1Up interviewed Vanillaware’s George Kamitani about their upcoming PS3 PSVita title Dragon’s Crown.
The game is shaping up to be a spiritual successor of sorts to Capcom’s Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom arcade game–a game George worked on during his days at Capcom.
Gameplay is in a similar vein to Golden Axe, and those classic D&D arcade games. Players will battle their way through large monster and treasure laden mazes in the lush 2D watercolor like art style Vanillaware is know for (i.e. Odin Sphere, and Muramasa: The Demon Blade). The game won’t be a standard hack ‘n slasher as George hinted at RPG elements such as weapon durability, and players needing to decide if their party is leveled up enough to take on a boss. He described a scenario in which a red dragon boss is asleep atop a massive mound of treasure. Players can attempt to steal the treasure, causing the dragon to awaken and battle it there, or the team to try to escape to a bridge that can’t support the dragon’s weight causing it to fall. His idea is to have different ways to handle boss characters; even if the team as a whole isn’t strong enough to deal with the boss in a heads-up fight.
George didn’t go into detail about everything about the game, as details are still being worked out. The game is going to be for Playstation3 and PSVita (with cross play) with a launch set only as Spring 2012. Check out the E3 trailer on YouTube.
It is games like this that pay homage to the classic 2D gameplay that I remember so fondly that I crave. I can’t wait to play this game.
Image from 1Up.com.
