Dragon’s Dogma 2’s meat is real – devs confirm live-action cooking scenes 

Capcom’s Dragon’s Dogma 2 launches on March 22, and with the release date drawing closer, we’re finding out a lot of interesting details about the long-awaited title. One peculiar fact recently revealed by the series’ director Hideaki Itsuno is that the game’s mouthwatering cooking scenes are indeed live action. So, those realistic steaks everyone was curious about were real (and likely eaten by the devs after being grilled for the game’s sake). 

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is the sequel to Capcom’s 2012 cult-classic action RPG Dragon’s Dogma. The second installment will expand upon the original title’s worldbuilding and mechanics, realizing many of the visions the original title had aspired to. Amidst the impressive game footage revealed so far, the cooking scenes of Dragon’s Dogma 2 have been a topic of wonder and speculation for quite a while. This is due to their lifelike level of realism, which clearly exceeds what can be achieved with CGI. 

Some users suspected that the live-action cooking cutscenes may be placeholders that will be replaced by animation in the final product. However, in a recent interview with 4Gamer, the game’s director Itsuno confirmed that the meat grilling scenes in Dragon’s Dogma 2 are live-action, and that this was a creative decision proposed and executed by the team.  

Apparently, the development team had been brainstorming the appeals of camping for months, only to come to the agreement that letting players watch meat grill is the way to go. Furthermore, Itsuno mentions that rather than spending money on expensive CG, they decided to buy real, good-quality steaks and use them for the game. It seems that each type of meat will have its own cutscene. 

For more interesting details about the development of Dragon’s Dogma 2, check out our in-depth interview with Hideaki Itsuno and Yoshiaki Hirabayashi.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is scheduled to release on March 22 for the PC (Steam), PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.