Never thought I’d throw up a Vanillaware post when I started this blog. Thought Eiyuu Senki would be the closest artwise, but here we are. The beat’em up with looter elements that set the internet on fire because of the Sorceress’ boobs and the Amazon’s thunder thighs. This was the first game where it was obvious scores were being lowered because of character design. Sadly not nearly the last.

It wasn’t just the two playable girls that made people mad, though that was the brunt of it. Every stage had a midpoint where you met an NPC. Stage 1 had a muscle bound warrior and stage 2 had a mouse. Three stages featured attractive women, each helpless, unclothed and posing exactly how’d you expect. There were other sexual cgs in the quest rewards, but the characters and the mid point NPCs above were the main complaint leveled against the game and why the game became as well known as it is today.

Enough about the history though, make of it what you will. I’m not happy about the direction gaming reviews went around then, or were going. Today I basically only look at gaming news for things like E3 and other press releases, reviews are to opinionated in the opposite direction of my own. To this day I have never found someone with my tastes so that may be a part of why I do this blog, it lets me state my opinion about things because no one I know wants to hear it.

Moving on, the story of Dragon’s Crown is basically a simple DnD campaign. The titular Dragon’s Crown is an artifact that controls dragons, and some people want it. It’s also proof of Hydelands royalty. You are a random adventurer who gets caught up in some political infighting while also finding out about the countries past a bit. Then the dragon happens. You save a goddess and the post game stuff is saving more goddesses by beating more end of world dragons. I just wish the reward of doing that was better.

The game’s plot is simple because it exists to get you to the dungeons. Each dungeon plays out like a simple DnD campaign area, with two branches that changes the boss. You also have some sidequests that reward you with cgs and some lore bits that sound like DnD campaigns of the past for someone on the dev team. And that’s it. The story is very simple.

The lewd isn’t very strong, despite what some places may say. While yes, the Sorceress’ boobs bounce and wobble everywhere and she holds her staff like a stripper pole, that’s it. The Amazon is the same, her design is the end of her fanservice in game. Honestly all 6 of the classes are for a different niche. Amazon and Dwarf are both for muscle fetishists. Sorceress is for the thin huge boobs girl. Fighter is the knight , also with big muscles but he’s mainly the man in uniform. Wizard is the bishounen or pretty guy. Elf is like Wizard, but kind of a loli I guess? Each character was designed over the top on purpose, it’s just sexualizing women is much easier and more obvious then with men I guess?

There’s also some lewd in the sidequest cgs(nudity and big breasts mostly), and each monster with a female shape has a similar bust to the sorceress. I think that’s really it. Despite the reputation it’s really not the focus of the game. Even with the cgs, only about 6 of the 50+ are what I would consider sexually focused. It’s a fantasy game that tries to be like old fantasy, so it has sexy women fighting and around, but doesn’t sit there milking them for content.

So the gameplay. It’s a looter style game, so it’s about quick dungeon delves that give you stuff with abilities. You decide which abilities are better and stick with those. You have 6 classes, each with their own weapons and 4 pieces of armor, with a few different types of even that are shared between some of the classes. Like the Wizard and Dwarf both get belts but no one else does. For instance, I played a dwarf and enjoyed throwing his hammers so I could fight with bare hands instead. I prioritized fist damage+ on gloves over any other effect. Each class gets it’s own skill list so you can customize to an extent.

As to the actual combat, it’s hectic. Almost negatively so. First, this is a 4 person coop game. Everyone is on screen at all times, so the camera will swerve and swoop to keep everyone on screen, online or not. Add to that the amount of magic effects and just big things happening and it is very easy to lose any idea where you actually are. For some classes this is fine, but for the Amazon and the Fighter(I think), who have parry style systems in their movesets, this makes things very difficult. For everyone else, extra damage cause you have no idea where you are.

Beyond that, it’s fun. I find playing with only myself or one other person preferable as that keeps the camera less wonky. The actual combat is fairly simple. Each gets gets it’s own gimmicks to set them apart so I won’t go over individual fighting stuff. Instead, the inventory. It’s limited. 7 slots at the start of the game, with a skill that adds three more. You might think that should be more then enough, but one weapon + four armors means you actually have only 2 to work with for items. Each class gets some items from their skills that act as buffs or abilities such as flaming fits, but for casters this is where their actual spells are. Making the inventory far more important then usual with these kinds of games.

So the game loop is, go into dungeon, open as many chests as possible, choose route and beat boss, either go back to town or keep going through the world loop for more bonuses and better loot, continue until you can’t keep going cause of time or broken gear. Identify stuff, sort though it, sell, level skills, go again. This is only broken up by sidequests which are fairly easy extras, many of which just lead you to better loot spots in levels. It’s almost arcade like in its loop.

So I enjoy Dragon’s Crown. I wish the Sorceress had a more interesting fighting style though, the casters get boring pretty fast for me since they have no actual combo game and play almost exactly the same. It’s a fun coop experience with some nice eye candy for everyone as the gorgeous art is spread before you with frantic combat and a straightforward game system. It’s simple to learn enough to be good and quick to get into. I wish more lewd games had fun actual systems to them. It does get repetitive fast due to only having 9 dungeons + a randomizer that was added in later. So not something I play often, but a lot when I do play it.

PS3 save for Dragon’s Crown

PS4 save for Dragon’s Crown

Save for both main consoles with all cgs unlocked, next to nothing done of the Tower that was added in later via patches. Both consoles so that either side can get it. Not bothering porting my save to Vita to grab off that system, you can do that yourself if that is the version you must play. 4 is the best looking so really it’s the version you should play, but with Sony being all “blah blah I hate fanservice” I wouldn’t actually buy a Sony console if lewd is your thing. Wish this was on PC.

Gameplay: 8/10 Eroticness: 4/10 Story: 4/10

Completion: What it took-

Beat the game with each character, then take at least 1 character to the highest difficulty and clear that. So it takes, for a solo player, 8 full runs of the game to finish it. Also complete all side quests, but those will be done as grinding for finishing easy and normal. There’s no real hard unlocks here, and since I played this with a friend I only had to do 5 runs. Did an extra one on the enhanced version just to play it.