If you're not an avid Dragon's Dogma lore hound (or even a lore ox), the title of this article might have you scratching your head. 'Dragon's Dogma 2 takes place in Hearthstone? The World of Warcraft spin-off?' Let me clear the air - no. It's one of the game's kingdoms, and while it was mentioned in the first Dragon's Dogma, we've never seen it before. But the sequel might change that.
Fans on the Dragon's Dogma subreddit are already pooling over the new trailer to try and sus out some new details from the footage shown. One moment in particular has fans excited and it's the one pictured above - a scenic shot of the forest opening up to the coast, revealing a small city on the cliffside with mountains in the back and a ruined tower looming in the distance. It's beautiful, but might also be a key indicator of where the game is set.
"This scene shows a kingdom on the OTHER side of bluemoon tower from Gransys," SlickLikeATrout posted. "Could DD2 take place in Hearthstone??"
Bluemoon Tower is in the first game. It's the home of sorcerer outlaw Salomet and can be found in the Pastona Cavern region. It's immediately recognisable, but everything in front of it isn't, so we're probably somewhere new. The likely answer then is that we're on the other side of the water.
Hearthstone is called that not because of Blizzard's hit card game but because it's ruled by Grende Hearthstone. Little is known about the kingdom, other than the fact they love wine. The trailer also mentioned 'Vermund' which has fans scratching their heads, as this isn't one of the four kingdoms we know about, the other three being Voldoa, Meloire, and Gransys.
However, SlickLikeATrout has a theory for that too. "Maybe it could be the capital of one of those [kingdoms]," they said. "But it's not too much of a stretch to be in another place altogether".
Others posit that, rather than this being a neighbouring kingdom, across the water from the first game's Gransys is still Gransys, and we're simply exploring an expanded version of the original map. This would also explain the presence of a familiar landmark, but even if that theory isn't true and we are in a new kingdom like Hearthstone, some in the comments share the sentiment that they want to venture back to Gransys to see how it's changed. Maybe they'll get their wish either way.