Games only need fast travel when they make travel "boring", says Dragon's Dogma 2 director

rockpapershotgun.com:

Ahhh, fast travel: the opinion generator. Speaking to IGN, Dragon's Dogma 2 director Hideaki Itsuno threw his own hat into the ring, saying that he's keen to avoid fast travel in DD2 and would prefer that "players travel normally and experience the world around them". If you're someone who argues all games should let you teleport to the objective, then Itsuno thinks you're wrong. Hey, he doesn't mess about, and I don't disagree with him, as long as the game isn't actually wasting my time.

In the interview, Itsuno goes on to say that travel is, "only an issue because your game is boring", and all you've got to do is to "make travel fun". For him, the world is there to be discovered because there are things to be discovered. He talks about forcing players into "blind situations" and "stumbling across someone and something will happen".

Unlike a lot of games nowadays, Dragon's Dogma 2 and its predecessor don't feature the sort of fast travel where you blink between markers on a map. In both games, you need to buy pricey Ferrystones that only warp you to designated points on the map. DD2 is expanding on this slightly by adding oxcarts, which will only allow travel along specific routes. The catch? Oxen and carts aren't as solid as, say, galvanised steel on wheels. This means you're susceptible to bandit and Griffin attacks.

Dragon's Dogma key developer Kento Kinoshita puts their perspective on travel really neatly, I think. "There are a lot of rules in real life that are needed to make a system possible, and ignoring those rules makes things seem less realistic, or less valuable." And for the record, Itsuno does say that he thinks fast travel is "convenient" and "good" when done right.

I'd tend to agree with both Kinoshita and Itsuno here, as fast travel can make for a nice compromise and something of a treat in keeping with the world you've built. I like when you're warped fairly close to your intended spot, and not directly on top of it. This makes for a bit of a