Into Free
I finished Dragon's Dogma II yesterday.
Don't keep reading if you don't want spoilers.
I've got a lot of disconnected thoughts I'm gonna try to write through here so this is gonna be messy, sorry.
The credits of Dragon's Dogma II are very involved. In a way it reminds me of a lot of the interactive credits that some games of the Gamecube/PS2/Xbox generation. I think that was when the trend was most prevalent, between Super Monkey Ball, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Katamari Damacy, and more. It was definitely a trend for more arcadey games or games with direct arcade backgrounds for sure. Hideaki Itsuno, director of both Dragon's Dogma games had a strong background in arcade games with Capcom. His first directing jobs were even on Star Gladiator and Rival Schools. Credits have a kind of reward connotation to them in games. Once you've beaten a game you get credits. I remember Hideki Kamiya talking about the influence arcade games had on his own game design philosophy, and specifically mentioned how at the arcade when he beat a game he wouldn't watch the ending cutscene or credits cause it looked cool to ignore the reward. He even has games that feature playable credits like Bayonetta and The Wonderful 101. Dragon's Dogma doesn't feel like it would indulge in this trend, and when it came to the first entry it didn't, but II does, multiple times. In similar fashion to the first game, there's a point where the player in the role of the Arisen, finally goes up against a dragon. The Dragon. An Arisen's journey starts when their heart is taken by a dragon, and they must seek out the dragon in order to defeat it to reclaim their heart. They make this journey alongside pawns, one main pawn the player creates themself that accompanies the Arisen on their journey, and pawns recruited from other players. After the dragon fight in Dragon's Dogma II, credits start rolling much like the first game, and also much like the first game, the game isn't over yet, at least not if you want it to be. You take control of your Arisen as they walk towards their rightful seat on the kingdom's throne, looking at a crowd of familiar faces from the journey that lead here. There's someone that stands out though, and the game requires you to go over to them mid credits in order to continue down another thread before the game is well and truly over. Turns out the tie between Arisen and Dragon is what keeps the cycle of the world in check, all according to the pathfinder, the character that players must talk to in order to leave the credits, and continue further to break this cycle and learn more about the truth of the world. What happens next feels like a meta commentary on the nature of games. The Arisen ends up on the back of what appears to be an even greater Dragon the next time credits start rolling again. Through a monologue from the pathfinder, we learn of how the Dragon represents oblivion, and the Arisen is chosen as a counteracting force to keep oblivion in check cycle after cycle and everyone else has their own specific role to fulfill as determined by the pathfinder. At the end of the pathfinders monologue, our pawn reveals themself to have gained a small will of their own as they open up this final dragon to be struck down by the Arisen, and as we finish off this dragon, we learn this dragon was actually the pathfinder all along, freeing the world of the pathfinder's guidance. It's hard to not see Itsuno himself as Dragon's Dogma's pathfinder, and this message feels especially poignant with his recent departure from Capcom. It also makes one think about what a game becomes when it's in the hands of the people playing it, the pawn gaining a small will of their feels like it's pointing at this especially. The way pawns work, they don't require the active participation of a developer or even the original player to continue to persist. They can be recruited by other players, and change in some small ways through that process. If I don't open Dragon's Dogma II ever again, my pawn Debbie will continue helping other Arisens, and that's a lovely thought.
Thanks Itsuno.