Drakengard 2

"The Drakengard series enters the road of mediocority (honest review)"

I'll start off saying that I am well aware some of the reviews here are fan-based, and that Drakengard II is average at best. There is no actual reason to even bother looking at this game. It's two paged forum actually convinced me to buy the game, and TRY to finish it, but I didn't get far even then.

MUSIC - 7
Well it IS amazing, for the ONE song they could actually think of..The problem is that this ONE song has been used already, countless times in the FIRST game. It's good that they're using it again, but make your own crap instead of ruining it on a game like this! Many of the "other amazing" songs either have no actual rythym to them, or simply suck. Sure, nothing is too repetitive, but why not add some more great music, other then using the one from it's successor?

SOUND - 9.8

No complaints. Everything fits in well. Nothing sounds repetitive, especially for a game like this.

GAMEPLAY - 6.9
Obviously from looking at the score, where the game falls. There's PLENTY of new enemies that everyone loves to bash up, whats the difference? Your not playing as the character that made you last, maybe even enjoy playing through as the first game. NOW, your playing as Nowe, the weak, typical hero that probably could of been invented from the casual student failure of a high-school. If thats not bad, there is hardly any story about the game that you'll stay up long enough to be interested in, especially with the majority being frozen. British voice actors anyone? Enjoy the whole opening scene, hearing laughter, and FUN jokes as they all talk with horrible, EMOTIONLESS voice acting. OH OH!! Lets talk about the actual gameplay now! It's a hacknslash, allowing you to use a whole new feature...THATS RIGHT, HEALING ITEMS!! OH GOD this has NEVER been done before!

Now you'll spend countless hours just wasting your fingers over the X, Square, and the incredible triangle button on your controller. YEAH! They made more than one attack button! NO! They just made it suck more! Why? Because certain types of enemies are nearly invincible to Nowe, almost forcing you to switch to new and exciting ones such as a woman, an orc, and some half-assed monkey to your team, each with their own special abilities. Now, if your someone to power-level the main character like myself, you'll find this quite annoying, as it will take a while before you finish off a single creature alone. Don't forget these UNFORGETTABLE, characters like Nowe's wise, dragon that could get a stroke any minute. If you are trying to have any kind of serious fun, you can do it a lot better without this game.

Now lets talk about the AI, horrible. They pretty much just stand there and move around targeted to an enemy, then do a single ONE or TWO hit combo. Leaving the rest to you. There has to be something good about this game, right? Caim and Angelus! but theres just one small difference. You get to finish them off, and make them non-existent for any other future Drakengard games! Wait, there's more! The whole idea of upgrading your weapons looks and skills, has been taken out! WAIT! Now, there's a time limit to certain levels, and some of them rush you out before you can even finish! Now there is a whole new point of wasting your time with items, characters, monsters! Thats pretty much everything! They even decided to take out the option of viewing cutscenes, and playing any level you've beaten over again. Did I mention how the tutorial can kill you?

-GRAPHICS- 7.2
Better then the original for some things, other parts of it just make you gag. I admit, some effects like the skills do look neat.

Buy or rent:

Learn who to trust. No-one should even consider buying this game. After all of this said, you could only think they might of rushed it. Unless you're a complete fan boy of the original, and want to see small improvements that just turn out ruining the whole series, go ahead. It's the best experience anyone could ask for, when it comes to complete trash. Get Drakengard I, if your still MAD crazy after that, then rent this. If you want to see frozen pictures, and hear voices that are a lot better then this, go watch a real movie, you'll enjoy it a lot more.

*Special thanks to Sapphire Fate and Drsw3353 for inspiring me to make this review

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 03/21/07