Capcom has removed Denuvo, the oft-derided digital rights management software, from Dragon’s Dogma 2 ahead of the upcoming Dark Arisen expansion. It’s unclear at the moment if it will be replaced with another piece of software to protect against piracy, but with the anecdotes of Denuvo impacting performance being rife, players are taking this as a win.
According to the SteamDB changelogs, Denuvo was removed from Dragon’s Dogma 2 on Wednesday September 2, and while there are reports of another DRM (Enigma specifically) being added in its stead, this is currently unconfirmed.
We spoke about the potential pitfalls of Denuvo in our article here, with the crux of the issue being the “perceived impact on frame rates and loading times within games.” Although the issue allegedly lies with the implementation of the software, rather than the DRM itself, the end result is often the same for players.
As well as ditching Denuvo, Dragon’s Dogma 2 recently released a huge patch, making some other big changes. The UI alone has received a mini-overhaul, with equipment filters, favorites, and a handy icon showing when you can grab an enemy being the tip of the iceberg when it comes to quality-of-life additions.
There is a list of vocation changes as long as my arm, with each job getting a bit of love – Tricksters can now float, which is obviously fantastic. Enemies like the Chopper have had animation improvements and attack pattern adjustments, making them more satisfying to fight, and Capcom has had the bug spray out, fixing several quests that weren’t acting as they should.
The Dragon’s Dogma 2 patch notes can be found here – you might want to get acquainted with the colossal list of changes before you jump into the Dark Arisen expansion, which comes out on Friday, October 9.