“In order to make each ability stand out, we narrowed down the range of actions for each vocation and buffed them,” says Hideaki Itsuno.

From newcomers like the Mystic Spearhand and the Trickster to returning favourites like the Fighter and the Warrior, Dragon’s Dogma 2 is set to offer a number of different Vocations for players to play as, each offering a completely different play style. Unlike the first game, however, in the sequel, each Vocation is going to be much more limited in what it’ll be able to do, in that each of them will generally specialize in a single weapon type.

Why exactly was that change made though? According to game director Hideaki Itsuno, it’s all about providing a more balanced action experience. Speaking in a recent interview with Automaton, Itsuno said that Dragon’s Dogma 2 limits the weapons that a Vocation can use while also buffing them compared to how they functioned in the first game, as a result of which they’re “more interesting and emotionally engaging to use” this time around. Meanwhile, with Vocations now having much more specialized abilities, they will also better encourage different play styles.

“In an action game, the more versatile a Vocation is, the less powerful it can be,” Itsuno said. “After all, if one Vocation were great at everything, it would become the only choice, compromising the balance of the whole game. Therefore, in order to make each ability stand out, we narrowed down the range of actions for each Vocation and buffed them. This makes each Vocation more interesting and emotionally engaging to use. To accomplish this, we categorized Vocations into melee, long-range, and support types and made them as strong as possible in their respective fields of specialty, so that they can offer different kinds of playing experiences.”

There is, of course, the new Warfarer Vocation, which will be the exception to the rule and allow players to use multiple different weapon types. The tradeoff, however, is that the Vocation will also be weaker than its counterparts.

“The new Warfarer Vocation will be able to use all weapons, but it will be more vulnerable,” Itsuno said. “We balanced out this vocation by making it difficult to draw out its strength without developing other Vocations and statuses.”

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is out on March 22 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.