Itsuno Hideaki doesn’t want you to call Dragon’s Dogma Cult hit. While talking to Capcom, the new RPG titan and legendary developer behind such classics as Power Stone, Rival Academy, and Devil May Cry, I suddenly paused when I used these terms to describe the 2012 original.
“I guess we don’t need to call it that anymore,” Itsuno suggested, tilting his head thoughtfully.
“It’s been a long time since the first game came out, and over the years I think it’s sold well and found its way into the hearts of many gamers. Hopefully now that we’re on the eve of the release of Dragon’s Dogma 2, we can finally say It’s a popular, best-selling series that many players enjoy, rather than viewing it as a cult following.”
To be fair, he’s right. The original “Dragon’s Dogma” has sold more than 7 million copies. Compared to some other role-playing adventure games originating from Japan, this number is similar to Persona 5’s touring success, surpassing several Final Fantasy games, and even several FromSoftware Souls games, while It was the last few games that really became explosive successes.dragon dogma is big.
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The waiting time was also very long. After a 2012 launch and an expanded follow-up in 2013, the series seemed poised to immediately continue and grow, especially since it developed a following of die-hard fans who fell in love with the system-driven, slightly esoteric, joyous reactions world. But then, apart from a Japan-only online spin-off (and a few ports) in which Itsuno had no involvement, the series fell into hibernation.
Itsuno seems to have some regrets about the gap – though he also accepts the pause between games and considers the benefits it brings to them as developers.
“I’ve been looking to make this game since the original came out,” Itsuno admits. But he had other things to do – assist Capcom on various projects and deliver Devil May Cry 5, which went on to become one of Capcom’s top 10 best-selling games of all time.
“I’ve always wanted to continue the series. But we made all other plans – and of course it wasn’t just about me, but about other resources and availability for the development team. Those stars had to align as well.
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“So finally about 5 years ago, around 2019, all of this stuff happened. It allowed me to finally get back in and get out of the Dragon’s Dogma mold. Which meant that when the game ended, it wasn’t going to be that long since the last game It’s been about 12 years. So this is a “kept you waiting, huh?” “That situation, but we did it in the end.”
Dragon’s Dogma 2 finds itself in a strange position right from the start. The world has changed a lot within the genre it belongs to. Dark Souls debuted just months before the first DD, proving that FromSoftware’s hardcore and intentionally obtuse RPG Demon’s Souls wasn’t a cult fluke – it was creating an entirely new genre. DD1 was inspired by Annihilation and Fallout 3 – but it was launched after Skyrim. Since then, we’ve had open-world Zelda and Final Fantasy, we’ve had The Witcher 3, and yes, we’ve got a couple of those ideas that came together beautifully in Elden Ring.
Still, Dragon’s Dogma 2 feels surprisingly fresh and untroubled by much that’s happened since. It’s not interested in chasing any recent trends. You don’t climb towers to fill up your damn map, and combat isn’t redesigned to have the intentionally overwhelming weight of Souls. This was mostly a response to one game, and one game only – the original Dragon’s Dogma.
“Thinking about the way the industry has evolved since DD1, I wish there were two me and two teams,” Itsuno said with a laugh. “We could have had one of me working on DMC and the other person continuing directly on Dragon’s Dogma. It would have been an opportunity to be part of what was happening in the gaming industry in the early 2010s.”
However, this gap allowed one crucial thing to happen: it allowed the hardware to catch up to Itsuno’s vision for the software. After the release of the original Dragon’s Dogma, Itsuno admitted that the final released game only achieved 60-70% of his original vision. Eventually, his team’s appetite for development grew larger than the belly of the machine running the game.
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“It’s now been two full generations since the original game was released on PS3 and Xbox 360, and I feel like it’s finally fulfilling my concept for Dragon’s Dogma,” mused Itsuno.
“The hardware is finally where I want to be. As you mentioned, I can actually make a to-do list of things I have to miss or remove and then start implementing them in the new game. So I really It’s nice to finally be able to make some of this happen.”
And this time? Well, Itsuno won’t reveal exactly how Dragon’s Dogma 2 ended up compared to his original design documents. Maybe a dogmatic nerd like me who keeps asking questions about clipped content from GDC presentation slides during interviews makes him more cautious about sharing. Who can blame him? But he comes across as a man who’s very happy with the games he’s made – if he’s honest about one of the never-ending realities of game development and art-making in general.
“Obviously, all game developers feel we can do more. Every media project or piece of art – there’s a saying that you have to ‘abandon them, not finish them,'” when asked about Dragon’s Dogma 2 》How to meet his highest expectations from the beginning of development, Itsuno admits.
“But I’ve basically done everything I can with this game. Of course, I want to do more – but it definitely doesn’t feel unfinished. I don’t want to give the impression that this is an incomplete game. . But I always feel that as an artist, as a creator, I can do more and go further in the future.
“This is the game I want to put out, and it’s being put out.”
Does this mean everything in the Dragon’s Dogma design documents has been included? Well, the answer is inevitably complicated. It’s obviously full of new ideas, as well as old ideas revisited, refined and tweaked to 11. Those original design documents held all sorts of possibilities – another world, a hidden kingdom, even an eventual battle on the moon. For example, when I asked about the moon, Itsuno laughed and shrugged.
“The word ‘moon’ might get a little involved, so I’ll leave it at that and I’ll ask everyone to discover the details,” he said with a laugh.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 will be released on March 22 and is scheduled to be released on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. You can read our preview here.