Meu favorito do Yoko Taro.
Drakengard me deixou com um buraco peito. Uma das experiências sensoriais e mecânicas mais deslumbrantes que a mídia pode oferecer. Tipo de jogo que muda um cabrunco. Toda miséria e perturbo aqui exposto ficará permanentemente marcado em minha pessoa.
Rivotril dos games. Vontade de chorar.

Ps: Minha trilha sonora favorita da mídia. O trabalho de samples é surreal.

If you enjoyed this game you're a psychopath. I did.

This story revolves around a group of awful people, a murderer, cannibal, pedophile, a guy that sings wonderwall, every person here has its faults and they're not good people. Killing shouldn't be fun, at some point you just drag-on on these kills looking for a happy ending for these characters... but why? they really deserve it?

No, they don't, we don't even know if a lot of the things that happened actually did because just like certain stories, there are different points of views of these things, and just like the description of the first verse from the last chapter, maybe Seere will tell your story, with every chapter having different pages and even different verses with mixed events. We can look for an ultimate truth, but would it change something?

Just like Caim, we can try different things but it would make things worse, or it would loop back to other things, sometimes you just don't deserve a happy ending.

Idk I enjoyed this game and I think that says more about me than the game itself XD

Imported from my Backloggery:

A lot of this game was a real slog to get through. Most of the gameplay in this game is dry, dated, and simplistic. Most of the mechanics that were interesting were unnecessary and had no need to be used. The dodge was clunky and the ground combat especially was poor. Story-wise, the first half of the story is dry and generic. What saves this game from a one star, however, was the second half of this game. The story become interesting and subversive, and the gameplay at the tail end was fun.

Drakengard is what a never-ending post-nut clarity would feel like. It’s quite (not) literally a brain rot. Not in the usual “hyperfixation” sense, it’s more of a “going down into a hole of insanity and despair” kind of thing.

To be honest, these devs got lucky. Some of the decisions made here make them seem inexperienced at best, even for 2003 standards. But for some reason the writers decided it was a good time to unleash their accumulated anger and frustrations all at once into a project and ended up with a story as bizarre and deranged as it is dark and despairing; a subversion of every videogame trope poured into a long road of loss and defeat.

The result is a game that intentionally and unintentionally excels in making you feel like shit. In an unprecedented move for its medium, it paints the idea of not being either fun or a gratifying experience as its main goal.

It’s hell, but it’s refreshing.

The cast is pretty much the antithesis of the usual playable crew. The protagonist is a bloodlust-filled maniac driven solely by revenge and an incestuous lust for his own sister, and is accompanied by: a human-loathing, hypocritical dragon; a bossy, self-centered and racist priest; a blind, self-loathing pedophile that for some reason is probably the most empathizing of the bunch; and a cannibalistic elven woman driven to madness by the loss of her own children, with a sweet tooth for little kids.

Ballsy and edgy, and not in the greatest of ways, but it just fits this pit of madness; you get so numb to it that it doesn’t even feel like it’s trying too hard.

Now when it comes to the combat, they didn’t really try that hard; in fact, I don’t think they even tried. I mean, they probably wanted it to be good, but it landed right on the other side of the spectrum. And for some reason that works better here.

There’s both hack-and-slashy grounded combat segments inspired by Dynasty Warriors AND flying segments reminiscent of Panzer Dragoon and Ace Combat. Neither are very good; the former lacks impact, precision and for some reason both the player character’s actions and the camera move in respect to a close-but-otherwise-arbitrarily-chosen enemy, while the latter is as imprecise as its counterpart while having just an odd difficulty balance, and controls that in and of themselves are a challenge. It just makes the whole experience loathsome, which wasn’t the point. Wasn’t.

The soundtrack is just very… insane. I’ve seen people describe it as schizo music, and while I won’t comment on the ableism ingrained in that sentence, the sentiment behind it is quite… accurate. It’s the musical equivalent of putting your brain in a blender. Which is quite ironic given how it samples classical pieces and puts THEM in a musical blender.

It’s all just very odd, that given the story direction the game’s shortcomings work in its favor. This is the kind of game that is unique from its conception to its legacy, there’s nothing really like it, in a way that is even hard to explain.

It makes me question what makes a good game or a bad game, or even if there are games that fall out of that spectrum and belong somewhere different entirely. It wasn’t a pleasant experience, but was it a bad one?

I mean, it was worth it, and it made me feel things no other game did, no other ANYTHING did. It was not fun, it was not entertaining; it was miserable. But it was worth it.

And THAT is the game’s statement. Games don’t need to be fun, or beautiful, or entertaining, or just centered around giving the player a gratifying experience. They CAN, sure, but not as a rule. They can be more than that. Art is more than that.


[Edit: I’ve come to realize that while it’s implied, I’m not sure if the romantic love between Caim and Furiae goes both ways. {SPOILERS} Furiae definitively kills herself because of her not wanting her feelings exposed by Manah, but all that really entails is that he doesn’t (or she thinks he doesn’t) know about it, not really that it isn’t reciprocal. I’ve come to expect this kind of vagueness from Taro’s work, but I’ll still keep it written that he lusts for her because shock value; yes, I’m just like that.]

I tried, i really tried, but i genuinely wouldnt wish a playthrough of this on my worst enemy. I got to ending A and its staying that way at least for a long time, its a shame how much i hate playing the game but find the characters in it very interesting its too bad that there's so much "game" to drakengard that i feel everytime the game wants to reward me with a gorgeously animated cutscene im instantly cockblocked by that short term pleasure that is the story and immediately thrown back into the musou hell gameplay loop, there's alot of games that use the clunkiness of its controls as a way to elevate the story and even use it as a tool to make you feel a certain type of way, clunkiness can be deliberate, however drakengard's problems go way beyond this because you can genuinely see they were trying to do something unique and unlike any other rpg at the time but absolutely lacked the experience to even achieve that goal, so many weapons but you will be sticking yourself to 2 or 3 because you take 10 years to swing your weapon, every enemy no matter how big or small is always ten times faster than you, constant stunlocks, running around a huge map just looking for health pick ups because you cant use your dragon or else archers will shoot you down, the HORRIBLE camera, the completely useless dodge and guard button, restarting the whole stage once you die because there's no checkpoint system hence losing all your exp on both your character and weapons, it all adds up to a very frustrating and tiring experience, there's so many options and things to use but everything in the game works so actively against you that you NEED to purposefully break its own rules in order to win, the game itself is a victim of inexperience and over ambitiousness. It really could have been something phenomenal but there's just too many problems with it that distract me from enjoying the truly good stuff that it has to offer.
And with all of that said, fuck the game lol.

Only really played to see the start of the style i love so much in the nier games and to more easily play drakengard 3 sometime later. I can see some of the seeds that will become yoko taro style of storytelling a lot of it can be hard to follow as you have to go through extra chapters and missions that take place between the main chapters and also change those same main chapters. The grounded combat is pretty bad and makes the whole game a blur which might of been the point but still makes the game hard to ge through but i did end up really enjoying the flying sections.The really bad part was getting to the last ending. Collecting all the weapons without a guide might be a good replacement to a live sentence as i dont think i would be done finding them all even if i started when this game came out. I did enjoy the endings as they got worse and worse the more fighting was done as it really drove home the point the game was making about war and fighting without knowing the other side and just letting rage take you. I also think the music also adds a lot to the themes with it sounding as chaotic as a battlefield. As a storytelling medium i give it a 5/5 but as a game i give it about a 2/5. Probably just watch the game on youtube if you interested that way you can skip playing it unless your insane and a superfan of yoko taro like i am.

man, i love this game. some people probably won't fuck with this game, which is understandable. its gameplay is arguably basic, the way it handles progression is insane, and the final boss is arguably impossible without a a guide, and i love it. its the perfect amalgamation of chaos. this game is perfect dark fantasy, all the main characters are terrible people. one of the fucking characters is a child cannibal! don't even get me started on fucking Leonard. Caim, the mc, is a bloodthirsty psychopath. I love it so much. all of ending d and e are like some of my favorite things in any video game ever. everything about this game is amazing imo. i love yoko taro so much.

"Welcome to a world without song"

Yoko Taro's unhinged dark fantasy epic of death and total annihilation is one for the ages. A depraved, sadistic and nihilistic journey into the heartless depths of humanity's rotten core. The gameplay does proceed its infamous reputation and up until the grind for all weapons for ending E it was serviceable but after nearly 40 hours of it becomes exhausting tedious brainrot. The dragon gameplay make up for it at times. I won't recommend this to most people due to it being such a taxiing expierence but if you have the strength and will power to slaughter your way through endless hordes and weapon collecting then Drakengard offers one of the most balls to the wall insane narratives and multiple jaw dropping finales that are sights to behold.

I am an eternal Drakengard and NieR fan, and despite that I believe Drakengard is a good game story-wise, but oh my god is it functionally just straight up awful. I love the story so much but it cannot save it from anything more than two stars because of what a mental toll it takes to play the game.

Drakengard’s gameplay is repetitive and painful, mostly just mashing the square button over and over to attack and finishing the combo with the triangle button roughly 1,209 times per level(that statistic is as real as my enjoyment of the ground combat). After getting the red dragon, you’re able to ride on her back during the ground combat segments and blast the hordes upon hordes with her fire and magic.

As well as the ground combat, Drakengard is known for its in-air, dragon-riding combat segments. They feel infinitely better than any ground combat, and if the game just took place in air maybe its ass would have 3 stars, but alas it does not and is cursed with 2 stars. I’m not being spiteful, either. I love this game.

The music is known for being trash but I personally love it A LOT. I could also listen to a generator hum for 10 hours, so maybe the critics could be onto something. The sound design isn't that great either, but the voice direction is pretty good!

Graphically, the pre-rendered cutscenes are really quite nice for a PS2 game! The character design is above average, especially with Furiae's Manah's outfits. The normal gameplay graphics are average for the time period, but it’s not bad at all.

Drakengard is a game that developed a cult following for it and its sequels, as well as its spinoff series, despite its massive flaws and issues. It personally changed my life as a result of its being made. It has so much wrong with it, but what it does have going for it makes it a net positive experience even if it’s pretty painful to play. I highly suggest watching a longplay rather than playing it, but if you’re a fan of any NieR games already you should give it a chance.

PS: Manah did nothing wrong.

Fiz do Final A ao D.
Cara, é impressionante o quanto o Yoko Taro já era um escritor foda lá em 2003. Essa se pá é a historia mais dark das ideia que ele escreveu, mundo caótico, personagens caóticos. Literalmente tem 3 personagens saudáveis no game.
A gameplay do jogo infelizmente da uma depressão, é visível que o orçamento do jogo está em outros aspectos. Comigo, que não foi filtrado pela gameplay, começou a ficar bem mais divertido a partir do final A, eu me divirto bastante com as fases aéreas.
É um jogo com uma gameplay medíocre com historia foda, e eu gosto dele.

The game had the same sort of mysticism as nier automata and when i found out this game was basically a prequel that set up the events for Nier and the other Nier games just made me want to play it even more. I saw a video of the final boss fight of that giant humanoid thing and the fact that its a rhythm game segement with NO INDICATORS aside from the dark and light circles that come out from the statues mouth sold me on the game more, the song also felt like there was impending doom looming over the city of Tokyo it just fit perfectly. The game play feels like dynasty warriors so it got p boring fast but riding around a dragon was awesome. I'll pick it up again eventually because i really want to do that boss fight