Game: Crown Trick
Genre: Adventure, Strategy, Role-Playing
System: Nintendo Switch (also on Steam)
Developers | Publishers: NEXT Studios | Team17
Age Rating: EU 12+ | US T
Price: EU $19.99 | US $19.99 | UK £14.99
Release Date: October 16th, 2020
Review code used with thanks to Team17
Crown Trick released by Team17 is a rouge-like RPG adventure characterized by turn-based combat and skill-item interactive strategy. Enter a labyrinth that moves as you move!
Enter the Dreamrealm
You play as Elle who has ventured forth into a mystery location known as the Dreamrealm to defeat nightmares. Elle meets a sentient crown who explains that his powers can’t control the horrors that a human called Vlad has unleashed on the Dreamrealm. They band together and enter that Dreamrealm. While their relationship isn’t exactly love at first sight, they tolerate each other and you’ll watch their relationship develop over the course of the game.
The Dreamrealm is a procedurally-generated maze-like dungeon and it ensures you have a different experience every time you enter the dungeon. But unlike traditional open maps, Crown Trick locks you inside a small dungeon room to do battle with monsters. Without access to the entire map, you have no choice but to strategically decide how you will mount an attack on the enemy.
Take Your Time
The enemies move as you move, and your enemies will stand still until you decide what’s the best way to attack. You move from tile to tile, upwards, downwards or side to side. It’s a lot like a dance movement that you perform with the enemy. Should you move forward and risk getting to close and being attacked? Or prefer moving to the side to gain an advantage. You can take however long you need to map out your route and believe me, it’s a lot of fun working out your strategy in Crown Trick. The movement in Crown Trick reminds me of the synchronised dance of the Crypt of the Necromancer.
As you enter the dungeon, you’ll be given a choice of two random weapons. When you clear levels, more weapon types become available, and each of them has their own pros-and-cons. For instance, the attack range, stats, active and passive abilities, and even reload timing have to be considered when choosing your weapon.
Crown Trick‘s items and relics complement your weapon of choice. Items are your basic consumables such as those that cast debuffs, direct damage, or protective barriers. Relics, meanwhile, can be considered temporary buffs similar to passives that last throughout a run.
Different Mechanics
There are quite a few different mechanics in Crown Trick but my favourite one has to be Blink. Blink allows you to teleport a limited number of times around a room. It doesn’t count as an action so you can play around with the timing of it as a result.
Another mechanic of Crown Trick are Familiars with various skills. You’ll initially fight the familiars who are elite monsters. Once defeated they will grant you their powers and two abilities when you select them. Such as Firebreather, which lets you throw an explosive barrel that not only blocks the movement of enemies but can also be made to go “boom” when it’s destroyed. The familiars are a nice added touch and make the gameplay much more interesting for the player.
Visuals and More
Crown Trick isn’t an easy game right from the start, but it is an enjoyable game where you want to push on through the dungeons. The visuals are stunning and vibrant, the soundtrack and effects are great too. And Crown Trick controls perform absolutely fine.
The combat is good and solid, one that you don’t have to have a very quick reaction time to play. Just as well as my reaction time has been cut in half the older I have gotten!
Crown Trick has a great tutorial which is laid out well and tells the player everything they need to know. From equipment descriptions to which squares can be affected by your magic, right down to things that fans of dungeon crawlers love such as skipping your turn, lots of secret areas, and many unlockables are all here and so much more.
Conclusion
You can see the love the developers have put into the game while your playing it. Yes, some areas do become repetitive as most games do at some stage. However, Crown Trick has all the right elements to make it a fantastic dungeon crawler.
A good indicator for me of how much I like or love a game when I’m writing a review is that by the time I get to the conclusion to have my last say, I’m busting to finish it off so I can go and play. And that is how I feel about Crown Trick, it has ticked all the right dungeon crawler boxes for me! It’s a wonderful game, with its turn-based combat, where each move is full of possibilities and each battle is a challenge.
Final Verdict: Two Thumbs Up