We Love It's Guide to…
As the Arisen, build a party of AI Pawns, master different combat vocations, and hunt towering monsters across a fantasy world.
Released 15 Jan 2016
Climb Towering Monsters
Switch Combat Vocations
Build Your Pawn Party
Set in a huge open world, Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen presents a rewarding action combat experience.
Developed by Capcom · Published by Capcom
You play as the Arisen, whose heart has been taken by a dragon, and travel through a fantasy world pursuing the creature. Quests lead you across open terrain, through settlements, and into dangerous areas to explore.
Combat combines weapon skills and magic with nine vocations, each offering different abilities and playstyles. Against giant foes, you can climb their bodies, target weak points, and exploit their vulnerabilities; equipment can be upgraded as you progress.
You create a main Pawn and travel with a party of up to four, filling other slots with AI companions, including Pawns shared by other players. Pawns fight independently and gain knowledge from adventures. The Dark Arisen content adds Bitterblack Isle, an underground area with challenging monsters and equipment to pursue.
In the supplied reviews, players often praise the physical, monster-climbing combat, the variety of vocations, and the Pawn party system, which makes an AI-led group feel personal and adaptable. Bitterblack Isle is a recurring highlight for its challenging dungeon runs and gear progression. Reviews also describe friction from long journeys, unclear quests, cumbersome menus, and uneven pacing; opinions on the story vary.
| Platforms | Windows |
|---|---|
| Achievements | 59 |
| Age ratings |
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| Players | 1 |
| Other modes |
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| Multiplayer | Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen is primarily a single-player game with asynchronous online features centered on the Pawn system. The player controls one character and travels with up to three AI companions, for a party of up to 4. One Pawn is player-created, and online users can share, hire, borrow, rate, gift items to, and receive rewards from other players' Pawns. Multiple reviews explicitly state there is no direct co-op. |
| Multiplayer & mods | Mods are mentioned for visuals and quality-of-life changes, but no provided text states that mods add, change, or support multiplayer functionality. |
| Controller support | Xbox |
| Controller required | No |
| DLC / extras | 1 listed on Steam |
| Content notices |
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| Metacritic | 81/100 View on Metacritic |
