Dragon's Crown Preview

Dragon's Crown is a 2D action fantasy RPG developed by VANILLAWARE.  The game uses the same unique art style that you'll recognize from other VANILLAWARE titles like Odin Sphere and Muramasa: The Demon Blade.  This will be their first HD title and it looks spectacular.  The gameplay will be similar to the old Golden Axe games; which are side scrolling hack & slash beat 'em ups.


Of course Dragon's Crown is modernizing the genre with some exciting new features.  The game has you exploring a massive labyrinth which is comprised of all of the lands ruins and monster lairs in search of treasure.  You can play the main story or do quests together with up to 4 people from around the world with online multiplayer.



Dragon's Crown has lots of treasure, items, and weapons for you to collect to power up your character.  There is also a level up system for the weapons and ways for you to customize your character's features.  Not much is known yet about the level up system or what you can customize as the game is not yet fully developed.  Just knowing that you can level up and customize in this type of game is enough to peek interest.

One of the more innovated features announced was the ability to resurrect fallen characters of actual players and have them aid you in battle as an NPC.  As you play the game you may see the bones of other players who have died.  If you collect the bones and take them to the temple you can resurrect that player's character to fight with you as an NPC.

There are 6 classes that you can chose from:

Fighter:
Wearing full plate armor and a shield the Fighter has the strongest defense of all the classes. This is an easy class for beginners to pick up and play.

Amazon:
Wielding huge 2-handed weapons the Amazon deals heavy damage that attacks multiple foes.  This class has a berserker style of play; low defense, but dealing high offense that increases with each strike landed.

Wizard:
Able to cast elemental magic the Wizard is very powerful.  Their spells are the most damaging out of all the classes, but they take time to cast and take up a lot of power.

Sorceress:
As a jack-of-all-trades support class the Sorceress is useful to have for any party.  They are able to turn foes to frogs, create potions for healing, and control golems or skeletons to aid in battle.

Dwarf
The Dwarf is a dual wielding grappler that can grab foes and send them flying at each other.  His great strength and large body can be used as a weapon, but it also slows him down.

Elf
Using a bow to attack from a range the Elf is very agile.  She also has a variety of special skills and can react quickly to any given situation.



Dragon's Crown is being developed for the PS3 and PSV.  Both systems are able to connect and play with each other online.  The game also won't be scaled down in any way on the PSV.  If you have both versions of the game you are able to transfer your data seamlessly between them.  Dragon's Crown is scheduled for release spring 2012.