One of the most interesting features in Dragon’s Dogma has always been its Vocations. These are effectively classes players can change at any given time upon heading to the Vocation Guild, where they can choose between melee, ranged, and magick classes. Naturally with Dragon’s Dogma 2, Capcom expanded on this system with the addition of the Mystic Spearhand, an entirely new vocation that makes use of a spear. Having had the opportunity to give this role a spin, it is no doubt an interesting, if not unusual, addition to the game.
The Mystic Spearhand is more or less a “support” class that can provide beneficial effects for your party of Pawns. Pawns are AI controlled companion characters, with the player allowed to create their very own, recruit ones made by other players online, and pick up pre-created Pawns that roam the world. You can also change the appearance of your personal Pawn with the right item, so it was nice to learn that I wouldn’t be locked into whatever I created during my initial foray with the character creator. (The same goes with the player character!)
I had roughly an hour and a half to spend with the Mystic Spearhand Vocation in Dragon’s Dogma 2, which gave me a taste of some of its skills. Outside of having a few gap closers, the role has an attack similar to a Dragoon Jump from the Final Fantasy series. But because Dragon’s Dogma is a true action game, this makes combat feel more dynamic in comparison. This is a huge boon when fighting airborne enemies like griffons and the random dragons you will encounter while exploring the world map. I say this, because I absolutely did encounter a dragon while mistakenly wandering around at night.
While attempting to find the den of some wolves that dragged off a local boy into the wilderness, I was fighting a group of kobolds. It was then that I heard a booming voice speaking in some strange language break through the sound of combat. In an instant, a dragon was upon me. It was a lesser dragon by the look of it, but it was still a formidable opponent. Even as I used the Mystic Spearhand’s abilities to shield both myself and my Pawns from waves of dragon fire, I felt the pressure. Using that aforementioned jump ability gave me the opportunity to mount the dragon, all without expending too much stamina. A well-timed jump landed me on the head of the dragon, where I could whittle away at its health while a Pawn took to driving its axe into its heart. You’d think that we’d have taken it down, but no matter how much I tried to chip away at the dragon’s health, nothing happened. So I ended up absconding into the night to resume looking for the wolves as dawn broke.
I found the Mystic Spearhand’s strengths to be in providing support to your Pawns, which puts the Vocation in a strange position in Dragon’s Dogma 2. It feels like it was balanced for playing with actual players and not with Pawns, despite how much better their AI has gotten. I wonder how it will play out in later levels, what players will make of the class, and if they will rely on their Pawns for damage and assume the role of a hybrid DPS/support character. Overall, it was an interesting experience, as I would be sometimes dictating the flow of combat when we’d engage with the various enemies I encountered. These included kobolds, wolves, spirits and skeletons that appeared at night, and a large giant that lumbered down a hillside as I was exploring for crafting reagents.
While testing what the Mystic Spearhand could do, I was able to immerse myself in the world of Dragon’s Dogma 2 for a second time, and I was impressed with just how organic it felt. While playing, I took a break to jot down some of my thoughts in a notebook. Suddenly, I heard an NPC address my character. They told me that they were looking for a specific object and, if I found it to give it back to them. This all happened while I had just been standing in town. Upon leaving the village to look for it, another NPC approached me, telling me that they were looking for the same object and I should give it to them instead. It felt extremely organic in the way that I obtained the quest. I was impressed, as it feels like Dragon’s Dogma 2 will have plenty of secrets the players can discover. Certain quests are also timed, which means that you will want to clear some of those objectives as soon as you get them. There is a bit of leeway, but whether or not you complete quests in a timely fashion will have some consequences, which is cool.
Additionally, Dragon’s Dogma 2 seems rich in texture when it comes to its worldbuilding. I explored two locales, one of which was a city ruled by the Beastrans. The city was decently sized in terms of scale, not overwhelming, but had a lot of really neat places to check out. This included a marketplace where I could change my Vocation, purchase equipment, and rest. I was also introduced to an NPC that intervened when I was singled out by the Beastrans for being an unwelcome outsider. There seemed to be a healthy variety of NPCs too, all ranging in their appearances as denoted by the announcement trailer of the game. It also was cool to see a dark-skinned Black man and interact with him as a key character, when Final Fantasy XVI‘s scenario was utterly bereft of any people of color despite the game quite literally taking you to a desert region inspired by the Middle East and Africa. Whether or not this will be of any significance in Dragon’s Dogma 2 has yet to be seen, but regardless, it was nice to see.
Overall, my experience with Dragon’s Dogma 2 has been pretty positive thus far. The map is sprawling and the world feels very much alive, with enemies roaming the outskirts of villagers and the few quests I did get to undertake were fun and felt significant even in a much smaller scale. The new Vocation is an interesting addition, even if I may not play it when I get my hands on the full release of the game. Dragon’s Dogma 2 seems to be a larger version of what the first game was, and that isn’t bad at all.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 is set to launch on March 22, 2024, for the PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X.
