Online Matchmaking in Dragon's Crown

Last night, I unlocked online co-op in Vanillaware’s lush brawler RPG, Dragon’s Crown. I honestly didn’t know this was a thing. I knew that it supported four player co-op, but I assumed it was either local or with friends. The option to either join random games or have random players join your game is really cool, and suddenly makes the game much more vibrant.

What really surprised me was that there were other people playing on the Vita. It didn’t take any time to find a quest to join, and I had other players joining my quests every time. What’s neat is that the other players bring their localization with them; their characters will either talk in English or Japanese. Even wilder, they bring with them some of their dead.

Dragon’s Crown has a feature where you find the remains of previous adventurers in the dungeons. You can bring them back to town, and resurrect them at the temple, and then later recruit them as AI party members. And if the remains were from a Japanese player, then the resurrected AI will use the Japanese localization. So then in your game, you’ll have party members running around yelling things in Japanese. Pretty cool.

I’m still getting the hang of the game. It’s pretty much a button-masher for me right now, though I’m starting to get the nuances of the control. Part of it is an effort not to look like an idiot in front of the strangers I’m playing with, but I have trouble keeping track of my character. The brawl in the middle of the screen is a horrible muddle, and I’m having trouble seeing what’s going on. I’m playing a melee character because that’s what’s recommended for new players, but I’m thinking about starting one of the more ranged characters, just so that I can keep out of the fray and see what’s going on better.

I was already having fun with Dragon’s Crown. The over the top art helps set the tone, and the gameplay itself is fun, if confusing. It’s basically a cycle of about 10 minutes of action questing, and then back to town to sort your loot, equip new stuff, repair, repeat. It’s a great break that can either be played in small doses, or long sessions. And once you get into it, it’s kind of addicting.