Earlier this week, a recent patch was released for Dragon’s Dogma 2, which added options in the game’s settings to prioritize graphics or performance. The latter should support improve the game’s oft-lamented framerate issues, which developer Capcom claims are a direct result of many of Dragon’s Dogma 2’s NPCs… thinking too much.
In Interview with Famitsu (via Google Translate, which IGN has independently verified) the development team was asked about one of the supposed improvements in the update, specifically regarding “excessive CPU usage.” In response, the team stated that CPU power in Dragon’s Dogma 2 is allocated to processing each NPC’s “thoughts” and their interactions with physical computations.
The recent Dragon’s Dogma 2 update is now available on all platforms!
– Changed the options in “Graphics” in the options menu to “Prioritize Graphics” and “Prioritize Performance”.
For additional information on the resolution and performance of each option, please refer to the table… pic.twitter.com/qwztLSSd5i
— Dragon Dogma (@DragonsDogma) October 17, 2024
“Therefore, in sequences where many NPCs appear at the same time, e.g. in cities, the CPU load was very high, which affected the frame rate. Since the CPU was the bottleneck, reducing the load on the GPU side, such as lowering the resolution, had little effect on improving the frame rate.”
In response, Capcom is “reviewing the processing of NPC thoughts and making minor adjustments, such as the order in which each process is performed, in updates since launch.” As a result, Dragon’s Dogma 2 now has graphics quality settings that allow the game to run at “around 50 to 60 frames per second” on PS5 and Xbox Series X. Steam has a similar setting to reduce processing load.
While frame rate issues may have been frustrating for players, the complexity of Dragon’s Dogma 2’s NPCs is quite an crucial part of the series. All NPCs have regular schedules, activities, and even relationships with other NPCs that they must maintain. The pawns are especially complicated, even if their dialogue makes them look like total dingus. They constantly adapt to the player’s behavior and even learn recent tactics during combat, give raucous advice, guide players to treasures, and even murder them! Not surprisingly, given how busy every character in the world is at any given time, things have gotten a bit hectic in some of the more crowded areas of the game.
In our review earlier this year, we gave Dragon’s Dogma 2 an 8/10, calling it “a weird and wonderful action RPG that enhances the strengths of the original without addressing its weaknesses.”
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Her posts can be found on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Have a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
