Dragon’s Dogma 2’s NPCs Caused Technical Issues In-Game Because Of Their “Thoughts”

Since then, the game's updates have now resolved the issue.

By Ahmed Mansoor October 20, 2024

Dragon's Dogma 2 Is Not Your Average JRPG | Image Source: WallpaperCG

Story Highlights

Dragon’s Dogma 2 was released to fantastic critical acclaim this year, coming as a sequel of the first Dragon’s Dogma.
As per Capcom, the game once put excess load on players’ CPUs because of a fairly strange reason.
Given the way the JRPG is designed, the collective “thoughts” of NPCs started to cause tech issues in-game.

Ever since it released, Dragon’s Dogma 2 does not take long to clarify to the player that they’re not playing a regular JPRG. The game’s world is so dynamic and evolving, that NPCs outside of your character’s focus have their own lives, daily schedules, tasks, and even romantic relationships that you can watch unfold before your very eyes. In a way, the title’s NPCs are as alive as they get in a game.

Speaking to Famitsu in an interview, Capcom when asked to describe the type of changes made to the game to address excess CPU load problems, explained,

In this game, CPU power is allocated to process the thoughts of each NPC and their impact on the character’s physics calculations. Therefore, in sequences where many NPCs appear at the same time, such as in towns, the load on the CPU was very high, which affected the frame rate. Because the CPU was the bottleneck, reducing the load on the GPU side, such as lowering the resolution, had little effect on improving the frame rate.”

As such, the developer team took to “fine adjustments” of NPC thoughts, altering the process’ execution order so playability improves. A recently arriving updates reflects these enhancements, making the title comfortably playable at 60 FPS on both the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S as well.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 Is Now Readying Up For The PS5 Pro

Romance In Dragon's Dogma 2 using gifts — Dragon’s Dogma 2 Lets You Romance Multiple Characters | Image Source: eXputer

The PlayStation 5 Pro, upon its arrival on November 7, is about to welcome Dragon’s Dogma 2 with open arms, as the “PS5 Pro Enhanced” label is soon about to be slapped onto the JRPG. It’s certainly going to be exciting coursing through Vermund and Battahl with even better performance and visuals than the game’s existing version, which too is nothing to sleep on.

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eXputer reviewed Dragon’s Dogma 2 as it made landfall on March 22, 2024, for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. The action-adventure’s slick combat and gameplay freedom were praised, along with a highly diverse open-world system that sports no pre-determined script to follow.

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