Capsule Review: Dragon's Crown
A 2.5D brawler with action RPG elements. You can play alone or via couch co-op, but the game is obviously tuned to favor online co-op - there are six different classes with varying specializations and it’s valuable to have multiple archetypes present, but there’s also a lot of very slow inventory and skill point management that only one local player can do at a time. You can round out your party with AI-controlled members, but they’re mediocre and require their own fiddly management between dungeon runs. There isn’t much depth to the story, characters, or world, but the art is distinctive and gorgeous. Although the 2D art in a 3D space presents some positioning problems, the combat mechanics are otherwise extremely well-tuned, and the boss fights in particular are varied and engaging. That’s good, because you’ll be seeing them over and over - there aren’t that many dungeons, and you’ve got to grind through them repeatedly to progress. The experience has much more longevity when played with friends.
I Stopped Playing When: I finished the campaign twice - once in couch co-op as Amazon with Senpai-chan playing Elf, and once solo as Fighter. Senpai-chan and I started a second playthrough on Hard, but got tired of the repetition of the grind coupled with the tedious inventory management and didn’t finish it.
Three Stars: Good. I liked the game enough to finish it (or just play it a bunch, for games that don't end). I recommend it to most genre fans.