You ever played a game you love to bits, but you won't or rather can't recommend to anyone?
Playing Drakengard 3 after having finished Nier Automata a while ago is kinda weird. Drakengard and Nier are very different from one another, even if they are connected and made by the same director. Drakengard is strange, occasionally edgy and very often completely unhinged. Nier in contrast has it's weird moments and Yoko-isms, but rather intends to convey some deep melancholy.
Yet these series aren't only linked by their shared timeline and creator, they are also the vehicle by which Yoko explores themes. Drakengard 1 and Nier (Replicant) are answering the question why people (or players) kill each other - and they do it very differently. Drakengard is like Taro Yoko's first idea for themes, without much investigation, whereas in Nier the answers seem to be way deeper and more profound.
So while I mentioned in my Nier Automata Review that it contemplates life and argues that we should strife to reach out to one another, Drakengard 3 kinda wants the same, but not quite.
About the first half of Drakengard 3 is vehemently trying to dissuade you from engaging with it further. Be it because we can't sympathize with the protagonist's (seemingly) selfish and crude goals. Be it because the whole party is constantly cracking (seldomly funny) sex jokes/ innunendos. Be it because everything seems to be gory or based on excretions of any kind. Or be it because their is no sense of earnestness to be found. - this is all true for the first half and that is kinda the point. If you have to get to know someone to be able to understand them this game will show you how hard that can be.
The characters here are so warpped up in their own desires, that it's hard for them to look beyond and see what other people around them might need. In One's DLC she explains that the Disciples were made to quench the desires of the Intoners. "Desires for sex, honor, cruelty, romance, loneliness" - And yet, they all fail spectacularly. The Disciples were made for the Intoners and yet none of the couples seem to fit.
A couple of examples:
Five yearns for pretty things and any kind of self-indulgence to overshadow her deep inner sadness, while Dito only yearns for an ugly, rotting world and couldn't give less about the feelings of others.
Three wants to do nothing but create dolls and later she experiments on monsters and humans to create perfect soldiers, whereas Octa just wants to fuck - the whole goddamn time.
No-one is happy in any of these supposedly pre-ordained relationships. It's as if bonds between each other are destined to fail and any meaningful attempt is nothing but a waste of time. Mikhail will ask again and again, why Zero can't just talk to her sister to solve the problems and every time she shuts him down - there is no other way.
If you go through the rather predatory DLC and read the side-stories another topic gets a stronger focus: life is portrayed as nothing but constant fighting. Fights for ideology (carrying over Nier's themes here) or a fight for survival, there is nothing else to it. - Or is there?
Despite having an awful life leading up to the events of Drakengard 3, she does find a single companion: Michael, the white dragon, and when he dies at the beginning of the game, she struggles to connect again to his reincarnation Mikhail, but she needs him. Despite it all, having little moments of connections, having little pieces of happiness, having someone to rely on in all this constant fighting, having someone by your side, even if understanding and trusting each other is mostly hard - or even impossible - it's still something worth living for.
P.S. some further musings you shouldn't take too serious:
I don't think there went any research into it, but it almost seems as if every Intoner has a disability or mental illness.
Five is heavily depressed, only overshadowing it with all her consumption of food, constatn buying of new dresses or unending appetite for sex.
Four has the worst inferiority complex I've ever seen depicted in fiction.
Three has autism. She walks funny, talks in a monotone voice, except when talking about her favourite thing experimenting on "dolls" and doesn't show much interest in people around her. (I don't think it's a nice depiction of autism though, she is super selfish and lacks any empathy whatsoever. Almost seems as if she is psychopathic)
Two is... not the smartest. She almost seem to have some developmental problems in how childish she acts (though this could also just be the "adorable anime girl" trope cranked up to eleven.
and One can't really stand to be around anyone because of her hightened senses resoluting in immense loneliness. (Which could also go for autism or just a sort of social anxiety, I guess).
I kinda like how the whole Disciple thing as well as brother One kinda switches the christian creation story with Adam and Eve around and as such, this game actually tackles feminist themes, though I'm not too sure how well they are depicted.
...I really like Three (nonesensical) riddles and aphorisms:
Whether human or beast, all should brush their teeth between meals
None of us in this world are powerful. We merely hide our faults and guard our weaknesses. We were all lost forms of existence from the start
Dreamlike days are nothing but dreams. Unbelievable truths are nothing but lies
Playing Drakengard 3 after having finished Nier Automata a while ago is kinda weird. Drakengard and Nier are very different from one another, even if they are connected and made by the same director. Drakengard is strange, occasionally edgy and very often completely unhinged. Nier in contrast has it's weird moments and Yoko-isms, but rather intends to convey some deep melancholy.
Yet these series aren't only linked by their shared timeline and creator, they are also the vehicle by which Yoko explores themes. Drakengard 1 and Nier (Replicant) are answering the question why people (or players) kill each other - and they do it very differently. Drakengard is like Taro Yoko's first idea for themes, without much investigation, whereas in Nier the answers seem to be way deeper and more profound.
So while I mentioned in my Nier Automata Review that it contemplates life and argues that we should strife to reach out to one another, Drakengard 3 kinda wants the same, but not quite.
About the first half of Drakengard 3 is vehemently trying to dissuade you from engaging with it further. Be it because we can't sympathize with the protagonist's (seemingly) selfish and crude goals. Be it because the whole party is constantly cracking (seldomly funny) sex jokes/ innunendos. Be it because everything seems to be gory or based on excretions of any kind. Or be it because their is no sense of earnestness to be found. - this is all true for the first half and that is kinda the point. If you have to get to know someone to be able to understand them this game will show you how hard that can be.
The characters here are so warpped up in their own desires, that it's hard for them to look beyond and see what other people around them might need. In One's DLC she explains that the Disciples were made to quench the desires of the Intoners. "Desires for sex, honor, cruelty, romance, loneliness" - And yet, they all fail spectacularly. The Disciples were made for the Intoners and yet none of the couples seem to fit.
A couple of examples:
Five yearns for pretty things and any kind of self-indulgence to overshadow her deep inner sadness, while Dito only yearns for an ugly, rotting world and couldn't give less about the feelings of others.
Three wants to do nothing but create dolls and later she experiments on monsters and humans to create perfect soldiers, whereas Octa just wants to fuck - the whole goddamn time.
No-one is happy in any of these supposedly pre-ordained relationships. It's as if bonds between each other are destined to fail and any meaningful attempt is nothing but a waste of time. Mikhail will ask again and again, why Zero can't just talk to her sister to solve the problems and every time she shuts him down - there is no other way.
If you go through the rather predatory DLC and read the side-stories another topic gets a stronger focus: life is portrayed as nothing but constant fighting. Fights for ideology (carrying over Nier's themes here) or a fight for survival, there is nothing else to it. - Or is there?
Despite having an awful life leading up to the events of Drakengard 3, she does find a single companion: Michael, the white dragon, and when he dies at the beginning of the game, she struggles to connect again to his reincarnation Mikhail, but she needs him. Despite it all, having little moments of connections, having little pieces of happiness, having someone to rely on in all this constant fighting, having someone by your side, even if understanding and trusting each other is mostly hard - or even impossible - it's still something worth living for.
P.S. some further musings you shouldn't take too serious:
I don't think there went any research into it, but it almost seems as if every Intoner has a disability or mental illness.
Five is heavily depressed, only overshadowing it with all her consumption of food, constatn buying of new dresses or unending appetite for sex.
Four has the worst inferiority complex I've ever seen depicted in fiction.
Three has autism. She walks funny, talks in a monotone voice, except when talking about her favourite thing experimenting on "dolls" and doesn't show much interest in people around her. (I don't think it's a nice depiction of autism though, she is super selfish and lacks any empathy whatsoever. Almost seems as if she is psychopathic)
Two is... not the smartest. She almost seem to have some developmental problems in how childish she acts (though this could also just be the "adorable anime girl" trope cranked up to eleven.
and One can't really stand to be around anyone because of her hightened senses resoluting in immense loneliness. (Which could also go for autism or just a sort of social anxiety, I guess).
I kinda like how the whole Disciple thing as well as brother One kinda switches the christian creation story with Adam and Eve around and as such, this game actually tackles feminist themes, though I'm not too sure how well they are depicted.
...I really like Three (nonesensical) riddles and aphorisms:
Whether human or beast, all should brush their teeth between meals
None of us in this world are powerful. We merely hide our faults and guard our weaknesses. We were all lost forms of existence from the start
Dreamlike days are nothing but dreams. Unbelievable truths are nothing but lies