Can gamers at least try to be consistent when trashing games for having MTX, it feels like such random games always catch heat for it when there's much bigger offenders even among Capcom's own library (Monster Hunter World & Rise lmao)

I can at least understand people being upset over optimization (even if in my experience I've had little to no issue in the 5 hours I've played so far), but obviously the issue differs from person to person.

Game is fun tho, I'm having a blast, this really is just an improved version of the original Dragon's Dogma and I'm all for it.

In one of its previews, Hideaki Itsuno was deliberately evasive when asked about why Dragon’s Dogma II’s title screen initially lacks the II, saying only “nothing in this game is unintentional.” You can draw whatever conclusion you like from that, but I think I’ve a different interpretation from most – it’s less a signal that this is a reimagining or a remake or whatever else in disguise than a display of confidence in how well he and his team understand what makes it tick.

As much as I’ll never wrap my head around how they got the first Dragon’s Dogma running on 7th gen hardware (albeit just about), I would’ve said it was impossible not to feel how much more II has going on under the hood in even the briefest, most hasty of encounters if it weren’t being so undersold in this respect. While my favourite addition is that enemies’ individual body parts can now be dragged or shoved to throw them off balance, tying into both this new world’s more angular design and how they can be stunned by banging their head off of its geometry, yours might be something else entirely with how many other new toys there are to play with. One particularly big one’s that you and your pawns can retain access to your standard movesets while clinging to larger enemies if you manage to mantle onto them from the appropriate angle, but you’ve gotta watch out for the newly implemented ragdoll physics while doing so, since the damage received from getting bucked off now varies wildly depending on your position at the time and the nearby environment as a result of them. Successive strikes create new avenues of offence akin to Nioh’s grapples, pressuring you to get as much damage in as you can before letting one loose and taking your target out of its disadvantage state, while also enabling you to keep them in a loop if you’re able to manipulate their stun values well enough. Layers of interaction just keep unravelling further as you play – controlling the arc you throw enemies or objects in, tackling smaller enemies by grabbing them mid-air, corpses or unconscious bodies of bosses now being tangible things you can stand on top of instead of ethereal loot pinatas… I would’ve taken any one of these in isolation. To have them all, plus more, every one being wholly complementary and faithful to the scrambly, dynamic, improvisational core of Dragon’s Dogma’s combat? It’s i n s a n e to me that someone can undergo even a confused few minutes of exposure to any of this and reduce it to “more of the first” or what have you.

Your means of approaching enemies or general scenarios which return from the first game’re further changed by II’s more specialised vocations. Having spent most of my time with Warrior in both titles, I love what’s been done with it in particular. They’ve taken the concept of timing certain skills and applied it to almost every move, anything from your standard swings to its final unlockable skill becoming faster and faster as you time successive inputs correctly – this is only the slow, basic version of the latter and I still feel bad for whatever I batter with it – with chargeable skills now also doubling as a parry for attacks they collide with, similar to DMC5’s clashing mechanic. It’s emblematic of the devs’ approach to vocations in general; Archer’s relatively lacking melee options and litany of flippy, full-on Legolas nonsense encourages keepaway where its four predecessors were all slightly differing flavours of “does everything”, Thief trades access to assault rifle-like bows and invites stubbiness for being able to navigate this world’s much rockier terrain like it’s a platformer, Fighter no longer has to waste skill slots to hit anything slightly above your head and has more versatile means of defence in exchange for melee combat being more punishing in general, etc. It’s to the extent that choosing between any two vocations feels like I’m switching genres, man. In a landscape where people are demonstrably content with having no means of interacting with big monsters other than smacking their ankles, how is even a pretty simple interaction like this not supposed to feel like a game from the future?

On simple interactions, much of this would be lessened if it weren’t for the loss gauge in tandem with the camping system and how these accentuate the sense of adventure which the first game built. The persistent thoughts of “how do I get there?” are retained, but only being able to fully recuperate your health via downtime with the lads and/or ladesses fills every step of the way toward the answer with that much more trepidation, bolstered further by the aforementioned verticality and on the more presentational side of things by how your pawns actually talk to each other now. It leads to some very memorable, emergent experiences which are personal purely to you – one I’m especially fond of involved resting after killing a drake, having my camp ambushed in the middle of the night by knackers who were too high up for me to exercise my k-word pass and having to trek all the way back to Bakbattahl with barely a third of my maximum health as my party continually chattered about how freaky the dark is. I take back the suggestion I made regarding potential changes to the healing system in my review of the first game, because even superfans (or, maybe, especially superfans) can, and do, think too small.

I realise in retrospect that even I, on some level, was wanting certain aspects of Dragon’s Dogma to be like other games instead of taking it on its own merits, something II’s seemingly suffered from all the more with how much gaming has grown since the original’s release, the average player’s tolerance for anything deviating from the norm and, presumably, frame of reference growing ever smaller. Look no further than broad reactions to dragonsplague and its effects (which I won’t spoil) being only the second or third most embarrassing instance of misinformed kneejerk hostility disguised as principled scepticism which enveloped this game’s release to the point you’d swear Todd Howard was attached to it – we want consequences that matter, but not like that! Even if you aren’t onboard with this being the coolest, ballsiest thing an RPG has bothered and will bother to do since before I was born, how can you not at least get a kick out of starting up your own homegrown Dragonsplague Removal Service? You thought you could escape the great spring cleaning, Thomyris, you silly billy? I’m oblivious like you wouldn’t believe, had her wearing an ornate sallet by the time she’d first contracted it and still noticed her glowing red eyes every time, so I’m at a loss as to how it could blindside anybody. It vaguely reminds me of modern reactions to various aspects of the original Fallout; a game which you can reasonably beat in the span of an afternoon, designed to be played with a single hand, somehow commonly seen as unintuitive because it just is, okay? Abandon all delusions of levelheadedness: if a Fallout game with a timer were to release now, the world’s collective sharting would result in something similar to that universe’s Great War or, indeed, Dragon’s Dogma II’s own post-game.

For as many hours as I’ve poured into the Everfall and Bitterblack across two copies of the original, they’re not what I think of when I think of Dragon’s Dogma (or particularly interesting, in the former’s case), which is adventuring in its open world. In that regard, I can’t be convinced that II’s post-game isn’t far more substantial, comparatively rife with monsters either unique or which you’re very unlikely to encounter prior to it, changes to the world’s layout beyond a hole in the ground of one city, its own mechanics (one actually a bit reminiscent of Fallout’s timer), questlines and even setpieces. It’s got a kaiju fight between a Ray Harryhausen love letter and a demonic worm thing which, as of the time of writing, roughly 2% of players have discovered, and instead of being praised for the sheer restraint it must’ve taken to keep something like that so out of the way, it’s chastised for it?

I’m not sure any other game’s ever made me realise how divorced what I want out of games seems to be from the wider populace. So much of this is 1:1 aligned with my tastes that the only thing that feels potentially missing’s the relative lack of electric guitars, but even then I’d be a liar if I told you that Misshapen Eye, the dullahan’s theme, the griffin’s new track, the post-game’s somber piano keys or the true ending’s credits song among others haven’t gotten stuck in my head at some stage anyway or didn’t perfectly complement the action through dynamically changing. It manages this despite clearly not caring about what you or I or anyone else thinks or wants from it. It’s developed a will and conviction all of its own. It’s Dragon’s Dogma, too.

Like A Dragon's pivot to turn-based RPG fighting finally pays off in the sequel, as the improvements to the combat and job system start to give the battles their own identity. Kiryu's unique job with its fighting styles and beat-em-up finisher is a particular highlight, and I look forward to see if those evolve in future entries. But the strength of the Ichiban games have always been the likeable and well-rounded cast of characters mixed with a compelling crime drama. While the story is ambitious, it can drag at times. Ultimately I don't think it manages to mix these elements or stick the landing as well as LAD7 or 0, though those are extremely high bars that make this criticism a minor one. Either way, the real payoff is in the plentiful character moments for Ichiban and Kiryu, and showing that the true heart of the series is a deep kindness and respect for humanity. It manages to be a great sendoff for Kiryu, truly the best thing that's ever happened to him is being forced to hang out with Ichiban's dumbass friends.

Possibly my least favorite game ever made. Maybe I'm biased because I played the original first which is my second favorite game of all time but nothing about Kiwami 2 works for me. The game uses revamped combat from 6, a combat system I already disliked, and throws it into a lame copy paste of random assets from other RGG games while labelling itself as the definitive Yakuza 2 experience. I guess I can give RGG credit for remaking all of Sotenbori for this game, but to be honest it was obviously just so they could paste it into a future Dragon Engine game with no worries.
The presentation is significantly worse, using the rather flat photorealistic Dragon Engine aesthetic as 6, losing all semblance of atmosphere from the original. Rain, a common weather motif that added to the Neo Noire vibe of the game, simply doesn't exist. Cutscenes are also presented in a worse fashion, with significantly weaker cutscene music to enhance this gloriously shitty remake. The two cutscenes with the added SiM music are already notorious enough but to cut it short- they're terrible. They don't fit the jazzy vibes of the original game and ruin one of my favorite moments in a video game ever.
The soundtrack is abhorrent, only reusing select tunes from the original while also having new music that is extremely forgettable. Not helping this is the fact that the remixes aren't very good either. Phenomenal tracks like Evil Itself and The Grudge arent present either which is super disappointing.
The cut shopping district is another example of Kiwami 2's rampant laziness, and instead just inserts a pointless Majima side story as a substitute. Shinseicho worked because it was a relatively small district that had everything tightly knit together which made discovering the clues very fun. That doesn't exist here.
There's no reason to play this when Yakuza 2 is one of RGG's best games ever. Nothing about this remake is superior to the original, in my opinion anyway. If you prefer this game that's fine but I'm simply tired of hearing that Kiwami 2 is better because it's less dated and blah blah bla-... Shut up!!! The Dragon Engine combat was far more dated than the original when it first came out. The fact that RGG is insistent on saying this is a superior product while refusing to make the original accessible outside of reprints of the PS2 game they did years ago is infuriating. Overall one of the most corporate games I've ever experienced, don't play this.

literally soul vs. soulless. every single bit of the original's presentation has been crushed into some sloppy paste. whatever it can't recycle from yakuza 6 is recycled from yakuza 0 and then recycled from the PS2 game, and everything else that's actually original is horrifically unpolished even by this series' standards.

if slapping PS2 animations on 2017 models, gutting set pieces, substituting Norihiko Hibino's score (MGS2 and 3 composer) for dull song loops, and awkwardly crowbarring in uninteresting side content into the main story is your idea of a good remake then you should probably be put out back and shot