It seems to be a bit of a trend in the gaming industry to hire actors to narrate the expository background of your game, as Bandai Namco proved a few months ago with the hilarious concept of Brian Cox narrating the hilarious and somewhat convoluted history of the Tekken franchise in preparation for Tekken 8. Now, Capcom seems to be following suit as Ian McShane, who many contemporary readers probably recognize from the hit John Wick movie series, narrates the background of Dragon’s Dogma as we get ready for Dragon’s Dogma 2’s release.

Hearing Ian McShane explain concepts like The Rift and the pawn system in-universe is charming and funny in and of itself, and prospective players new to the series will no doubt get a kick out of hearing this and seeing the world’s background explained for them. But for returning vets, it’s not like there’s nothing there for us, there is some cool footage here, including a cutscene of the dragon Grigori stealing an Arisen’s heart, likely in a prologue similar to how the players were introduced to the world in the first game. Funnily enough, the Arisen in this cutscene is the default Arisen model, the same scenario which happened in the first game who turned out to be the Seneschal at the end. One wonders if history will repeat itself here, as McShane’s narration explains, in Dragon’s Dogma history is ever repeating.

The bits of world exposition and exploration themselves are also rather interesting to watch. The gondolas that traverse the desert and massive expanses look gorgeous, as well as the reveal of elves in the setting who speak an unknown language.

Of course, one can’t forget the true stars of the show: the monsters. Several monsters show up in this preview, but the real reveals are the medusa, the minotaur, and the dullahan; new monsters to the mainline series and no doubt very fun fights that players can look forward to.

If you’re excited to slay monsters, be sure to follow Dragon’s Dogma 2 and buy the game for Playstation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam as it releases in just over a week on March 22^nd.