The Dragon’s Crown is a legendary artifact that allows its bearer to control any dragon. The king of Hydeland has become obsessed with it and many adventurers have gone in a quest to find it. The game is set in a medieval fantasy world and has all 2D graphics, with a 3D depth. It has an exaggerated anatomy (such as big bouncing breasts and wide hips on females and exaggerated muscles resulting in a V-shape on male warriors, etc.) aesthetics. Rather than having dialogues, all of the game’s story is narrated. The player controls a character chosen from one of six classes: Amazon, Fighter, Elf, Dwarf, Wizard and Sorceress. The characters have a few customization options: name, color palette, voice language, and the player can input text to create phrases for the characters to say when they are selected, meet another player, get defeated or are resurrected. Each class has its own set of skills and equipment. Some of these classes, like Dwarf and Sorceress, are made for more experienced players.
The town serves as a hub where different areas such as the Temple, the Adventurers Guild and the Castle can be accessed for different purposes. Exiting the town leads to the outside of Hydeland, where different levels, in which the player fights hordes of enemies in side-scrolling action until the area’s boss is defeated, can be accessed. Loots and experience are rewarded after clearing a dungeon. The loot must be identified at Morgan’s Magic Item Shop before equipping them. More locations, both in town and outside, unlock as the story progress. To go on quests, the player can be accompanied by up to three other adventurers, that can be AI controlled or controlled by other players, both online or offline. An additional character, a rogue by the name of Rannie, follows the adventurers in dungeons and helps with locked doors, chests and items hidden in the background. The player will sometimes stumble upon a pile of bones. These remains of fallen adventurers can be brought to Canaan Temple to be resurrected them or buried. The resurrected adventurers are the NPCs that will accompany the player, and they can be selected at the Dragon’s Haven Inn. They must be reselected before each quest.
The main story line consists of gathering talismans that will allow the hero to be strong enough to fight an ancient dragon. Once the dragon is defeated, a new difficulty level is unlocked. In harder modes, the character’s level cap is higher and all talisman quests must be redone in order to fight an even stronger dragon. Defeating the dragon in each difficulty level restores one of the goddess statues.
In the Adventurers Guild, requests can be taken. These request bestow experience and monetary rewards, as well as artwork shown in the game’s gallery. The requests are completed by achieving certain prerequisites while revisiting the completed dungeons. The Guild is also where the player will learn new skills and view the gallery.
Even though save files can be transferred from PS3 to PSVita and vice-versa, the game did not originally support cross-platform play. The feature was however added through an update.