Dragon’s Dogma has been an interesting IP for Capcom over the last seven years. First released in 2012 for Xbox 360 and PS3, it presented a fresh open world RPG with the idea of ‘pawns,’ AI characters that you both created and also downloaded from others on the internet. I reviewed the game back in 2012, and then again about a year later when the Dark Arisen standalone expansion was released. I actually wrote about the game again in early 2016 when it made its way to the PC. After that, the game was re-released for Xbox One and PS4, and after that, as in just last week, the game has made its way to the Switch.
Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen (DDDA) for the Switch is not a remaster, and it does not include any new content — but it does offer two compelling selling points that Switch ports often have: first is the portability. DDDA is a long game — easily 100+ hours if you want it to be — and I wasn’t about to replay through it again for review, instead I’ll lean on my previous reviews and suspicion that you probably know what this game is by now as it’s essentially been out in the wild for over six years. Anyway, being able to play DDDA on the go makes it far more likely, I think, for many gamers to stick with it instead of having to be tethered to a TV/PC screen. During my time with the game on Switch to this point, I have chosen to play it about 90% of the time un-docked. This does sacrifice some visual fidelity, but not really that much. Moreover, for this experience, I’d rather lose some graphic fidelity and be able to play on the go than to have the ‘max’ experience (which really is on PC anyway) and play on TV. Secondly, the Switch version is available at $30. You can find the game on other platforms cheaper indeed. But, if you don’t have the other platforms or you’re determined to get it on Switch, it’s nice that Capcom recognizes the situation and has priced the game accordingly.
There isn’t much else to say about this Switch release that I haven’t already discussed in the previous articles, though. The game is exactly the same, although there is a Travis Touchdown pawn available online. The online integration can be disabled from first launch if you’d like to, and you do not need a paid online Nintendo account to be able to share Pawns, by the way. The pawns are still as chatty as ever, but you can disable that if you’d like to. A nice thirteen page digital manual is included that’s worth a look, too. The UI has been revamped for the Switch, and large amount of information presented on screen is organized in a good, user-friendly way.
If you liked the game in one of its previous releases, you’ll like it here as well. If you didn’t, well, the portability of the Switch might help, but if not, there’s no reason to look at the Switch version any closer. Many would agree that this is one of the best open world RPGs in the last several years, so if you haven’t played it yet, this at least gives you another reminder to consider moving it to the top of your backlog.
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