Review for Dragon's Crown. Game for PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 3, the video game was released on 25/07/2013
It was the 90s, arcade cabinets were crazy for arcades all over the world and you could experience a short but intense adventure in the evocative and pixelated fantasy universe of your choice. At the time, the writer's finances were subject to the strictest maternal judgment, which dispensed skimpy pocket money and turned up his nose at the thought that his little boy could squander his limited faculties in a video game. Deciding in which cabinet to insert the few coins available therefore became a really difficult choice, to be pondered with the utmost care, especially taking into account the actual availability offered by the cabinets present in the game room: fortunately they were present in the one near my house. Street Fighter 2 Turbo and Shock Troopers, absolute catalysts of my coins until the day I met the cabinet that changed my life forever.
It was a lazy afternoon in July when my gang of cheese money and I crossed the threshold of the magical trustworthy bar, equipped with a handful of cabinets but in our eyes consecrated as a temple of video games. We immediately realized that something unusual was happening: the group of older boys were not trying their hand at tetris with the little dunes as always, but surrounded a brand new cabin.
We timidly approached the sides of the machine and saw an archer and a mighty sorcerer wipe out a horde of orcs and goblins, the gripping battle etched into our retinas as a furious obsession: The King of Dragons had become part of our lives and with him began the journey in search of ever better Beat'em Up, which led to the inevitable discovery of titles of the caliber of Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom, Golden Ax e Double Dragon, up to the most recent Dragon's Crown.
The guys from Vanillaware will continue the Beat'em Up tradition, known for the incredible artistic talent that has led them to pack exquisitely handcrafted products over the years, entirely hand-drawn, and able to graphically reinterpret the universes faced in original keys, often taking the elements of the genre to extremes, so much so as to erect them to distorted banner.
Vanillaware had proposed to us in 2013 the excellent Dragon's Crown, which sees the marriage between Beat'em Up and GDR embodied in the vision of George Kamitani, today the PlayStation 4 is ready to host the reissue: we are talking about Dragon's Crown Pro.
The contents of the original title reappear practically unchanged, with some minor differences (such as the ability to immediately choose the language spoken by our characters, between Japanese and English, which in the original was an unlockable feature after the credits), while keeping the game experience unchanged.
In Dragon's Crown Pro we are called to take on the role of one of the six heroes available to save a fantasy kingdom from the most classic of threats, where the plot is confined to a purely accessory element and pure gameplay is the master.
The game experience consists of massacring any element that appears on the screen, scrolling sideways the maps offered, in order to receive loot thanks to which to improve the equipment of our hero and gorge ourselves on the coveted experience points that will lead us to the inevitable level up.
Each of these elements is investigated sufficiently to be interesting, as well as the gameplay offered by the six available classes is absolutely varied, each character boasts unique mechanics such as the use of the elf's bow and arrows, the throwing of the warrior's weapon and the administration of mana by the users of magic; at each level pass we will also earn skill points to spend to teach our hero new unique skills or enhance those already in our possession, immediately customizing the game experience.
At the end of each level we will be asked to make a selection of the equipment collected in the dungeon faced, choosing what to keep, what to sell and what to identify, without forgetting to go to the shop of the sorceress to repair the equipment damaged during the fights. RPG elements are a nice addition to the classic nature of the title, modernizing the genre without slowing down the gameplay experience.
The ultimate in Dragon's Crown fun is the ability to play locally or online co-op for up to four players with your friends, an element able to break the monotony that will be created all too quickly, since we will have to repeat the same scenarios several times in a compulsive way to collect levels and loot of a sufficiently high degree to continue the adventure.
In Dragon's Crown Pro the graphical rendering is significantly improved, with the ability to fight hordes of enemies in 4k as long as you have the appropriate equipment and without ever dropping below 60 FPS even during the most heated clashes. The sharpness of the new textures is in any case remarkable, with an evident improvement in the final result and a retouching to the color palette of excellent taste.
Same goes for theexceptional soundtrack, entirely remastered thanks to the intervention of an orchestra, ethereal and evocative, it manages to transport the player into the right medieval mood in the blink of an eye.
If you missed Dragon's Crown in 2013, this is the perfect opportunity to recover this Vanillaware pearl, able to present itself in a fascinating new graphic design without showing any signs of aging. Even better if you have the opportunity to share the game experience with someone as anxious as we are to go hunting for dragons the old way.
► Dragon's Crown is an Action-JRPG game developed by Vanillaware and published by ATLUS for PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 3, the video game was released on 25/07/2013
