Dragon’s Dogma 2 lies just around the corner, like a dragon hiding in a mound of gold. While many are already counting down the days, others are still wondering if they’re going to like the long-awaited sequel—especially Baldur’s Gate 3 fans looking for their next fantasy game.
There are plenty more similarities between these two games than you might think, though not everything is going to be exactly the same either.
How Dragon’s Dogma 2 is like Baldur’s Gate 3
Dragon’s Dogma 2 has quite a bit in common with 2023 Game of the Year winner Baldur’s Gate 3, and not just superficially. If you’re keeping a close eye on environments in BG3, you’re going to see a lot to love in Dragon’s Dogma 2.
High fantasy settings
The first and perhaps most obvious connection between these two games is their worlds. Both BG3 and DD2 take place in some of the highest fantasy realms you can muster. Magic is everywhere, there are fantastical races like ogres and dragons, and most problems are solved by cutting the nearest fantastical thing in twain.
Despite the fantasy elements, both worlds are a bit darker—that M rating doesn’t earn itself. BG3 made its world intriguing through political drama, underground societies, and sexual relationships. As long as we can trust a rating system and the trailers, DD2 promises to undergo the same developments, especially on the political end; many early looks at the title have hinted at a potential conflict between the kingdoms of humans and beastren.
DD2 has a huge cast of characters, ranging from the leader archer of a small village to a disgraced royal guard captain looking to make a change in the world. We haven’t gotten much info about DD2‘s romance subplots—at least, compared to BG3‘s advertisement campaigns, featuring that bear—but Dragon’s Dogma did have a relationship system that progressed through the game. And, according to IGN, the new NPC system is quite advanced, with even minor non-player characters having relationships with one another. This bodes well for how players will be able to interact with the populaces of Vermund and Battahl.
Exploration
A big thing about these fantasy RPGs is how full of life their worlds are. BG3 is one of those games that is so full of content that it becomes a bit staggering—we’re constantly missing content, from quests in Act One to the stat upgrades hidden throughout the Forgotten Realms. Through the brief gameplay glimpses we’ve gotten, Dragon’s Dogma 2 is already shaping up to be a similar type of campaign. The world promises to be large and filled with random encounters to headbutt. Exclamation marks dot the map, waiting to be taken on. There will be more random fights to be had out in the wild than the static encounters that the CRPG boasts, but that seems to be the largest difference in terms of wandering the map.
If it’s anything like the original Dragon’s Dogma—and the limited gameplay we’ve seen suggests it will be—quests drive most of your progress, much like BG3. Dragon’s Dogma featured main story quests that guided the Arisen through multiple trials, alongside sidequests for farming gear, learning about characters, or just having a quick laugh. If that’s the case, this is the same way many players progressed BG3, scanning the map for every single nook and cranny that could lead to a sidequest before tackling the next objective.
Class-based character creation
Perhaps one of the most standout parts of BG3 is how impactful the classes are; when you pick a Barbarian, you have a basic idea of what the character can do and where they can evolve. If you’re worried about DD2 being more open-ended on that front, don’t sweat it; DD2 features several vocations which lock weapon types and guide you towards playstyles. For instance, if you like the high-damage, single-hit playstyle of the Rogue in BG3, you might like the Thief in DD2, which focuses on aggressive offense that then leads to a single, devastating blow to every monster you come across.
Most classes are aggressive in DD2, which might be a bummer if you prefer laid-back or support-oriented archetypes in BG3. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t help your group of allies and avoid the brunt of attacks. The Archer, for example, serves as support through accurate bombardments of enemies. They cause flinches, which allow for allies to follow through, all the while staying at a comfortable range away from the monsters.
How Dragon’s Dogma 2 isn’t like Baldur’s Gate 3
Outside of the worldbuilding, fantasy setting, and hints of the greater story of DD2, many of the system mechanics of this new title will be very foreign to newcomers from BG3. You’re not playing a CRPG with DD2, after all.
Fighting in Dragon’s Dogma 2
If you’ve gotten used to the slow-paced turn-by-turn combat of BG3, throw that out the window. Dragon’s Dogma is one of the most fascinating action-based combat RPGs ever made. The main gimmick of these fights is, instead of slapping a gigantic monster’s ankles over and over, you climb them quite literally by mounting their heads, arms, and body parts so you can more easily target weakpoints. In this sense, it’s a bit more like Monster Hunter than Baldur’s Gate—killing huge bosses through tactics, reactions, and knowing your weaponry.
That’s not to say there’s no need to think about equipment and character builds. Like in BG3, bringing weapons creatures are weak to is a great idea. In the original Dragon’s Dogma, that was key to fighting enemies like Phantasms or Giant Sulfur Saurians, and we’ve already seen flaming weapons during the gameplay glimpses Capcom has shelled out. But, you’ll need more skill than just clicking on enemy portraits and rolling dice to survive.
Accessing multiple classes and build variety
While both games utilize a class-based system to set boundaries around character builds, each game handles leveling up and improving in different ways. BG3 uses the 5E leveling system, where all characters have access to all classes. This leads to easy multiclassing, allowing thousands of builds to be born from 12 classes.
Things promise to not be as varied in DD2. Much of a character’s ability to spread their wings between classes is with vocation maisters, who are NPCs who serve as trainers and teachers for characters with the same or other vocations. There also doesn’t seem to be much intermingling between vocations. The closest to BG3‘s multiclassing we know about is the Warfarer vocation, which is capable of taking on the weapons and skills of multiple jobs. Whether or not we find a multiclass system is yet to be seen. We imagine accessing different vocations will just let you switch between them at will, much like the original game.
The Pawn system and lower companion impact
Unfortunately, Dragon’s Dogma 2 is not multiplayer. The co-op component of Baldur’s Gate 3 was a significant point in its favor compared to CRPGs of the past. Being able to play this game with friends would have been fantastic. What it has instead is a system called “Pawns,” a group of otherworldly entities controlled by the game which, according to Capcom, will “make gameplay feel like you’re accompanied by others.” During character creation, you create a Main Pawn—little more than an additional customizable character. Your character will have this Main Pawn around at all times, and two other Pawns (if you want) will serve alongside you through networks. This means you will always have a minimum of two characters customized to your image, much like a Custom Character in BG3.
Your Pawns will dish out sass during fights and give out some advice during quests, much like the cast of BG3. But, since they’re custom characters and not built with a story or background in mind, they are going to inevitably lack the impact the party members from BG3 have. If you see gameplay in DD2 and think the party members are all fully fleshed-out with backgrounds, questlines, and endings, then you’re going to be a bit disappointed.
Will you like Dragon’s Dogma 2 if you like Baldur’s Gate 3?
Sadly, Dragon’s Dogma 2 is too different from Baldur’s Gate 3 on the gameplay side to guarantee you’ll like it. This action RPG features so much dodging, swinging at the right times, and boss fights to recommend it just because you like the fantasy elements of BG3. While the story promises to be similar to the CRPG, we don’t know enough about it right now to guarantee it’ll hook BG3 fans immediately.
With any luck, a demo will drop before the release of Dragon’s Dogma 2 to help prospective fans figure out if they like the combat system before they buy anything.
