(Winner of Eye Candy Award for best visual aesthetics, speech below)
With the release of next gen consoles, 4k TVs, and a whole new slew of technical buzzwords, most people think that “visual aesthetics” is a synonym for graphics. Dragon’s Crown proves that association to be false.
The signature Vanillaware, George Kamitani 2D artstyle is in full force, the likes we’ve admired before in Odin Sphere and Muramasa. Hand-drawn visuals are used for a majority of the game’s content, displaying a grandiose world with statuesque heroes and titanic bosses. The exaggerated artstyle brings the high-fantasy world to life, dropping any notion of realism and instead embracing the otherworldly stylings of a Dungeons and Dragons style adventure. By using traditional art assets that enthrall the player and envelop them within the world of the game, Dragon’s Crown shows that strikingly impressive visual aesthetics will always be more important than graphical prowess, and takes /v/’s pick for Eye Candy Award of 2013.
(Winner of Plot and Backstory Award, speech below)
Finding a respectable female protagonist in modern vidya is a difficult task. Thankfully, Dragon’s Crown gives you three. With the Amazon’s raw strength, the Elf’s nimble perseverance, and the Sorceress' bountiful spells, players have a choice of female characters known for more than just their sexuality or gender. None of them are fragile escorts or overbearing, independent women, but are valuable members of the party system, with capable combat skills and… assets. Ample backstories add to their presence as characters, all reflective of the game’s party characters right down to each NPC, stimulating the player’s enjoyment of the game.
All jokes aside, this game gives you female protagonists befitting the grandiose fantasy style larger-than-life world that enhance the experience rather than detract from it. Instead of offering cardboard cliches or lectures on sexuality, Dragon’s Crown represents women as characters who are fully capable, and it deserves praise for embracing women instead of castrating or covering them up. The game represents women just as they are - curvy, capable, and characters worth playing as. Dragon’s Crown takes /v/’s pick for Plot and Backstory Award for 2013.
And it happens to have pendulous breasts, too!
(Winner of /v/irgin Award for best new IP, speech below)
Let’s be honest - Dragon’s Crown is an odd pick for “Best New IP”. On paper, it’s the kind of high fantasy multiplayer beat-em-up you would expect from a 90’s arcade game only with added character progression. And yet we haven’t really had anything like that SINCE the 90’s, and Dragon’s Crown is bringing it back and kicking it up to 11, adding drop-in online co-op and beautifully hand-drawn visuals that ooze with so much style and gratuitous sex appeal that one disgusting male player was driven into a bestial fit of violent sex-crazed rage after viewing so many objectifying depictions of women, he was reported to have gotten up from his chair after playing the game and forcibly violating every woman in a five mile radius, securing the status quo of the patriarchy and its prevailing rape culture for at least another decade. We thank you, Dragon’s Crown, and future generations men and boys will remember what you have done for us. All hail the patriarch broodfather.
With the release of next gen consoles, 4k TVs, and a whole new slew of technical buzzwords, most people think that “visual aesthetics” is a synonym for graphics. Dragon’s Crown proves that association to be false.
The signature Vanillaware, George Kamitani 2D artstyle is in full force, the likes we’ve admired before in Odin Sphere and Muramasa. Hand-drawn visuals are used for a majority of the game’s content, displaying a grandiose world with statuesque heroes and titanic bosses. The exaggerated artstyle brings the high-fantasy world to life, dropping any notion of realism and instead embracing the otherworldly stylings of a Dungeons and Dragons style adventure. By using traditional art assets that enthrall the player and envelop them within the world of the game, Dragon’s Crown shows that strikingly impressive visual aesthetics will always be more important than graphical prowess, and takes /v/’s pick for Eye Candy Award of 2013.
(Winner of Plot and Backstory Award, speech below)
Finding a respectable female protagonist in modern vidya is a difficult task. Thankfully, Dragon’s Crown gives you three. With the Amazon’s raw strength, the Elf’s nimble perseverance, and the Sorceress' bountiful spells, players have a choice of female characters known for more than just their sexuality or gender. None of them are fragile escorts or overbearing, independent women, but are valuable members of the party system, with capable combat skills and… assets. Ample backstories add to their presence as characters, all reflective of the game’s party characters right down to each NPC, stimulating the player’s enjoyment of the game.
All jokes aside, this game gives you female protagonists befitting the grandiose fantasy style larger-than-life world that enhance the experience rather than detract from it. Instead of offering cardboard cliches or lectures on sexuality, Dragon’s Crown represents women as characters who are fully capable, and it deserves praise for embracing women instead of castrating or covering them up. The game represents women just as they are - curvy, capable, and characters worth playing as. Dragon’s Crown takes /v/’s pick for Plot and Backstory Award for 2013.
And it happens to have pendulous breasts, too!
(Winner of /v/irgin Award for best new IP, speech below)
Let’s be honest - Dragon’s Crown is an odd pick for “Best New IP”. On paper, it’s the kind of high fantasy multiplayer beat-em-up you would expect from a 90’s arcade game only with added character progression. And yet we haven’t really had anything like that SINCE the 90’s, and Dragon’s Crown is bringing it back and kicking it up to 11, adding drop-in online co-op and beautifully hand-drawn visuals that ooze with so much style and gratuitous sex appeal that one disgusting male player was driven into a bestial fit of violent sex-crazed rage after viewing so many objectifying depictions of women, he was reported to have gotten up from his chair after playing the game and forcibly violating every woman in a five mile radius, securing the status quo of the patriarchy and its prevailing rape culture for at least another decade. We thank you, Dragon’s Crown, and future generations men and boys will remember what you have done for us. All hail the patriarch broodfather.