The GWJ JRPG Club - Q4 2019 - Dragon's Crown!

Welcome to the GWJ JRPG Club's pick for the fourth quarter of 2019: Dragon's Crown!

Here is an estimate of the length of the game:
IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/eY8jgVil.png)

If you don't own the game and want to jump in, it is available on the following platforms:

  • Playstation 3
  • Playstation Vita/Playstation TV
  • Playstation 4 (where you can find it under the name "Dragon's Crown Pro")

So, for the first time since LastSurprise and myself took over the JRPG club, this game actually has co-op multiplayer! We will discuss over the next few weeks if/how/when we can all play together!

Feel free to start whenever you want, and let us know what character you picked, if you've played the game before, and what your thoughts are!

This game club will be running from now until March 31st, 2020.

Working on finishing up Nier, but I am in!

Huh, interesting. I just took it off my PS4. Maybe I'll put it back on!

What's everyone playing? I've already completed the game with Wizard years ago, so I'm thinking either Amazon or Sorceress

Loaded and ready to go! I'll probably start with one of the simpler classes because I'm a slow learner

In for the win!... or something

I went with an Amazon.

I saw some talk of multiplayer. I away for the next week, once i am back in town I'm up for some co-op

I finished the game as a Fighter a few years ago.

I'm thinking of going with either Dwarf or Elf, and leaning towards the latter at the moment.

Random thoughts:

The soundtrack is really good, which shouldn't be a surprise given that it was composed by Hitoshi Sakimoto (you know, FF Tactics, Tactics Ogre, FF12, Vagrant Story, Crimson Shroud, etc.).

Skill points can be gained not only by leveling up, but also by completing quests. For those of us who have already made progress in the game and are creating a new character, we have the option of auto-completing those previous quests by pressing the triangle button (which is un-intuitively labeled as "skip quest") in the quest list at the guild hall. You'll gain the skill points, but not the experience.

I started the game last night and went with Amazon. I went through the first little quest they give you to get a feel for the game but would totally be up for some multiplayer.

I started back up, I will probably play bit more in the coming month.

Malkroth wrote:

I went through the first little quest they give you to get a feel for the game but would totally be up for some multiplayer.

Heads up: unless they've changed things, multi-player doesn't unlock until you run through all the dungeons once.

Count me in as well. I got a few hours into the game about a year ago, but never finished the main story line. I'll be playing on Vita, probably as the Wizard or Sorceress this time.

No idea when I will actually start (next week at the earliest). I wish the game had a speedo-wearing knight to counter the amazon in bikini armor, but oh well.

I will probably pick the dwarf.

I agree with Ted: The music is fantastic. Which is pretty much what I expect from Sakimoto.

bobbywatson wrote:

No idea when I will actually start (next week at the earliest). I wish the game had a speedo-wearing knight to counter the amazon in bikini armor, but oh well.

I will probably pick the dwarf.

I agree with Ted: The music is fantastic. Which is pretty much what I expect from Sakimoto.

I think the dwarf is in a speedo

Do you need to be a decent action gamer to play and enjoy this?

I’ve ordered up a copy, so hopefully I’ll get it next week!

Fastmav347 wrote:
bobbywatson wrote:

No idea when I will actually start (next week at the earliest). I wish the game had a speedo-wearing knight to counter the amazon in bikini armor, but oh well.

I will probably pick the dwarf.

I agree with Ted: The music is fantastic. Which is pretty much what I expect from Sakimoto.

I think the dwarf is in a speedo

Close enough.

Someday I will write and draw Speedo Knight: The Comic. Someday.

Godzilla Blitz wrote:

Do you need to be a decent action gamer to play and enjoy this?

I'm only 3 hours in but as somebody who never plays side scrolling action games so far it has been very simple.

Not sure if it's a class thing, or being over leveled because of side quests, but one of my biggest complaints is that despite not really following the combat, I'm not dying at all.

Cronox wrote:
Godzilla Blitz wrote:

Do you need to be a decent action gamer to play and enjoy this?

I'm only 3 hours in but as somebody who never plays side scrolling action games so far it has been very simple.

Not sure if it's a class thing, or being over leveled because of side quests, but one of my biggest complaints is that despite not really following the combat, I'm not dying at all.

It's a beat em up, you don't need a ton of skill to get through the game on normal, no. You can always grind a lil for better loot and stuff, but mostly it comes down to character choice. The melee guys will be easier than the elf or magic users, like most other games.

I have this on vita aka PSTV...I should try to find and redownload it

garion333 wrote:
Cronox wrote:
Godzilla Blitz wrote:

Do you need to be a decent action gamer to play and enjoy this?

I'm only 3 hours in but as somebody who never plays side scrolling action games so far it has been very simple.

Not sure if it's a class thing, or being over leveled because of side quests, but one of my biggest complaints is that despite not really following the combat, I'm not dying at all.

It's a beat em up, you don't need a ton of skill to get through the game on normal, no. You can always grind a lil for better loot and stuff, but mostly it comes down to character choice. The melee guys will be easier than the elf or magic users, like most other games.

Thanks for the information! I'm going to keep an eye out for this on sale over Black Friday.

Ted wrote:

I'm thinking of going with either Dwarf or Elf, and leaning towards the latter at the moment.

I tried both of these classes and landed on... Amazon.

Dwarf and Elf are cool but I wasn't really meshing with their play styles. Amazon is reigniting the fun I remember having with the Fighter.

Is it cross play? I do own it on vita/PSTV, but if people are playing on PS4 and online, I may try to find it on there.

PSN: ksmooches

It's full cross play compatible, yes.

My copy is on its way! I should have it early next week.

I was able to load up my old save, I'd previously finished the game with th elf but have very little recollection of doing so...

I started a new game as the Sorceress and it asked if I'd like to start at level 15. Sure....Why not? I'm a little bit more than lost and confused at the moment, and I seem to be a little under-levelled for the few stages I've tried.

Definitely a weird experience coming back to this and remembering nothing. But goddamn the art is nice! Do yourself a favour and look at the images that get unlocked in your gallery! Gorgeous stuff.

A_Unicycle wrote:

Do yourself a favour and look at the images that get unlocked in your gallery! Gorgeous stuff.

Unlocking a lot more of the gallery is my goal this time around.

My favorite thus far is "Fungi Researchers" from the Delicacy Delivery quest; so much detail!

Ted wrote:
A_Unicycle wrote:

Do yourself a favour and look at the images that get unlocked in your gallery! Gorgeous stuff.

Unlocking a lot more of the gallery is my goal this time around.

My favorite thus far is "Fungi Researchers" from the Delicacy Delivery quest; so much detail!

It took me a while to figure out how the "quests" work in the game. I felt dumb. This time around, I feel good about knowing the idiosyncrasies of the game beforehand and having a gameplan for it.

My copy of Dragon’s Crown Pro finally arrived. Woohoo!

But, this weekend will be crazy busy, and next week I’ll be out of town. So I’m probably still a good week and a half, at least, from starting this.

I will probably start this weekend. I've finally realized that I have no desire to go back to Grandia III, so it's time for me to let it go, remove it from the backlog, and move to something better!

I will be on the road next week, and I plan to take my Vita with me. We'll see how embarrassing it is to play this game on a plane.

Also I made the mistake of starting Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, so that kept me busy for more time than I would admit to last weekend.

I'm just past the half way point (or what I assume is the half way point) where the game opens up and gets into it's full main loop.

I enjoy the general loop of:
- push your luck in the dungeons
- upgrade your gear/allies
- dive back in again, against slightly tougher challenges

It reminds me a lot of diablo and I'm surprised more games haven’t copied it.

Unfortunately, while I like the loop I’m not really liking the execution. The combat, gear, puzzles and character progression all leave a lot to be desired imo. My major complaints are that the combat feels very spammy and not at all challenging, and none of the gear or character skills appear to have any real impact.

I feel like I basically spam attack and occasionally jump and get through nearly everything including the bosses without too much of an issue. There are two or three boss fights, and one general enemy type that require me to mix things up a bit and focus on that is going on.

Maybe it’s just the class I picked (Amazon) but I would have liked it feel like I needed to be more involved in what is going on.

All that said it seems to be a fairly short game, and suits quickish sessions on the Vita so I think I will stick it out to the end.