One of Dragon’s Dogma 2’s more divisive features is how its fast travel is quite limited, which is for the better in my mind. Here, we’re going to look at why that change works in Dragon’s Dogma 2 and how limiting fast travel would work in other games.
While Dragon’s Dogma 2 doesn’t completely limit fast travel functionality, it still deemphasizes the feature itself. This can be felt in the rarity of Ferrystones, but this is by design. The world itself, enemy variety and performance issues aside, feels alive in the many roaming enemies, NPCs, and Pawns.
And because of how good the combat feels, there is a lot of joy in traveling the lands, looting, fighting, retreating, and protecting. That’s especially true as you meander from one custom-placed marker to another. The following games would likely improve with a world design that’s more simulated and alive, alongside more limited fast travel.
Starfield
Starfield is a game of dual identities. On one hand, Starfield is heavily designed around fast travel, allowing you to easily skip the sections of your game where you can fly your own ship and dock others. On the other, there are small cutscenes for every transition if you choose to not fast travel.
That second part is the more immersive one for sure, even if the scene transitions are jarring at best. Starfield would have been a more immersive experience if the journey itself had been more cohesive and authentic as you travel from planet to space and back to a planet again. This is especially true once you’re on the planet’s surface because aside from some slightly roaming creatures, there is no “moving or living” aspect of the section of the planet you’re on.
It’s just a series of points of interest that don’t have any relation between one another.
The Mainline Elder Scrolls Games
As of Skyrim, fast travel became very regular in the Elder Scroll series as points of interest were discovered across the map. Many miles of walking could easily be skipped, as you would teleport to the closest location to where you wanted to go. This is a shame when Skyrim’s world is certainly one of the more living, with roaming NPCs and dragons that own the skies, putting you on edge, not knowing when they would land.
The next Elder Scrolls should take a page from Dragon’s Dogma 2 and make points of interest something you have to mark for yourself on a map that you can’t teleport to. With the right design, it would be an absolute joy to make the journey from various towns and cities yourself, as the world and its inhabitants move around.
Baldur’s Gate 3
Baldur’s Gate 3 closely conveys the spirit of Dungeons and Dragons. The only problem is that most of the time, the world is but a snapshot of pre-scripted events, action, and dialogue. The game and its world are less of a simulation and something far more scripted, always waiting for you to arrive.
That is fine for what the game is, and for what the game is, fast travel works because going from A to B and back again doesn’t throw much at you in terms of encounters that you haven’t already stumbled upon. That may one day change with future content and mods. If it does, no fast traveling would be in the spirit of Dungeons and Dragons, unless you have the spells for it.
Light No Fire
Light No Fire is Hello Games’ next crack at the open world, survival sandbox adventure genre. No Man’s Sky has become a universal (haha) hit with a fast travel system that makes sense for the game’s setting. Light No Fire is primed to be a bit different. As an online game that takes place on a single, large planet, Light No Fire passing on fast travel to instead ride horses and flying dragons seems like a good idea.
If what Hello Fresh claims becomes true, most things found and built on the planet will be persistent, so exploration becomes a key focal point. As you trek from one side of the planet to the other, who knows who you’ll meet or what you’ll find along the way! It’s something that hasn’t really been attempted before on such a scale, and I’m excited to see how alive the world itself feels with everyone on a single plane of existence.
For more like this, check out our piece on the best games like Dragon’s Dogma 2.
