Best of E3 2011- Dragon’s Crown


It’s a shame most stateside Saturn owners were never able to experience Atlus’ Princess Crown–  an action RPG which had some of the most sumptuous hand-drawn animation seen on Sega’s 32-bit system. Fourteen years later, I still recall becoming hopelessly captivated  after seeing the title in action at one of the local import shops, as the game’s protagonist confronted a screen-filling dragon. Amazingly, the antagonist’s rendering was so detailed, players could perceive the enemy’s burdened breathing.

Over the years, Princess Crown‘s developers splintered off, with key members of the team forming Vanillaware. This studio has maintained their focus on delivering vibrant animation, striking characters art, and opulent backdrops in PS2 and Wii titles such as Odin Sphere, GrimGrimoire and Muramasa: The Demon Blade. The recent E3 unveiling of Dragon’s Crown reveals Vanillaware’s first foray into the next-generation

Available for both the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita, Dragon’s Crown is a retro inspired brawler, granting players access to six distinct character classes- Amazon, dwarf, elf, fighter, sorceress and wizard. Adventuring with a quartet of AI controlled or online players, gamers are tasked with annihilating a succession of foes in their quest to exterminate an ancient dragon. Look for the title in the Spring of 2012.

Robert Allen

Since being a toddler, Robert Allen has been immersed in video games, anime, and tokusatsu. Currently, his days are spent teaching at two southern California colleges. But his evenings and weekends are filled with STGs, RPGs, and action titles and well at writing for Tech-Gaming since 2007.

37 Comments

  1. Muramasa is still one of the best Wii games around. Interesting in this one.

    1. I’m sure D4 will be his top pick. Actually, I’m more curious what NOLAs will be.

    2. D4 was a no show – We asked the guys a NIS about it, and they said they just couldn’t pull anything together in time for the show.

      1. Who wiped Deagle tears away and helped his lifeless body off the show floor so it wouldn’t get trampled?

        1. Hey, at least they said it was getting translated! My two would-be “games of show” were shot down right out of the gate.

          Monster Hunter: Wasn’t at the Capcom booth. When I asked about it, I got a “Monster Hunter doesn’t sell well enough outside of Japan to make it worth our time”

          PSO2: If we get any news about it this year, it will come from Japan – SEGA West is being kept in the dark, so “only time will tell.”

          1. I did! We’ll talk about it on the show, but I bought Sage and Deagle lunch at Tommy Pastrami’s, because I’m baller like that.

  2. I love these type of games. Reminds me of the arcade games with four sticks.

  3. I’m a longtime reader/listerner/lurker and have to comment on E3 before your next podcast, so here goes:

    Were any of you as disappointed in the showing from the big three this year as me? First, so many games (Kinect to MW3) seemed mimed. See

    http://beefjack.com/news/did-robert-bowling-mime-mw3-microsoft-e3-demo/

    Also, there was sooo much CGI this year in the Wii U, Halo 4, StarHawk unveilings. It’s like companies weren’t ready for E3. I mean Wii U used 360/PS3 video… pure laziness, unless they were promoting their competition.

    Comments/discussion please.

  4. I heard hiphopgamer had a posse following him around that would try to start fights with people? Did you throwdown?

    1. Um, he did have a posse of people following him during the show, but as far as I saw, they were mostly just walking around looking “fly” and posing with people for pictures. I didnt see any fights. And I was at a party with him one night and he just had one guy with him, and was just hanging out.

  5. Nice to know NOLA pays off his debts like a Lannister 😉

    What else did you guys see that was cool? Besides the booth babes.

    1. HA! I liked the Game of Thrones reference. Nice one.

      My turn now- tell me what film the Captcha message references.

  6. Where’s the E3 podcast(s)? I love you guys, but your coverage is a bit lacking. Maybe more writers? hint, hint.

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