Dragon’s Dogma 2 has been an interesting journey. Over the past week I’ve watched my Pawns slay drakes, ground griffins, and blind cyclopes. They’ve led me to unknown treasures, guided me on missions, and sometimes, for reasons known only themselves, sacrificed their very bodies to the Brine. It’s been an intriguing adventure that has offered more than its fair share of fun. However, the more I play I can’t help but feel like something is missing.

Like many fans of the Dragon’s Dogma world, I too was pleasantly surprised when Capcom announced that they were working on a sequel over a decade later. I quickly drifted through fond memories of my prior adventure. One where I started as a lowly archer, haphazardly scaling chimeras and hydras. I slowly learned the ins and outs of the world, only to be thrust back into a corner by a new, more powerful, and often more mesmerizing threat. That challenge pushed me ever forward as I mastered various vocations, min-maxing my Arisen (the heroes of this world) so that I may triumph over the ultimate foe, the very dragon that took my heart (in a violent way, not in a fall-in-love-with-a-dragon way like Donkey from Shrek).  When it seemed clear that I had finally triumphed over the game’s brutal yet enchanting challenges, I was thrust into the Everfall: A place where I could join Arisen from all over the globe in an effort to defeat the game’s true end-game boss. I traipsed through the world over and over, becoming ever more powerful as I rinsed the landscape and razed it clean of all treasures.