I’m starting to get a bit concerned about Capcom. Have they made a deal with some eldritch god, or started sacrificing newborns to a dark presence? Something dodgy must be going on, because I can’t understand how each port they bring to Switch 2 seems to be better than the last. With an already impressive catalogue of ports this year alone, Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen is a complete knock-out on Switch 2 and arguably as good as playing on any other platform.
I’ve written a full Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen review so I recommend reading that if you want to learn more about the game and expansion, but in summary this release combines 2024’s excellent Dragon’s Dogma with a new, high-level expansion that takes players out of Vermund and up into the frozen wastelands of Norgan.
If you’ve not played Dragon’s Dogma 2 before, it’s an action RPG where combat is the star. It’s built around a vocation system, with 10 on offer, each giving you access to specific gear and abilities. You’ve got your standard mages, archers and fighters but also some more unusual options like the twinblade-spinning Mystic Spearhand or the Trickster, which does no damage itself but instead conjures illusions to confuse and beguile enemies.
There’s so much variety in these roles and you can chop and change between them at will, taking the best passives from multiple vocations and using them with your preferred one to create a fighter that suits your style. It’s all backed up by the pawn system, in which you’ll be summoning NPC’s from other players’ games to act as your team, so you need to think about how different vocations complement each other. For example, I play as a thief, so my pawn, Ian, is a big burly warrior with a greatsword to agro enemies while I backstab them and I supplement our duo with mages and archers pawns from other players.
Exploration in Dragon’s Dogma 2 is wonderful, especially as Capcom have made several QOL improvements since launch to reduce the amount of foot travel required. There’s loot to find everywhere you look, with caves and ruins to explore or colossal enemies that stalk the land, waiting to try and wipe out your team. Griffins, trolls, ogres and dragons all roam across the various regions you’ll explore and, especially at the start of the game, are huge challenges to take down, requiring every member of the team to work together. These battles are the series hallmark, often needing you or your pawn to clamber onto these enemies to attack weak spots and it’s exhilarating every single time.
I guess the reason I’m explaining all this is to really drive home the fact that Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a big game. The base game contains 3 huge regions to explore, with Dark Arisen adding a fourth, and seeing such a massive game run with zero compromises on Nintendo’s handheld hybrid is far beyond being a novelty. It’s genuinely bloody mindblowing, and I’m already eyeing up a third playthrough of the game on it.
The game feels incredibly smooth thanks to a mix of VRR and frame gen, both of which can be toggled off but you’d be silly to do it. Combined they give an experience that, to me, doesn’t feel much different to how it does anywhere else. Whether you’re fighting screen-filling beasts or exploring the bustling Battahl market, it feels responsive and any input delay quickly melts away. Even Vernworth, which previously was the source of some performance hiccups, is a joy to explore here. Outside of the city you can see the vast scale of the world, with griffins attacking farms in the distance at seemingly no impact to performance. My only minor gripe is colours can feel a bit washed out on the Switch 2 screen, and despite playing around with HDR settings I couldn’t get it looking quite as vibrant as when playing on the telly.
All these positives extends to playing in docked mode too, where it looks like visual performance gets a boost and is a great way to play. Now, I love playing ports of games on the Nintendo Switch 2, but typically it’s something I reserve until I’ve played the games elsewhere so I can experience them with better visual fidelity first. With Dragon’s Dogma 2 though that line has been blurred, and I don’t think you’d be missing much by playing the game here for your first time. We’ve got a content complete version that runs beautifully, so if you’ve not played it before and you like the flexibility of Nintendo’s handheld versus a traditional console then you can absolutely play it here and have just as good an experience as you would anywhere else.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a fantastic game and Dark Arisen expands on it with fresh challenges in a new region. It’s also by far the most impressive Switch 2 port yet, so whether you’re venturing into Vermund for the first time or a returning player looking for a replay, this version is very easy to recommend.
