Dragon's Dogma 2 DLC - Why It Must Happen and What It Needs

Apr. 21, 2024

Dragon’s Dogma 2 DLC – Why It Must Happen and What It Needs

In this Dragon’s Dogma 2 article, we’ll be talking about the possibilities of a Dragon’s Dogma 2 expansion. Nothing has been confirmed yet, but there have been leaks suggesting there might be one in development. We don’t know for sure, but I think it’s safe to say that there was probably at some point a plan for a DLC to be created. The game seems to be very similar to the first game. Dragon’s Dogma had Bitterblack Isle, which people really loved. It had new enemies, new content, and it was a dungeon crawl type of expansion. We’ll be getting into that and all the information here.

Before the launch of this game playing in Early Access, before the reviews went up, I was pretty convinced that Dragon’s Dogma 2 was going to have a DLC. It’s very similar to the first game, and Capcom is pretty predictable in their development cycle. It’s not hard to really figure out what they’re going to do with their games, compared to other developers. I think expecting a DLC for this game wouldn’t be crazy, with how successful Bitterblack Isle was for the first Dragon’s Dogma.

However, with Dragon’s Dogma 2 encountering problems during launch; the outrage of microtransactions, performance issues, save issues, I don’t know if Capcom is still planning on doing this. If the DLC was already in development, I think it would be weird for them to cancel it. If they haven’t started it, however, they might be second guessing whether they’re going to do it at this point. All that backlash hurt their sales significantly, even though the game has outperformed the first game in terms of sales. We don’t know how much better it could have been if the issues weren’t present in the game.

Now, Capcom has a survey that’s available until the 21st. If you haven’t answered it yet, especially if you want this game to have a DLC, I suggest you fill out that survey. If this is something you’re interested in, you can give them feedback, either positive or negative, about the game.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is still, by far, my favorite game I’ve played this year. I think it would be disingenuous to say that it’s not sort of disappointing. This could have been a game that was one of the all-time greatest. Instead, it’s probably not even going to win Game of the Year. There are a lot of reasons for this. The enemy variety of the game was basically the same as the first game, in some cases even less enemies. The weapon and armor variety was maybe even less than or the same with the first game. Even though the map was larger than the first game, there was no Everfall or Ur-Dragon, things that were really special to the first game.

With these things not in the game, they didn’t really innovate on some of the mechanics in the game. A lot of the clunkiness and other issues from the first Dragon’s Dogma are still present in this game. I think a lot of people, even though they love the game, are still kind of disappointed in what they got in the base game, myself included. It could have been much better.

Capcom has a real opportunity, if they do create a DLC, to rectify some of the issues. They shouldn’t only create new content, but also clean up some of the things that are currently in the game. In my opinion, the best expansions aren’t just adding things to the game for people to play. They also should improve on the base game, like a Game of the Year edition. So that when players come through to play the game again, their playthrough would be better than the first one. New players would also be benefitting from it, as they’ll have a better experience with the improvements.

The first on the list of things that they should be improving on is the enemy variety. This is probably the biggest complaint outside of the performance, microtransactions, and the single save slot. If Capcom really wants to make a successful DLC, they have to do a few things right. They’re going to have to add a significant amount of enemy types, as they really need to add more in the base game. They also have to add unique enemies to a new DLC area, whether it’s similar to Bitterblack Isle or a new zone. In order to make things fresh, they have to add enemies to the base game, while having distinguishable enemies in the DLC area so that you’re not playing the same enemies throughout the game.

There have been a lot of internal debates over here at Fextralife about which type of DLC would be good for Dragon’s Dogma 2. If we had to choose between a new zone, or a dungeon crawl like Bitterblack Isle, what would we choose? If we couldn’t have both of these things, we would be leaning more towards the Bitterblack Isle type of expansion. Bitterblack Isle was a fantastic addition, a very well-loved expansion by people that played Dragon’s Dogma, myself included, and I really loved that experience. If they added something like that, along with new enemy types into the base game, I would be satisfied with the expansion. However, if they just added a new zone with similar content to the base game.

The next issue we’re talking about are the weapons and armor. In the first Dragon’s Dogma, the expansion added more weapons and armor. If a DLC was to be released for Dragon’s Dogma 2, I think it’s safe to say that there will be a lot more weapons and armor, hopefully a significant amount. I don’t want them to just add more weapons and armor, I want them to add more weapons with unique effects. Some of the weapons in Dragon’s Dogma 2 have special effects based on the flavor text. As for armor, as far as I know, none of them has any sort of special effects. This is one of the things I love about Elden Ring and the Souls games, as the flavor text of armor would contain special effects that the armor would have. I think, even if they add it to armor that already exists retroactively, it would be a huge improvement to the game. It would add depth to the base game for people that haven’t played it, or are playing through NG+.

Even adding more depth to the weapons and armor of Dragon’s Dogma 2, I would love to see the upgrade system expanded. I really like what they have for a foundation, and it’s certainly good enough, but I think it could be improved more by allowing players to specialize their equipment even more. Whether there’s another tier of upgrades that allow you to go in different directions, adding special effects, or even having rune slots for weapons and armor that can change the properties of a skill. Something to give more depth to the weapons and armor system.

Right now, as far as armor goes, you’re just picking armor that has the best physical/magic armor, and knockdown resistance. You don’t really need to read the flavor text or anything like that. For weapons, you’re just going for the highest DPS with the highest knockdown power. With an expansion or an overhaul, they can do all kinds of clever things with weapons and armor. This topic ties into my next point, which is new skills and vocations.

The game should probably have new skills added for each vocation, or even add new vocations. One of the things that kind of get tiresome in the game or can make it feel repetitive when you’re fighting the same enemies, is that you have the same skill rotation. Generally, if you’re playing as amagefor instance, you have three slots allotted for support spells, and one forHigh Levin. You’re not going to buff your party every time you fight trash mobs, so you’re going into fights with mostly repetitive skill rotations.

If Capcom adds depth to the items, as what I stated previously, there will be variety. If they added equipment that made it so you had a chance to cast another spell when you cast High Levin, or a chance to re-cast an offensive spell when you cast a buff. There are ways they can incorporate equipment into making skills more effective or different, so that it doesn’t feel like you’re always using the same attacks over and over again, particularly when playing as a mage orsorcerer. They have to come up with a way to make that feel fresh, and that’s either through new skills, vocations, or equipment that synergizes with skills. Maybe even having access to two vocations at the same time, something to that extent.

This would give more content for all players to play with, give them more freedom to choose how to play the game as they want it. This would give a refreshing take on the game, having new content from improving the existing ones. This is kind of like a Game of the Year edition that not only adds content to the endgame, but also for the campaign.

This adds something not only for the new players, but also for players that have played through the game. If you’re talking about the new zone, or a dungeon crawl, you’re going to want to set the difficulty of this on-par for a character that’s made it through the game. Dragon’s Dogma 2 itself isn’t very challenging, and that’s fine. Not every game has to be challenging, but I do think there should be some optional content that’s very challenging for people who want more of a challenge. They could even create content that’s aimed for people that are high leveled so it’s not very easy.

Bitterblack Isle wasn’t easy in my opinion, compared to the base game of Dragon’s Dogma. I think it would be great if they had something that was a bit more upscaled or challenging, for those out there who want to keep playing the game. I think that most people buying the expansion are the ones who have played through the game once, and they’re going to want something that’s going to be challenging, not something they can faceroll through.

With the things that happened during the launch of Dragon’s Dogma 2, do you think there’s a chance that a DLC could be released? Are you going to fill out the survey and give feedback on the game to Capcom? Let me know in the comments what you want to be made or improved on in a Dragon’s Dogma 2 DLC.

Castielle

Senior Editor at Fextralife. I enjoy gaming, playing and watching sports, cooking yummy food, watching a good movie and hanging out with Fex.