While travelling the frigid wastes of Norgan, my Pawns and I were assailed by a band of Hobgoblins, and due to my poor leadership skills – causing multiple groups to aggro at once by running by instead of dealing with them then and there – we were overwhelmed. The tide was finally turning as I swung my great axe knocking about three over at once, allowing me to run over to my sorcerer who needed reviving.

Then, from out of nowhere, a snow ogre appeared from offscreen, knocked me clean out with a haymaker, picked my limp body up, and used it as a club to batter my party and the hobgoblins with. After, he ran off to his den like nothing ever happened.

This type of random encounter is what made Dragon's Dogma 2 one of my favourite RPGs of all time when it released in 2024. It's among that elite class of open-world game – like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild or Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain – where the best story out of the game isn't what happens in the plot, but rather the emergent gameplay moments that happen to you throughout the adventure.

Dragon's Dogma 2 has you become the Arisen, a foretold being chosen once-in-a-lifetime by the dragon to lead the Pawns – beings whose only purpose is to serve the Arisen – and sit as Vermund's rightful ruler. However, there's already a supposed Arisen on the throne, and given a myriad of imposter Arisen who have come and gone over the years, you must uncover a plot across Vermund and the neighbouring nation of Battahl to reclaim it for yourself.

While Dark Arisen begins with word that yet another Arisen has emerged in the northern region of Norgan – long thought to be abandoned. Norgan is also home to an undying dragon, who seems key to uncovering the identity of this other Arisen.

Norgan is gorgeous. It's a new chunk of map set in icy wastes with derelict towns and castles, and its inclement weather that ranges from snowstorms to complete whiteouts are a treat to look at. Plus, it introduces some new beasts, including snowy versions of existing foes like Ogres and Dragons, but the new bosses are similarly brilliant – my personal favourite being a giant sasquatch-like creature with a mouth in its belly that can entrap you or your pawns, which wouldn't feel out of place in Devil May Cry.

While the plot is by no means bad, or even uninteresting (the finale in particular is still surprising and was wild to figure out on my own), it feels secondary to the adventure itself. Travelling across the land with your main Pawn and the gauntlet of other player-made Pawns makes for one of the most memorable RPG experiences in recent years.

You grow fond of ones you meet along the way, learn to hate others who bitch about you running everywhere constantly, and everything in between. Even the small interactions, be it dialogue, catching you when you're launched into the air, or giving you a high-five upon felling a giant beast, make these blank slates a massive part of the world.

Dragon's Dogma 2: Dark Arisen not only marks the game's debut on a Nintendo platform with a whole new expansion added, but it's the culmination of a series of updates to the original game Capcom has released throughout the summer. First and foremost, its performance is far better than it was at launch, which was crucial if the handheld was ever getting it.

Compared to the PS5 Pro (where I have also been playing the expansion), the Switch 2 performance is naturally not as good, but in a vacuum it's the latest in Capcom's great Switch 2 ports. Loading times in Pawn rifts and in and out of cutscenes are significantly longer, the frame rate has occasional choppy moments (more so when docked) and there's obviously a bit of a visual downgrade.

Dragon's Dogma 2 also has a FSR 3 Frame Generation toggle in its settings alongside a locked 30fps and variable frame rate option, and it frankly didn't feel like a significant addition either on docked or handheld mode. When it was on with the 30fps lock I could see the difference in smoothness, and any input lag wasn't entirely noticeable – although the effects of that may feel more noticeable depending on what class you play – but I generally found the varied frame rate option the best way to play.

But compared to the game at launch on PS5, it's a much smoother experience, and had Capcom implemented cross-save into it I'd happily jump between the highest-spec console's version and handheld mode without too much fuss.

Developed by a team led by former Devil May Cry series shepherd Hideaki Itsuno, it's no surprise to report the combat is the best in its genre, and with the new updates and Dark Arisen adding extra skills and the ability to equip more of them, it's even more dynamic.

Each of the 10 vocations offers up a majorly different style of gameplay – well, except for the one that allows you to be every class at once – with zero misses. Even the archers and mages feel just as entrenched in the combat as your fighter and thief classes, so much so that my new run on Switch 2 is the first time I've been a mage in any action RPG; it's just that good.

One common complaint about the original version was that it was a bit too easy, and while a new 'Hard' difficulty is available, Dark Arisen is tough. I had access to the PS5 version first, so I played a lot of the new content on there with my New Game + character, who was around level 80, and let me tell you, I got beat up constantly.

Norgan is hardcore; the enemies are strong, with even some of the random boss encounters feeling like a final boss sequence – such as a 15-minute brawl I had with an ice dragon, which had a massive snowstorm kick-off halfway through, giving it the atmosphere of a pre-made event.

New with the expansion is Lost Rites – a series of 12 dungeons scattered around the world – and while the suggested level is 20, some of these were a true gauntlet that pushed me and my myriad healing items to the limit. On top of being hard dungeons, some feature specific restrictions, such as one that only allowed you to enter with two skills equipped and would lock you into arenas where your pawns cannot help, while another feels like a survival horror situation where enchantment skills aren't allowed in cramped corridors with slimes immune to physical damage.

However, with the new updates over the past year, some of the friction has been removed. This will be great news for some, as punishing mechanics like Dragonsplague (which can wipe out entire towns and their questlines in an instant) and the fast travel option being limited are now gone.

The ability to teleport instantly to your location does mean that the need to explore on foot may be missing. When I first played it years ago I never got too annoyed at the lack of traditional fast travel because it was such a great world to be in, but with the easy option there you could miss out on the emergent world that makes this game shine so much.