DRAKENGARD
Original Release: Square, 2003, PlayStation 2
Other Releases: Mobile (2004)
An odd take on the Dynasty Warriors formula with a grimdark (and sometimes absurd) story, this first entry in the series can be a repetitive pain but found enough takers to establish a couple of sequels and eventually derivate into Nier
Drakengard (PS2, Square, 2003)
Where to Buy: Amazon
How to Emulate: Arcade Emulation Guide
Review by: C. M0use
Most modern gamers coming back to Drakengard are probably interested in it as the foundation for the Nier series. Personally, I've never played Nier and my interest was more in it being an early Musou-style (Dynasty Warriors-inspired) game. Those two things were about all I knew about it coming in, and boy was I thoroughly disappointed in every way possible and some I didn't even realize were possible.
Drakengard essentially drops you into action in media res, taking on the role of Squall Medeivalheart against a small army of armored knights. And it makes very clear what the gameplay core is with this first scenario: a clunkier, grindier, less fun Dynasty Warriors with an even worse camera. Squall gets one tedious attack combo that has to be spammed endlessly, and DW's backshooting has nothing on this game. No armies, no strategic component or objectives, just hack hack hack hack hack hack hack hack the tin men forever with your limited range of samey techniques.
Periodically these field slogfests are interrupted by a level in which you fly on dragonback. I guess these were supposed to be an awesome showpiece to break up the tedium; instead they're even more sloggy and boring. They're essentially a tedious version of Star Fox 64's "All-Range Mode" that drags on for ENTIRELY too long. When the second of these had me tediously peck at a stationary Wall O' Boxes, I was really ready to kick the designer in the mouth for subjecting me to this.
Though it's not apparent for hours into the game, the reason for putting up with all this is apparently that the plot is just madness. It is immediately apparent that it's darker and bloodier than Squeenix is wont to be, but it's kind of the overwrought medievalshit a 15 year old boy would find "deep" and "mature". The real insanity doesn't start until you've sunk many hours into the game, and it basically turns into a Dark Carnival of the Soul that just keeps unravelling all the way to the end. Main character Caim is an unabashed revenge-driven psycho whose personality is basically GURRAHHH GONNA CHOP, also his sister wants to bone him and that becomes a big problem for everyone. And then you recruit a few other psychos, like a lady who is basically Fat Bastard and wants nothing more than to et tha bebbies.
The game's ultimate gimmick is that there are multiple endings that you have to jump through extra hoops to get by replaying previous chapters, but each one is just more messed up than the last. The whole game is basically the Ronald Mcronald "what the F am I reading" meme come to life.
Looking up director Yoko Taro helps to quickly understand a lot of this. He was one of those "personalities" of the 00s like Suda-51 where he would wear a weird mask in public and try to cultivate some sort of horror-pop psych-auteur figure. He actually started out in the industry in other roles before this became his directorial debut, and after playing Drakengard one suspects that he hated gaming and gamers and basically just wanted to punish people for spending their time on this game.
The aesthetics don't help anything either - bleak low-detail environments, uninteresting character models, slowdown any time the screen gets too busy. The music is uniquely awful, like it was an intentional choice - most levels have this frantic tuneless orchestral crap that loops after like 10 seconds.
The way people talk up Nier it better be 100x better than this horseshit. On paper the premise of this game's story and multiple endings might sound kind of appealing, and if handled better it actually could have been good in a Berzerk sort of way. But dozens of hours of garbage gameplay and atonal psycho music are far too much to ask to get through all that.
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