While Capcom invited me out to New York to get some hands-on time with several of its upcoming games, I also got the chance to check out Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen running on the Nintendo Switch 2 in handheld mode. Given how demanding Dragon’s Dogma 2 was when it originally launched, I was especially interested in seeing just how well Capcom managed to get the game running on Nintendo’s latest hardware.
I already knew it was coming to the Switch 2, as Capcom has not only fully embraced Nintendo’s latest device, but has also been making some great strides in getting its games to run well on it. Both Resident Evil 9 and Pragmata, which have been released over the past few months, are great examples of what Capcom has been able to accomplish. After spending some time with Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen, I can now add it to that list.
I was able to play the game for roughly 30 minutes across two 15-minute sessions, where I squared off against several large enemies, including a Griffin and a Dragon. Instead of playing through the usual Dragon’s Dogma 2 opening sequence, I was able to pick between four vocations. During my time with the game, I chose the Mage and Archer before jumping straight into the available encounters. It was essentially a combat-focused demo, which worked out perfectly since what I really wanted to see was how the Switch 2 handled the game once things started getting hectic.
While I can’t tell you what build this preview was conducted on or what frame rate the game was running at, as neither was stated and I wasn’t able to dig through the options, I can tell you that playing it in handheld mode made me wish I could have taken the Switch 2 with me on my train ride back home. Capcom has previously stated that it is targeting a minimum of 30 FPS on Switch 2, with some scenes running higher. While I couldn’t verify the frame rate of the build I played, nothing during my demo stood out as noticeably choppy.
Visually, the game looked impressive enough that there were moments when it didn’t feel like I was playing Dragon’s Dogma 2 on a handheld. Even when the action picked up and there were multiple enemies, Pawns, and effects filling the screen, I didn’t notice any obvious slowdown during my time with it. Considering everything that can be happening at once in Dragon’s Dogma 2, that was probably the most important thing I wanted to see from this version. I wish I could tell you more, but again, my time with the game was quite limited.
It was a good showing of what Capcom has been able to accomplish with the Nintendo Switch 2, and more importantly, it looks like another quality port is heading to Nintendo’s hybrid. Considering how demanding Dragon’s Dogma 2 was when it originally launched, seeing it running this well on a handheld was something I wasn’t expecting.
You can check out some of the footage I captured that I posted above. Since this was a handheld-only preview and I don’t normally capture handheld gameplay this way, keep in mind that the footage isn’t necessarily representative of how the game looks when viewed directly on the Switch 2 screen.
And while I’m still not the biggest fan of the Nintendo Switch 2, I’ll admit that what I’ve experienced with the device over the past few months has caused me to do more than a few double takes. More recently, Lies of P impressed me with what it was able to pull off on the hardware, and now Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen has done the same.
Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen launches on October 9, 2026, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.
