Dragon's Dogma 2 seemed to be a hit when it launched last year, even as its esoteric mechanics and often repetitive action put off some players. But for director Hideaki Itsuno, the goal was seemingly never to make a game for everyone – and as we've seen with some other notable success stories in recent years, the results serve as an example of what happens when you stop trying to make games for literally everyone.
"'If it sells at this level, all good,'" Itsuno tells VGC when asked to reflect on the reception of Dragon's Dogma 2. "Meaning that if the game was loved by so many, it's all good. I made the game not like a Nintendo one to be liked by all the people, but for a certain type of audience, so it's normal if some people outside that target audience don't like the game. However, people who enjoyed the game really loved it, appreciated the details and work. I'm very proud of it."
Dragon's Dogma 2 is very much its own beast, but you can see some of the same spirit in the mission statement of Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead Game Studios: "A game for everyone is a game for no one." Even the CEO at the top of the Space Marine 2 publishing chain echoes that sentiment: "The core of our manifesto is we do not design and produce games for everyone."
Even Nintendo is willing to experiment these days, taking well-known franchises in bold new directions across everything from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild to Donkey Kong Bananza, but to Itsuno's point it's also very keen to make sure most of the rough edges are sanded off those games.
Itsuno left Capcom last year after the launch of Dragon's Dogma 2, founding a new development house under Tencent called Lightspeed Studios, and it seems that part of the reason is the simple desire to create something new once again. "For Capcom, creating Devil May Cry and Dragon’s Dogma sequels is always going to be the top priority, and keeping in mind that making a game takes 4 to 5 years, this might be my last big opportunity," Itsuno says.
"Before you realized you are working on making the Devil May Cry 6 or 7," the director continues. "It's not like I don’t want to make them, I do, but it's hard to balance the time it takes with the personal satisfaction of making them, and with Devil May Cry 5 and Dragon’s Dogma 2, I already did what I wanted to make."
Still, Itsuno wants this new game to combine "the best of everything I’ve made so far," and given his pedigree over the years, we could be in for something special – even if it probably won't be to everyone's taste.
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