Dragon's Crown Casts a Spell on PS3 and Vita Next Week

Bad art is a kid scrawling in crayons, though it can still make a parent weep. However, seeing one hyper-sensationalized instance of tits makes a man's skill, honed over more than 20 years, not worth consideration or admiration?

Happy you're only representative of about 5%, an unappreciative crowd who cannot discern art from simple dimensions patterned into something your brain forces you to recognize as shapes.

I am amazed at how immature the community is here, desperately crawling over one another to decry this game as some kind of bastion of perversion. If you don't like the sorceress, there's five other characters you can use. It's not like she's wobbling her tits in front of you from start to finish.

Aside from that, it's incredibly misinformed to imply that this game is pandering when each character represents a different body type (chubby, muscular, svelte, bishonen, etc.) and character designs are heavily inspired by classical fantasy. But I forgot, it's the 21st century and any depiction of sexuality, male or female, is instantly bad.

Even Kotaku's review told people to chill the fuck out over the character designs. Kotaku.

In all my years here, I don't think I've been more embarrassed by a (seemingly) large portion of the community on this site. When did Giant Bomb shift from a lighthearted, fun-loving gaming community to a group of angry, alarmist-nazis obsessing over the most insignificant crap?

Every single time I see this game mentioned on this site lately, strangely, the conversation always turns into some shade of "OMFG BOOBS ARE SHAMEFUL!!!". This is even more disheartening than seeing all the whining over furries in regards to Dust: An Elysian Tail -- another great game some overlooked for a very dumb reason. All the harshly-overreactive "this art style is for horny young teens and we all need to feel offended over this!" comments are far more shameful and immature than any pervy boys you "want to believe" this game was designed for.

You know it's bad when the rest of the internet seems far more grown-up and rational than those on this site, who are oddly transfixed and enraged over a harmless pair of digital breasts. Some of you really need to put your priorities in order.

Oh yeah -- back to what I came here for: video games! This game looks fantastic. It looks far deeper than just about any beat'em up out there; I'd sooner classify this as an action RPG. I've thoroughly enjoyed both Odin Sphere and Muramasa (in regards to both deep enjoyable gameplay and beautifully-unique art style), so I'm certain this won't disappoint. One of the few games I've pre-ordered in a long time.

nobody ever lost money underestimating the taste of the American public.

I dig Vanillaware's games and I'll pick this up. I hope it doesn't depend solely on the co-op aspect to be fun, but I enjoyed the combat in their previous games, so I'm not too worried.

I don't think its supposed to be sexy, its supposed to be silly and hyper exaggerated

Personally I like the look. In a way it reminds me of old fantasy art, like a cartoonist doing Frank Frazetta. Unfortunately the gameplay does nothing for me, as far as I can tell

Show me more of that dancing magic mouse!

You might want to go a bit deeper and explain what exactly is wrong with said boxart.

@nerolus said:

Man, this comment just makes me depressed that DFO got shut down.

Same here. Odin Sphere and Muramasa looked great but I don't like this at all.

That Amazon animation is why I don't like female body builders.

It's not a good sign when all I can think about during your trailer is whether it'd make for passable "material."

And hey, that's partially on me. But look at the recent Bioshock DLC trailer: it also featured a physically attractive woman, yet still managed to provoke actual cognitive function. At a certain point, stubborn juvenility ceases to be challenging or unexpected. At a certain point, it's just pandering.

Can't find a UK release date for this game dammit.

I don't know about sexual politics but this is the type of creepy weirdo shit I wouldn't show my girlfriend. So I guess I'll try it out in secret.

@johntunoku said:

Well for one, this makes Bayonetta look like she belongs in a convent. I don't mind saying that this kind of art style puts me off. I'd rather video games not do this shit. But I'm also not going to ignore a good game like Bayonetta because of it, and I think that goes for most people.

This title is way more niche than Bayonetta, and I think most of the people put off by the art style (myself included) probably wouldn't have played it in the first place.

Not your dads Golden Axe.

I'll let the first two minutes of this video sum up why I am a little bit... put off by the art design.

That being said kudos to Atlus for making a game that does seem to draw favorable remarks from gaming sites.

As a straight male, I love me some good looking tits but goddamn... those are... a bit much. I feel bad for her actually, not living in a period of proper bras to support them and what not or a possible breast reduction. Game actually looks fun though... I'm interested now.

I would so make a game like this with male characters who have massive bulges.

Yeah, my thoughts exactly. There's nothing "sexy" about this.

Bayonetta was hyper sexualized to the extent of a Barbie doll for both gameplay aesthetics (her punchin' n kickin') and because it was tongue in cheek presentation. Everyone was in on the joke in that game.

The Boob Witch you see here is not in the same context. And I'm not a hardcore feminist by any means, but this is past the line of unreasonable. It's in the same vein as pantie shots and other creepy sexualized stuff, not joking or wink and a nudge.

And stuff like Gears or God of War with respects to dude anatomy are also made fun of; bro's got canned ham arms and can twirl backwards like a figure skater. PHYSICS NO WURK LEIK THAT?!

:P

Boobs are a ok. But this looks like 90's Rob Liefeld art and that's not good.

Yeah! Fuck big boobs you guys!

I had no idea everyone on Giant Bomb was an armchair feminist activist.

Big boobs on idealized women are a thing. The sorcerer's ones are more exaggerated then they normally are to be sure, but is it really that big of a deal?

I worry these people might be the same sort who glossed over Bayonetta because the sexuality of it made them uncomfortable. A real shame, because it was totally tongue in cheek and Bayonetta is probably the best character action game ever made.

Because hating making women sexy is progressive and stuff.

Why does all commentary on this game have to be about sexism instead of the actual gameplay?

@andorski: i know right , the best we can manage is playing super high res muramasa in a wii emulator

Look up some Hitomi Tanaka videos and get back to me.

So this is basically Dungeon Fighter?

Some people are grossed out by the art style. That's their opinion. Why does it piss you off so much? If you really want the game, vote with your wallet and buy it. If you don't, then don't. I don't understand why everyone has a problem with people having their own opinions and expressing them.

Breast Shaming at its finest. No wonder Giantbomb suffers from gender deficiency.

@icantbestopped: I applaud you for your efforts in attempting to counter factually what appears to me as empty criticism, but I kinda feel like trying to find real-world examples of women that come close to the extreme dimensions of imaginary, heavily stylized and super-exaggerated necro-witch ladies unintentionally helps to legitimize what pretty much amounts to a red-herring, plain and simple.

Why are people so concerned when a cartoon art style (which very clearly makes no attempt at depicting honest-to-goodness realism) doesn't line up with reality? Why does it have to? Why is it a bad or undesirable thing if it doesn't?

I fully agree there can be good reasons/matters of personal preference for not liking the art-style based on social attitudes towards sex, objectification, and what-have-you (which everyone is entitled to), but the whole "unrealistic" thing (as if that is some sort of measure of worth or quality when it comes to videogames and their art-styles or just art in general), just misses the forest for the trees.

The game isn't going for hard-realism or naturalism. To judge it based on what it's NOT would be like judging a surrealist-era Picasso by the standards of Classical Greek.

The people who are out of their depth playing Internet Psychologist/Diagnosis, implying and assigning some negative character trait to people who find the sum totality of this particular art-style or game (see: everything else but just the tits and ass that make up a small percentage of all, ahem, "assets") need to quickly get over themselves and the amount of stock they put into their "powers" of divination.

Vanillaware needs to start releasing games on PC god dammit.

Bullshit aside... Her boobs look awful! They are kinda thin and too long. I blame the lame art style.

I take it you didn't read. That's okay. Kate Upton was used as an example of the physics of a naturally well endowed woman in motion, not as an analogue to sorceress' breast size. In fact, I think I specifically mentioned she wasn't as big as the other examples listed. Nice meme, by the way.

Sorry mate, but the boob-to-head ratio is not even remotely close. Kate Upton has a bigger head than her boob, no "skinny" woman with naturals can has. You fail.

I am appreciating this fount of boob knowledge right now.

I'm a big fan of sexy animated female, but I can't stand looking at the big ass&titties here

Not white knighting, I just find it unnecessary. How 'bout dis: I don't like this art style because it may be art with a style, but no class.

Jasmine Black and Natasha Nice, and that other guy's listed example all have small waists. It's not inconceivable.

There's nothing unnatural about it, except perhaps the exaggerated physics.

One Word: CONAN

Anyone else notice that the sorceress isn't the only character in the game? While some of the character design doesn't appeal to me personally, the general art in this game looks good, as has the other vanillaware games. Odin Sphere was a good game, and while I haven't played it, I've heard good things about Muramasa, so I trust that this will be a good game as well.

There is a huge difference between the sexualization and the objectification of women. In many cases, they can be related, but they are not the same thing. Often, the objectification isn't a malicious intention of the artist or creator - it's a reflex to a larger societal problem of extremes. I certainly wouldn't believe that the artist's intent was malicious here, even though I personally think it's rather gross and pervy.

But hey, I'm not a female, and I don't care enough to get actual insight about the game, so I'll just say "no thanks".

I suppose thats one way to look at it, i'v just never cared much for it personally, same with MMO's where the guys are wearing heavy steel and the women all wear lingerie looking stuff. Its not that i have a issue with the style, its that the style usually doesn't fit the rest of the game.

The meat heads in Gears of War seem appropriate to me, same with the huge boobs and tiny bathing suits in DOA (the volleyball games, not the fighters), but for a game that has combat i think its off putting and takes you out of the experience to have half naked characters.

@lordofultima: You're right. I was generalizing a bit. I think this game seems okay. I think charging $50 for a side scrolling beat 'em up seems like they're either incredibly optimistic or they are sending this game to die. I hope this game is amazing but judging from the track record of most beat 'em ups they are not worth that grand of a price tag.

It's an artstyle, nothing more, nothing less. It's like complaining about the dudes in Gears of War. They're big and bulky with arms the size of tree trunks, but it's an artstyle. If they had only said something about the artstyle, then that would've been fine, but no, they had to add the "teenage boy mentality" thing to it, as if they're any better than that.

Naming my Dwarf, "Million Abs"

Huh, it has nothing to do with chivalry, i like big tits as much as the next guy, but come on... those things are fucking ridiculous, what dose that add to the game?

Lol.