Dragon's Dogma Developers Answer Your Questions
Hey Dragon's Dogma Wiki! I have returned with the questions you have asked the developers! So, without further ado, let's get some answers for you all!
1. What was the biggest influence in the creative aspect of the developmental process? Certain games, experiences, and/or an apple falling from a tree? -- Zumato
Answered by the director, Hideaki Itsuno
"Before we began developing the game, the biggest influences came from "Oblivion", "Fable 2" and the "Dragon Quest" series. Games such as "Doko Demo Issho", "Post Pet" and "Tamagochi" gave us ideas for the Pawn system. During development, the game had more influences from the internal team's own creative ideas and determination rather than other games or demos. The imagery for the fantasy world originated from the book "The Warlock of Firetop Mountain"."
2. What's the favorite snack among the team? This is very crucial.... -- Zumato
Answered by the director, Hideaki Itsuno
"When the team got hungry at night they often ate "Umai Bou". Someone on the team volunteered to buy these in bulk and then opened up a team-only candy store.
- Umai Bou = Translates to "Delicious Stick". A small, puffed, cylindrical corn snack that resides at the bottom of most Japanese convenience store candy shelves. Its consistency is similar to Cheetos. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umaib%C5%8D)"
3. Dragon’s Dogma shows various influences from many of the team's previous projects. I wonder if the developers learnt anything in the creation of Dragon's Dogma that they might take into the creation process of new games? Were there any favorite features they'd like to use again? --NDenizen
Answered by the director, Hideaki Itsuno
"That would be the Pawn system, the "grabbing" action, and the character customization system with its high level of freedom. I think these could be used in various other games."
4. Dragon's Dogma foregoes multiplayer for a more asynchronous online system. What are the teams thoughts on this type of online feature? Are there any ideas they thought of putting into this game that couldn't make it to the final project? --NDenizen
Answered by the director, Hideaki Itsuno
"During the game's initial development phase, this concept was not very well understood even by the internal team. As development progressed, the team began to understand and liked how this (the Pawn system) was a good fit with the open-world RPG game and what makes this game distinct. Due to the large amount of work to implement the "edit creator", this was cut from the game, but we thought it would be interesting if you could be able to equip a Pawn with a quest. There were also plans to have a Pawn act as an agent for a contagious disease within the network. If we are able to make a continuation to the game, we would like to try implementing these ideas."
5. Whose idea was the Chamber of Fate? That place is infamous. --NDenizen
Answered by the director, Hideaki Itsuno
"Did you all struggle with this place? I believe that is an area with the hardest set of enemies in the game. I too cleared this section, but only while crying the entire way through. I think this part of the game was put together by some of our team members with less experience, but I was surprised at how good (difficult?) this set of enemies came together."
6. Do you plan on making any crossovers with other Capcom games as future DLC? As a Monster Hunter fan I would love to hunt a Rathian and Rathalos Dragon's Dogma style and walk around as a warrior vocation with Rathalos armor and the Red Wing great sword. --DrackTheHunter
Answered by the director, Hideaki Itsuno
"We do not have any plans at this time, but I would like to look into it if we have a lot of requests. If there are such requests, please send your feedback via Capcom-Unity."
7. I love the Dragon's Dogma soundtrack, the music is 50% of the enjoyment in the boss battles. Why was the decision made to bring in Inon Zur to do parts of the soundtrack? -- Anon
Answered by the sound designer, Tomoya Kishi
"The Dragon's Dogma soundtrack, while it still feels cohesive, required that we take several approaches to it. Inon Zur has the talent to make dynamic pieces of music and we wanted to bring that certain something to the Dragon's Dogma score, so we decided to use him for the job. As you can hear, I think the final result, turned out to be an amazing musical composition."
8. Pawns are a great help in the earlier levels, however their usefulness fades beyond a certain level (primarily influenced by player knowledge of each enemy type and how to approach them), and nothing beats playing directly with a friend instead of their pawn. I understand the technical changes for such a thing are likely far beyond the scope of any DLC for the current title, but what can you tell us about the possibility of seeing full cooperative multiplayer in the sequel? Even if only in the post-game; the Everfall seems to be a place where past generations of Arisen converge, and possibly a place where the infinite worlds might intersect. -- Anon
Answered by the director, Hideaki Itsuno
"I think that is a good idea. I will try to look into this."
9. Do you have any expansion DLCs Planed? Will there be new elite boss encounters- like the Ur-Dragon? -- Grizlapoli
Answered by the director, Hideaki Itsuno
"We have not announced anything at this time but please stay tuned for additional information in the future."