Legna! You might be a Holy Dragon, but you're also my father! And I am your son!
It's the biggest piece of dogshit
gugjhuigj
After quite enjoying the first Drakengard last month, I rushed out to pick up the second one. I took a little while getting through it, but here I am 23.5 playtime hours later at the end and all I can really say is that I understand why this game is all around ranked lower on numbered scores than the first game is XP. I played through the Japanese version of the game on normal mode. I only got one ending, but I will still be getting fairly into plot spoilers for this review as they don't matter all that much.
Drakengard 2 takes place (kinda) after ending A of Drakengard 1, the ending where you arguably saved the world and put a new seal in place to replace the old one that was lost. 18 years have passed since then, and a new Knights of the Seal have been established to protect the various magical seals placed around the world that prevent the final seal from being awakened in the first place. You play as Nowe, a young man newly admitted to the ranks of the Knights of the Seal, but he's special: He was raised by a dragon. Very specifically, he was raised by the black dragon Inuart had in the last game, and this story follows him on his quest to save the world.
The production of Drakengard 2 virtually didn't involve the original game's director Yoko Taro at all. As a result, the game we get here has a narrative far more mainstream and typical of a Japanese-developed fantasy game in the early-mid 2000's. This MAY be the story of Nowe, but it's really more like the story of Mana, the bewitched antagonistic little girl from the first game who is now all grown up. The game doesn't have all that many returning characters (not that there were all that many to return in the first place), but most characters act fairly to very illogically compared to how you'd expect them to act given their characterizations in the first game. Even Yoko Taro acknowledges this, as the story was later retconned canonically to fit along the Ending A to alternate events of Drakengard 1, as it so poorly reflects the world that game set up (even if you were going to set the canon ending as Ending A).
The pacing of the game is all over the place with how it builds up to things, and the game is FLUSH with padding (as we'll get to more later), but it really feels like the game has like 3 or 4 climaxes one after another rather than one logical build towards a conclusion. Additionally, the way the game deals with its messaging in both Mana's psychological trauma as well as Nowe's relation to the dragon that raised him are both really hamfisted and clumsily done. They carry some ultimately really toxic notions about what mental illness is as well as the ideal relationship of a parent to their child. Drakengard 2's narrative isn't just nowhere near as daring in how it approaches the nature of storytelling in games, but it also isn't even very well told for an early/mid-2000's fantasy game.
The gameplay of Drakengard 2 can be most easily described as an effort to take the "Musou + Ace Combat + Fantasy RPG" ideas that were presented in the first game and make them work better in a more typical action game's format. They fix the camera in the ground sections (thank heck) to work like a normal 3D camera instead of the aerial and ground sections sharing their flight sim-esque "looking to each side of you temporarily" nonsense the first game has. They also make the acquisition of weapons less difficult and also make them far more immediately useful with a genuine gear curve this time around. They also make use of magic more intuitive, add more characters (different characters use different weapons instead of the main character being able to use all of them), add consumable items, a shop system, and even passive items you can equip.
Unfortunately, many of the other additions and changes since the first Drakengard do not actually enhance the experience of the game, and in many cases the attempts to make the game more complex cause far more harm than good. The biggest issues the game has can be summed up by saying that the game frequently think the systems it has are far better than they actually are, so you almost always feel woefully unequipped for the task at hand. You're more maneuverable in the air, so they made flying enemies nimble and burly enough to the point where most air combats are a grueling fight for your life just hoping that you aren't suddenly taken out by something you couldn't've seen coming. They made ground combat a bit more technical so you're constantly being overwhelmed by hordes of enemies who are constantly staggering you and shaving off HUGE chunks of your HP. Even once I realized the game had a mid-air recovery mechanic by pressing block in mid-air when you're being juggled, just how quickly enemies can take a swing at your (especially when they enter an unstaggerable stance) caused me more pain than I could've reasonably mitigated. Then take into account that the aerial lock-on camera control is worse than useless, and you somehow still have no lock-on method for ground combat, and you have a game where simply keeping your enemy in view so you can even try to hit it is one of the most difficult combat challenges you face.
The game's new characters are somewhat meant to mitigate that difficulty because of their extra health bars and natural strengths and weaknesses to certain enemy types, but the narrative so often takes these characters away from you that it is quite uncommonly any help at all. The characters and their weapons also all have different stats and levels, and they only get experience points when they fight, so you're both encouraged to use them all but also dissuaded from branching off too much because otherwise your overall power might be too weak to combat whatever you're gonna go up against next. The characters DO have different stat lines, like being better in magic or physical strength, but it's not like they can share weapons or anything, and it's also not really like enemies have obvious weaknesses to physical or magical attacks, so the differences between the playable characters doesn't really amount to much more than cosmetics at the end of the day.
The game's difficulty curve is all over the place, with several really mean enemy types (such as the gorgons in the air and the skeletons on the ground) appearing throughout the game but feeling like they have the difficulty of late-game enemies. This is all made even worse by the fact that your characters may not share health but they also have relatively small health bars, and these levels regularly take 15 to 20 minutes to complete. Especially if you're trying to get the weapons hidden in these levels (and you will, because you'll need that extra power more often than not), you'll wanna stick your neck out in more dangerous situations, but that just leads to a LOT of time being taken up replaying long levels that have no checkpoints. You also can't replay story missions until you beat the game once, so if you want those weapons, you either gotta get 'em NOW, leave them to rot, or go grind on the (weirdly quite difficult) free play missions until you're strong enough to get them.
This game also not only has narrative padding but tons of mechanical padding too, taking you back to the same stages over and over for some new contrived narrative reason, and having to slog through those same stages (even with sometimes different enemies) gets old fast. At the very least the game keeps the XP you've gained for your characters (who don't share levels) and weapons (which now level on XP rather than number of kills), but it's a small consolation with how small those stat increases often are compared to the peril you're up against. Honestly, the addition of the consumable items you can use mid-stage feel more like an admission that the game is far too often unfairly difficult rather than an option for you to utilize mid-fight.
The presentation is generally a step up graphically, but not artistically. The enemy and character design is graphically prettier than the first game, sure, but their designs are far more standard and boring. The new characters especially look by and large like they were pulled from some scrapped Final Fantasy project, with Nowe in particular looking like a dead ringer for Tidus. The music also may be more listenable than the first game's, but it's more often than not just boring and forgettable, with only one track (the one that plays in the first mission of chapter 11) really catching my ear at all.
Verdict: Not Recommended. Drakengard 2 is very much an exercise in completely failing to appreciate what made the things in Drakengard 1 work the way they did. From the combat misunderstanding that sometimes complex is not actually better to the narrative both being more typical and worse told, it's a significant step down from the first game in just about every way. While there are certainly aspects of it that have promise, it just can't deliver on its best ideas and winds up being bad or simply mediocre at everything its trying to improve on from the first game. Even if you're a fan of Yoko Taro's work and wanna see this as a curiosity, I think your time (not to mention money, looking at the price of an English copy of this) is likely better spent watching a synopsis video rather than putting yourself through the frustration of playing it yourself.
Drakengard 2 takes place (kinda) after ending A of Drakengard 1, the ending where you arguably saved the world and put a new seal in place to replace the old one that was lost. 18 years have passed since then, and a new Knights of the Seal have been established to protect the various magical seals placed around the world that prevent the final seal from being awakened in the first place. You play as Nowe, a young man newly admitted to the ranks of the Knights of the Seal, but he's special: He was raised by a dragon. Very specifically, he was raised by the black dragon Inuart had in the last game, and this story follows him on his quest to save the world.
The production of Drakengard 2 virtually didn't involve the original game's director Yoko Taro at all. As a result, the game we get here has a narrative far more mainstream and typical of a Japanese-developed fantasy game in the early-mid 2000's. This MAY be the story of Nowe, but it's really more like the story of Mana, the bewitched antagonistic little girl from the first game who is now all grown up. The game doesn't have all that many returning characters (not that there were all that many to return in the first place), but most characters act fairly to very illogically compared to how you'd expect them to act given their characterizations in the first game. Even Yoko Taro acknowledges this, as the story was later retconned canonically to fit along the Ending A to alternate events of Drakengard 1, as it so poorly reflects the world that game set up (even if you were going to set the canon ending as Ending A).
The pacing of the game is all over the place with how it builds up to things, and the game is FLUSH with padding (as we'll get to more later), but it really feels like the game has like 3 or 4 climaxes one after another rather than one logical build towards a conclusion. Additionally, the way the game deals with its messaging in both Mana's psychological trauma as well as Nowe's relation to the dragon that raised him are both really hamfisted and clumsily done. They carry some ultimately really toxic notions about what mental illness is as well as the ideal relationship of a parent to their child. Drakengard 2's narrative isn't just nowhere near as daring in how it approaches the nature of storytelling in games, but it also isn't even very well told for an early/mid-2000's fantasy game.
The gameplay of Drakengard 2 can be most easily described as an effort to take the "Musou + Ace Combat + Fantasy RPG" ideas that were presented in the first game and make them work better in a more typical action game's format. They fix the camera in the ground sections (thank heck) to work like a normal 3D camera instead of the aerial and ground sections sharing their flight sim-esque "looking to each side of you temporarily" nonsense the first game has. They also make the acquisition of weapons less difficult and also make them far more immediately useful with a genuine gear curve this time around. They also make use of magic more intuitive, add more characters (different characters use different weapons instead of the main character being able to use all of them), add consumable items, a shop system, and even passive items you can equip.
Unfortunately, many of the other additions and changes since the first Drakengard do not actually enhance the experience of the game, and in many cases the attempts to make the game more complex cause far more harm than good. The biggest issues the game has can be summed up by saying that the game frequently think the systems it has are far better than they actually are, so you almost always feel woefully unequipped for the task at hand. You're more maneuverable in the air, so they made flying enemies nimble and burly enough to the point where most air combats are a grueling fight for your life just hoping that you aren't suddenly taken out by something you couldn't've seen coming. They made ground combat a bit more technical so you're constantly being overwhelmed by hordes of enemies who are constantly staggering you and shaving off HUGE chunks of your HP. Even once I realized the game had a mid-air recovery mechanic by pressing block in mid-air when you're being juggled, just how quickly enemies can take a swing at your (especially when they enter an unstaggerable stance) caused me more pain than I could've reasonably mitigated. Then take into account that the aerial lock-on camera control is worse than useless, and you somehow still have no lock-on method for ground combat, and you have a game where simply keeping your enemy in view so you can even try to hit it is one of the most difficult combat challenges you face.
The game's new characters are somewhat meant to mitigate that difficulty because of their extra health bars and natural strengths and weaknesses to certain enemy types, but the narrative so often takes these characters away from you that it is quite uncommonly any help at all. The characters and their weapons also all have different stats and levels, and they only get experience points when they fight, so you're both encouraged to use them all but also dissuaded from branching off too much because otherwise your overall power might be too weak to combat whatever you're gonna go up against next. The characters DO have different stat lines, like being better in magic or physical strength, but it's not like they can share weapons or anything, and it's also not really like enemies have obvious weaknesses to physical or magical attacks, so the differences between the playable characters doesn't really amount to much more than cosmetics at the end of the day.
The game's difficulty curve is all over the place, with several really mean enemy types (such as the gorgons in the air and the skeletons on the ground) appearing throughout the game but feeling like they have the difficulty of late-game enemies. This is all made even worse by the fact that your characters may not share health but they also have relatively small health bars, and these levels regularly take 15 to 20 minutes to complete. Especially if you're trying to get the weapons hidden in these levels (and you will, because you'll need that extra power more often than not), you'll wanna stick your neck out in more dangerous situations, but that just leads to a LOT of time being taken up replaying long levels that have no checkpoints. You also can't replay story missions until you beat the game once, so if you want those weapons, you either gotta get 'em NOW, leave them to rot, or go grind on the (weirdly quite difficult) free play missions until you're strong enough to get them.
This game also not only has narrative padding but tons of mechanical padding too, taking you back to the same stages over and over for some new contrived narrative reason, and having to slog through those same stages (even with sometimes different enemies) gets old fast. At the very least the game keeps the XP you've gained for your characters (who don't share levels) and weapons (which now level on XP rather than number of kills), but it's a small consolation with how small those stat increases often are compared to the peril you're up against. Honestly, the addition of the consumable items you can use mid-stage feel more like an admission that the game is far too often unfairly difficult rather than an option for you to utilize mid-fight.
The presentation is generally a step up graphically, but not artistically. The enemy and character design is graphically prettier than the first game, sure, but their designs are far more standard and boring. The new characters especially look by and large like they were pulled from some scrapped Final Fantasy project, with Nowe in particular looking like a dead ringer for Tidus. The music also may be more listenable than the first game's, but it's more often than not just boring and forgettable, with only one track (the one that plays in the first mission of chapter 11) really catching my ear at all.
Verdict: Not Recommended. Drakengard 2 is very much an exercise in completely failing to appreciate what made the things in Drakengard 1 work the way they did. From the combat misunderstanding that sometimes complex is not actually better to the narrative both being more typical and worse told, it's a significant step down from the first game in just about every way. While there are certainly aspects of it that have promise, it just can't deliver on its best ideas and winds up being bad or simply mediocre at everything its trying to improve on from the first game. Even if you're a fan of Yoko Taro's work and wanna see this as a curiosity, I think your time (not to mention money, looking at the price of an English copy of this) is likely better spent watching a synopsis video rather than putting yourself through the frustration of playing it yourself.
Drakengard, without what made Drakengard interesting in the first place
Only got to ending A so far so take my writing here with a grain of salt for now. I like the cast and the gameplay but the story plays out way too predictably and one major twist at the end was kinda poorly executed. Still tho, like i said, i like the cast and the gameplay, they were hard-carrying the game so it's all good in the end in my book. Will update this after i get more endings
didn't finish bc story isn't canon and it took my motivation sorry man
True rating:
Gameplay & Mechanics: 6/10= ⭐️0.6
Graphics & Visuals: 5/10= ⭐️0.5
Sound & Music: 7/10= ⭐️0.7
Quality & Polishing: 4/10= ⭐️0.4
Story/Setting & Campaign: 4/10= ⭐️0.4
0.6 + 0.5 + 0.7 + 0.4 + 0.4 = ⭐️2.6
The black sheep of the series, I actually like the improvements on the gameplay, the new parry system and other upgrades are welcome, it may not be a big improvement but sometimes I like this gameplay more than the OG NIER (Wild thing to say that out loud), even if is easy as hell... The music is now listenable and I have some favorites, but don't expect something even close to NIER or Drakengard 3.
What goes wrong with this game is the story, its a bland cartoonish version of whatever was going on in the first game, even if it retcons the first ending of Drakengard 1 to bury it in the past, it still relies so much on fanservice. Apart from that you're gonna find out sooner or later that this game is not directed by Yoko Taro, not because it's a different direction, but because the story is hardly mediocre at its best.
But you know what? I even liked some bits of the story. This game truly defies what I consider a enjoyable game for me, sometimes I think maybe I like trash... LOL
Gameplay & Mechanics: 6/10= ⭐️0.6
Graphics & Visuals: 5/10= ⭐️0.5
Sound & Music: 7/10= ⭐️0.7
Quality & Polishing: 4/10= ⭐️0.4
Story/Setting & Campaign: 4/10= ⭐️0.4
0.6 + 0.5 + 0.7 + 0.4 + 0.4 = ⭐️2.6
The black sheep of the series, I actually like the improvements on the gameplay, the new parry system and other upgrades are welcome, it may not be a big improvement but sometimes I like this gameplay more than the OG NIER (Wild thing to say that out loud), even if is easy as hell... The music is now listenable and I have some favorites, but don't expect something even close to NIER or Drakengard 3.
What goes wrong with this game is the story, its a bland cartoonish version of whatever was going on in the first game, even if it retcons the first ending of Drakengard 1 to bury it in the past, it still relies so much on fanservice. Apart from that you're gonna find out sooner or later that this game is not directed by Yoko Taro, not because it's a different direction, but because the story is hardly mediocre at its best.
But you know what? I even liked some bits of the story. This game truly defies what I consider a enjoyable game for me, sometimes I think maybe I like trash... LOL
This game has a special place in my heart, because it came at a time in my life when everything was going to shit. It was my means of escape and in a way it saved me from doing something I would've regretted.
That aside having poured many hours into this game, I still believe there are some elements in the game that people will not invest in like the chain system, trust me it takes a good while to get a good flow with it but it can be done, and it's a great system for levelling up weapons and characters quick. And the story is very easy to pick up (never played the first game until later on). There's a character for every playstyle that you can main if you get tired of the other three (not until Playthrough 2 though when you can play as all four), worth mastering them all though and feels great when you can take on any enemy with any character it's one of the best feelings ever.
Forgot to add I love Weapon Lore, and this game has that in spades and some of the stories behind some of the weapons can either be really satisfying, depressing or both. And some weapons are a little tongue and cheek take Nobuyoshi for example I bet the devs had a field day with that one looking at the weapon traits.
And a final point, a certain boss battle on Playthrough 2 and 3 may cause panic and stress if you hate timed missions.
Have fun.
That aside having poured many hours into this game, I still believe there are some elements in the game that people will not invest in like the chain system, trust me it takes a good while to get a good flow with it but it can be done, and it's a great system for levelling up weapons and characters quick. And the story is very easy to pick up (never played the first game until later on). There's a character for every playstyle that you can main if you get tired of the other three (not until Playthrough 2 though when you can play as all four), worth mastering them all though and feels great when you can take on any enemy with any character it's one of the best feelings ever.
Forgot to add I love Weapon Lore, and this game has that in spades and some of the stories behind some of the weapons can either be really satisfying, depressing or both. And some weapons are a little tongue and cheek take Nobuyoshi for example I bet the devs had a field day with that one looking at the weapon traits.
And a final point, a certain boss battle on Playthrough 2 and 3 may cause panic and stress if you hate timed missions.
Have fun.
ass
There's a lot ofstupid stuff here, don't get me wrong.
But honestly, overall, I thought this was a pretty solid sequel. It isn't as bold and interesting as DOD1, but it was still a decently enjoyable romp, with better gameplay and some good moments
But honestly, overall, I thought this was a pretty solid sequel. It isn't as bold and interesting as DOD1, but it was still a decently enjoyable romp, with better gameplay and some good moments
Terrible sequel with one great moment that puts a whole star in this review.
If you start your game with me in a featureless void going through the most boring level on earth slowly metering out the very basic controls I'm going to interface with your world through, I'm fucking stealing something out of your house
I hate how this game gets treated like the one half-sibling the rest of the family rarely mentions and never shows up to family gatherings when it has a lot of really cool ideas and expands on the first game in some interesting ways.
Same problems as the first one in the gameplay side, but without Yoko Taro's flavor, so... Yeah...
But is not as bad as a lot of people say.
But is not as bad as a lot of people say.
Game too hard for m and I cant get cheats to work on pcsx2. Watched the rest of the game through a youtube playthrough and can say Drakengard without Yoko Taro is mid.
So take the gameplay of Drakengard 1 and bump it up from bad to average, but also take the most interesting part of that game which was the insane story and make it boring, take all of the eccentric characters and make them standard rpg flavor with little to no personality, and you have this game here. It's bland as sand. I don't think the story is bad conceptually, it has a few good ideas, it's just really dull execution wise. When the only part of the game that got any emotional reaction out of me was seeing characters from the previous game show up and finish their own story arcs, that says a lot to me about how little I cared about anything happening in this story. I mean as a game, it's fine enough, it plays well, but as the years go on I have a feeling I'll remember very little about it, while there's no way I could forget its predecessor.
The Yin to Drakengard's Yang. Everything this game does better, it has to do something worse in comparison. Characters actually speak to each other now, rather than talking straight past each other in stilted quips! Unfortunately, the dialogue is boring as shit and grinds the pace to the halt. Combat is now much more focused and easy to control! However, maintaining health is a chore in this game and levels are reused far too often.
Like Drakengard 1, it's a game that struggles to come together until the end, but it reaches there eventually. Unfortunately, I can't really recommend it to anyone who doesn't have the guts to stick with an awkward and poorly designed game till the end, for story's sake.
Like Drakengard 1, it's a game that struggles to come together until the end, but it reaches there eventually. Unfortunately, I can't really recommend it to anyone who doesn't have the guts to stick with an awkward and poorly designed game till the end, for story's sake.
The game plays better and I hate it.
The dragoon plays better... which I hate because its a living thing and every single game with a living thing feels heavier
because well, they're alive, like in Panzer Dragoon.
The in-game cutscenes have more movement but are rough as hell, the simplicity of the original made them stand out a bit more.
You can say this game is "better" in some aspects, but does it make it a better product than Drakengard 1? nope
The dragoon plays better... which I hate because its a living thing and every single game with a living thing feels heavier
because well, they're alive, like in Panzer Dragoon.
The in-game cutscenes have more movement but are rough as hell, the simplicity of the original made them stand out a bit more.
You can say this game is "better" in some aspects, but does it make it a better product than Drakengard 1? nope
Had to drop the game after really enjoying the first game. While the main combat is improved, the new enemy types and attacks become incredibly frustrating because the controls are still ass. For example, sometimes there are healers you have to kill while fighting larger enemies but sometimes the view distance is so low that you cannot see them, and there could be multiple to it becomes an exercise in just running around the enemy to hope I dont miss a healer. The roll is improved but not by much, and too many enemies require it to dodge attacks whereas in the first game I basically never had to roll so it being clunky wasn't an issue, now it is. The story is so bland and all the characters seem like shells the writers used to spit out generic story beats and dialogue to get the game moving. The story in the original game was so different from anything we'd seen in gaming, and this game has a discount Square JRPG story. Even the Dragon controls worse in this game. Just skip this one bro.
i too would initiate a sacrificial pact on the off-chance of seducing urick
Drakengard 2 is certainly an oddity and a good one at that. Where Drakengard is hidden in the shadows of NIER, Drakengard 2 is hidden in its shadows even further.
Gameplay wise Drakengard 2 is far superior than the first. Better level design, being more fluid, and having a better weapon / combo system are some highlights. Also making characters not timed like the first game also gives better replay value which is needed if you're going to see all the endings.
The story is also fairly good but clearly needed some expansion in areas but its nothing that truly detracts from the plot. Where Drakengard dropped us off in a world that is already at war and the situation as the game progresses only gets worse, Drakengard 2 takes a more laid back approach which makes sense given it is a sequel to the "best" ending in Drakengard. Not that it detracts from it but the story never reaches the desperation you would see in the first game especially in the ending chapters after ending A. It still stands on its own and has emotional moments and characters one can like. As a continuation it felt like a good send off to the world especially with the final ending.
The main negatives come from the story though specifically the fact it has multiple endings. Drakengard 2 has 3 endings that do not change much between each yet requires entire play-throughs of the game on higher and higher difficulties to get them. They should have just stuck with the final ending and focused on improving other areas of the story and its presentation which for a ps2 game in 2005, it's a bit lack luster.
Definitely a overhated gem, just like Drakengard 1, though it's still not something I could recommend to everyone. Many people didn't care for the original game's gameplay, and even if I think the story is good, I know many would not like the tone change and if the tone/darker characters of the first is what carried you through the game I don't think you would enjoy this game very much.
You thank me still?
You're a sentimental fool...
Just like...your father...
Gameplay wise Drakengard 2 is far superior than the first. Better level design, being more fluid, and having a better weapon / combo system are some highlights. Also making characters not timed like the first game also gives better replay value which is needed if you're going to see all the endings.
The story is also fairly good but clearly needed some expansion in areas but its nothing that truly detracts from the plot. Where Drakengard dropped us off in a world that is already at war and the situation as the game progresses only gets worse, Drakengard 2 takes a more laid back approach which makes sense given it is a sequel to the "best" ending in Drakengard. Not that it detracts from it but the story never reaches the desperation you would see in the first game especially in the ending chapters after ending A. It still stands on its own and has emotional moments and characters one can like. As a continuation it felt like a good send off to the world especially with the final ending.
The main negatives come from the story though specifically the fact it has multiple endings. Drakengard 2 has 3 endings that do not change much between each yet requires entire play-throughs of the game on higher and higher difficulties to get them. They should have just stuck with the final ending and focused on improving other areas of the story and its presentation which for a ps2 game in 2005, it's a bit lack luster.
Definitely a overhated gem, just like Drakengard 1, though it's still not something I could recommend to everyone. Many people didn't care for the original game's gameplay, and even if I think the story is good, I know many would not like the tone change and if the tone/darker characters of the first is what carried you through the game I don't think you would enjoy this game very much.
You thank me still?
You're a sentimental fool...
Just like...your father...
3/3 Endings and obtained all weapons and orbs
This review comes from someone who has only experienced ending A, the combat is significantly improved on from Drakengard 1 with parries and the likes, switching characters is more interesting and ofc less of a trap card here, just another option besides Nowe. Controlling Legna seems more easy and fast but it makes you miss Angelus when youre in boss fights, youre just too fast sometimes. I say this, but i love Drakengard 1 combat way more, something about the clunkiness and the need to plan out your swings in advance cause the animations take so long just activates something in my brain. As for the story this has such a great and romantic end for Caim and Angelus that had me crying, Eris is a bit of a stick in the mud but thats ofc supposed to be the case, Urick is great, love everything about him, his drive, his style, his pact, all make for an interesting character that outshines the rest. Manah is great!!! Very changed from her last appearance, now being a heroine thats quite fun to play, however i dont like how obvious it was that she would get together with Nowe, such obvious things reallyyyy turn off the relationship for me :/ Legna is a funny old man caring for his little one and id say he did a fine good job of it!! However Nowe is quite annoying, its like he's hit his head and just repeats what everyone says in a questioning manner and its really frustrating. The end reveals alot about the mythos of Drakengard, the likes of which being "retconned" by Draakengard 3 and then later being explained as Drakengard 2 not being the sequel to ending A of Drakengard, but an altered version of it, which i guess can wave away problems of retconning but it only gives people more belief that Drakengard 2 isnt canon and that simply isnt true!!! All in all a good game but i prefer its predecessor tenfold :P
Significantly better than the first one, but no one played it cause Yoko Taro didn't make it.
only reason it's not lower is bc the gameplay is not as clunky as the rest of the series and has some of the characters from 1, no yoko taro = bad world building
Kind of works as its own thing, a fantasy game, but as a Drakengard entry, no. Caim and Angelus, and the ending are the only good points
The music, story, and camera improvements are nice but the gameplay is way worse than the first and I'm not joking.
The controls are irresponsive, the dragon parts are dull and lack the weight feeling of the previous game and the branch system is horse shit.
The new mechanics try to make the game more interesting but fail in understanding the first game.
Manah is peak fiction, though.
The controls are irresponsive, the dragon parts are dull and lack the weight feeling of the previous game and the branch system is horse shit.
The new mechanics try to make the game more interesting but fail in understanding the first game.
Manah is peak fiction, though.
hanch my beloved