Do microtransactions suck?
Yes.
The small caveat to that is there are some gamers with less time than others who will happily pay for mtx to help speed up their experience so they don't fall behind their peers - this is like fomo manipulation.
Are Dragon's Dogma 2's MTX egregious?
Not really, you can do everything they supply you with in game. You can change how your character looks with in-game currency, you can find and buy fast travel points and stones in-game (Ferrystones and Portcrystals) and you can earn Rift Crystals in-game, they are used to recruit pawns among many other things. But as you progress they are easier and easier but pawns of higher levels cost more and more to recruit (for example) if they're not on your friends list.
Are Rift Crystals a premium currency?
No but Capcom is sort of making them one with the way they're letting you buy them in different quantities on the store. Technically you could spend a lot of money on them IRL and then use them to recruit a higher level Pawn to your team. Rift Crystals are fully earnable in-game.
Can you ignore the MTX?
One million percent yes, you do not need anything they are selling to get the full, enjoyable DD2 exprience.
Are you saying Capcom shouldn't get backlash because of this?
Absolutely not, they should. MTX suck and the way these have been implmented feels like a "oh lets find things in this game's systems we can monietize". I actually think armor sets, weapons...etc if the game had a 'cosmetic transmog' system would have been far less poorly recieved than what they have done with MTX currently. For example imagine a Berserk inspired armor set cosmetic for $10, it changes how your entire character's armor looks to be similar to that of Guts from Berserk - but it doesn't change any of your equipped armors stats...etc.
What MTX are there exactly?
Currently there are 22 pieces of purchasable content on the store, they are (buckle up for a list):
3x 500 Rift Crystals (Currency)
4x 1500 Rift Crystals (Currency)
1x 2500 Rift Crystals (Currency)
4x Wakestones (Revives - Single Use)
1x Portcrystal (Fast Travel Point Creator- Single Use but permanant point when used)
1x Book of Metamorphasis (Character Editor - Single Use)
1x Get out of Jail Key (Single Use)
1x Rift Essense (Change your Pawn's Inclination to a Random One - Single Use)
1x Harpy Lure
1x Gift Pendant
1x Dragon's Dogma 1 Sounds and Music
1x Camping Kit (Single Use)
1x Demo/Character Creator [Free]
A large number of the above are also included in the game's Deluxe Edition.
It looks like you can't just buy the curreny items over and over and over to get tons of them for real world money, so they don't work like most premium currencies in a lot of games.
Why have they done this?
Ask Capcom. But my assumption is they're testing the waters of this style of MTX on larger singleplayer games. To see what the reception to them is and what they need to take away and learn. I doubt they'll not do this again in the future but they may tweak their approach... or double down - who knows.
Wait I can pay to fast travel anywhere?
No.
The article and old title of this thread were inaccurate. "...monetizes the ability to fast travel wherever you want in the game world"
This quote is not accurate and factually incorrect. The item you can purcahse is a Portcrystal, this is a one time use item that creates a permanant point on the map you can fast travel to - but you still need to buy ferrystones in-game and use those to be able to fast travel and one of the points you could choose to fast travel to would be this point you placed down with the 'paid for' Portcrystal. You can also find Portcrystals in the game and not spend a penny of real money on getting those and making your own fast travel points in-game.
W skrócie - wszystko można zdobyć w samej grze. To ma tylko przyspieszyć progres tym co nie mają za dużo czasu.
Rozumiem jeszcze jakby to nie była gra single player ale tak to nie wiem o co się wszyscy zesrali.