Dragon’s Crown, available on the Playstation 3 and Playstation Vita is the latest entry from developer Vanillaware, the minds behind GrimGrimoire, Odin Sphere and Muramasa: The Demon Blade. Vanillaware titles for the most part have always skirted the line between Beat ’em Up and RPG, but this is their first title to push itself fully into the former category.
Now, before this review gets under way I feel I should mention that Dragon’s Crown is a game that seems to be fully aware of its genre. For me personally it immediately recalled a sense of nostalgia – walking into an arcade when I was a kid and joining a game of TMNT or X-Men, or going over to a friend’s house and playing Golden Axe. As an effective arcade style brawler, I believe Dragon’s Crown fully achieves its purpose.
When you start up the game you’re given a pretty typical, every-fantasy-setting-ever-esque introduction. You’re an adventurer looking to, well, adventure and make a bit of coin. You pick from one of six archetypes, Amazon, Dwarf, Wizard, Sorceress, Fighter or Elf, choose a palette swap, a name, a few custom phrases and you’re off to the tutorial.
For the most part, the archetypes all have a distinct play style, Dwarf focuses on grapples and power moves, Fighter is a bit more balanced and geared at defense, while Amazon and Elf fit more offensive playstyles. The only classes that start out immediately feeling the same are Sorceress and Wizard, and this changes as you crawl into their skill trees a bit. It’s not difficult to find a type that suits you, and you can create multiple characters on one save file so you’ll never find yourself stifled in your choice. That said you’ll want to stick to one starting out, while gear will carry over to all characters on a save, story advancement, experience points and skill points do not.
Starting out you won’t have a lot to do aside from progress the story, which isn’t exactly stellar, in order to unlock shops and features. The story is ultimately serviceable, but nothing new to anyone familiar with fantasy settings. That said it’s nothing detrimental to the game, and feels more or less like you’re sitting in on a tabletop session with your GM giving you instructions on your next quests. Get your mission objective, go to the next dungeon, fight through to a spectacular boss, return to town to appraise gear, raise new allies from skeletons, set up your party, wash rinse and repeat. You can also get the occasional quest that requires returning to older dungeons for more gear, skill points and unlockable art work.
It’s a formula that sounds tedious, but as I’ve said Dragon’s Crown is aware of its genre. Beat ’em Ups were all about progressing through levels with other players, simply teaming up to defeat the bad guys. That’s what you get here, against some spectacular backdrops and some pretty jaw dropping (and tricky to beat) bosses. If repeating the same levels over and over isn’t your thing, this isn’t the game for you. Simply avoid it.
One fun feature is the ability to raise new allies from the dead and have them join you on adventures, or bury their bones for the sake of getting a reward. While allies are helpful they’re not ideal, the game begs for multiplayer, and an AI controlled sorceress will just never be as good as a flesh and blood player. Even for its repetition I found the game managed to keep itself fresh, offering me some cool temporary weapons such as flame throwers and crossbows, giant saber-toothed tigers to ride, and painful traps to avoid. There’s almost always something to mix up the levels a little bit. Between this, the dangling carrot of new treasures to find and artwork to unlock, and the ability to level up several characters it will take awhile for the game to truly get stale.
Now, the game isn’t without it’s annoyances. There is a bit of micromanagement when it comes to gear, appraisals, deciding what to keep on your person or send to your armory. The Narrator, this “GM” like character also grated on my nerves after awhile since he reminded me what my quest was every single time I left a shop and re-entered the town map. The Vita also unfortunately can’t handle the game’s sometimes epic amount on screen characters and animations, causing slowdown. While these annoyances are minor, they did tend to be constant.
Before I sign off on this review I would like to talk about the game’s graphics and artwork. You can’t deny there are some stunning visuals here, and when I got to the first harpy boss I felt I was seeing something unique and not exactly done before. The player character animations were initially a bit disconcerting, save for the shockingly in-proportion Elf, however I just couldn’t shake the feeling that the Amazon was walking with two giant robotic legs with human skin pulled over them. This effect tapered off after awhile as I got used to the game and the interesting art choices, not to mention Vanillaware isn’t typically known for its held back designs.
The sexualization is definitely there, such as a drunk fairy making seductive “F-Me” eyes at you on the party management menu, so take this how you will. Ultimately though the artwork recalls memories of fantasy and comic book covers from the 80’s. It’s a tad ridiculous, to the point where for me it was actually a bit humorous… and Dragon’s Crown isn’t without a bit of humor. This exaggeration, from a game that in every other way is a strong reminder of brawlers of old, feels like part of the presentation. I can’t remark on how this might make an individual feel from a personal standpoint, but I will say the graphics work for what they set out to create, and anything subjective after that is up to individual tastes.
I personally felt the game was a great nostalgic romp, and if you’re like me and enjoy a bit of well oiled side scrolling action it may be worth the investment.
