Dragon's Dogma 2's producers say balancing feedback between Western and Japanese fans has proved genuinely difficult, since the two audiences want opposite things from the game. Western players tend to enjoy the RPG's "friction" — its lack of hand-holding, absence of features like lock-on combat, and general inconvenience — while Japanese and other Asian players are far less keen on being inconvenienced during their playthroughs, creating a design tension the team must navigate carefully.

Speaking to Famitsu, producers Yoshiaki Hirabayashi and Naoto Oyama explained that when feedback was categorised and ranked by volume, the top priorities for Japanese players and the rest of the world were directly opposed. Hirabayashi stressed that friction was never meant to be the game's core identity; rather, the goal is to give players a sense of accomplishment, such as the choice between travelling to a destination on foot or by faster means. The interview comes as the game has just received an update addressing complaints about its Dragonsplague system, following an earlier patch that made fast travel easier, and ahead of the upcoming Dark Arisen expansion.