Review: Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen (Switch 2)

Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen is the type of game I would’ve never played before the Switch 2. I did, after all, skip over the original Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen when it was released for Switch in 2019. It’s not because the games didn’t look good, but because you just knew the experience would pale on a Nintendo system.

Thanks in part to the Switch 2’s capabilities, those days are gone. The bigger thanks, though, goes to Capcom. They’ve amazed me with the quality of their Switch 2 ports since the system’s release, and Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen is no different. As such, Switch 2 owners get to try out an RPG unlike most that are available for the system.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is an open-world action RPG forcuing mainly on the classes (vocations), each with its own style of fighting. You play as the arisen, leading a party of pawns through world exploration and real-time combat. And unlike most RPGs, the game is more about actually trekking through the environment than warpring your way around it. There are limited fast travel spots (mainly in towns), forcing you to walk or take an ox cart to your destination.

And although you’re able to find or acquire portable Portcrystals that can be placed anywhere in the open world, the game really does want you to focus on the journey.

Well, and the combat, a signature feature of which is climbing onto huge monsters and attacking their weak spots. Trying to stay on a monster while it works to throw you off is fun. And through it all, movement and combat feel responsive and weighty. This is important, because the boss battles can get really tough at times.

Thankfully, you have AI “pawns” to assist you. Your main Pawn is customizable and learns from you, and you can recruit other players’ Pawns online. These companions comment on the world, remember quests and monster weaknesses, and can be shared with others. The entire system is very fun and admittedly goofy at times.

Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen’s class system is also one of the games greatest strengths. Every class is strong and plays differently, and you can change classes at any time at a vocation guild. This allows you to unlock abilities so you can multiclass and make some very interesting builds. Your enjoyment of the game will largely depend upon this component because it’s one of the few things that adds variety to your journey. Combat and quests are repetitive, usually just fighting goblins, wolves, or zombies on the way to your destinations. Bosses or bigger enemies were fun to fight; climbing and grappling monsters is cool, helping to make the battles feel more physical. But the real fun came from tinkering with my party to engage in those fights in different ways.

Exploration and combat look good on the Switch 2, too; I didn’t experience any real performance issues in either handheld or docked modes. The only visual oddity I noticed is that certain elements would take a second or two to load when teleporting to a new place.

Other issues with this release include camera angle struggles in tight spaces and when you’re clinging to a large enemy, as well as a restrictive inventory system. Everything you pick up weighs a certain amount, and you don’t have much carrying space.

To compensate, you’re forced to wear rings or search for Golden Trove Beetles to increase your capacity. This reinforces the realistic approach to journeying across the landscape, but often bogs things down.

Also, you’ll notice I’ve barely mentioned the story at all. It’s pretty weak, providing little incentive to drive you through the game. You’ll need to rely on combat and quests for that, and some of those quests could be a little clearer on how to complete them. Sometimes, you have to hope your pawn or one of the pawns you summoned has already completed that quest with another person.

Taking all of that into account, however, Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen offers more than enough to keep role playing gamers busy for quite some time. It’s a fun world to explore with a unique way to journey through it. Those seeking strong characters and a compelling story aren’t going to find it. But if the quest alone is the reward, this one is epic.