Like the first game, combat is the core element of Dragon’s Dogma 2. However, designing engaging battle encounters for both big and small enemies can be a challenging task. Talking with Play Magazine (March Edition), director Hideaki Itsuno explained how designing fights against huge monsters can be a challenging task:
It is very difficult to design gameplay for the player fighting a massive enemy while letting them feel they are on an equal footing.
So you have to have ideas for gameplay that goes beyond basic one-to-one combat. The terrain and storyline can accommodate it in a way that feels natural.
As you might already know, Dragon’s Dogma 2 will feature even bigger enemies than the original, and designing balanced combat encounters around them is going to be crucial. The first game didn’t disappoint and we have can expect the same if not better from the second game as well.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 of course will also have a variety of smaller enemies and the developers also wanted to make sure that fighting these smaller creatures don’t feel dumb and boring. Hideaki explained:
This is where experience and knowhow of the action team at Capcom comes in! We consider a variety of factors, including the king of behaviour that can be imagined or expected from an enemy’s appearance, the patterns and tells it will have, the balance between when the player will be able to judge enemy behaviour how long it will take on their part to react appropriately to it, and how many different types of behaviour the enemy has.
We all know that enemy variety and behavior are very important for combat-centric games like Dragon’s Dogma, and it seems like the developers are aware of its importance. Apart from fine-tuned enemies, Dragon’s Dogma 2 will also offer players a lot of character classes. And if you don’t like hand-to-hand combat, Dragon’s Dogma 2 game director suggested that they should use a “magic-based” class. Magic is Dragon’s Dogma 2 has been enhanced as well and it will feel and play better than the first game.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 is scheduled to release on March 24, 2024, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S|X, and Microsoft Windows.