Trivia / Dragon's Dogma II

• Author's Saving Throw: Dragon's Dogma II quickly received early post-launch backlash mostly due to a combination of criticisms such as performance issues, rampant crashes, inability to start over with a new playthrough, and extensive list of DLC microtransactions (though it was quickly discovered that such purchases can be made with in-game currency as well). Capcom then immediately made an official response (as The Dragon's Dogma 2 Team) to clarify the issues and/or address these concerns. Specifically, they confirmed that they are looking forward to add a feature in the Steam version that gives players the option to start a new game after they've already been playing with an existing save.
• Content Leak: The game's entire existence was leaked in November 2020 as part of the Capcom data leaks.
• Dueling Works: Dragon's Dogma II released the same day as Koei Tecmo's Rise of the Rōnin. Both are Wide-Open Sandbox Action RPG games with an emphasis on character creation. Dragon's Dogma II is multiplatform and is a Dark Fantasy adventure. Rise of the Ronin is a PlayStation 5 exclusive and is set in Feudal Japan.
• Milestone Celebration: The game was officially announced for the first time during the 10th Anniversary celebration video of the Dragon's Dogma franchise.
• Refitted for Sequel:
  • The first game's concept document shows the developers considered the idea of playable beastfolk from the start, but were not able to add them back then. Dragon's Dogma II brings the concept to life by adding the Beastren, who look a lot like the original concept and who can be both Arisen or Pawns.
  • Elves were also present in the same document that showed the beastfolk. While the first game had pointy ears as a customization option, there was no indication that Elves existed as a species in the world. Dragon's Dogma II would introduce them as their own race proper.
  • Among the ideas for the original game were Kaiju-sized beasts who would tower over the land. The sequel would introduce something close to this in the form of Talos.
• Sequel Gap: The game's existence was unveiled on the 10th anniversary of the first game's original launch, and was released on March 22, 2024. Even counting spin-offs, it's 9 years since the release of the last game, Dragon's Dogma Online, which had been permanently shut down by that point.
• Serendipity Writes the Plot: The reason why all the meat cooking scenes are in live action as opposed to CGI is to save on development costs. It also helped that there are some camping enthusiasts among the development team.
  Hideaki Itsuno: We could have used CG to depict the meat, but we decided to spend the money on buying good meat instead. That's how it came to its current form. Each type of meat obtained in the game has different visuals when grilled.
• The Other Darrin: The Dragon is voiced by Grahame Fox, replacing David Lodge who voiced the Dragon in the first game and later reprised the same role in the anime. This is likely due to the recording taking place in the UK instead of North America for II.
• Word of God: Hideaki Itsuno has said on multiple interviews that the first game was incomplete, with myriad ideas he had been floating for years having been impossible to implement into the first game (like the Beastren, which were actually shown in concept art for the first game), and as much as 60% of intended content left on the editing room floor. The sequel is, for all intents and purposes, what Dragon's Dogma was always intended to be, with all the ideas he had been wanting to implement finally being fulfilled, as well as polishing and modernizing already existing concepts.