Capcom responds to negative reception of Dragon’s Dogma 2’s PC port

By Tomas Franzese March 22, 2024

A beastren in Dragon's Dogma 2. — Capcom

Dragon’s Dogma 2 launched today, and while it had a warm critical reception, players are having a lot of problems with its PC port in particular. Currently, it has an overwhelmingly negative user score on Steam, with over 13,000 reviews as of the writing. Capcom has addressed common criticism of the game in the hopes of quelling the frustration of PC players.

Players are a bit peeved at the inclusion of microtransactions in all versions of the game, as well as the fact that it uses Denuvo anti-cheat software that’s known to impact game performance. I already found the game to be poorly optimized on Xbox Series X/S, but the issues get even worse on PC. For a game that already has demanding minimum required PC specs, performance still isn’t good for a lot of players, with frame rate drops, crashes, and freezing happening often. Players have had to find odd ways to improve the frame rate by doing things like murdering NPCs.

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“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,” Capcom admits. “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.”

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is an impressively ambitious game full of dynamic NPCs and enemies that act of their own volition. Clearly, that’s a bit too much for some CPUs to handle. Capcom also highlighted all of the items that can be purchased with microtransactions and pointed out that there are ways to obtain all those items in the game. Finally, it says that it plans to fix bugs and other issues causing game crashes and freezing in the “near future,” in addition to adding the ability to restart your game save.

If you’re planning on picking up Dragon’s Dogma 2, it seems like it may be best to avoid the PC version for now. Capcom’s latest is also available for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.

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Gaming Staff Writer

As a Gaming Staff Writer at Digital Trends, Tomas Franzese reports on and reviews the latest releases and exciting…

Gaming

The best Dragon’s Dogma 2 mods

Dragon's Dogma 2 key art featuring a knight with a fiery hole in their chest.

Even before release, there were some red flags about how Dragon's Dogma 2 would perform on a technical level. While console players need to wait and hope for patches to fix things, those on PC can already improve their games through the hard work of modders. Of course, technical improvements are only one area where modders focus. With such a massive world and many systems in place, Dragon's Dogma 2 is brimming with potential for mods of all shapes and sizes. Aside from mods that just improve your performance, most are better saved for after you've reached the true ending, but no one is going to stop you if you'd rather start experimenting from the start. Here are a handful of the best mods you should try in Dragon's Dogma 2.
Dragon's Dogma 2 DLSS3 Enabler 01 - Puredark

For whatever reason, Dragon's Dogma 2 launched with its DLSS3 function disabled. While it is assumed it will be turned on at some point with a patch, modder Puredark went ahead and released the simple Dragon's Dogma 2 DLSS3 Enabler 01 to let you actually play the game with better visuals and framerates. If you have an Nvidia 4000 series GPU, there's no reason not to install this simple enabler.
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Gaming

The best skills for each Vocation in Dragon’s Dogma 2

An archer fires an arrow at an enemy in Dragon's Dogma 2.

As you level up your Vocations and character in Dragon's Dogma 2, you will earn XP and Dcp. The former will contribute to you leveling up and passively getting stronger, while the latter needs to be spent on unlocking new skills for your current Vocation. There are 10 total Vocations you can eventually unlock and use, and each one has a dozen or more skills to unlock and test out, and yet you can only use four at any given time. That's a lot of possible skills to try out and potentially waste your DCP on. Instead, we'll help you min-max your build right from the start by recommending the best skills you should get for each and every Vocation in the game.
Best skills

The best skill will vary for each Vocation based on what role they are most suited to in combat. Some skills can be upgraded to better versions as you level up your Vocation, so check back in the skills menu every so often to make sure you're using the best version available.
Fighter
Airward Slash -- Fighters are limited in range, but Airward Slash gives you an option to at least attempt to attack flying enemies with this leaping strike.

Gaming

The best item recipes in Dragon’s Dogma 2

Believe it or not, your Arisen in Dragon's Dogma 2 is very skilled at crafting. We're not talking about building structures, tools, or weapons, but item crafting. By combining specific pairs of ingredients in your inventory, you can produce some extremely potent consumables. As you will discover for yourself on your first long trip across the land, there are a ton of materials to discover, leading to hundreds or thousands of possible combinations. Knowing what items are best saved to make something special can save you from having to scour the world looking for more or struggling without it. Here are the best recipes that not even the best pawns will tell you about.
Best item recipes

Salburious Drought
This green liquid will be your most common healing item in Dragon's Dogma 2 and also the item you will probably craft first. It probably has the most possible combinations of ingredients to make and will always be a more effective way to get the most healing out of any individual ingredients. If you have a Greenwarish and combine it with almost any fruit, you can whip this tonic up.
Detoxifying Decoction
Status effects are no joke in Dragon's Dogma 2. If you get poisoned, it isn't going away until you cure it or rest at an in or camp. And that's if you have enough healing items to keep yourself alive long enough to make it there. Detoxifying Decoctions will cure what ails you and keep you adventuring instead of scrambling to get back to town. An easy way to make it is by combining Pitywort and Syrupwort leaves.
Exquisite Dried Spud
Stamina regenerates naturally, so you may not think an item that replenishes it would be all that important. Ask yourself that when you're clinging to the back of a Griffen 100 feet above the ground and your grip is slipping. Pop an Exquisite Dried Spud to keep climbing or running in those touchy moments. Just smash two Ripened Princess Harspuds together to make it.
Mighty Robrant
For a more flavorful and alternative healing item, the Mighty Robrant will be able to take you from close to death to full HP for the majority of the game. This is a second-level item made by first crafting a Fruit Robrant and then combining that with Cinnamon Bark.
Miracle Robrant
The ultimate consumable that you can make is the Miracle Robrant. This will heal a massive amount of HP and refill your stamina all in one. These take a bit more work to get, so save them for emergencies. Make one with any Fine Robrant and a Saurian's Tail.
Bunch of Flowers
Finally, make a nice gift for someone with a Bunch of Flowers to earn some favor. You can give gifts to almost any important character in the game, and while not all will like flowers, a good deal will, and they're free to make. We craft ours out of Sunbloom and Noonblooms, but most flower combinations will do the job.