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Dragon's Crown |OT| Knock down the crown

Moofers

Member
Aww yiss! Nice job on the OP!

Very hyped for this to arrive next week! Finally, something to pull me away from the edge of my terrible addiction to The Last of Us multiplayer!
 

GuardianE

Santa May Claus
Back when GH came out, I think it put me in the most zombie-like state of any game I've ever played, before, or since. The idea of having everyone in the game available to play in VS, and the multiple story paths, still hasn't been matched at all, except maybe with the likes of something like Tobal 2.

DC Might top it in art (and even that's debatable... sharper and bolder, sure, but Han's less divisive character art gets in the way of talking about / enjoying the game a lot less), Campaign multiplayer number, overall polish / lore, and it might be the superior "From Point A to point B" experience...

...but the multiple paths and light-hearted aspects of this game don't look anywhere close to what GH had to offer. I still doubt it has the enemy character variety, either (though I bet it has much better boss battles!)

Basically... this game claims 120 hours to see everything. I might be required to do that for this, but I'd probably be more willingly do such with GH, without being forced to by leveling gimmicks and locked skills.

I played Guardian Heroes recently. I found the art to be atrocious, actually. I found the lore a snoozefest. I found the characters irritating. The music was an assault on my ears. I have no history with the title that would otherwise blind me to its blemishes.

I had fun with it, but I don't think it's somehow untouchable as a beat 'em up.

Leveling and locked skills aren't a lesser form of replay value. At all. Nor is a loot system, something completely absent in Guardian Heroes. And there's the persistent level-up system that was also oddly absent from Guardian Heroes. The only thing that Guardian Heroes had that was impressive to me was : 1) the locked two plane approach to combat, 2) interesting combos, 3) variety of characters (that for some reason can't be used in the campaign). Everything else was just okay, and not compelling enough to make me keep playing it.
 

Teknoman

Member
After having completed the game, I simple don't agree.

Yes there is really no weather effects, though the forest, the ghost ship cove, the undead cathedral, the underground labyrinth, the orcs underground area, the mage tower, and each of these have secondary paths as well. I never felt it was too similar in my 16 hour playtime.

So its kind of like Diablo 1 in that most of the locations are inside an area.

EDIT: It isnt perfect by any means, but GH gameplay is pretty well done and the soundtrack still beats out any other swords & sorcery beat em up...so far. I havent heard anything from Dragon's Crown, but Sakimoto always delivers.
 
OT's looking great, nice job Caerith!


Also heads up, but there will be two changes to the player list in the coming weeks, both of which due to timing since the game will be out by those points so one of the fields will soon become nearly pointless (what region your game is, since that was mainly there to give Japanese game owners a head start in the co-op), and another will be changed since at that point most people in the list should have played enough where I can change the poll (from "What class do you plan on using first" to "What is your most used class")


All of that out of the way, I seriously can't wait for this game to release, so excited


oh also, since this seems to be the new thing to do...
#TeamTooLazyToNameATeam
Kappa
 

pariah164

Member
Aww yiss. Getting hype for this all over again. Gonna play busty Sorceress and go glass cannon on some monster ass.

#TeamSorceress
#TeamVita

OT looks great! Much better than what I would have done, lol.
 

SAB CA

Sketchbook Picasso
Well...speaking for myself...it's not only about the breasts or butts. Nevertheless (and, apologies if I'm misreading you here), I don't think any and all discussion of them is a disservice to the game. The sexy designs are certainly a part of the work.

Yeah, it's certainly a part of the game, and an artist surely knows WHAT they're getting themselves into when they have designs like that put up for a commercial work. But it's the overall body of work that proves the full intent, and actually getting to play it / see gameplay from streams of JP release seems to have leveled the conversation field finally, to Kamitani's intended levels of design priority.

I think it's evident that Kamitani and his team aren't cynically exploiting sexuality to try to sell games or whatever else; they're simply drawing what they genuinely love to draw. And, very unabashedly. To me, this itself is an unfolding, a development, a progression from the games of 20 years ago, alongside the innovations in technology, gameplay design, etc.

It is always cool to get to see one man's creative vision made without compromise. That in itself speaks volumes, just on a personal level, and I'm quite happy for him, that he finally got to get this idea out of his mind, and into a game. Just on a pure artist-to-artist level, that's awesome, haha.

The old games had at least hints of sexiness, and I had the impression that the artists were going as far as they were allowed to, but probably not as far as they might have chosen. To see these same artists now attaining full creative control is, to me, very inspiring. I would hope that anyone who values a wide range of artistic expression - in games, and in general - can appreciate that, even if these designs aren't their cup of tea.

I always have to admit though, I often feel like an artist can be their own worse enemy, towards making their works have as wide-reaching an impact as they should, commercially and otherwise. A little bit of restriction can nurture a lot of creativity too, which is something I feel is often given no credit in the "100% artistic freedom is BEST!" debates.
 

Qondar

Neo Member
It's not about hiding the sexiness (which the OP made no attempt to do). It's about making it clear that sexiness is not THE reason to play this game (it may or may not be A reason, depending on your personal preferences).

Yeah, that's a good way to put it. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't change the OP, it was just the "people who post about that will say more about themselves than the game" part that rubbed me the wrong way a little, as an admirer of the designs.

Amazon rocks!
ib0EFaYhVkeM60.jpg

Awesome graphic! Amazon all the way. :D
 

Damaniel

Banned
I'm torn between picking this up for Vita (mine hasn't gotten any love since I finished up P4G) and PS3 (those visuals are begging for the full 1080p treatment).

#TeamPS3 for now, I suppose. If I really enjoy it, maybe I'll pick up the Vita version later on.
 

Mupod

Member
Oh crap I still gotta finish SMT4. Stupid speedrun marathon!

Anyways, I've wanted to play the dwarf ever since I saw his roll attack. Predator Hunter was always my favorite character in my favorite beat 'em up (AVP CPS2), and he has a move just like that. Plus I always played the dwarf in every beat 'em up where you could be a dwarf, so there's that.
 

Paches

Member
What is the size of the game (MB)? Wish that was a standard detail that they released and web sites put in there along with price, release date, etc...
 

SAB CA

Sketchbook Picasso
What is the size of the game (MB)? Wish that was a standard detail that they released and web sites put in there along with price, release date, etc...

The JP version allowed pre-downloading, and I think they said it's a few hundred megs less of 2 gigs, varying a bit between Vita and PS3.


I played Guardian Heroes recently. I found the art to be atrocious, actually. I found the lore a snoozefest. I found the characters irritating. I have no history with the title that would otherwise blind me to its blemishes.

I had fun with it, but I don't think it's somehow untouchable as a beat 'em up.

Leveling and locked skills aren't a lesser form of replay value. At all. Nor is a loot system, something completely absent in Guardian Heroes. And there's the persistent level-up system that was also oddly absent from Guardian Heroes. The only thing that Guardian Heroes had that was impressive to me was : 1) the locked two plane approach to combat, 2) interesting combos, 3) variety of characters (that for some reason can't be used in the campaign). Everything else was just okay, and not compelling enough to make me keep playing it.

It helps to have played it upon time of release, surely. Even back then, the blocky pixel graphics were eye-maddening to some; even my mom wondered why the game looked so blocky, lol. But I'm not blind to it's blemishes (or DCs), they just don't don't detract from it's triumphs, to me.

Personally, I'll always find clumping 60 skills of meager usefulness onto one character, a lesser way of encouraging variety, than having 4 characters of 15 useful skills each, but I can't say which way DC leans to yet.

Loot sounds kinda meh in DC, from many reports; I await experiencing this myself too, but it sounds like it's the "Toss a bunch at them, never let them get attached to great finds" type, which is cool for aesthetics, but does little for gameplay...

Persistent leveling, I'm always glad it wasn't in GH. It made each play-through feel like it's own story, rather than OP Hero VS weaklings for the first 6 stages. I loved having different builds each time, was part of what made the game replayable.

The characters couldn't be used in campaign, because the game valued it's story. Every character had their own lines to say to events (with 1P taking priority most of the time), and some paths even had character-specific reasons to following them (Sword-Han, the past relationships between Serena and Katarina, etc). I DO wish they offered a story-less stage-run arcade mode, that let you play whomever you want, however. Though I'd love a "every character reacts to everything!" story mode, because seeing why a wolf would try and stop the return of the magic kingdom would be quite funny...

But anyway.. for one who holds GH in high regard, especially if they fell in love with it upon release {when it clearly outdid a lot of comparable console-only releases in the genre), equaling what it did well is hard, and surpassing isn't even in the cards (because DC doesn't even attempt at some of the things it did, which I would have LOVED for it to have tried...)

DC is definitely it's own game, however, and I think it'll clearly surpass GH for some players like yourself, because it's much more "modern".
 
So its kind of like Diablo 1 in that most of the locations are inside an area.

EDIT: It isnt perfect by any means, but GH gameplay is pretty well done and the soundtrack still beats out any other swords & sorcery beat em up...so far. I havent heard anything from Dragon's Crown, but Sakimoto always delivers.

Yes most locations are inside. As for the soundtrack, while I enjoyed it, nothing stood out to me at all. Oddly enough. I think it stems from being purely in the background, perhaps because some tracks seem more about atmosphere and not catchy riffs.
 

Zonic

Gives all the fucks
Wow. This is a big fuck you to Vita owners for absolutely no reason. I know online was locked until a certain point but ad hoc play too? Why!?
Wow, just noticed this. I don't quite understand the restrictions, especially for local co-op on Vita.....let alone the fact the game is pretty much based around multiplayer. Heck, I don't understand having to unlock multiplayer period. Luigi's Mansion did it & while that was more focused on single player, I still found it weird.
 

Moofers

Member
Does the Vita version allow for custom soundtracks? AKA: playing music in the Vita dashboard, then loading up the game as the music continues to play over it?
 

Marvelous

Member
This is the first game that I have ever pre-ordered. Really excited to play it.

I'm thinking about trying out Elf-chan first. Amazon or Sorceress will be next, can't really decide. I want to have good gear in the storage before I try the Wizard.
 

Himself

Member
Posted in the impressions thread, but just in case people jumped that ship for this one:

Is this game any fun single player? I don't have time for bro op gaming in my life currently.

I'm worried that when played single player the shortcomings of the genre (basically becoming mind numbingly repetitive without bros to play with) will shine through.

Does the game keep things fresh in terms of enemy and level design throughout? Does playing as the different classes significantly change the experience? Is there enough hidden shit to keep things interesting on multiple playthroughs?

Be honest...
 

GuardianE

Santa May Claus
DC is definitely it's own game, however, and I think it'll clearly surpass GH for some players like yourself, because it's much more "modern".

I love pixelart. The issues I had with artstyle wasn't the pixels. I found the source art from which the pixelart was created to be hideous.

The "any character" story mode is exactly what I'm referring to. If you're going to add in 40 some odd characters, why limit them to a pvp mode? The same goes for persistent leveling. This should have been an option or a separate mode.

But I'm not ignorant of the fact that GH was a game from another time, where these options may not have been the norm.

How "modern" a game is doesn't concern me, but the focus of GH and the style by which is implements this focus are largely uninteresting to me. I have no issue with playing old school games at all, but I simply don't see GH as some unsurpassable milestone.

The entire game felt like a weird contradiction, like it didn't know what it wanted to do. No persistent leveling or different characters in campaign, but encourage multiple playthroughs. Focus on serious story-telling, but have no serious characters. Have multiple endings, but have them all pretty much end in the same two ways.
 

linkent

Member
please someone confirm that,
R1 can play with R2 with R3 with R4!
AKA region wide multiplayer?

saw the R1 Vita version, but decided not to buy as the main menu has "online store" which will most likely be locked when playing on my R3 account..

but certainly hope that when i got the R3, i could play with my R1 friends
 

2+2=5

The Amiga Brotherhood
That's the beauty of it! I used that picture when I originally created it because the fact that her butt isn't the focus of the picture makes her all the more stoic and badass even though you know she still has the biggest ass of the characters.


I can see your point, but what's the point of a #team hometown pic without an hometown in it? :p
Anyway i really don't like the lower half of the amazon in that pic, it's really really really bad imo.
What about these then?
 
This is one of the reasons why I don't want to put my PSN ID on the list. Or any list for that matter.

Yeah ever since one day when apparently someone made a few edits (and it got fixed somehow, thank goodness) I decided to make a private locked backup copy, I tend to update that frequently to avoid any problems (to anyone reading this wondering why they see some cells being highlighted in clusters to be copied when viewing the list, this is why I've been doing that). I have been considering the idea of making the list viewable but only I can edit it to just flat out avoid this problem and people could PM me the info for the fields, but I'm not sure how smoothly that'll go, so I'm holding onto that idea for now in the concept of the private backup.
 

Kyoufu

Member
please someone confirm that,
R1 can play with R2 with R3 with R4!
AKA region wide multiplayer?

saw the R1 Vita version, but decided not to buy as the main menu has "online store" which will most likely be locked when playing on my R3 account..

but certainly hope that when i got the R3, i could play with my R1 friends

Yes, Atlus confirmed a while ago that it's cross-region.
 

SAB CA

Sketchbook Picasso
I love pixelart. The issues I had with artstyle wasn't the pixels. I found the source art from which the pixelart was created to be hideous.

Yeah, that's fine. Han's art isn't for everyone, same as Kamitani's here.

The "any character" story mode is exactly what I'm referring to. If you're going to add in 40 some odd characters, why limit them to a pvp mode? The same goes for persistent leveling. This should have been an option or a separate mode.

But I'm not ignorant of the fact that GH was a game from another time, where these options may not have been the norm.

One step at a time! Just having EVERYTHING playable was enough of a boon at the time, and the GBA sequel actually did allow you to play anyone (might have been some exceptions) through the story mode (explained as your PC being a spirit that took on the form of fallen heroes.)

Phantom Breaker Battlegrounds also has limited characters for story, but then allows any of the bonus characters to be played in Arcade of Co-Op modes. It had some help from members of the GH team, too, so I'm sure they'd have added such a feature, if it were to be made now...

How "modern" a game is doesn't concern me, but the focus of GH and the style by which is implements this focus are largely uninteresting to me. I have no issue with playing old school games at all, but I simply don't see GH as some unsurpassable milestone.

"Modern" was just a way to try not to type another paragraph for me, lol. (Brevity, how do you work!) But I often find the things people dislike in GH are due to games growing in a different direction since then, if you know what I mean.

The only reason I find GH unsurpassable... is because no one else tried to do much of what I listed about it anymore. And when they do, it's generally a "catch up" to what it did, as opposed to meeting it, and then fleshing it out. This is largely due to the fact that games in the genre are limited to sub-20 buck downloadables; GH was a full retail release, and it embraced the idea of bring arcade-focused gameplay to a console level of replay-ability and depth.

And that's mostly because games are now console first, arcade-y second. Persistent leveling, hours-of-gameplay as a marketing tool.. these are console-speak. This is online friendly, and part of making a game feel like it's worth $50 / $60 from a fact sheet, as opposed to making it feel like it's worth your endless quarters, because of the rush you got in that first credit.

I get the idea DC is going to scratch my Monster Hunter / PSO V2 Gamecube itch, more than my Guardian Heroes itch, personally. I really hope it's successful enough to get people to give retail-resource Beat-em-ups a go again, though.
 

Ultimadrago

Member
Hey folks. I got the artbooks in my store and they are excellent. Nice quality and tons of artwork. If you didn't pre-order, you're going to miss out on them. =/

No, this is not an advertisement or anything. Just saying the book is good quality stuff.

Thank you. It's a part of the reason I'm picking it up, so this is good news.
 

Ken

Member
Think I'll get two copies for the Vita since I'm far more likely to play it on the go than to find comfy couch time.
 
If you play this game single player, do you get an AI buddy to fight with you or does the number/difficulty of enemies scale based on the number of players?
 
If you play this game single player, do you get an AI buddy to fight with you or does the number/difficulty of enemies scale based on the number of players?

Yep you get to find warriors bones while playing, ressurect them, and you can have up to 3 other ai. If you don't want them, don't take them and in the tavern set it to no join.
 
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