Capcom is confident that Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen will deliver a significantly improved experience when it launches on Nintendo Switch 2 this October.
Following criticism over the game’s technical performance at its original 2024 release, the developer now says months of optimization have transformed the action RPG across every platform.
In an interview with Eurogamer, producer Naoto Oyama revealed that the Switch 2 version is already performing beyond the team’s expectations thanks to continued improvements to Capcom’s proprietary RE Engine.
Capcom says Switch 2 performance has exceeded internal expectations
Discussing the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 release, Oyama explained that the development team is already seeing encouraging performance results.
“We’re currently seeing a minimum 30 frames per second rate performance on that hardware (and, in many scenes, it’s even higher!),”
he said.
“It’s exceeding our expectations on Switch 2, and I hope the players agree that we’ve done a great job again with bringing this game to that platform.”
According to Oyama, those gains weren’t achieved by optimizing the Switch 2 version alone. Instead, Capcom has been improving the RE Engine across multiple projects, allowing every new release to benefit from previous technical advances.
He explained,
“The RE Engine… has actually been a really great fit for Nintendo Switch 2,”
adding that knowledge gained from games like Pragmata and Resident Evil Requiem has helped streamline development for newer titles.
Performance improvements will benefit every platform
The optimization work isn’t exclusive to Nintendo’s new console. Oyama confirmed that Capcom is also preparing updates for the existing PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC versions ahead of the expansion’s launch.
One of the biggest improvements is planned for the late August title update, which aims to raise Performance Mode on consoles to 60 FPS. Those same engine refinements are also contributing to the smoother Switch 2 experience.
The upcoming Dark Arisen expansion launches alongside the Switch 2 version on October 9, bringing new content while also serving as a relaunch of sorts for the RPG. The original game earned praise for its combat and open-world systems but faced criticism over inconsistent frame rates and CPU-related performance issues at launch.
Elsewhere in the interview, Oyama and director Kento Kinoshita also discussed the team’s design philosophy, saying quality-of-life improvements should expand player options without changing the core experience.
If the final release performs as Capcom expects, Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen could mark one of the company’s most impressive Nintendo Switch 2 ports yet while helping restore confidence in one of its biggest RPGs.
