Even after several updates adjusting features like fast travel, Dragon's Dogma 2 remains a pretty exacting game. Capcom's modern RPG series is known for an eclectic mix of ideas that results in a texture that some players find irresistible, while others outright hate it. Director Hideaki Itsuno previously called the sequel a game that wasn't designed for everyone, and Dragon's Dogma 2: Dark Arisen director Kento Kinoshita seems to be of a similar mind as the long-awaited expansion approaches an October 8 launch.
Speaking with GamesRadar+ via interpreter, Kinoshita reflects on the friction in Dragon's Dogma 2's design. "That is something that we offer so that players can make a decision on how to play," he says. "If they have multiple options and decide what's the best way, that's giving players [choices]. This is the core essence of how we design the friction in the game."
I ask how the Dark Arisen expansion – which will add a new area, storyline, dungeon challenges, and many enemies and items – adjusts or preserves that friction. "We believe we're developing the game so that people can enjoy that kind of friction, having multiple options and making decisions," Kinoshita affirms. "We believe that's preserved in the expansion content as well."
To give players true choices in games, devs have to accept that some content will be ignored or unnoticed. They also have to make more content to flesh out whatever path is chosen, at least compared to a linear game in principle. How do you balance giving players more without making the whole thing too big? And for an expansion like this, explicitly made to answer requests for additional stuff to do, is it a good thing or a stressful thing to hear that players want more?
"That's a really good question," responds Kinoshita. "As [producer Naoto Oyama] answered earlier, my first impression was, sorry to keep everyone waiting. In terms of the balance, we have to consider how long we can take to develop the game and how much volume we can include in the expansion. If we have to put more content into the expansion, it means it will take more time to develop. But also, we were aware of the passionate feedback from players, especially that they want to enjoy the combat more. But we have to set a certain limit to the amount of content."
Capcom had a few goals with Dragon's Dogma 2: Dark Arisen: more content, a more accessible game, and "great value," per Kinoshita. The question was how to align these goals with what players had demanded – more combat, more areas to explore, and more reasons to play in general after a pretty abrupt ending. The result is a more ambitious expansion designed "more like an adventure full of freedom" and, compared to the original Dark Arisen, less like a big dungeon full of loot (though I'm told there will also be smaller dungeons full of loot).
"The main focus in terms of the amount of content we decided to put in the expansion was answering that feedback, more combat, focusing on the amount of new enemies, how wide the new area is, how the story unfolds," Kinoshita adds. "That's how we balance volume and try to answer those requests from players ... So when balancing what we want to include in the expansion and how to answer the requests, that was also something we considered. So we hope that more and more people will enjoy the game."
