E3 2013: Vanillaware's Signature 2D Art Shines in Dragon's Crown

it's like the game is oppressing me through my computer screen

Me too, looks like harmless satire of all those fantasy book covers and D&D manuals.

Complaining about big breasts in an art style this wild is kind of strange. Pretty much all dangly bits are exaggerated here. No dangly bits spared!

I'm getting this, it looks visually stunning either way.

Jeez, has the recent sexism debates really made many of you this oversensitive in entertainment mediums in terms of sexism? There is a line between exaggerated art style and straight up sexist, but the art here shouldn't be considered offensive. It's beautiful and fun; I certainly don't mind playing a female character who's voluptuous design has been cranked up high. It fits these games with similar settings, and I'm sure the artist had fun creating all of their designs. The artist could be a girl too and I wouldn't be surprised, since my female friend also enjoys drawing/painting exaggerated female figures.

Pretty much this. Please acting all oversensitive over the smallest things. It's a cute design within a game filled with cool designs.

The artstyle is a really weird mix of anime and western fantasy. I like some of the look. But mostly, it just looks weird to me.

This game looks great in every video, but I need some E3 impressions badly.

I'm glad some people can see all the awesome stuff in these trailers and aren't blinded by their love or hatred of boobs.

Looks gorgeous. After the other Vanillaware games, I don't understand why this one is suddenly getting all the flak. Whatever. As someone who played the shit out of Muramasa, I'm eager enough to know how it *plays* to overlook the fact that it's the umpteenth game to present the female form in an extravagant and over-the-top fashion.

As long as these uproars about sexism and objectification do not also mean that the ideal man is apparently a ridiculously buff space marine with a voice of gravel, I can't contribute much to a serious discussion on the matter.

At a certain point, the only way to ascertain something like this is your gut, and this character art just... feels gross to me. It's trying to appeal through sex, and that's one of the least interesting things they could possibly do with what looks like a pretty damn enjoyable game.

Forget the whole sexism thing, I just think the Sorcerer's design is silly and dumb. I'm not offended, I just laughed my ass off when I saw the design and wrote it off as juvenile.

It looks like a fun game and I am thinking of picking it up, but come on. I showed the picture of the "Tit Witch" (as my friends and I have now dubbed her) to my friends and they pretty much had the same reaction. They laughed, shook their heads, and then speculated on the issues the character designer might have in his personal life. But they liked the look of the game and might pick it up as well.

There is a middle ground between being "OMG!! SEXISM!!!" and "YOU GUYS ARE PRUDES!! IT'S ARTISTIC!!!." And in that middle ground, you will hear the sound of my laughter. Cuz this shit be ridiculous.

I've never heard a good argument why a fictional character harms women, and certainly not one so dire it requires we 'clean' our media. Does a drawing have that much power? If they do, what do real actors and actresses do to us? What affect are violent video games having? I kinda thought we already concluded that our fiction wasn't rewriting our brains...

sex and sexuality is a very basic part of humanity that the west is goddamn terrified of. Eventually I hope that we'll come to terms with the fact that as long as people like sex, it's going to show up to some extent in our fiction... because our fiction is a place were we can have things without hurting anyone else. Wanting sex and appriciating a sexual form isn't unhealthy or morally wrong. In fact, I suspect the paranioa and denial we put ourselves through is far more awful to ourselves and others.

just my 2c

I can't believe someone would draw idealized forms of the human body....the monsters.

I support all of Vanillaware's designs because I believe in Freedom, American, and the Baby Jesus. That is all.

The dwarf/paladin are male power fantasies(muscular ripped beefcake). The amazon/sorceress are male sexual fantasies(scantily clad ass and titty monsters). This is not a hard concept to grasp.

I didn't realize this was getting a full disc release. I do like the fantasy art, DnD trappings, and old-school beat-em up vibe but everything about this product screams "downloadable title." The sorceress ain't even that hot. It's all about dat Amazon. She's got red lips, snakes in her eyes. Long legs, great thighs. I just find the character designs too ridiculous to take seriously but why would I want to? It's suppose to be a fun, stylish action game. Whatever, I use to get a chub from Jessica Rabbit. Does that make me some sort of sicko pervert? Yes! But at least I'm honest about it. And what is the deal with the dude holding a bag following the party through every level? Is he like the squires from Monty Python and the Holy Grail? If so where does he get the coconuts?

George Kamitani, Jen Zee and Paul Robertson are my favorite video game artists, their designs have personality, quirk and color. Robertson, mostly known for Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Wizorb and Mercenary Kings also animates pixel art breasts, monster cocks and gore. Oh no.

@captaininvictus:

I'm not sure it's so easy to typecast people... I know that the dwarf sure as hell isn't MY power fantasy... my power fantasy is the fantasy of Sherlock Holmes, of having a Machiavellian plan so consuming that physical power is irrelevant.

Likewise someone like the amazon or the sorceress CAN be a woman's power fantasy, and presumably you wouldn't tell them that they weren't allowed that.

Even if we assume they are exactly as you say, and pandering exclusively to males, I still haven't really heard why having a power fantasy and/or sexual appeal in fiction is morally wrong.

Why would I want to unlock gorgeous art that can't become my desktop?

They shied away from showing the sorceress or amazon much in the trailer, even hiding them behind other characters but they still show a mermaid with a human ass! Well, they're committed to making the game they want to make, I guess. I'm even kinda interested in the idea behind the game mechanics for the Vita but I don't like feeling like a perv for buying a game.

The art style looks pretty, but man, the animations seem to be all over the place, in terms of characters' and monsters' framerate.