Drakengard

 This was a long time coming.

I played this on my PS2.

So, Drakengard. This game, if you weren't aware, was a precursor of sorts to the NieR games. Don't think that's the only reason it's worth mentioning, however; it's a strong game in its own right.

As for what exactly it is, well, it's an action game. For the most part it's a hack-and-slash, almost Musou-esque (think Dynasty Warriors) sort of thing where you're set loose on a battlefield and tasked with slaughtering huge swathes of enemies. You have a variety of weapons to choose from, each leveling up as you kill with them and each with their own special ability, and there's a combo meter you're encouraged to build up as you take down foes. 

That's only one facet of the game, however. The game is divided between "ground missions", which function like what I just described, and "aerial missions" that are radically different. These put you in command of a dragon and need you to fly around a large open environment and take out enemies in the sky. You have both lock-on and freely-fired fireballs, and it honestly feels a bit Ace Combat at times, though I imagine Panzer Dragoon was a more direct inspiration. 

Additionally, the aforementioned "ground missions" will usually let you summon your dragon to help, further complicating things, allowing you to (sort of) use the aerial missions' attacks on earthbound enemies. Flying towards a group of enemies, firebombing them before jumping off and swinging a big sword, it all looks very cool. But, most of the time, it just ends up feeling somewhat awkward. The camera, like many lock-on cameras when it comes to flying characters in games, frequently fails to cooperate and most of the later ground levels have ranged combatants who make using the dragon impractical. Still, it's a cool premise for a game and I like the idea of it all, even if it doesn't always fully work.

I've held off on talking about the story because I felt some context about this game was important, but the story, and how it's told, is maybe the most noteworthy thing about this game. This probably won't come as a surprise to anyone reading this given the fact this is, well, the predecessor to the NieR series, but after reaching the ending of the game you're greeted with this enigmatic screen:

Ominous.

If it wasn't abundantly clear after getting to the final boss when you only have around 50% completion, reaching the credits on this game doesn't mean you're through with it. If you stop there you'll have a fairly satisfying ending, albeit one with a few unexplained loose ends, but the game is designed to keep you playing. On the mission select screen throughout the game there will often be additional missions scattered throughout that are gated behind some arcane requirements. "Complete this fight in under five minutes" or "revisit this cutscene after meeting a new companion", things of that nature. Doing that will, in turn, unlock what appears to be a parallel version of events that shows another way events could have played out.

Actually accessing some of this is a bit awkward and it's not always immediately clear which is the critical path and which is an optional detour (if either is) as both are presented side-by-side in the mission list. Still, the idea of an action game having a branching narrative of sorts is incredibly cool and each alternate path feels just as valid and well-thought-out as the "main" story.

Some of these get a bit complicated.

The narrative and presentation throughout is also fairly strong and that made me actually want to seek out these additional routes and endings. While most of the worldbuilding is fairly standard fantasy fare, the tone and arc of the story are surprisingly impactful. This is a grim world where bad things happen and you feel it. This game is another in the pantheon of games that attempts to shine a spotlight on how players will delight in violence (alongside games such as KotOR II, Spec Ops: The Line, and Metal Gear Solid) but despite having no "choice" in the matter it still felt reasonably effective. Some of that is due to the fact they really sell that the protagonist is a violent individual, and some of it comes down to them almost relishing in the horrors of war. There's a sequence later on where you're tasked with fighting (and killing) child soldiers and a character who spares one of them has his faith in the kid betrayed almost immediately. It's grim.

They also say things like this when you kill them.

I mentioned earlier there were multiple endings, and for the most part unlocking those is fairly straightforward. You just do whatever (arbitrary) thing the game tells you to do, and that unlocks a new set of missions. The final ending, however, requires you to unlock every weapon, and while I said that some of the mission requirements were unintuitive and arcane, unfortunately, that goes double for the weapon requirements. These are not explained within the game (I used a guide as I truly have no idea if you could ever figure these out on your own) and some of what it asks you to do is, well, dumb.

I can understand the "Complete this mission within five minutes" or "Complete this mission with at least 50% health" ones, but "Wait in this mission for 25 minutes until the item you need spawns" is just... a lot to ask of someone. And then, once you've done all this, the final mission is an insanely difficult reaction-based thing unlike anything else in the game. I respect the idea, but the execution left a lot to be desired.

After going through everything required I am glad I went through the effort to see the final ending because it is very memorable but, I don't know, man. I don't necessarily think I'd recommend other people put themselves through 5-10 hours of grinding for weapons and a grueling boss encounter for what amounts to a brief cutscene. Even if it is a very good cutscene.

Just take my word for it, this image is from after the final set of credits.

Lastly, I should probably mention the music in this. So much of it is weird. Not "bad" weird by any means, just unconventional and off-putting in a way I really dug.  I know that NieR Automata is kind of known for having a distinct musical style, but I guess I wasn't expecting the music in this to be so memorable. It's good. The below example, from the credits after the end of the C-route, kind of exemplifies a bit of what I mean.

Isn't this cool?

I mentioned at the start of this blog that this was a long time coming, and I say that because I actually started this game in 2022. I considered starting fresh from a clean save, but as I had already acquired a decent amount of weapons (and was a fairly decent level) I didn't want to throw away the hours I'd already spent grinding. Getting back into the swing of things was tough (I watched a bunch of early cutscenes on YouTube and ended up just replaying a bunch of missions anyway) but I'm glad I came back to this game. It's something really special, even if some of its quirks are a bit frustrating to deal with.

And that's that. At some point in the future I'll absolutely be playing the other Drakengard games and the (NieR games), but I'm not sure when that'll be. I've been putting off my Yakuza playthrough long enough, so it's probably time I got back to those games.

There are just so many dang video games I want to play.