Dragon's Dogma 2 devs have done "whatever we can" to make Pawns stop repeating themselves over and over

It sounds like Dragon's Dogma 2's Pawns won't repeat themselves nearly as much as they did in the first game.

If you haven't played the original Dragon's Dogma, you should. It's an excellent RPG many liken to an underrated Skyrim, but I'd argue that aside from a surface level similarity in general tone and aesthetics, they're pretty different games. One key distinction in Dragon's Dogma is the Pawn system, which lets you recruit Arisen-like NPCs to fight and evolve alongside you.

This is largely a benefit to the game's combat and really serves to add some complexity, but there's one thing about Pawns that hasn't agreed with players for years: they tend to say the same thing over and over again. Although you can mute their repetitive chatter in settings, you also don't want to miss the occasionally useful thing they say, trapping you between a rock and a hard place, so to say.

In a new interview with IGN, game director Hideaki Itsuno addressed that problem right from the get-go.

"This time around, we surveyed lots of players before creating the Pawns. We had a lot of feedback saying that Pawns in the first game repeated the same dialog too much," Itsuno said with a slight chuckle. "So we focused first on that. We've done whatever we can to keep Pawns from repeating the same lines multiple times."

I love the way this is phrased, as if Pawns have minds of their own and Capcom has very little say in their behavior. I'm just imagining them defying their programming, repeating themselves even more in the sequel, and Itsuno throwing up his hands and saying sorrowfully, "We did all we could. I'm sorry."

But that probably won't happen. It's probably safe to expect those silly Pawns to have more varied dialog options in the sequel, which is less funny, but will undoubtedly make for a less frustrating experience.

Dragon's Dogma 2 is set to release on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on March 22.

Dragon's Dogma 2 is a "seamless fantasy world" that speaks to our own Jasmine's Witcher 3-loving heart. And until it launches, here are the best RPGs you can play today.