Dragon’s Dogma 2 may have launched to critical acclaim, but the public reception isn’t going so well. On Steam, it was initially given a ‘mostly negative’ rating, although it has managed to reach ‘mixed’ since then.

UPDATE: Capcom has responded, and I’ve included that response further down the article.

The first issue is a familiar one: optimisation. Most of the performance issues seem to stem from incredibly high CPU loads which developer and publisher Capcom have commented on. According to them, its the NPCs to blame as they take a processor juice to run, which has resulted in players discussing the idea of curating a list of characters they can safely murder to reduce the load. It’s nice see people taking the initiative, even when that initiative is murder.

But the biggest problem is the introduction of unexpected microtransactions that were not know about before the game’s launch. 21 of them appeared when Dragon’s Dogma 2 launched, and according some reviews sites said they were made aware of their existence via review guides but they were not available to purchase at the time. Notably, despite being told of their existence, most reviews never mention them. It’s possible the information was put behind an NDA, though.

The microtransactions range in price from £0.79/$0.99 to £2.49/$2.99 and cover a variety of items and options. The one that has drawn the most criticism is Art of Metamorphosis which is used to modify your characters appearance. Contrary to what some people have said, it’s possible to do this in-game as well but not until later on. Until then, you can’t edit your character’s appearance, leading players leaving the character creation suite only to discover something horribly off with their creation and unable to alter it. You might think restarting the game would be the obvious answer, but weirdly Dragon’s Dogma 2 only lets players have one save with no way to delete it or restart the game.

Another item is a Portcrystal, one half of a pair of items that let you fast-travel around the world. By using a Ferrystone you can instantly jump to a Portcrystal you place on the map. Again, both are obtainable in-game, but are expensive.

Other items include a microtransaction that unlocks special camping gear which can be bought in-game. This camping kit is considerably lighter than the regular one, meaning you can carry more stuff. There are also resurrection crystals for sale, and a special gift that ” deepens the bond between giver and receiver.”

Shockingly, people aren’t too chuffed about 21 microtransactions appearing in a single-player, $70 game. Some people are willing to forgive the microtransactions since they are all obtainable in-game, while others are understandably pissed. Steam user JC puts it quite succulently: “Hey Capcom, You can purchase a “good review DLC” for $1.99.”

Another user wrote: “In regards to the micro-transactions: It is unfortunate that they exist, however, every item apart from the character edit item is extremely easy to obtain in game. By simply walking around with pawns you will receive wakestones. You can find port-crystals throughout the game, and they respawn in new game+, allowing you to place one at every location you could ever want to travel to.”

Plenty of bugs and glitches seem too exist as well, indicating that Capcom had a lot of work to do. However, underneath everything there does seem to be a great game.

UPDATE: Capcom has issued a statement covering a few things. Firstly, they are actively looking at updated the Steam version of Dragon’s Dogma 2 to allow users to restart the game. They are also working on performance updates etc. In regard to the microtransactions, they said absolutely nothing except to provide a list of which items can be obtained in-game.

“To all Dragon’s Dogma 2 players

We would like to update you on the status of the following items, about which we have received numerous comments from the community. To all those looking forward to this game, we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience.

■Crashes and bug fixes
We are investigating/fixing critical problems such as crashes and freezing.
We will be addressing crashes and bug fixes starting from those with the highest priority in patches in the near future.

■The option of starting a new game
We are looking at adding a feature to the Steam version of the game that will allow players that are already playing to restart the game. We will announce more details as soon as we can.

■Paid DLC
All the items listed below can be obtained in-game or as paid DLC items.
Art of Metamorphosis – Character Editor
Ambivalent Rift Incense – Change Pawn Inclinations
Portcrystal – Warp Location Marker
Wakestone – Restore the dead to life!
500 Rift Crystals / 1500 Rift Crystals / 2500 Rift Crystals – Points to Spend Beyond the Rift
Makeshift Gaol Key – Escape from gaol!
Harpysnare Smoke Beacons – Harpy Lure Item

■Regarding Frame Rate
A large amount of CPU usage is allocated to each character and calculating the impact of their physical presence in various areas. In certain situations where numerous characters appear simultaneously, the CPU usage can be very high and may affect the frame rate. We are aware that in such situations, settings that reduce GPU load may currently have a limited effect; however, we are looking into ways to improve performance in the future.

The Dragon’s Dogma 2 Team”