Plenty of big, AAA releases don't stick the landing at launch. It's far rarer to see a AAA game's community genuinely divided over whether or not a game is groundbreaking or an utter disaster. But weirdly, that's what's happening with Dragon's Dogma 2.
There’s no way to tell if a Pawn has Dragonsplague while in the Rift before hiring them, but once they are hired, the signs start to become apparent. If left unchecked, then eventually resting at an inn will trigger a cutscene where the Pawn in question transforms into a shadowy dragon and nukes an entire city, which can include killing off quest-critical NPCs.
That’s, uh, incredibly fucking stupid. Dunno what I expected from a studio that clearly doesn’t care about its players’ time, but “your pawn can turn into a dragon and nuke an entire town” sure wasn’t something I’d anticipate. Even if it can’t actually softlock the game, I cannot imagine continuing to play after my pawn decides to turn into a dragon with no actual warning. A bunch of people are defending it saying that there are symptoms you need to watch out for, as if not noticing your pawn’s eye color or idle animation is a mistake worthy of a potentially game-ending consequence. But hey, at least you can always start a new save file if yours gets bricked by bad pokerus… Right.
Wait dragonsplague is new information to me
That’s, uh, incredibly fucking stupid. Dunno what I expected from a studio that clearly doesn’t care about its players’ time, but “your pawn can turn into a dragon and nuke an entire town” sure wasn’t something I’d anticipate. Even if it can’t actually softlock the game, I cannot imagine continuing to play after my pawn decides to turn into a dragon with no actual warning. A bunch of people are defending it saying that there are symptoms you need to watch out for, as if not noticing your pawn’s eye color or idle animation is a mistake worthy of a potentially game-ending consequence. But hey, at least you can always start a new save file if yours gets bricked by bad pokerus… Right.
“bad pokerus” gave me a good chuckle.