During the recent Capcom Highlights showcase, one particular quote from Dragon's Dogma 2 director Hideaki Itsuno caught everyone's attention. He stated: "Over 1,000 characters inhabit the world [of Dragon's Dogma 2], each with their own unique stories and motivations." That's a lot of NPCs.
And apparently, you can forge relationships with them, which will in turn give you access to quests, and directly impact the game's dynamic open world. "The [game's] world is a complex web of human relationships, and the player's choices have consequences," Itsuno continues. Honestly, it's all sounding rather ambitious.
But here's the kicker: NPCs can die. As in, if you lure a griffon back to town and your best mates are hanging around, they'll try to help you fight it — and if they're killed, they're dead and gone. "If there’s an NPC you care for in a town, you will need to protect them as you fight, or hold them and run," Itsuno told Automaton. He goes on to explain that the development team wanted death to have meaning, as it makes the game's world feel more alive.
You will, however, have a brief window to revive an NPC if you're in possession of a wakestone — a revival item that also existed in the original Dragons Dogma.
Everything we've heard about Dragon's Dogma 2 suggests that it's going to be shooting for that Bethesda-style, dynamic open world crown, where numerous systems come together to create a world that feels reactive. Hopefully Capcom manages to pull it off.