Dragon’s Dogma 2 romance: Is the Beloved System back?

Most larger roleplaying games have a way for you to get closer to or even romance characters during your journey, and Dragon’s Dogma 2 is no different—with one major catch. That catch plays into the previous game’s Beloved System and how Capcom changed romantic options in DD2. 

In the original Dragon’s Dogma, the Beloved System was used to determine who and how your Arisen could romance certain companion characters by building Affinity with them. Those decisions and that system played a major role in the game’s story—and Dragon’s Dogma 2 has a similar approach to Affinity that is just as poorly explained as the original game’s approach to romancing NPCs like Ulrika or Wilhelmina.

Dragon’s Dogma 2: Is the Beloved System in the game?

Capcom has never explained the concept of Beloved or Affinity well in either Dragon’s Dogma game, but the Beloved System does technically make a return in Dragon’s Dogma 2. 

Since you can still give gifts to NPCs and complete quests related to them to raise their Affinity with your Arisen, it technically counts as the Beloved System being included in DD2—though the importance of these actions may have degraded. For example, most key romance scenes only happen after character-centric questlines are completed.

What is the Beloved System in Dragon’s Dogma?

In the original Dragon’s Dogma, the Beloved System acted as a way to romance certain characters by increasing your Affinity with them, playing into the larger Affinity system. 

The term Beloved specifically refers to a character that you have max Affinity with and is viewed as a significant other by the game at key points in the story. Unfortunately, in Dragon’s Dogma, the game would essentially pull from a pool of every NPC that had max Affinity with your Arisen to decide who would appear in the missions involving them, even if you gave the character you wanted to be your Beloved the special Arisen’s Bond item. Dragon’s Dogma 2 doesn’t really use this terminology.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 romance, explained

Whether or not Capcom actually used a version of the Beloved System as a base for the game, most named or important NPCs in Dragon’s Dogma 2 can be romanced in some way. Affinity levels still play a key role in this system and 

For a refresher, here are the biggest points you need to know about the romance mechanics in Dragon’s Dogma 2:

• Interacting with most named NPCs will impact your Affinity, though only a few can actually be romanced. 
• Gifting items can help you increase your Affinity with NPCs.
• Completing or failing quests given to you by specific NPCs will impact your Affinity with them.
• Affinity also gives you bonuses outside of romance, such as certain characters stopping by your house to leave gifts or discounts being offered at shops.
• You can only raise your Affinity with most characters once per day, though that does not typically apply if you are doing something like quests for them. 
• Four characters have Affinity and romance options tied directly to the game’s story. 

Because Capcom has not provided in-depth descriptors for the romance system in Dragon’s Dogma 2, you should make sure to save often before key missions and interactions—which you should be doing anyway due to the existence of game-altering mechanics like the Dragonsplague.