The world of Hydeland, where a mysterious ancient relic known as the Dragon Crown lies trapped in dangerous labyrinths, ancient catacombs, and long forgotten ruins. Despite its dangers, a coven of magic-users with influence in the highest levels of government seek to retrieve the legendary treasure for their own sinister purpose. As one of six different adventurers, players must embark on an epic quest to retrieve the relic by fighting in the style of classic beat ‘em up games and acquiring loot through repeated dungeon exploration.
The game was developed by Vanillaware and published in Japan and North America by Atlus and in PAL regions by NIS America. A high-definition port, dubbed dragon's crown pro, was released for PlayStation 4 in 2018.
Director and lead artist George Kamitami had been planning to create Dragon’s Crown since at least 1997, soon after his work on the Sega Saturn game Princess Crown. Following the success of Vanillaware’s Odin Sphere and Muramasa: The Demon Blade, the company restarted the project. It was initially published by UTV Ignition Entertainment, but the publisher’s withdrawal from the industry forced the team to find a new partner.
Hitoshi Sakimoto composed and co-arranged the music for the game, which features a wide range of inspirations, including the PC video game series Wizardry; Ian Livingstone’s game books; and fantasy arcade video games such as The Tower of Druaga and Golden Axe. According to the soft-cover Dragon’s Crown Artworks book (only available for a limited time with pre-orders of the game), Kamitami made a conscious effort to pay tribute to all the sources of inspiration in the final product.
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