Capcom Reveals F2P Dragon's Dogma Quest for PS Vita

In an interview with Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu, Hideaki Itsuno, director of the original Dragon's Dogma, was on hand to announce Dragon's Dogma Quest, a PS Vita installment which will be 2D and free to play.

Though the base concepts of Dragon's Dogma remain in Quest- the player is an "Arisen" and fights alongside NPCs, known as "pawns," in battle- there are marked differences in how the game plays out, including the fact that the Arisen no longer has a job class and instead commands a maximum of eight pawns in battle. Four of these pawns can belong to the player, while the other four must come from friends' parties. As pawns have individual job classes, players will be encouraged to mix and match certain party arrangements to match specific situations.

"Before you realize it," said Itsuno, "you'll be approaching fights with the same kind of strategic process as with the original game."

Obviously, microtransactions will be a factor in any free-to-play experience, though the only mentioned source of microtransactions are purchasable items for "people who don't have much time to play or don't want to spend a lot of time in this or that part of it," according to Itsuno. With that said, reading how battles in the game play out shows what could be another place where microtransactions will come in to play: pawn actions consume a set "cost," and while the player's maximum available cost can be increased with level-ups, "refilling energy" is the bread and butter of microtransactions and I wouldn't be surprised to see that here.

The downloadable title is currently only set for Japanese release, but a Capcom spokesperson informed Polygon that "we are currently evaluating if the title will be released in pan-western markets."

[Source: Polygon]