Capcom’s long-awaited sequel to Dragon’s Dogma may be set in a fantasy world, but its director, Hideaki Itsuno, has revealed that Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto 5 has inspired the upcoming game’s approach to creating a “living world”.
During an interview with VGC, Itsuno explained that the main goal with Dragon’s Dogma 2 was to “take things that we couldn’t achieve in Dragon’s Dogma at the time it came out” and make them a reality, but he also cited Rockstar’s eternally popular 2013 title as an external source of inspiration.
“If I had to pick one other game that came out in the meantime, I would actually say GTA 5,” he said. “I kind of admired how they were able to create a world in which it really felt like the NPCs were going about their lives independently of the player.
“All kinds of interesting emergent behavior could happen whenever you were exploring the city and all kinds of weird accidents felt like it [sic] would happen whether you were there or not,” he continued. “That feeling of a living world is something that I’ve definitely tried to achieve in Dragon’s Dogma 2.”
It sounds like Dragon’s Dogma fans have plenty to be excited about, anyway. During the Capcom Showcase in June, it was revealed that the upcoming sequel’s world will be “roughly four times the size” of the original title’s setting, Gransys, which was already pretty chunky in the first place.
It’s not currently known when exactly Dragon’s Dogma 2 will be released, but it’s set to hit PC and current-generation consoles (PS5 and Xbox Series X|S) at some point in 2024.
We’ve already had a bumper year for video games, but even more releases are around the corner – you can keep up with them with our roundup of upcoming games. If you’re looking for something to play right now, be sure to check out our lists of the best PS5 games and best Xbox Series X games.