Dragon’s Dogma 2 is an amazing open-world RPG — we’ve said it many times in our own Dragon’s Dogma 2 PS5 Review. But there’s also no mention of how unoptimized the title is on a technical level. As highlighted in our aforementioned review, the game’s frame rate can be an issue. Most of the time, it hovers between 30 and 45 frames per second, which is finebut it’s certainly not the steady 60fps you want from a game that’s so action-heavy.

In addition, the frame rate can Really take a twist in locations where there is a lot going on. It is a disappointing state of affairs, and the last Digital Foundry the analysis agrees very well.

Let’s start with the positives: Dragon’s Dogma 2 runs in checkered 4K on PS5 and generally looks fantastic. The report also praises the title’s implementation of ray traced global illumination (RTGI), which allows the game to use some really cool lighting effects. In short, it can be a graphic release.

However, with no graphics options available on the PS5 – not even a rendering mode, which we still find confusing – you’re left at the mercy of the game’s uncapped framerate. Digital Foundry points out that this is a demanding title by design. It’s heavily dependent on CPU usage, with enemies and NPCs requiring a lot of processing power — especially in densely populated areas like cities.

This is a big part of why the game’s framerate takes a noticeable hit when walking around town. Especially on PS5, the title tries to ease the stress a bit by significantly reducing the draw distance to NPCs — and the result is some annoying situations where townspeople can simply disappear a few feet away from where your character is standing.

Digital Foundry sums things up nicely: “Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a great graphical achievement then, but is unfortunately let down by some configuration issues on consoles and heavily CPU-bound performance across platforms.”

Whether it’s by adding graphical settings to the PS5 or through better optimization, the bottom line is that Capcom just needs to improve the game’s performance. It would be a shame for Dragon’s Dogma 2 to be left in such a state.