Dragon's Crown Review (PS3)
Story
The story is simple. You are an adventurer in the kingdom Hydeland, where you are tasked to retrieve an ancient item called Dragon's Crown. You will travel to different dangerous areas to find it, as well as encountering different monsters that you must defeat in your journey.
The story is simplistic and generic, with not enough story expositions to make it an interesting adventure story. Every single character in this game is rather underdeveloped, and each only has one ending that details what happens next after this game's events.
Gameplay
1) Exploration and Progression Section
The game plays in 2D-styled stages, where you can control your current playable character in the game in combat or movement. Each stage has different bosses, level designs, and alternate paths which you can take on to fight different bosses. You are also able to travel in the town to purchase new items, take on requests, or learn new skills.
Progression is simple, as you must clear all stages twice to fight the final boss of the game. You will play in 2D-styled stages, fighting different monsters such as skeletons and other kind of monsters. Once you have finished all of the dungeons for the first time, you can must play them again and try to pursue alternate routes in different stages, with better loot as well as more powerful bosses.
You may also opt to take optional Quests in the game, which reward you money, experience points, and etc. You can only unlock other Quests once you have completed the prior Quests, and many of them include defeating certain amount of enemies and other objectives.
2) Leveling and Customisation Section
Leveling is simple, as you earn experience points based on the score that you get upon clearing a stage or an adventure. Score can be obtained by picking up coins dropped by enemies as well as doing other options. The more stages that you clear in one adventure, the more score you can get as well as experience points. However, your maximum level on a playthrough will be capped to a certain level until you finish the game and playing in a harder difficulty. This game has three difficulty levels, and they will be unlocked to all of your newly created characters once you have cleared three difficulty levels with any one character. Difficulty levels affects how much experience points you can get, level of loot, as well as enemies' stats.
This game uses loot system similar to other RPG games. You can get loot such as weapons and equipment by opening treasure chests or defeating bosses, and it is randomised. Each weapon or piece of equipment may have different effects, such as increased damage against certain type of enemies. You may also have to appraise the equipment so that you can use them. Each loot that you picked up has it's own rank, which also factors into what effects that weapon or equipment has.
As you gain levels, you will earn new skill points. You can use it to learn new skills for your character, such as new combat moves or passive effects.
3) Combat Section
The combat is action-based, where you can control your character in real-time, such as moving and attacking. Each class has different specialisation, as well as have access to specific sets of equipment. For example, Fighters is the only class can equip shields for defence, whereas Elf is specialised in using her bow and arrow to attack enemies from a distance. Depending on your playstyle, choosing the right class for your playthrough is vital.
You may also bring NPC allies to help you in your adventure. In order to do that, you must find their bones and resurrect them at the temple, for a fee, The higher leveled they are, the more expensive the resurrection fee is. You may also bring your friends to play in local or online co-op.
Basic combat is simple. You can use your equipped weapon to attack enemies, use different skills, use picked up weapons like crossbows to attack enemies, as well as dodging enemy attacks. Different enemies have different types, weaknesses, and attack patterns.
Bosses are the toughest enemies you will encounter in each stage, where each of them have their own attack patterns, stats, resistances, and designs. Careful preparation is vital in defeating them, such as having proper equipment and skills.
4) Gameplay Conclusion
This game has solid gameplay. Unique and distinct playable characters, excellent enemy designs, different stage designs, and good boss fights. However, this game still has flaws. The repetitive nature of the game can be an issue to players, since the game hardly changes even after playing in harder difficulties. Secondly, the progressions is too linear. Not many puzzles to serve as obstacle to impede your progress in the game. Regardless, this game is incredibly fun to play if you like the gameplay, like collecting loot, playing with your friends, and tackling the harder difficulties.
Graphics
This game has pretty 2D visuals, fitting for a fantasy adventure game. The game's artworks are very unique and amazing, and no major technical issues encountered when playing the game on PS3.
Sound
The game has good soundtrack, fitting for a fantasy adventure game like this. There are not many memorable tracks individually, however. The voice acting is pretty sparse, since the voice acting is primarily focused on narration, and your playable characters' grunts.
Replay Value
This game has high replay value. You can choose other class to play in newer playthroughs, complete the story again in harder difficulty modes such as Infernal mode where enemies have higher levels, stats, and new loot, or complete an optional dungeon called Labyrinth of Chaos, a dungeon that random generates levels in different floors. You can also take alternate routes in the mandatory dungeons after completing the game once, which may unlock new boss fights.
Conclusion
Find the Dragon's Crown.
The story is simple. You are an adventurer in the kingdom Hydeland, where you are tasked to retrieve an ancient item called Dragon's Crown. You will travel to different dangerous areas to find it, as well as encountering different monsters that you must defeat in your journey.
The story is simplistic and generic, with not enough story expositions to make it an interesting adventure story. Every single character in this game is rather underdeveloped, and each only has one ending that details what happens next after this game's events.
Gameplay
1) Exploration and Progression Section
2D-styled exploration.
Progression is simple, as you must clear all stages twice to fight the final boss of the game. You will play in 2D-styled stages, fighting different monsters such as skeletons and other kind of monsters. Once you have finished all of the dungeons for the first time, you can must play them again and try to pursue alternate routes in different stages, with better loot as well as more powerful bosses.
You may also opt to take optional Quests in the game, which reward you money, experience points, and etc. You can only unlock other Quests once you have completed the prior Quests, and many of them include defeating certain amount of enemies and other objectives.
2) Leveling and Customisation Section
Learn new skills upon leveling up.
Leveling is simple, as you earn experience points based on the score that you get upon clearing a stage or an adventure. Score can be obtained by picking up coins dropped by enemies as well as doing other options. The more stages that you clear in one adventure, the more score you can get as well as experience points. However, your maximum level on a playthrough will be capped to a certain level until you finish the game and playing in a harder difficulty. This game has three difficulty levels, and they will be unlocked to all of your newly created characters once you have cleared three difficulty levels with any one character. Difficulty levels affects how much experience points you can get, level of loot, as well as enemies' stats.
This game uses loot system similar to other RPG games. You can get loot such as weapons and equipment by opening treasure chests or defeating bosses, and it is randomised. Each weapon or piece of equipment may have different effects, such as increased damage against certain type of enemies. You may also have to appraise the equipment so that you can use them. Each loot that you picked up has it's own rank, which also factors into what effects that weapon or equipment has.
As you gain levels, you will earn new skill points. You can use it to learn new skills for your character, such as new combat moves or passive effects.
3) Combat Section
Each class has their unique abilities and playstyle.
The combat is action-based, where you can control your character in real-time, such as moving and attacking. Each class has different specialisation, as well as have access to specific sets of equipment. For example, Fighters is the only class can equip shields for defence, whereas Elf is specialised in using her bow and arrow to attack enemies from a distance. Depending on your playstyle, choosing the right class for your playthrough is vital.
You may also bring NPC allies to help you in your adventure. In order to do that, you must find their bones and resurrect them at the temple, for a fee, The higher leveled they are, the more expensive the resurrection fee is. You may also bring your friends to play in local or online co-op.
Basic combat is simple. You can use your equipped weapon to attack enemies, use different skills, use picked up weapons like crossbows to attack enemies, as well as dodging enemy attacks. Different enemies have different types, weaknesses, and attack patterns.
Bosses are the toughest enemies you will encounter in each stage, where each of them have their own attack patterns, stats, resistances, and designs. Careful preparation is vital in defeating them, such as having proper equipment and skills.
4) Gameplay Conclusion
This game has solid gameplay. Unique and distinct playable characters, excellent enemy designs, different stage designs, and good boss fights. However, this game still has flaws. The repetitive nature of the game can be an issue to players, since the game hardly changes even after playing in harder difficulties. Secondly, the progressions is too linear. Not many puzzles to serve as obstacle to impede your progress in the game. Regardless, this game is incredibly fun to play if you like the gameplay, like collecting loot, playing with your friends, and tackling the harder difficulties.
Graphics
Pretty 2D visuals.
This game has pretty 2D visuals, fitting for a fantasy adventure game. The game's artworks are very unique and amazing, and no major technical issues encountered when playing the game on PS3.
Sound
Good soundtrack. Not many voice acting sections.
The game has good soundtrack, fitting for a fantasy adventure game like this. There are not many memorable tracks individually, however. The voice acting is pretty sparse, since the voice acting is primarily focused on narration, and your playable characters' grunts.
Replay Value
High replay value, if you like 2D action RPG.
This game has high replay value. You can choose other class to play in newer playthroughs, complete the story again in harder difficulty modes such as Infernal mode where enemies have higher levels, stats, and new loot, or complete an optional dungeon called Labyrinth of Chaos, a dungeon that random generates levels in different floors. You can also take alternate routes in the mandatory dungeons after completing the game once, which may unlock new boss fights.
Solid game despite the repetitive nature.
This is a solid 2D action RPG game by Vanillaware. Despite the weak and generic story, the gameplay is incredibly fun and rewarding if you like action RPGs with interesting loot system like Diablo games. I advise players to only play this game if you like to have fun and good action gameplay, with some RPG elements.
Score
Story: 6/10
Gameplay: 8/10
Graphics: 10/10
Sound: 8/10
Final Score: 8.0/10.0 or 30/40
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Distinct and unique playable characters.
- Fun gameplay.
- Fun combat.
- Multiple difficulties.
- Good boss fights.
- Good replay value.
- Excellent 2D artstyle.
Cons
- Generic and boring story.
- Very underdeveloped characters.
- Too linear progression.
- Repetitive nature.
**Images are from official PlayStation game page.
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