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There’s so many ways to ruin your Dragon’s Dogma 2 experience. If it’s not the rampant Dragonsplague infection neutralising your entire team of Pawns, it’s issues with save files resetting, and if it’s not that, it’s the absurd power scaling that lets you one-shot bosses. Yet, despite it all, the mechanic I’m having the most trouble with is high fives.
My main Pawn is a Warrior with lip fillers and a two-handed great sword. He oozes confidence, strength, and style. Yet for some reason, no matter how big or small, he always demands a high five at the end of each fight. It was fun at first, and I marvelled at the touch of intimacy and detailed game design. I thought that the next couple of times too. After a while though, it began to drag.
Sure, dapping up your Pawn is a good feeling. It’s a simple sign of recognition, and it goes to show the level of care that’s been put into the game. It’s even better when they high five each other, and it really lends to that interpersonal game design that so many people are gagging for right now. It’s a good feature, and it plays a lot into our Dragon’s Dogma 2 tips in which we suggest you get to know your party well. Where it really begins to hurt, though, is when the high fives start getting your Pawns killed, or worse yet, getting you killed.
I’ve had it three times now that I’ve defeated a host of enemies with the help of my Pawns. Feyd Rautha, my main side-kick and psychotic Warrior, has gone to high five me. The automatic animation begins, and the comically impossible scenario of my Arisen falling to her death begins soon after.
Above a body of water, next to a cliff ledge, or atop a tower’s battlements – nowhere is safe. I couldn’t help but find it amusing.
A few others have had the same experience: “I was trying to go loot something and the Pawn happened to put their fist up at the same time and it forces me to fall over a cliff ledge,” writes one player on a Steam Community discussion board. They follow up with a plea that “there needs to be an option to either turn it off or retain full movement of your character” to protect them.
Had I not also experienced the same moment of sheer absurdity, I’d have just thought they’d fallen themselves and were looking for an excuse.
While some have called it “cringe,” there’s no denying that the wider Dragon’s Dogma 2 community are absolutely loving the feature. It’s already become somewhat of a in-joke that your Pawns are desperate for your approval, and that the “Pawn dap-ups are 10/10.”
Personally, I think the high-fives are a fantastic feature. It makes small moments feel a lot more rewarding than normal, alongside building a concrete relationship between yourself and your Pawns. Despite my warm feelings towards them, there definitely needs to be some moderation here.
Maybe I don’t want to feel obliged to high-five my Pawn at the end of each battle. Maybe I want to leave him hanging, or maybe I really want to make him earn it. At least let me choose.
With all of Dragon’s Dogma 2’s performance issues and game-breaking bugs ready to get attention in the next patch, there’s little chance that this particular mechanic will ever change. Who knows, maybe I will begin to love the janky-ness of my own Pawn’s insecurity sending me plummeting to my death.
