Drakengard 2

"Drakengard 2 is an incredible game with fun gameplay, interesting characters, and a great story."

Drakengard 2 is the sequel to 2004's Drakengard, a fairly standard hack-n-slash game with a few unique features that set itself apart from games such as Dynasty Warriors -- dragonflight and a large focus on it's dark, twisted storyline. Drakengard 2 returns with a similar premise, with many overall improvements despite a few new cons.

STORY: 10/10
The story of Drakengard 2 is definitely one of it's strongest points. It's narrative is more focused than the original Drakengard's, and although it starts off generically with a young "messiah" fighting against an evil organization controlling the world, the story grows many layers as the game progresses and the plot expands into something much more epic and more understandable than the original Drakengard. Unlike the original, Drakengard 2's story doesn't hook you by being filled with moments and characters meant for shock value only; the story retains the first's healthy mix of insanity and nightmarishness, but with less scenes involving random acts of craziness such as any scene involving certain "babies" from the first game. In fact, much of the insanity of Drakengard 2's predecessor is explained in a way that greatly affects the plot, and there are many cameos and characters returning from the first who are expanded upon in meaningful ways. The result is a profound, emotional story that is still dark in its own right with characters you can actually get behind, cheer for, and want to see the story through for.

GRAPHICS: 7/10
While the graphics definitely are not the best the system or genre have ever seen, with game's such as Dynasty Warriors featuring more detailed characters, Drakengard 2 does improve over the originally very much so in this department. The environments are much more "filled" -- unlike Drakengard, where every level is either a plain or field that is relatively empty or an indoor environment which looks exactly the same as all the other indoor environments. The outdoor levels in Drakengard 2 are expansive and detailed instead of flat and bare; minor things like caves and areas with trees and cliffs that force you to use your dragon to explore add some variety to the levels that the first lacked. There are also many indoor environments in Drakengard 2, which although not as impressive as the outdoor ones, are still pleasant on the eyes if only for the fact they don't all look the same. The spells are combo moves feature impressive particle effects, and these especially shine in a few particular boss fights. Although, as mentioned, the character models are not as attractive as the original, they still look quite good even up close. The FMVs, which are also plentiful, are just as beautiful a vessel for the story to be told as they were in the original.

SOUND: 10/10
The sound and music of Drakengard 2 is another incredibly impressive aspect of it. The voice acting is performed uniformly by British voice actors, which though will make some fans of the original scratch their heads("When did Manah and Seere become British?"), they perform their job quite well. The script is well written and excellently performed; Legna, Nowe's Dragon, comes off as wizened and cynical, while Nowe's voice portrays his naivete and child-like honor and innocence well. The music is masterfully epic; the main theme of Drakengard returns in Drakengard 2 and is played during certain emotional scenes and sets the mood perfectly. Throughout the rest of the game the music is haunting and beautiful -- unlike the original with its unique, cacophonous music that matched its psychotic theme, the more structured and and less nonsensical nature of Drakengard 2 called for a soundtrack that although more traditional is extremely powerful and features some wonderful tracks.

GAMEPLAY: 9/10
The hack-n-slash gameplay of Drakengard returns in Drakengard 2 and is also much improved. Of the several larger changes to the original's formula, you can now switch characters on the fly as opposed to only briefly with a set amount of times per level; this allows you to mix up how you play as you see fit, with each character's combat controlling slightly different from the next and each having their own positives and negatives against certain monster types. Though in the first playthrough you'll need to switch characters on the fly to fit the monsters you're fighting, as your characters level raises up you'll need to do this less often and any character can fight any enemy effectively. Only Nowe can ride his dragon Legna during the ground levels however, so having to switch to him to overcome an obstacle if you prefer playing as a different character can be a bit of a chore, but situations where you need to do that are rare enough that it doesn't become a constant interruption of gameplay. During levels, Nowe's dragon Legna can now perform dragon overdrive moves which are incredibly powerful and level up as Legna does; these are graphically very impressive and tend to clear the field of enemies -- you can't help but feel the power of it after performing one. The aerial levels in which you have to ride Legna through the skies are much the same as they were in the original with the exception of new elemental spells being granted to you as the story progresses by collecting power-ups from fallen enemies.

Leveling up weapons has also changed from the original, and in a negative way. One of the pleasures of Drakengard's was leveling up the weapons and seeing their appearance change and evolve; weapons' physical appearances don't change in Drakengard 2, however. The spells do still evolve and change however, becoming stronger and larger as the weapon levels. Weapons also gain 4 combos as they level up; powerful moves that inflict a lot of damage and are visually impressive. In addition to these, the weapon histories of the original Drakengard return; interesting little mini-stories relating to each weapon that you'll unlock as they level.

Drakengard 2 is not as difficult as the first, but with three different each requiring another playthrough on a harder difficulty, the game becomes more challenging the more you delve into it. As has also been noted, there is also a time limit during levels -- but it's hardly invasive and unless you waste a lot of time walking around it'll almost never become a problem for you.

REPLAY: 10/10
Featuring three different playthroughs with new scenes and side missions in each one, Drakengard 2 is highly replayable if you ever want to come back to it after that first playthrough. My game time was around 75 hours after acquiring all three endings, and it was time well spent.

OVERALL: 10/10
Drakengard is an incredible experience that features fun, fast-paced gameplay, an intriguing story with plenty of twists, excellent music and well performed voice acting. Although the hack-n-slash genre is considered by many to be filled with generic games, any fan of the genre should give Drakengard 2 a try. It was in my opinion one of the best games of last year, and an emotional and moving experience not to be missed by any fan of the original or anyone who enjoys a great story.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 03/22/07