Princess Crown

n/a

Princess Crown
System(s): Sega Saturn
Publisher: Atlus
Developer: Atlus
Sound driver: SCSP/CD-DA (17 tracks)
Genre: Action RPG, RPG
Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code JP 1997-12-11 ¥5,800 (6,090)5,800e T-14418G JP (Satakore) 1998-12-10 ¥2,8002,800 T-14425G JP ▼ 2020-01-31
Non-Sega versions PlayStation Portable

Princess Crown (プリンセスクラウン) is an action RPG for the Sega Saturn. The game has been praised for its art design and animation.

Story

In the fantasy kingdom of Valendia, the warrior queen Elfaran de Valendia defeats an evil demon who sought royal blood to resurrect its master Lalva.

Twenty-five years later, Elfaran's thirteen-year-old daughter Gradriel ascends to the throne. After hearing of problems across Valendia, she sneaks out of her castle to help her people in person. During her journey, she is confronted by multiple demons and runs into three other characters on her journey: the knight Edward Glowstar, the noble pirate Portgus, and the mischievous witch-in-training Proserpina.

Gameplay

Town and battle

Princess Crown is a two-dimensional, side-scrolling action role-playing game. It is initially played as Gradriel, the young Queen of Valendia. After completing her game, the player unlocks additional adventures featuring the three supporting characters from the story. The four stories occur concurrently and cross over at certain points. The character walks with or and dashes with or . The character crouches and picks up items with . The player can open the item ring with , which is a rotating list of items that the character can grab and use in town or in battle. Items include food items that are eaten to replenish health and expendable attack items such as elemental jewels. Opening the item ring pauses combat, but consuming an item takes time and leaves the character vulnerable to attack.

The game world is navigated using linear paths connecting towns and dungeons. The character enters doorways and stairwells with and interacts with NPCs with . The player can open the item inventory with , which allows the player to move items between the item ring (the active inventory) and longer term storage, and can open a map of the overworld with . During exploration in towns, characters can purchase items using gold attained from battles. Armor and accessories can be equipped that increase character statistics, ranging from raising attack power to healing the player character. Consumable items are stored in the inventory. Items include seeds, which can be planted in battle to yield ingredients that can be used to restore character health. Ingredients can also be cooked and turned into meals, which offer a greater health boost to characters.

Combat is divided into normal battles triggered by random encounters while navigating the roads and dungeon environments and boss battles tied to story events. Battles are played similar to a beat-'em-up game. While many normal battles are against a single enemy, sometimes multiple enemies appear in a single battle. Each character has a familiar who delivers the character's weapon at the start of the battle and occasionally contributes by hitting an enemy. The character jumps with . The character attacks with . Multiple attacks can be chained into a combination attack by pressing repeatedly, or the character can charge up a greater blow by holding . The character can perform a dash attack with + and can also attack in midair. Attacking or blocking consumes Power. The Power gauge starts half-full. Depleting the Power gauge leaves the character vulnerable to attack; standing idle or walking replenishes the Power gauge. The character blocks attacks with a shield by holding the D-Pad away from the enemy. The character can dodge enemy attacks with , which raises a menu that allows the player to choose, using the D-Pad, whether to sidestep in either direction or backstep to avoid the attack. When downed, the character can perform a rising attack with +. The character gains experience from combat, which may raise his or her experience level, increasing the character's health and attack power. Enemies drop a treasure chest when defeated, containing items and gold coins.

The game ends if the character is felled in battle and must be continued from the last save point.

Characters

	Gradriel de Valendia (グラドリエル・ド・ヴァレンディア)
	The youngest daughter of the Valendia royal family and the newly appointed queen. She decides to venture out of her castle to help her subjects. Her familiar is the fairy Aria (アーリア).
	Proserpina (プロセルピナ)
	A trouble-making witch who is kidnapping children to turn into animals. Her familiar is the goblin Gabriel (ガブリエル).
	Edward Glowstar (エドワード・グロースター)
	A dragon-slaying knight. His familiar is the diminutive dragon Ignis (イグニス).
	Portgus Chrisford (ポートガス・クリスフォード)
	A one-eyed, one-legged pirate. A master swordsman who steals from the rich to give to the poor. His familiar is the toucan Drake (ドレイク).

Versions

The game was ported to the PlayStation Portable in 2005. A PlayStation 4 version, based on the PlayStation Portable port, was included with first print copies of the game 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim in Japan. Like the Saturn release, neither of these versions were released outside Asia.

Director George Kamitani founded the company Vanillaware, which developed the spiritual successors Odin Sphere, released for the PlayStation 2 in 2007, and Muramasa: The Demon Blade, released for the Wii in 2009. The game Dragon's Crown, released for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita in 2013, was originally started as a Dreamcast sequel to Princess Crown.

Production credits

• Total Design & Main Planning: George Kamitani
• Action Block Planning: Chikahito Ikami
• Rpg Block & Monster Planning: Masanari Maki, Masaki Oka
• Scenario Wright & Villagers Set: Hitomi Fukaumi
• Scenario Wright & Event Design: Shigeo Komori
• Event Dramatize Edit: Masahiro Maeda, Yoshikazu Nishikawa
• Main Program & System Planning: Tetsuya Ikawa
• Motion Edit Tool & Monster Program: Takashi Nishii
• Monster Program Assistant: Seiji Narita, Masahide Yamasaki
• Event Dramatize Program: Hitoshi Tatemoto
• Program Assistant: Toshiya Morishima, Masahiro Kobayashi
• Character Design & Animation Edit: Kawazuine Shioya, Satomi Iwasaki, Kouichiro Miyanaga, Chikahito Ikami, Masahiro Maeda, Yoshikazu Nishikawa, Nana Ishiguro, Haruhiko Morita
• Design Work: Yuka Nakai, George Kamitani
• World Design & 3D Modeling: Goro Yamawaki, Makoto Shirato
• Stage Design: Wataru Yagi, Yoshiko Yamasaki
• Stage Design Assistant: Haruhiko Morita, Ayako Nakamura
• Sound Effect & Music Compose: Toshikazu Tanaka
• Bug Check: Takatoshi Akiyama, Kazuhito Aragane, Fumio Furukawa, Tomonari Saitou, Hiroshi Nagahata, Hidekazu Fuda, Mika Morigouchi
• Bug Check Management: Hironori Kobayasi, Hiroaki Kanamaru
• Special Thanks: Robotex, C.G.Studio 02, Osaka School Of Music (OSM)
• Executive Produce: Hideyuki Yokoyama
• Produce: Hiroyuki Tanaka
• Project Management: Keiko Iju
• Presented by: Atlus / Sega

Source:

In-game credits

File:Princess Crown Saturn credits.pdf

Magazine articles

Main article: Princess Crown/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Main article: Princess Crown/Promotional material.

Artwork

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  PlayStation 4 version of Princess Crown

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average
Publication Version Score Consoles + (FR) NTSC-J 91 Famitsu (JP) NTSC-J 73 Joypad (FR) NTSC-J 85 Saturn Fan (JP) NTSC-J 66 Saturn Fan (JP) NTSC-J 76 Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J 77 Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J 94

	80
Based on 7 reviews

Princess Crown

Saturn, JP
Cover
Spinecard Disc Manual

Saturn, JP (Satakore)
Cover

Technical information

Main article: Princess Crown/Technical information.

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
✔	CRC32 MD5 SHA-1	639,068,976	1997-11-02	CD-ROM (JP)	T-14418G V1.004
?	CRC32 MD5 SHA-1	639,068,976		CD-ROM (JP)	T-14425G V1.005

Extra content

This game has extra content which can be viewed when accessing the disc on a PC.

Saturn (JP) Extra files

Folder / File	Type	Size	description
PC_ABS.TXT	TXT (Abstract)	294	About this game.
PC_BIB.TXT	TXT (Bibliographiced)	93	About this game
PC_CPY.TXT	TXT (Copyright)	46	Copyright