'Dragon's Dogma 2' criticised for launching with 21 optional microtransactions

Though Dragon’s Dogma 2 received critical acclaim ahead of launch, many buyers on PC are leaving negative reviews due to the game launching with 21 optional microtransactions.

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Dragon’s Dogma 2 launched today (March 22), and at time of writing, currently holds a ‘Mixed’ user review rating on Steam, with 60 per cent of all player-submitted reviews marked as negative.

The criticism is largely driven by the inclusion of microtransactions in the single-player game. Dragon’s Dogma 2 has 21 available microtransactions, including items that revive characters, help to escape from prison, and make fast-travelling easier.

While these purchases range from £0.89 to £4.45 in price, it’s worth noting that all but two of them (the Explorer’s Camping Kit and Heartfelt Pendant) can be found in-game anyway, making the microtransactions completely optional.

However, that hasn’t stopped buyers from criticising the DLC. “Hey Capcom, you can purchase a ‘good review DLC’ for $1.99,” reads the highest-rated review on Dragon’s Dogma 2‘s Steam page – though plenty of people in its replies have pointed out the purchases are more of a shortcut than necessity.

“It’s not like it gives you an advantage over other players,” says one user. “It’s a single player game. If you don’t like it, simply don’t partake.”

Elsewhere, other players have voiced concern over lag and optimisation problems on PC. This is a more serious issue, as developer Capcom has already acknowledged the fact that Dragon’s Dogma 2 is not running as well as it should.

“I did not expect the game to barely push 40fps in the wilderness at minimum settings with DLSS on Ultra Performance,” reads one Steam review. “This was bad. I did not want to write a negative review, but when the first cutscene is so out of sync that the dragon starts talking to me before the knight has finished his speech, I should have known something was wrong.”

“I still have some faith that the dev team will work hard to patch the game and optimize it so that these performance problems will someday be a thing of the past,” they added.

Capcom has confirmed that framerate issues are being caused by in-game characters, and is “looking into” a solution.

If you’re still on the fence about Dragon’s Dogma 2, check out our five-star review of the PS5 version.