In the same fashion as the PS2's stunning side scroller Odin's Sphere and the overlooked, but brilliant Muramasa The Demon Blade (recently ported over to the Playstation Vita), Vanillaware brings yet another beat
'em up that boasts both a deep combat system and a gorgeously rendered graphics style. The hand-drawn host of environments and heroes delivers fantasy themed valor that refuse to settle for mediocrity. Animations are smooth, yet delivered fast and jerky in a most pleasant way. Your movements and attacks are flawlessly chained together with a charming callback to the days of 16-bit sprites that will put the senses in awe. Its a soothing combination of concise motions pasted over a nostalgic template of the arcade days; a stunningly crafted work of art that will keep you wrapped in its beauty. The soundtrack, at first, doesn't seem like anything special, but after a few hours, you'll find yourself humming along to the simple tunes that never distract you from the gorgeous setting.
This particular fantasy style is likely to offend some with its over-the-top gender depictions. The Fighter's triangle shaped torso and shoulder boulders are only exceeded in ridiculousness by the Sorcerer's ballooning breasts. Even some NPC's and story characters are drawn to almost humorous proportions as their builds represent mere caricatures of human anatomy. But, no matter how distracting and unnecessary it may be, it never once detracted from my enjoyment of the game (though I'm sure that won't be the case for everybody). The problem with gender representation, for both males and females in video games, however, is a debate left for another time. For now, let's consider the gameplay.
In Dragon's Crown, you choose from one of six unique characters; the Fighter, the Dwarf, the Wizard, the Sorcerer, the Elf, or the Amazon. Each class has stats representing your brawler in the exact fashion you'd expect. The Dwarf is durable and strong, but lacks dexterity. The Wizard has devastating magical offense, but needs to keep a safe distance due to his glass cannon nature. Along with their differences in basic numbers, whoever you choose brings their own play style to the table. The Fighter has incredible aerial combat and can use a shield to block for allies and deliver stuns. The Elf relies on the range of her bow to create an assault of arrows, but is limited to only so many arrows per dungeon. The Sorcerer provides group support and even has a handy spell to create food from thin air, giving your party some emergency healing. No matter whose finesse fits your fancy you'll have the unbreakable urge to go back and master each one for some diversity in your experience.
Customization is at the center of the fun through the engaging loot and skill system. Leveling up your character or completing one of the many side quests will grant your character a skill point. These can be used among two different skill pools; one contains abilities every character can learn (an extra dodge roll, more HP, and reduced cooldown between item uses) while the other pool is for skills specific to your character class (the Dwarf can upgrade his powerful Grand Smash ability or obtain explosives to carry, yet the Elf can learn to rapid shoot arrows or increase the damage to her kicking attacks). Every skill can be upgraded, so long as you meet the level requirement, at the expense of more skill points. Getting that next point could change your character's damage output completely, so the drive to keep leveling up and continue upgrading will ensure your TV stays on for hours longer than anticipated.
The other addicting feature, the loot system, is sure to keep you and your friends sliding back into your roles again and again. Unlocking treasure chests and beating bosses within each level will net you a random treasure with a grade (starting with E all the way to S) and come the end of the level, you'll be presented with a cache of items. These items, however, will have various question marks as placeholders for the stats. You'll need to spend your valuable gold to appraise each item to learn what kind of attributes it carries. That A ranked hand axe could have a higher damage rate than your current weapon and reduce damage taken by 12%, or it could deliver extra ice damage and perform better against undead foes. Either way, if you want to find out, you'll need to sacrifice the gold. The baskets of loot that come in after each level will keep your character growing, but don't discard those old weapons just yet. Your character can also carry multiple "Bags" each containing a changeable weapon and armor set for your character to equip. Since your gear degrades with each usage, these bags serve as loadouts of backup items ready to go when your primary set is need of repair. And since you get large item, gold, and experience bonuses the more dungeons you conquer in succession without traveling back to town, you'll want to make sure you have plenty of options to get the job done.
Dragon's Crown isn't without its flaws however. The levels are fairly short and there are really only nine of them. Yes, levels will seem longer on higher difficulties because of the longer combat segments, and each level actually has two routes to explore, giving a total of 18 routes and 18 bosses. That being said, its still a bit of a disappointment. Considering how gorgeous and diverse the existing environments are, I would have loved to see what else Vanillaware could create. This also becomes an issue with replayability. Dragon's Crown will keep you busy for a long time with different characters to experiment with and plenty of loot to seek; however, seeing the same nine level themes over and over again can make grinding a bit dull. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for some DLC in the future perhaps containing some new classes to try and more levels to dive into, but I'm not holding my breath.
But, what could be a boring experience due to the lack of levels only gets more exciting as the game goes on. The meat of the game actually takes a while to unlock; online multiplayer isn't available until beating the first nine bosses and harder difficulties (which you'll need to play to reach the level cap) as well as the incredibly fun Chaos Dungeon don't make an appearance until you beat the game on Normal. Multiplayer, either locally or online, is an absolute blast. This is a party game at its finest; there is always a screen full of explosive effects to be enjoy, and while it takes time to fully master, the combat is extremely simple for almost anyone to pick up. As stated before, running long chains of dungeons together will start a multiplier that affects your rewards, so nothing is more fun than getting a group of friends together to trudge through as much RPG action as you can. If you don't have anyone around for coop and aren't too keen on going online, AI's characters can be obtained to fill a space and join you on your adventure. Though be wary, adding another player, human or not, will multiply the enemies' health, and AI's don't always do their part to make up for the extra difficulty.
I could point out other negative aspects of the game; sometimes you can lose your character in all the action, some online moments can be laggy when striking multiple enemies or picking up items, and the story isn't anything special with the narrator even becoming intrusively overbearing after repeating himself constantly. But why have I cataloged over 30 hours into it already? Why do I want to get off my computer and fire up my PS3 right now? Why am I compelled to start a new class from Level 1 or grind out some more loot for my first character? In the end, this game is an addiction. Its easy to pick up and hard to put down. Its simple enough to enjoy casually and deep enough to go bonkers over your stats and build. Its a great game to play alone for twenty minutes or marathon for hours with your buddies. No matter what you're seeking out of a gaming experience, mindless beat 'em ups or hero building RPGs are your ballgame, Dragon's Crown is a long-needed jump-start to this long abandoned genre that presents itself in style.
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