It’s sometimes very surprising to gamers how long it takes for a sequel to a hit title to emerge. After all, in the various media industries, the notion of getting a sequel out quickly is almost necessary. But in the gaming community, they know more than most that if you rush out a title, it’ll backfire. For Capcom, they had a hit game released in 2012 that eventually gained really good standing with the fanbase. But a decade later, it’s still not out yet. However, Dragon’s Dogma 2 is coming, and the team has clear goals about what they want to do with it.
For example, one of the things that director Hideaki Itsuno noted to VGC in an interview is that they wanted to grow the game beyond what they could in the first game due to the better technology they now have:
“We mostly just wanted to take things that we couldn’t achieve in Dragon’s Dogma at the time it came out, whether it be from just lack of time or pushing the limits of the hardware that was around at the time. So the main inspiration was sort of ourselves, and finally being able to achieve what we wanted on this current console generation.”
One of the ironies of that statement is that another reason Dragon’s Dogma 2 took so long to develop is because the team behind it agreed that if Itsuno wasn’t available to direct, they wouldn’t make it. Sure enough, he was very busy within Capcom, and so it took years to even think about doing a proper sequel. Thus, that time allowed them to get better technology and look at other games to see how they handled certain elements.
For example, Itsuno noted that GTA V, of all things, was an inspiration due to how the world felt “alive,” and you could watch NPCs do things that they would clearly do without the main character being there.
“That feeling of a living world is something that I’ve definitely tried to achieve in Dragon’s Dogma 2.”
There’s no current release date for the anticipated sequel, but the director did note other things that fans would see once they play. For example, the Pawns are going to be much chattier in the sequel. Many gamers noted that the originals just said the same things repeatedly. But in the sequel, that won’t happen.
So you might have to be careful, or else they might talk your ears off!
