Another day, another major port for the Nintendo Switch. After such fan favorites as Okami, Mega Man 11, and Monster Hunter made its way to the hybrid console, it’s clear that Capcom has gone all in on Nintendo’s newest success. With the imminent release of the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney trilogy on the console, Capcom is showing no signs of slowing down, announcing today the upcoming relaunch of one of their older IPs, the action-adventure, hack-and-slash Dragon’s Dogma.
Revealed via the official Twitter account for the game, Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen is the Nintendo Switch port of the enhanced version that was made for current-generation consoles, the original having been initially released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Directed by Hideaki Itsuno, of Devil May Cry fame, the western-inspired fantasy RPG released in 2012 to fairly positive critical acclaim, and went on to garner quite a fan following, enough to warrant an enhanced port and a free-to-play MMORPG.
The game’s aesthetics have been compared to those of the Monster Hunter and the Elder Scrolls series, with large open-world environments and gargantuan beasts to battle. Its hack-and-slash type combat mechanics are akin to Devil May Cry as well, along with elements of Dark Souls mixed in.
The Dark Arisen edition was a re-release basically in the form of the Game of the Year editions found in modern games today. It offered the original story along with all DLC content, implemented a new region and questline, and added in new armor, monsters, skills, and more.
Despite its strong sales upon debuting, this port still came out of nowhere. There was very little indication that Capcom planned to roll out a Switch port, especially with the release of Devil May Cry V coming a month before. Still, a new game to bolster the Switch’s already blossoming library is never a bad thing, and third-party support for the relatively new console can only point to Nintendo being on the right track in the developers’ eyes.
Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen releases April 23, 2019 for the Nintendo Switch.