Dragon's Dogma 2

A cult classic in the making

- FRASER BROWN

I FINISHED Dragon's Dogma 2 at 7am after an all-nighter. I should have gone to bed. I could barely keep my eyes open. But I did not go to bed. Instead, I immediately started a new game, resetting the story, but keeping most of my items and all of my levels. I then proceeded to play for five more hours before I literally passed out.

Dragon's Dogma 2 is glorious, thrilling, accidentally hilarious, frustrating, and maddening—literally all the adjectives. It's one of the very best RPGs, as well as being a huge pain in the behind, and then some.

You are the Arisen, a soldier killed by a dragon, returned to life despite the absence of a heart. Whenever the dragon appears, a new Arisen also shows up, their fates intertwined. Despite constantly flinging flat characters and stiff dialogue at you—everyone's lines are laden with faux medieval affectations and po-faced seriousness—the story itself is a creative yarn that's so much more elaborate than it needs to be.