without it but I can't say I really care
• Texture Quality seems fine at 2GB
• Trees/grass seem a lot nicer on high and it doesn't seem to cost much
• Shadow Quality MAX costs a LOT and High is fine, Medium was fucking awful
• Contact Shadows I'm a little undecided on but I might keep it off
• Motion Blur is for weirdos

 

[d1r]

I'm bummed out that the game is getting a shit reception, but there were so many signs that the launch would be popcorn material.

I predicted this well before release. Incompetency has a stench to it.

-follows the marketing campaign-

-notices all the regular signs of decline-

I feel like this game is going to be a shitstorm when it releases.

I gave them the benefit of the doubt as most of their recent releases have been good performance wise. I think the biggest thing was the denuvo related bug in RE Village.

That said, there were very obvious signs pre-release that they were struggling to optimise the game. All the comments about the game not running above 30 FPS and the super high specs they were pushing to run at 60 fps on PC.

• I tweaked some settings and was able to improve this to 80-95 FPS, sometimes hitting highs of 100-ish, with very little loss of fidelity, but honestly this game isn't too impressive graphically

I would be interested to see your settings if you don't mind sharing them.

Spoiler

Main points:

• DLSS helps a lot, I went for Quality but I did see framerate improvements by going deeper in, I'm wary of going too far with it cos the game already looks a bit 'soft'
• Sharpness doesn't seem to be doing much
• Ray Tracing doesn't seem to cost very much and improves the graphics a decent amount, I don't usually go for it but it's not too expensive here
• Screen-Space Reflections produced some buggy graphical glitches so I turned it off, water looks a lot flatter without it but I can't say I really care
• Texture Quality seems fine at 2GB
• Trees/grass seem a lot nicer on high and it doesn't seem to cost much
• Shadow Quality MAX costs a LOT and High is fine, Medium was fucking awful
• Contact Shadows I'm a little undecided on but I might keep it off
• Motion Blur is for weirdos

Do you actually notice a difference when using RT? It is so miniscule for the most part, and still costs you like 15% fps. It's really not worth it, imo.

 

[Suicidal]

Played it for ~4 hours and reached not Grand Soren.

Performance has been really weird for me - in every populated area FPS drops to like 30-40, but when you exit into the open world it gradually builds up to 60 and then stays there, but there are specific places where it drops significantly and then builds back up again. It's playable but far, far from ideal. No other game has ran as poorly for me as this one.

I'm on 3060ti and i5-10400.

It also has a weird issue with keyboard bindings. Weapon skill are bound to ctrl + button. You cannot rebind them to not use a ctrl combination, but if you bind them to ctrl + any key that is already in use it counts as a duplicate bind and won't let you. For example, in this game F is use and E is grab and it was the other way around in DD1. I wanted to switch the keys to make the controls like in DD1, but when I tried doing that it didn't let me, because 1 of the weapon skills is bound to CTRL + F, so even though the default bindings is F to grab, if I try to set F to any other command it conflicts with CTRL + F for the weapon skill. It seems like a bug and hopefully they will address it.

Gonna try looking for some optimization guides but it's probably better not play at all until they roll out some patch.

As for the game itself, it's fun and pretty much what I wanted. More Dragon's Dogma, but they doubled down on the various different interactions you can do and every vocation seems to have a bigger move pool. It has this addictive quality just like DD1 where it's fun to simply run around and explore and fight stuff. Also the plot starts out more interesting this time around, although I really don't care about the story in this sort of game.