The PlayStation exclusive Dragon’s Crown was not always intended for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita.

According to Siliconera, Vanillaware president George Makitani first thought of the game’s concept over a decade ago, originally planning for it to be released on the Sega Dreamcast.

Images from the title’s artbook show three of the game’s lead characters when first designed in 1998. Some traits of the originals have seemed to carry over to the game’s present protagonists, particularly the Sorceress and the Wizard.

While none of these characters ever came to life on the Dreamcast, the female warrior shown became the formative idea behind Fantasy Earth Zero, a Square Enix game for PC in which Kamitani acted as art director.

Dragon’s Crown is set to release exclusively for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita on August 6 in North America and later this fall in Europe.



What do you think of original character concepts? Do you like the original art style, or are you happy with Vanillaware’s current direction for Dragon’s Crown? Let us know in the comments below.