Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen is a massive improvement over the original

This October is turning out to be a case of thanking yourself for holding out on playing certain open world games, starting with the Ghost of Yōtei Complete Edition which launched on October 1, 2026 with its new expansion that made the game complete. Now it is the turn of 2024’s Dragon Dogma 2; Dark Arisen that not only brings a massive new area, but also fixes quite a lot of the original’s flaws.

Capcom surprising gamers with a sequel to one of their lesser known, but much loved open world RPG’s Dragon’s Dogma, which is now getting a massive expansion, convinces us of the house of Resident Evil’s motives to make sure all its IPs get the right treatment.

Welcome to Norgon, a cut-off frigid northern land that is harsh, cold and full of unforgiving monsters. At the centre of it all, there is a mysterious new entity known as a Fallen Dragon, that you as an Arisen and your trusty pawns must travel to. Inspired by Norse and Celtic mythology and influences, Norgon may be a smaller region than the main game’s sprawling kingdom, but it has got heights to scale and unknowns lurking in dark ruins.

Guided by a mysterious wanderer Eir, Dark Arisen switches up the political intrigue to a more ancient evil with deeper answers into the dark side of the cosmic cycle that lies at the heart of this world. 

But, wait! Norse influence, dragons, cold mountains and ruins, is that you Skyrim? Yes, there is some of that Skyrim vibe to Norgon in there, but it is just atmosphere. The story feels right in Dark Arisen — it is short, focused and has a few memorable characters. Addressing some of the feedback from the original base game, which had a lot of half-baked, Game of Thrones-type stuff happening (read royal conspiracies and political intrigue), Dark Arisen has a strong, fairly linear, mystery at its core. Eir’s role in all this paints quite a picture.

The peeling off those layers to uncover that mystery as you go along is done well, with clear motives laid out for all its strong characters. 

One of the strong points of Dragon’s Dogma is in its action system, where you play an Arisen, a being chosen by a dragon by tearing out your heart. This gives you the ability to pull out pawns from a space called the Rift, leaving you a steady source of party members with ready knowledge of other player’s games.

While you have your main pawn as your companion, you can balance your party out with the ones that offset your weaknesses or you can use them as fodder. Dark Arisen pawns however, come with two extra active weapon skills that bump them up from four to six, with skill options. This matters a lot because you do not just craft individual builds, but design complete party wide synergies.

This versatility can let you experiment more while dealing with the fresh monsters and enemies you encounter in this new area. The pawn system, coupled with an excellent fighting system, is what makes Dragon Dogma 2 really sing, especially when you get your builds right. You can now start melting monsters on sight, which was also one of the big problems of the base game. 

Norgon functions as a high-level zone, and as a result, you are at the bottom of the food chain again, so you need to grind to get better weapons. This is good because the challenge of facing off and defeating monsters is back. If you have been playing the base game, hitting level 30 automatically puts you into a power fantasy and it can get boring. Monsters now are tougher and you will need to choose the right classes to stand a chance.

Thankfully, there are a lot of side quests and ruins to explore to net relic weapons. Another point of note, there have been multiple patches before Dark Arisen that have massively balanced and optimised the main game, so if you are starting anew, it is not a bad idea. However, it is worth remembering that no amount of patching fixes the main campaign’s insipid slog of a story.

Enemies are tougher, and in the expansion as well, the game seems to regurgitate similar enemy types throughout, though there is some variety, which was one of the big issues of the main game too. But, what the game lacks in variety it makes up for in dropped weapons called relics.

The relic system is quite welcome, you can kit your pawns out with ancient relics and even summon local pawns that come pre-equipped with stronger weapon types. You do not know what you have got until you appraise these weapons. This blind-box system always works and the spoils are fun when the stats are in your favour. Once you finish the expansion, the endgame content is quite good with a wave-based farming loop that lets you net some excellent relic loot, and you get a lot more mileage from Dark Arisen.

For the longest time, Dragon’s Dogma 2 was plagued by frame rate issues not only on consoles, but even on beefy PCs. Some areas would bring any system to its knees, and while most of the game is playable and enjoyable, the performance has suffered. Just recently, the game got a patch with performance mode and Dark Arisen just flies, with a lot of excellent graphical fidelity.

It is an immensely pretty game with a dark palette, but I love how Capcom’s game engine shines when it comes to organics. Creatures feel almost real with fur, skin or sacs that look and move realistically. The RE engine is capable of making every hit feel like it connects in spurts of blood, and it is immensely satisfying. 

Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen makes this whole package feel complete, and even though it introduces a massive expansion which is a new area, it feels like a really good extension of the story with some truly fierce monsters and battles, improvements to all its mechanics that add variety, and the fun relic system.

What is most welcome is the engaging story and exploration that puts you front and centre as the Arisen uncovering cosmic truths. Highly recommended if you are returning to Dragons Dogma 2 or have held out playing this until they fixed everything. Now is the time.