Dragon’s Dogma 2 Announces Dark Arisen Expansion, Adding New Areas, Dungeons, And Cosmetics This October

Dragon’s Dogma 2, a challenging, friction-filled fantasy adventure from Capcom, was one of my favorite games back in 2024. Today, during Nintendo’s big summer Direct, we learned that the game is coming to Switch 2. What was less clear from the Direct’s trailer, however, is that the Switch 2 version is actually Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen, an updated release of the game that will come bundled with the Dark Arisen expansion. That expansion is also coming as paid DLC to every other console the game is currently on, and you can see the trailer for it below:

Dark Arisen’s main selling point are the frozen lands of Norgan, a new icy area to the far north that players can explore for powerful relics, which can be appraised to unlock new gear and skills. The expansion also adds 12 new dungeon challenges and new hair and tattoo options to customize players and their pawns.

There are also free updates on the way for the base game, and according to the new trailer’s video description, the first one arrives today. “The first arrives June 9 with quality-of-life improvements, including the addition of an Eternal Ferrystone and more Portcrystals,” it reads. “A second update in August brings framerate and performance improvements to all platforms, additional save slots, and many more adjustments and improvements.” The Eternal Ferrystone sounds like it will remove some of the fast travel restrictions that put people off from the base game, even though I think friction makes the game better, I don’t mind an update that might welcome new players.

Dragon’s Dogma II: Dark Arisen is out four months from today, on October 9, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X.S, PC, and Switch 2, and if you pre-order the game, you’ll get access to the Northern Attire fashion set. For more Dragon’s Dogma, check out our review of the base game.