You have journeyed to the kingdom of Hydeland to face the dangers of the labyrinth and retrieve the legendary Dragon's Crown.
Only a handful of those who enter the labyrinth survive. In fact, it's considered fortunate if even your remains leave the labyrinth...
You see a notice posted here. It reads:
As you read the notice, a small fairy flies into view. Noticing your confusion, the fairy approaches and, through various interpretive gestures, indicates to you the following:
Developer: Vanillaware
Publisher (JP, NA) & co-Developer: Atlus
Publisher (EU, AU): NIS America
Director: George Kamitani
Composer: Hitoshi Sakimoto
Platforms: Playstation 3, Playstation VitaRelease Dates:
- Crossplay:
NoYes (as of 15 October 2013)- Crossbuy: No
- Cross-save: Yes
- Region Locked: No
- Download Size: 1582MB (PS3), 1133MB (PSV)
- HDD Install Size: 1325MB (PS3)
- Custom Soundtrack Support (Vita): Yes, but why would you?
- Video: 1080p (PS3)
- Audio:
- North America: English or Japanese for characters; English for narrator and NPCs
- Japan: English or Japanese for characters; English or Japanese for narrator and NPCs
- Europe: TBD
- Australia: TBD
Price (PS3): $49.99
- Japan: July 25, 2013
- North America: August 6, 2013
- Europe: October 11, 2013
- Australia: October 11, 2013
Price (PSV): $39.99
Pre-Order Bonus: 64-page Dragon's Crown Artworks art book (soft-cover)
Gold not included.
DLC:Website: Dragon's Crown | OFFICIAL WEBSITE
- Storyteller Voice Pack - Cosmetic DLC, adds the option to change the narrator's voice to any of the six playable characters (same-region VAs only).
Price: $1.99
Note: Voice packs can be unlocked through gameplay; purchasing this DLC only saves time and effort. To unlock a character's voice pack, beat Normal difficulty with them and you can purchase their voice pack for 1 million gold.
Dragon's Crown is suitable for 1-4 players of 13th level and above.
Thanking the fairy for her advice, you decide to seek a nearby inn for room, board, and a pint of ale to keep you company as you mull over everything the fairy told you.
As you enter the tavern, an outburst of boisterous laughter draws your attention to a large table where you are startled to see an elf and dwarf sitting side by side with four humans.
There are six character classes to choose from, each with their own unique strengths, skills, and palette swaps.
Each class has its own stat growth from level to level. Their affinities are ranked E (worst) through S (best). The six stats, and what they do, are:
Dragon's Crown Skill Calculator (includes skill names and descriptions)
- STR - Strength - physical attacks
- INT - Intelligence - magic attacks
- CON - Constitution - physical defense
- MGR - Magic Resistance - magic defense
- DEX - Dexterity - weapon damage stability
- LUC - Luck - critical hit rate
Bewitching women with knowledge of dark magic. They are weak of body, but the great knowledge they wield of the arcane arts cannot be ignored. Sorceresses can create delicious food, control skeletons, and turn foes into harmless frogs. A jack-of-all-trades support class, they can provide aid to their friends in countless ways.
STR: E | CON: D | INT: A | MGR: S | DEX: B | LUC: A
Sorceresses are defensive spellcasters who can protect their party from damage, enfeeble their enemies, and animate skeletons from the bones of fallen adventurers. While they can cast offensive magic, they exchange the raw damage of the Wizard for added enfeebling effects to keep their party safe.
Dauntless warriors who know no fear as they effortlessly wield their two-handed weapons. Their massive equipment delivers vicious blows that deal lethal damage to multiple foes at once. Lightly armored, they are agile fighters who rely on punishing kicks when unarmed.
STR: A | CON: C | INT: C | MGR: C | DEX: B | LUC: A
Amazons are specialized attackers of the high risk, high reward school of battle. The more they attack, the faster their attacks become, provided they can avoid getting hit.
Experts in battle, outfitted with full-plate armor and a sturdy shield. Boasting the stoutest defense of all classes, their shields can protect all allies in the nearby area. Their one-handed weapons have short reach, but they can swing them quickly, allowing them to make short work of nearby foes.
STR: S | CON: A | INT: D | MGR: C | DEX: B | LUC: B
Fighters are close-range attackers who specialize in defense. Able to block most attacks, they can attract the attention of enemies and protect their allies in battle.
Male magicians who have a wealth of magic at their beck and call. Unable to fend off monsters with strength, they instead rely on their spells, and are vital assets for any adventure.
STR: D | CON: C | INT: S | MGR: A | DEX: B | LUC: D
Wizards are offensive spellcasters, attacking with high damage wide-area spells like Meteor Swarm, Thunderbolt, and Storm before teleporting out of harm's way. They can also support their party by creating golems out of boxes and casting Slow to debuff foes.
A long-lived race who are often much older than they appear to human eyes. While slight of body, they are deadly masters of the bow and arrow, using their superior athleticism to fight nimbly and fearlessly from a distance.
STR: B | CON: C | INT: B | MGR: C | DEX: A | LUC: A
Elves are fast attackers, able to strike from a distance with archery or handle things up close with swift kicks and swifter evasion. They can become even deadlier by adding fire or poison to their arrows, or switching to daggers for a lethal backstab.
Stocky fighters whose muscular frames permit them to wield a weapon in each hand. Their strength lets them pick up and throw anything in sight, even heavy foes. Throwing enemies lets them damage multiple foes with one fling, laying waste to an entire horde of adversaries.
STR: S | CON: S | INT: E | MGR: D | DEX: C | LUC: B
Dwarves are close-range attackers who can withstand and deal out significant damage. Using grabs, throws, and bombs, they make short work of any foe who gets in range.
Rannie is a rogue who has the ability to open locked doors and treasure boxes scattered throughout the dungeons. He is powerless in battle, but he is highly skilled at picking locks.
Tiki is a fairy that joins you during your adventures and acts as a guide. She'll point out various things that may have slipped your gaze in the heat of battle.
You depart the tavern to pay a visit to the local Adventurers Guild, but as you leave the Dragon's Haven Inn, you notice Rannie following you. He offers you a bit of advice, free of charge, and tells you about the adventuring climate in Hydeland.
Dragon's Crown is an arcade-style beat 'em up similar to Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom & Shadow over Mystara, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and X-Men: Welcome To Die Edition. Up to four players can party together to defeat hordes of monsters and screen-filling bosses.
Dragon's Crown is also an RPG. Characters gain experience points and levels, learn new skills, and equip new weapons and accessories.
Besides beating 'em up and leveling 'em up, Dragon's Crown has a number of characteristic gameplay features:
- Temporary Equipment: In addition to each character's arsenal of attacks, there are various special weapons that can be equipped during a level. Take aim with a crossbow, arm yourself with a statue's arm, or set the world ablaze riding a fire-breathing dinosaur.
- Born To Rune: Hidden throughout the labyrinths are etched runes. If these runes are combined with rune stones to spell a three-rune magic word, it can invoke powerful magic effects such as opening hidden doors or bringing statues to life.
- Food and Cooking: In addition to quaffing potions to recover health, characters can eat food to heal up to 150% of their maximum health. If you set up camp between missions instead of returning to town, you can play a cooking mini-game to get bonuses for the next dungeon.
- Loot: Treasure chests and bosses have random, unidentified loot. Treasure is ranked E (worst) to S (best), and you can sell it outright, or pay to get it appraised and see if it's worth using.
Dragon's Crown has four difficulties, each with a corresponding level cap:
- Quests: Besides the main story, there are side quests that can reward you with experience, treasure, and artwork.
Completing Normal leads into Hard, and completing Hard leads into Infernal. Beyond Infernal, there is the Labyrinth of Chaos, a randomized dungeon with harder challenges, better loot, and a trophy. The real Dragon's Crown starts here.
- Normal: Level Cap: 35
- Hard: Level Cap: 65
- Infernal: Level Cap: 99
- Ultimate: Level Cap: 255
And if that's not enough, the fifth patch introduced the Ultimate difficulty, upping the level cap to 255 and adding the Tower of Mirages, a randomly-generated dungeon with "tens of thousands" of levels.
Rannie finishes his explanation, and with a grin, leaves you one last piece of cryptic advice:
"You must gather your party before venturing forth."
Dragon's Crown can be played solo, local co-op, online co-op, and local + online co-op with up to 4 players.
However, online co-op is only available after progressing to a certain point in the story-- once you have cleared each stage's "A" path (you will be around level 17), you can go online. This same restriction is in place for local ("ad hoc") co-op with the Vita. There is no restriction for local co-op with the PS3.
Playing with GAF
Dragon's Crown GAF Playerlist (Thanks, CrazyTank940!)
Note: Because we can't have nice things, the GAF list is now read-only. To be added, please PM CrazyTank940 directly.
Wood You Kindly...
You can smash boxes and stuff to get food.
Wizards have the ability to turn (un-smashed) boxes and stuff into wood golems and you still get food.
Wizards can even strengthen their golems by using more (un-smashed) boxes and stuff. You still get food.
If you're playing with a Wizard, don't smash boxes unless they aren't making golems. You still get food.
Lovely Bones
During your adventures, you will come across the remains of dead adventurers. If you recover their bones, they can be revived in town at Canaan Temple. Adventurers you revive will join your party as AI-controlled characters.
Or you could just let the Sorceress use necromancy to raise them as skeletons to do her bidding.
PVP
The PVP arena is unlocked after beating the game on Normal difficulty.
Express Yourself (So You Can Respect Your Elf)
There are a number of cosmetic customization options available for your character.
And here's what those options mean:
These can be set when creating your character or edited at any time thereafter.
- Edit Name: Change your name, change your style:
- Color: Each class has its own set of palette swaps (see the character section above for examples).
- Voice: Your character can grunt and shout in English or Japanese.
- Messages:
- Greeting message: What does your character say when it's clobberin' time?
- Selection message: What does your character say when picked as an NPC?
- Resurrection message: What would you say if you were brought back to life??
- Dying message: What would you say if you were a pile of bones?
Trailers:
- Broken Joysticks: 9/10
- Canada.com: "Best played with friends."
- Co-Optimus: 4/5
- Dark Zero: 9/10
- Destructoid: 9.5/10
- Digital Spy: 4/5
- El Dojo Gamer: 100/100 (Spanish)
- EpicNameBro: No score given, but generally positive review.
- The Escapist: 3/5
- Famitsu: 9/8/9/9 - 35/40
- Forbes: 9.5/10
- Game Informer: 8.00/10
- Gamer Horizon: 8/10
- Gamers Hub: 4.5/5
- GameSpot: 8/10
- Game Trailers: 8.5/10
- Gaming Nexus: 9.5/10
- Giant Bomb: Quick Look
- Hardcore Gamer: 4/5
- IGN: 8.5/10
- Joystiq: 4.5/5
- Kotaku: Yes
- MeriStation: 9.2/10 (Spanish)
- MTV Multiplayer: "The best Golden Axe game ever"
- Paste Magazine: 8/10
- Playstation Universe: 9/10
- Pocket Gamer: 9/10
- RPGamer: 4.0/5
- RPGFan (PS3): 85%
- RPGFan (Vita): 88%
- Select Button: 9/10
- SlasherJPC: 8/10
- STFU & Play: "Simply an incredible game."
- Technology Tell: A
- Venture Beat: 90/100
- VGBR: 9.5/10 (Portuguese)
- ZTGD: 9/10
Q. How long is the campaign?
A. A single character can beat Normal in 10-20 hours.
Q. 20 hours, times 6 characters... Who the hell wants a 120-hour beat-em-up?
A.
Q. Is there a considerable amount of fan art, including works that may be NSFW?
A. Yes.
Q. Which version should I buy?
Q. Is that fairy drunk?
A. You're drunk.
Q. Are there any videos of the Japanese voice actress for the Elf playing Dragon's Crown with three friends?
A. Yes.
Thanks to CrazyTank940 (for the GAF players spreadsheet), KDash31987 (for collecting an internet's worth of pictures in
Further thanks to everyone in this thread for being an awesome community!
Might import this and not wait on the EU release later this year if this proves a big critical success.
