Read this before you play: Dragon’s Dogma 2 character creation actually matters for your stats

Look, I know we all like to make some absolute monstrosities in the character creator when we boot up a new game, but you might want to think about how that’s going to affect your day-to-day life in Dragon's Dogma 2 when you start it up.

One of the first thing’s you’ll be asked to do in the game – and what many people have already done, since the game’s character creator was released early for vain players to tinker with their avatars ahead of time – is generate your in-game player. The Arisen. The character that will represent you when you take to the lands of Vermund and Bhattal to unpick a knotty story of royal intrigue and sinister fantasy meddling.

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But be aware: the creations you make early on will have ramifications throughout the rest of the game. They’re nothing too major; the race you choose and the class(es) you select won’t lock you out of certain areas or quest lines, but the more atomic elements of combat and exploration will be impacted by the way you choose to shape your Arisen.

In an interview with USAToday (syndicated by the Reno Gazette Journal), game director Hideaki Itsuno noted that various elements of the character creator are used to determine how various stats are measured in the field.

“So in Dragon's Dogma 2, you won't have any situations where you won't be able to enter a place because of your body type,” he said. “However, body type will still have an impact on your character's stats or characteristics. If your character is taller then there will be characteristics that match that. If your character is shorter, there will be characteristics that match that.”

So what does this mean? As I explain in our Dragon’s Dogma 2 ‘how to solve the Max Enc. problem’ guide, body type can impact the amount of weight you can carry, or how fast your stamina recovers. There are some other elements we’ve managed to divine from our hands-on time with the game, pre-launch, too.

Here’s a rough idea of how it breaks down, as far as I can tell:

Weight:

• Affects stamina regen (the lighter you are, the quicker it recovers)
• Affects max stamina (the heavier you are, the more the max stat)
• Affects carry weight (the heavier you are, the more you can carry)

Height:

• Affects hit box size (the smaller you are, the harder you are to hit)
• Affects run speed (the taller you are, the quicker you can sprint)

Arm/Leg length:

• Arm length affects weapon reach (the longer your arms, the longer your reach)
• Leg length affects run speed (the taller you are, the quicker you run)

So, for example, if carrying capacity is important to you, making a larger, heavier character is a wise choice – though just be aware that this will come at a disadvantage in other areas, since lighter characters regenerate stamina at a faster rate and typically have lesser stamina usage overall.

This means that if you intend to play as a more physical class, making a beefier character is the way to go. Or if you want to play as a mage that can stay at a safe distance from enemies and more rapidly escape from danger, you’re going to want to be tall and lean.

Don’t overthink it, though; the final stats don’t take too much stock in this – it’s not like min/max-ing your arm length is gong to be a matter of life and death when you’re face to face with a minotaur with four life bars. It just means there’s a more distinct level of realism when your stumpy arms don’t quite connect from a couple feet away and your weapon swings plink off nearby rocks, instead.

I played as a small Fighter Arisen with a tall, strong Mage pawn. It’s fun getting launched off the shield of my brutish hired pawns, clinging to a cyclops’ head and stabbing him in the eye – but I’m sure I’d have had just as much capacity to do that if I was a gangly Thief, too.

Similarly to Monster Hunter, the way hitboxes work in this game are glorious and represented well, in-game. So if you want to be a pluckly little fighter ducking under golem’s arms and rushing up their backs to stab them in their glowing weak spots, it’ll all be very readable on-screen.

Bear that in mind when you’re making your characters – but don’t let it ruin your fun. Games are supposed to be immersive, after all.