I haven't played this in about 15 years, so looking it up recently I was surprised to find that it had carved a badge of infamy for itself. I was obsessed with this as an impressionable, un-diagnosed ADHD teen who liked hacky/slashy combat and hadn't been exposed to much dark fantasy, and so the certifiably bananas Yoko Taro insanity this visually and narratively gives way to seared itself into my brain. The ending that eventually birthed Nier blew my mind. I've got a big giant soft spot for this game, and I'm so glad Taro went on to become a big weirdo game creator.
The Stockhold syndrome is real, the more you think about this game after beating it the more you begin to like it.
An angry and brutal deconstruction of rpg and action game tropes, but like a punk song it quickly reveals itself to be little more then a simple 3 note ditty with a lot of rage. Once you get past the shock of how awful each character is and the beauty of the surreal imagery, you are left with a barely functional, esoterically padded action game populated by one note characters in a frustratingly unexplored world.
Years earlier Moon: Remix RPG Adventure tackled many of the same concepts with a lighter touch and more nuance. Years later many more games (including those by Yoko Taro) would explore many of the same ideas in more depth) yet there is something to be said about how bleak and direct this game is. The music and visuals have a very avant garde and ethereal quality which is lacking from Taro's future work on Nier which visually is a snooze fest in comparison to the boldness on display here. Drakengard said what it needed to in the time it came out and paved the way for many future games, but I'll be damned if I touch it again any time soon.
Years earlier Moon: Remix RPG Adventure tackled many of the same concepts with a lighter touch and more nuance. Years later many more games (including those by Yoko Taro) would explore many of the same ideas in more depth) yet there is something to be said about how bleak and direct this game is. The music and visuals have a very avant garde and ethereal quality which is lacking from Taro's future work on Nier which visually is a snooze fest in comparison to the boldness on display here. Drakengard said what it needed to in the time it came out and paved the way for many future games, but I'll be damned if I touch it again any time soon.
fuck my chungus life, i'm not reviewing this fucking game
destroyerofmid was right
destroyerofmid was right
The gameplay for Drakengard isn't good, it's engaging. What you're left with is a game that simply spills the blood of your victims, never allowing that element to be muted or sped through. It's pure in presentation, and I love it for that.
"This game is pretty cool" - Guy that hates video games.
People like to pretentiously harp on about how "intentionally bad" aspects of this game are and while there is some truth to that, there is nothing intentional about the controls and camera.
Aside from that the on-foot gameplay is just even shittier Dynasty Warriors, it's tedious but nowhere near as bad as some people make it out to be. The dragon gameplay is... fine but not something that I'd ever willingly play again.
The music at least somewhat makes up for the gameplay with a cool sound collage of classical music that does a lot of heavy lifting in terms of atmosphere.
Many import story concepts (pacts, goddess, seals etc etc etc) are barely explained (if at all) and with how the verses and endings are structured it makes the story needlessly confusing to borderline nonsensical at times (ending C for example). Aside from some cool visuals and fun dialogue, there's just not a lot there and it's overall pretty uninteresting.
If this wasn't a Yoko Taro game I probably wouldn't have ever played it and certainly wouldn't have finished it.
Aside from that the on-foot gameplay is just even shittier Dynasty Warriors, it's tedious but nowhere near as bad as some people make it out to be. The dragon gameplay is... fine but not something that I'd ever willingly play again.
The music at least somewhat makes up for the gameplay with a cool sound collage of classical music that does a lot of heavy lifting in terms of atmosphere.
Many import story concepts (pacts, goddess, seals etc etc etc) are barely explained (if at all) and with how the verses and endings are structured it makes the story needlessly confusing to borderline nonsensical at times (ending C for example). Aside from some cool visuals and fun dialogue, there's just not a lot there and it's overall pretty uninteresting.
If this wasn't a Yoko Taro game I probably wouldn't have ever played it and certainly wouldn't have finished it.