Dragon’s Dogma 2 previews dropped this week (you can read ours right here) and while the sentiment around the game’s novel and exciting approach to open-world gameplay and design is rightly positive, the situation around its performance profile on consoles is a little more muddled.
After director Hideaki Itsuno tweeted last month that the game would be releasing with an “uncapped framerate,” folks were naturally eager to see how that would play out on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, and especially whether or not we’d potentially see a 60fps-targeting mode on consoles. Now though, it’s become clear that 30fps is the target, and while an “uncapped” framerate is the reality it’s not quite as exciting as it might’ve been.
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Dragon's Dogma 2 will release with an uncapped framerate!#DD2?#????????2?#dragonsdogma2 pic.twitter.com/NXID8FZWCL
— Hideaki Itsuno (@tomqe) February 13, 2024
Speaking to Game Informer in an interview, Itsuno confirmed that while Dragon’s Dogma 2 will have an uncapped framerate on consoles with no hard lock, it’ll still hover around the 30fps mark, and there won’t be any kind of “Performance Mode” option that we’re used to seeing on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S to drop the visual fidelity in favour of a higher performance target.
“The game has an uncapped framerate,” Itsuno told the outlet. “We’re aiming to go at around or higher than 30 FPS. That is for consoles as well. There are some functions that you can turn on and off, but there aren’t multiple sets of options that you can change at once. But yeah, the frame rate will come uncapped for all consoles.”
Dragon’s Dogma 2 is set to have a huge world with a lot going on in real-time, where monsters are persistent and players could be dropped on the other side of the map by a huge griffin at literally any point, so a consistently high framerate just might not be a reasonable expectation on current hardware. Fingers crossed the team is willing and/or able to work out a “performance” option at a later date for those that want it, but hopefully the game will shine either way.
In his preview, James wrote, “It’s a joy to see [Capcom] branching out from the typical Monster Hunter and Resident Evil offerings to offer something unique. It’s a sequel, but it’s a sequel to a game that’s barely been touched when it comes to the type of open-world experience it offers. And that’s why the prospect of Dragon’s Dogma II is so exciting – because the original game was so underrated and so special, and now, we’re about to live through all of that again.
Dragon’s Dogma II launches for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC on March 22nd. You can pre-order it now on Amazon for $99 with free shipping and pre-order price guarantee.
