Dragon's Dogma 2 Review - A Modern Masterpiece

Set forth on your grand adventure, Arisen!
0:00 Intro
1:01 Combat & Vocations
7:31 World Freedom & Exploration
13:21 Story
15:35 Visuals
17:14 Audio
19:15 PC Performance
20:55 Potential for Improvements
23:05 Closing Thoughts
Dragon’s Dogma is a single player, narrative driven action-RPG series that challenges the players to choose their own experience - from the appearance of their Arisen, their vocation, their party, how to approach different situations and more. Now, in this long-awaited sequel, the deep, explorable fantasy world of Dragon’s Dogma 2 awaits.
On your journey, you’ll be joined by Pawns, mysterious otherworldly beings, in an adventure so unique you will feel as if accompanied by other players while on your own adventure.
All of these elements are elevated further through physics technology, artificial intelligence (AI) and the latest in graphics, to create a truly immersive fantasy world in Dragon’s Dogma 2.
Wield swords, bows, and chant magick. The vocations in Dragon's Dogma 2 give you the ability to approach combat the way you want.
Players can customize their own main Pawn, who will always accompany your Arisen, and enter a covenant with up to 2 additional Pawns from other players through the network.
Beyond the town borders, you will encounter diverse monsters that inhabit the lands. You will need to decide between engaging in battles or finding alternatives; so be aware of your party’s setup, the terrain around you, and the monsters you face.
Travelers, merchants, soldiers and other folk go about their daily lives.
Preoccupied by their own objectives and motives, they all exhibit different emotions. At times, they may lead you to a quest by approaching you and asking for a favor.
Dragon's Dogma 2 Let's Play: • Dragon's Dogma 2 Let's...
#DragonsDogma2 #Review #FightinCowboy
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All recordings and streams are done using OBS, an Elgato 4K60 Pro, and a Samson G Track Pro Mic.
About FightinCowboy:
Content Creator, variety streamer, and professional weeb. I like to play games and make people laugh.
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[@FightinCowboy]

With launch there's a lot of misinformation going around surrounding the MTX so here's my thoughts: 1) Reviewers were aware of the MTX beforehand, they weren't stealthed in. I looked at em, saw a bunch of unnecessary shit and never thought about them again. Same as MHW, RE4, DMC5, etc. It's a bunch of pointless shit that you earn just playing the game. Yes MTX are shitty. No I don't give a shit about them. 2) "Fast travel is pay-gated" You get 5-6 port crystals in game and ferrystones drop frequently in end-game, nothing is pay gated. 3) "You have to pay to change your character" You get 2-3 changes at the in-game shop per playthrough and everytime you start a NG+ cycle. You'd need to do 4+ complete character overhauls in a single playthrough before you'd pay $$. 4) "Save is locked behind cloud" You can delete your save and restart, even though that is fucking dumb and shouldn't have to be the case. I get people being upset about performance, and people are always gonna bitch about MTX as expected, but the blatant amount of misinformation being pushed around for shit that's false is whack. If you're mad that MTX exist I get you, but let's not spread fake news about shit that's not true.

[@fine....]

you don't think CAPCOM is pushing it a bit, aggressively selling dlc like this in a single player full price game?

[@hiddenflowerto]

Thanks for the update!

[@FightinCowboy]

@@fine.... They're absolutely aggressive but they've been doing it for 10 years. At this point I just ignore em cause clearly they ain't going away. Same as Ubisoft.

[@randomstuff773]

I appreciate the clarification

[@atomicgaming1716]

@FightinCowboy Why did you have to make a new Steam account? That's the part that I don't understand in this

[@stevecomeau659]

47 year old gamer dad here... Started playing Souls game because of you. Thank you. Platinumed Elden Ring because of you. Did all your Souls Walkthroughs... currently on Sekiro and just beat Genichiro first try yesterday BECAUSE OF YOU. Thank you. Will play this as well, ty.

[@PortalPatrol]

Play the Witcher 3 if you haven’t.

[@Stuphy1147]

Only play the Witcher if you like boring combat and trash mechanics

[@gabrielc2125]

@@Stuphy1147False

[@Thevikingninja117]

@@Stuphy1147looks like we got ourselves a hater. Don’t like Witcher 3? Ok go make a better one. Go on…we’re waiting :)

[@Davvefra]

@@Stuphy1147 best story rpg ever made

[@FightinCowboy]

Seeing a lot of people confused about me being a new game ++, I'm pushing through to do content I missed before and still uncovering new quest lines. If you're being thorough you're looking at probably 100+ hrs for a 100% style playthrough

[@Thepeacekillz]

Fantastic

[@CramerGamer99]

Is there a hard mode or anything that keeps things challenging in NG+ and beyond? Or does it become pretty easy as you go into NG+ cycles? I might prefer starting over with new characters over doing NG+ cycles if NG+ is easy.

[@bakujitsukishima9247]

@@CramerGamer99 in the first game from what i remember there's normal, NG+, hard, NG+ hard and i think speedrun mode too

[@tomkuzik4908]

Music to my ears 🙏😤🙌

[@josephnull1438]

I really loved hearing theres ng+s. Game looks pretty great

[@matticcusphynch]

Favorite part of the video: "just look how beefy this sounds". Hard cut to KZbin ad: Paleovalley naturally fermented beef sticks. Yep, that's one beefy-sounding weapon.

[@kvltslime2261]

i got an oppenheimer ad at that exact moment lol

[@ProGamerboy-lw7jo]

Damn I had a iPhone ad 😢

[@matticcusphynch]

@@ProGamerboy-lw7jo Oh the irony.

[@heylarry633]

I had an alarm beeping ad lol

[@TheRevengeSociety]

I'm getting nothing but Google fiber ads. I hate it

[@TheDoomballoon]

Do you think we'll see DLC like we did with Dark Arisen or is the base game more than enough to match it for late/endgame content?

[@clark2501]

I have a feeling we will get at least one DLC, most likely similar to BitterBlack considering how much people loved that DLC, myself included. I’d be surprised if they don’t put it out within the next 1-2 years, though they did take 12 years to put this game out.

[@petersonfamily6223]

Could you answer this question about saved game files on a PC? Can you rename your saved file and reload it later? I do this in Dragons Dogma Dark Arisen when attempting something or looting for specific items. I copy the (Steam PC Files) 367500 (Steam Folder for Dragons Dogma Dark Arisen) - Remote (Folder Saves "DDDA.sav" are located). I place the copied Remote folder in another folder I have setup to for manually saving. Later if I want to reload the save I just copy the "Remote" folder back to the file I copy it back to the 367500 folder and reload the game. Can this be done with Dragons Dogma 2? Thanks

[@FightinCowboy]

Yes, but things will get fucky with your pawn eventually.

[@mesadrums375]

It feels like we’re finally getting all the stuff that artists have been cooking over the pandemic. Music, movies, games recently have been fantastic

[@kay_keik7842]

Lmao entertainment has been trash. This game is one of the few games to be good but this is coming from capcom who has been killing it in the past 10 years

[@andreareasvenas9037]

What series and music has been good? Not hate just curiosity

[@ioverslept.]

​@@kay_keik7842least depressed youtube commenter

[@OwnYourBaldSpot]

@@andreareasvenas9037shogun is amazing for a show. Music.. idk what he considers good

[@muizzee]

Except for ubisoft. Somehow they manage to f up everything.

[@RyanS406]

For the Warfarer, are the vocation abilities locked or are you able to customize each of the three vocations’ abilities of the warfarer???

[@richardwhite3521]

The fact that a 4090 was struggling in parts is terrifying. Jeez.

[@CrazzyCODSkillz]

Don’t play on max settings lol the game looks great without it

[@arikotler4234]

game is very CPU limited apparently, so it probably isnt the 4090 struggling

[@TheEPICskwock]

Its was the CPU that was struggling not the graphics card. The amount of people who dont understand its not just your graphics card that affects frame rate is scary.

[@Dalamartm]

These companies are not using Cpu's and graphics cards from 10 years in the future when they are making and playtesting this stuff.Their is no excuse for performance issues .

[@proggz39]

@@Dalamartmso what are they using?

[@astroguster5522]

Hey, I'm 92 years old and I started playing souls watching you in my nursing home. Im currently shredding in this game. Shaka bra 🤙

[@Gebruiker7007]

Damn dude, games like these aren't healthy for you 😅

[@deivymaybe7554]

Im 104 year old. Jerry! Bring me the blanket.

[@STANGm06deGT]

No way, 94 year olds don’t say….Shaka bra🤣🤣🤣

[@astroguster5522]

@@STANGm06deGT bruhhh, come on, I made it to 25 likes from these dopes 🤣 . I kept seeing comments of older and older dudes saying how this guy has inspired them so I wanted to jump on the pile

[@degeneratecollector9950]

😂😂

[@butterflap]

After dumping 80+ hours into this game I had to come back to this review and say I am struggling to understand how you came to the conclusion this game is a masterpiece. The combat and world are cool just like the first DD but this game is a complete and utter broken mess on almost every level not even including the MASSIVE performance issues I have experienced on pc. With almost every quest I did in the game breaking and constant bugs and random glitches having me stop and look up what the hell was going on it continually became apparent that this game was shipped completely unfinished. In just one of my many broken quests the npc randomly died at some point and I thought I was going insane trying to finish it as I had no idea who the npc was so I had to look all of this up on a guide to figure out wtf was happening meanwhile I have these random encounters throwing time based quests on top of the initial quest I’m trying to complete which I had to auto fail as I couldn’t travel where they wanted me to as I was too busy trying to find a dead npc to complete the quest. My entire quest experience throughout the game was truly awful and confusing to the point of frustration. Not that the quests really are good in the first place. The story starts off well enough and starts to turn into a bunch of convoluted nonsense all at once later making everything a confusing mess. I still had fun with the different classes and pawn system as well as some of the exploration but outside of that the game is really a backwards step for this series unless they patch the living shit out of this. I think more people will come to this conclusion after finishing the game and I’m wondering why it is receiving such high praise at this time. It’s still fun combat wise and there is some enjoyment to be had but a masterpiece is far from what I would call this. I would call it a fun but overall disappointing sequel. I could not recommend this to my friends right now without warning them the game is mostly broken so how can it be a “modern masterpiece” ? We are once again left with very cool ideas stuck in a complete mess of a game and this was how I felt about the first one tbh. It is a shame and the years of waiting don’t help anything so I feel pretty mislead having seen all the praise when other game companies would not get a pass on this. I will continue to hope major patches are incoming.

[@FightinCowboy]

I didn't have the technical issues given my PC so that wasn't an issue but I still called it out. As for quests it sounds likr user error tbh. Only time I had quests fail was from pushing the MSQ too far by mistake and locking me out, like evacuating 1 city and it turned out I needed those folks to finish a different cities quest. That's not the games fault tho.

[@butterflap]

@@FightinCowboy I was explicitly giving an example where it could not have been user error in this instance to convey it was the game itself. The npc getting killed across the map and disappearing had nothing to do with me cause I was not there. Last time I saw the npc it was alive. Most of the mechanics and quests seem designed to drag out the game rather than provide an experience although there are a couple enjoyable ones, this example took me an hour to get back to the morgue then revive then go back to the location then progress the quest which is ass after finding out I already wasted hours trying to solve an unsolvable quest at the time. Other examples would be the next part of a quest having no marker or destination or action that will advance the quest which usually turns into you are supposed to tackle a person. You could account that for user error but why would they not just put “apprehend” this npc or something similar in the quest description after detailed quest descriptions until that point. It’s almost like they barely finished the quests and planned to patch it and we are ignoring that when we are scrutinizing other companies for less. Capcom won’t fix the game if they think it’s a masterpiece already we gotta make sure they are aware of these major problems in the game. I’m hoping they patch things up and we can get an update video soon going over the feedback on the game and how they have handled it so I’ll keep an eye out for that 🤙🏻

[@socrdude209]

@@butterflap on ps5, the game deleted my many Inn saves and manual saves. I lost over 35 hours and a new pawn I had created. It set me back to a random old save near the beginning with my old pawn. Before I stopped because of this, I was finding the game a bit boring and easy. Same small enemies you have to fight between cities and towns which after level 20 felt more like a chore than fun. Inventory management was a joke, nothing enjoyable about it. I honestly stopped feeling the need or want to pick anything up. Combat was fun initially, but isn’t something I would yearn for after time. I really don’t understand how this could be a masterpiece either, perhaps I don’t have the same preferences in an rpg anymore as cowboy 🤷‍♂️ . I really wish I didn’t spend $70 on this game.

[@Cab8819]

Agreed, this and many other reviews are either fully dilluded or simply overinvested in the games combat. The quests and systems that control quest completion are utter dogshit. Vanilla skyrim was more consistent and dynamic than this game. Im going on 120 hours in my first playthrough and have yet to be able to finish a quest without reloading because something broke. Didnt even know a dragon attacked melve until i looked up a guide for the mystic maister skill. Gonna have to wait for NG+ and hope that encounter doesnt break again so i can have a chance at the quest that lets me get it, but cant forget if i kill the drake in melve then i cant get the quest to get the miester skill, because, you know, the quest systems in this game are dogshit and leave no room for dynamic completion.

[@Cab8819]

Im also running a 7950x and 7900xt, 64 gigs of ram and a state of the art NVME, still have poor preformance for my system, so stuff that "im not having technical issues" up ur ass Mr.KZbinr sir, and open ur eyes. I can see the stuttering in the recording you posted.

[@moriauxkris1408]

i'm confused, do all the stats you leveled change when you swap from strength to magic or just a portion of the stats? Because there are CC's that are saying that it's less punishing ict DD1 but it still matters what you choose your class at the beginning...

[@IAMLEGEND091]

Sorry for the noob question as i did not play DD1, So you unlock a specific vocation from certain quest let's say magic archer or warfarer, so you can chose between vocations anytime but to master it, you need to level up a specific one?

[@lordxilon]

So, you unlock different vocations as you progress. You increase your vocation rank to get new skills & abilities.

[@jamielee5695]

The review that really matters.

[@Ash-pr3xj]

Yea pure honestly

[@TeriyakiDior]

yess

[@TeamBrown84]

The reason I chose dogma 2 instead of rise of ronin to play first

[@DystopianUtopia8]

@@Ash-pr3xj lmao not really. He's a die hard fan whose entire life revolves around ARPG's. I mean he can explain the game well, but certainly not an unbiased opinion. I guarantee the grindy, lack of fast travel will turn some players off.

[@dmoneyswagg64]

@@DystopianUtopia8no one said the review wasn’t unbiased, that’s not a real thing. But fighting cowboy gives accurate and simple to understand information. I’m sure lots of people will be turned off by the lack of fast travel, it’s not his job to convince people other wise. If you don’t think his reviews are legitimately well made why are you even listening lol.

[@jtf-peacekeepers]

I like how you can switch over to vocations and distribute your skills equally instead of commiting to them for different game files. Something I wish more RPGs would allow.

[@The_staz]

Shit yeh.

[@user-kz6yh6bs7y]

AND HOW DO YOU DO THIS??????

[@user-kz6yh6bs7y]

You just start another vocation? But when I switch I can't use weapons from the other class so how is he a magic archer and .sytic spearhead at the same time I'm not getting it?

[@jacksonmiller1383]

@@user-kz6yh6bs7y You can switch at either vocation guilds, or taverns. If you have the gear for both, each class has different gear usable to them.

[@SamuraiMayo131]

Any clarification if vocation still affect stats when leveling up? Was under the impression this mechanic is scrapped but a recent video from Ragegaming claims it still matters, just to a small extent

[@FightinCowboy]

No it doesn't at all

[@geteveryone]

Does the explorable world still comprise mainly green and brown hills and woods? I loved DD1, but did grow slightly tired of the lack of variation or biomes.

[@DastardlyDobbin]

The real question is… have you found/beaten the Sphinx yet, Cowboy? And if you miss if first time round, does it appear in subsequent NG+ playthroughs?

[@FightinCowboy]

Yes, guide after launch

[@DastardlyDobbin]

@@FightinCowboy Good to hear! Thanks, man

[@xoshnax5962]

@@FightinCowboyplease tell me there is great magic cannon spell from the first game

[@shotty.]

what is the sphinx?

[@AC-hj9tv]

Big tiddy lady

[@jester0537]

I remember getting dragons dogma after a friend recommended it to me. The combat the story the world i had so much fun and yet it seemed like no one had heard of the gem. I hope this game gets the recognition that the first one deserved

[@chrisciavarino]

Hey Cowboy does the second game have the same maxing formulas, like level sorcerer to level 200 then into magick archer?

[@FightinCowboy]

No you can just play us whatever now as stats shift when you change vocations

[@rtorbs]

19:28 what res you playing at ? I assume 4k ? Also running a 13900k/4090 at 4k so curious......cant see ps5 matching spec wise visually, might be native 4k but not with all the bells and whistles, ill happily tweak settings, just need a solid 60fps no drops imo

[@FightinCowboy]

Yes

[@rtorbs]

@@FightinCowboy Short but sweet lol

[@Monkeyman-qt1sm]

I'm pretty sure console is locked at 30?

[@mokadelic4037]

In the first game, after beating it, you could re-make the appearence of your character and pawn, will this game have this option too? I would like to make a beastren Arisen for my second run, but I've heard from Ratatoskr that you cannot restart the game for some reason, so this is an important aspect for me. I know there is at least one item in the game that allows this but I wonder if the number of times you can alter your appearence are limited.

[@FightinCowboy]

Yes you can. Everytime you start a NG+ cycle you can import and tweak or change your character. He was prob referring to starting a fresh game which involved purging the save file and is rather tricky.

[@mokadelic4037]

@@FightinCowboy thank you for the clarification. Only thing left to hope is for the performance issues to be less severe on the final build, I have a medium tier build pc and, even though I upgraded my cpu just for this game, I still fear it's not going to be enough. I hope I can at least look forward to 30 stable fps at medium/high graphical settings.

[@theobell2002]

You could buy a "Secret of Metamorphosis" scroll from a vendor in the Encampment in the first game for RC which unlocked the ability to edit your character and pawn any time you wanted. There is also a barber shop in Gran Soren that allowed you to change make-up, hairstyles, etc. but not everything.

[@mokadelic4037]

@@theobell2002 I also wonder if Rift Crystals can be earned by other means than renting your pawn, does somebody know if they are a rare loot from enemies/chests like in the first game?

[@theobell2002]

@@mokadelic4037 Most likely.

[@AB-tt6si]

How's the enemy variety feel during the day-to-day overworld exploration? My main complaint in DD1 was how burnt out on wolves, bandits, goblins, harpies, and skeletons I was outside of dungeons and whatnot.

[@FightinCowboy]

Better

[@pomps8085]

​@@XxWolfxWaRioRxXyeah I've seen this mentioned a few times, and already sick of seeing gyphins

[@envy8699]

​@@XxWolfxWaRioRxXluke Stephens is the last guy you should trust lmao

[@UndeadCheetah]

@@XxWolfxWaRioRxX Seems he wont but I will. Luke constantly proclaims things as facts when he does little to no research on the matter. Like he also makes 20-40 minute long videos on topics that really boil down to "In my opinion this thing is bad in games" but says it in a way as if it's objective, then give that same thing a positive rating in a different game. He has given misinformation before on quite a few games, saying he has put "hundreds of hours" into games, but still gets the most basic information wrong on said games. He's a known plagiarist. However, that was 6 years ago so take it as you will, maybe he's changed. I don't want to write a wall cause 99% of people wont read it, but all in all he says a lot of nothing in his "critiques", padded with fluff words and nonesense. Is negative about nearly every game he talks about for clicks. Overall if you like him that's fine, but there are 100s of better content creators worth listening to before him.

[@phantombigboss8429]

​@@UndeadCheetahI remember Luke saying he wanted FF14 to be more like WOW because the game isnt hard for him or some garbage.

[@RaGiNgBaNaNa101]

So how does warfarer work with skills? Do you get to equip 3 skills for each weapon? Is it based on how you leveled that original class that you equip?

[@FightinCowboy]

3 skills total, and 1 to cycle the weapons

[@RaGiNgBaNaNa101]

@@FightinCowboy oh shit. So you really sacrifice a lot to be able to swap between. Do you still feel like it’s doable even with so few skills per weapon?

[@MrHiglon]

It seems kinda ridden with TAA and supersample reliance. Is there a way to get a crisp picture? A native setting?

[@Jeradactile]

DD1 is one of my favorite games of all time. I am beyond excited to jump into this and put 20+ play throughs in.

[@KarlRock]

Sounds like a great time! I’ll add it to my list. I’ll probably play the original game first. Thanks for the review.

[@hihihi1q23]

Don't play the original. Just go straight for the sequel. They're similar enough that you'll get burned out jumping from 1 to 2.

[@GodleyBeast]

@@hihihi1q23 I think it's fine to do the first one if you want. But it definitely feels dated and a bit janky

[@forgot2poop]

@@hihihi1q23 yeah personally what i did was go through the first one until i could feel myself getting burnt out a couple months ago and then switched to another game. now im super pumped to get into this one.

[@justthetip120]

Im playing the first one again till release. Dated by still very enjoyable. Love it

[@luketexas]

@@justthetip120same I bought the first one two weeks ago just to see if I’ll like it and it’s amazing last playing it hoping into dd2 tomorrow but def wouldn’t worry about playing the first one now since dd2 drops tomorrow night as well just hop straight into that! To the op

[@Nownadda]

Issue I have is whether to get it on pc or ps5. My PC is aging and worries if I can hit a constant 60 if I lower the settings. I have a 2080, but idk if that will handle this sadly.

[@mtk635]

I’m in same exact boat. I usually go with my ps5. My pc is like 12 years old

[@xiopik2735]

Im thinking of holding off on this one because my PC is mid grade. I could purchase on my Series X but im curious if they will be able to make it playable on my Steam Deck. its currently 15fps in combat on Deck. Do you think they will be able to optimize it and make it at least playable on deck?

[@KiraSieni]

Yeah mines a 1660ti with an i7. Im trying to decide too but may just wait and see if its resolved in the next month or so. Im guessing it will be better if they want to sell games. Im considering a new laptop soon but im waiting for the next graphics card.

[@goutbreak]

Reporting from series X, the uncapped 30 actually feels pretty great, combat and wandering around the world floating at probably 45-50 frames, cutscenes are rendered great, SSD doing the legwork, load times are snappy, I do get drops staring at faraway vistas with large draw distances, and in big cities, but never to an unplayable level. normally I’m a stickler for frames and considered games to not be smooth 60 on next gen to be unforgivable, which was exactly how I treated starfield, but on my console, I’m actually fairly impressed with how it’s run considering the horror stories I’ve heard based on the pc launch

[@yory5000]

Do you think it's worth doing a full blind playthrough or do u miss too much content ?

[@goutbreak]

It honestly doesn’t matter if you miss stuff because you instantly new game+ when you beat the game, you’re meant to miss stuff

[@shady6281]

Can't wait to play this when it starts working at 60fps on my PC!

[@AlexYoel]

Thanks for the review! Are you allowed to tell us how far into the game you unlocked Warfarer? I want to play the class but I'm wondering if it's more like an end game unlock

[@deepak-ui5li]

How about the healing mechanic? Do we still have to pause the game to consume health items or have they made any improvements on this front?

[@FightinCowboy]

On the fly healing.

[@vexmyth0clast]

“Haven’t had as much fun with an arpg since Elden Ring” Music to my ears. Elden Ring is the best arpg I’ve ever played 🥹 I just rebuilt my pc and I can’t wait to play.

[@SavageGameHawk]

Let’s goooo!!!! 🔥

[@bravefastrabbit770]

Please learn the difference between an ARPG and Action, RPG.

[@vexmyth0clast]

@@bravefastrabbit770 What are you smoking? They are the same thing smartass lmao What do you think the A stands for in ARPG?

[@vexmyth0clast]

@@bravefastrabbit770 Learn the difference? What are you smoking ? The A in ARPG stands for action genius 🤦🏼

[@DespairBear]

​@@bravefastrabbit770 What do you think the A stands for?

[@maxben565]

Over a decade wait is finally over. Bliss. 🗡️ 🐉

[@HelicopterRidesForCommunists]

I tried severe times to get into the first one, but couldn’t. The combat was really great, but I felt lost and didn’t know where to go or what to do. I’ve since found out that’s intentional, so Im hoping with that knowledge in mind I’ll be able to press through on this one and even possibly go back to 1.

[@soliitudegaming7275]

Still a whole day and a half left bruh.

[@SifArtorias]

​ The first game was really confusing, although you can find out what you're supposed to do next for the main story by checking the chronicle.

[@Voss_Man]

We've made it, friend

[@dusttodust915]

the wait is over tomorrow bud.

[@Bobandy902]

What do you recommend playing DD2 on? I got Ps5 and low end Pc so I haven't confirmed if it meets the specs

[@FightinCowboy]

Maybe ps5 then

[@Bobandy902]

@FightinCowboy mistakenly asked this question just before the video finished. Thnx for the feedback regardless

[@kkplx]

you, rurikhan and ratatoskr all releasing their reviews within hours of each other is fantastic. looking forward to DD2, i'm sure i'll enjoy it despite some of the intentional friction. thanks for your work. any cryptic hints towards the "true" ending you're willing to drop?

[@stevenmolinachannel]

I loved this game when it first came out and no one I knew ever played it. It never got much attention. It's crazy there is a sequel and many eyes are now looking at the franchise.

[@NickHunter]

Yeah it's definitely one of those games where the recognition came a couple years after release. tons of those "so I finally played..." type vids which are like "how the hell did I miss this at launch?!"

[@donuts7627]

Agreed, I fell in lov 16:35 e with DD when it came out and I had planned to replay before This released but alas no time.

[@KarthikeyanNagappan]

Hey like a 47 year old guy, I'm 66 and had been following your videos on souls game like a holy grail albeit 6 or 7 years later. Joined your community, should have done long back but better late than never. 24 hours to go for dragons dogma 2. I'm confident you'll be there to guide me through. God bless

[@randiannahdi3995]

Thats so cool

[@prabhusiva619]

Thalaiva 😍

[@KarthikeyanNagappan]

Enna raja chennaiya ? Let's meet up some time

[@ronjohnson1870]

As a wayfarer can you choose the skills or is it set. For example.Is Ricochet shot an option to have or is rivet preset into that hybrid class?

[@FightinCowboy]

You can chose any skill except master skills.

[@NikTribe-qg9tg]

Hi mate, hope you’re good, looks like this could be the gap filler I’ve been searching for before ER?!, from your review you seem pretty stoked!

[@TSotP]

Lol, fucking hell. That Sorcerer pawn obliterated that Cyclops at 10:00 with that Bolide lol 🤣

[@ayro0638]

Bolide is epic AF for no reason 😂😂

[@randiannahdi3995]

I think he was already using endgame equipment. But its still pretty dope

[@TSotP]

I'm also loving the new animations and effects for Maelstrom. I can see a Maelstrom, dragon punching (Shoryuken-ing), helm-splitting Magick archer-ing Warfarer on the horizon (if possible)

[@FelisImpurrator]

​@@TSotPIt is. You can apparently equip all nine weapons at once with it, which is absolutely insane.

[@Gangstanoob1998]

We fans never thought we'd see the day, but we're so close now!

[@jaydub2546]

Tonight arisen 🎉

[@sub-jec-tiv]

Congratulations!

[@synstark6858]

Hey Cowboy! Quick question from someone who never played DD before. Usually I like to play melee + some form of attack from distance. For example in Dark souls I always go STR/FTH or DEX/INT. Is there a character that can do that here? Close combat with swords but also viable from distance if needed? Also can I for example put a Big Sword on a Fighter or Shield and Sword to a warrior or I cannot mix them like that? And lastly, I know the Wayfarer is jack of all trades and can do everything which sounds the best option, but can I access ALL the spells and ALL the weaopns from the other classes and the trade off being he gonna be weaker when using magic compared to Mage or when using malee weapons compared to Warrior etc?

[@FightinCowboy]

Mystic Spearhand is probably what you want. You can find it very early, I'll have a vid detailing the location up tomorrow.

[@synstark6858]

@@FightinCowboy But that would lock me to use Spears only right? Where Wayfarer I can equip GS, Bow and Magic but with some kind of a downside I guess..? Wayfarer video soon hahah? Thanks!

[@FightinCowboy]

Correct, but thats very late

[@alexm.9012]

1) Does anyone recommend going back and playing the first? 2) Classes for this remind me of Code Vein - kinda how equipping a code changes your stats and then you can have permanent once you work with one enough

[@JCTiggs1]

35% user score on Steam. 🤔

[@Kenzi1000]

PC performance is ROUGH. Really seems they shoulda let game cook for another quarter to optimize it..

[@Messi-rw9ng]

Performance is rough yeah but I'm having a blast. Just sucks having to avoid the larger cities until a patch.

[@OG_G4m3r]

​@@Kenzi1000not just on PC. 30fps dipping to low 20s on ps5. Enjoy being a mage 😵‍💫

[@Kenzi1000]

@@OG_G4m3r OOF 🤡

[@narwhalgamingvariety]

Its basically unplayable at some points. At least N64 games that ran at 20 fps were designed to be played there. Some spells chug you down to 15 and you just need to accept it

[@jayellgee]

Appreciate the review. I still remember standing in line for the midnight release of the first game. The only thing I’m slightly dreading is a trophy involving doing all side quests in a single playthrough, like the first. It basically requires a start to end guide for it.

[@spasticpanda8933]

How's the performance? I'm seeing a lot of videos covering it but is it really that bad? Did the latest nvidea driver help? Hopefully they patch it if it is

[@FightinCowboy]

DLSS makes it ok imo but it'll need some patches so I can get 144goodness.

[@spasticpanda8933]

@@FightinCowboy im running a 13700k and 4090 so hopefully that keeps me above 60 at least until the patches fix some stuff.

[@ArcaneDumpster-Fire]

70+ hours! Damn, this is gonna be lit!

[@briandowney6478]

Cowboy said he’s 70 hours in and starting New Game++ which means he has beat the game twice in 70hrs. I thought this game was gonna be much longer

[@thisisnttaken]

@@briandowney6478read the pinned comment

[@BodyRocker9]

@@briandowney6478Same, kinda disappointed

[@ylyl]

@@BodyRocker9 read the pinned comment

[@ArcaneDumpster-Fire]

@@briandowney6478 Whatever time amount he played is long when you're working at a job and have kids

[@hughjaenus2235]

I was excited until you mentioned the performance. If you had trouble with a RTX 4090, then how the hell am i gonna enjoy the game with 2060 laptop?

[@burns0100]

In 720p at 30fps 😂

[@hughjaenus2235]

@@burns0100 Yeah Maybe on a steam deck, but I'll just wait for the release patch and see how it performs on other specs. RE engine is one of the most optimized engines so I'm surprised, DMC5 looks amazing even in 2024 and runs 144fps caped for me

[@thebuddah1253]

Homies when amazing games don't run at 4000fps 7000000p on their shitty laptop 😢 Play games casual

[@stefisundays]

If you are not a fps elitist the game runs good and looks pretty on xbox S (way cheaper than a new pc)

[@christianraymond103]

I love the previous games combat, and this one looks awesome. The only thing I disliked was having to use the damage log mod for dark arisen. Is there an option to display damage numbers this time?

[@Aveziel]

Hey Cowboy, is the armor from the game cover in this game? Are there any templar looking helmets? Like the knights of the nine helmet from Oblivion? A crusader look?

[@FightinCowboy]

Yes

[@Aveziel]

@@FightinCowboy Sweet thanks, I hope there's a rain weather too.

[@doubletaptv5441]

Luke stephens ran this on this computer, ps5, lower end pcs and he answered the performance. He was seeing drops from 70 fps to the 20s in cities. A lot of pop in and loading of npcs in cities from 20 feet away, etc. Might get patched. He shows footage of it

[@1995assassinscreed]

No worries bro, the game is a masterpiece according to this title

[@tylertheune637]

First game was one of my favorite. Glad to see you writing this review cowboy. You let’s play of the original dark souls was what got me through that game ages ago. Your content has continuously improved over the years. Keep it up!

[@marlow21]

After winning that gym Tifa side quest from a lot of retries on Rebirth, i think im gonna set it aside for a moment and play this one first. I have been waiting for this for a long time.

[@ligmaballs4903]

Great review, honest and clear to the point and actually reviewed by someone who has played plenty of hours and not a person giving their verdict after a few hours You just gained a new subscriber

[@ShinichiMechazawa]

Thank you for using the warfarer combo I was planning on using and making it look fun. I'm too hype for tomorrow!!

[@enema_myanemones598]

Had it pre-ordered and was super excited to play today. This was supposed to be my goty. Just found out theres only 1 save file. So if i mess up a quest theres no way for me to make a new file and start again.

[@FightinCowboy]

Just delete your save

[@enema_myanemones598]

@@FightinCowboy haven't bought it yet to test but all the sites say you cant because its tied to Capcoms cloud

[@FightinCowboy]

@@enema_myanemones598 Yeah that's a lie. The moron who started spreading that didn't disable his own steam cloud save and then was like "OMG CAPCOM HAS MY CHARCTER IN THE CLOUD I CAN'T DELETE IT" literally user error turned into a fuss.

[@enema_myanemones598]

@@FightinCowboy thanks for the clarification, i didnt know that. I feel a little better now about picking it up

[@eddyhertens9026]

Welcome to real life!

[@sm7085]

Great review. When you mentioned around 60fps pc performance, what resolution were you playing in? Hoping my 3090 will be fine at 1440p!

[@FightinCowboy]

4k Max everything

[@mightyrabb8526]

Question. Can we still place portal Chrystals mostly anywhere just like the first DD?

[@FightinCowboy]

Yes

[@Todestelzer]

Maybe it will a masterpiece after they fix the performance. It can't play it and enjoy it. I would happily played a DD2 with DD1 graphics if the story is good. 5900x, rtx 3080, 1440p, fps all over the place 30-60fps with stutter.

[@CrazzyCODSkillz]

I’m in a 2060 and ryzen 5 3600 and 1080 doesn’t look that much different than 1440 in this game. Lower the quality and enjoy consistent game play lol or get a better pc

[@CrazzyCODSkillz]

50 frames will little drops btw

[@generalvodka5233]

download the dlss frame gen mod for the game. i have ryzen 5 3600 with a 2070. i have everything maxed including raytracing on 1440p and i get 70-80 fps in the open world and 50-60 in towns.

[@jesus8772]

It’s a great game but definitely not a masterpiece. Combat and pawn system is brilliant, but there’s a massive lack of enemy variety and limiting access to fast travel doesn’t make sense when some quest lines have you go back and forth to the same places

[@ganjabear1892]

So I’m playing through the first game, about level 23 as sorcerer. I just don’t feel powerful. Kinda wanna switch to melee? Any recommendations. Yes I like more simplistic, but heard warrior was bad in first game? Not a fan of archer/assasin

[@actualamateur149]

Sorcerer is really slow at the start, but once you get your vocation maxed out, and get better gear, it becomes stupid powerful and VERY fun to play. When it comes to Warrior, the only reason it would be considered "bad" is because it only has 3 skills at a time, instead of 6 like the others, and it's movement is noticeably slower than all other vocations. However, if you really want to check it out, I highly recommend looking up warrior builds on KZbin, there's channels like Nihil0.0 that are incredibly detailed with mechanics, and there's Infinite Cringe, who mains the Warrior, and she is absolutely insane with it. I recently replayed Dark Arisen as a pure Warrior after watching Infinite Cringe's videos and I had an absolute blast.

[@Str4ng3w00d]

I'm still using an i5-9600k and recently upgraded to a 3070ti. Very CPU bound atm, hopefully it'll run ok. I get around 45-60fps in Cyberpunk on raytracing low with a few tweaks to up the quality. It can't be worse than CP lol.

[@Evan-nl4gt]

Welp it is worse than cyberpunk 😂

[@Majorzigzag]

I am so excited can't wait to play it. Waiting for your tips and guide cowboy!

[@megning815]

What is exactly that "modern" ?

[@dank0x]

The most important question is, where can we find your official pawn in game. Is it a random location, or it has dedicated spot?

[@FightinCowboy]

In the rift

[@dank0x]

@@FightinCowboy Thanks a lot, looking forward to it.

[@dinahmed1719]

Looks fun, can't wait for the stream. Wondering if in the guides cover wether Healing Springs still exist and whether you can still farm Spring Water. Will those heal grey health though?

[@nightbane727]

So glad the hype is real and not over-inflated like alot of titles can be

[@nucklehead718]

Ahem Elden Wrong

[@talentrippin3535]

@@nucklehead718 What ? Elden Ring had hype and it turned out to be a generational game

[@armed_but_blind2768]

Elden Right!

[@SteelKreel]

@@nucklehead718git gud

[@talentrippin3535]

@@PenguinsAreColdish no it's not. It's good on pc

[@michaelmoellmann744]

Hey cowboy, I never played the first game, should I play that first? Is it worth playing? Or would you reccomend jumping straight into 2? Thanks!

[@luketexas]

Wait with the health bar you can’t heal with items like a herb like in dd1 you have to rest?

[@razorsharpx89x]

@10:00 damn that cyclop got destroyed by the mage

[@yharnamiyhill787]

The sorcerer with Meteoron is OP. It trivilizes the game, I had to remove it. 😅

[@tomkuzik4908]

The interactions with the environment in tandem with how MH games were makes the world in Dogma 2 so fuckin dope and alive!!! Fuckin amazin when games give you the freedoms to play in multiple ways 🙏😤🙌

[@cmilton32]

Great video as usual and I’m looking forward to your Let’s Play of this game for all the achievements on PS5… I also love the fact that your build is similar to what I have in mind for my play through… But I’m concerned about the performance on PS5 especially with the unlocked FPS… Besides that thanks for the review and I’m looking forward to putting this in my PS5 on Friday…

[@cb77153]

Any suggestions for class to start, height, and main pawn vocation? Loved my sorcerer in DD1 and mage pawn. Though started then with Strider.

[@FightinCowboy]

I went mage on 1 playthrough and I'll go warrior on my 2nd.

[@eliaselias4647]

For Warfarer that lets you choose every vocation like the one you have in the video, what's the catch? Do you recommend it?

[@FightinCowboy]

No ultimate abilties with Warfarer and they're super satisfying

[@josephc7272]

Dragon dogma 1 is a masterpiece played it when it first came out and it was driving me crazy how little it was talked about on KZbin but so glad to see the second one getting the attention it deserves.

[@brandonv9227]

It was definitely way ahead of its time

[@theobell2002]

Dragon's Dogma is one of my favorite games of all time but I wouldn't exactly call it a "masterpiece". It is very underdeveloped in a lot of ways.

[@dwainjoseph6259]

@@PenguinsAreColdishcertainly your opinion

[@monsieurmunroe]

I feel so spoiled because I played Dark Arisen for the first time last year and now I’m getting to play 2 & it looks amazing 😭❤️

[@Kumire_921]

@@theobell2002Story and quest design maybe? This sequel seems to be improving on that for the most part.

[@Erocks301]

I'm one minute in and so happy that the video started this way. There hasn't been a game you've covered and enjoyed yet that I have not enjoyed as well and I was really hoping this review from you wouldn't end up coming out like that...other game...you just covered recently. Thanks for your honest and thorough reviews of these games. And it has been good to see you, co-hosting? (if that's the correct way to word it) on the capcom joints!

[@jeffkimball3450]

Love when you enjoy a game Cowboy. I play a lot of the same stuff so I feel like generally I’ll dig whatever you give a good review, happy to hear this was a fun one for ya 🤘

[@brockkluver9785]

I really enjoyed your content from the first game. Looking forward to what you’ll come up with for this one. Thanks for what you’ve done for rpg’s in general. Cheers

[@degeneratecollector9950]

Why am I hearing mixed reviews ? Exactly the opposite of what ur saying .. and now people saying micro transactions ?

[@FightinCowboy]

Read the pinned, basically people are upset Capcom did the same pointless micros they do in all their games. It's a bunch of shit you find just playing the game but Gamers are bent out of shape over it. Performance concerns are legit however. If game runs on your system its peak, if not refund and wait for patching

[@FightinCowboy]

@chelseafan7329 fuck off jesus you neckbeards are everywhere

[@ThePorkchopExpress975]

who cares about microtransactions!!! just don’t fuvkin buy them. the game looks fun and amazing

[@ThePorkchopExpress975]

@@FightinCowboydon’t know what chelsea said but yeah!!! f off

[@commandernomad2817]

Shame we don't all have the same Behemoth of a PC that you do because literally everyone across al platforms are experiencing god-awful performance.

[@stevenwilliams5777]

Is there multiclassing or can you just go right in to playing what class you want to play and not have to worry about building up other classes passives to make the class you wanna play better?

[@FightinCowboy]

You still need to level classes to unlock their passives but you can freely swap between them now

[@stevenwilliams5777]

@@FightinCowboyyo thank you for the reply I am so ready LETSSSS GOOOOO!!!!!!

[@awilywolf]

Anybody know if we have the option for both inverted X and Y axes on console?

[@benstevens3591]

Currently replaying the 1st one. Words can't express how excited I am to dive into the 2nd

[@justthetip120]

Same. Currently a level 60 sorc. Wanna do a bbi run one last time before this is out. 2 days to grind.

[@Sljm8D]

"Masterworks all, can't go wrong"

[@rickybindahoose6193]

Apparently it runs like shit, so I'm gonna play the first one until they fix it and DD2 is in the bargain bin.

[@benstevens3591]

@rickybindahoose6193 yeah that's all I'm reading online, a damn shame. Hopefully some updates will even it out

[@Grey-po3lz]

Masterpiece? Really? Combat is good (with some questionable design choices), exploration is decent albeit hollow and the story/characters are awful... The only decent part of the story was the endings which they more or less copy-pasted from the first game... Combat and Graphics alone won't make this GOTY unless nothing releases...

[@chucksgore]

Started playing the first game because you mentioned it in the stream you had for the 2022 Game show awards. Will deffintly be buying this one to. Thanks for all you do CowBoy.

[@user-sv6qu9uc5p]

I got sidetracked from the original when I first picked it up and didn't complete it. I decided to revisit it after getting tired of Last Epoch crashing on me. I've really been enjoying the Everfall post-game content (not everyone does) and the BBI expansion content. I'm only just about to start NG+ before DD2 is released. There are still people playing the original 12 years after it came out, and it's easy to see why. I expect this to be very much the same, but I am wondering. Does it have similar post-game changes like in DD?

[@itwasyeager]

I do appreciate the in-depth review of the in-game content, but i feel like this review may be a little off. I also understand that while you may not have run into many (if any) crashes, there are loads of people that have. I'm glad that you can look past the performance issues but a lot of people cannot as 60fps should be an achievable feat to reach for any game released in the 21st century by this point. Maybe early review copies did not convey these points either, but given the fact that there is only one character you can make in the game coupled with the $40+ micro-transactions in a fully priced single-player game that is not mentioned in this reveiw is kind of egregious. Calling it GOTY is kind of high praise for a game that stands at Mostly Negative reviews on Steam at the time of writing this comment.

[@dmitryponomarev3052]

a "modern masterpiece" that is not optimized at all is a new standard of gaming

[@_Arakiel]

i would agree but lets not act like other games like ds1 didnt run like shit and are now masterpieces. this game is trash for the mobile microtransactions in a single player game

[@kangsate3459]

​@@_Arakielwe all know dd 1 is jank

[@BooBooDaFoo330]

@@_Arakiel ok cool bro

[@plusefrie4170]

yeah it's frustrating but as one of these other comments said, games like ds1 were broken asf on launch. I wouldn't buy it now because the launch is unforgivable but the game is gonna be worth playing once fixed

[@AC-hj9tv]

Absolute cringe

[@chrisc4843]

Do you think the NVDIA drivers will still be day 1 with DLSS 3 and Frame Gen?

[@Zielu666]

Is it capped at 30 fps or peformance mode boosts it to 60 ?

[@steffen89able]

Except for all the mtx’s apparently

[@crazysoundman]

@@micshazam842 its also dumb they are even in the game, stop buying games with this shit!

[@ThePorkchopExpress975]

don’t buy them then!!! capcoms gsmes always had all the extras.

[@44milosLP]

I don't get it why are people defending microtransactions with: "You can buy those things with in game money", "It's a Capcom game so it's a normal", "It doesn't matter, just ignore it." No, it does matter, you can't just wave it of and let them get away with this, it sounds like these people have a stockholm syndrom or something. It especially infuriating, when in pevious years we got games like Elden ring and Baldur's gate and even still some gamers defend the microtransactions.

[@kaindmd8827]

Maybe because those micros are a waste to buy and it means the first game is bad too?

[@guymontag5084]

Like no one is excepting you to give a game that is otherwise perfect a 5/10 just for having MTX, but it should be present in the review.

[@Kmaitland89]

No one cared with monster hunter world or resident evil. Suddenly it’s different. They aren’t going away. You aren’t fighting a war. You already lost. They don’t care about you or your pouting. You don’t have to like it, but they ARE going to get away with it. There’s literally nothing you can do, zero, you can do to change it. Even if everyone boycotted the game, they would just think no one liked dragons dogma 2.

[@Not3xactly]

"let them get away with it"....its their game they can do as they please rhe same way ylu can spend your money as you please. Its not like they are doing anything particularly nefarious like loot boxes.

[@maxpeterson3178]

Anyone know his CPU? The GPU only tells part of thr story as the citirs appear to he heavily CPU intensive

[@insepra7882]

Cowboy do you have any experience with the ps5 version of the game? I wanted to know how performance was.

[@etceterax144]

Alright, I was really hyped for this game, but saw something abput microtransactions completly ruining this game. What is the scale of the mtx and the character creation situation? Are they cosmetic, can they be obtained vy playing as well? Just need a clear straight answer since I can't find any real info.

[@Matt_19-89]

Most MTX are all acquirable in game, although in varying amounts of limited, the real issue here is performance, you need quite the pc if you intend to play this game at 60, forget anything above that, especially in cities.

[@CrazzyCODSkillz]

Micro transactions are dumb but there’s 0 need to purchase rift coins bc of how many you get in game, wake stones are purposefully rare bc they want the game to be hard and just don’t fuck up your character creation. A lot of games don’t let you customize character about making it anyway. Performance isn’t as bad as people say. They’re just trying to run the game at 60+ frames with high settings on 1440. I have a 2060 and ryzen 5 3600 playing in 1080 still looks great and my frames are 50 consistently

[@PaSa7887]

Much like RE4 Remake, Monster Hunter, and DMC5, the microtransactions are all completely unnecessary and don’t impact the game. Afaik, all of the DLC items are just items that you can obtain in the base game.

[@CrazzyCODSkillz]

people are gonna either complain or enjoy a great game and im the latter@@PaSa7887

[@etceterax144]

@@CrazzyCODSkillz wait, so you mean to tell me, you really are locked to the first character you create and if you want to change or start a nee, you have to pay 2€ and somehow ypu're justofying it by saying don't fuck up your character creation?

[@skydivin4ng3l]

It can only be a materpiece when it runs smoothly like a masterpiece on all platforms.

[@oliverwilliam6931]

Not with your gt 730

[@skydivin4ng3l]

@@oliverwilliam6931 if you sell on a closed system it has to run properly on those closed systems. End of story.

[@skydivin4ng3l]

@@oliverwilliam6931 not even with your RTX4090

[@cgnss]

Great review and just in time as I'm at the end of my Dark Souls 1-3 SL1 runs - great ! (using your walkthroughs, of course) 🙂

[@TheMaestro116]

Cowboy using the mystic spearhand and mentioning "spin to win" just gave me some Santier's spear dark souls 2 pvp flashbacks...

[@aknightofcamelot]

You didn't comment on the micro transactions

[@stephensmith7437]

Because they’re irrelevant

[@FightinCowboy]

Yes who could have possibly seen Capcom putting in pointless mtx like they have for the last 10 years on all of their other various games. This is such a shock and came out of nowhere. If only there was some way we could have known 🤔🤔🤔

[@aknightofcamelot]

@@FightinCowboy I've never bought a Capcom game, and neither have many other people. You have 1.3 million subs, and growing I presume, so there will be people from many backgrounds and ages listening to you. It's quite a big responsibility. I mean to suggest, in a helpful way, that this is an issue for some people based on moral grounds (not just misunderstanding what's being sold), and people are sick of the corporate greed from AAA game companies. If my feedback isn't helpful for you then I apologize, I mean no disrespect. Peace, bro.

[@FightinCowboy]

If your moral ground is you're never going to buy a game with mtx good luck. I'd much prefer a game where there's useless microtransactions that you can ignore over a plethora of skins or pay to win bullshit but you can't earn any game