It’s easy to lose track of time in Dragon’s Dogma 2. There is simply so much to do in Capcom’s action RPG. One minute you are waking up at the inn ready to start your long hike to the next town, and the next thing you you got lost on a detour through a cave system, it’s nighttime, and you’ve let an entire day pass you by. That time loss isn’t great when some quests require you to show up at designated times or run the risk of failing them. Most players, me included, might wonder how you can actually tell time in the game beyond the movement of the sun. Well, it turns out there is a clock in Dragon’s Dogma 2 and it’s probably been staring you in the face.
Over the course of your many journeys in Dragon’s Dogma 2, you will likely go to its pause menu a lot. This menu is where you can look at all your quests, examine the world map, check your storage, and equip gear. It also has a clock, though the game doesn’t spell that out for you and it isn’t as simple as a text box saying “currently it is 1:00 p.m.” No, instead there’s a dial depicting the times of day. When looking at the pause menu, the map in the center of the screen is bordered by a large ring showing the passage of day and night—there’s your clock.
In keeping with Dragon’s Dogma 2’s vibes, the dial is reminiscent of medieval depictions of the “canonical hours,” which determined times for prayer and work in Christianity (something that you can see in Xbox’s murder mystery game Pentiment!) That means that it isn’t as straightforward as some players might want, but as the game’s NPCs only ask you to show up in broad periods of time such as around midnight or between dusk and dawn, the clock gets the job done. To tell when exactly it is in your game look at the marker at the very top of the dial.
By keeping tabs on the clock, players should be able to maximize their productivity and avoid showing up late to an important quest. If you don’t want to spend your day fighting monsters ahead of an important quest then you can always elect to pass the time. Sitting at a bench and dozing off lets you pass time till dawn, midday, dusk, and midnight. You can also rest at an inn or a campsite to pass time till morning or nightfall with the added bonus of regaining health. Finally, you could just talk to a local barkeep and pass the time with a drink.
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