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Captain Baal
Oct 23, 2010

I Failed At Anime 2022



Dragon's Crown is a game developed by amazing game makers and animators, Vanillaware and being published by Altus. It's a beat 'em up game where co-op is naturally a big focus and also a big selling point of the game is it has branching paths that effect how you play, like running from certain enemies or taking alternate paths. You get to choose between 6 characters and it's all set in a fantasy setting.

Consoles: PS3, PS Vita
Release Date: July 25th (JP), August 6th (NA), Fall being distributed by NISA (EU)
Price: $50 (PS3), $40 (Vita)

Official Site: http://www.atlus.com/dragonscrown/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBMr-lRUU2s


Numerous labyrinths and catacombs lie beneath civilization. Magic wielders seek a legendary treasure known as the "Dragon's Crown" use their sorcery to link each of the ruins together in order to search for it, which they plan to use for a sinister purpose. Players must take up the role of one of six adventurers to keep the crown out of their hands, as well as search for treasure of their own.



VA: Patrick Seitz
The Fighter is a pretty obviously a dude in a ton of armor. He's basically the beginner character, he doesn't excel in a drat thing but the dude is so good in the areas he's proficient in it might as well not matter. Fighter is a good beginner character. He has no inherent weaknesses except for the fact he's limited to being a tanky melee character. You can't just bumrush enemies with him though, you need to be able to focus on defense with the fighter too as he can help out the team with some of his skills and can take quite a beating before anything significant is done to him. You play him as a tank first in co-op, as an offensive character in solo play.

Recommended Skills: Cyclone Masher, Sonic Boom, Fall Thrust, Tempest Edge, Cover Allies, Bash


VA: Cindy Robinson
The Amazon is a heavy hitter who's also ridiculously fast. She's classified as an intermediate character, but this is not at all true. Any beginner can play her and effectively get the most out of her so long as they know what skills get her buffed up. The Amazon can't take hits for poo poo and most of her weapons have poor durability, meaning you will need several good weapons that can dish out some dirt. But when you have these weapons, oh my god, you are an ill-dressed barrage of death and boss murder. Amazon easily has the highest damage output of any of the physical classes and can solo even some of the final bosses. You play her as an offensive character in every scenario, she will need support though in co-op to make her absolutely impervious though.

Recommended Skills: Stun Wave, Punisher, Brandish, Berserk, War Paint


VA: Yuri Lowenthal
The Wizard is everything you'd expect his title to claim. He's the only real mage of the game, you need to have a certain set of skills to get the most out of him and he needs to be farrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr away from enemies. The Wizard's got some really powerful AoE spells, but is very skill-based. The most you can get out of the Wizard is to hide behind physical attackers and then launch a hail of ice, fire, and lightning as much as you possibly can while either a Fighter or Amazon handle the front lines. It's very important you know what skills to get with the Wizard, because any meaningless skill obtaining can mean your death and utter frustration because your little tree buddy can't do anything worth a drat and people keep breaking boxes, OH MY GOD STOP BREAKING THEM! You play Wizard as a support attacker in co-op and god help you if you play him in solo.

Recommended Skills: Concentrate, Magic Point Up, Flame Burst, Meteor Swarm, Level Implementation


VA: Eden Riegel
The Elf is a highly technical character. She is probably THE hardest character to use effectively in the game. Her role is going to be support attacker to the heavier units and positioning is very important with her, you can't just toss out assloads of damage like others. With Elf you basically need to always be working for your damage with positioning, arrow moderating, and skill managing. The Elf can get some really good criticals from her Dexterity and Luck, she's meant to help move the party forward, not be the main unit of focus. Due to her versatility in skills and her arrows being limited you will have to know this character inside and out if you plan on using her, especially solo.

Recommended Skills: Rapid Shot, Arrow Stock, Toxic Extract, Option Dagger, Boots Enhanced,


VA: Jamieson Price
The Dwarf is a really strong and item capable guy. The big thing about the Dwarf is much like the Amazon, he can deal a ton of damage with very little effort. See a big stone slab? Throw it. See a bomb? Throw it. See an enemy? Hahaahahah... THROW IT. The Dwarf is a very offensive class that deals massive damage in very little time with his items, throwing, and massive body slams. Although much like the Amazon, he is very bad at taking what he dishes out, so you need to watch his health and play smart. You can also damage multiple enemies at once with the Dwarf which is very useful for a physical class. Dwarf is a bit more technical than the Amazon and Fighter, but he is definitely worth every bit of investment. On co-op you play him as THE BIG GUY who's gonna deal your damage, solo is much the same but you don't have support in solo.

Recommended Skills: Grand Slam, Lethal Fist, Eagle Dive, Lava Bangle, Rock Skin


VA: Erin Fitzgerald
The Sorceress is a magic user, although not at all like the Wizard. She is strictly a support character first and a damage dealer second. If Elf is the hardest character to play, Sorceress is definitely right next to her in difficulty. You are not going to be dealing tons of damage with Sorceress, she's got some decent spells which do okay damage, but you need to be looking out for the team first. She relies very much on her skillset and unlike the Wizard who makes his golems from boxes, she makes her from bones. So your suboptimal playing should not hinder a good Sorceress who actually has a goal in mind. Much like the Wizard, you NEED to be paying attention to your MP and managing it intensely, a Sorceress with no MP might as well not even be alive. On co-op you use her as support, on solo... well, good luck.

Recommended Skills: Concentrate, Protection, Rock Press, Create Food, Petrification



Dragon's Crown is an action-rpg that is structured like a sidescrolling beat 'em up. You can customize your characters with equipment, get them items for healing and whatnot, kill the mans for exp to upgrade them and their stats. There are also quests for you to undertake should you feel like getting more extra stuff. What sets the game apart from most beat 'em ups and even action rpgs, is that you are allowed to take alternate paths. Now this does not mean just picking a different section of a level to go through, this can be anything like running from a powerful enemy, stealing an item from a boss, taking previously mentioned alternate paths, and even just searching for some secrets. Do they alter the story or anything else like that at all? No. They do however allow you other ways to take on a stage and that's pretty neat.

On top of all of this are features for multiplayer. There's of course, online and local co-op, which allows 4 players at once. Should you run out of lives during online co-op there is a mechanic in the game that allows you to trade in the bones of players who lost all of their lives to special merchants for them to come back as an AI-controlled partner. There's also an in-game pop up system which allows players to communicate through simple messages like "Thank you" or "Hello".

And here's some extra gameplay videos for anyone needing some more extensive stuff.

Gamespot E3 Demo
E3 Off-screen footage (low quality)
E3 Off-screen footage (low quality)
E3 Off-screen footage

FAQ

Who are Vanillaware?

Vanillaware is a game developer that originally started back in 2002 as a company named "Puraguru". They renamed in 2004 and are known for basically being one of the few game developers to continue 2D game designing rather than go towards 3D like most other developers. In fact, part of the reason that Vanillaware's games attract people is the art design and 2D game style, they put their own unique spin on it that not only makes it a joy to play, but look at. Prior to Dragon's Crown, Vanillware has developed 2 PS2 games and 1 Wii game which is getting ported to the Vita this month. GrimGrimoire was their first game and although it had its quirks it was still a charming game with okay gameplay. Odin Sphere is a fantastic game that not only tells a great story based on Norse Mythology, but has fun game with 5 different playable characters, each with their own unique style. Muramasa: The Demon Blade is another fun game that shows off the unique art style well, but it's a bit more flawed than Odin Sphere.

Vanillaware is a great developer who makes genuinely unique and interesting games and they look to do the same with Dragon's Crown. After all this game was pitched for about 13 years before it finally saw actual development, so they've built up quite a lot of ideas in how they want it to turn out.

Cool, is it okay if we talk about the other games in here?

No, shut up. Game is out, talk about game, and the things you do in said game.

Does this game have cross buy?

No, if you buy the PS3 version, you get only the PS3 version. Same goes for Vita.

Is there cross-play?

As of the 1.04 Patch there is now Cross-Play with your Vita.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTmn0_C9ys8

Here's the spreadsheet, add all your stuff so goons can team up with each other.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AhL_WPxsF6NLdEFLQVhuMUJ2TDQ0VGctVzhXeU5SR2c#gid=0

Captain Baal fucked around with this message at 15:50 on Oct 9, 2013

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Typical Pubbie
May 10, 2011
Check out the rock hard boobs on that dwarf, hubba hubba.

Malcolm
May 11, 2008
That female is completely unrealistic. There's no way she could fire a bow that is taller than she is.

Duck_King
Sep 5, 2003

leader.bmp
Been waiting years for this game. As someone who spent a ton of time with the D&D arcade games with friends, this game is right up my alley.

Policenaut
Jul 11, 2008

On the moon... they don't make Neo Kobe Pizza.

Got my Vita version pre-order ready and raring to go, sure hope George Kamitani's weird 12 year odyssey to get this game made pays off!

Eddain
May 6, 2007
Capcom's Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara should be out this Tuesday. I read that the creators of Dragon's Crown worked on those previous titles as well.

Fauxtool
Oct 21, 2008

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
I played this for hours at e3. The elf is my favorite by far. You can charge shots for huge dmg and cancel your air light attack into bowshot repeatedly to stay in the air for a long time. It was annoying to run out of arrows, but the monsters dropped plenty on death.
Im sure they put that in so you dont kite too much, but I am unsure how that works with bosses as the one I fought didnt have minions to get arrows from. One of the devs said there may or not be an item or skill that regens arrows :wink:

I liked that there was a universal dodge without any invulnerability.
There were also locked doors all over the place that only one class could open, I can see lots of replayability

Fauxtool fucked around with this message at 07:38 on Jun 17, 2013

The General
Mar 4, 2007



This looks terrible. I have no words for how terrible this is.

The Taint Reaper
Sep 4, 2012

by Shine

The General posted:


This looks terrible. I have no words for how terrible this is.

I've never seen an rear end with acute angles before and I've played Tomb Raider on PSX.

...of SCIENCE!
Apr 26, 2008

by Fluffdaddy

The General posted:


This looks terrible. I have no words for how terrible this is.

Forget it, Jake; it's Games.

Gyoru
Jul 13, 2004



Here's gameplay demo from E3.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeKk6rhPOQ0&hd=1

Eddain
May 6, 2007

Oh poo poo, you can ride dinosaurs just like in the old Golden Axe games.

Looks like there's friendly fire in this game. Total grief potential.

Eddain fucked around with this message at 08:07 on Jun 17, 2013

Fauxtool
Oct 21, 2008

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
Can we add a poll to the OP on what version you all are getting? Im still torn on which version.

pigdog
Apr 23, 2004

by Smythe

The General posted:


This looks terrible. I have no words for how terrible this is.

What is wrong with you?

The Taint Reaper
Sep 4, 2012

by Shine

pigdog posted:

What is wrong with you?

He has a sense of proper human proportion.

Lumpy the Cook
Feb 4, 2011

Drippy-goo-yay, mother-gunker!
Please, please close this thread, OP. There is only one way it could possibly go.

Revitalized
Sep 13, 2007

A free custom title is a free custom title

Lipstick Apathy

WendigoJohnson posted:

I've never seen an rear end with acute angles before and I've played Tomb Raider on PSX.

Pretty much the only thing that particularly bothers me, but other than that I'm starting to get a bit more interested in this game now there's a bit more to show of it.

I'm probably gonna get the Vita version. It's cheaper, gives me more games to take on the go, and I don't turn on my PS3 much anyways. (Less so when the PS4 comes out) Gonna elf this game up! I wonder if the Elf's quiver visually shows how many arrows are remaining?

The GIG
Jun 28, 2011

Yeah, I say "Shit" a shit-ton of times. What of it, shithead?
I'm pretty sure two lovely character designs don't invalidate the rest of this really good sounding game.

poptart_fairy
Apr 8, 2009

by R. Guyovich
There's something really weird about the animation style that's throwing me off. Anyone else getting that? :psyduck:

El Generico
Feb 3, 2009

Nobody outrules the Marquise de Cat!

The General posted:


This looks terrible. I have no words for how terrible this is.

The gently caress is wrong with this poor lady's butt?!

Fauxtool
Oct 21, 2008

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
all design decisions can be easily explained, "magic"
dont overthink it

A Bystander
Oct 10, 2012
So from the info in the OP so far, the Fighter sounds right up my alley because the Dwarf apparently having low defense seems kind of lame.

toasterwarrior
Nov 11, 2011
:butt:, the thread

Has there been any info on whether using different weapons changes your character's moveset? I saw that the Fighter could use a handaxe instead of his sword, and I'm wondering whether it's more than an aesthetic change.

Also, good luck with this thread Ferguson! Here's hoping that this doesn't go into the shitter like the DmC thread does because of butts! :)

Captain Baal
Oct 23, 2010

I Failed At Anime 2022

Lumpy the Cook posted:

Please, please close this thread, OP. There is only one way it could possibly go.

I'm going to close it if it gets to be too much. Right now a few dudes showing up and saying things about proportions is honestly a lot more tame than what I was expecting.


Revitalized posted:

I wonder if the Elf's quiver visually shows how many arrows are remaining?

Yeah, it does.

toasterwarrior posted:

:butt:, the thread

Has there been any info on whether using different weapons changes your character's moveset? I saw that the Fighter could use a handaxe instead of his sword, and I'm wondering whether it's more than an aesthetic change.

Also, good luck with this thread Ferguson! Here's hoping that this doesn't go into the shitter like the DmC thread does because of butts! :)

They're purely cosmetic as far as I know. Also I hope so too, as I seem to have a talent for picking the worst games to OP (Not that I'm saying DC is a bad game.), here's hoping when I make a Wonderful 101 thread in a month that people don't come in saying it looks like a ripoff of Pikmin or whatever.

Captain Baal fucked around with this message at 08:35 on Jun 17, 2013

pigdog
Apr 23, 2004

by Smythe

WendigoJohnson posted:

He has a sense of proper human proportion.
Yet no sense of ... eh, nevermind.

Games are serious business.

pigdog fucked around with this message at 08:36 on Jun 17, 2013

Blazing Zero
Sep 7, 2012

*sigh* sure. it's a weed joke
This reminds me of Gauntlet Legends. Color me interested. I wonder if the blatant stereotypes are an actual art decision they made or an attempt to drum up negative publicity?

Policenaut
Jul 11, 2008

On the moon... they don't make Neo Kobe Pizza.

Blazing Zero posted:

I wonder if the blatant stereotypes are an actual art decision they made or an attempt to drum up negative publicity?

Considering that the director for this game has a long history with D&D and a love of Western fantasy, I always took Dragon's Crown's art direction as an attempt to pay homage to :nws: Frank Frazetta's work. :nws: I think a lot of Crown's art looks a lot like what would happen if you asked a modern day Japanese anime artist to draw something in his style.

toasterwarrior
Nov 11, 2011

Blazing Zero posted:

This reminds me of Gauntlet Legends. Color me interested. I wonder if the blatant stereotypes are an actual art decision they made or an attempt to drum up negative publicity?

Vanillaware is known for exaggerated features in their art, and Kamitani actually had a hand in the game using even more over-the-top proportions in this game since he's a really big fan of oldschool D&D art thanks to his previous work in the old arcade D&D Capcom games. Dude knows his poo poo.

argh efb :argh:

Fauxtool
Oct 21, 2008

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

Blazing Zero posted:

This reminds me of Gauntlet Legends. Color me interested. I wonder if the blatant stereotypes are an actual art decision they made or an attempt to drum up negative publicity?

the art has been like that since the games announcement. its in line with his previous exaggerated hips and chest art as well. Just be glad its not his loli art and buy it.



Dude knows how to make those colors pop

searching for dragons crown art gets you 90% porn fanart

Fauxtool fucked around with this message at 08:58 on Jun 17, 2013

Eddain
May 6, 2007

Policenaut posted:

Considering that the director for this game has a long history with D&D and a love of Western fantasy, I always took Dragon's Crown's art direction as an attempt to pay homage to :nws: Frank Frazetta's work. :nws: I think a lot of Crown's art looks a lot like what would happen if you asked a modern day Japanese anime artist to draw something in his style.

Yeah, I played a lot of D&D gold box games and read a bunch of old D&D books, and the art's pretty much the same idea.

Entenzahn
Nov 15, 2012

erm... quack-ward
The E3 got me thinking about getting a handheld for myself in the near future. I saw some gameplay of this title and it looks gorgeous, so if I end up with a Vita I will probably get this game as well.

I usually like to be the supporter/healer of the group so I might go with the sorceress. That said, I'm aware that she has breasts as big as her head and I would never be able to play this game in front of friends, family or coworkers. So maybe I'll just roll a dice then. :v:

Blazing Zero
Sep 7, 2012

*sigh* sure. it's a weed joke
^^^^ This is probably the reason I won't play it either. It's just too close to the pervert line to be something I talk about with family or friends.

I also just found that kotaku article and read a bit more about the drama surrounding this. Nerds are seriously angry about this, which is fine. I can see a reason to be angry and all... but it's easy to not buy the game if it bothers you.

Anyways, it answered my question. The art director said something about media dieing if no one talks about it, and this helped influence his decision. No such thing as bad publicity.

Blazing Zero fucked around with this message at 08:57 on Jun 17, 2013

...of SCIENCE!
Apr 26, 2008

by Fluffdaddy

poptart_fairy posted:

There's something really weird about the animation style that's throwing me off. Anyone else getting that? :psyduck:

Their last two games were frame-by-frame animation, but this seems to be using some weird tweening effect. They've basically traded the animation quality for being in proper HD.

Blazing Zero posted:

I wonder if the blatant stereotypes are an actual art decision they made or an attempt to drum up negative publicity?

Considering that the game's director called somebody who criticized the female character design gay (specifically, he posted a picture of some of the shirtless, hairy dwarfs and said "He doesn't like big tits and asses, obviously this is more to his liking") I think they're taking their embarrassing character design very seriously.

e: beaten, kind of

...of SCIENCE! fucked around with this message at 08:58 on Jun 17, 2013

Arthe Xavier
Apr 22, 2007

Artificial Stupidity
The art direction - apart from the ridiculous butts, muscles and boobs - is pretty amazing. I really dig the monster-design, which ( to me ) is the most important factor in a game like this. Seems like a really fun game on co-op, too, so I'm definitely getting it... Never, it seems. Why is there no EU release date?! drat it, Atlus - I just got a PS3 and all!

toasterwarrior
Nov 11, 2011

...of SCIENCE! posted:

Considering that the game's director called somebody who criticized the female character design gay (specifically, he posted a picture of some of the dwarfs and said "He doesn't like big tits and asses, obviously this is more to his liking") I think they're taking their embarrassing character design very seriously.

Kamitani posted an apology: http://kotaku.com/the-artist-behind-dragons-crown-explains-his-exaggerat-482450927. I had my misgivings about the art as well, but I'm willing to concede that the joking nature of his reply probably did get lost in translation.

Fauxtool
Oct 21, 2008

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
I kinda wanted it on the Vita because its portable, the touchscreen is actually useful, and the vita has a fairly high res screen. Who am I kidding, im not going outside anyways.
After playing it at E3 i may want it on ps3 so I can appreciate all the work that went into the art. Not being cross play is a real bummer. Do we know if its remote play compatible?

Fauxtool fucked around with this message at 09:08 on Jun 17, 2013

Yechezkel
Oct 5, 2004

Fun Shoe
There is going to be an add-on at launch that adds more narration voices from the 6 characters. For the first month, it will be a free download.

poptart_fairy posted:

There's something really weird about the animation style that's throwing me off. Anyone else getting that? :psyduck:

Some of it looks like static images being stretched and shrunk to mimic movement. Is that what you mean?

Renoistic
Jul 27, 2007

Everyone has a
guardian angel.
I can't hate the designs - the sorceress and particularly the amazon makes me laugh out loud every time I see them.
To me they're nothing but parodies of old fantasy illustrations. Love the sorceress' giant hat, as well.
I would have preferred if they weren't sexualized like that, though, and they look really odd when compared to
the magician and elf who don't look like parodies at all.

My biggest concern is who to choose to play! They all sound pretty distinctive and fun to use.
It's a good thing they have online MP, though, because no-one I know would touch this game with
a ten-foot pole.

Renoistic fucked around with this message at 10:22 on Jun 17, 2013

poptart_fairy
Apr 8, 2009

by R. Guyovich

Yechezkel posted:


Some of it looks like static images being stretched and shrunk to mimic movement. Is that what you mean?

Yeah, when you put it like that! It's a weird effect and utterly mindfucks me.

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treestump
Dec 20, 2004
what was David Coverdale to do?
rear end and titties.

rear end and titties.

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