With Dragon's Dogma 2 hitting PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC later this month on March 22, I visited Capcom's San Francisco, California, office to play the game for several hours. You can read my preview impressions of Dragon's Dogma 2 here, but I also had the chance to speak with director Hideaki Itsuno, too. 

With more than a decade between the first Dragon's Dogma and its sequel, I was curious if he and his Capcom team approached the size of player offerings differently. If you stick to mostly the golden path – the main story campaign – of Dragon's Dogma, you're looking at around 37 hours, according to HowLongToBeat, which aggregates players' playtime for an average. Itsuno says to expect a similar length in the main narrative of Dragon's Dogma 2. 

"For players that only focus on the things [to] go through the [game's campaign], the playtime itself shouldn't change that dramatically from the first game," Itsuno tells me through a translator. "For the people that want to do everything, that see many things and are like, 'Oh, I want to do this thing, oh that looks interesting,' well, we put a lot of effort into adding as many elements as possible for this. There's many things that could catch players' attention and for those people, they will probably find their playtime significantly longer." 

For reference, a completionist run of Dragon's Dogma runs, on average, about 102 hours, according to HowLongToBeat, meaning Dragon's Dogma 2 likely offers more than a hundred hours of content to discover and play through if you seek it out. 

Dragon's Dogma 2 hits PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on March 22. 

For more, check out the latest Dragon's Dogma 2 gameplay trailer, and then find out why it's one of our most anticipated games of the year. After that, read about how Dragon's Dogma 2 will feature an uncapped framerate but no visual preset modes on consoles, and then read about why Dragon's Dogma 2 only has one save file. 

Are you going to sink 100 hours into Dragon's Dogma 2 this month? Let us know in the comments below!

Dragon's Dogma 2 hits PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on March 22, and when you boot it up for the first time, you might learn it only has one save file. TheGamer reported on that news after an IGN Japan preview from earlier this year revealed console players will be stuck with just one single save file, making things like reverting to old saves all but impossible. 

After playing the game myself for about three hours – read Game Informer's Dragon's Dogma 2 preview impressions here – I could definitely feel a friction with just one save file, but it's one I came to appreciate. Yes, Dragon's Dogma 2 is hard, extremely so in some ways. Dying can set you back some, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't want for the ability to revert saves (after saving right in front of a tough monster, for example). But it's clear Capcom has a vision with its difficulty and single save file; it makes your every action that much more impactful. 

However, when IGN Japan's preview revealed Dragon's Dogma 2 would have just one save file, some players began to worry how that might affect their playthrough. After playing the game myself, I was able to talk to director Hideaki Itsuno about this, and I learned it was intentional to encourage exploration. 

"It is indeed one save file," Itsuno tells me through a translator. "However, the game gives you more options. [It] gives you the option to load from the last inn you rested at, so in that regard, it's not a game where you won't have any possible way to go back. 

"Regarding what the thinking was behind that, it's really simple: we want to encourage exploration, and this is quite the opposite of what you get when you allow too much freedom in this regard." 

Itsuno gave me an example involving a cliff. If you are at a cliff of a discernible height, with multiple save options (like the ability to save right there and quickly revert back to it), you might just jump to see if you can make it. "That has quite the opposite effect of encouraging that exploration feel," Itsuno says. 

However, with just one save file, your thinking should shift. Jumping might result in death or unwanted damage, and that could be a setback. Of course, you can reload at the last inn you saved at but given how big Dragon's Dogma 2's world is (and how hard it can be to fast travel at times), you might not want to retrace your steps. So, instead of jumping without thought, you might analyze the cliff's height more closely or even decide to find a safer way down. 

"So that is the main reason: I really wanted to encourage the thrill of exploration, and that was the thinking behind the limit," he says. 

Dragon's Dogma 2 hits PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on March 22. 

For more, check out the latest Dragon's Dogma 2 gameplay trailer, and then find out why it's one of our most anticipated games of the year. After that, read about how Dragon's Dogma 2's main story campaign is about as long as the first game's and then read about how Dragon's Dogma 2 has an uncapped framerate on consoles. 

How do you feel about Dragon's Dogma 2 having just one save file? Let us know in the comments below!