One ofDragon’s Doma 2’sbiggest sticking points is its performance, with many disappointed about the game’s uncapped frame rate of 30fps on consoles. Many feared that this would cause performance issues,fears that have been justified after recent reviews, and Capcom has acknowledged these problems in a recent statement.
According toIGN, Capcom has explained that some of the performance issues are down to the large amount of CPU usage the game needs to calculate the “physical presence” of characters in the game. In areas where there are lots of characters, such as busy town and villages, CPU usage “can be very high,” leading to performance and frame rate problems.
That’s good news for Dragon’s Dogma fans, as we now know the cause of the frame rate problems - and that Capcom is working on ways to improve them - but that’s very, very bad news for the game’s citizenry. After hearing that NPCs are the cause of the game’s performance issues, fans are now planning to write up a master list of “inconsequential” characters that players can safely bump off to improve the game’s frame rate (thanksGamesRadar).
Obviously, you could kill everyone in a town or city to help the frame rate, but you’re risking losing out on potential side quests and interesting plots. Unlike the first game,every NPC in Dragon’s Dogma 2 permanently diesonce they kick the bucket, meaning it will be possible to wipe out entire communities if you’re willing. If one of those people happens to be a side quest giver, you either revive them from the morgue during a brief window, or your quest is gone for good.
With this list, players are hoping that they’ll be able to slaughter the basic NPCs while keeping the important ones alive, and when it comes to “inconsequential” NPCs, nobody is safe. One Reddit user already has plans to wipe out every NPC who isn’t a shopkeeper, women and children be damned. They’re also planning to take out every guard too, as they won’t have anyone to protect once the culling is complete.
You’re not safe even if youarea quest giver. Reddit user Nameless_Default shares their horrible idea of turning in a side quest, getting the reward, and then killing them immediately after for a performance boost. It’s going to be an absolute bloodbath on launch day, and all to appease the frame rate Gods. Have mercy on your fellow man, Dragon’s Dogma fans.
