Dragon's Crown

Brawlers and Beatemups
Gamerforlife
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Re: Dragon's Crown

Post by Gamerforlife »

the7k wrote:All I know is, when compared with Scott Pilgrim vs The World and Castle Crashers, the only other modern retro beat 'em ups out there that I can think of, this game is superior in some important ways. And keep in mind, I've played the hell out of both of them and would play them again, but DC is better to me.

Each of the characters are actually unique from each other and have their own unique attacks and special abilities, unlike Castle Crashers where each character is only visually different in their attacks while all serving the same purpose (outside of the King who has the only healing ability). Sure you can 'build them' differently by focusing on attack or magic or speed, etc., but you can build an Elf that focuses on archery while building another Elf that focuses on daggers/backstabbing in DC. If you build an Orange Knight that focuses on Magic while building an Industrialist that focuses on Magic in Castle Crashers, they will play exactly the same.

Also, the game was built with a leveling system in mind and doesn't feel gimped by its inclusion, unlike Scott Pilgrim where you have to level just to get basic abilities, yet once you've reached Lv16 it becomes completely impossible to revisit early stages and get any sort of fun out of them because you are so vastly overpowered in relation to your competition.

People here seem to be criticizing the game for repetitiveness and lack of replayability, but I'd say a game with 30 characters that all play exactly the same has a much bigger issue with repetitiveness, and a game where you literally cannot go back to any stage outside of the last two because you are so OP has a much bigger issue with replayability.
I don't see why that's an issue. What's the point of a game even having a leveling system if you don't eventually get stronger than certain enemies? Why do you think games even have rpg elements in them? Frankly, I find that rather fun. My reward for building up my character is going back to earlier stages and demolishing people. A lot of games today are getting away from the idea of actually rewarding players and instead focusing so damn much on making things hard and restricting players. Dragon's Crown is a perfect example. I like a game that's more about the giving than the taking.

Also, all that variety you mention in DC is meaningless as each class is clearly meant to be built and used a specific way. You spend enough time on some DC forums and you realize that there is really only one way to build and use each class effectively. This becomes extremely apparent on higher difficulties. DC is another one of those games that gives you the illusion of freedom and choice, like most video games. It's all one big lie. Amazon is about pumping up berzerk mode. Elf is about Salamander Oil and arrow buffs. Try using them in any other way, and you won't get far in Labyrinth of Chaos or Infernal, at least not while playing solo. The more you play DC, the more and more you become able to deconstruct it and see its flaws and see how much of what it's getting praised for isn't entirely true

That said, I'm trying to give DC a fair shot. I'm going to try and at least finish Infernal mode and maybe attempt to get through the Labyrinth of Chaos before I write the game off entirely. And maybe spend a little more time with the Fighter and Dwarf, then I'll feel like I'll really have experienced everything the game has to offer and can feel my opinions on it have merit. I'm definitely not enjoying it as much as when I started playing though

After a lot of slow, tedious grinding, I got my Amazon up to level 77 and finished off two frustrating B path bosses in Infernal, so I'm making some progress. I don't know how people can chain levels when things are so hard in Infernal mode. I also don't know why people say the Amazon is overpowered. Sure, she can dish out a lot of damage quickly, but only after you apply like a dozen buffs to her, most of which don't last long and are easily lost if she takes a hit. That's assuming she even survives the hit with her craptastic health and defense. The fact that one of her buffing skills requires her to drop her health down to like 10% on a character that is already as fragile as glass is ridiculous. I really don't like the Amazon class, but she's higher level than everyone else I have so I'm sticking with her to the end.

Sorceress seems like the class I enjoy playing more than any other so far. She's more user friendly (cast spell, things die), harder to kill (protect spells, create food spell, and great evasive teleports and air dashes) and can deal with mobs easier than any other class except maybe the Wizard. Having the right elemental staff can make her decent on bosses too it seems. Maybe I would have liked the game a lot more if I used her to begin with
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BoneSnapDeez
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Re: Dragon's Crown

Post by BoneSnapDeez »

Interesting opinions. I got the game today but haven't played it yet. I'm really just interested in doing a normal playthrough on normal difficulty. No post-game stuff, no multiplayer stuff.
ZenErik
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Re: Dragon's Crown

Post by ZenErik »

BoneSnapDeez wrote:Interesting opinions. I got the game today but haven't played it yet. I'm really just interested in doing a normal playthrough on normal difficulty. No post-game stuff, no multiplayer stuff.
Looking forward to your thoughts on the game. But I must say that the game is made with the intention that you'll play the harder difficulties too. Much like Diablo.
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BoneSnapDeez
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Re: Dragon's Crown

Post by BoneSnapDeez »

I'm terrible at beat 'em ups, but we'll see how it goes.
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the7k
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Re: Dragon's Crown

Post by the7k »

Just started a new character today (An Amazon - I've only played Fighter, Elf and Wizard prior) and beat the game with her too. Beat the Ancient Dragon at level 29. I'd say it took about 5 hours, maybe less.

Not as long as people claim. Basically just run through the forced path until you get to chain dungeons, then run through all the A Paths with the Prayer to boost score in one go - this'll get you a lot of levels, especially if you make sure to get all the "Double Score Bonus" runes when you can. Then run through the first five path Bs - these are the easiest ones. Score boost with prayer and runes again as much as you can. Then run through the last five path Bs - the hardest ones, where you'll need those levels. Then just rock the Dragon at the end.

Never even went online, just used NPCs the entire time. With a good party of other players, I imagine this'll be even faster.

@gamer
I don't find it fun at all to go back to a level and kill things in one hit. That's the epitome of boring. I can't get any sort of joy out of that.

As for all character having to be built a certain way - balderdash. I've been playing an Elf that focuses everything into Holdout Dagger/Backstab/Maintenance and it's been doing great. It's been doing even better for others, who report getting about 8000+ dmg per attack with this set up.

The game isn't even a month old. It's gonna take time to figure out what set ups will work and which ones won't. Right now 90% of the player base is going with the same setups, but that has a lot more to do with lack of creativity/fear than anything else.

As for beginner characters - fighter. He's who I started with, and he definitely is great for beginners. Amazon is a glass cannon, unless you have extremely good reactions she is going to die too fast. Fighter is built to soak up damage.

@ZenErik
You can't compare this game to other Vanillaware games, because it's not even trying to be other Vanillaware games. That's why I compared it to games within the genre it is trying to be.

I mean, you wouldn't compare a game like Sengoku Basara to Devil May Cry just because it's made by the same company, would you? No, you'd compare it to Dynasty Warriors, because that's clearly a game within the same genre.
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Retrogamer0001
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Re: Dragon's Crown

Post by Retrogamer0001 »

the7k wrote:As for all character having to be built a certain way - balderdash. I've been playing an Elf that focuses everything into Holdout Dagger/Backstab/Maintenance and it's been doing great. It's been doing even better for others, who report getting about 8000+ dmg per attack with this set up.

The game isn't even a month old. It's gonna take time to figure out what set ups will work and which ones won't. Right now 90% of the player base is going with the same setups, but that has a lot more to do with lack of creativity/fear than anything else.
I have a 34 Elf on Normal and haven't even looked at a build/guide for the game. I don't care about going online or playing with friends, and I have no interest in turning this game into some kind of project that will take me months and months of gameplay to master, though if that's your thing, all the power to you. I personally do enjoy the game, but will be moving on after I beat the game on Normal, as I don't see the gameplay changing and what I've seen so far is not enough to warrant dumping 60+ hours into the game.
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EvilRyu2099
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Re: Dragon's Crown

Post by EvilRyu2099 »

Most players who farm chaos lab agree that Elemental Lore/PowerShot/Clone Strikes build> Dagger build in high level play.. Too much downtime with that spec although it's great overall.. Best to build dagger spec in Hard/Normal difficulties..
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ZenErik
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Re: Dragon's Crown

Post by ZenErik »

the7k wrote: @ZenErik
You can't compare this game to other Vanillaware games, because it's not even trying to be other Vanillaware games. That's why I compared it to games within the genre it is trying to be.

I mean, you wouldn't compare a game like Sengoku Basara to Devil May Cry just because it's made by the same company, would you? No, you'd compare it to Dynasty Warriors, because that's clearly a game within the same genre.
Why not? Odin Sphere, Muramasa, and Princess Crown are all side scrolling action RPGs. I can't compare side scrolling action RPGs from Vanillaware to a side scrolling action RPG from Vanillaware?

The major difference being that Dragon's Crown is multiplayer focused. Which I think is great. They just didn't do multi well. Like I've said 100 times. It's very broken that I can't even take my character to a friend's for local PS3 play. And the game is very lacking in story. Not a bad game. Just disappointing and certainly not one of my favorites this year.
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BoneSnapDeez
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Re: Dragon's Crown

Post by BoneSnapDeez »

Whoa... Looks like the game comes with a huge ass art book. Nice.
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noiseredux
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Re: Dragon's Crown

Post by noiseredux »

BoneSnapDeez wrote:Whoa... Looks like the game comes with a huge ass art book. Nice.
only certain pre-orders came with the art book. Several of us pre-ordered and did not receive art books. I know Best Buy and eStarland were two places we discussed here that didn't end up getting the books.

You have a PS3, Bone? I'm on the fence about selling my copy of the game.
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