Dragon's Crown

I'm pretty close to unlocking multi-player. One level away I think? This game is so good. Duf, when do you get the option to continue running dungeons? So far I haven't seen this option when completing a dungeon. Is this an option that only unlocks after unlocking multi-player? I'll be on holiday for a week in Hawaii. So I'll have to be content with playing it on my Vita, it still looks good, but it's so gorgeous on the big screen.

Played for about 4 hours last night local co-op with my nephew.

This game is fucking sick.

Every visual detail is so lush, every gameplay element is so refined, every one of the six classes so nicely nuanced and all of the support elements, like the NPC system and the various establishments in town, are so well implemented that I am finding this game to be as close to perfect as any game I've ever played.

I even love the straightforward, simple tabletop Dungeons and Dragons style of the story with the single voice as a dungeonmaster style narrator. I know that the story is typical fantasy, but I even love this aspect of it.

This game is not merely the spiritual sequel to Dungeons and Dragons: Shadows Over Mystara. This game is a love letter to the entire swords and sorcery and fantasy genres. It's a love letter to the sheer idea of fantasy storytelling in every aspect, including the stylized renditions of the characters.

This game is so high concept-it's like a bunch of D&D nerds decided to bottle the experience of playing a tabletop game and found a way to transform it into a video game.

I can't wait to get home from work today and play some more! Loving it! LOVING IT!

It pretty much puts all other modern beat 'em ups to shame. If it holds up through the end, this might just go down as the best beat 'em up of all time in my book.

Yeah. I went there.

EDIT: Sony is fucking killing it this year with titles like this and The Last of Us.

I have the vita version coming to me in the mail soon (hopefully)...but i will probably cave and get the ps3 one too.

So this has cross save functionality, correct? Meaning i can't play co-op between my vita and ps3...but any progress I make on the vita will be carried over to the ps3. thats still pretty cool as this seems like the perfect train commute game.

northernsoul said:

I'm pretty close to unlocking multi-player. One level away I think? This game is so good. Duf, when do you get the option to continue running dungeons? So far I haven't seen this option when completing a dungeon. Is this an option that only unlocks after unlocking multi-player? I'll be on holiday for a week in Hawaii. So I'll have to be content with playing it on my Vita, it still looks good, but it's so gorgeous on the big screen.

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Continuing to play more dungeons in a row and unlocking multiplayer opens up at the same time. One you can access the stables you'll be able to do both.

@Taiso - I agree with you regarding the story. A couple reviews I read said it was paper thin, non-existent, etc. I think it's fine, downright good even for what this game is.

50 artworks update

http://www.gamekyo.com/newsfr53829_dragon-s-crown-50-artworks-spoil.html

Taiso said:

Played for about 4 hours last night local co-op with my nephew.

This game is fucking sick.

I can't wait to get home from work today and play some more! Loving it! LOVING IT!

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I also stayed up until 2am last night, which is unusual for me, to play local co-op with a friend. It is truly badass. Now I'm just worried that the game won't last much longer - the artbook leads me to believe I've been to half of the "dungeons." But that wouldn't make sense.

Lagduf said:

@Taiso - I agree with you regarding the story. A couple reviews I read said it was paper thin, non-existent, etc. I think it's fine, downright good even for what this game is.

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I look at this story in the same way that I look at the story in The Legend of Zelda.

There is a beauty to the simplicity of the archetypal fantasy tale, and there's nothing wrong with a game paying tribute to those simple tales.

I love complex narrative, but I don't need it to enjoy a story. I love Game of Thrones and Elric, but there is nothing wrong with the plot for Conan, Dragonlance or the Drizzt stories. It's all in the execution and presentation.

Additionally, I love that the Vanillaware guys 'get it.' They understand the roots of the genre. So much modern storytelling discards the traditions simply because they're traditional. There's no real attempt to turn the genre on its side most of the time.

Occasionally, you'll get a George RR Martin or a Brandon Sanderson that knows exactly where to make the tweaks precisely because they understand the anatomy of the formative works of the genre. But most modern writers that doff convention because 'its been done before' don't understand what to do once they do said doffing. They're like 'Okay, I'm not writing that.' And they tney end up not knowing what to do now that they've stepped away from the well worn path.

I saw the phenomenon repeated time and time again after The Dark Knight Returns and The Watchmen were released in '86. Everybody wanted to do comics like that, but they didn't really ever care to understand the roots of the genre. So they just ended up producing a bunch of shit as a result.

I like how honest and unapologetic Dragon's Crown is about its own identity. It's a giant gaming nerd in the industry and it's not afraid to show how beautiful it is because of it.

this game is sold out everywhere

i am going to wait until my buddy Terry330 got a copy but i was a Gamestop earlier just killing time and was curious and there was none at all in the entire area

Average Joe said:

this game is sold out everywhere

i am going to wait until my buddy Terry330 got a copy but i was a Gamestop earlier just killing time and was curious and there was none at all in the entire area

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Damn it, I pre ordered my copy months ago from Amazon but it has still not shipped out.

People are paying $20+ for just the artbook online, gotta love feebay.

mainman said:

Damn it, I pre ordered my copy months ago from Amazon but it has still not shipped out.

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Mine was showing as shipping soon yesterday and it was on my doorstop this morning...take that as what you will.

Put in a little time today on the game and WOW, it looks better than the HD gameplay vids I have watched. Would love to play the game with an arcade stick but I think the cursor mapped to the right stick makes that a little impossible. Or is there a stick I can use to overcome this?

kidpanda said:

Put in a little time today on the game and WOW, it looks better than the HD gameplay vids I have watched. Would love to play the game with an arcade stick but I think the cursor mapped to the right stick makes that a little impossible. Or is there a stick I can use to overcome this?

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Madcatz te has the little switch for left stick, d pad, and right stick. I was hoping it would be playable with a stick too. But havent scooped the game up yet to test it out...

So I haven't got a ps3_ this is pushing the issue a bit for me. I've paid a bit of attention so I know that theres supposed to be some kind of 'right' kind to get_anybody wanna tell me what I should know about thems?

I am jealous of you folks who get to play this game! are those 50arts in the game or just based on? fair amount of contents it seems?

Karou said:

So I haven't got a ps3_ this is pushing the issue a bit for me. I've paid a bit of attention so I know that theres supposed to be some kind of 'right' kind to get_anybody wanna tell me what I should know about thems?

I am jealous of you folks who get to play this game! are those 50arts in the game or just based on? fair amount of contents it seems?

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I recommend NOT getting a Super Slim, one they are ugly, two they feel flimsy as hell.

Karou said:

So I haven't got a ps3_ this is pushing the issue a bit for me. I've paid a bit of attention so I know that theres supposed to be some kind of 'right' kind to get_anybody wanna tell me what I should know about thems?

I am jealous of you folks who get to play this game! are those 50arts in the game or just based on? fair amount of contents it seems?

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The 50 pieces of art are from the game. You unlock art + a brief story for completing certain objectives in the game.

kidpanda said:

Put in a little time today on the game and WOW, it looks better than the HD gameplay vids I have watched. Would love to play the game with an arcade stick but I think the cursor mapped to the right stick makes that a little impossible. Or is there a stick I can use to overcome this?

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Ditto.

I'd love to use the Hori Fighting Commander 3 but the right analog function would make that a royal pain. This game is awesome, but I'm not keen on the way they implemented the Vita's touchscreen shit on the PS3. I know why they did, but I don't have to like it!

kidpanda said:

Mine was showing as shipping soon yesterday and it was on my doorstop this morning...take that as what you will.

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Nope still shows not shipped, as of today still has not arrived. Thanks for jack shit nothing Amazon. Could have walked across the street and bought it yesterday.

Items do not degrade as fast as I thought they do.

Anyone know what happens when your stuff breaks? Is it gone for good?

I did some multi-player again today. A little laggier than yesterday but not unplayable by any means. Got a lot of good loot and I only did like maybe 8 stages in a row. I was concerned my weapons would break. I'm not sure what the best setup will be for the different equipment sets. I'm thinking sets specific to levels/enemy types but I'm not sure. Only set I made with any thought so far was one that had a ton of increased item drop rate %. Otherwise I just made item sets with whatever gear I had. First bag is best gear, 2nd bag is 2nd best gear, etc.

I found I was able to hang in there against bosses much higher than me. I was 23 and we did a 27 (28?) boss. I was with some higher leveled players though.

The Chimera Boss is sick. Not the coolest boss in terms of attacks, but visually he is beautiful. When you deal damage to him and he starts to weaken, the visual change he goes through is badass. Epic fight right there.

I'm getting the hang of the cooking mini-game. I guess at this point it'll just need to come down to memorizing recipes. I also need to study up on my rooms. Only a few words come to me easily. Some are absurdly useful.

For me, so far, this is the game of the year.

Even better and more engaging than The Last of Us.

Taiso said:

For me, so far, this is the game of the year.

Even better and more engaging than The Last of Us.

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+1000

So who's everybody using? I still haven't played through much of it. I made one of each character and got them to the point I could look at their skills. (Keep in mind I stayed away from looking things up about the characters to keep everything fresh) I had a Sorceress rolled first, but I didn't like her that much. I had rolled a Dwarf and he was fun but I don't like how he constantly picks up and throws enemies, but it's cool being able to toss rocks at the end bosses. I just get a little overwhelmed when I see he's got a lot of buffs for not using his weapon and I'm wondering if I should bother putting points into unarmed or into ones that grant powers for his weapons.

The last character I rolled was the Amazon and I think I might stick with her. I love how fast she is and she can zip around the screen like crazy. I had just gotten the parry skill and I want to up the Berserker skill. I might stick with her and see how bad ass she can be. Speaking of bad ass, I love how without her weapon, her smashing down attack she uses her ass.

I've only tried the Amazon so far and am going to stick with her all the way to the end; I'll try another character on the next play-through. I haven't had a much time with the game so far, but I'm at lvl. 6 so far and loving it, although I definitely agree with 'Duf about how easy it is to loose yourself on screen when the action gets heavy.

I'm using the Elf, I usually like using long range characters in most any game that allows me to do so. I'm at lvl 6 like Ren is and the game is really fun, I like how the Elf can float with her charge attack so you can take care of ground enemies while floating above them. Btw I hate the effin wizards, I never know when the floor flames shoot up.

Warrior here.

When it comes to a game as complex as this, I start with the simpler classes first to learn the lay of the land better and gain a good understanding of how the game works. Then, I pick the next least complicated character and so on. That way, the game only gets more exciting and I'm so familiar with everything that came before that I can appreciate the different play styles more.