I recommend you Dragon´s Crown

[Hammerskjold]

Did you see what Disney did to the "princess" from the movie Brave?

I haven't seen the movie proper, yet, though I definitely want to.
I did hear of the uproar over the re-design for the 'Princess' line.

That attempted re-design, hits a little too close to home for me. Aside from the issues already mentioned, it's also the creator's rights issue.

http://www.marinij.com/ci_23224741

While I never had to deal with a situation on the same scale as Brenda Chapman, I did experience similar issues a couple of times myself.

I don't work for or at the House of Mouse. But my hunch says the 'Disney Princess' stuff is a marketing\marketing exec decision.

The actual artist(s) that did the work on both the original and attempted re-design, probably had little to no say in the matter. Chapman actually worked there, and from the info on the link seemed to confirm some of my hunches.





To Jester,

Maybe I'm over-reading this, but surely the problem is that presents a very stereotyped and restrictive image to young girls, rather than that some of the poses might be provocative? I don't think "don't be provocative" is a lesson I care to teach young girls. I don't want to send the message that male sexuality is something they provoke, and should be careful to avoid.

Not at all what I'm trying to communicate, I wrote 'elementary grade -persons-' for a reason. I'd have the same concern if it was a male child.

Personally my emphasis is on the awareness, context, and meaning part. Kid's don't necessarily have the fully developed mental defenses, or life experiences to fully process what is being marketed towards them. (As shoju's young progeny demonstrated however, their ability to sense that something might be 'off' are usually pretty good.)

For what it's worth, yeah I happen to agree that a lesson of 'don't be provocative' aimed exclusively at girls is a lesson not worth teaching. I'd go so far as saying it's actually dangerous.

From what I've experienced myself in this 3d world of ours unfortunately, I'd also have no qualms in saying that in our 3d realm. There are places, humanoids, and situations where simply being female is enough of a provocation. And that ugly side of our world, don't always exist in a static location.

Me saying those things, does -not- mean I condone, or promote them.

I am far more concerned about uncritical, hypersexualized portrayals of women in games, and the effect that has on men and men's opinions about women and sex. That worries me more for 21 year old men than 10 year old boys.

After my last job encountering many people and humanoid shaped creatures from all range including age, gender, social and economic spectrum. Many of them involving way too much 'muh cheese mo' and 'u dissing me?!' situations, including one actual serious comment of '..pfft..wimmen can't be cops..' I gotta say.

Vidyas probably don't play that much of a part in shaping some of these troglodytic minds. At least IMO.





Anyhow. I finally did get a chance to have a longer game session at a friend's house. My friend doesn't really enjoy Diablo type games, he's more of a WoWarcraft guy.

So here's my gameplay and mechanics impression of the game.

Just a point on the graphics while actually playing it. Your char can sort of disappear when the combat is in full show. Literally. Sometimes there's so much crazy effects and action that there is a rare glitch where the sprite literally disappears for a second or two. The other is chars can sometimes get obscured by the spell\skill effects and actions.

Otherwise, it usually does it's job nicely IMO contrasting between the lovely environment art.

The core gameplay\combat, is faithful to it's roots. So much so that all that's missing is an arcade cabinet.

It's basically a Capcom style 2d side brawler, with a dash of Diablo. There are some problems however. Some of them are fixed in the latest patch, some are not. IIRC the last patch is considered, the -final- patch of the game.

One thing that may be a deal breaker for some, is you have to -unlock- online mode. For a game released in 2013, this is IMO, seriously pants on head backward.

Set aside the art controversy for one second. Anyone wanting to have a big ammo to fire at DCrown -game- design, this one is it IMO.

Now I love that DCrown has local multiplayer. I love that it has online multi. I was floored that the final patch afaik, did not get rid of this 'play 2 unlock online' requirement.

The character gameplay, I found to be pretty much as it says on the box \ selection screen tips. Newbie friendly chars are Amazon, Fighter, and Dwarf. Basically the melee side of things. Advanced are the ranged side of things, Sorceress\witch, Wizard, and Elf archer.

In the actual gameplay, we had an AI controlled sorc, and she was basically wrecking monsters no problem. It definitely requires some practice, because at this point the AI controlled sorc is doing so much better than either of us. That's probably because for my friend, this game is not is really his thing and he's mostly just humoring me. I'm not an advanced level DCrown player, because I don't currently own a PS3.


Rune magic thingamabob system, not really that impressed with it. We were both confused if we needed to actually trace, or just tap the button, or what. After sorta figuring it out, I think it's not worth the gimmick IMO, and can be distracting when the real gameplay is in the combat action.

Item \gear equipping, is handled sequentially while on local multiplayer. That means players have to wait until the other player finishes inv management. This can either cement your friendships (it's just a game, is it really worth spending 5 minutes hemming and hawing while your friend is thumb twiddling?), or severely tests it. (Dude, if you're -really- my friend you'd let me OCD on this thing because I need to know if this bow is better than what I have, hold on let me look at the wikia page online..why are you shutting off the PS3?)

It can also be too faithful to an era, to a fault. Anyone who ever played 'Ghouls and Ghost' might remember when you first reach the last stage, you are sent back to repeat the levels. Because, you need this special thingamajig but mostly so we can say this game technically provides you with 40 hours of game play when in actuality it's really half that. And also, feed me quarters.

But you're ok with pallette swap monsters right, so this should be ok too. In other words, 'trollface.jpg', that's why. I loved playing Ghouls and Ghost. I get that this could possibly be a backhanded homage move to that era of gaming quirks as well.

But Srsly, Vanillaware\Kamitami, you dun pulled a mean one. This and the 'play 2 Unlock 4 online' is either a pants on head mistake, or you're pulling a Don Rickles on me.

With all that said, this is still a game that I personally would get, even with some hair pulling quirks, and possibly intentional Rickles style joke on the player, because I'm a fan of the oldskool 2d side brawlers. Really, all it needs is an arcade cabinet, and a surly guy manning the tokens \quarter booth. But definitely, YMMV.



Final comment to Bolty:

Anyway, cake rules. I think we can all agree on that.

Sure, I can and definitely agree to that. But...what's this about Lissa getting both pie -and- cakes?!?!