Stop me if you’ve heard this before. A major triple-A title is coming up. Maybe it’s an entry to a classic genre that is a sure shot hit these days. Everything is going swimmingly, from the gameplay reveals to the world showcases and then suddenly, they reveal, perhaps a little too casually, that it runs in 30 frames per second. Except it’s not 30 frames per second, but an “uncapped” frame rate, and they’re actually targeting around or above that amount. Such is the case with Dragon’s Dogma 2. Thus far, the development team have been doing a fantastic job with the marketing.
A world which is absolutely massive in size; a focus on emergent events, with mechanics like a single save file and limited fast travel encouraging players to explore their environments and make meaningful decisions. New Vocations. New Pawn mechanics. No quest boards or markers. As unorthodox as some of it sounds, the massive boss fights and sleek combat have sold us.
However, around the end of January, a rumor started making the rounds, claiming Dragon’s Dogma 2 only ran at 30 frames per second. There was doubt but as the weeks passed, the developer’s silence on the matter grew. The developer would then announce an uncapped frame rate without specifying anything further, but it was only recently they confirmed targeting around or above 30 frames per second.
Speaking to Game Informer through a translator, they added, “That is for consoles as well. There are some functions you can turn on and off, but there aren’t multiple sets of options that you can change at once. But yeah, the frame rate will come uncapped for all consoles.”
When asked if this meant only one graphical mode, the developer confirmed this to be the case. Perhaps the most surprising bit is that this applies to PC, but it could explain why the Steam listing explicitly estimates 30 FPS for both the Minimum and Recommended system requirements. Since it’s an uncapped frame rate, 60 frames per second is still possible, but that’s all the more concerning when considering optimization.
The response from various corners of the internet has been mixed thus far, but it’s been stewing for a while now. After all, Bethesda faced criticism for locking Starfield to 30 frames per second on consoles to prioritize a solid frame rate. Despite Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth having different graphical modes, it still faces criticism for the image quality of Performance Mode, with Quality Mode and 30 FPS recommended as the ideal way to play.
It goes hand in hand with opinions against the current console generation and how it promised all this power yet faces an increasing challenge in delivering 60 frames per second on the latest games. While it’s easy to outright blame players for wanting everything, one can understand the sentiment behind the disappointment.
After all, Sony and Microsoft marketed their consoles as 4K resolution machines, and big-budget games have faced further scrutiny if they don’t cater for that department as well. Between delivering bleeding-edge production values and dozens, if not hundreds, of hours of compelling gameplay, video game developers are thrust into situations where catering to everyone is becoming a losing battle.
It’s all the more notable in the case of Dragon’s Dogma 2. Blame the developer all you want, but they wanted the game to do much more. As a result, there are multiple locations to visit, exploration is now seamless, with no loading times when traveling from interiors to exteriors and vice versa. Thanks to the power of current gen consoles, the game is able to render a large number of NPCs and bosses on screen. It also allows for epic scenarios like a Griffin suddenly attacking at the entrance of a town, leading to capable nearby warriors lending their assistance.
Even seemingly inconsequential features for some, like realistic Pawn behavior and incorporating the Beastren with realistic fur. If that weren’t enough, it’s all unfolding on a massive map, with many towns and dense content. Interestingly, the developer revealed that the team hasn’t “measured it exactly”, and believes the world may end up being way larger.
Between having all of this or sacrificing it for the sake of a 60 FPS mode, I would go for the latter. However, game development isn’t something so binary. It also comes down to optimization – not just what the team can accomplish on their given budget and production plan, but also the technology (and multitudes of hardware configurations when factoring in the PC version). Offering so much potential content, to the extent that players may not even see a lot of it, is all the more challenging on top of all this.
It’s understandable for some to avoid 30 FPS when playing some games and always demand a higher frame rate, especially at a sharp resolution with little to no performance drops. You could point to titles like Horizon Forbidden West on PS5 as examples for others to follow. However, the fact is that all games aren’t made equal, following the same game design template with the same production workflows and engines. Not every game can offer ray tracing regardless of graphics mode, like Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, just like it doesn’t have a Pawn system or the Dragonsplague, which can go beyond your game and to other players.
There is a conversation to be had over performance in Dragon’s Dogma 2 if its 30 frames per second mode isn’t consistent. If PC players with far more powerful hardware than the recommended requirements see wildly varying performance due to the uncapped frame rate, the optimization should absolutely be called into question. Because at the end of the day, as much as there needs to be an understanding of the challenges of game development, it is a $70 title. Not everyone will care about the little details if it runs poorly and can’t even stick to its 30 FPS mandate.
Regardless of how Dragon’s Dogma 2 pans out, this certainly won’t be the last of complaints surrounding 30 FPS or the inability of some titles to deliver a consistent 60 FPS experience without some compromise (if they can deliver it at all). Gameplay and fun factor will always be the defining points for a worthwhile title, even if it runs at a lower-than-expected frame rate, but just as all games aren’t built the same, not everyone will have similar expectations. At the very least, the pressure is on for Dragon’s Dogma 2 to deliver on its current promises while being an entry into a genre that players truly love.
Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.
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