Hyperbole and misinformation rule the launch of Dragon’s Dogma 2 which has been called many names revolving around its microtransactions. Some background, Dragon’s Dogma 2 released as a rather pricey game ($69.99) and comes along with countless options for microtransactions. The number of available options for microtransactions is far in excess of what a $69.99 game should include, which spawned a plethora of hyperbole and misinformation about the game.
Social media lit up about how Dragon’s Dogma costs an excessive amount of money due to its reliance on microtransactions, which then caused a flurry of response from fans claiming that the MTX isn’t actually anything of note. This has spawned a spiraling mess that can be rather hard to understand.
Fact from Fiction
What’s actually going on? Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a game that includes microtransactions for sanctioned cheating within the game. A common mainstay of Capcom games, there’s options to purchase a variety of in-game items. Devil May Cry uses a sort of orb currency which you can buy. You can see below the exhaustive list of available DLC that allows you to essentially skip grinding and/or alter the game in some extremely minor way.
If you scrolled past that long list, then you should easily understand that this is just Capcom 101. They provide a game and then allow you to purchase cheats through DLC. That’s it, that’s the entire story.
All of the items are optional and this practice is controversial, but it’s what Capcom does. For players new to the realm of Capcom, they generally are really nice about the DLC options and give you alternate ways to earn most of everything. That and you can just grind the currency or items it offers you through the game.
Devil May Cry 5 is worse in the sense the weapons aren’t actually obtainable without paying up and are often not that great or more of a joke. Pasta Breaker for instance is rather underwhelming and costs you a full dollar for a joke breaker.
The Drama Summarized
Players unaware of how Capcom operates (or in distaste of it) found the exhaustive list of DLC and review bombed the game. This caught the attention of the Internet as an AAA game once again tanks on launch, especially one with a high price tag. Players who like the game attempt to reply back to the cacophony of complaints by highlighting that fast travel is available in the game through gold along with character re-customization.
This launched backlash at them for “defending” the MTX in the game, which many exhaustively agree with as they attempt to frame or provide feedback on what’s going on.
Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide if the practice is good or not (should sanctioned single player cheating be allowed through currency exchange with the game publisher/developer). The game itself is completely fine and devoid of requiring any additional purchases after the original purchase in order to play the entire game.
