Mechanics From The First Game That Are Different In The Sequel

Highlights

Character customization effects are less impactful in Dragon’s Dogma 2, allowing more freedom for Arisen creation.
Fall damage is brutal in the sequel, making players rethink their strategy for traversing the world.
Less armor slots and vocation-locked armor in DD2 limit player creativity and customization options.

While Dragon’s Dogma 2 feels like an upgrade on the original Dragon’s Dogma game overall, though there are still quite a few differences between the games, both good and bad. These can range from very small, almost imperceptible differences to complete system overhauls, it really just depends on how beloved that mechanic or system was in the first game.

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For the most part, anyone who played the original Dragon’s Dogma or Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen will be able to hop right into Dragon’s Dogma 2 with little to no issue. However, there are still a few mechanics that work differently in this sequel game, so let’s go over some of those now.

7 Character Customization Gameplay Effects

Height & Weight Impact Gameplay Much Less In Dragon’s Dogma 2

Dragon's Dogma 2 - Editing Character Height

First up is a pretty small effect in the grand scheme of things, but one that adds a lot more freedom to the character creator for the Arisen in DD2. Essentially, in the first game, certain aspects of a player’s designed Arisen would impact different starting stats. Their height and weight, for example, would impact their starting max Stamina, their Stamina Regeneration, and their Carrying Capacity.

In Dragon’s Dogma 2, most of these effects are still there, but the difference is that they’re much less impactful in comparison. Additionally, there are no longer any differences in the maximum height or weight of a character based on their gender, which is a universally welcome change overall.

6 Fall Damage

It’s Absolutely Brutal This Time Around

Dragon's Dogma Arisen Falling To Their Death

Another aspect of the original Dragon’s Dogma that has only become more brutal in the sequel is fall damage. Fall damage in this game is so incredibly rough to get used to at first. It’s relatively realistic, that much is true. But, that ‘realism’ still ends up feeling a bit silly as soon as players consider the fact that the Arisen, who literally had their heart eaten by a dragon and is now alive again, can’t fall more than 10 feet without basically dying.

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Fall damage still existed in the first DD of course, and it still hurt quite a bit. But, it didn’t hurt nearly as much as it does now, and there were a few more ways players could mitigate or avoid it entirely.

5 Fewer Armor Slots

Not a Big Change Mechanically But It Does Limit Creative Freedom a Bit

Dragon's Dogma 2 - Example of Armor Slots In DD2

There are a couple of key aspects of Dragon’s Dogma 2 that seem to have been streamlined or at the very least relatively simplified compared to the first game. While this does make the series more approachable to a wider demographic overall, when it comes to removing systems that led to more unique builds between players, that’s pretty rough. In DD, players had 8 slots for their Armor:

1 Helm/Head Slot
2 Chest Slots: Clothing & Armor on top
1 Arms Slot
2 Leg Slots: Clothing & Armor on top
1 Cape/Back Item Slot
1 Accessory Slot

Now, in Dragon’s Dogma 2, players only have 6 slots, as the Clothing slots underneath the Armor have now been removed (though one more Accessory slot was added in exchange) and the Chest and Arm Armor have now been combined into one singular slot. While this isn’t a huge change, it does limit the visual creativity of players a decent amount and is relatively regarded as an unnecessary change.

4 Vocation-Locked Armor

One of the Primary Reasons People are Using Warfarer is to Counter This

Dragon's Dogma 2 - Example of Vocation Locked Armor

Speaking of Armor, let’s talk about probably the biggest negative change between the two games, and that’s locking Armor Sets behind different Vocation requirements. In the original Dragon’s Dogma, this wasn’t a mechanic, and players could have a Strider Vocation Arisen be covered head to toe in Plate Mail if they so chose.

However, in Dragon’s Dogma 2, Armor Sets are now unable to be worn by any Vocation that doesn’t have its icon specifically shown on that Armor’s stats page. While most Armor pieces do have at least 2 or so Vocations that can wear them, it’s still a heavily limiting customization change that fans of the original game aren’t very happy about.

3 Strider Broken Into Archer & Thief Vocations

One Absurd Vocation Broken into Two Absurd Vocations

Dragon's Dogma 2 - Example of Both Thief and Archer Vocations

Another immediate change that fans of the original Dragon’s Dogma are going to notice when they start up DD2 is the fact that the Strider Vocation is gone. This Vocation was absurdly strong in the first game, so much so that they apparently had to break it into two separate Vocations in the sequel, those being Archer and Thief.

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It’s nice that they’ve sort of separated the ranged dexterity class and the melee dexterity class into two different Vocations, and somehow this change hasn’t made either Vocation any weaker overall compared to the other options.

2 Riftstones Are Plentiful

The Arisen Can Always Have a Pawn Nearby if They so Desire it

Dragon's Dogma 2 - Arisen Interacting With Riftstone

This is yet another small change overall, but it has a pretty noticeable effect on the game itself. In the original DD, Riftstones were relatively rare out in the open world, making it a real problem if a player’s Pawn died and disappeared as they would likely not be able to summon them again for a while and would have to ‘get by’ without one of their AI companions.

However, in DD2, Riftstones seem to be lying around everywhere. This almost makes things too easy as not only are Pawns constantly roaming the roads of this world as they did in the first game, but now players typically only have to travel a couple hundred feet at most to find a Riftstone to either summon or re-summon their party of Pawns.

1 Lack Of Notice Boards

Much Less Incentive to Just Go Out There and Fight Things

Dragon's Dogma Dark Arisen - Example Of What Notice Board Looks Like

Surprisingly, despite how much of this game is based around high-octane combat against all sorts of different monsters, very few quests in Dragon’s Dogma 2 actually revolve around fighting monsters as their primary objective. Most have players gathering specific items, talking to certain NPCs, or backtracking to a previously visited location.

This factor makes the lack of Notice Boards in DD2 a lot more noticeable than it otherwise would be, as these were a great way to incentivize players to go out and hunt to their heart’s content in the first game. Without them in Dragon’s Dogma 2, it almost feels like players can speed through the main storyline without having to do much fighting at all.