Dragon’s Dogma Online is a free-to-play title for PlayStation 4, PS3, and PC
posted on 01.27.15 at 05:45 AM EST by (@salromano)
First details on Capcom's newly announced Dragon's Dogma.

First details on Dragon’s Dogma Online have come out of this week’s Famitsu.

Dragon's Dogma Online Dragon's Dogma Online

The 2015-due game will be a free-to-play action title with item micro-transactions for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and PC. It’s produced by Minae Matsukawa, directed by Kent Kinoshita, and executive produced by Hiroyuki Kobayashi.

Players take on the role of an Awakened in the new land of Lestaria. You’ll be able to adventure with four-player parties (if you prefer to play solo, you can take three AI pawns with you), as well as chat, form parties, and spend free time in town lobbies with up to 100 people. There will also be a “Quick Matching” feature.

Dragon’s Dogma Online is similar to previous entries terms of combat. Clinging attacks remain present. Players will battle against big enemies in dramatic battles, and monsters can become enraged, leading to fiercer attacks.

As for jobs, those currently confirmed in the game include the Fighter, Hunter, Priest, and Shield Sage. Players will be able to change their jobs whenever they like, as well as the jobs of their pawns.

Character creation has seen an upgrade. The number of sections and parts you can edit has been considerably increased. Crafting mechanics are also present. Pawns can make things like consumables, weapons, armor. Pawns can also work together to shorten crafting time and increase overall build quality.

The game is open-world, and that open-world will be expanded little-by-little via large-scale updates launched seasonally. Bigger missions where up to eight players can participate are implied to be coming in one of these updates. Time-exclusive quests are also planned.

Famitsu also introduces a group of four NPC characters part of the “White Winged Buddha Corps.” They are: Fighters Vanessa (voiced by Atsuko Tanaka) and Leo (Koichi Yamadera), Hunter Iris (Marina Inoue), and Fabio (Yoshimasa Hosoya).

In an interview with Famitsu, producer Matsukawa and director Kinoshita share the following comments:

  • Development started with the basic desire of taking Dragon’s Dogma and making it playable in an online environment.
  • The game couldn’t be made in tandem with Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen and was therefore pushed back.
  • Capcom contemplated a monthly fee, but chose freeo-to-play in the end in an attempt to get more players to try it out.
  • Though paid items are present, the game will still feel like a proper Dragon’s Dogma game.
  • The story is completely new and there are no character connections. (Editor’s note: We take it this means no character connections to the previous game.)
  • The game world will initially be the size of what players have come to expect from previous games, but will expand over time to be three times larger in scope.
  • Parties are formed in the lobby, after which players depart for the field.
  • An effort has been made to emphasize the strengths and traits of individual classes, but it’s not balanced so strictly that players need to be super meticulous about party makeup.

Capcom producer Yoshinori Ono also adds that the game’s development is benefiting from the cooperation of Sony Computer Entertainment.

Thanks, Otakomu, Hachima Kikou, and Sokuho@Hokanko.

  • Taco .Town

    Well at least it’s F2P

    • Budgiecat

      get ready for dat paywall….

  • Luna Kazemaru

    Doesn’t sound that bad imo

    • badmoogle

      It all depends on the nature of microtransactions IMO.I hope it’s just cosmetics and doesn’t force those who don’t want to spend their money to buy XP to grind endlessly.

      • Budgiecat

        This IS Capcom

        where we had to buy DLC for a game ending once lol

        • badmoogle

          Hopefully they are able to learn from their fuck ups.

          • Budgiecat

            Capcom?

            • badmoogle

              Sorry i’m not going to write off this game just yet just because it’s “Capcom”. :)
              Dragon’s Dogma was one of my top 5 favorite games last gen so i really want this to turn out at least good…

              • Budgiecat

                Many Capcom “games” have been good

                But expecting Capcom the company from learning from their mistakes? Not likely

                Majority of Capcom’s talent long left the company and would I be surprised if more were to follow in the future? Nope…

        • Tarkovsky

          Well, Dragon’s Dogma Conquest was F2P and didnt require players to pay to complete the game.

      • Luna Kazemaru

        pretty much what I am thinking F2p CAN be done right its just a matter how how much they put behind the wall at the end of the day. IMO rift had f2p right at one point to they started selling raid gear :/

      • desponent

        Sounds exactly the opposite of what they’re doing in MHO (yes I know they’re sub-based but they also have those microtransactions in the game, beautiful ain’t it?).

  • badmoogle

    Fuck microtransactions. :(

    But damn it looks good…

  • Raymond Nolazco

    NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

  • Azure

    As i thought.

  • HitagiHanekawa

    Making a race with Square-Enix on who give the shi**est news

    • Luna Kazemaru

      hmmm most of the news i been getting from square has been great since XIV is a wonderful game ;3

      • Budgiecat

        FF VII for PS4 was great too huh

        • Luna Kazemaru

          FF7 has no bearings with me anymore I honestly could care less what they do with it at this point its just milking an overrated title in the series imo.

          • Budgiecat

            *couldnt care less

            • Luna Kazemaru

              If your best response is grammar error please just stop replying to me I don’t have time for passive aggressive bs just because I am not pouring tears.

              • Budgiecat

                funny you claim ‘milking’ when the very nature of an MMO is to milk ones wallet dry monthly…

                • Luna Kazemaru

                  there is milking a series with nothing but spin offs
                  and a MMO with a changing world and content please don’t even try comparing those two -_-.

                  • Budgiecat

                    FF XIV is a spin off lol….a spin off from a shitty MMO that nearly BK’d the company

                    • http://twitter.com/#!/kaishou Kaishou

                      >FFXIV is a spin off

                      holy shit im laughing right now…

                    • Luna Kazemaru

                      Yeah because we clearly aren’t starting and going forward where 1.0 ended up hey what do I know I ACTUALLY play the fucking game :D

                    • Budgiecat

                      S-E appreciates your monthly contributions from pulling them from the sewers of their own shit

                    • Luna Kazemaru

                      why thank you and i appreciate the great content i actually get from the game enjoy festering in your own tub of salt.

                    • Budgiecat

                      S-E provides the salt I merely sprinkled it on your snail head :p

                    • Luna Kazemaru

                      yeah your tears are greatly appreciated

                    • Budgiecat

                      Its pee

                    • Luna Kazemaru

                      oh budgie

                    • Budgiecat

                      we’re still friends though. Always will be :p

                    • Budgiecat

                      good. My sarcasm won you over

                    • http://twitter.com/#!/kaishou Kaishou

                      You need to work on your sarcasm mate

                    • Budgiecat

                      You shall train me Jedi master Kaishou

                    • Luna Kazemaru

                      Ok we are done here don’t have time for your shit in the morning.

                    • Budgiecat

                      Oh okay I get it wouldnt want to pry you away from depleting your wallet more for FF XIV while bashing the rest of the FF series with humorous fail bias

                    • Luna Kazemaru

                      bashed the rest of the FF series? Holy shit I didn’t know 7 was the whole fucking series brah!!!

                    • http://twitter.com/#!/kaishou Kaishou

                      Luna dear, FFVII is clearly the best and original final fantasy :V

                    • kiri25

                      FFVII is original but then again so is every other FF. is it the best? Well that’s a matter of opinion, I for one consider FFVI to be the greatest FF title. Of course from my experience I’ve noticed the ff fans that consider 7 to be the best started with 7, and the ones to consider 4 or 6 the best started with the very first ff.

                    • Budgiecat

                      S-E pulled an obvious shit troll of the year move and you praised them just because you enjoy them raping your wallet monthly

                    • http://twitter.com/#!/kaishou Kaishou

                      :/ I like FFXIV when I was playing it. Don’t get me wrong though the company is still a pile of whatever you want it to be.

                    • Luna Kazemaru

                      Sorry I’m not poor like you to afford 8 bucks a month lol. Also I never asked for a remake of 7 at all so again it doesn’t matter to me what the fuck they do with that title.

                    • Budgiecat

                      Its not about you or FF VII. Its about how shitty the company has become

                    • Luna Kazemaru

                      ofc its not only about me did i say that you are the only one who got fucking butt hurt over a statement i made sorry I don’t feel strongly about 7. really grow up -_-

                    • kiri25

                      So then every expansion from a MMO is a spinoff? I guess we have a different definition of spinoff. For me ffxiv arr is not a spin off it’s an expansion to ffxiv just as 3.0 will be an expansion for 2.0.

                      A spin off in my opinion Is not part of the main series, something like ff tactics or dissida I would consider a spin off.

                    • Budgiecat

                      I wasnt serious.

  • pekot

    I’m not angry about this . I hope it does well so we get DD2.

  • Elvick

    I’ll try it. Just don’t understand why they’re doing this when Deep Down is still not out. Would make more sense to hold back on this for Deep Down to at least come out.

    • Budgiecat

      seems cannibalizing

      • desponent

        right hand : *punch left hand*
        left hand : ow my head

    • PuppetMaster

      I think they pursue Demon’s / Dark Souls market with Deep Down, while with Dragon’s Dogma Online they’re trying to get gamers who wants a current gen Monster Hunter.

  • shogunknight

    Whoa, i guess i was wrong. I thought it would be pay to play like FFXIV. Nice to see its coming to PS4 as well as PC, will it have cross-play like SFV? hmm…

  • articuzwolf

    Free to play, Pay to Compete…

    • Kaiba Rulez

      more like Free to Pay

  • Tarkovsky

    This pretty much confirms Itsuno is working on a new DMC game or perhaps a new IP. Would still play this but I don’t understand why make it F2P when Deep Down is also in development. Seems odd. I think they could easily make this into a Guild Wars kind of game where you only need to pay once.

    • badmoogle

      Would have been nice if Itsuno was working on a proper sequel to DD but who am i kidding…this is probably all we’ll ever get in terms of Dragon’s Dogma 2…

  • kenshee

    Well if the world’s cool to explore without paying to unlock stuff like area’s (not exactly a micro transaction I hope, lol), and I get to run around and fight stuff for free…

    Well I never played the original dragon’s dogma for long, but that’s what I enjoyed doing when I played it. Can’t imagine I’ll feel like I’m missing much by ignoring the micro transactions.

    So another completely free game to play!

    • desponent

      Having lobby probably mean that this is mission based. Very dragon’s dogma… lol

      • kenshee

        I sincerely hope that isn’t the case, and instead you just have cities act like mmo’s would, and the entire overworld be instanced, I mean they say the game is open world? If it’s mission based I’d probably pass even if it’s free, got enough of a backlog as it is, and exploration is too important for me. (I’m guessing it being described as an action title instead of an rpg hints that you might be right though, only time will tell)

        • desponent

          I can only see Capcom thinking this is like MH. I really don’t have any faith on them doing the right thing.

          We’ll see.

  • z_merquise

    This is free-to-play anyway so I’ll check this out. Nothing hurts when you at least try it.

    • PuppetMaster

      Yup. I never play Dragon’s Dogma so this is my chance to try it, well if they localized this game. If it’s good for me than maybe i will buy the retail game. But if it’s not than i’m not lossing anything because i didn’t put a single dime for the game.

  • PuppetMaster

    I never play Dragon’s Dogma, so this is the chance for me to try it. If it’s good than maybe i will buy the full game.

    I myself enjoyed a couple of F2P such as Tekken Revo, Ace Combat Infinity, No Heroes Allowed: No Puzzles Either, or Destiny of Spirits. Not fully against the F2P practice as long as they make it good and didn’t forced players to pay items.

    • Budgiecat

      I heard a lot of bad things about ACI and Soul Calibur Lost Swords was shit. Wouldnt even run when it first launched lol.
      From what I played of ACI demo it kinda bored me to be honest. They seem to have run out of ideas on how to make the series interesting again. Same with SC.
      Also dont see a point with Tekken Revo when 6 and TTT2 are still active and dont have that cheap rush move in it..

      • PuppetMaster

        Imo Infinity is pretty good. It’s like classic AC. I spent dozens of hours with the game without paying anything. The online also pretty smooth. I agreed with Lost Swords.

        For Tekken Revo, i borrowed T6 copy from my friend and i don’t like it. I also heard TTT2 had bad online code. So Tekken Revo is my only chance to play Tekken online without paying a dime lol.

        Imho, it’s not like Bamco have run out of ideas with this F2P. I think they want to see if they can spark some interest from new audience who’s not a hardcore Tekken / AC fans. But that’s just my prediction.

        • Budgiecat

          Namco’s battery system is annoying as fawk though so no thanks.

    • Luna Kazemaru

      Ace combat infinity issues are the fuel and the fact they are reusing everything from strange-real. if they actually provided something new and the fuel wasn’t an issue it would be close to the classic.

      • Budgiecat

        that was it: thats what I remember what the majority of the complaints were about now.

        Basically the same annoyance as in JJBA ASB and Gundam Battle Operation.

        • Luna Kazemaru

          the maps are all from the old games and AH aswell most of them are from 4 and 5 tho.

          • Budgiecat

            oh

            well add that too then lol

      • PuppetMaster

        They gave player free fuel(s) + other bonuses like cool skins / plane by throwing a lot of events. i myself never pay a single dime to replenish the fuel. And of course they reusing everything from classic AC, including strange-real. It’s a F2P, not a full retail game, so i expect lots of reuse asset from previous games.

  • Kaiba Rulez
  • vishmarx

    this has potential to be huge.
    but knowing capcom theyll find a way to f*** it up

  • Zackasaur

    And now I’m interested! Though I find f2p a turnoff.

    • vishmarx

      could be good.
      im itching to play DD at 15+fps for the first time
      and its free

      • Budgiecat

        There’s always a trade-off….

        I dont get excited about “free”

        certainly not from Capcom…

        • Kenny ケニー

          Don’t lie, i know you get excited since i see your comments everywhere in this article lol

        • vishmarx

          well yeah.

        • masterace303

          F2P could work really well

          • Budgiecat

            so could world peace lol

            • masterace303

              i mean from my experience with games like Path of exile, Planetside 2, War thunder, Warframe. they can make this work really well if they wanted to

              • Budgiecat

                okay but you know what all those games have in common?

                • masterace303

                  what

                  • Budgiecat

                    they are not Capcom

                    :3

                    • masterace303

                      lol

          • vishmarx

            warframe aint half bad,

            • Guest

              Have 1653 hours clocked in since January last year. Although may not be much of a milestone, but shows my dedication somewhat.

              • LunarHaven

                …But twice!

            • Digidyne017

              Have 1653 hours clocked in since January last year. Although may not be much of a milestone, but shows my dedication somewhat..

              • LunarHaven

                Not once…

    • Kaiba Rulez

      some online games are really good unlike some cash grab online game that u can’t finished it without using money

      • desponent

        The key word here is “some”, then you put capcpom into this equation.

  • masterace303

    Well you Had me at “PC”

  • vishmarx

    lol any scoops on ffxv this week?
    tabata has me spoilt

  • desponent

    Go on Capcom.

  • Taco .Town

    Welp, looks like another site reported that Capcom EU has said “there are no plans to release Dragon’s Dogma Online in the west” RIP

    • masterace303

      WTF? please tell me this is a joke

      • Budgiecat

        hey

        they only say that stuff when they arent ready to make their official announcement

        relax your mastertits

        • masterace303

          i’ll flip the fack out if it’s japan only title

          • Budgiecat

            well….Monster Hunter Online is….

            but we cant expect Capcom to make sense most of the time can we

            • masterace303

              Goddamn it capcom…please don’t fack this up

  • penemue

    Went from hype
    -F2P
    -Cross-gen
    -MMO-esque
    -Itsuno not directing
    To zero in about 3 minutes
    Oh well guess I’ll try it on PS4
    At least itsuno isn’t tied to this dead horse of Capcom’s

  • Khalir

    I don’t see this as a let down. DD is all about gameplay, kill monsters, get better equips and shit. It was a MMORPG without the online option. Now if you like to play alone you can, and the people who like to play with they friends can too. So is a win-win situation. If Capcom don’t screw with the F2P system, and allow this to have cross-play, this game will be fantastic.

    I am really exiting for this.

    • desponent

      “I am really exiting for this.”

      You do eh.

  • http://twitter.com/kazumalynx Zero

    Can we please stop going off topic? Take the Final Fantasy and Square-Enix discussion to the open forum or something.

    http://gematsu.com/tag/square-enix

    http://gematsu.com/tag/open-forum

    Thanks.

    • Luna Kazemaru

      My bad

      • http://twitter.com/kazumalynx Zero

        No worries.

  • http://www.satori.moe RinSatori

    heh “A Capcom UK representative told Eurogamer this morning that there are no plans to release Dragon’s Dogma Online in the west”

  • http://Gematsu.com Vayne

    I am relieved that this is not Dragon’s Dogma 2, but hopefully Capcom come back their roots.

  • http://twitter.com/kazumalynx Zero

    My only concern with free to play is always the same thing. Pay to win. So long as DD online is not pay to win, I’ll give it a try.

    It’s 100% possible to do free to play and not make the shop full of pay to win stuff. Let’s hope Capcom does the right thing here.

    I like free to play games as long as they follow that guideline. Sure, buying glamour items and accessories seems kinda lame, but if the game is of high quality, I don’t mind.

    If you enjoy the game and invest serious time into it. Purchasing something in the cash shop makes sense. Especially if that purchase helps them add more fun content in the future.

    If you can’t clear content or progress without buying some kind of item in the shop, that’s when I start to have a problem with the game. Pay to win, aka pay to progress, etc.

    I think we see that type of stuff in lots of mobile and social games. I find that business practice pretty awful, forcing players to pay to progress is not cool.

    If you can buy something and progress a bit faster, okay, I get that. Just so long as players who don’t can still progress if they put in reasonable time and effort.

    I suppose we need some more details. Is this more of an online title with light MMO elements? Or, are they aiming for it to be more like a F2P MMO title? There is a difference.

    One big difference between the above descriptions is add on content.

    Where MMO’s do patches and add-on’s that add new content to the game for free, light mmo online games typically don’t. Instead, they treat any content like DLC or a small expansion, which means you usually pay a fee to add it to the game.

    Sure, MMO’s do this with expansion packs. There is a big difference between a true MMO expansion, and a light mmo online expansion.

    Like I described above. The online games with mmo elements typically charge for an expansion, which content wise can be very random. You might get a real meaty update to the game, or you might get something along the lines of a content patch.

    I think I made it clear how there is a difference. I figure DD online will likely be online with light MMO elements. With most add-on content having a price tag, regardless of content depth.

    You either love or hate that. That’s just how most add on/dlc works these days though.

    Anyways, like i said, still lots of questions to be answered here.

  • LunarHaven

    And here I was hoping this wouldn’t happen, it has become Janus the black wind.

  • Rafael Martines

    Well feel sorry for Deep Down… at least in Dragon’s Dogma we can make a female character :P

  • https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJG980wYNJwltAB3JeT5euA SegaSaturnSNK

    Playing with people online and chat? This was suppose to be in the game from the very beginning. Now just going to have to wait for a West release which most likely going to be FOREVER.

    • https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJG980wYNJwltAB3JeT5euA SegaSaturnSNK

      Hopefully Sony steps up and releases for the West.

  • Fruity_Rider

    >F2P

    no thanks

  • Aiddon

    eh, at the very least I’ve found that Japan is a lot better with the F2P than the West is. Though with the game not being released in the West (like Monster Hunter Frontier) there’s little point in discussion

    • SoloKazama

      Actually this game have pretty decent NA/EU market it earned nice cash for capcom and pretty sure they will release it here also.

  • Solomon_Kano

    So… I get MP DD and Itsuno’s still cooking something else? Alright, then.

  • SiXXXtySiXXX

    Ehhh.

  • Zepht

    item micro-transactions = pay to win

  • Martian Wong

    So I dont need PS+ to play this on PS4 right?

    • minato arisato

      No you don’t need PS+ for mmo games or f2p games.

      • Martian Wong

        Thanks.

  • minato arisato
  • Geǿ Marley

    It it plays like the original and it’s not ptp then no problem for me.

  • Cocteau

    As far as I’m concerned Free-to-play is a handicap to the game and a safety net for the Capcom. Its disappointing because Dragons Dogma was such a promising new franchise and I feel the same way about Sleeping Dogs. Oh well saves me some money I guess.

  • NuclearKangaroo

    so instead of porting the original game to PC/PS4/XBO and make tons of money they make this?

    fucking brilliant business decision like always capcom

  • http://gematsu.com/ Sal Romano

    Post updated with some producer/director comments.

  • RSene

    Ok, this is perhaps very difficult for you guys to answer, but this new game is the same as these both articles are reffering?

    http://gematsu.com/2014/11/capcom-teases-new-ps4-game-announcement-coming-soon

    http://www.siliconera.com/2014/04/21/report-capcom-will-announce-major-ps4-title-e3-likely-resident-evil-7/

  • TheDevil

    Be sure to drink your iodine.

    http://a.pomf.se/hmbzuo.jpg

  • ThePawnWhoSawLuBu

    F2P online… I’ll remember you fondly as a nice open world ARPG *mourns*

    I can already see it, if you already had to grind Bitterblack to oblivion until you were able to get those skill rings and decent weapons to take on elder ogres, garmrs and death, now it will take years unless you buy into them microscams. RIP Dragon’s Dogma, you couldn’t have fallen in worse hands than Capcom.

    .

  • Yaro

    Positively hyped. Although mixing in terms like city based lobbies and open world areas is misleading IMO. Clearly hubs mean that field areas will be instanced similar to GW1.

    But holy damn! Atsuko Tanaka (Hrist from valkyrie profile 2) and Koichi Yamadera, is amazing news…

    Although, let me guess…Japan only?

  • Anime10121

    I was right :D (though I guess it wasnt too hard to guess :P)

  • http://myanimelist.net/profile/Ruggarell Rugga

    F2P games always suck or are too grindy. Staying far away.

  • Darkologia

    God bless you Sony/Capcom ^.^