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| John McCarroll |
The next side-scroller from Vanillaware and Ignition.
06.09.11 - 11:27 PM
Dragon's Crown wasn't a title that was on our radar - in fact, before Tuesday, I wasn't even aware that Vanillaware was working on a title that wasn't Grand Knights History. However, this PS3 and PS Vita title has come out of nowhere to surprise - and it's going to appeal to not only Vanillaware fans, but fans of the old-school Dungeons and Dragons arcade games. Why these games? For those who don't know, Vanillaware founder George Kamitani worked on these two arcade titles when he was at Capcom, and Dragon's Crown isn't the same type of anime-styled titles that Odin Sphere and Muramasa were - they're instead modeled after Western artwork like Heavy Metal. Ignition's Shane Bettenhausen told us that Kamitani has been kicking around this concept for thirteen years and actually initially planned it for release on the Dreamcast. Japanese publishers weren't interested in the title - Ignition is actually publishing the title in Japan, as well. Unfortunately, the game wasn't yet playable, seeing as it was just announced, but we had a chance to chat with Bettenhausen and see a trailer of the game.
Dragon's Crown is a side-scrolling 4-player co-op title (both local and online), so fans of so-called "Conveyor Belt" arcade games should feel right at home, but the title will feature six classes, quests and an experience system. Unfortunately, there aren't a great amount of other details; we know that the graphics are the same hand-drawn visuals, but for the first time, a Vanillaware game will be in HD. There will also be some interoperability between the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita iterations of the game, although there aren't any details about this at this time. The title is slated for release in Spring of 2012 and Ignition actually has been working with Vanillaware closely on the title, so we're excited to see how this one turns out. You can check out the trailer and screenshots for the game below, and keep your eyes peeled to RPGFan for more information on this title as it nears its release date.
