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Dragon's Crown Producer Commentary (Tons Of Details)

L

Labadal

Member
Dragon's Crown producer commentary.

Degenki PlayStation has posted an interview with Ignition's Kashow Oda about Dragon's Crown, the PS3 and PlayStation Vita game that's being developed by VanillaWare. Here are some of the major points:

On the reaction to the game

Ignition was quite surprised with the tremendous reaction the game got in Japan following its announcement at E3. Regarding the reaction the game got outside of Japan, they'd been expecting it because it VanillaWare CEO George Kamitani is very popular overseas.

On difficulty and balance

The game's difficulty is being set so that beginner players and high level players can play together. Rather than your character rising in level based off how you play, the game takes the direction of having you make your character's skills stronger by using items that you collect. In multiplayer, when a beginner is matched with advanced players and the party tries out a difficult dungeon, the beginner player can obtain powerful items.

On character selection

You're free to make your party any combination of charactrs. You can have everyone be elves, or everyone be sorcerers, for instance. If you opt for elves, who use arrows for their attacks, you'll end up working through the dungeon using long-range attacks.

Some dungeons will be more difficult with certain party formations. However, they're making it so that you can support yourself with items, equipment and magic.

One thing they want players to do is discuss the quests at the start in order to create a strategy.

On game volume

Even at the current point in development, there's already a large number of quests that you can take from the guild.

Some of the game's dungeons are so huge that you won't be able to explore them in full during the course of a single quest. To see the full dungeon, you'll need to play quite a bit.

With all that in mind, the game will have about 40 to 50 hours play time.

On stage formation

Regarding the game flow, rather than clearing stages, it's more like you're clearing quests. For example, when you head out to a dungeon on a quest to find a particular item, you'll be forced to go down a particular route through the dungeon.

Your actions may effect how the stages play out. In the case of a certain boss enemy, you can steal an item from him without him noticing. But if you make him mad, he'll chase you not just through the current stage, but will also pursue you to other dungeons as well.

Similar to this, they're making it so that there are lots of options for how you proceed. You can jump right into the fight straight on, or you can select to flee. There are other options as well -- options that you may have to find in the stage.


■Fairies and thieves are support character types.

Fairies and Thieves

Two of the game's character classes are fairy and thief. These two are exclusively NPC types, though, meaning you don't control them. They accompany your party as support characters as you work through the dungeon. (You'll recall that it was previously said that if you lose a weapon during battle, a thief will have to steal a new weapon from the enemy. Although Oda didn't mention this in the Dengeki interview, his comment helps explain how this system will work.)

Bones

When playing the game offline, you'll find bones around the stages. As previously detailed, those bones are the remains of other players who died in that spot. You can see the status of the player when he died, and also view his dying message.

If you take the bones that you find in the stages to the shrine in your town, you'll be able to revive the dead players into an NPCs. This is called the "Bone Collection System."

You can store a collection of these bones, although there will probably be a limit to the number. The number will be many tens -- they're seeing how many they can fit in based off the hardware limitations.
Click to expand...

I know I bolded a lot of things, don't hit me.
 
P

Pie and Beans

Look for me on the local news, I'll be the guy arrested for trying to burn down a Nintendo exec's house.
ooh some of the Demon's Souls inspired ideas sound wonderful. Building your own boner city exclusively from fallen sorceresses...
 
A

Azure Dream

Member
That's sounding terrific. The bosses chasing you from one dungeon to the next, pretty dangerous to get in over your head...
 
D

Dead Prince

Banned
Sounds good. preordered both the ps3 and vita version. length sounds good. hope the game is a success so they can offer some DLC post launch.
 
M

madmaxx350

Member
_dementia said:
Why not order now? They won't charge you until it ships regardless.
Click to expand...

really? I didn't know, i'll get to it then

DMPrince said:
Sounds good. preordered both the ps3 and vita version. length sounds good. hope the game is a success so they can offer some DLC post launch.
Click to expand...

there's a lot of good buzz about it, there's a chance it could be a big hit.
 
D

djtiesto

is beloved, despite what anyone might say
_dementia said:
That's a lot of meaty playtime. Sounding like fun!
Click to expand...

Knowing Vanillaware, that means something like 8 hours of actual game, repeated 5 times :(
 
D

djplaeskool

Member
Sounds fantastic.
I like the Demons/Dark Souls vibe to Boss pursuits and player character remnants.

Will continue the great elf tradition from the D&D games.
Cannot wait. This has the makings of a killer app.
 
T

thetrin

Hail, peons, for I have come as ambassador from the great and bountiful Blueberry Butt Explosion
40 - 50? God damn. I cannot wait for this game.

djtiesto said:
Knowing Vanillaware, that means something like 8 hours of actual game, repeated 5 times :(
Click to expand...
Lol, truer words have never been spoken.
 
R

RavenFox

Banned
there's already a large number of quests that you can take from the guild.
Click to expand...
And the chips are blessed. Sooo looking forward to this

edit: Amazon pulled it?? Thank goodness I already preorderd both versions.
edit2: Hey there still there :)

the game will have about 40 to 50 hours play time.
Click to expand...
Tears of f'ing joy
 
S

storafötter

Member
Sounds awesome, I really like that you arent forced to pick one class. Will be some really funny and crazy parties out there. However the quest type of gameplay does sound a bit suspicious, where you are revisiting the same locations but for different assignments. I hope that isnt much the case as brawlers go old very quickly.
 
T

TreIII

Member
I don't see what the problem is. 8-10 hours (with a decent smattering of replay value) is pretty damn good for what's basically a spiritual successor to those side-scrolling D&D beat em ups, constructed with a console audience in mind.

Anyway, my main concern now is the battle system. I really would like to know more about that, as soon as possible.
 
N

Nix

Banned
Okay, sounds good. Though, I really hope the gameplay is tight. If it's just elf and troll ass, then I don't know how long that will keep me occupied.
 
R

Retro_

Unconfirmed Member
Not sure how I feel about quests in a game like this

but still looking forward to it. This and Monster Hunter selling me on Vita

djtiesto said:
Knowing Vanillaware, that means something like 8 hours of actual game, repeated 5 times :(
Click to expand...

Haha

was Muramasa this way as well?

I recently burnt out on Odin Sphere(again) because of this.(This game made me want to give it another shot)
 
B

bon

Member
TreIII said:
I don't see what the problem is. 8-10 hours (with a decent smattering of replay value) is pretty damn good for what's basically a spiritual successor to those side-scrolling D&D beat em ups, constructed with a console audience in mind.

Anyway, my main concern now is the battle system. I really would like to know more about that, as soon as possible.
Click to expand...
I was expecting it to be 3-4 hours long.
 
Z

ZealousD

Makes world leading predictions like "The sun will rise tomorrow"
Oh my god.

This is sounding SO AWESOME.

Also, I find it surprising that Vanillaware is more popular in the West than in Japan.
 
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