Dragon's Crown Pro

You don't hear it brought up very often, but 2013 was a spectacular year for old school beat 'em ups. In the span of only a few months, we got Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara, Charlie Murder, Foul Play, Final Exam and, of course, Dragon's Crown. Lately it feels like 2018 is shaping up to be another strong year for the genre, as we've seen with games like Wulverblade, Raging Justice and Coffee Crisis. And just like five years ago, Dragon's Crown is here to lead the charge with a brand updated port for the PlayStation 4. Spoiler alert: It's just as good as it was in 2013.

Dragon's Crown Pro feels like the Golden Axe sequel Sega should have made. It's a heavily stylized old school brawler that sees a bunch of warriors and magicians fight an army of fantasy monsters in an attempt to collect a series of relics and slay a mysterious dragon. The hacking and slashing is sewn together with a twisted little plot full of mischievous characters and castle intrigue.

Vanillaware has taken a genre known for its simplicity and expanded it in every way possible. It's the kind of beat 'em up where you'll spend more than a dozen hours upgrading and perfecting a hero, only to turn around and do the whole thing over again with somebody else. Where other brawlers become repetitive after multiple plays, I never got bored of the frantic gameplay and collectible loot in Dragon's Crown. This is the evolution to the genre many of us were waiting for.

The game is split into nine different locations set around the fictional world of Hydeland. That may not sound like a lot, but Dragon's Crown is surprisingly good at finding creative ways to expand the adventure. There's a point where the game will open up and give you new paths through the existing levels. These are completely different stages that come with brand new boss fights. And when you're not taking these separate paths, you'll take on a bunch of side-quests that will see you replaying the old levels. It will take you a good fifteen or sixteen hours to complete the game, and that's not even including the fun of testing out the different characters.

On that note, I like that the different fighters aren't just carbon copies of one another. The elf, for example, feels nothing like the wizard, and the gear you collect and upgrades you dole out are also completely different. Even though I was able to download my five year old save data from the PS Vita and PlayStation 3 versions, I still wanted to see the adventure through a different set of eyes.

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This is an absurd game, and nowhere is that more noticeable than the character designs. Dragon's Crown is the kind of game that makes the Dead or Alive franchise look realistic. The art design reminds me of the fantasy comic books I saw as a kid, complete with a bikini-clad Amazon fighter and a sorceress who probably has a hard time shopping for bras. Personally, I like how memorable these characters are, but I can certainly understand people being put-off by the, shall we say, generous proportions.

The truth is, I love the way this game looks. Forget the heroes for a moment, the world Vanillaware has constructed is stunning in both its detail and design. There's a nice variety of stages to play and eighteen incredible boss fights, all of which look like they were hand-painted on my television. Best of all, the already incredible visuals look better than ever in this brand new 4K version.

Unfortunately, that's largely the only substantial change to Dragon's Crown Pro. If you were hoping for new stages, quests or bosses to fight, then prepare to be disappointed. What we get is a newly-recorded soundtrack and some extra voice options, and that's about it. The good news is that you can transfer your saves between the three consoles and even fight online with people on both the PlayStation 3 and PS Vita, but it would have been cool to see some extra content added to this version.

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Because this PS4 game is practically identical, it suffers from all of the problems that plagued the original release. Probably the worst hold-over is everything related to collecting treasure. Instead of just picking stuff up, we use the right analog stick to drag a cursor around the screen and tell your trusty companion to investigate. This involves everything from finding hidden gems to opening doors to unlocking treasure chests. This is the kind of thing that works well with the PS Vita's touchscreen, but has never been very good with a standard controller. While not a deal-breaker, I wish Vanillaware would have phased it out of this release.

Even though it doesn't have much in the way of new content, Dragon's Crown Pro shines on the PlayStation 4. This is a brawler that evolves the genre in a lot of important ways, and the gorgeous visuals haven't aged a day. Fans who already own the game on the PlayStation 3 and PS Vita may not see much reason to upgrade, but if you're into old school brawlers and somehow missed out on the original release, then Dragon's Crown Pro is an absolute must-play.