Capcom have put out the announcement trailer for upcoming free-to-play MMO, Dragon’s Dogma Online.
The game is part of the Dragon’s Dogma series, which encompasses the original Dragon’s Dogma, which was released in 2012 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and its expansion pack Dark Arisen.
The original Dragon’s Dogma was a mostly single player experience, with elements of multiplayer in the form of AI controlled pawns that would assist players in their adventures. Players could summon a huge variety of user-created pawns to form a party of up to four. This, coupled with asynchronous boss battles that players could compete in, formed the extent of the game’s multiplayer.
As the title implies, Dragon’s Dogma Online will allow players to form parties among themselves (pawns are also available, though) to go around questing and murdering the local flora and fauna. The game will feature an open world, with each lobby able to support up to a hundred players.
The bad news is that only Japanese players will be able to enjoy Dragon’s Dogma Online when it is released sometime this year, as Capcom has no plans to make the game available to the west. This is a somewhat perplexing and unfortunate decision, as Dragon Dogma‘s arcade-style combat, which allows players to scale large monsters to access their weak points instead of hacking away at their ankles, would make it an excellent alternative for many gamers to the flood of boring fantasy MMOs out there.
Dragon’s Dogma Online will be available for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and PC upon release. Judging from the reveal trailer, it doesn’t look as if Capcom have spent any time updating the series’s visuals since Dark Arisen.