Dragon’s Dogma II is an open-world game, and as with all open-world games, there’s the challenge of making the journey from point A to point B engaging. Some suggest a typical ‘fast-travel,’ but the creators of Dragon’s Dogma believe that plain old fast travel is for the weak!
In an interview with IGN, director Hideaki Itsuno discussed the principles underlying the travel mechanics in the world of Dragon’s Dogma II.
Is moving around boring? Not true! Such a problem arises only if your game is dull. All you need to do is make the journey interesting. That’s why it’s crucial to strategically place various elements to be discovered by players or devise ways to introduce enemies that create different situations each time. Or make players move blindly, unsure if the area just ten meters away is still safe or not.
Hideaki Itsuno
Dragon’s Dogma II does include a ‘fast-travel’ feature, but it’s limited. Similar to the first installment, the sequel introduces a rare and precious stone that can teleport you to specific points on the map. Additionally, there are teleposts with wyverns, but they follow specific routes.
Teleposts come with their own twist: they are far from safe, and your journey may end sooner than expected.
While riding a wyvern, goblins might block your path, leaving you with no choice but to dismount and join the fight. And while you’re in combat, a griffin might swoop in and effortlessly destroy the wyvern. Now you’ll have to cover the rest of the journey on foot, cursing that griffin!
None of this is pre-planned by us. If a griffin spots prey (the wyverns), it will want to attack them, and all these elements naturally stack on top of each other, creating an interesting situation. So yes, riding a wyvern telepost may be cheap, but this cost-cutting measure can have various consequences.
Hideaki Itsuno
As Itsuno adds, he generally sees ‘fast-travel’ as a convenient and good option, but in Dragon’s Dogma II, they wanted to recreate the feeling of a grand journey, and ordinary fast travel would interfere with that.
Dragon’s Dogma II is set to launch on March 22 2024.
