“This is one of the basic original ideas of the first game that I don’t plan on straying from,” says director Hideaki Itsuno.

Capcom and director Hideaki Itsuno’s vision for the original Dragon’s Dogma was to develop a purely single player experience that, through the use of its AI-controlled companions known as Pawns, would emulate the feeling of an MMORPG with other players. The upcoming, long overdue Dragon’s Dogma 2 is set to expand on its predecessor in a number of ways – from a larger open world to how much content it’ll offer and much more – but that focus on delivering a purely single player experience isn’t changing.

Speaking in a recent interview with Automaton, when asked about the possibility of multiplayer options in Dragon’s Dogma 2 given the different player roles its many Vocations will encourage, Itsuno said that no such options have been considered for the game, and that he doesn’t intend to deviate from his original vision of crafting a solo experience that captures the feel of multiplayer games.

“We have not been considering any form of multiplayer for Dragon’s Dogma 2,” Itsuno said. “I think online games have their good sides; just as offline games have their own. But the concept of the original game was to incorporate fun gameplay elements not found in conventional offline games while removing all the ‘hassles’ of online games. This is one of the basic original ideas of the first game that I don’t plan on straying from.”

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is set to launch on March 22 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. On consoles, it will only feature a single graphics mode with an uncapped 30 FPS frame rate target. The game’s character creator is available to everyone for free, and will allow you to carry over your created Arisen and Pawns to the full game.