Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen – Nintendo Switch 2 review

Having missed the launch of Dragon’s Dogma 2 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S, we were happy to jump in for the new expansion, Dark Arisen, as it also marks the release of the game for the Nintendo Switch 2.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is sold as a complete package with Dark Arisen on Nintendo’s console, which is what we’ve been playing to bring you this review. This allows us to not only test out the performance of this ambitious open world game on Nintendo hardware, but also this version of the game as a whole.

So let’s start with the performance. We definitely recommend checking in with experts like Digital Foundry for precise measurements and details on things like frame timing, internal rendering, dropped frames, and more, but we will tell you about our experiences with it.

Performance as a whole for this game is rather solid. We did see some dips in the FPS – usually when running around the central areas of hub towns – but the game stays solid where it matters, most notably in combat, even when things get hectic.

Looking at the settings, and you can choose to lock the FPS to 30, or leave it uncapped. We left it uncapped as we mostly played in handheld mode, which is (in theory) less demanding than docked mode, depending on the specs of your connected TV. Playing like this resulted in a really solid experience for us throughout, even if it’s clear that a level of the game’s sheen has been shaved off to make it work on this console.

While performance was steady, we do want to mention the long load times we experienced. Our review copy of the game was stores onto the Nintendo Switch 2’s internal memory (as apposed to the optional expanded SD storage) so we expected more. Loading of save files takes too long for a modern title and even some smaller loads, such as fast travelling back to town, takes a smidge longer than we’d like.

The only other performance-related thing we’d like to mention is a single crash we experienced. To charge the Nintendo Switch 2 battery, we left the game running, but put the console to sleep, and left it to charge. After around an hour, we returned to the game and it had crashed. The console was still working as intended – we could still access the console menus and even start up others games – but Dragons Dogma 2 had frozen up and required a hard reset.

Right now, we’re not sure how rare a crash like this is, and this is also a reminder for performance that we’re playing a pre-release copy of the game.

Overall, we’re happy we waited for this version of this game, on this console, as we still love the portability of the Nintendo Switch and the lack of performance worry and tinkering that is required for handheld PCs. If you were in the same boat, Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen is not only playable here, but very enjoyable.

With performance aside, we can get into the actual game.

After a short cutscene, we were dropped into the extremely powerful character creator. We spent around 40 minutes following a guide to make Guts from Berserk and we were left utterly stunned by how accurate it is. The character creator here is a real treat and, with enough talent and time, you can replicate just about anyone, fictional or not.

The Dark Arisen expansion adds in even more options here, so those invested in the system have even more freedom. The creator can also be used on your main Pawn, a character you can choose to always have along as your main questing buddy, which gives this creator even more value.

With our impressively-accurate Guts created, and a short gameplay tutorial plus starter missions, we were unleashed in the vast world. The huge amount of mechanics, and the size of the world, is a bit much to take in, but nothing is too esoteric or convoluted here. We got into the swing of things on only our second play session and, from there, we were hooked.

Dragons Dogma 2 has fantastic character controls, giving your digital standing just the right amount of heft while still allowing them to pull off some acrobatic feats, should you spec into a light character. Or you can go the other way and build a tank, but whatever you choose the controls and animations never feel like they’re fighting you.

This game’s class system is called “Vocations” and this dictates your overall playstyle, skills and what armour and arms you can make use of. Your Vocation can be changed at any time and then it’s just a matter of swapping out your equipment which you can grab from your storage or simply by from the local vendors.

It’s really freeing and you can even use your Pawn to see what looks fun from a distance.

This prevents the fatigue you can sometimes feel in long RPGs like this, and it stops you from going through the sometimes arduous process of using some in-game item to completely reset your character followed by sitting down and re-allocating your various points and attributes.

There’s a lot of nuance here too which makes trying out other Vocations rather rewarding. For example, one skill that can only be unlocked by getting far dawn the path of the Fighter Vocation gives you a huge boost to carrying capacity, something all Vocations want. It then behoves you to put a few hours into the Fighter and their good old sword and board playstyle.

Alternatively, ignore all of this and have your Pawn carry everything. It’s up to you.

No matter your choice of Vocation you have a huge amount of fun and impactful options to choose from, all of which feel viable and exhilarating. It’s a real achievement where the Mage’s huge ice pillar attack gets us just excited as the Fighter’s shield bash.

The game’s huge amount of animations help sell these special moves, and the audio further enhances it. Capcom may have gone a bit overboard with the audio as a simple attack breaking boxes sounds like you’ve just demolished a building, but we actually love this wrestling-esque over-exaggeration. It really gets you hyped up and excited to keep getting into combat.

Said combat, with all the tools at your disposal, is really fun, but can become too much at times. Aside from your main Pawn you can have two more normal Pawns, giving you a party of four. When all four party members are slinging spells, arrows and large blades at a single enemy, your overall impact in a fight can start to feel meaningless, like you’re playing an MMO and just clicking as the boss’s health bar shrinks.

Now, you can overcome this and get a better focus on yourself by reducing the number of Pawns you have or, for example, swapping them to less-flashy Vocations, but it does seem like the combat works better and feels more impactful when you’re on your own, or using fewer Pawns.

Again, this comes down to the game’s huge amount of freedom it gives you, so this “issue” we have can always be solved by us making other decisions.

The world of Dragon’s Dogma looks simple on the surface as a kind of standard medieval setting, but all the cool stuff is hidden underneath, waiting for you to find it.

You may roll your eyes at riding a boring old ox wagon to visit a quaint village, until 15 minutes go by and a shortcut through a field uncovers a hatch down into a terrifying basement where you find a group of what is essentially super-powered zombies.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is also very happy letting you fail and wonder into situations you simply can’t solve yet. You will sometimes be given missions, which are above your pay grade, with enemies that will kill you in seconds, and you simply have to put them away mentally and come back later when you’re up to the task. You can try said challenges again and again to try and win through some clever strategies and pure skill, which the game also invites, but some parts of the game and its enemies are simply impossible to get through without the numerical advantage of being further along in the story.

The story of open world RPGs can feel a bit samey, but the one presented to the player here is actually thought out rather well. You can’t just solve everything with the sharp end of a sword, as reaching your ultimate goal requires some reasoning, subterfuge and acting in secret. The sharp end of a sword is needed a lot of the time, but not all the time.

With all of that in the mix we really got hooked on Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen and writing all of this just has us fired up to boot the game up again, and we will definitely keep playing this one as our review period comes to an end.

Take this as a direct recommendation and we hope to see your Pawn available for hire in the near future.

Game

Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen

Visuals

7.0

Audio

8.0

Story

7.0

Minute-to-Minute Gameplay

9.0

Gameplay Loop

9.0

Value

8.0

Overall Score

8.0 out of 10.

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