Dragon’s Dogma 2 Dev Addresses Fast-Travel Debate

Highlights

• Director Hideaki Itsuno explained why Dragon’s Dogma 2 has a limited fast travel system, which is designed to encourage players to naturally explore the open world and discover reactive encounters.
• The game introduces Oxcarts as a mode of transportation, adding an element of reactivity by allowing players to potentially be ambushed and lose their Oxcart while traveling.
• Dragon’s Dogma 2 is set to release on March 22, and it will be interesting to see how players respond to the sequel’s fast-travel system compared to modern open-world games.

Dragon’s Dogma 2‘s director, Hideaki Itsuno, has explained why the studio has once again chosen to forego a traditional open-world fast travel system for the sequel. A dozen years after the release of the original, which became a beloved cult classic fantasy RPG, Capcom is set to finally release its long awaited sequel, Dragon’s Dogma 2, in just a couple of months.

While Dragon’s Dogma has garnered a sizable amount of fans since its 2012 release, there has been some debate within its fandom over the game’s lack of a typical fast travel feature. Instead of being able to travel anywhere on the map at any time, players instead must hunt down specific items called Portcrystals and Ferrystones which can be found by exploring or purchased from vendors. In order to fast travel, players must have placed down Portcrystals at desireable areas of the open world, with a limit of ten crystals being placed at once, which can then be traveled to with single-use Ferrystone consumables. Thankfully, the Dark Arisen version of Dragon’s Dogma added Eternal Ferrystones which enable players to travel to their placed Portcrystals without limit.

Now, exaclty two months before Dragon’s Dogma 2 is set to launch, director Hideaki Itsuno has spoken with IGN to explain why both games feature such a seemingly obtuse fast travel system. Specifically with regard to the sequel, Itsuno goes into detail about how the team wants players to travel naturally through Dragon’s Dogma 2‘s open world in order to fully experience all the game’s reactive elements, and that giving players the option to warp anywhere at will disallows them from discovering such encounters. Itsuno also expressed that traveling naturally through an open world should be fun, and that the team has put a lot of effort into making sure this will be the case with Dragon’s Dogma 2.

Just give it a try. Travel is boring? That’s not true. It’s only an issue because your game is boring. All you have to do is make travel fun…We’ve put a lot of work into designing a game where you can stumble across someone and something will happen. – Hideaki Itsuno via IGN

Itsuno went on to describe another mode of transportation debuting in Dragon’s Dogma 2, called Oxcarts. These Oxcarts can only travel along set paths but are also vulnerable to being ambushed by goblins or other enemies. Itsuno detailed a dynamic scenario that could potentially unfold where the Oxcart could get destroyed by a Griffin as players are outside of it defending themselves against an ambush, leaving unfortunate players to travel on foot the rest of the way. It’s unknown if these Oxcarts will transport the player in real time or if using them involves some sort of loading or travel screen. Nevertheless, Oxcarts seem designed to forego reliable travel in favor of catering towards the element of reactivity Dragon’s Dogma 2 seems to be going for.

When Is Dragon’s Dogma 2 Coming Out?

Dragon’s Dogma fans don’t have much longer to wait, as the long awaited sequel is locked in for a March 22 release. It’ll be interesting to see how players new to Dragon’s Dogma will respond to the sequel’s limited fast-travel system, as unhindered fast travel has become the standard for a vast majority of modern open-world games.