Dragon's Dogma 2 was one of the most punishing recent games on consoles and PC alike, with advanced graphics and plenty of CPU-intensive simulation, so I was excited to see how its port to Switch 2 would turn out. After all, the Switch 2 is far more powerful than its predecessor, but it's still a console running on a Tegra mobile chipset and to strict power limits. Based on Oliver's testing for this week's DF Direct, the game arrives in surprisingly good shape - though some limitations are evident and familiar issues remain, the game's core visual makeup at least remains intact on the Nintendo handheld.

Let's start with the good news. First, the game's visuals holds up well against the nearest console competitor in the shape of the Xbox Series S - even surpassing it in some areas. Shadows, for example, appeared messy and unstable on Series S, but are rendered with better clarity and stability on Switch 2. The game also runs without screen tearing, an issue that can hamper your enjoyment of the game on Series S.

Image quality also takes a step up, thanks to the apparent use of DLSS on the Switch 2 version instead of the checkerboard rendered view on Series S, which produces a soft and jittery result at times - particularly noticeable on fine detail, such as distant foliage. Internal resolutions here aren't huge - we counted 540p in docked mode - but overall image quality is sufficient for a 1080p output. In handheld mode, the game targets a 720p output, with an even lower internal resolution, but again image quality holds up reasonably well.

These wins are tempered with settings tweaks that see the Switch 2 port lose some features found on other console versions, most notably ray-traced global illumination (RTGI). The simplified lighting looks flatter as a result, and is particularly noticeable in interior areas and hubs. The Switch 2 version also has reduced foliage density, simplified ground clutter, lower-res screen-space reflections and fewer shadow-casting lights. Pop-in, where characters can appear a couple of metres ahead of you, is still an issue too. Generally though, the cuts here feel smartly considered, but the Xbox and PS5 presentation can look significantly better in side-by-side comparisons in some scenes.

The real downside here is that none of the game's three graphics mode offer a bulletproof experience we can recommend. The standard 30fps mode suffers from poor frame pacing, often deviating from the regular 33.3ms update rate we'd expect, and the game looks juddery as a result. The unlocked mode allows for higher frame-rates, often in the 35 to 50fps range, but VRR doesn't seem to work well in either docked or handheld play. That making the extra frames a bit pointless, with the frame-rate variation producing uncomfortable levels of stutter. The final mode uses frame generation to produce a smoother experience, but suffers from significantly worse input latency - we measured this around 130ms. That makes the game feel heavy and unresponsive, and combined with minor UI artefacts, it's hard to say that the game is better overall as a result.

Capcom is certainly capable of delivering a clean 30fps output rate, based on what we've seen from RE Engine titles on Switch 2, so the best route forward here is for that 30fps mode to come with better frame pacing. Alternatively, the unlocked mode could support VRR, or the frame generation mode could integrate latency-reducing techniques to make it feel more responsive. Either way, the game is frustratingly short of perfection on Switch 2, but it's still worth giving proper respect to the development team for squeezing such a demanding open-world RPG onto Switch 2 hardware. The prior console releases did see multiple patches that improved them significantly, so hopefully Capcom devotes similar care to what is shaping up to be an impressive Switch 2 release.