Drakengard Review (no fat)

Game Description

Square Enix are mostly known to us for doing wonderful RPGs. Many people associate Square Enix in the console world with what Origin used to do a while ago on PCs. They were always known for the rich universe in their games, original storylines and entertaining gameplay. Still, not every game released by them has been a success. Drakengard is actually a mixture of elements from two other projects by Square Enix. Let's see what they did.

Drakengard Storyline

The story plays a very important role in Drakengard. This is probably because, in the context of the game's rather repetitive gameplay, the storyline is the most interesting thing to unfold before your eyes.

You play the role of Caim, a young and daring warrior of the Union. The game starts with Caim involved in a serious struggle to rescue his sister, who is held captive by the Empire. Caim battles bravely, but he is injured to the point where he is nearly dead. Incidentally, a red dragon is near him, also badly hurt. The only solution for him and the dragon remains a ritual called Pact. The Pact brings them back to life, but their spirits remain bound to each other for life. What follows is an epic struggle of Caim, trying to fight back the empire and free his sister, and one of the most interesting stories in a video game.

Drakengard Gameplay

The gameplay itself is structured in a single campaign with several chapters. Each chapter has a number of verses that make up some sort of "missions". However, the game is quite short, and is basically mass carnage.

Drakengard is mostly hack'n'slash in a rather typical manner. The entire action is made out of repeated violence and mechanical perversions applied to hordes of enemies. The arsenal of moves is quite limited: tapping the X button repeatedly will make you strike, and, after you kill a number of enemies, you also have the option of unleashing a (more devastating) magic-powered blow. The effectiveness of the latter is considerable against most enemies, except for those who are immune to magic and have to be taken out by brute force. Caim can also use some combos introduced with the triangle button, and roll to left or right, although the game rarely gives you a reason to roll.

What is probably more interesting here is the part where you fly. Not on your own wings, but on the dragon's. Although this is by no means something new (in fact, the flight model is somewhat reminiscent of Magic Carpet, if anyone remembers that). You can also roast your enemies if you want, although again you should take into account the fact that some enemies are immune to the dragon's hot breath. Air fights are quite interesting in fact, and you will often find yourself using the dragon's ability to strafe in order to avoid enemy fire.

The biggest problem here is the fact the game quickly gets rather repetitive. Simply hackin'n'slashin' your way around gets a bit boring after a while, especially as there are tons of enemies, in spite of how the story tries to convince you there's an entire war going out there. The truth is, you rarely encounter any kind of friendly forces. You do get some allies along the story, but that's quite about all. The AI is very unhelpful here. There are some monsters along the way that can kill you easily, but that’s not because they're smart. They're just stuffed up with attributes, because, otherwise, they are just as blatantly stupid as all the other enemies. The general feeling is that those "things" are there because you need to have something to kill, otherwise you wouldn't have any game.

Also unhelpful are the annoying controls and camera. The controls themselves are fine once you work them out and get used to them, but you will often be under the impression that the camera hates you. You will just feel like there's a naughty gnome behind it, constantly driving it a little more to the left or right, just enough to make you re-center it.

Drakengard Pros and Cons

Square Enix did some efforts to improve the gameplay though, and they actually had some success. The main strategy they applied was introducing some remotely RPG-ish elements into their game, and this works in general. As you progress into the game, you gain experience, and you can use it to upgrade your skills and weapons. When upgrading weapons, you will also obtain a number of interesting magic abilities for them. Unfortunately, due to the very poor AI and the repetitive gameplay, most of you will rarely feel motivated to discover all the weapons and their possibilities.

There are also some interesting cut-scenes in the game. The dialogs are hilarious and fun enough to go through them at least once. The cut-scenes rendered by the game engine are less interesting than the pre-rendered ones though, but this doesn't make them less entertaining. The voice acting rates high as the voices are very inspired, and the voice of the fire-spitting dragon is the most interesting of them all, fairly different from any dragon voice we've ever heard in a while.

But the most interesting part of the game remains seeing how the story unfolds. There are two sides of the story. One of them, the one about the large-scale war and the struggle against the Empire is quite bad. Square Enix try to convince you everything is depending on you in this epic war, but they don't really make you feel like there's any war going on at all. Sure, you kill monsters, but you do that in many other games where there's no war involved.

The more personal side of things is the more entertaining one. What Caim would have to do is to protect his sister, Furiae, who also happens to be a goddess. However, Caim is young and his anger is quick. What drives him more than the affection for his sister is his uncontrolled hatred against the Empire, a hatred that drives him even in his few moments of clarity. This is the only artistic side in the game that literally shines.

Drakengard Graphics and Sound

This is probably also because the rest of the art is not amazing in any way. The graphics are not bad, but not amazing either, and the animation is quite repetitive. The animation of the dragon is better though, and there are some good graphic effects involved in spells.

There's not much in the way of sound effects either. What does stand out is the soundtrack, but not in a Final Fantasy kind of way The music sounds very experimental: it can get very discordant and it often sounds as if a drunkard was drawing things on a score.

Drakengard 2cent

For a game associated with Square Enix, Darkengard is a real let down. In a game where only the story provides some uplift, the pathetic sound effects and music really act the part of a boulder tied to make the whole package drown without a chance of reprieve.

Drakengard Price

Drakengard retails at approx. 38$ US