Dragon's Dogma 2 expands the original game's absolutely daft NPC affinity system
One of the sillier aspects of the original Dragon's Dogma was accidentally falling head over heels for some rando innkeeper, and having them appear aside you as your sweetheart during the end credits, much to the surprise of many players who didn't realise they were hitting on every NPC they did a favour for.
The game's Affinity system saw NPCs organically forming an attachment to players when you interacted with them, gave them things or carried out tasks for them. Towards the end of the game, one NPC is selected as "Beloved" and promptly abducted by a dragon for you to quest forth and rescue. There are a few characters who are positioned more obviously as romanceables, but the brilliance of the system is that you can raise your Affinity with pretty much anybody. If you want to end the game staring passionately into the eyes of the court jester or that hearty bloke who runs the armour shop, it's within your power.
The Affinity system returns in Dragon's Dogma 2 and is considerably more involved, according to series director Hideaki Itsuno. "There will be a lot of it, and it will be even more pronounced," he told Automaton in a new interview today. "It's almost the entire reason why we made the game open world.
"There will be many events that occur [or] don't occur depending on Affinity, and relationships between NPCs will also be important," Itsuno added. "For example, if you raise your Affinity with the parent of a child, your Affinity with the child will increase as well. On the other hand, NPCs can also fall out with each other. We've "powered-up" the Affinity feature a lot... and sneaked in a lot of things."
The sting in the tail here is that Dragon's Dogma 2 NPCs aren't just sympathetic emotional beings, they're also eminently killable. "Our basic premise since the start of the series has been 'creating a fantasy world simulator,' so NPCs dying is a normal occurrence," Itsuno commented later. "If there's an NPC you care for in a town, you will need to
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