Everyone is paying attention to Nintendo today, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t exciting announcements happening on the other systems as well: today Capcom announced that Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen, the stand-alone expansion to last year’s cult favorite action RPG, will be released for the 360 and PS3 in America and Europe this April.
Dark Arisen adds new weapons, monsters, and quests to Dragon Dogma’s expansive world, as well as a host of gameplay improvements like a redone, supposedly more intuitive menu system and an easier way to quickly travel across the game’s overworld. Veterans of the original DD will be happy to know that saved data from the original version of the game can be transferred over to expansion (and doing so will also unlock some exclusive gear for your character,) while newbies to the series will be able to jump right in with Dark Arisen: the expansion also contains a complete copy of the original game.
I know Dragon’s Dogma flew under a lot of peoples’ radars when it was released last summer, so I hope more people will give the game a chance when Dark Arisen comes out this Spring. I originally started playing the original Dragon’s Dogma because I was desperate for a new Monster Hunter (DD shares much of the same staff as Capcom’s mega popular multiplayer RPG,) and I found myself surprised with how good DD was: its blend of open world role playing, asynchronous multiplayer features, and fantastic, action based combat really won me over, so much so that I think it’s just as good as it’s more popular sister-franchise.
