Dragon’s Dogma was a bold experiment in Capcom’s darkest days

Almost 12 years after its release by game director Hideaki Itsuno the dragon’s belief on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, Dragon’s Dogma 2 is finally almost here. Since the release of the original game, Capcom has released spin-offs, semi-sequels, and ports of Dragon’s Dogma with varying degrees of success, but the highly anticipated sequel is poised to take off.

Publisher and developer Capcom has been on a winning streak lately thanks to investments in strong franchises like Resident Evil, Monster Hunter and Street Fighter. However, the company’s situation in 2012 was not so favorable the dragon’s belief debuted. Back then, Capcom experimented and often failed due to being neither critically nor commercially successful worldwide.

the dragon’s belief landed amid a year of great volatility and failure for the company. The Resident Evil franchise has been at one of its lowest points this year with several poorly received releases including Resident Evil 6what critics called “a franchise-depleting disappointment,” and Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, called it “an insult to Resident Evil fans.” Only Resident Evil: Revelationsa 3DS-only side story that stuck to the survival horror core ensured the franchise remained relevant this year.

Image: Capcom

Capcom, particularly in 2012, seemed confused about what to do with its rich offering of properties. It’s the same year the company collaborated with FromSoftware on delivery Steel Battalion: Heavy Armora miserable Xbox 360 Kinect-only spin-off of its hardcore mech-action franchise – you know, the one famous for its dedicated 44-input controller – and reimagined the Lost Planet franchise as a manga-inspired shooter EX soldiersa departure from the serious science fiction presentation of the previous games.

The company’s identity crisis extended to many of its oldest franchises, including the release of a social mobile game based on Mega Man and the craze for crossovers Project X Zone, Professor Layton vs. Phoenix WrightAnd Street Fighter X Tekken. The latter in particular was a commercial failure despite the popularity of both franchises and was criticized by gamers for its heavy-handed monetization tactics.

There was a bright spot in this gloomy year Asura’s Wrath, the action game developed by CyberConnect2 that delivered an amazing, over-the-top spectacle. But even this game had a strange twist; Players couldn’t experience the full story and the “real” ending unless they paid to play the DLC.

Image: CyberConnect2/Capcom

Looking back, 2012 seems to have been a turning point for Capcom. The year before, the company pumped out both Marvel vs Capcom 3 and the expanded one Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, with only a nine-month window in between. It later blamed low sales Street Fighter X Tekken At “cannibalism” in the fighting game genre, something Capcom itself is particularly guilty of. In 2013, the publisher’s experiments continued; It worked with developers Ninja Theory to take the reins of the Devil May Cry series DmC

a controversial game overseen by Dragon’s Dogma creator Itsuno and developed by Spark Unlimited Lost Planet 3.

By the way, 2012 was also the year of two infamous Capcom typos. The Publisher I spelled the title wrong Resident Evil: Revelations on the box art of the game and myself misspelled his own name in the copyright of his Kinect Steel Battalion game. This is a relatively minor quality control issue, but it signals a strange, chaotic year for Capcom.

Given the chaotic atmosphere of the time, it’s no surprise that the series was moderately successful the dragon’s belief It may have been viewed by Capcom executives as another experiment of the era rather than a franchise to fully invest in. However, they gave the original game a second chance with 2013 Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen, an expanded re-release of the original game with a new landmass and new enemies. Capcom also tried to keep Dragon’s Dogma going with a mobile game and an MMO, both of which were canceled a few years after release.

Image: Capcom

In an interview with EurogamerItsuno remembered the development of the dragon’s belief

as his most ambitious project at Capcom. “This was a brand new series – a lot of the other things I had done were already established,” Itsuno said. “It was one of the first really new things.”

the dragon’s belief was a “really new thing” for Itsuno himself, who had worked on Capcom’s fighting games (Power Stone, Capcom vs. SNK) and the Devil May Cry series. It was a long-held dream of his to create an original role-playing game: one that simulated the experience of an MMO but was designed for solo players. Itsuno said in an interview with IGN.

“I wanted to make an action RPG that did two things: I wanted to make an RPG that wasn’t a chore, and I wanted to make an RPG that you could play alone and still feel like an online experience,” he explained. “I created the dragon’s belief by combining these two ideas. I’m proud that it feels like you’re playing with friends even when you’re alone, and that it’s an RPG with action elements that’s just as fun as a full action game.”

“It was always about taking ridiculous ideas and taking them completely seriously,” he told Eurogamer.

For the creator, taking a serious look at a ridiculous idea during Capcom’s rockiest and most experimental era paid off. In 2024, Itsuno is confident Dragon’s Dogma 2 and its unique design choices – the sequel eschews modern expectations like on-demand fast travel and traditional online co-op play – seem in keeping with those of modern Capcom. The company has left its difficult era of two console generations ago far behind it and is experimenting where it makes sense while still maintaining its successful franchises. Hopefully this doesn’t mean we have to wait another decade for more Dragon’s Dogma.