For the past few weeks I’ve heard one thing: move over Baldur’s Gate 3, there’s a new RPG in town ready to take the reins of the community’s heart for a while. Dragon’s Dogma 2 (DD2) ads infiltrated both my YouTube recommendations and Playstation 5 home screen like an infection. A large group of fans seemed pretty excited for this continuation and I halfway expected another blockbuster single-player release on the horizon. Another masterpiece like Baldur’s? I was too ignorant to know for sure as I’m unfamiliar with this RPG from Capcom. Unfortunately, even as a non-player I immediately became aware of the massive controversy surrounding this title. Boys, I’m afraid we have some issues on our hands.

Let’s get the basic stuff out of the way. PC players have been reporting a variety of performance and game issues. Sadly that’s nothing new these days and out of all platforms, PC is the most prone to such problems. Frequent crashes and performance issues are annoying as hell and ruin the experience, but it’s not enough to drive widespread outrage most of the time. What’s far more unforgivable in the eyes of most and the driving force behind the game’s Mostly Negative review of 39% recommended is the surprise release of a ton of microtransactions for the game by Capcom. These items range from in-game currency, items that aid with fast travel, items to change your character’s appearance after the initial character creation, items to revive a character, and similar functions. Essentially a ton of shit that should be part of finding valuable loot in the game naturally. And a good portion of it certainly can be, but after the game’s promise of sacrificing some convenience in order to force the player to immerse themselves and make decisions around less convenience by design (limited fast travel was a big talking point), this feels like a slap in the face by the executives. Now it comes across as “oh what we meant was, we sacrificed convenience in order to force the player to choose between dealing with the extra monotony or giving us extra money to obtain these features and items in a much easier fashion”. As you can imagine in an age where microtransactions are already frowned upon, offering these purchases on TOP of a $70 game price has pushed this controversy into the spotlight.

"Perhaps you would be more interested in my wares paying with... an otherworldy currency."

I’ll come back and update this if I see any official response from Capcom that addresses the transactions and performance issues. Honestly though based on how the Street Fighter 6 collabs and transactions were such a letdown, I wouldn’t let my hopes rise if I were a DD2 fan. Were you excited for this release? Have you heard about the pushback on the surprise transactions? Will this decision work out for Capcom in the end or damage their reputation? Make a character, become a mage, and pay $1.99 to edit their beard in the comments below!