Capcom’s Dragon’s Dogma 2 is going through a renaissance right now with major work being done on the game ahead of its Dark Arisen expansion. While the game has seen universally praised work in the form of performance overhauls, some of its changes have had a more mixed reception across the world.
As Capcom continues to expand on Dragon’s Dogma 2, some mechanics have been tweaked. For example, its fast travel system has been made easier with the arrival of the Eternal Ferrystone, which players in the East have acclaimed, but players in the West have met with ire.
In a discussion with Automaton, director Kento Kinoshita and producer Naoto Oyama explained that balancing the wants of both sides of the game’s global playerbase can be one of the hardest parts of development. While older games would make games easier in the West compared to the East, now Western players want more unforgiving experiences compared to Eastern players.
“There is a significant gap in how Dragon’s Dogma 2 is perceived by players in Japan and Asia compared with those in the West,” Oyama revealed. “Players in the West tend to place greater importance on a harsh, realistic sense of adventure. They refer to systems that impose challenges on the player as ‘friction,’ and generally view them positively. They appreciate the game creating difficult situations where, for instance, it’s not possible to fast travel.”
On the other hand, Oyama explained that Japanese and other Asian players see these elements as “frustration caused by the game, so we received many requests for a more comfortable, convenient, and accessible experience”. While there are obvious outliers in both groups, that’s the trend their data is showing.
Kinoshita explains that Western players see challenge as core to the experience of Dragon’s Dogma, adding that “experiencing friction in the adventure was important for them”. While this does make specific balancing hard, the team has learned that giving players options is simply more important, which also makes it easier to please everyone.
“Rather than choosing one side or the other, though, we’ve always operated on the belief that we should give players options. This time too, we were able to stick by this philosophy and give players the choice to play without using the item,” Kinoshita said.
“To respond to both sides, our approach has been to add new options without breaking existing mechanics. In the end, we received positive feedback from both sides globally, so I think that was a good outcome,” added Oyama.
Oyama notes that the goal the team has with Dragon’s Dogma 2 “doesn’t change very much” due to the vast difference of option, as long as they can keep finding ways to add options for players. “One example we often use within the team is mountain climbing. Some people might take a ropeway partway up and then make their way to the summit, while others might slowly walk all the way from the foot of the mountain. Everyone has their own way of climbing, but the feeling of reaching the summit is something that everyone can enjoy in the same way. That’s how we think about it, at least,” he said.
While fans have asked for the Eternal Ferrystone, for example, to be removed, the team simply adds that players can choose to not use it. There is no mechanic that forces players to fast travel across the world, and the devs encourage players to move around at their own pace, although some players have just modded the item out anyway.
Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen launches on October 9, 2026 on Xbox Series, PlayStation 5, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2.
