We played Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen on Nintendo Switch 2, here are our thoughts
Posted on September 2, 2026 by Richard Ford in Previews, Switch 2
Capcom had quite a lot to show at Gamescom this year. Mega Man had stolen my attention, but I was curious about this new expansion for Dragon’s Dogma 2. Entitled Dark Arisen, it’s a new quite meaty campaign focused on the character of the Arisen. I got the chance to get hands on and give it a go for myself at Gamescom, just to see what makes this game worth buying.
Truthfully, I played a little bit of the original game and quite quickly dropped it after losing interest. I didn’t find the gameplay engaging, the characters interesting or the challenge fair. It jived with a lot of people, but not for me. Luckily the voice of the many outweighs the voice of the few, and the demand for a sequel brought Capcom into making a new title.
I skipped Dragon’s Dogma 2 at launch, so I had no experience at all with that game. I’d seen trailers, and visually thought it looked good, but personally had little interest in picking it up. Perhaps a lingering effect of my experience with the first game? I was especially curious to see if any of the problems I had with the first game remain here in this latest version of Dragon’s Dogma. Let’s break down what was in the demo of Dark Arisen that I played.
The first thing I noticed when moving around the map was that the gameplay felt much smoother than I remembered. Sprinting, climbing, and general movement all felt relatively fluid and both in and out of combat, I enjoyed just moving around as the Arisen. I can’t confirm if this is the case or not but the allies that were following my protagonist around and joining me in combat felt like they were especially strong, perhaps intentionally stronger in this demo so that battles went faster and I could get straight into the action. As I mentioned after seeing trailers, I did think the game looked stellar and that remains true; even more so when you sit down and play a bit. Up close and personal, the character models, environment design and combat effects were all very impressive. Another point of praise for me is the voice acting, I thought it was top notch. They speak in a faux-Elizabethan manner of speech, but for the world they have created that’s what it comes off as.
In terms of what the protagonist is capable of doing, he has four extra powerful attacks, some regular attacks, he can defend himself and dodge enemies. His party can provide him with healing and buffs to keep the fight going. One of the moves that the Arisen had really reminded me of Dante from the Devil May Cry series’ Stinger move. When I was interviewing the developers, they informed me that this move was also in the original Dragon’s Dogma game. As I didn’t play the original long before dropping it, it never registered with me. I may not even have seen it on my first go.
Exploring the map with my allies in the demo was great fun. Mountainous terrain, ghostly caverns of zombie-like demons, large bat-like creatures near the riverbed. In a short space of time I encountered numerous different environments and enemy types. This kept the game fresh as I was playing, and to spoil my thoughts a little early; it already made a lasting impression on me that the original simply never did. I did find as I was venturing that I found the markings on the map to be unclear and difficult to follow, but luckily the Arisen’s sidekicks point out where you should be going and will guide you. This was especially useful for me.
The last thing in the demo was a big boss fight against a zombie-like dragon. The trick to beating him was to target his head. What I did was jump on his leg and climb up the dragon, up and up until I was on his neck and I could really lay into him. Unfortunately for me, every time I took his health down, he rose it back up himself. I was on the brink of death when the game transitioned into a cutscene where the Arisen loses to the dragon and the demo ends.
That’s right; this whole demo was a prologue for the Dark Arisen campaign. How cool is that? Didn’t see that one coming. I can’t say that I am a converted Dragon’s Dogma fan, I don’t know if I want to commit the time to the game, but it can’t be argued that the gameplay experience is very, very good. The whole style of the title jived with me way more than the first game did when I tried that all those years ago.
To speak quickly on my method of playing, this demo was a docked Nintendo Switch 2 version of Dark Arisen. The game looked good, and though I have no point of comparison for other versions of the game, it didn’t feel like there was any technical fault. There was little input latency, no frame drops and a gorgeous resolution.
The game on other consoles has a 2 hour demo to get you to grips with the game, and I really hope that this comes over when this game releases on Nintendo Switch 2. I think this is the kind of game where if you’re on the fence, playing it will give you the idea of whether you want to commit to playing it fully or not. Still, I had a good time, and I can’t wait to see what else the team at Capcom is hiding in Dark Arisen.
More: Capcom, Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen, highlight, top
