15
Games only need fast travel when they make travel "boring", says Dragon's Dogma 2 director
(www.rockpapershotgun.com)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 23 Jan 2024
15 points (100.0% liked)
Gaming
91 readers
1 users here now
founded 2 years ago
Travel is gonna become boring if you have to travel the same road multiple times in the course of the game even if you have a bunch of cool stuff along that road. Eventually, I won't give a shit about that stuff since I've seen it a million times. So I would hope there is still some kind of fast travel to go between places I have already been if the world is super big. Otherwise it's just gonna feel like you're padding the game for time to inflate a 10 hour story to take 40 hours to finish.
From the article:
Based on Dragon's Dogma 1's use of Ferrystones, as well as this mechanic returning along with oxcarts in the sequel, I think this director understands that there needs to be a balance. It's good when it's both properly implemented and has a purpose. You're right that nobody wants to run up and down the same roads countless times, but it's up to the devs implementing limited fast travel to make sure you won't have to. Then it's up to the player to decide whether fast travel is worth it for any given situation. Knowing when to use your fast travel and how to maximize it is a skill that you develop and should be rewarded for mastering.
But it also needs to have a purpose. In more arcadey games, I don't like worrying about resources like that. But in more grueling games like Dragon's Dogma, where the journey is often a very intentional part of the gameplay loop if not the main challenge itself, it fits right at home.