Dragon's Dogma 2 stakes its claim as one of 2024's biggest games with huge map reveal

The return of High Fantasy has felt so good for long-time fans, and the gaming world is truly leading the charge on bringing us into the worlds of magic, dragons, and weirdly f**kable bears. The features of the genre (the last example especially) were highlighted massively by Baldur’s Gate 3, and now that the full power of Fantasy has been revealed, it’s leading to fans who want more and more, making for the perfect chance for Dragon’s Dogma 2 to make its arrival after years in development.

It looks like all of their hard work has paid off, too, as it has been revealed that the world left to explore in the game is going to be among the biggest we’ve seen yet.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is set to be huge

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In a new interview, Dragon’s Dogma 2 director Hideaki Itsuno has claimed that the map of the upcoming game massively supersedes its predecessor, giving players a playground that is far, far bigger than they could have seen coming.

Speaking with Automaton, Itsuno has said "We always say that the map in Dragon's Dogma 2 is four times the size of the previous one, but we haven't measured it exactly, and the development team believes it to be much larger. The number of towns has increased dramatically too.

"There are two large countries, with various settlements within them," he continues. "However, rather than the size of the map, we placed a much stronger emphasis on its density. We've gone through numerous adjustments of the map, making sure to eliminate tedious time spent moving through the field."

It’s a pretty hefty claim, especially as the director has previously spoken on how dull fast travel can be, and his hopes to discourage its practice wherever possible. The game has to be pretty interesting in order to maintain limited fast travel and a riveting adventure across a huge map - but one producer has claimed that it simply is that exciting a game.

Dragon’s Dogma will have excitement “with each minute”

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Though the game is going to need to be pretty dense to keep up interest on such a huge map, producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi has stated that the game’s playable area is "designed to provide enjoyable experiences with each minute as you traverse it. We are confident in the volume (of the map) in terms of its density, rather than size."

We trust that they’d say this even if it weren’t the case for players, but it’s still reassuring regardless. There’s a lot resting on this game, especially as such a long-awaited sequel - and we’re just going to have to wait to see if these promises come to life.