Vanillaware is known for their games having amazing artwork and enjoyable gameplay. Their game, Dragon’s Crown is no different from Vanillaware’s prior games. In a nutshell, this basically a modern-day version of Dungeons and Dragons in my opinion. I did a review of Dungeons and Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara here on the site. I would like to think that if that game was somehow remade, Dragon’s Crown would be close to the end result. This game is available for the PS4, PS3, and the PS Vita. Sega and Atlus really pushed out a gem on this one.
The game allows you to play with six characters in total. The Amazon, the Dwarf, the Elf, the Fighter, the Sorceress, and lastly, the Wizard. Each character of course comes with their own play style and skills that you gain over the course of playing. After choosing one of the six, you’ll be introduced to a world where you traverse all sorts of fairy-tail-like levels and monsters.
When you first start the game you’re met with a thief named Rannie that you form a partnership with. In his pursuit of wealth, Rannie unlocks doors and chests while you, the player fends off monsters. After the basic tutorial of the game, you’ll get a quick tour of the kingdom of Hydeland.
First, there’s Morgan’s magic item shop. This is where you can both buy and sell weapons and items. The items she sells normally are for healing or temporary buffers. She also offers appraisals of random equipment and items you find. Lastly, she can repair your broken equipment. Needless to say, she’s pretty dang important. Keeping your weapons and armor in top form can only be done at her shop.
Next is Lucian, an old wizard that lives in the tower. Here, you can do two simple things. The first is you can purchase magic items here. However, unlike the magic items in Morgan’s shop, these items are more for attacking enemies. The second option at Lucain’s tower is seeing rune magic incantations. Throughout the levels of the game, there are carvings. Matching the carvings with runes the adventurer has allows you to invoke magic spells. Lucain is pretty much used as a “cheat sheet” to see them all.
Then we have the Adventurer’s Guild. This is where you can embark on random quests. Normally, the quests pertain to killing a fixed amount of enemies, killing specific enemies, finding secrets, or collecting items. The rewards for these quests are money, experience points, skill points, and artwork. Learning skills is another thing you do here. The skill points you earn from quests and general leveling up are put to use here. Each character has their own skills specific to them as well as general skills that all of the characters can use. The last option at the Guild is the Gallery. This is filled by completing quests and leveling up.
The last section of the kingdom is the castle itself. I won’t speak on this too much since there actually is a bit of story here. I will say however like the Guild, you get some quests here too. The only difference here is the quests here actually tie into the story whereas the Guild ones don’t.
The story of the game itself is a bit hard to follow as it seems to have a lot of moving parts entwined. On one hand, you’re trying to thwart a political coup. On the other hand, you’re attempting to stop the revival of the ancient dragon. To do this, the adventurer has to fight through the game to obtain the 8 talismans. After which through a rune spell, the adventurer gains access to a place called the Illusionary land, where you fight the ancient dragon.
The game’s main levels are pretty varied. If nothing else, this game is full of level variety. You would think that 8 levels would be too little, especially for a beat-em-up, hack-n-slash game. But the fact is each level branches into two parts at the midway point of each stage. And of course, each path leads to a different boss monster. Speaking of the monsters, it’s like this game made a point to throw in any mythical beast it could. It’s as if they decided to make Forgotten Realms in anime form, (this is not a complaint by the way). Medusa, Harpies, Krakens, even a “killer” rabbit, need I go on?
After completing stages, they give you the option of either going straight to the next level or returning back to Hydeland kingdom. If you decided to stick around, you get an increase in experience and money. Just don’t push it too far, sometimes it’s better to go back for supplies and repairs. One unique aspect of the game is the camping. After a level or two, the game allows you to have a campfire and literally eat the monsters you fought. And there’s a bit of skill needed if you want to get the best out of your food as the better you cook, the better the stats you gain. You’ll have to stir, flip, and season the food as close to perfect as you can to get the best out of your dishes. This is a personal highlight of the game for me.
Now as far as gameplay is concerned, it’s pretty simple. Basic hack n slash controls with a few tweaks make this an overall fun time. there isn’t anything too fancy here. But what’s here works really, really well. With that said though, the game is good solo, but excellent as a multiplayer affair. The entire game can be played with players randomly dropping in and out of each other’s games at any time. With a full group of four, this game can get very chaotic. But we can say that for most multiplayer games. More players, more mayhem. The game is both crossplay and cross-save. PS4, PS3, and PS Vita players can all play together at any time.
If you’re a collector, this game does indeed have collector editions, but not for every region. For the PS4, there’s the standard edition as well as the Battle Hardened edition in North America. The Battle Hardened edition comes with a steelbook and a pack of skill cards. Japan has the “Royal” edition. Their version comes with a 3 disc soundtrack and a few other goodies. The Japan Dengeki set for the PS3 version is even cooler than the PS4 Royal version. But it’s very hard to find.
Overall, this game is a good one to have on your shelf. Completionists won’t find this game too difficult to get through. Getting through a playthrough in a day is no hard task with this one. If you’re into fantasy-styled games or Dungeons and Dragons, do I really have to sell you on this game?
See our playthroughs here