When I'd played my first few hours of Dragon's Dogma 2, I was convinced the new RPG had almost nothing in common with Elden Ring, or any of FromSoftware's Souls games for that matter. But then I saw a clip of a player who was casually minding their own business getting yanked off a bridge by a giant bird and tossed to their death. Dragon's Dogma 2 may not really play like a Soulslike, but its world is designed to surprise, challenge, and even occasionally troll you, just like Elden Ring's.
Unlike most open world games, neither Dragon's Dogma 2 or Elden Ring go out of their way to explain themselves. Capcom has its own feel for action combat, the thing that so many other games have attempted to copy wholesale from FromSoftware. But otherwise they're kindred spirits, with confusing UIs and quests that are more like riddles than checklists.
