Capcom’s Dragon’s Dogma 2 was, unfortunately, a disappointment for many. (Not me, for the record.) The game launched with laughably useless microtransactions and unfortunate performance issues, which led to a largely negative reputation amongst gamers.

With Dark Arisen, the game’s new expansion, the team at Capcom strived to specifically address the problems of the game’s original release. In a new interview with Eurogamer, producer Naoto Oyama explained that the expansion wasn’t just about fixing disappointment, but also earning back the trust of fans.

“We are trying our best to win back trust from those players who felt [disappointed] in with the launch of Dragon’s Dogma 2,” the producer said. Alongside the expansion, the Dragon’s Dogma 2 team has also worked on major updates to the game which have “already seen positive responses”, but Oyama explains that some fans aren’t convinced.

“At the same time, some players are still cautious and they’re saying, ‘well, this performance update in August is going to be the real test of whether the game has got to where we want it to be,” he producer explained.

Oyama hopes that the release of the game’s upcoming August update will be a show of good faith to players. “I’m really hopeful that once they see the performance improvements we’ve made in August and what we’re doing to build towards the expansion release that players, hopefully, feel that the base Dragon’s Dogma 2 game is in a good state so that they can jump back into the expansion,” he said.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a game that may have disappointed, but it also released with great bones. If you’ve never given Capcom’s unlikely sequel a shot, it’s a brilliant fantasy experience with amazing dynamic gameplay. However, outside of its narrative, it is a largely similar game to its predecessor, albeit with a very shiny new coat of paint.

Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be much news, on a third game, although maybe Dark Arisen will tease a new entry if we’re lucky. With the bones of DD2, a third game could offer some bold new adventures for fans, although that’s essentially what Dark Arisen is doing anyway.

As a fan of the series, I really do hope that Dark Arisen pulls off everything Capcom is hoping it will. This video game problem child, similar to Monster Hunter Wilds, really could do with a win, and DD fans also deserve the sequel to be as good as they imagined it would be.