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Drakengard: A Review by Aeri.

Vex L'Cour

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You guys remember my 'Yuki Rates' Section I used to do. Well I've decided to write one more.

((FYI, I add TL;DRs to theese now, so scroll to the bottom and you'll find it!))

The game I am writing about is Drakengard, a game I fell in love with many years ago. Its made by Caviar and good ol' Square Enix and from what I know the only platform is PS2, but I could be wrong.
Anyway. The game begins with the classic 'Two armies' scenario. And you're just one guy in the middle of it, not some loner, or some wuss either. Your character is Caim, a young noble who seeks revenge on the opposing army (The Empire) and will stop at nothing to fullfill his instatiable blood lust and revenge. After the first cinematic Caim is left with a mortal wound, which luckily doesn't effect the performance of the first mission. After that is completed you learn of Caim's hate toward the empire, who used dragons to slaughter his parents, when he comes across a red dragon which has been staked to the ground by the empire in the castles courtyard. A red dragon, the same species as the ones which killed his parents.
Just as Caim lifts his sword to kill the dragon it speaks and within moments their swapping souls (in a pact) and becoming intensly powerfull.

The gameplay in the game, at first is quite cool, the ground battles are similer to Dynasty Warriors, but its just YOU against hundreds or even thousands of mobs which are packed into tiny groups. With S-E's 'Lets throw in an RPG element' you find minute RPg elements, leveling up weapons, Caim and your dragon with each kill they make respectivly. The aerial battles are often the best ones, sometimes the bloody dragon can be a right pain in the ass to control so you will need practise.

But, by about chapter 3 the game offers up most, if not ALL of its tricks, considering theres 13 chapters with only 1 other kind of gameplay mode it hasn't shown, this isn't to great. But I digress, it is saved by the stunning CGI cinematics (like all Square Enix games) and in-depth (if not ****ed up and odd) storyline.

The game features MANY weapons to get your hands on, you can also unlock allies to help you in battle with some stunning battle effects and spells, as well as 'Multiple endings' which you must play through under certain conditions to open, ranging from finding an ally to collecting every single weapon in the game. As you unlock the endings however you start to see the sheer insanity of the Square Enix team, going from the first relitivly happy 'And they all lived happily ever after' ending to endings where the whole world is basically ****ed in increasingly worrying and messed up ways. Ranging from random super flying things which come from your characters 'sister', to death by huge baby things.

In terms of graphics this game, as you expect from a Square Enix game, has quite good graphics, though it loves to put fog in to make battles more annoying (so you'll only ever see 3/4 groups of mobs on the screen at a time) and the camera can be really ****ing difficult to control. The game does also suffer the horrible slow-down, which for a game by these guys is annoying and quite a let-down, we all know the PS2 at that time (this was released around the time of GTA San-Andreas...Or at least thats when I got it) had many limitations and the games had yet to be perfected, but this was a piss-take.

The bigger problem is the fact after the pact with the dragon Caim becomes a mute. Meaning the only way to know his feelings is through what the other characters say, which isn't as amazing as hearing it from his lips. I want to HEAR his hatred for the enemy, not have it portrayed by another. The other let down is definatly how the mobs are quite ****ing dumb. Following a polygon battle formation, moving in unison and not making a sound as you kill them (minus the slash of a sword and the sound of armor clanking), not a single cry or anything. The blood effects are cool, for the 5 seconds they exist on screen.

The enviroments are amazing, don't get me wrong. But being dulled by fog and being bathed in drab browns and greys REALLY brings a game downhill no? Plus the looping music which sounds like as though it was taken out of one of thoose Psycho-thriller horrors doesn't help things. So if you're gunna play have some music of your own and alternate between turning it off during the cutscenes, then muting the TV and turning your music on during battles.

Ok, it sounds like my original opening has said it was brilliant and I've written a good few paragraphs of problems. I admit that, but I STILL stand by my word, its one of the greatest games I've ever played and I really want to continue playing the series. Sure it has problems but not all games are perfect. Think of it like your grandma, shes old, not very good for much or good to look at, fun for the fact she repeats herself and has some interesting features, but you'd NEVER give her up and you still love her the same. This game is like that.

I love this game, I do urge people to buy it and at least play it once. Its BOUND to be cheap as hell now. Although you might grow bored of it quick if you like mindless hack-and-slash games or games with a good story-line then this is your game.

TL;DR- Amazing, many limitations but overall a game I recommend. Even if it is fairly crap in areas and sometimes repetitive.
 
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Holy god yes Drakengard. Been playing it since 02. Yes yes yes yes yes.

You can't really say square had anything to do with the cutscenes or? anything. They're just the publisher. Yoko of Cavia is responsible for all of Drakengards things, good and bad. Where it lacks in gameplay though it REALLY picks up in story. Have you played Drakengard 2? Or for that matter NIER? (Nier fixes EVERY PROBLEM IN DRAKENGARD I SWEAR. And on top of that it's a sequel of Drakengard's fifth ending.)

Might also want to mention for minors to steer clear. The game has Cannibalism, idolism, Pedophilia, incest... I could go on forever.
 
Holy god yes Drakengard. Been playing it since 02. Yes yes yes yes yes.

You can't really say square had anything to do with the cutscenes or… anything. They're just the publisher. Yoko of Cavia is responsible for all of Drakengards things, good and bad. Where it lacks in gameplay though it REALLY picks up in story. Have you played Drakengard 2? Or for that matter NIER? (Nier fixes EVERY PROBLEM IN DRAKENGARD I SWEAR. And on top of that it's a sequel of Drakengard's fifth ending.)

Might also want to mention for minors to steer clear. The game has Cannibalism, idolism, Pedophilia, incest... I could go on forever.

Indeed indeed.

I have yet to, never had the money and my mums such a "YOU CANT BUY GAMES D<" whore its unbelieveable (cbf to spell right :c)

Fifth ending....thats... errrr.. what the Babies or the Dragon if I am correct?
 
Indeed indeed.

I have yet to, never had the money and my mums such a "YOU CANT BUY GAMES D<" whore its unbelieveable (cbf to spell right :c)

Fifth ending....thats... errrr.. what the Babies or the Dragon if I am correct?

Nah that's the fourth. The fifth is the one you have to collect all weapons to get with the rhythm game where you fly around the queen 'mother' watcher and try and match up the waves of energy.
 
Nah that's the fourth. The fifth is the one you have to collect all weapons to get with the rhythm game where you fly around the queen 'mother' watcher and try and match up the waves of energy.

****ing hated that. Still haven't ever done it (Terrible at that ****). What makes it worse is I stumbled across the ending by accident on youtube one night and I felt my entire being die as I relised I had spent HOURS, DAYS, MONTHS and YEARS trying to get that ending to find its stupidly anti-climatic, Ant-logical and completely and utterly ****ed up.

I've never been so pissed off at a game.
 
****ing hated that. Still haven't ever done it (Terrible at that ****). What makes it worse is I stumbled across the ending by accident on youtube one night and I felt my entire being die as I relised I had spent HOURS, DAYS, MONTHS and YEARS trying to get that ending to find its stupidly anti-climatic, Ant-logical and completely and utterly ****ed up.

I've never been so pissed off at a game.

haha I found it hilarious that when caim and angelus die in tokyo, they spread a disease that kills off humanity. Enter NIER.
 
haha I found it hilarious that when caim and angelus die in tokyo, they spread a disease that kills off humanity. Enter NIER.

Lol what?!
That IS random as ****. I swear that the Square Enix team were serious going in and did...like...EVERY kind of hallucinigetic drug known to man for second half and then made Nier with the come down xD

SO interested in drakengard 2. Caim dies and Manah is a witch?! -nerdgasm on the floor-
 
Lol what?!
That IS random as ****. I swear that the Square Enix team were serious going in and did...like...EVERY kind of hallucinigetic drug known to man for second half and then made Nier with the come down xD

SO interested in drakengard 2. Caim dies and Manah is a witch?! -nerdgasm on the floor-

You can't really blame square for being weird. It's all actually Cavia. Square enix just gave the game funding and put it on a shelf, but that's about all they did.

Yeah, drakengard 2 is fun. It takes place 18 years after the first game. Caim drug manah all over the world to show her the havoc that she reaped, and in return she got fed up, stabbed him in the eye and ran off. So now Caim is known as the 'one eyed man', and goes on this eternal 'f your game' quest to destroy all of the seals in place that bind Angelus. Now get this, angelus is in pain because of verdelet who has become this major jerk, and strengthened the seal on her, causing her pain. Caim still hears her cries and kills verdelet off (yesssss), murders a bunch of Union soldiers (Now called the Knights of the Seal) and starts a fight with our new protagonist, Nowe.

NOW, NOWE is actually Caim's nephew. Remember Furiae and Inuart? If you got to the second ending where Furiae is put into one of the seeds by Inuart, and she emerges as a mindless creature. Well, in the 'canon' ending, Inuart enters the seed with Furiae along with the black dragons blood, and Nowe is created. The black dragon cares for him and raises him, and eventually he's pulled into the Knights of the Seal. It's important to note that the black dragon was Inuarts pact partner, since he never technically died, he lives on, aaaand we're given the dragon's name, Legna.

Anyway, I won't spoil all the details. It's a pretty fun title and really expands on the Drakengard system of combat. I found it fun.
 
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