I returned to Dragon's Dogma 2 after taking a break, only to be faced with the toughest RPG challenge ever

In Dragon's Dogma 2, I've come to an unfortunate realization. My heart sinks as I dwell on the problem, knowing that this will likely mean I'm going to be locked out of earning a trophy. I've just completed a series of riddles presented by the Sphinx, holding my breath each time I give my answer and she hits with that unnerving stare of hers. But the last trial she puts forward is essentially a memory test… and it's one I can't hope to pass. 

Everything was going well until I was met with trail in question: the Riddle of Rumination. How can I possibly recall where I found my very first Seeker Token in a game absolutely drowning in the medal-like collectibles?, I thought to myself. Not only was it many, many in-game hours ago, it was also weeks ago in reality. The collectibles are often hard to spot as it is, and my memory of the start of the adventure was foggy at best. I'd heard the Trickster vocation - which I had yet to unlock - had a handy ability that might be able to help me, but ultimately this final challenge would still rely on my ability to recall the points I'd gone to early on. Not only did it feel like an impossible task, but it also put forward a particularly big ask from a lapsed player like myself, who stepped away from the game for some time. 

A collectible to remember  

After putting well over 20 hours into the RPG, I decided to take a break to check out Fallout 4's recent next-gen update. Little did I know this would come back to bite me when I made my way back to the Sphinx to cross off the last few last riddles I had yet to complete. 

When I first encountered the Sphinx in Dragon's Dogma 2, it was by pure chance. I'd gotten lost in yet another exploration session with my pawns, continuing to ignore the main story missions in favor of seeing what the world at large held for me. After making my way up to a castle-like area and traversing through a cave, I was greeted with stairs leading up the Sphinx's shrine. At first, I thought she was another huge foe I needed to conquer, only to find that she had an entirely different kind of challenge in mind for me: to revisit the site of the first place I'd found a Seeker Token.

And without the foresight of knowing she was in the game at all, or that the Seeker Tokens would have anything to do with her questline, I hadn't really paid any particular attention to where I'd been picking them up – especially my very first. Honestly, how would anyone know to make note of it unless they'd found out before starting the game? Maybe it serves as a way to encourage you to tuck into New Game Plus, but after spending time making my way through the other riddles, it did feel a bit unfair to me. 

I certainly didn't expect the toughest challenge in Dragon's Dogma 2 to revolve around recalling a collectible I'd found near the beginning of Capcom's RPG, but it certainly feels like it is. Try as I might, I still cannot for the life of me remember the location. Was it by a statue? And if so, which statue? And was that actually the first, or was it the second? My mind was reeling as I worked it overtime to clear the fog away from my memory, but I must have found it at least a month ago at this point, and it honestly feels easier to just abandon the quest - as sad as that makes me. 

Grand adventures  

It got me thinking about a common problem when it comes to sprawling RPGs like Dragon's Dogma 2 - if you step away for a long time, they can be tricky to get back into. I can still remember, for example, when I first tucked into Horizon Zero Dawn for hours upon hours long after it first released. I took a sizable breather from Guerrilla's RPG to focus on post-grad studies, but I eventually stepped back in to get around to the Frozen Wilds expansion. When I returned to the world, I had no idea what I was doing. I felt like a newborn fawn trying to find my balance and re-learn all of the controls. I ran into a similar issue when the sequel Horizon Forbidden West rolled around - there was a long gap between finishing the game and the release of the DLC. Fortunately, by that point, the developer had thought to add tutorial refreshers for Aloy's comeback, which says it all. 

There have certainly been other occasions where I've returned to an RPG after a break and struggled to find my footing, but Dragon's Dogma 2's Sphinx riddle really takes the cake in this respect. I don't think I've ever come back to a game and thought I actually couldn't complete something, or would really struggle to, but going back to the place where I found my first small, disc-shaped collectible? It's a tough one. You also have to find the spot within seven in-game days for the riddle, and as soon as I realized what it entailed, I quickly exited the conversation with the Sphinx and made sure not to actually trigger the quest. 

I don't want to give up for good, after all, and I still hope the location is locked away in some part of my brain, just waiting to pop up to the surface. But who am I kidding? I'll likely have to accept that this trophy is out of my reach this time around. 

Here's how to solve all the Dragon's Dogma 2 Sphinx riddles.