Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen Expansion Pack Announced, Speedrun and Hard Mode Coming Soon

It seems like Capcom’s plans to turn Dragon’s Dogma into a franchise are in full motion, as through an official blog post from the Japanese publisher we learn that, not only the game is going to get a speedrun and a hard mode patched in “before the end of the year”, but that they’re also working on a new expansion, entitled “Dark Arisen”, though we have no additional details on it besides the fact that it’s slated for next year.

Here’s the word from Capcom-Unity:

First, Capcom will be releasing two substantial, free updates to the game before the end of this year. One is “Speedrun” mode, which challenges players to play through the game quickly and rewards them with in-game equipment for clearing certain time objectives.

The other is the much-demanded Hard mode, coming just on the heels of the already-released Easy mode. Hard mode will make enemies more difficult to defeat, and will also offer equipment rewards for taking the challenge.

On top of this, we’ve also announced today that next year the game will be getting a full-blown major expansion called Dragon’s Dogma Dark Arisen.

And here’s the teaser trailer for the expansion. We have also mirrored the first screenshots on our own gallery, if you prefer to look at them there.

Here’s hoping that the expansion can fix some of the title’s pacing and writing flaws and offer the same strengths of the original release.