Dragon's Crown (Vanillaware)

[CIT]

Nope, but there are a few achievements that involve beating a boss within a certain time.

@Topic

Beat the game yesterday. Now I'm off to some more questing and the extra dungeons. The more I play this the better it gets. I think it's actually the best game I've played in the last 3-4 years.

The soundtrack particularly stands out. Right up there with Vagrant Story as Hitoshi Sakimoto's best work in my opinion!

[gct]

Next question - How do I solo? I have only revived one character - the first one which you must resurrect to progress - and I did not add her to my party. When I enter a dungeon and start fighting, she just appears. Can I make her go away?

edit:
VVV Cool, will do that I guess I should say I didn't RTFM. Was it in there? Or maybe it was during some narration that got skipped while I was poking around with the finger.

[CIT]

Yeah, go to the Inn and the select allies screen. You can set each slot to "Join Off", with (I think) triangle.

[Ghenry]

It's all I've been playing lately. If anyone wants to co-op some missions, I'm tearing it up with a Fighter right now (lvl 44). Feel free to add me (PSN ID: Darthtoxicity)! I have it for both systems.

[evil_ash_xero]

Next question - How do I solo? I have only revived one character - the first one which you must resurrect to progress - and I did not add her to my party. When I enter a dungeon and start fighting, she just appears. Can I make her go away?

edit:
VVV Cool, will do that I guess I should say I didn't RTFM. Was it in there? Or maybe it was during some narration that got skipped while I was poking around with the finger.

I'm having a LOT more fun on Normal Mode, by soloing. Do it!

[CMoon]

I'm having a LOT more fun on Normal Mode, by soloing. Do it!

Man, I'm gonna have to try that out. There's definitely a question about how helpful all those extra dudes are when half the time you can't see what you're doing.

[evil_ash_xero]

I'm having a LOT more fun on Normal Mode, by soloing. Do it!

Man, I'm gonna have to try that out. There's definitely a question about how helpful all those extra dudes are when half the time you can't see what you're doing.

Well, for one, you can't see what's going on. But the game requires more strategy in solo. So, for me, it makes it more fun. I felt like with the AI I just walked in a direction and pushed square a bunch. And even when they aren't that useful, they keep the enemies busy...so, it's just kind of breezy to me.

[trap15]

Picked up my PS3 and got a copy tonight. Been playing it since. The term "fantastic" doesn't do this game justice

I think I prefer flying solo as well, though maybe having a single AI partner would work as well. With 3 AI partners, it almost feels like you don't have to play.

Will be trying out local multiplayer tomorrow night, I think I'm in for a blast

[evil_ash_xero]

With 3 AI partners, it almost feels like you don't have to play.

Exactly. It's sort of like credit feeding a shmup, really.

[CMoon]

OMG, best video game review ever!

http://www.destructoid.com/a-la-cartrid ... 0119.phtml

[CStarFlare]

Got this today. Don't have a PS3, but I have a brother that maybe doesn't mind me commandeering the console in his bedroom?

Five hours in and love it. I'm hoping there's a brutal postgame and superboss waiting for me.

[evil_ash_xero]

Got this today. Don't have a PS3, but I have a brother that maybe doesn't mind me commandeering the console in his bedroom?

Five hours in and love it. I'm hoping there's a brutal postgame and superboss waiting for me.

Well, it opens up "Hard Mode" and "Inferno Mode". And there's a "Chaos Dungeon" as well. I haven't delved too deep into any of that, due to me starting a new game.

Inferno is supposed to be pretty tough, according to EpicNameBro. He's in love with Chaos Dungeon on Infernal difficulty.

[Octopod]

I recommend both! If you like one you'll like the other. Personally I think Dark Souls is a more immersive world and I've spent far more time playing it, but Demon's Souls is certainly almost as good, just faster and possibly not quite so epic (though it is pretty damn epic.) Oh, same logic holds true, if you dislike one, you'll dislike the other. Dark Souls might as well just be Demon's Souls 2.

If someone were just going to play one of them before Dark Souls 2 comes out which one would you recommend?


I haven't had much time to play DC yet(working seven days a week atm ). An hour or so. I decided to go dwarf for my first play through. He seems pretty bad ass.

[CMoon]

If someone were just going to play one of them before Dark Souls 2 comes out which one would you recommend?

Dark Souls with the understanding that both games are on a very small and high shelf of best games this generation.

[Cagar]

Polygon's review of this game makes me sick. Like literally, I feel like I have to puke. Most disgusting review I've ever read. Fuck women game reviewers.

[trap15]

Not women game reviewers. Retarded feminist game reviewers.

[Ganelon]

That link is an example of why reviews from the media shouldn't be personal reviews. I don't doubt the reviewer views the game at the score the editorial team gave (Polygon claims scores are agreed upon among the team first). However, the rationale behind the score mentions sexualization as the first main "drawback," a perspective that probably doesn't correspond with that of a majority of the site's viewers, much less the gaming audience at large.

I'd say a comment on the hyperbolic visual elements would be a fair aside to bring up in any discussion of Dragon's Crown. However, there's no end to how personal views could be used to criticize games: Call of Duty is unconscionable because it promotes war, Madden NFL is unconscionable because it promotes obesity, Mario is unconscionable because it promotes psychedelic mushroom usage.

That said, it's up to Polygon to determine what its goals are. I prefer media to be as neutral as possible and not social agents, but reviews comprise the main avenue in which media can send a message and effect change. Plus, viewing the situation economically, the more extra clicks directed towards that review, the more gaming media will feel justified in furthering its use of these controversial reviewing methods.

[jepjepjep]

What's the problem? I thought it was an excellent review.

In fact, I only had to read the first sentence and I was immediately sold on the game:

Dragon's Crown is a fantasy-obsessed teenaged boy's dream: crazy, violent and full of impossibly large breasts.

I stopped reading there and added it to my Amazon shopping cart!

[CMoon]

What's the problem? I thought it was an excellent review.

In fact, I only had to read the first sentence and I was immediately sold on the game:

Dragon's Crown is a fantasy-obsessed teenaged boy's dream: crazy, violent and full of impossibly large breasts.

I stopped reading there and added it to my Amazon shopping cart!

Hahaha! And if Polygon was only savvy enough to realize that's what their readers wanted to, they might have rethought their article. About like criticizing Conan the barbarian for being juvenile. Jesus christ.

[ZacharyB]

"This game is great! OK, back to work. How do we earn the most advertising clicks again?"

I had a friend tell me that internet journalists now purposely write to encourage feedback, in order to stoke comments sections and/or views, which lead to advertising dollars. It's the tabloid model of business, because interest would be low otherwise.

It's gross how desperate content has to be in order to stoke interest. But I don't blame the tabloids. We did this to ourselves with years of advertising desensitization.

[evil_ash_xero]

This review sucks ass, but the worst review I ever read was the one for Dark Souls where the guy didn't even finish the game, and said he had some kind of Sixth Sense and could determine if the game was good from just playing a bit of it.

Worst thing I ever read. And I've read a lot.

Imagine if they got someone to review GTA, by a person whose whole family was killed in a carjacking. We wouldn't do that, would we?
I don't like these personal bias reviews.
I remember Owen Glieberman hating on Forrest Gump because of it's right leaning politics, or some such thing.

I guess people should be allowed to write whatever they want. But in games, in drags down Metacritic scores, and god knows how important that is in games!

Funny how it's not important in film or music, but games....man, it better have a high score!

[evil_ash_xero]

On a more game related note..

I beat the game on Normal with the Amazon. Solo! And it was pretty tough there at the end.

Starting on Hard mode, and still going solo. Man, the heat is on now. I love it! The enemies are far more aggressive. More of them too. Lots of those dark ones, that seem to be superpowered. Extra dangerous Orcs.

I'm getting a rise out of it now. Punish me Vanillaware! I'm tired of all the easy gaming I've had this year.

Too bad this mode wasn't available from the start. But I guess you gotta give the illusion of "content" for gamers and reviewers not to crap all over you.

[CMoon]

Yeah, just tried this solo (about half-way through on normal) and have to give a thumbs up for this. Not saying playing with others is bollocks, but I can see this is a completely viable (if not even better) way of playing it. As others have said, takes the difficulty up a notch, but also makes the game feel much less like it is on 'auto'

Also, I've heard there's a point you can reassign the skills for your character. When does that happen?

[CIT]

Also, I've heard there's a point you can reassign the skills for your character. When does that happen?

After you've beaten the game, you get access to the Labyrinth of Chaos. Beating a set of three floors will grant you the amnesia elixir, with which you can reset your skills so you can redistribute the points.

[Hagane]

Gave it a try for a couple of hours, and so far it seems like standard Vanillaware fare. Wonderful graphics but dull game. There's very little action (lots of empty rooms where nothing happens and you just wiggle the right stick to find stuff, a dumb design decision by the way), positioning and crowd control are pretty meaningless since enemies are rather sparse and don't seem to have any well thought formations, difficulty is extremely low (even the couple of bosses I have found so far require pretty much no strategy to beat; I just mashed up and attack with the elf to hit them and cross them up after I finish the canned combo sequence and beat them on the first try), shallow combo system, easy bosses that take too long to die, needless filler... I'll give it a couple more hours to see if it picks up, but I have little faith in the company. So far I see no reason why I should play this over trying to 1CC Mystara, really.

Also, is there a way to disable computer controlled characters (playing a Japanese game)? They make the game even easier.

[CStarFlare]

Go to the tavern and press Triangle while pointing at one of the extra party slots. It turns Join off. It's much more interesting to play with one (or no) helpers. Being able to buy continues makes it pretty easy to mash your way through most stuff as long as you're not broke.

The B route boss fights are a little more interesting. It's unfortunate that you can't start out on Hard for those people who find Normal too easy.

[BulletMagnet]

Patch is out.

[PainAmplifier]

Gave it a try for a couple of hours, and so far it seems like standard Vanillaware fare. Wonderful graphics but dull game. There's very little action (lots of empty rooms where nothing happens and you just wiggle the right stick to find stuff, a dumb design decision by the way), positioning and crowd control are pretty meaningless since enemies are rather sparse and don't seem to have any well thought formations, difficulty is extremely low (even the couple of bosses I have found so far require pretty much no strategy to beat; I just mashed up and attack with the elf to hit them and cross them up after I finish the canned combo sequence and beat them on the first try), shallow combo system, easy bosses that take too long to die, needless filler... I'll give it a couple more hours to see if it picks up, but I have little faith in the company. So far I see no reason why I should play this over trying to 1CC Mystara, really.

Also, is there a way to disable computer controlled characters (playing a Japanese game)? They make the game even easier.

The early game does seem sparse...and then you beat the Gazer for the first time. You open up the B routes, all the enemies are now minimum level 17 and all those empty spots? There are now more enemies in those areas, numbers double in other areas, certain enemy classes appear in more areas than they originally did, enemy AI gets more aggressive and there are new alternate enemy classes with entirely new move sets. It basically revamps all the lower levels then opens the B routes, which are often much harder as well.

For example, the first time you see a Lizardman (green) he just has a spear, does a poke and one easily avoided leap. The Blue Lizardmen carry Tridents...and start doing whirlwind attacks (Think Barbarian in Diablo 2, that stand in one place) And then there are the Red ones...

In hard you start seeing *elite* enemies who have much more vicious and dangerous attacks. Goblin Shamans cast spells, Goblin Assasinss have nasty 'backstab' attacks and Elite Orcs hit like a fully loaded freight train at full speed. Even the bosses get into the act. The Harpy now casts spells (Lightning, Twisters, etc.) and the Minotaur shakes the ground dropping orcs and goblins from the upper levels down to attack you at the same time he is.

I went from having to only use one life point in a boss fight one in a great while after learning my char moves, to losing all my lives on elite mobs just *getting* to the boss! I even had to spend gold to resurrect a handfuil of times against the Minotaur the first time I met him in hard. And that was with the Prayer that adds extra Life Points active.

My first char in Hard difficulty is the Amazon. And even knowing she doesn't have a lot of armor, I didn't expect her to die in one hit from those Elite mobs the first time I met them.

[CStarFlare]

Yeah, my first few rounds in Hard drained my gold stores pretty quickly. I'm still not sure if I should bother having a second person with me - I seem to lose a lot of gold helping them continue, and I don't feel like they give me a winning edge.

The Normal level cap seems a little low, considering the lowest level boss in Hard is what, level 40? I'm not sure if I appreciate jumping back into it with B routes available by default or not, I feel like progressing through the stages one by one would be an easier transition... but maybe we don't want one of those? I just turned the difficulty back to Normal to clean up the new quests. For some reason, even Normal seemed tougher after a few runs on Hard - maybe I was just burnt out.

[PainAmplifier]

One NPC is what I limit myself to in hard. Sometimes you need it to draw attention off you so you can recover, reset or recharge. More than that is a waste though given the quick deaths and rather dumb AI. With one slot open, just let the mook die if he gets trashed...and as long as your Tavern has extra in it, they should join as you move forward.

As for Normal, the upper level of enemies is L30, your level cap is L35. While in Hard the *lowest* boss is L40 (Harpy) and iirc your level cap is L65.

But yes, I went back to Normal to clear the quests. I did turn off all allies though. Much easier to solo if one slip doesn't kill you and wreck your run. Nicely enough it's not quite a cakewalk even as I near L45 and you get good training soloing the levels for when you go back to hard. I'm focusing on clearing ALL the quests and all the extra Skill Points are very helpful for bringing my basic skills up that I didn't have points for earlier.