This is one of those game that would greatly benefit with a proper remake. Having completed this game 100% I have to say that I can't recommend this game to the casual player. The depressing story about characters that are morally gray is the best part of this game. The gameplay leaves a bitter-sweet taste. The aerial missions are the highlight of the gameplay, being fun and interesting, but the ground missions become tiresome when the only thing you do is killing the same enemies using the same boring movements over and over again, and it doesn't feel satisfactory at all. In order to get the 100% completion of the game, you have to find all the 64 hidden weapons, and this can get incredibly tiresome and not fun at all (Like waiting for 25 minutes in a certain stage). And finally, the final secret mission in the game is going to give you nightmares. Again, if you are interested only in the story, do not play this game. Watch the cutscenes on YouTube or something.

the drakengard games ask the bold question "what if we put some really cool stuff at the very end of a pretty bad pretty long game"

that being said the game became a lot more fun the second I switched it to easy mode. as soon as you replay any content the game becomes miserable, and easy mode mostly avoids that. unless you're careful with a guide tho you will have to grind a lot for ending E, which I did not bother to do

infinitely more tolerable than drakengard 3 tho and even just playing up to ending D feels worth it if you're interested in the series and know what you're getting into

Probablement un des jeux les plus unique auquel j'ai joué
Dans les + :
l'histoire, les personnages, l'ambiance du jeux bien sombre bien dark fantasy/mediéval, les ost et le doublages sont aux top et les cinématiques sont très belles pour l'époque.
Dans les - :
Le gameplay à chier c'est une vraie purge, rarement eut autant la boule aux ventres en jouant à un jeux c'est terrible.

Drakengard is one of the most interesting games I have ever played. At its first glance and in its opening hours, it seems like the standard RPG affair, and it's not until after the first of the games 5 endings did the gears start turning in my head. Drakengard’s thesis statement might as well be to subvert the players expectations at every turn after that first ending, and it's honestly one of the most ethereal gaming experiences I have ever witnessed. To be honest, I’m having trouble even formulating all of my thoughts in an even slightly coherent manner, because this game is so fucking good. I think it is inevitable that in a few months I will find anything I say in this review somewhat shallow but that's the beauty of interpretive art like this. I didn't truly understand Evangelion after I first watched it at 15 and I think my Metal Gear Solid 2 review is extremely surface level now but I leave it up as a digital time capsule. Can you tell this review is going to be a lot of yapping?

The game is a deconstruction of RPG and general fantasy tropes in such a brilliant way, at first seeming to give into them. However, as you go on and dig under the surface of these characters and realize their complexities you start to understand and appreciate Drakengard that much more. Caim at first looks the part of your standard pure of heart RPG protagonist, even going mute at the very beginning of the game to mimic this. However, you very quickly realize that Caim is an absolutely bloodthirsty maniac. He is purely fueled by blind rage and bloodlust, yet will still protect his sister because he knows he's supposed to care for her. The game calls you out on this constantly but you must continue the bloodshed in order to press on with the game…
His sister Furiae seems to be your standard pure and innocent “damsel in distress” character, but this presentation of her character early on is almost like a red herring of sorts. Her lack of development is a critique of that archetype in and of itself. She purposefully keeps the less savory parts of her locked away, and it's not until the end that it's revealed more. Her feelings for Caim are just subtly incestuous which serve to drive home the point that despite her surface level appearance as your standard pure damsel in distress, that's really not what she is. Every character is like this really, Verdelet constantly accosts Caim for his bloodshed yet he is the one that drives him to action most often and routinely benefits from it. Inuart seems like the standard best friend character but gets consumed by jealousy and a pursuit of power to protect his lover, almost acting like the protagonist of a story that's not his. The greatest thing about the complexities of these characters is that it's never too particularly in your face about it either. I absolutely love how this game urges you to dig deeper into its themes. Other than the deconstructive elements of the plot, I feel like Drakengard is a story about hatred, revenge, the things we lose, the importance of love and what a lack of love can do, and the inherent faults of humans. In endings A B and C, Caim loses those closest to him due to his endless conquest of bloodshed. He ends with less things than he started. Ending A he not only loses Furiae and Inuart, but Angelus as well. Ending B he loses not just the three mentioned but the world is doomed and it seems like whatever battle that comes next won't be one Caim survives. Ending B in particular really brings things full circle for Furiae to me as well. After an entire game where she gets minimal screen time or development, the world is filled with grotesque clones of her that doom the world. She no longer has any love for Inuart or even Caim, after Inuart obsesses over protecting her. In Ending C Caim is forced to kill Angelus with his own two hands, the final price of his senseless killing is killing one who he holds the most dear. In each of these first three endings Caim is explicitly punished for his bloodshed. None of these endings are happy, and when I was playing I thought that surely endings B and C would be happier endings than ending A. However, Drakengard does not feel compelled to do this and each ending gets even more bleak than the last. You could take this as the game just being edgy, but I think to do so would be to blindly deny the game of its narrative qualities. Ending D sees the world caught in a permanently frozen state, but not before Caim dies in the end. It's so bleak and just so ethereal. Ending E is the most out of left field one. Caim and Angelus end up in fucking Shinjuku where they play a rhythm game to beat the final boss before being shot down by two missles from the Japanese defense force. The atmosphere is just so chilling and the imagery of Angelus being impaled on top of Tokyo Tower is one of the coolest things ever. The point I'm really trying to make here though is that every ending ends in varying degrees of misfortune for Caim as a result of his blind rage. Even in D and E where he tries to save the world and do a good deed he is punished with death. In attempting to save the world he also dooms it. Another core theme I find with this game is love. You see this a lot with Manah, who is seemingly manipulated by The Watchers/The Gods into thinking she is loved by them, as she received no love from her own mother and was abused by her. This sends her on a path to creating the apocalyptic scenarios that appear in basically every ending. In the end of ending A, she begs for death from Caim yet neither of them think she deserves such a release. She ends with no one left to give her love, not even The Gods. Inuart constantly tries to look for love from Furiae, completely misunderstanding her at every turn, eventually blaming Caim for his own infidelity and seeking revenge on him. These two themes come together to show that the world is this way because of the faults of mankind. Caim is only a coldblooded killer because of his parents death during the war and the attempted reconstruction of the world is due to the easily manipulated nature of humans especially those that are young and not cared for. In the more abstract, things are this way because of the genre that this story is. There is war, there is untold amounts of bloodshed because this is a fantasy RPG. Caim kills because he needs to level up and continue with the story. Which brings me to the gameplay.

The way people talk about the combat of this game makes it seem like the biggest piece of dogshit ever crafted, but really it's not that bad. The systems present in this game are fine enough and far from what I would call bad. However, the combat in Drakengard IS monotonous, but I think this serves a thematic purpose. You’re not meant to enjoy all the senseless killing, and as I said earlier Caim is punished for the indiscriminate bloodshed. However, this is a video game and you must do what the game says to keep going. You must kill even when you don't want to, to continue the game. It's a commentary on the genre in the sense that in RPGs and most video games in general you are rewarded for bloodshed. You are rewarded for killing senselessly and are never called out on it simply because it's a video game. Drakengard breaks this mold and goes as far to try and make the killing itself unenjoyable. I think it’s a really cool aspect of the game that gets overlooked by some because they simply write the combat off as bad and don't interact with it in a ludonarrative sense. The flying missions are awesome though I cant lie. They do also get a bit grueling at times so the ludonarrative cohesion remains intact but they’re definitely more fun than the ground missions.

The last thing I really want to talk about is the music in this game. Drakengard has the most interesting soundtracks in any game I've ever played. It has the sound of what you would expect from a high fantasy game, except it doesn't. Every song in the game uses samples from famous composers in really interesting ways. From Mozart to Tchaikovsky to Holst, you're bound to recognize some of these composers when you see them in the credits but it's doubtful that you'll actually recognize the songs as they appear in game. The game will often loop the same very short sample over and over to create songs that sound traditionally orchestrated but still have a distinct electronic feel to them. I’ve never heard anything like it— I wouldn't necessarily say that the songs are good in a traditional sense but as far as experimental music goes it's really unique and fun to listen to. The best of these songs is the ending B credits theme, “Growing Wings”. Give it a listen if you'd like to see an example of what I'm talking about.

I think that's about all I have to say about the game at this time. This is a serious contender for one of my favorite games of all time and I implore you to play it if you haven't. This probably isn't the case if you read this spoiler tagged review but the point still stands. This game is a masterpiece

An angry and brutal deconstruction of rpg and action game tropes, but like a punk song it quickly reveals itself to be little more then a simple 3 note ditty with a lot of rage. Once you get past the shock of how awful each character is and the beauty of the surreal imagery, you are left with a barely functional, esoterically padded action game populated by one note characters in a frustratingly unexplored world.

Years earlier Moon: Remix RPG Adventure tackled many of the same concepts with a lighter touch and more nuance. Years later many more games (including those by Yoko Taro) would explore many of the same ideas in more depth) yet there is something to be said about how bleak and direct this game is. The music and visuals have a very avant garde and ethereal quality which is lacking from Taro's future work on Nier which visually is a snooze fest in comparison to the boldness on display here. Drakengard said what it needed to in the time it came out and paved the way for many future games, but I'll be damned if I touch it again any time soon.

People like to pretentiously harp on about how "intentionally bad" aspects of this game are and while there is some truth to that, there is nothing intentional about the controls and camera.
Aside from that the on-foot gameplay is just even shittier Dynasty Warriors, it's tedious but nowhere near as bad as some people make it out to be. The dragon gameplay is... fine but not something that I'd ever willingly play again.
The music at least somewhat makes up for the gameplay with a cool sound collage of classical music that does a lot of heavy lifting in terms of atmosphere.
Many import story concepts (pacts, goddess, seals etc etc etc) are barely explained (if at all) and with how the verses and endings are structured it makes the story needlessly confusing to borderline nonsensical at times (ending C for example). Aside from some cool visuals and fun dialogue, there's just not a lot there and it's overall pretty uninteresting.
If this wasn't a Yoko Taro game I probably wouldn't have ever played it and certainly wouldn't have finished it.

This game really is as bad as people say it is. Gameplay sucks, music sucks, story isn't all that interesting. One of the worst games I've played. I guess one good note is that there was a character I did kinda feel sorry for but that's about it. I managed to get 4 of the 5 endings at least.(I'm not collecting every weapon that's absurd) Guess someone could argue that ludo narratively this game is great but it doesn't matter if your game is bad and has awful music in my opinion. Would recommend you play if you hate yourself

{to the tune of On The Ground- Chapter IV}

I have sort of an... odd relationship with this game. While playing it, I found myself frustrated with its clunky ground combat, annoyed by the story's convoluted pathing, the charting of the chapters splitting at times with seemingly no cohesion or continuity..
The grating soundtrack, the middling presentation, the even MORE clunky air combat sections, everything about this game is screaming at you, almost as if its begging you to drop it and go play a fun game.

However,

For some reason, I couldn't stop playing. I played all the way up until the end, and I finished this game. I thought to myself, as the credits rolled and I laughed to myself over the absurdity of ending E, "I'm finally done.. I can finally move on!"

But that didn't happen. I still think about this game.

I think about the quality of the voice acting, the darker elements hidden beneath the surface lost in the translation from the Japanese release.
I think about how unapologetically abrasive it is, how it's cast of protagonists consist of the most evil, and unlikable people in this universe, as they struggle to fight against the inevitable. No one in this universe is without sin, and the ones who are without sin can only live on due to the sacrifice of others. This world is a living hell, and the game will take you there.

The question is if, and how long you can stand living in that hell with these characters.

This game is a work of art, and I do not hesitate to consider it such.

In order to truly appreciate this game, you have to look at it like a piece of art. The game has terrible ground combat sections that are extremely repetitive with a jarring, looping soundtrack that leaves you feeling like you're going insane. If you manage to make it to the end, congrats! Now the are only 4 more endings to unlock. If your sanity is still intact by the time you get to Ending D, it'll be lost trying to get Ending E!

It has a grim story with a very unique but bizarre narrative, so if that interests you I would highly recommend watching a playthrough and not actually playing the game. Just a truly awful experience playing this game, 5 stars easy.

Ninth bar.
"My, my, my", you say as you take a sip from your 300$ cup of Dom Pérignon, "what a misstep from a professional violinist that is..."
Little did you know that only a couple of minutes later you will get blown off orbit by Alfred Schnittke, inevitably staining your way-too-expansive-for-the-average-joe-huh costume.

For a (broad) genre that is so commonly associated with elitism and bourgeoisie, using atonality in classical music has always been a hell of a thing as it directly challenges orthodox forms of Western music but also goes against the conservatism way of seeing everything under the veil of """beauty""".

Most of the droning conversations surrounding Drakengard are about its janky (to say the least) gameplay and whether or not this was Yoko Taro's intent (as if meaning slipping away from the artist's hands would undermine all artistic value).
There's little to no room for discussion about these ear-scorching violins, making a soundtrack exclusively out of unapologetically aggressive sound collages in a world of grand melodramatic orchestras and nice subtle ambient tracks is a hell of a feast from Nobuyoshi Sano and Takayuki Aihara.

Heck, I'd even argue that it doesn't even serve as a mere companion piece for Drakengard, this is as much of an incredible exploration of the cycle of violence as the whole design use of detachment from death games usually provide, and both the soundtrack and the core game are much more effective at doing so than most works wearing their "so subversive" title up their sleeves I've experienced yet.

I want more abrasive and nightmarish soundscapes to drown in, this is pure hell through and through, I am crying, I am curled up in a ball, I feel like shit, I am gasping for air, I need more.