Drakengard (PS2)

Developer:

Cavia

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Release Date:

2004 (2003 JP)

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Systems:

PlayStation 2

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Love. Crimson blood. Poison. Eternity. Revenge. Two. Sacrifice. Mother. Ritual. Scarlet. Prayers. Heresy. Hell. Solitude. Clouded skies. Madness. Goddess. The World. Watchers. Adore. Us.

That's what a voice says if you leave the title screen on too long... so that's different. And a little creepy. I don't know what any of it means, but then I don't know anything about this game. Except that it made it onto thegamer.com's 10 Great Games With Storylines That Didn't Make Sense list.

Oh, this week on Super Adventures, I'm playing Drakengard, or Drag-On Dragoon as it's known in Japan. The original title was considered to be wrong for a western audience, and I think they made the right call there.

The game's by defunct developer Cavia, who made an impressive number of anime games seeing as they were only around for 10 years. I mean games based on an anime or manga, like One Piece: Nanatsu Shima no Daihihō, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Dragon Ball Z: Supersonic Warriors etc. They also made two Resident Evil rail shooters and the original Nier, which is actually a Drakengard spin-off.

Here's a fun Drakengard fact for you: there's apparently a model of Neo from The Matrix hidden in the game's files (Twitter link). Some more incredible trivia: a voice says "Square Enix" when the game starts up. It's not up to the standards of the 'say-gah' jingle from Sonic the Hedgehog, but it's handy if you're not sure how to pronounce the publisher's name (it's pronounced Eh-nix, not Eee-nix).

Oh, also it's the PlayStation 2's 21st birthday today, which I only just found out now. It's honestly a coincidence that I had this scheduled to be published on this exact day. A creepy coincidence.

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I got a flashy intro before the title screen, with cryptic text, abstract imagery and epic music. It's like Square Enix let Cavia borrow the Final Fantasy CGI team for a bit.

Then this giant golem climbed out of the ground and went over to give some knights a huge hug. It had to be fast though as they were really legging it.

Turns out that the heaviest armour in the world can't protect you from being grabbed by a golem and thrown into the air. But there's a hero on the way - a man riding in on a dragon! It seems like the tide of battle is about to change...

Oh hang on, the guy from the dragon is murdering knights as well now. Turns out he's on team Hug Golem. Well this doesn't seem fair.

At first I didn't get why he parked his dragon, surely he'd do more damage in the air, but then I realised that the dragon's joining in as well! Definitely not fair.

And the intro ends with a screaming face burning away in dragon fire.

I'm always a bit concerned when the difficulty only goes as high as 'Normal'. That means Normal is going to be hard! But I always play games on their default or normal difficulty so that means I'm stuck with it.

Under that they've got a cryptic 'Camera Assist' option with no description, so I think I'll leave that at default too. There's also a 'Blood' toggle, in case someone's playing this in 1993... and an 'Autosave' option! Always happy to see that show up in a sixth gen game. I was also happy to learn that 'Advanced settings' lets you remap the buttons and invert the camera axis.

You know what doesn't make me happy? The sound that's playing right now in place of music. I feel like I'm in a factory.

Alright, choices are made, now I'm ready for the proper intro.

It starts with a woman reading a book in a grey medieval-looking room, which turns out to be in this grey medieval-looking castle. There's a bit of a draft in there and she realises that it must be because a war has broken out outside.

In the middle of the fray is the guy from the intro, Caim, who doesn't need to wear plate armour like the rest of them because he's a badass. At one point he's slashed across the back with a spray of blood and it seems like a very plot relevant injury, but then he just shrugs it off and gets back to murdering bad people. I can tell they're bad as they've got red eyes.

Man there's a lot of dots on that map.

Oh, is this like Dynasty Warriors then? That's cool, I like Dynasty Warriors gameplay. It's a shame it doesn't have the rock soundtrack to go with it though, as this music's pretty dire, in both definitions of the word. I thought it'd got stuck on the same bit for a while until I realised it's supposed to sound like that. It's a repeating loop of despair.

Hang on, the game just mentioned that Furiae is Caim's sister, and the screenshot says she's a goddess, so does that make him a god? I hope it does as there are a lot of red dots between my blue marker and the castle gates, and divinity would be a big help.

Okay, it's finally my turn to hit things.

It is a bit like Dynasty Warriors, but I've only got the one button to press to swing my sword, and all I can do is the same three hit combo over and over. Slash slash slash, slash slash slash, slash slash slash. And these dicks take more than three hits to kill, especially the guy in the dark grey.

I feel like I'm a lumberjack chopping down a whole forest on his own, except the trees are chopping me right back.

Ah, I've also got a magic attack! Seems that it empties my green bar, so that must be mana, and my yellow bar is health. Though I get health back by collecting the green orbs that drop sometimes, so that's a bit confusing.

I checked my weapons before the fight and it said that my sword is going to level up once I've used it to slay 200 enemies. Only 125 left to go now!

Slash slash slash. Slash slash slash.

Ah, dammit. I have to remember to get out of the way when the tough soldiers start blocking my attacks as it means they're about to retaliate. I've been trying to share out my sword slashes to each of the enemies surrounding me equally, to interrupt their attacks and keep them off balance, but that doesn't work when they're blocking.

I've also got a block button, but I've never been very good at blocking in games and I doubt I'll suddenly master it now. Instead I've been trying to dodge roll out of the way. It's tricky though as there's a delay, so you have to hit it a second before the nick of time. Also there's two dodge buttons, one to roll left, one to roll right, and I wish it'd just let me roll away.

Awesome, I've found some walls, there's enemies over there with "TARGET" written above their health bar, and someone with a flag next to their head is talking to me. Now I feel like I'm getting somewhere! I've even got a 10 chain... oh, no, I screwed up and lost it.

Man this game is repetitive garbage right now. It's fucking terrible! Every bit of progress I make takes forever and all I'm doing is tapping the same button until the green bar fills up and I get to use my Cometdance spell again.

Damn, I've only been playing for 19 minutes? It feels like it's been much longer.

Also I'm sure I pressed the 'square' button more than 995 times in the last 1129 seconds. Though I suppose I wasted a few seconds every time I brought up the map to figure out which way I was supposed to be going, which was often.

I've been a bit lost so far to be honest. The radar doesn't have compass directions on it, there's no quest markers, I can't put waypoints down, and the scenery isn't exactly filled with landmarks. Or scenery.

Right, that's the first stage done. I fought my way right up to the gate, slaying every enemy marked in yellow along the way, plus a few more to get my kills up to 300. Turns out that's enough killing to get me up to level 3! I also got a treasure chest, though I was a bit disappointed to find that the only thing in it was the key to my own castle door.

Plus it would've been nice to get some happy victory music, instead of the exact opposite.

Before the next stage I was given another chance to manage my arsenal, which is significantly more impressive now as I apparently picked up a hammer called Bonebreaker along the way. I can slot that into my weapon wheel so it's ready to be pulled out at any time. Though I've brought Caim's Sword up to level 2, which doubled its 'attack' and 'combos', so I'm not really sure why I'd want to use a level 1 weapon instead.

Caim finds a dragon inside, all chained up and nailed down, and it looks in pretty bad shape. So Caim immediately decides he wants to make a pact with her. I wasn't expecting her to reply with a female voice to be honest. In fact I wasn't expecting the dragon to talk at all really.

I got confused for a moment about why Caim suddenly feels like he has to go to desperate measures to save his own life, but then I remembered he got slashed across the back during the intro.

He's killed 307 people despite that gash in his back, it's clearly not that life threatening!

The game thinks otherwise though and the only thing that can save him is apparently a deal with a dragon. Which neither of them is too happy about, seeing as they hate each other. There's flashes of a dragon eating people during the cutscene and I get the impression Caim probably knew them.

Oh there you go, they were Caim's parents. Thanks, post-cutscene narration!

But they don't actually make a pact, at least not yet, as they're interrupted by hyenas.

Oh c'mon! Why am I the only one fighting all of these dudes? In Dynasty Warriors you have an army with you, plus other heroes!

The combat isn't actually so bad now that I've got 6 hit combos and extra damage, though I did have to put my new hammer away and get my sword back out first. I've also learned that when the sword glows I can press the magic button to do a different type of magic attack, so that's handy. I would've preferred to just have multiple attacks to pick from, but I can only work with what I've got.

This fight went a lot worse than the one outside, I barely had any health when it was over, but I survived long enough to get back over to the dragon and make my offer again.

Oh man, what's he doing, trying to rip out his own heart? How did he even know he could just reach into his own chest like that?

Meanwhile the dragon's trying to cough something up.

Oh I see, they were getting eggs! They put the eggs together and they're both fully healed, with the dragon breaking out of her chains.

Now they're free to take to the sky!

Oh no, now I'm playing Lair!

Actually there's a big difference between the two games: the dragon controls in this aren't bad. I can't fly straight down so I need to get a bit of distance to strafe these towers, but other than that it's fine. I'm also having to use the dodge buttons to avoid all the cannonballs coming my way.

The game's still an open map like it was on the ground level, I'm not flying down a shooting gallery like in a Star Fox game, though I can fire Star Fox-style homing shots at locked-on enemies when I need to.

Okay, what the hell are those things and why are there a million of them? I can't lock onto a million targets at once!

I was hoping for weirdness to eventually turn up and it looks like it finally has. They even shoot at me in a weird way, as their shots seem to take right-angle turns like Darkseid's Omega Beams. You know who Darkseid is right? He's like DC Comics' own Thanos, except he only shows up in the director's cut.

Did I mention that these cubes are weird? Because they're not getting any less weird close up.

Anyway I decided to see what the dragon's magic was like, and the screen was suddenly filled with beams blowing everything up. So that sorted that out.

100 KILLS LATER

Now I have to shoot all the turrets off this airship, I guess.

The dragon keeps making comments about how she hates humans and I'm starting to see where she's coming from. Every time I blow up one set of enemies there's another hundred behind them; this army is endless! And it's all up to me and my dragon to sort them out because no one else can be bothered.

Oh hang on, I've got a boost move, this might come in useful.

Yeah, it's a lot easier to shoot targets when I've boosted all the way over here. That strange looking thing over there is an airship by the way, and it uses very sturdy balloons. I was hoping to hit one of them with a fireball and send the whole thing up, but it's being annoyingly resilient.

I blew it up eventually, but unfortunately wiping out all the enemy forces besieging my castle didn't actually end the siege, because they never stop coming.

Well it's certainly nice to be back here again, slashing enemies up out in the fuzzy greyness outside of my grey castle.

I was flying around on my dragon at the start of the stage this time, but I kind of fell off, so now I'm doing things the slow way. Why isn't she kicking ass by my side like in the intro, that's what I'm wondering.

Oh come on! That's too many dots. Even if I only have to kill the yellow ones that's still too many dots.

Fortunately the game gave me a hint, telling me how to call my dragon back. All I need is to find an open space with no obstructions and press the 'select' button. Then Caim will leap into the air and land on her back.

And now my helpless foes will taste the flames of my retribution. Hey, quit shooting arrows at me you bastards!

Wait, is someone talking to me right now? How'd he get my phone number anyway?

He's clearly expecting Caim to reply and gets a bit agitated when he doesn't, yelling "Lord Caim! Lord Caim!? Please answer!" But Caim can't answer, as it turns out his pact with the dragon has made him mute. Hasn't stopped the dragon talking all the time though. In fact now she's speaking for both of them.

Hey I've finally reached an indoor level! I've still got a ridiculous number of people to hit and a time limit though; this game loves its time limits.

What this doesn't have though, is icons on the map telling me where the stairs are. Seems like a bit of an oversight. Sure there are a few obvious candidates on his floor, those narrow passageways leading nowhere, but I wouldn't bet on it being that simple.

Oh I didn't mention yet that this is perhaps the only game that splits its story up into chapters and verses. I guess the game has a bit of a 'book' theme to it. That's why whenever there's dialogue the screen fills up with random handwriting.

Wow, what's this guy's issue? I've managed to get a few hits in, but he's been deflecting most of them with a magic shield. It seems a bit premature for my dragon to freak out though. I've got like 80% health left, it's fine!

Oh, and now he's disappeared. That was weird.

Now the game's trying to help me out!

Seriously, I'm fine, I'm doing just fine. I've got lots of health, I'm making steady progress, there's no need for all this concern.

I've figured out that if I attack a group with my magic first it'll knock them off balance, giving me a chance to get some free hits in... which also knocks them off balance. This charges up my mana up so I can do it again on the next group. Plus if I'm very lucky I'll also do well enough to earn another green health orb. Or sometimes even an orange explosion orb that just blows up all the enemies around me. I like those ones.

I got another new weapon! I'd have to do 200 kills with it before it becomes bearable to fight with, but I suppose that's what the Free Expeditions are for. I could go do a bit of grinding to get it up to the level of my sword. Maybe later though.

My different weapons are changing how combat feels, with one having a wide slash and one making me charge forward, and they have different magic as well. I can bring a weapon wheel's worth of weapons out into battle and switch them at any time, so I suppose I'll want to have different tools for different jobs.

Levelling up a weapon also reveals an extra paragraph of lore, with the history of Caim's Sword telling the tale of how his parents got eaten by dragons. I guess I have to reach level 4 to find out how this is relevant to the sword.

Anyway, I made it to the top of the castle and earned myself another cutscene, with Caim's sister Furiae and his friend Inuart almost getting killed by soldiers.

Caim sure does like stabbing things. I suppose it's how he expresses himself now that he's lost his voice. They decide to go to the elf village, because this fortified castle clearly isn't working out for them.

I got another page of narration, saying that Inuart's so happy to travel with Furiae that he sings a song. But little does he know that a false hope leads him...

Wow thanks for the spoilers there, narrator. Though to be honest I kind of expected everything to go horribly wrong; there's a serious sense of dread and doom hanging over this game.

Wait, when it said he 'sings a song' I figured he'd break into a tune along the way, I didn't expect him to just sit down with a harp! The other two can only stand and watch, as he's taken the only bit of furniture in the game.

Don't they have more important things to do right now? Like packing essential supplies for their trip, or checking to see who else survived, or at least barricading the door against the dozens of enemy soldiers I ran past to get here.

Awesome, I've reached the world map! Now I can choose to go to the elf village, or replay the levels I just beat. I can't seem to find a way to play Free Expeditions though.

Oh duh, the previous stages must be the Free Expeditions! Now I can go back to all those locations like 'the castle' and 'outside the castle' and play a different scenario to get XP, new weapons, and levels for my arsenal. I suppose I should probably try one before I turn the game off.

Yeah, turns out that the objectives are a little different second time around. It also turn out that the dragon's got a different magic attack when she's attacking troops. And man these bastards are begging for it.

The archers in Dynasty Warriors are always a pain in my ass, but these crossbow soldiers are even worse. Two hits and I'm off my dragon and back to running around, and they have very good aim. On the plus side they're the only things that can even touch me up here right now.

After I toasted all my targets it just gave me another set to kill, and another, but I eventually finished the mission and got myself another new weapon! Didn't get enough XP for Caim to level up though. Seems like you really have to put the work in to get overlevelled in this game. Anyway I'm done with it now.


CONCLUSION

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You know, I think the worst part of Drakengard so far is probably the soundtrack. The game might be a miserable repetitive drone that saps out all the joy from everything you do, but there was no need for the music to be as well.

The game is definitely dark fantasy, but it's also done a pretty good job of showing me what it would be like to fight an entire army as one person in real life: it'd be an endless miserable grind. Plus the game's so grey and bleak that I had to double check that From Software didn't make it.

My quest has taken me through barren empty fields and barren empty rooms, and I don't expect that'll change much as the game goes on. I suppose they had to save their polygons for all the soldiers everywhere. And the beautiful dragon, with all of its pretty animations. It was always a joy to hit both shoulder buttons to turn around on the spot and fly back the way I came to strafe a squad of soldiers some more... before getting shot down by another bloody crossbow bolt.

Though the game actually started to grow on me once I got the dragon and earned myself a decent number of combo hits for my sword. The faster I was able to cut through enemies, the more I had to think about things like when to trigger my magic and when to dodge out of the way, and the more I was engaged. I never did use that block button though.

There's apparently 65 weapons in the game, and even if there's some overlap that's got to be a decent number of different fighting styles and magic attacks to try out. Unfortunately it's also 64 times you have to go back to slash slash slash, slash slash slash, slash slash slash, before the weapon levels up. I think the number of combo hits should've been tied to the character level instead, leaving the weapon level to determine its magic perhaps, because levelling up a weak weapon has been a miserable experience for me.

But I think the biggest problem with the game (after that bloody music) is that the best part of it is the multiple endings and they're all the way at the end! I've heard that the story's supposed to be a strong point in general, but it hasn't built up to anything all that interesting so far unfortunately. I was hoping for some real weirdness to show off but I guess I'd have to wait for it.
 
Maybe it's too early to say, but Drakengard doesn't seem like it has much in common with the Dynasty Warriors games after all. Sure they both have you run around slaying countless enemies by tapping out a combo and casting magic when the bar's filled, but the Dynasty Warriors games have joy and colour to them, they encourage a bit of strategy in where you're racing to on the battlefield, they have other units fighting alongside you, and most importantly they've got an awesome rock soundtrack.

But I'm going to give this a 'not crap' star anyway, because I can actually see myself coming back to it and playing it a bit longer. The gameplay improved once I levelled up my sword and figured out when to use magic, the game hasn't done anything to really frustrate me, and I'm curious about where it's going. I mean the strangeness is going to have to kick up a notch eventually.

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Hi, I really appreciate that you dropped by and read my words. But now it's your turn to give me something to read. You could tell me what you think about Drakengard, have a guess what the next game will be, or even just say "Hi, I am a real person who visited your site," it's all good.
Though it'll be even better if you guess the game correctly, obviously.