Atlus and developers Vanillaware announced that there will be 20 plus hours of gameplay per character in their 2D side scrolling action RPG Dragon’s Crown for the PlayStation 3 and Vita. The game is 20 plus hours long with each of the six characters having their own stories and motivations for traversing the catacombs beneath the kingdom of Hydeland in search of the Dragon’s Crown. While each character will have a considerable amount of story, players will also have to contend with all the distractions the game throws their way. Between all the monsters and magic effects, players may loose sight of their individual characters so each one has a different colored ring around them.

If the amount of onscreen monsters and magic effects is too overwhelming and the players characters are taking too much damage, there are various foods the player can eat to recover their HP. In Dragon’s Crown, players can even increase their characters HP to over 150% of its original value but cannot consume anything else until their HP decreases below its original value. The ability to increase one’s HP above its normal limit is a welcome addition, but lets face it, games of this nature often have characters picking up food dropped by enemy characters to recover their health. How sanitary is it to pick up a turkey that’s been laying on the ground and eat it? If a troll doesn’t get you, then dysentery probably will.

While out adventuring through the dungeons of Hydeland, players will come across bone piles that are the remains of dead adventurers. These bone piles can be collected, returned to the Canaan Temple in town and resurrected. These resurrected adventurers, along with the player’s friends and other online adventurers, can be found in the Dragon’s Haven Inn and recruited to join your party. If players don’t want random NPCs watching their backs in Dragon’s Crown, then they can recruit friends or random players online. Adding a random player chooses someone who is close in level to your character but you take your chances on the individuals chosen. I personally will be rolling with players I personally know or NPCs. Dragon’s Crown comes out on August 6.