Dragon’s Dogma 2 is getting a Dark Arisen DLC expansion that introduces a chilly new mountainous area, in which there are flaming castles, some awful emaciated dragons, and ice giants who can freeze you solid by yawning. It’ll arrive on October 9th after two free “major” updates, the first of which lands tomorrow.
The base game is also getting a permanent discount from June 24th. Surely, all of this is incentive enough to finally stop griping about those niggling launch-day microtransactions, quit caterwauling about the prospect of Pawns coming over all Jack Torrance, and hand uncle Capcom your pounds and pennies. The only reason I can think of for not buying Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen is that you hate ice giants. You don’t… hate ice giants, do you? ◉╭╮◉
“Embark to a snowy new area in the north: the long-abandoned Norgan region, and take on 12 new dungeon challenges spread across the existing world of Dragon’s Dogma 2,” explains a press release. “Also bring your Arisen and Pawns to life with new hairstyles and tattoo options.” Thank you, uncle Capcom. It would be helpful if the shaggier new hairstyles doubled as buffs to ice resistance. In general, I feel like tethering heat loss to hair volume is an under-explored idea in games with elemental systems.
As for the free updates, the first features “quality-of-life improvements, including the addition of an Eternal Ferrystone and more Portcrystals”. The eternal ferrystone is presumably a non-consumable version of the regular ferrystone, used to warp between port crystals. It reminds me that another bone people had to pick with Dragon’s Dogma 2 was the scarcity of fast travel options. I haven’t been keeping up with the debate since, but I assume this is a belated response to all that.
The second update, out in August, will introduce extra save slots alongside framerate and performance improvements. Oh hey, I remember people being ticked off about only having one save slot, as well! Gosh, Capcom properly reaped the whirlwind with DD2, didn’t they?
I own the Dark Arisen edition of the original Dragon’s Dogma on Switch – it takes you to a cool multiple-floor endgame island dungeon. I haven’t played as much of Dragon’s Dogma 2, but the base game is heavy on desert areas, so a trip to the frigid uplands seems appealing. Here is how former RPS wyrm appraiser Ed Thorn summarised the base game: “A grand action RPG adventure where you’ll make travel plans and have them disrupted by a vengeful griffin whose wing you’d whacked two hours earlier.”
