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| A grand adventure. |
Dragon's Crown is a 2D beat 'em up from Vanillaware, makers of classics such as Odin Sphere and Muramasa Rebirth. Focusing on a group of adventurers on a quest for the fabled "Dragon's Crown" said to be a long-lost treasure, it's a fantasy game with style and substance. Originally conceived as a Dreamcast game, it faced lots of funding issues over the years but finally managed to release back in 2013, thanks to publisher Atlus. It's was a huge success for the studio, spawning a remaster for the PS4 with Dragon's Crown Pro in 2018. As a fan of Vanillaware's games, I finally got the chance to play Dragon's Crown for the longest time. So is the game just flashy eye-candy or does deliver a solid gameplay experience?
Dragon's Crown is a 2D beat 'em up with RPG elements. You choose your adventurer from six characters: a Fighter, Amazon, Dwarf, Wizard, Sorceresses, or Elf and battle your way through stages. Each character have their own unique weapon and skills like the Sorceresses focusing on ranged magic attacks while the Fighter sticks to melee bashing. The game's levels have you fighting a wide range of enemies, unlocking treasure chests containing loot, and levelling up in the process. The gameplay boils down to you button-mashing till the enemies are toast though the game's boss fights will often require to plan your attacks and blocking instead of fully charging in.
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| The gameplay was surprisingly deep and fast-paced. |
The game's nine levels were diverse, seeing you fight a bunch of monsters in the woods, mutated fungi in underground lab, and navigate through traps and ghosts in a giant tower. They took around 15-20 mins to beat and they're filled with secrets like hidden pathways and treasure chests that encourage you to replay them again. There's also stage gimmicks like a flying carpet section that keeps things interesting. That said, the gameplay can get repetitive and backtracking to previous areas later in the game will add to it-- kind of wished there were a few more levels. Also, you can't pause during levels for some reason too.
The hub world is packed with sights to check out like the item shop, tavern where you can recruit NPCs to fight with you, and adventurer's guild where you can accept side-quests that reward you with large amount of experience and money, as well as cool character art. Even after completing the main story, there's tons of replay-value in going for the harder difficulties, playing as other characters, and finishing all side-quests. My playthrough took around 14 hours as the Fighter and I already started another one as the Amazon, so I'm not done with the game just yet.
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| The game's not short on replay-value. |
Dragon's Crown boasts a gorgeous hand-drawn artstyle with detailed medieval-inspired character designs and rich, painting-like backgrounds. It's obvious that the visuals are easily the game's defining aspect and it's even better when you factor in that it's nearly 10 years old! Yes, the exaggerated character designs might turn some off, but I didn't mind it. The voicework was good, packing great performances from the narrators. The "Pro" edition of the game adds Japanese voice-acting alongside remastered visuals and 4K support. The soundtrack was equally great, nailing the fantasy setting with some great tracks. My faves were the town theme, adventurer's guild, and item shop themes.
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| It's no surprise at this point, Dragon's Crown looks stunning. |
Dragon's Crown was a great time if you're a fan of old-school, fantasy beat 'em ups. The fun and addictive gameplay alongside the high-quality presentation are its strong points. Granted, the story was generic and repetition is unavoidable, but the game managed to be a solid experience all-around. It's even better when playing with friends either online or co-op and it stands as one of Vanillaware's best works.
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