Dragon's Crown is in many ways like Ninja Saviors, in that it's a phenomenal beat em up. However, that's really only scratching the surface. Because Dragon's Crown goes beyond the realm of beat em ups. In fact, it goes beyond the bounds of your typical game. For one, each character is different enough to be a campaign unto themselves, a trait it shares with Ninja Saviors. However, unlike Ninja Saviors these campaigns aren't five hours long (playing the game several times to get gud with them and going through multiple difficulties) but rather fifty to a hundred hours. And, by that I mean the game's post game content is an entirely different experience from its arcade/beat em up modes, which would be the easy/hard standard play through of the story mode and revisiting missions while doing challenges/quests. Combine this fact with online four player co-op and you've got what amounts to a very fun game on your hands.
First, a story of two games. Dragon's Crown is a beat em up. Later, it's an action RPG. The beat em up portions like I mentioned earlier don't really require you to worry about the "gear" or "builds" for your characters. Although, those elements are still very dynamic! No, it's largely you putting things with better numbers on while you distribute your skill points evenly across the moves you use the most often and like. Later on when you've beaten hard mode you start getting gear that radically alters your damage types and skill effects while also running into the fact there are a finite amount of skill points. IE, you'll need to chose, which of your abilities you want maxed, slightly leveled, and which abilities you want to ignore entirely. Late game loot can affect this, too. For example in the main game the Amazon can throw her weapon and go melee, this is cuts off a few of her moves and gives you a lightly different move set, also, some of your default actions increase in speed. Naturally, it results in a massive damage drop off, too. Even more noticeably in the game game. However, you can get gear that boosts your unarmed damage and gives it special properties! And, that's just one thing! For one character! Dozens and dozens of iterations are possible.
The late game goes further by randomizing the entire base game's maps, rooms, and boss encounters while throwing in twice the roster with special giant/elite enemies to further mix it up. By the time you're going on high dungeon runs you'll be encountering bosses with spell casting abilities that had none before and other strange RNG surprises to keep the game fresh for essentially as long as you want to play it. And, you don't even have to touch any of that if you just want to experience the normal beat em up experience. Which, it still dozens of hours of content. It's mind blowing.
The characters, which I will give a brief summary of (but, not as thorough as I did with Ninja Saviors for reasons you'll soon understand) are filled to the brim with moves. Each one having something like a fighting game's worth of techniques and mechanics attached to them. All are loosely themed around D&D archetypes. (note videos are long, but I'm showing them as I found them on one guy's channel and they show just how dynamic and numerous the actions of the characters are)
Fighter
Modeled after the classic fighter. He has standard beat em up move set, directional inputs for all his attacks, power move, special techniques for ranged, air, and ground attacks, and passive that further enhance these abilities. He also has elements of a Priest/Paladin from D&D as he had auras, quasi magical attacks, and the ability to counter magic. In the later patches of the game his move set was further expanded to include the ability to throw his weapon. His multi hitting combo attacks when attached to late game gear allows him to inflict devastating status ailments with a greater regularity than some of the other melee classes. All in all he's extremely fun, and probably the least interesting character in the game. Says a lot.
Amazon
She is the "advanced" fighter of the two pure melee characters. Filled with more technical inputs, a number of passive modes, changes of stance in the air, and numerous redundancies for mix ups. She is generally regarded as the "best" character, but it really depends on your play style. She has the most iframes of any character, and has more damage stacks by default than any of the others, too. Combined this with her speed up mechanic as she combos more and more, and you get the idea. She lays on the pain. You'll also note her lack of armor. This isn't really relevant in the later game where everybody dies from a few hits, but in the main arcade mode that means she takes much more damage than the Dwarf or the Fighter. Meaning you've got to stay on your toes and counter/dodge, and position yourself well or else die. Her along with the Sorceress is my personal favorite to play. Her design is rather visually striking. Taking bold presentation with a great deal of skin along with strong muscles to produce an entirely unique and captivating female character. A good role model in more ways than one.
Dwarf
Dwarf is the first of the hybrid characters he has spell like effects (limited use skills) and ranged options for his normal moves (throwing) that the Amazon and Fighter do not get. He also has slightly less move variety in direct up close moves lacking an air combo and second ground special. But, his throwing more than makes up for that. He also has several unique passives that allow him to boost his unarmed damage without the need of armor and increase his normal defense to make him almost invulnerable in the arcade move and somewhat able to tank in the post game. His limited use abilities are bombs and explosives that are like weaker version of the Wizard and Sorceress spells, again encapsulating his role as a hybrid between the two play styles.
Elf
The second of the two hybrid characters. She has a bow, quick combos, and strange elemental themed magic system for her charged combo normals that give her possibly the widest range of standard options out of the six characters. Her combos resupply her bow, and her elemental magic allows for more defensive spacing and offense giving her a constant around the clock action economy and ability to deliver damage no matter the situation. Post game her melee can be somewhat lackluster, but is still viable if built correctly. She also gets unique items and weapon usage allowing her to stealth kill/sneak attack enemies facing away from her. Her bow works a great deal like the spell casters magic system without the stamina gauge mechanic, instead operating off an ammo system. She is a fan favorite for a reason. Probably the hardest character to use in the entire cast initially. With the Fighter earning that dubious honor in post game.
Part 2 Incoming (as soon as somebody posts so I can post it, 10 thousand character limit got
meh)
