Given that Dragon’s Dogma 2’s Dark Arisen DLC adds a brand-new region on top of a slew of gameplay improvements, it’s understandable that the developers went to great lengths to collect player feedback from the base game. Speaking to Famitsu, director Kento Kinoshita, as well as producers Naoto Oyama and Yoshiaki Hirabayashi, talked about how fan requests from Japan and overseas differed drastically from each other.
According to Hirabayashi, when categorizing data collected from players, he noticed that feedback from Japan and the West was “diametrically opposite.” Because of this, he learned a great deal about how cultural differences affect the way players enjoy a game.
It seems opinions are most polarized when it comes to some of Dragon’s Dogma 2’s unique gameplay “obstacles.” According to Oyama, players in Japan and Asia tend to be quite vocal about what they perceive as “inconveniences,” while players in Europe and North America are more likely to view these same game elements as “friction” and welcome them. While the developers don’t cite any specific examples, they do describe travelling by foot and Dragonsplague as some of the “inconveniences” the game throws at players earlier in the interview.
Due to how different the expectations are, the devs say that they are being careful not to lean too far into either direction when creating Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen, as it becomes difficult to meet the needs of players on the other side.
Kinoshita cites the new equipment transmog feature in the DLC as an example. When it was introduced in Dragon’s Dogma Online, he says players were heavily divided on the feature. As such, Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen players who want to change the appearance of their outfits can do so, while those who aren’t fans can choose to opt out of displaying the cosmetic outfits entirely. Additionally, the DLC’s Hard Mode, which will be launching day one, was another heavily requested feature by players.
Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen is scheduled to release on October 9 for Windows (Steam), Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X❘S.
