Capcom has suddenly revealed a sleuth of microtransactions in its latest action-RPG, Dragon’s Dogma 2, which launched today. As you can imagine, it has the community very divided. The backlash from players has been so harsh that it tanked Steam reviews to “Mostly Negative”, which isn’t a great look for the game on its launch day.
As for the microtransactions now available in Dragon’s Dogma 2, you can purchase Rift Crystals, the currency used to hire Pawns and purchase special items in the game. Wakestones are also being sold as microtransactions, which are rare items that can resurrect you or your pawns during battle. You can even buy those “limited” fast travel points called Portcrystals, completely negating what Capcom initially said about the sparse fast travel design in the game. Things get a little stranger once you take a look at the rest of the in-game purchases, though.
Microtransactions also include the Art of Metamorphosis, a rare item you acquire in-game that allows you to change your character’s appearance; the Makeshift Goal Key, an item that helps you escape from gaol; Ambivalent Rift Incense, which lets you change your pawn’s inclination; the Explorer’s Camping Kit, which automatically gives you a camping kit (even though you can find one pretty easily in the game); and more.
Saw some gameplay of Dragon’s Dogma 2 and thought it looked really cool. Then I check the steam page and wtf is this? Isn’t this a single-player game?? So many microtransactions lol pic.twitter.com/GNBvFcwlys
— The Act Man (@TheActMan_YT) March 22, 2024
Technically, you can acquire all of these items in-game through grinding and some patience. However, by purchasing microtransactions, you can speed up and skip over a lot of those processes. Some fans pointed out that the first Dragon’s Dogma had similar in-game purchases, while Monster Hunter players argued that those microtransactions have been around for a while. The key difference is, Monster Hunter doesn’t feature in-game purchases that can be considered “advantageous” to the gameplay unlike Dragon’s Dogma 2‘s optional payouts.
You can also choose to ignore the microtransactions and play the game without really taking note of them. Some players have expressed this much saying that it doesn’t really impact the game, though none can argue that it’s existence seems highly unnecessary.
Steam players quickly picked up on this and gave “Mostly Negative” reviews to Dragon’s Dogma 2 in the wake of Capcom’s microtransactions announcement. The reviews have since been bumped up to “Mixed” at the time of writing, but one look at the reviews will tell you all you need to know about people’s feelings on the matter.
We’d like to note that these microtransactions weren’t included in our review process with the game, so it comes as a bit of a surprise to us as well.
Source: Windows Central
