Dragon's Dogma 2: Dark Arisen director Kento Kinoshita has confirmed that a Hard Mode is in development for the action role-playing game, offering seasoned players a tougher challenge.

Kinoshita announced the news in a developer Q&A published on the game's official Steam page, where he appeared alongside producer Naoto Oyama. The Hard Mode, Kinoshita said, is being designed for players whose character stats have reached or are approaching the level cap — the maximum a character can grow in the game — and who want combat that still tests them.

Producer Oyama asked players to stay tuned for further updates on the mode's specifics and its release window, suggesting the feature is still early in development. No date was given.

One detail the Q&A did not address: whether Hard Mode will be exclusive to owners of the Dark Arisen expansion or available to players of the base game as well. Capcom has not clarified the scope.

Dark Arisen, the game's first major expansion, launched with more than 25 hours of new content after nearly two years in development, as Kinoshita and Oyama told the outlet Automaton in an interview published 14 July 2026. The expansion adds a new area, enemies, and gear to the open-world fantasy adventure, in which the player controls an "Arisen" — a hero marked by a dragon — exploring a kingdom with AI-controlled companions called Pawns.

The base game already offers a more relaxed mode — described in Capcom's official web manual as letting players adventure at their own pace, though two trophies are unavailable in that mode. The manual also notes that when the Arisen dies, the player can resume from the most recent autosave, a checkpoint the game creates automatically.

For players who have already mastered Dark Arisen's challenges, a Hard Mode aimed at maxed-out characters is a welcome sign that Capcom wants to keep them engaged. Whether it arrives as a free update or something tied to the expansion remains an open question — and one Oyama seems in no rush to answer just yet.