Dragon's Crown: Return to the 2D Roost

Dragon's Crown stands among current next-gen offerings as an absolute delicacy: like a Wyvern-roasted, crispy, sheep meal.

Hide your herd; here be Dragons!

What you'll like

Dragon's Crown is a four player simultaneous (online or local) action-RPG which places you in highly-emotive fantasy settings. If you dream of Dungeons & Dragons ventures, you'll be very comfortable playing this game.

Better yet, make some room in the basement and invite your mates to join this wicked treasure jaunt. The combat is easy, the awesome visuals paint the screen, and the outlandish music blends with great narration to move the plot-driven story onward. 

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When starting, you can select from six different characters: Fighter, Amazon, Wizard, Elf, Dwarf, and Sorceress. If you're hands-on, sword to the throat, kinda guy/gal you'll enjoy the brawler types: Fighter and Dwarf. If you're a sneaky attacker with a flair for technicality you'll enjoy the Elf and Amazon. If indirect action and pyrotechnical spell-casting is what you live for then have cool the Wizard and Sorceress will travel.

In a dungeon-crawler such as this content is what lures most players to return. And return you will, as the game has an engaging story, hidden areas, and multiple optional paths to take. Each character can be customized with a different colour patterns, equipped with various weapons, and can pick from a large roster of skills and abilities. But... is there loot? Oh, there be loot, and plenty of it. Found within the sprawling lush lands of Dragon's Crown are piles of weapons, myriads of intricate trinkets and items, and many many side-quests.

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The game's magnificently sculpted fantasy world is a delight to look at. Each area is intricately detailed by a process called “hand-shaping,” which lets the artists create 3D-like environments and characters in 2D. Ruined temples, cursed towers, treacherous mountains, and crumbling fortresses, all pull your eye into the landscape. Wraiths, vampires, dragons, busty... eh, blood thirsty babes, and other mythical critters await your blades. Some of the later bosses—such as the titular dragons—are so big they stuff the entire TV screen. When the action heats up with explosive spells, and bodies fly, the awesome factor gets upped tenfold – creating truly stunning visceral experiences.

What you might dismiss

The gameplay, while balanced and flavorful, can become a little daunting after prolonged play time; this is a hack-and-slash brawler, after all. Because each player has to pause the same screen to go into equip menus, playing with four can affect the pacing a bit. Also this is a mature tittle; as you may have heard there was some sexist controversy around this game due to questionable appearance and proportions of certain female characters. Consider this:

• Vanillaware lives and dies on appealing to its core audience: mature males. This partly influences their design choices; 

• Dragon's Crown takes place in a fantasy setting with fictional characters; and

• There's far less sexuality in this game than in “Lady Marmalade” video

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Is the quest worth it?

Do Dragons love treasure? The answer to both questions is: Yes. What you'll get if you buy Dragon's Crown is a content-filled, well-crafted product made by skillful tradesman who live for their craft. Vanillaware is a company which solely focuses on 2D games. And each title of theirs is as gorgeous as it is imaginative and unique. Now break the boundary of the norm and go forth into lands less travelled. You will not regret it.

If you haven't played Vanillaware's Odin Sphere or Muramasa: The Demon Blade, then I suggest you track those gems down. Those games and Dragon's Crown are some of the best next-gen old-school 2D adventurers out there. Check out Dragon's Crown Landing page too. Venture on. 

Developer: Vanillaware, Atlus

Publisher: Atlus, NIS America

Platform: PS3, PS Vita

Released: 2013

Genre: Action-Adventure, RP