Dragon's Crown is a 2013 beat em game that compines Action RPG. It was develpoed by Vanillaware the studio known for major games such as Odin's Sphere and Muramasa of the demon blade. The game was published
by Atlus and was released for the playstation 3 and the playstation Vita. Five years later in 2018 Atlus and Vanillaware released a port for the next gen console, which at the time was the playstation 4. Thanks to the Playstation 5
backwards compatibility with the ps4, Dragon crown Pro can be playable on the Playstation 5. The game's released was successfull and the demand for the game was high, and the sales sky rocketed. In fact in an interview, George
Kamitani the CEO of Vanillaware stated that the games international success was much bigger than what they were expecting. However, not everything was well received, as certain journalist attcked the game for Kamitani's artistic
approach to character designs. More Specifically for the exaggerated designs of the Amazon and Sorceress. Some even went as far as to call the designs softcore pornography. Nevertheless the game still received mostly positive
reviews and became one of the hits that came out from Vanillaware.
Story of the Game
The game has a standar Dungeons and Dragons story. An adventurer arrives in Hydeland, this games Hometown and Hubworld. They gets involved with fights against monster attacks from ancient sites across the land, and a political coup attempted by
the Prime Minister against the next heirs,following the disappearance of the current king. The king killed himself to thwart a ritual by the Morneon religion in order to summon a powerful ancient dragon, sealed in the Illusionary Lands
by the world's goddesses. Key to their plot is the Dragon's Crown, an artifact that was made with the power to control dragons. Following his ascension to the throne, Dean is sacrificed by Morneon, though the adventurer has already destroyed
the existing magic to reach the Illusionary Lands. The adventurer finds nine talismans to enter the Illusionary Lands and slays the ancient dragon before it can break free. Vivian is made queen and inherits the now-powerless Dragon's Crown.
The goddesses, one of which was restored by the ancient dragon's defeat, then tasks the Adventurer to go in another two adventures in order to kill tw dragons who stole their power. Upon accomplishing these tasks, the restored goddesses declare the a
dventurer as the Gate Guardian for the Illusionary Lands, and their names are now a part of legend. Each character ending diffres from the others. Pretty much the story will force the players to travel through the 9 worlds twice. The first time
they ll go through the option A and fight the weaker boss of the level and gather gear, so that on the next request they ll go through option B. The main story is given through the location of the Castle and the guild Table. Once the main story
is over the Castle is pretty much a bonus coin location. To elaborate when visiting the castle, the new queen will ask the player to visit and clear 1 out of the 9 maps. When succesfully done so, she will reward money to the player.
Gameplay
Heroes
The players are given the option to play as one of the six herores. The Amazon, The Sorceress,The Wizard, The Archer, The Knight and the Dwarf. Each of the six heroes are unique and play differently with each other. Some heroes
have common elements, however they re not the same and they do not feel similar none the less. For example, the wizard and sorceress have comon attack but way different specials.Similarly, the amazon, dwarf and knight share the common
element of using a weapon that they can throw and pursuit of mellee combat. The archer on the other hand is the only hero who doesnt have anyone close to her game style. Each hero can purchase and have different bags. These bags are
builds that the players can have. The weapons potion and armor have durability, if the party decides on going on a big farm,then at some point their equipment will break from using and being hit. These backs are back ups.
At the same time players can use that in order to have different builds. For example, the spellcasters wands have one of three elements Fire,Ice & Electic. It's good to have atleast three bags with one of these three elements,
so that they can use the certain element to their advantage.ETC(Medusa,Kraken Electrick, Ice Dragon) The controls of the game,are simple to understand and have deeper
mechanicks for those who love the adventure and will play the game beyond the main story. The heroes move around with L3, and Jump with X. Double jump is also available for the heroes and holding down for the sorceress will allow her to fly.
R2 is used for Dodging. Dodging needs to be upgraded in order to dodge up to three times. Triangle is used to pick up items from the ground, such as bombs and shields and others. These items can be fired with square or drop them by holding triangle.
Square is the mellee attacks. There are combinations of Square down, Square Up, Holding square and tap square. Otside of Combat Square is used for sprinting. The keypad is mainly used for the inventory. The right ad left arrows are used to manuver
in the inventory and down is to select that certain item such as potion. The Up arrow and L1 are quickslots to use items. For example holdin UP/L1 will open a cross with the items the player attached on and when the player press Circle X Etc will use the item.
This Mechanic is mostly handy for the Spellcasters whose Spell Books can only be access through the inventory. Circle is assosiated with each of the heroes specials. For Example, The spellcasters will use magical attacks, the archer will use her arrows
and the other three heroes will throw their weapons to proceed in mellee combat. Similar to the square button,the Circle also shares combinations with UP down, held down.
Map/Levels
When entering a level, the players move around in a 2D linear level where enemies will randomly spawn and the players will have to kill them in order to proceed. Each level has secret rooms for the players to explore and it's own unique enemies.
the levels also have plenty of traps that can be triggered by pressing them or being timed.
Once the heroes are half way through a level, the game will request the party leader to choose either path A and Path B. Each path has own different boss with B always being the "Hardest" / Highest level and will reward the player with a Talisman.
Once the party leader takes the decision, the party members can choose which bag, containing their equipment they ll use. After a level or after atleast three levels given that the players proceed on their adventure instead of returning to the hub
world, they get the opportunity to cook food on a camping section. A camping sections offers ingredients found within the levels played and 4 different pots. Two of them are frying pans and two soup pots. Using the keypad or L3, the players can pick up
ingredients with X and throw them in a pot. They re given three types of seasoning that they can use. Once the food is ready to be consumed it will steam and will allow the player to pick it from the pot and serve it on their plate. Very good cooked food
will reward players with extra HP, Damage Luck MP ETC, that exceeds the limitation of the hero. For Example, the wizards Mp is max 450, however after a good meal it can be up to 650+. The buffs from a camping last for up to 2 dungeons. It is worth mentioning
how the player can cook as much food as they can within one minute. Placing food on a plate not the players can not be consumed unless its their own. For example if player1 adds food on players 2 plate, it cannot be consumed by player 1.
Guild :Skill Points.
Leveling up powers a character up. Experience is gained through the main story, Side quests and farming by entering random levels. Each time a hero levels up their stats go up and the player earn skill points Another way of collecting skill points
is the sidequests that specify how many points are attached to that quest. NOTE:if a quest is done by a certain class of hero, the player can skip that quest with triangle when playing a different class (or a new hero). They will still receive
the skill points BUT NOT the Exp. These skill points can be spent in the guild board to upgrade the heroes. Enetring the option to empower heroes will ask the player whether or not they wanna upgrade common abilities or Hero abilities.
Common Abilities : These abilities are accessible for every class in the game, thus the label common. These are options such as Upgrade healthbar, obtain more health when consuming food or potions, multiple dodge extra bag space and others.
They are as important as the Hero abilities how ever they re mainly passive abilities. Hero Abilities: These are ablities that are only available for the specific class. For example, for the wizards that require MP, they have the option to increase it, or even get attacks that slowly feels their MP. The MP skills are the same for both
however, the spells each magician gets are differnt. Sorceress gets spells like blizzard, petrification,thunderclouds and others while the wizard gets spells like meteor rain, thunder storm and blaze. The knight gets tanking abilities such as share damage
upgrade health even more, shield damage and others. The archer's attacks are elemental arrows, arrow storm and others. Last but not least the amazon receives skills such as parry, berserk, andrenaline and others.
guild table.
Temple
The temple is a sacred place. There the players can pray to the godess to aid their adventure. When a player prays they 're given an option to pay a given fee to get certain boost. Some of them are EXP boost, a pray for more and better Armor drop,
extra lives for the party and plenty of others. It should be mentioned that every time a godess statue is restored, more praying options become available, alongside the option to change the difficulty. Keep in mind the difficulty is set to normal by default
and each time the dragon dies it goes up to Hard and Infernal. If the player wishes to revert back a difficlty they can simply pray. Another option found in the Temple is the usage of the bones. When adventuring around the players can pick up skeletons,
here in the temple the players can choose to bury the bones or ressurect them. If they re ressurected they ll be available in the bar/Tavern for the player to regroup them for a mission OR to set them free. On the other hand, burying them will allow them to rest
with a small chance of leaving something behind for the player.
Post Game Content
The game's post game content can be found in the form of side quest and in the Labyrinth of chaos. The sidequest are available early in the game. As the player proceeds with the story, more side quest become available
in the guild table. The quests have various forms and most of them are attached to a certain level. To be more specific, some of the quest might request the players to kill certain monsters in certain areas. Furtermore, there
are side quest that request the players to interact with something specific within the map, such as a doll in a hidden room or the machine that creates carpets. Last but not least there will be quests that require the player
to fight each of the bosses available while solo adventuring. This means, no online coop, no local coop and no AI comrades.
The labyrinth of Chaos is a gamemode that becomes available to the players onc the creal the game at least in Normal difficulty. This is a place with multiple floors and randomized enemies. In order to go up a floor the
players has to fight ?/3 in order to clear one level. In other words the player starts Floor 1 1/3, and once they clear out 3/3 the proceed to floor 2. As mentioned the enemies are completely randomised which means that
the Monster woods found in the location Lost woods can appear in the castle level, and the pirates can appear in the Mage's tower. The same can be said for the enemy bosses. A level starting in the shipwreck does not guarantee
a boss fight with the Kraken, it may be Medusa or any other of the 18 bosses. In order fo the players to get the full version of the labyrinth, they ll have to finish the game in all difficulties. The reason behind it, is the fact that
each set of three floors in the labyrinth represent a certain difficulty. Floor 1-3 is Normal, 3-6 is Hard and 6 + is infernal. The enemies that appearring get progresively stronger and after a certain point the bosses of each floor willappear
as normal enemies. These boss monsters deal the same damage as their boss counterparts however, they have less health, just so the game can be fair.
Collectables
The game has one type of collectable. This is the Art presented in the art museum. There is a total of 57 treasure arts for the players to collect. In order to collect art pieces the players have to accept all the side quests posted in
guilds quest board. These quests will most likely have the player venture around in order to do a certain task. When the quest is succesfully done, the player can report back to the guild master and as a reward the player will receive some
exp points,the skill points attached to the quest and the respectful artwork. Doing all of the side quests however will not unlock all of the treasure arts. In fact five art pieces can be unlocked by finishing the story of each of the heroes.
Finaly in order to get the final art piece, the players will have to make another run of the game in the infernal difficulty, so that they can get the final art piece of the three godesses. Each time a player finishes a run of the game
the statues are being build. The first one in the normal difficulty, the second in hard and the third in infernal.
Final thoughts
Overall this is a fun and enjoyable game to share with up to 4 players online or localy. It resembles alot the early 1990s arcade machine that used to be placed almost everywhere. The game plays smoothly and the buttons respond to
all of the buttons. The level design of the game is amazing and it once again needs to be stated that Vanilaware makes some of the best hand drawn games out there. The enemy variety is relatively large and many of the enemies are unique
and have plenty of Animation frames inbetween. Further more each area has secret rooms that the player have to discover by using the right combination in order to enter the passage. The food art of the game is spectacular and it will most
likely make people hungry upon looking them. For a game made in 2013 is extremely good and it has plenty of replayabilit, whether it's to max out a certain hero or to even play all the other classes. The leveling system is fair and
the skill purchase had plenty of thought when it was designed.
Some negative aspects about mainly the console variation of the game is the letter combination. Each level has letters carved on the walls that the player can use with either the touchpad or R3 and L1 to click the letters. However every time
the screen moves its easy to missclick a combination. Even in Multiplayer both online and local, when a player enters a code and the second moves, the screen will once again shake and move causing missclicks. Furthermore, there are plenty of combinations
to be used, so it's easy and logical that not all players will memorise the right combination. To further prove the point, these letters are not always the same, so memorizing which code goes in which map and part of the map it's not an option.
The second thing that acts againts the game is the spellcaster classes. Both the mages cast plenty of spells that re visually flashy and hide plenty of the action happenning on the screenn. It is something that the mage players themselves won't
understand but their teammates will. The third and final, is that if the player creates all six heroes but then only foccused on one, they will always drop items for all the classes. it may not sound bad BUT here is a great example.
A player creates all six heroes and level five of them to 30 so that they can get each class's ending for a trophy and have their main character in lvl90. When playing levels, they gain loot, and when they leave the battle areas they get to access the loot.
All the S and A items are for lvl 90 for the other classes and the Ds & Es are for the main character. This can be really annoying as the higher the levels the lower the damage is dealt, and getting good weaponry and armory for the other classes is
annoying and iritating.
This is a video with my Honest review close to when i played the Game
