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.
I am sadly only capable of getting the insatiable urge to play this game when im violently drunk. Its really great
Gameplay chiant, histoire complexe, et musiques très cool.
+ J'ai rien compris aux fins.
+ J'ai rien compris aux fins.
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
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.
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
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
This game is physically painful to play, which is very postmodern but also bad game design.
se nao fosse pela gameplay ridicula de ruim seria meu jogo favorito
I feel mentally ill for enjoying this game as much as I do but I genuinely find it's gameplay to be addictive and it's story to be amazing, good job(?) Yoko Taro.
I've jokingly said that "To the Joker, Drakengard 1 is just an ordinary musou" at least twice before playing it and then when I did, I ended up unironically finding the gameplay more fun than any sincere musou I've tried so I guess I powerscale above the Joker now.
MELHOR RPG QUE EU JA JOGUEI (Vai se fuder bitterblack island🖕🏼🖕🏼🖕🏼)
Todo mundo já sabe né, o jogo que é famoso por ser uma merda e ser muito bom ao mesmo tempo.
Demorei muito pra jogar esse pela fake news de que pra pegar todos os finais você precisava upar todas as armas do jogo pro nível máximo, vi isso até em reviews de pessoas que disseram jogar o jogo, mas é MENTIRA, efeito balela. Sabendo disso, resolvi desperdiçar minha vida 100porcentando esse jogo feito com a bunda.
O taro realmente odiava a ideia de você se divertir com esse jogo, POR QUE FAZER INIMIGOS IMUNE A MÁGICA? Maior parte do conteúdo tá nas 64 armas e suas diferentes magias... btw esse jogo devia ter investido muito mais nas sessões aéreas, apesar de no começo ser bem difícil de controlar, você se acostuma e se torna a parte mais divertida do jogo, praticamente todas as boss fights são no ar, inclusive aquela famosinha (apesar de que nessa o jogo muda totalmente).
E que partyzinha viu.. só os imperdoaveis.
Demorei muito pra jogar esse pela fake news de que pra pegar todos os finais você precisava upar todas as armas do jogo pro nível máximo, vi isso até em reviews de pessoas que disseram jogar o jogo, mas é MENTIRA, efeito balela. Sabendo disso, resolvi desperdiçar minha vida 100porcentando esse jogo feito com a bunda.
O taro realmente odiava a ideia de você se divertir com esse jogo, POR QUE FAZER INIMIGOS IMUNE A MÁGICA? Maior parte do conteúdo tá nas 64 armas e suas diferentes magias... btw esse jogo devia ter investido muito mais nas sessões aéreas, apesar de no começo ser bem difícil de controlar, você se acostuma e se torna a parte mais divertida do jogo, praticamente todas as boss fights são no ar, inclusive aquela famosinha (apesar de que nessa o jogo muda totalmente).
E que partyzinha viu.. só os imperdoaveis.
This game is absolutely insane. Everything and everyone is miserable, your character is a creepy invincible psycho, your party is filled with pedos and racists, nobody succeeds at anything, the music stinks, the color palette is several different shades of drab, the gameplay is mind numbing. Even though it's a bad game objectively, it was such an odd and unforgettable experience for me. I have no desire to ever play Drakengard again but I'm glad I did. Yoko Taro really came out guns blazing with this one.
Drankengard fans singing my praises after I beat them up and steal their wallets(I intended to give them a painful experience.)
This game aims to be an awful experience, and boy does it succeed at it.
Good start to this story I love so much, but really bad gameplay and game design overall sadly...
It's peak..
this game aged insanely bad imo ; but holy crap this game is like NO others, i have NOT once played a game like drakengard at all, and i absoluetly love this janky game so much, drakengard is far for everyone, but if you're able to play through the whole thing, not a single game you've played will be similar to this
i love this game but it controls like dogshit
okay dog. Se tivessem feito a gameplay do dragão de outra forma esse jogo seria um milhão de vezes melhor
El síndrome de Estocolmo es una reacción psicológica en la que la víctima de un secuestro o retención en contra de su voluntad desarrolla una relación de complicidad y un fuerte vínculo afectivo con su secuestrador o retenedor.
as soon as this game ended i went online and enlisted in the US army. no child will ever suffer like this again on my watch
This is gonna be a conflicting one.
In 2021, I first saw the trailer for NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139. I was a huge fan of Automata and had also played a bit of Gestalt before dropping it, so I was no stranger to the series. I wanted to play Replicant but also wanted to play every prior game beforehand. Alongside going back to Gestalt and finally beating that, I also decided to buy both Drakengard and Drakengard 3 since I knew they were connected to the series somehow. Fast forward to 2022, I randomly decide to finally dive into the Drakengard games. I play up until like chapter 3 or 4 I think and drop the game due to a skill issue. What did I think of it? I thought it was shit! Not only did I not like the gameplay, which most people don't ofc, I also just thought the story was super boring up to that point. The story was the main reason you'd be playing the game, so for me to not be into the characters or story at all, I just wasn't motivated to continue playing it. Fast forward to present day, fellow user Lemonstrade eggs me on to play it as a joke. Well I didn't back down and decided to beat it this time. The first mission or two, I immediately thought "yup this is still shit". But then I remembered some of the gameplay mechanics that made the game more tolerable and bada bing, I started to enjoy myself more.
So let's get into the absolute most contentious aspect of the game, the gameplay. The biggest issue I had with it, and it's still its biggest issue now, is it doesn't flow the best due to the camera. It's a fixed camera depending on what way you're facing and the right stick only tilts the screen a bit and goes back in place when you let go of it. If there's an enemy behind you, this can be really clunky feeling as you manually have to face the enemy before you can see them in front of you. I got used to this pretty quickly but this is the only major issue I had with the gameplay tbh. Otherwise, it's just a perfectly fine hack and slash/musou game. The actual gameplay, not including camera issues, is perfectly serviceable I felt. It actually does get satisfying killing hoardes of enemies while the side characters talk about how brutal Caim is. That plus there's combos that can knock enemies down which makes the gameplay more tolerable, there's summonable characters that can just mow down hoardes of enemies like nothing and the magic that changes depending on what weapon you're using. The combat is surprisingly more in depth than you'd think, and that's not even getting into the air combat. I found that more enjoyable from the start tho that can be even more frustrating than the ground combat at points just because how slow it is to aim sometimes. That's only an issue with later encounters and bosses but either way, the combat in this game? Not bad honestly, it's not great ofc but in the end I found it a lot enjoyable than when I played the game initially.
The music is honestly super fitting and also really experimental and out there. A big chunk of the songs sound like looping messes. It kind of sounds shit at first, and look I aint listening to the OST outside of the game, but it really is memorable. Playing this 2 years later, I still remembered all the early game songs. I wouldn't say I actually "like" the ost, except for maybe a couple of the more comprehensible songs, but it's still a good ost since the game is trying to drive you crazy.
Diving right into the story, I'm gonna just say it. I didn't think it was mind-blowing at all or even that amazing. My issue with not caring about the story or the characters still applied to a good chunk of my playtime here. It wasn't until like the last third, and all the endings, where I was actually interested. I really really enjoyed how crazy it got near the end, and I really loved the dark fantasy elements. I just wish more of the game was like that, and that the earlier chapters weren't so boring. But I also think that was the whole point, it was to subvert expectations and make you think it'll just be a boring fantasy game only to surprise you with all that craziness in the endgame. It also wasn't until post ending A, where you got cutscenes with all the side characters. Those were entertaining every once in a while but I just did not care about the cast in this game. Even Caim, who has an iconic design (which may have been caused by a very iconic user on this site) I just didn't like as much as I should've. I know the whole point of him not speaking is for the characters to describe how awful his slaughtering is and for you the player to basically take his role. That's a cool concept but it just made me not care about his character. It's funny how I'm more positive on the overall gameplay than the story, but the peaks of the endgame story cutscenes overshadow everything else at least. I just wish there was more idk. Also, that final boss, holy shit idk how you're supposed to do that without the pause trick or looking up inputs. I had to do both cuz otherwise I would've just not beaten the game lol.
Additionally, I may not really care about the cast in this game, but I can't deny the voice acting is actually surprisingly good. It's a mix of British and American voice actors but it works surprisingly well, especially for a game from 2003. Aroch, specifically when you summon her and she screams "WHERE ARE MY CHILDREN", holy crap is it satisfying. Idk who voices her but that voice actress was cooking.
So yeah, like I said, it's a very conflicting game for me. Usually you see people either loving or hating this one but I just personally think it's a decent little game that does some really unique things. I'm glad to finally have beaten this as a huge NieR fan and I'm glad I did end up enjoying this one overall. Excited to play 3 in the future, tho I also own that physically too and idk if I'm ready for the framerate lol.
6.5/10
In 2021, I first saw the trailer for NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139. I was a huge fan of Automata and had also played a bit of Gestalt before dropping it, so I was no stranger to the series. I wanted to play Replicant but also wanted to play every prior game beforehand. Alongside going back to Gestalt and finally beating that, I also decided to buy both Drakengard and Drakengard 3 since I knew they were connected to the series somehow. Fast forward to 2022, I randomly decide to finally dive into the Drakengard games. I play up until like chapter 3 or 4 I think and drop the game due to a skill issue. What did I think of it? I thought it was shit! Not only did I not like the gameplay, which most people don't ofc, I also just thought the story was super boring up to that point. The story was the main reason you'd be playing the game, so for me to not be into the characters or story at all, I just wasn't motivated to continue playing it. Fast forward to present day, fellow user Lemonstrade eggs me on to play it as a joke. Well I didn't back down and decided to beat it this time. The first mission or two, I immediately thought "yup this is still shit". But then I remembered some of the gameplay mechanics that made the game more tolerable and bada bing, I started to enjoy myself more.
So let's get into the absolute most contentious aspect of the game, the gameplay. The biggest issue I had with it, and it's still its biggest issue now, is it doesn't flow the best due to the camera. It's a fixed camera depending on what way you're facing and the right stick only tilts the screen a bit and goes back in place when you let go of it. If there's an enemy behind you, this can be really clunky feeling as you manually have to face the enemy before you can see them in front of you. I got used to this pretty quickly but this is the only major issue I had with the gameplay tbh. Otherwise, it's just a perfectly fine hack and slash/musou game. The actual gameplay, not including camera issues, is perfectly serviceable I felt. It actually does get satisfying killing hoardes of enemies while the side characters talk about how brutal Caim is. That plus there's combos that can knock enemies down which makes the gameplay more tolerable, there's summonable characters that can just mow down hoardes of enemies like nothing and the magic that changes depending on what weapon you're using. The combat is surprisingly more in depth than you'd think, and that's not even getting into the air combat. I found that more enjoyable from the start tho that can be even more frustrating than the ground combat at points just because how slow it is to aim sometimes. That's only an issue with later encounters and bosses but either way, the combat in this game? Not bad honestly, it's not great ofc but in the end I found it a lot enjoyable than when I played the game initially.
The music is honestly super fitting and also really experimental and out there. A big chunk of the songs sound like looping messes. It kind of sounds shit at first, and look I aint listening to the OST outside of the game, but it really is memorable. Playing this 2 years later, I still remembered all the early game songs. I wouldn't say I actually "like" the ost, except for maybe a couple of the more comprehensible songs, but it's still a good ost since the game is trying to drive you crazy.
Diving right into the story, I'm gonna just say it. I didn't think it was mind-blowing at all or even that amazing. My issue with not caring about the story or the characters still applied to a good chunk of my playtime here. It wasn't until like the last third, and all the endings, where I was actually interested. I really really enjoyed how crazy it got near the end, and I really loved the dark fantasy elements. I just wish more of the game was like that, and that the earlier chapters weren't so boring. But I also think that was the whole point, it was to subvert expectations and make you think it'll just be a boring fantasy game only to surprise you with all that craziness in the endgame. It also wasn't until post ending A, where you got cutscenes with all the side characters. Those were entertaining every once in a while but I just did not care about the cast in this game. Even Caim, who has an iconic design (which may have been caused by a very iconic user on this site) I just didn't like as much as I should've. I know the whole point of him not speaking is for the characters to describe how awful his slaughtering is and for you the player to basically take his role. That's a cool concept but it just made me not care about his character. It's funny how I'm more positive on the overall gameplay than the story, but the peaks of the endgame story cutscenes overshadow everything else at least. I just wish there was more idk. Also, that final boss, holy shit idk how you're supposed to do that without the pause trick or looking up inputs. I had to do both cuz otherwise I would've just not beaten the game lol.
Additionally, I may not really care about the cast in this game, but I can't deny the voice acting is actually surprisingly good. It's a mix of British and American voice actors but it works surprisingly well, especially for a game from 2003. Aroch, specifically when you summon her and she screams "WHERE ARE MY CHILDREN", holy crap is it satisfying. Idk who voices her but that voice actress was cooking.
So yeah, like I said, it's a very conflicting game for me. Usually you see people either loving or hating this one but I just personally think it's a decent little game that does some really unique things. I'm glad to finally have beaten this as a huge NieR fan and I'm glad I did end up enjoying this one overall. Excited to play 3 in the future, tho I also own that physically too and idk if I'm ready for the framerate lol.
6.5/10
I CAIM IN MY PANTS
Score raised by one point because being so bad it leaves me speechless is a great use of ludonarrative
YES
ABSURDAMENTE BOM (só pela lore, porque o resto..)
Drakengard não falha em NADA na história, a forma de contar é objetiva e fácil de entender e cada vez mais que você vai avançando os capítulos mais você fica perplexo com a estranheza aterrorizante do mundo que o jogo nos coloca.
Sua atmosfera é pesada, o clima das batalhas é pesado e as músicas que correm em cada capítulo deste livro ajuda a criar a tensão em cada cenário de guerra. Você vai sentir medo uma hora mesmo que o jogo nem seja de terror, um desconforto pode tomar conta de sua cabeça se você se encontrar perdido e rodeado de inimigos a sua volta, e isso é incrível.
Agora indo pra parte de gameplay que é o que realmente faz a gente se divertir com o jogo, bom.. ela é mais ou menos pra hoje em dia. Muitas das vezes ela é repetitiva e entediante, papo de tu jogar ali por umas 2 ou 1 hora e já sentir aquele cansaço aquela gastura sabe. então eu aconselho jogar Drakengard sempre com um jogo a mais ai pra tu ir passando o tempo quando a gameplay dele já tiver cansativa.
E claro, é um jogo Musou, pra quem não conhece o gênero é do estilo de Dynasty Warriors só que umas pessoas experientes nesse tipo de jogo, disseram que o Drakengard é bem diferente e apresenta mecânicas interessantes, eu mesmo nunca joguei nenhum Musou então não posso opinar sobre isso
Pra mim essa foi uma experiência muito boa e acho que vale a pena irem dar uma zoiada no Drakengard hoje em dia, jogar um pouco ali pra ver se gosta porque realmente a Lore disso aqui é algo de se aplaudir e eu diria até essencial na vida de todos os gamers (eu odeio esse termo parece que to em 2010)
Drakengard não falha em NADA na história, a forma de contar é objetiva e fácil de entender e cada vez mais que você vai avançando os capítulos mais você fica perplexo com a estranheza aterrorizante do mundo que o jogo nos coloca.
Sua atmosfera é pesada, o clima das batalhas é pesado e as músicas que correm em cada capítulo deste livro ajuda a criar a tensão em cada cenário de guerra. Você vai sentir medo uma hora mesmo que o jogo nem seja de terror, um desconforto pode tomar conta de sua cabeça se você se encontrar perdido e rodeado de inimigos a sua volta, e isso é incrível.
Agora indo pra parte de gameplay que é o que realmente faz a gente se divertir com o jogo, bom.. ela é mais ou menos pra hoje em dia. Muitas das vezes ela é repetitiva e entediante, papo de tu jogar ali por umas 2 ou 1 hora e já sentir aquele cansaço aquela gastura sabe. então eu aconselho jogar Drakengard sempre com um jogo a mais ai pra tu ir passando o tempo quando a gameplay dele já tiver cansativa.
E claro, é um jogo Musou, pra quem não conhece o gênero é do estilo de Dynasty Warriors só que umas pessoas experientes nesse tipo de jogo, disseram que o Drakengard é bem diferente e apresenta mecânicas interessantes, eu mesmo nunca joguei nenhum Musou então não posso opinar sobre isso
Pra mim essa foi uma experiência muito boa e acho que vale a pena irem dar uma zoiada no Drakengard hoje em dia, jogar um pouco ali pra ver se gosta porque realmente a Lore disso aqui é algo de se aplaudir e eu diria até essencial na vida de todos os gamers (eu odeio esse termo parece que to em 2010)
This review contains spoilers
Skip this first paragraph if you want to just start with the gameplay breakdown.
I think most would agree that most of Yoko Taro's games are not fun to play. I would go as far as to say that none of them are, but I'm aware that Automata fans would sharply disagree with that. I think none of his games are satisfying tests of dexterity, pattern-recognition, or ability to strategize. At best, they're B action-games. At worst, they're miserable repetitive slogs. They're never all of one or the other though. I do think Taro's direction is in service of an experience at the expense of gameplay. Which means, these games wouldn't have their current strongest points if say Taro was writing and someone else was directing. You kind of have to accept that from an experience-crafting perspective, you're stuck with a bad/mediocre game. I do feel that Taro can sometimes reward your patience with something that's at least interesting.
Ground combat goes like this; you mash square to do light-attacks. At various points in this chain, you can press triangle to unleash a finisher. Hitting enemies with non-magic attacks builds your chain. Enemies drop orbs when you hit them, 17, 36, 57, 77, and 100 times in one chain. The first three orb drops will be a green one for health if you need to heal or a red orb that creates a small shockwave. The fourth orb is always a red one regardless of your HP. The fifth orb is the most useful. It's a black orb that massively powers up Caim so that he can one-shot the mooks and work through the sponges quicker. It does take a bit of strategy and skill (pick the correct weapon, space your attacks right) to do this later in the game. Another orb drops at 150, but you probably won't do this often. I didn't get a chain much further than that either.
Aerial combat goes like this; your dragon flies forward by itself and has tank-controls otherwise, something important to remember when the auto-lock points you at something. L1/R1 dodge you left and right, relative to where you're facing, and pressing both at once nets you a quick-turn. Cross boosts your speed, and you can still L1/R1 dodge while holding cross. Tapping square unleashes a strong fireball that builds a little magic. Holding square charges weaker homing fireballs that build more magic. A magic-attack is screen-clearing. You can also ride the dragon in most of the ground-combat stages, and the main difference is a lack of 3D flight-control (you can't ascend/descend) and you don't have the homing-attacks.
The RPG-leveling doesn't really matter for the most part. You can level up Caim to increase his HP, but all damage is avoidable and some bosses can still shred you with a maxed HP gauge. You're better off learning to dodge than grinding for EXP. Leveling up Caim's damage doesn't really matter either. Weapons have their own EXP that's accrued by defeating enemies, but the weapons don't get significantly better from their starting stats. Your damage will go up by finding a better weapon. The strongest weapon in the game's starting stats match most of the other weapons at max-level. It is worth it to level the dragon. That increases its attack outright, which will reduce the game's tedium incrementally.
The last bit of gameplay is your allies. You can temporarily summon them 3 times per stage. They're out on a time-limit represented by their remaining HP. Getting hit drains it quicker, but they can't die or anything. Allies have insanely strong magic-attacks, and can cast whenever. Their attacks nuke most of the spongiest sponges in one hit, including enemies that are supposed to be immune to magic-attacks.
Enemies in the ground stages are almost all completely worthless. The only fun you can have is trying to group them to build your chain. The archers will get significantly more accurate if you're on your dragon and can knock you off pretty quick. The dragon's attacks are also strictly magical, so you'll have to get your hands dirty yourself whenever magic-immune enemies show up. Enemies in the aerial stages are better just because it's more fun to dodge things while flying around than it is to mash square on a million mooks. The boss-fights, of which there are few, are the best part of the game.
This game is also, for better or worse, insanely meaty. There are 65 weapons to collect and 3 allies. There are also plenty of hidden events and stages. Many of these are unlocked by sub-missions, some hidden some not, such as defeating specific enemies in specific locations, completing stages in a time limit, being in a stage for a long time (these ones are bad), or are just hidden in chests. The weapons in particular are hidden across every mode; events, story missions, free expeditions, and this includes ground and aerial variants. You will be playing this game for a long time if you want every weapon, even if you use a guide to hunt down the cryptic ones. I found about 10 of them by myself. The game also has 5 endings, though, thankfully, you just have to play the new chapters after getting an ending instead of going through the entire thing again. But, you do have to get all 65 weapons for the final ending (you don't have to level any of them up though).
Final Spoiler Warning, it's story time.
The game takes place in a low-fantasy alternate-reality version of 11th century medieval Europe where magic was introduced to the world. You play as Caim, a dude who lost his kingdom and his parents (they got killed by a dragon), as he tries to protect his sister. 6 years of constant fighting has made him a psychotic murderer and not particularly heroic. He mainly fights because he's perpetually angry. The game starts with a castle housing his sister, who is the current "goddess", under siege. Caim is, for better or worse, really good at fighting. But, he's just a guy. After mowing through 50-100 dudes outside the front door to get inside, he is mortally wounded and on his way out. On the ground in front of him is an also mortally wounded dragon. Caim hates dragons because they killed his parents, and the wounded dragon right there hates humans. If they enter a pact with each other, they get to live. Caim can't die because he's got shit to do, and the dragon's not interested in being dead either. They enter the pact which takes away whatever is most valuable to the human (surprisingly for Caim, this would be his ability to speak) in exchange for superhuman abilities (Caim and the dragon share a health-pool after this) and Caim gets to use the dragon's abilities (riding around on it while it blows things up) to help in combat. Caim does temporarily save his sister before she's kidnapped again, and her fiancee, and Caim's childhood friend, turns evil. You spend the rest of the campaign slogging through boring fights to get to your sister once again, and she kills herself. Turns out, the "goddess" is a person who prevents the world from ending by not killing themselves. It's ok if someone else kills them. The "goddess" status will just transfer to someone else. But, she did actually kill herself. All of the endings branch off after this point.
So, the interesting parts of the story take place in a cosmic horror apocalypse. It is, to me, fascinating to watch these people struggle to make it as each successive ending to the game gets increasingly bleak/weird. This is what the slog is for. To see this stuff.
We're reviewing a game here though. Your mileage may vary on the above story coverage, but it won't factor into the score. For its gameplay alone, the game just isn't worth playing. It's almost all bad combat almost all the time. The aerial missions might be the best part, but the game still wouldn't be worth playing if they were the only thing in it. There just aren't enough good moments to justify it. However, there are a handful of good boss fights, they're just behind the ending criteria.
The game is a 1.5/5 for me. It gets the 0.5 extra for the few good boss fights in it. However, if you're after more than gameplay, you might find this game worth checking out. I absolutely would not think less of anyone for avoiding the game because of its gameplay though. For what it's worth, I found the narrative, eventually, more interesting than NieR or Automata.
I think most would agree that most of Yoko Taro's games are not fun to play. I would go as far as to say that none of them are, but I'm aware that Automata fans would sharply disagree with that. I think none of his games are satisfying tests of dexterity, pattern-recognition, or ability to strategize. At best, they're B action-games. At worst, they're miserable repetitive slogs. They're never all of one or the other though. I do think Taro's direction is in service of an experience at the expense of gameplay. Which means, these games wouldn't have their current strongest points if say Taro was writing and someone else was directing. You kind of have to accept that from an experience-crafting perspective, you're stuck with a bad/mediocre game. I do feel that Taro can sometimes reward your patience with something that's at least interesting.
Ground combat goes like this; you mash square to do light-attacks. At various points in this chain, you can press triangle to unleash a finisher. Hitting enemies with non-magic attacks builds your chain. Enemies drop orbs when you hit them, 17, 36, 57, 77, and 100 times in one chain. The first three orb drops will be a green one for health if you need to heal or a red orb that creates a small shockwave. The fourth orb is always a red one regardless of your HP. The fifth orb is the most useful. It's a black orb that massively powers up Caim so that he can one-shot the mooks and work through the sponges quicker. It does take a bit of strategy and skill (pick the correct weapon, space your attacks right) to do this later in the game. Another orb drops at 150, but you probably won't do this often. I didn't get a chain much further than that either.
Aerial combat goes like this; your dragon flies forward by itself and has tank-controls otherwise, something important to remember when the auto-lock points you at something. L1/R1 dodge you left and right, relative to where you're facing, and pressing both at once nets you a quick-turn. Cross boosts your speed, and you can still L1/R1 dodge while holding cross. Tapping square unleashes a strong fireball that builds a little magic. Holding square charges weaker homing fireballs that build more magic. A magic-attack is screen-clearing. You can also ride the dragon in most of the ground-combat stages, and the main difference is a lack of 3D flight-control (you can't ascend/descend) and you don't have the homing-attacks.
The RPG-leveling doesn't really matter for the most part. You can level up Caim to increase his HP, but all damage is avoidable and some bosses can still shred you with a maxed HP gauge. You're better off learning to dodge than grinding for EXP. Leveling up Caim's damage doesn't really matter either. Weapons have their own EXP that's accrued by defeating enemies, but the weapons don't get significantly better from their starting stats. Your damage will go up by finding a better weapon. The strongest weapon in the game's starting stats match most of the other weapons at max-level. It is worth it to level the dragon. That increases its attack outright, which will reduce the game's tedium incrementally.
The last bit of gameplay is your allies. You can temporarily summon them 3 times per stage. They're out on a time-limit represented by their remaining HP. Getting hit drains it quicker, but they can't die or anything. Allies have insanely strong magic-attacks, and can cast whenever. Their attacks nuke most of the spongiest sponges in one hit, including enemies that are supposed to be immune to magic-attacks.
Enemies in the ground stages are almost all completely worthless. The only fun you can have is trying to group them to build your chain. The archers will get significantly more accurate if you're on your dragon and can knock you off pretty quick. The dragon's attacks are also strictly magical, so you'll have to get your hands dirty yourself whenever magic-immune enemies show up. Enemies in the aerial stages are better just because it's more fun to dodge things while flying around than it is to mash square on a million mooks. The boss-fights, of which there are few, are the best part of the game.
This game is also, for better or worse, insanely meaty. There are 65 weapons to collect and 3 allies. There are also plenty of hidden events and stages. Many of these are unlocked by sub-missions, some hidden some not, such as defeating specific enemies in specific locations, completing stages in a time limit, being in a stage for a long time (these ones are bad), or are just hidden in chests. The weapons in particular are hidden across every mode; events, story missions, free expeditions, and this includes ground and aerial variants. You will be playing this game for a long time if you want every weapon, even if you use a guide to hunt down the cryptic ones. I found about 10 of them by myself. The game also has 5 endings, though, thankfully, you just have to play the new chapters after getting an ending instead of going through the entire thing again. But, you do have to get all 65 weapons for the final ending (you don't have to level any of them up though).
Final Spoiler Warning, it's story time.
The game takes place in a low-fantasy alternate-reality version of 11th century medieval Europe where magic was introduced to the world. You play as Caim, a dude who lost his kingdom and his parents (they got killed by a dragon), as he tries to protect his sister. 6 years of constant fighting has made him a psychotic murderer and not particularly heroic. He mainly fights because he's perpetually angry. The game starts with a castle housing his sister, who is the current "goddess", under siege. Caim is, for better or worse, really good at fighting. But, he's just a guy. After mowing through 50-100 dudes outside the front door to get inside, he is mortally wounded and on his way out. On the ground in front of him is an also mortally wounded dragon. Caim hates dragons because they killed his parents, and the wounded dragon right there hates humans. If they enter a pact with each other, they get to live. Caim can't die because he's got shit to do, and the dragon's not interested in being dead either. They enter the pact which takes away whatever is most valuable to the human (surprisingly for Caim, this would be his ability to speak) in exchange for superhuman abilities (Caim and the dragon share a health-pool after this) and Caim gets to use the dragon's abilities (riding around on it while it blows things up) to help in combat. Caim does temporarily save his sister before she's kidnapped again, and her fiancee, and Caim's childhood friend, turns evil. You spend the rest of the campaign slogging through boring fights to get to your sister once again, and she kills herself. Turns out, the "goddess" is a person who prevents the world from ending by not killing themselves. It's ok if someone else kills them. The "goddess" status will just transfer to someone else. But, she did actually kill herself. All of the endings branch off after this point.
So, the interesting parts of the story take place in a cosmic horror apocalypse. It is, to me, fascinating to watch these people struggle to make it as each successive ending to the game gets increasingly bleak/weird. This is what the slog is for. To see this stuff.
We're reviewing a game here though. Your mileage may vary on the above story coverage, but it won't factor into the score. For its gameplay alone, the game just isn't worth playing. It's almost all bad combat almost all the time. The aerial missions might be the best part, but the game still wouldn't be worth playing if they were the only thing in it. There just aren't enough good moments to justify it. However, there are a handful of good boss fights, they're just behind the ending criteria.
The game is a 1.5/5 for me. It gets the 0.5 extra for the few good boss fights in it. However, if you're after more than gameplay, you might find this game worth checking out. I absolutely would not think less of anyone for avoiding the game because of its gameplay though. For what it's worth, I found the narrative, eventually, more interesting than NieR or Automata.
Fantastic story with very cohesive themes and symbolism that feels genuinely subversive in its commentary on violence and how its presented in most games. Overall an oppressively fatalistic game but has some truly touching moments of hope and optimism sprinkled in, which end up being very effective given how dark the rest of the game is.
Brought down a bit by enjoyable but pretty simplistic musou gameplay that can get a bit tedious after a while. A lot of people say that the musou gameplay in Drakengard is bad on purpose which 1. is just wrong - its definitely not bad just tedious after a while and 2. i refuse to believe that Drakengard’s various gameplay flaws were meant to be “bad on purpose". This game is definitely disturbing and disquieting and unconventional on purpose - which I guess some people could be referring to when they say "bad" - but the idea that Yoko Taro would intentionally sabotage the gameplay in Drakengard to make a point is kind of ridiculous to me. For any piece of media with profit motivation - which this game does have being published by Square Enix - its incredibly rare and difficult for a creator to essentially make it "bad on purpose". There are too many people to push back against it and the higher ups would have to be remarkably incompetent to not notice this sort of thing going on and course correct. The only piece of mass-market media where i actually believe this claim of "bad on purpose" is Freddy Got Fingered and that was like a once in a generation fluke for a studio to somehow let that kind of thing happen.
Anyway really unique and genuinely subversive game with clearly a lot of artistic passion behind it. Highly recommend given just how one of a kind it is.
Brought down a bit by enjoyable but pretty simplistic musou gameplay that can get a bit tedious after a while. A lot of people say that the musou gameplay in Drakengard is bad on purpose which 1. is just wrong - its definitely not bad just tedious after a while and 2. i refuse to believe that Drakengard’s various gameplay flaws were meant to be “bad on purpose". This game is definitely disturbing and disquieting and unconventional on purpose - which I guess some people could be referring to when they say "bad" - but the idea that Yoko Taro would intentionally sabotage the gameplay in Drakengard to make a point is kind of ridiculous to me. For any piece of media with profit motivation - which this game does have being published by Square Enix - its incredibly rare and difficult for a creator to essentially make it "bad on purpose". There are too many people to push back against it and the higher ups would have to be remarkably incompetent to not notice this sort of thing going on and course correct. The only piece of mass-market media where i actually believe this claim of "bad on purpose" is Freddy Got Fingered and that was like a once in a generation fluke for a studio to somehow let that kind of thing happen.
Anyway really unique and genuinely subversive game with clearly a lot of artistic passion behind it. Highly recommend given just how one of a kind it is.
Aprecio los esfuerzos conscientes de Yoko Taro para que el juego se aproxime lo máximo posible a una lobotomía, no sé ni que rating ponerle siquiera