Not worth $1

This is a great game that is very hard to recommend.

First things first - microtransactions don't matter at all, ignore them, the game is balanced in the exact same way that the first game was. In fact, it's almost a note by note remake of the first one in a lot of aspects - that is, after all, the Dogma of the dragon. The map is much, much bigger, the animations are smoother, the fighting is more fun and fluid, but the vibe, the sense of adventure and the main plot points are roughly the same. So if you liked the first one - it's a no-brainer.

If you're a new-comer - it's kind of hard to explain the feelings that this game provides, because on the face of it for an RPG it's a fairly weak entry, plot-dialogue-writing-wise. Definitely don't get this game for the plot. But if you like exploring and a sense of an actual adventure, where you have to prepare for venturing outside the city, where the night is dark and scary and something unexpected is constantly happening, then the game might be up your alley.

Keep in mind though: at the time of writing the performance is still quite abysmal and the game is heavily CPU-bound, especially in the city areas. There are DLSS3 framegen mods that can slightly help with that if you're on RTX40xx and I've heard that modern AM5 CPUs can chug through the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ Denuvo-ridden code, but still - it's very poorly optimized. The TAA implementation is also completely abysmal, the shimmering/ghosting grass looks awful here.

So - a good game at the core. Maybe not the best implementation though. Hope it sold well and hope they'll keep patching it.

As a long-time DD fan and someone who was so unbelievably hyped for DD2, I really feel like I need to write this and get my thoughts out there, because there's a lot of things right in DD2, but there's so much bad too.

Let's get the elephant in the room out of the way - the launch was disastrous. From my understanding there were 3 core issues: Terrible performance, microtransactions in a singleplayer game and Denuvo. I'd argue any single one of the issues alone would have been passable, "oh the game runs terribly but I'm sure they'll patch it soon." "Oh the microtransactions are egregious and abhorrent, but at least the game is fun." But all together, it made for a cocktail of disaster, which will hang over the head of the game for a long time, which is such a shame.
However, what I really want to talk about is the game itself.

A few quick things:
The combat is fun. It's satisfying, impactful and enjoyable. I'm not gonna break down every class and skill etc, but you'll have a lot of fun I assure you.
The music is so forgettable that I would actually recommend dropping a measly $3 to import the DD1 soundtrack which is vastly more emotive and enjoyable. Couldn't have locked that behind an achievement or gameplay check, eh Capcom? Had to make it a microtransaction?

The really big thing I want to talk about, which is what really kills the game for me, is the story. In DD1 the story was a tight, albeit slow paced (but that suited the game/story really well) narrative about the indomitable human will to overcome fate itself. A story about cyclicity, the nature of the world and how far you, the hero would go to change the course of destiny, to rise above unfathomable odds with only your courage and will to fight. It was awesome, the dragon was an amazing antagonist and everything just worked, to quote our favourite games director.

In DD2, they did explore some interesting themes, but the entire thing was so convoluted and poorly explained that you just couldn't get on board with it. Furthermore, the story is extremely lacking in characters. I mean, there really are no supporting or even main characters; no one who you identify with, no one who you attach yourself to, no one who is fleshed out in any way, shape or form. Every time a plot beat happens, you think to yourself one of three things:

1. I don't care about this because there are no characters involved I care about
2. How can this be happening when unexplained or far too coincidental event X just happened and hasn't been resolved?
3. What the hell does that even mean?

Coupled with some utterly baffling development choices in the story, this just results in apathy towards the narrative. You either don't care, are confused, or don't understand. And this brings me on to what I believe is the fatal flaw of this game: the completely insane arrogance it holds in all aspects.

Let me illustrate this with an example. To get to the true ending of the game, you basically have to do a big boss fight, then choose the obvious hidden path afterwards, where you will be placed immediately back in the scene just prior to the big boss fight. Obviously, you think to yourself "why the hell am I here again, surely this game isn't going to make me do this again" well boy do I have a story for you! What you're supposed to do, is use this magic Macguffin you acquire over the course of the game, but the game doesn't tell you AT ALL you have to use it. It's not hinted at, it doesn't tell you in the text, gameplay or story. You just have to figure it out. Deal with it. If you don't manage to work this out, which it's worth noting you wouldn't be able to even IF our 3 issues weren't a thing as the game NEVER tells you this, you'll be placed back in this boss fight which you'll have to do again. In its entirety. Without any opportunity to switch classes, equipment or companions. And of course your consumables aren't restocked, why would they be? And no, you can't just go back to the menu and reload because the autosave checkpoint is just as the battle begins, not in the scene prior to it where you have to use the Macguffin. Obviously. Once you defeat the boss again, you get the opportunity to loop back through again, but with no extra context or hints about what to do.

It's at this point it really hit me about the arrogance this game holds. Its so wrapped up in this story it thinks is amazing and evocative and deep, and that may be the case, but stupid decisions like this in the fundamental pillars of the game as well as massive gaping holes of inconsistency and subpar writing mean that the story is entirely lost on you, and it comes across again as really arrogant and hubristic. Oh you want to know about how X event could have happened and why most of the plot development is purely coincidental and "right place, right time"? Well you obviously didn't get it and the game is lost on you, peasant.

Even small examples like the fast travel illustrate this arrogance, "No! You will not be able to simply zip around our massive map at will and get to your destination. You must walk the same roads you have walked for the last 50+ hours and fight exactly the same weak, boring enemies who you have been fighting for the last 50+ hours too. No of course they won't scale their level with you or change varieties or locations, they will be exactly the same, in exactly the same places and exactly the same level. And you MUST love it!"

Also somehow the intelligent, well thought-out dialogue of the first game is completely missing here, and the initially interesting "Ye olde English" style of dialogue falls really flat, they must have changed writers or something from the first game because the dialogue reads like an edgy teen's interpretation. In DD1 the Dragon, the main antagonist, is a chilling, awe-inspiring character who leaves you hanging on every word. There's a scene before the big boss fight in DD1 where he slowly lumbers towards you through the ruins of an old castle, clawing stone pillars down and making the ground shake with every step. All the while he muses over the nature of life; how simple goblins are easy to fathom, letting their base needs and desires dictate their life. He asks you what is the difference between you and them, whether you'll rise, defy your fate: "Step forth Arisen, and claim mastery o'er the eternal ring." Pure chills.
The dialogue in DD2 is nothing like that at all, and feeds in to the overall theme of hubris and arrogance on display in this game. The equivalent scene in this game is where the big bad dragon just lets you hop on his back, and carries you to the site of your big battle whilst giving you really dull, overwritten exposition which would have been interesting, if those 3 issues weren't all at play - you don't care, the story has so many inconsistencies and unresolved threads that you've given up, and it's so unbelievably arrogant and convoluted in its plot, that you're just completely apathetic.

There's lots of deep analysis of the story and lore on reddit which, honestly, is really really interesting and the whole concept of a big watcher overseeing the world who is challenged by a mere mortal is very cool, but the problem is that to get to these conclusions you have to infer so much because the game explains so little. So many cool things happened in the game that were just lost in the complex narrative. A giant statue rises from the sea at one point, why does this happen? No idea! Why can your main pawn control him in the end-game? No idea!

The youtuber Jack Sather has done a really excellent video on this game that I'd highly recommend watching, it perfectly summarises exactly how I feel about the game. Jump forward to the end credits bit where he's saying things like "Come on Capcom, you don't deserve this epic sweeping credits scene, the game doesn't deserve it" which is exactly how I felt during it.