I don't know if I liked it more or less than curious village. Most puzzles I enjoyed, although unlike the first one I abandoned some (fuck the hidden trash sliding puzzle) and I had even more hint coins in the end of this one despite probably using more than I did in the first. I wouldn't say it had plot holes but some parts were stretched pretty thin on how much I was willing to suspend my disbelief. I did like the art of this one more I think, I love mysteries on a train and the main locale of the game looks stunning. Most important of all though, this one has a sick ass sword fight, which automatically makes it 10 times more enjoyable.

Definitely my favorite of the original trilogy. The plot definitely falls apart under the slightest scrutiny but do I care? throughout the game I was thinking "there is no way they'd do that, would they?" and they DID IT! One of my favorite tropes is when time passes off screen and characters change a ton, it was one of my favorite parts of apollo justice, and this has that trope! I like it when the music gets hype as shit for like 8 seconds then stops, god bless. Also if you haven't, listen to the orchestral renditions of layton ost, it's like seeing it break out of it's chains of being a ds game and blossoming into it's full potential. Every game I finish I'm more excited for the next.

I love it when an RPG's combat is just self contained combat where each battle is more like a puzzle. The battles in this one aren't difficult but that doesn't really matter they're still interesting and are baked into the plot very well. The plot is extremely emotional and with many tearjerkers to me they feel like the author just wants to make the player sad which is fine but I'm happy (or sad I guess) to say this one has an interesting plot as well that invested me into the characters and the outcomes felt like a very natural progression. Very good game.

Goes so hard idc. The themes it brings up about alienation and how people deal with what that entails are explored in such fascinating ways, like the only things that come close for me in that regard are sayaka murata's books and (maybe) cows by matthew stokoe. I don't think I can actually say anything fully coherent about this game that gets across how much it means to me but it's probably the most influential anything on my own work. This isn't for everyone, hell I'd probably say that it isn't for anyone, but that's the whole point of it and if it tried to defang any of its transgressions I don't think it would work as well as it somehow does.

Does something crazy and unlike drakengard 1, which has neither characters nor story, this one has a vague semblance of characters and a story. For real though, most people who hate the gameplay even concede "the story and characters are good" but I don't know? It's all boring? Plot threads kind of just show up and end without a second in the oven. Zero's novella is really good, probably the best moment in drakenier that isn't music, but she is straight up a different fucking character in the game so it doesn't matter because why would anything. Music and character designs were good, that was nice. I probably wouldn't have actually gotten through it except for the fact that seeing zero get covered in blood as you fight looks really good.