Product Info

Platform

PlayStation 4

Publisher

Atlus

Developer

Vanillaware

Series

Dragon's Crown

Genre

Action, Beat-'em-up, RPG

Players

1-4

File Size (Minimum)

6.18 GB

Release Date (NA)

May 15, 2018

Release Date (JP)

Feb 8, 2018

Purchase From

Amazon

Best Buy

Target

GameStop

PSN Store

Developer studio Vanillaware has a knack for creating stunning visuals, regardless of how their characters are designed, and Dragon’s Crown is one of those gorgeous games. Dragon’s Crown Pro is a graphical upgrade to the 2013 original for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita, and it gives those who have not played the game another chance to experience it. Not only is Dragon’s Crown Pro a beautiful looking game, it’s also entertaining, especially if you enjoy arcade-style, beat-em-ups.

Let’s Continue From Where We Stopped

There are plenty of games that have received upgraded visuals but do not allow you to transfer data over to the new version and continue their game. Fortunately, Dragon’s Crown Pro isn’t one of them; those who have played it on the PlayStation 3 or the PlayStation Vita can transfer data over to the PlayStation 4 version. Not only that, you can play multiplayer online with those who have the older console versions, which is a very generous gift from the developers.

For those who are looking to play Dragon’s Crown Pro with new content, sadly, there isn’t any. The focus was on having 4K resolution on the latest PlayStation console, the PlayStation 4 Pro. However, anyone who has enjoyed Vanillaware’s beautiful games will want to play this on their 4K televisions to see the title’s finer details, color, and animation. Those who don’t have the PlayStation Pro or a 4K television can still enjoy some of the upgrades and the fact that it’s available on the PlayStation 4 now.

The graphics aren’t the only aspect that received a boost. The soundtrack was re-recorded with a live orchestra, and English and Japanese audio options were added, ensuring that the music and sound quality were on par with the visual enhancements.

Create and Revive

When you first start playing, you can choose between six different characters — fighter, amazon, wizard, elf, dwarf, and sorceress — and select their color variant. Each class has its own unique abilities, making it worthwhile to try each type. As you play, you can upgrade your character’s skills and make them more formidable, which is highly recommended the deeper you get into the game.

There are two different types of skills to upgrade: Class Skills and Common Skills. Class Skills are unique abilities solely for your character’s class. Amazons can learn combo moves whereas a Sorceress can regain magic points (MP) when defeating enemies. Common Skills are general set of abilities that every character class can acquire and upgrade, such as increasing health points (HP) and increasing the amount of HP recovered from food found while exploring. After you learn skills, you can also upgrade them. For example, you can increase the Sorceress’s MP regeneration amount up to 10 ranks. Beautiful!

If you’re unsure which character class has the right skills for your playstyle, don’t worry; the game lets you create multiple characters to try out and build them up from scratch, adding to the replay value. Alternatively, you can pick up skeletal remains during a mission and have them brought to the town’s church so that the priest can perform a resurrection. The revived character will already have gear and items, in addition to starting at a higher level, but you cannot control what their class will be. (That said, before resurrecting a character, you also have the option to bury their bones. Doing so will give you items, sometimes even valuable ones, so choose how you want to deal with fallen warrior’s remains wisely.) Basically, there is no wrong way to play; it’s just a matter of how much time you want to put into your characters.

The game’s exaggerated character designs have been the source of controversy, and while the Amazon, Sorceress, and other female character bodies and poses are indeed unrealistic, people tend to forget this is common in the Japanese entertainment world. Almost every anime has at least one female character with some sort of exaggerated body part. Plus, some of the male characters, such as the Dwarf class and Roland the Brave have overblown muscle structures, making it a design style that applies equally to both sexes. This is an artistic style Vanillaware uses for their games, and that’s what makes them so unique compared to other titles, regardless on how the characters are drawn.

Brawl It Out

Similar to classic arcade-style games such as Golden Axe, Altered Beasts, and Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow of Mystara, Dragon’s Crown Pro is a side-scrolling beat-em-up that lets you take up quests and collect treasures. Sadly, there isn’t much story to follow as the focus is more on the gameplay.

Before you start your mission, you are given a choice of possible areas to explore, though some are locked until you have progressed far enough into the game and have a high enough character level. It’s highly recommended that you do some level-grinding if you want to take on the more difficult dungeons.

Like most arcade-style games, you’ll move left to right across the screen, making your way toward the dungeon’s boss. However, you may come across secret entrances that’ll take you to alternate pathways that lead to more treasure, additional battles, and the like. Once you defeat the dungeon boss, you’ll automatically be transported back to town, and your collected treasure will be tallied up. After upgrading your character and replenishing your stock of items, it’s back to the dungeon you go. This is the majority of how the game plays — a rinse-and-repeat adventure with some level-grinding involved. Most role-playing fans have endured this type of gameplay, so it shouldn’t faze them. Really, when all is said and done, you will feel a sense of satisfaction, especially after clearing the more difficult quests, and be ready to jump back in.

You can play multiplayer, either online or locally, with up to four characters per mission, and it’s great fun to have a party of friends together at once. That said, the screen can be mind-boggling as it makes tracking your character more difficult with so much action happening.

Summary

Dragon’s Crown Pro is a gorgeous looking game, despite its exaggerated illustrations. Even if no new content has been added to this new version, players will enjoy the updated 4K resolution and the fact that they can transfer their game data from previous games and continue where they left off. Those who haven’t yet played this arcade-style adventure no longer have an excuse to wait. Add this crown to your collection immediately.

A PlayStation 4 code was provided by Atlus USA for this review.