Dragon’s Dogma 2: A New Era of NPC Interactions

Dragon’s Dogma 2, the highly anticipated sequel to the 2012 action RPG, is set to release on March 22, 2024. With its innovative gameplay mechanics and captivating storyline, the game has generated a significant amount of buzz among fans and newcomers alike. One of the most intriguing features of Dragon’s Dogma 2 is the enhanced NPC (Non-Player Character) interaction system. In this article, we will delve into the details of this new system and explore how it sets Dragon’s Dogma 2 apart from its predecessor.

The original Dragon’s Dogma introduced the “pawn” system, which allowed players to customize an NPC assistant that would follow them around the world, fight alongside them, and assist with quests. Players could also borrow two additional pawns from other players online, each with their unique skills, personalities, and knowledge of quests. These pawns would wander the world, waiting to be recruited by players. While the system was unique, it sometimes felt robotic and lacked the depth and complexity that true NPC interactions could offer.

In Dragon’s Dogma 2, the pawn system has been refined and expanded upon. Creator Hideaki Itsuno aimed to create “properly detailed NPCs” and ended up with a “ridiculous number of people” in the game world. Itsuno wanted to build systems where characters behaved as if they had goals and were making decisions in the world, regardless of what the player was doing. One notable improvement is that NPCs can now have affinity for the player and other NPCs.

“For example, if you find a pair of friends, hitting one will cause the other to get mad at you too. Or if you do something nice for a child, the parent might thank you and like you more as well. That’s what I mean by relationships between NPCs,” Itsuno explains.

However, the relationships between NPCs and players may also be more dynamic. Itsuno notes that while the team is still finalizing this feature, it may be possible for NPCs to get into fights over the player if they perceive another NPC as a threat.

“A character who grows close to you might come over to your house to play, but if they meet another character there who’s done the same thing, a fight might break out,” he explains. “Personally, we just made the system because we wanted to be able to say, ‘Stop, don’t fight over me!’ It might be best if your readers play through the game while trying to avoid that kind of outcome.”

Alongside the improved NPC interactions, Dragon’s Dogma 2 also boasts significant advancements in character creation and customization. Itsuno reveals that the game’s character creator has been improved to allow for extremely detailed and customizable characters, thanks to improved hardware performance since the first game.

“It’s something I was thinking even when we made the first game,” Itsuno says. “I thought that there aren’t any action RPGs that allow for proper character creation, so my initial goal was to make one that could at least allow you to create the kind of character you wanted to see. While the first game’s character creator is actually limited in a lot of different ways, and I know this might get cut, but we did go so far as to allow for profiles with extreme settings, to the point where you could make something like a character from the popular series Kaiji. Doing that ruins the character though, and so we didn’t make that available to users, but there was enough freedom in the settings to basically allow you to recreate manga characters as-is.”

To create a character that looks good without requiring artistic skills, Dragon’s Dogma 2 employs photogrammetry technology, which allows for the scanning of real objects in 3D and the creation of in-game graphics that look real. The team wanted to make use of this technology, allowing for heavy customization while also catering to those who are less artistically inclined.

“The first idea we had was to scan nearly a hundred human faces, then use those as a base for creating characters. This real-life data acting as our base meant that it would be easy to create realistic faces so long as you don’t apply absolutely ridiculous values to them. The other thing we did was to make it easy to create the base face that you would directly edit. By picking the face that seems the most acceptable among the ones that come up, you’re then given other possibilities based around that face. By repeating this process of picking the best out of a group, you’re able to get pretty close to the kind of face that you like. From there, you can make the final adjustments yourself, which gave us a system where you can do whatever you want while not requiring everyone to be an artist.”

With its enhanced NPC interactions, improved character creation and customization, and captivating storyline, Dragon’s Dogma 2 is poised to offer an immersive and engaging experience for players. The game is set to release on March 22, 2024, for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.

In conclusion, Dragon’s Dogma 2’s NPC interaction system is a significant improvement over the original game. The system allows for more complex relationships between NPCs and players, making the game world feel more alive and dynamic. Additionally, the game’s character creation and customization have been advanced, allowing for more detailed and personalized characters. These features, along with the game’s captivating storyline, make Dragon’s Dogma 2 an exciting prospect for fans and newcomers alike.