Drakengard 2

"Drakengard 2 might not be for everyone, but anyone who even remotely enjoyed the original will love Drakengard 2."

Drakengard 2 is the sequel to Drakengard which was originally released in 2004, after previously being released in Japan in 2003. Drakengard had mixed reviews and most gamers who picked it up either loved it or hated it. One of the biggest problems with the original game besides its most obvious flaws was that the game took a while for it to get interested and show gamers what great things it had to offer. I will admit my initial impressions of the original Drakengard were not very high (gameplay wise, story was absolutely fantastic from the get-go). Drakengard 2 immediately fixes this problem. It also fixes many other gripes that most players had with the original.

Story:
While definitely not as disturbing or original as the first Drakengard, Drakengard 2's story is very well thought out but has more of a light hearted feeling than the first. The first game's story was incredibly disturbing. Following the quest of a blood thirsty young man who lost his voice due to a pact he made with a dragon in a desperate attempt to save his own life. This man is named Caim and along with him went a group of other disturbed individuals. Despite Caim's ever growing insanity and the perils he had to face on his journey he managed to save the world from total destruction however it came at a great loss to him.

Drakengard 2 follows the first ending of Drakengard (which is the one I just described); however it is now 18 years after the war between the Union and the Empire and Caim saving the world from the brink of destruction and chaos. (I mean this seriously, if you have seen the other endings you would probably cry yourself to sleep, they are that messed up. If you don't think giant carnivorous babies falling from the sky and devouring human beings disturbing, than I don't know what is). Caim's whereabouts are currently unknown but a new hero has taken center stage in Drakengard 2. A young man named Nowe who was raised by the dragon Legna and then adopted by a man by the name of Oror is enrolled in a group of knights who go by the "Knights of the Seal".

The Knights of the Seal were formed after the war between the Union and the Empire to ensure that the seals would never be broken again. In the original Drakengard Caim and his followers were trying to prevent the Empire from destroying the three seals that protected the goddess, which was Caim's sister, and the goddess was the final fourth seal. In Drakengard 2 Nowe is in a similar situation as Caim was as he is trying to prevent the new five seals from being destroyed. However after Nowe goes on several missions in the name of the Knights of the Seal he begins to question his own allegiances and whether or not the Knights are sincere or really a group with a corrupt leader. Nowe's adventure begins here.

Gameplay:
Many people had issues with the gameplay in the original Drakengard. While I enjoyed the gameplay for the most part I do agree that it did become quite repetitive after a while. For the most part Drakengard 2 has corrected all of this. Ground combat is far more interesting and polished than it was in the original. Aerial combat with the dragon is relatively the same although it has been slightly altered. Dragon combat for fighting ground units has been left pretty much the same besides a few new additions to make it more interesting. That being dragon overdrives. In the original game the dragon did have a special attack it could do to literally burn all the enemies on the ground to ash, however this time around Legna has many different overdrives he can annihilate ground enemies with. These attacks are also accompanied with some pretty cool animations of the dragon as well.

The ground combat is really the same thing as it was in the first game but it has been totally refined and polished. Almost every idea that was present in the original's ground combat is intact here but completely revitalized. Weapons no longer have one giant combo that progressively gets larger as the weapon levels up, instead they start with one combo and as the weapon gains levels it gains new combos to attack with. This right here makes the combat so unbelievably more interesting you wouldn't understand until you tried it yourself.

Another aspect of ground combat that has been greatly improved is the ally system. You no longer can only use one of your allies 3 times per battle, and their HP meter no longer continuously drains. Your allies are actually useful this time around as well. In the original your allies never levelled up and you could only use them for a certain amount of time which really rendered them quite useless besides their cheap magic attacks. Your allies had infinite magic so this was really the only reason to use them as their melee attacks were rapidly rendered completely useless once you progressed in the game and the enemies became stronger. In Drakengard 2 your allies are exactly like you. In the original Caim used all the weapons you found and you would press the circle button to summon in an ally and they had a fixed weapon. In Drakengard 2 each of your four party members specializes in a certain weapon type. Nowe uses swords and long swords, Manah uses staffs, Eris uses spears and Urick uses axes. To make all of your characters even more useful each character is strong, neutral and weak against certain enemies. (Neutral meaning their attacks do normal damage, weak means they do significantly less damage to that particular enemy, but they do not take more damage themselves). Also whenever you switch weapons your character will change to whoever uses that weapon so you can use all of the characters instead of choosing one ally to take into battle with you like in Drakengard 1.

Drakengard 2 also features some amazing boss fights. Some of which are extremely challenging but they are very well thought out and add an enormous boost to the gameplays overall appeal. Some of them even play out in a puzzle type manner where you need to figure out what you need to do in order to defeat the boss which adds some great experiences the first time you encounter them. Especially since the first game was a little light on the Boss battles, and they were never to terribly exciting or different from the regular enemies you fought the entire game.

Another great feature to Drakengard is that you can now purchase weapons and items in towns. There are no fully fledge towns really, they are just stores that you go to after you gain access to a free expedition. Again in the original Drakengard once you completed a certain area you would gain access to a free expedition level in that area. These free expeditions were totally extra and were not required to be played through, however you could gain lots of experience and weapons from playing through them. In Drakengard 2 you cannot re-play a level once you beat it but you do gain access to free expeditions. (In Drakengard 1 you can play any level as many times as you want to). When you go to a "town" all that happens is you see an overview of said "town" and you have a menu where you can buy things, you can't actually wander around these "towns". The thing that is great about these towns though is that you can buy healing items for you HP and MP. You can equip them to your weapon wheel and use them during battle which is extremely helpful.

Also it should be noted for anyone familiar with the first game, that those weird "event missions" have been removed from the sequel.

Graphics:
The graphics are a pretty good improvement over the first game, although besides from player models they are not a large improvement. Some of the characters look really awesome, like Urick the big tall guy with the mask that likes to make jokes. Even the enemies look much better, the original games enemies looked pretty bland and unappealing but the Knights and monsters in Drakengard 2 seem to have been spruced up a bit for their encore appearance.

What would definitely be the most disappointing area in the graphics department is the cutscenes where the story progresses. Most of the time when the characters are having conversations they just stand there and they don't move at all, their mouths don't really move much either which is kind of a letdown. On the other hand the CG movies are absolutely breath taking like the original games CG cutscenes were.

However the level design has been significantly improved over the originals Mr. Game & Watch flat-world style levels. Most of the levels actually have varied terrain and are not completely flat with the arbitrary tree placed randomly in the level. These levels have some pretty neat effects and some of them even happen to have fire that spurts up from the ground which looks really cool. The game also has a must better draw distance than the first game. In the original you pretty much had to be right beside your enemies to be able to see them, but it Drakengard 2 you can see them from much further away.

Sound:
The music in Drakengard 2 is absolutely phenomenal. While it doesn't retain the disturbing and horror movie style sound Drakengard 1 had, Drakengard 2 manages to pull off some amazing scores that really add to the mood of the game. Ubisoft has also done a fantastic job at translating this game for a European and North American audience. The voice acting is superb, and the voice actors from the first game reprise their roles if their character managed to survive. It may seem strange but the voice acting is all British but it fits the game perfectly since it does have a medieval setting and is about Knights and dragons. I really must give a round of applause to the fine folks over at Ubisoft for doing a fantastic job at re-doing the voice work and translating this game because it really shows they put a lot of effort into it, and all the references to the first game remain in the English version, showing that someone at Ubisoft knew something about the original game when they decided they wanted to bring this to the English speaking world.

Value:
While the game still does retain some of its repetitive nature (what action RPG doesn't?) it has incredible replay value and lasting appeal as well. During the main portion of the game which is about 15-20 hours long there are many free expeditions you can play which increase the amount of playtime by a large portion. Also the fact that the game has three different endings which can be seen by replaying the game on harder difficulties which ultimately alters many things that happen throughout the story so there is a great incentive to play through the game at least one more time.

Also despite the fact that this game can become repetitive I found it ridiculously addicting. I hacked and slashed my way through hordes of enemies and I enjoyed every single moment of it. This game was a true hack and slash dream for me and anyone who loves the hack and slash genre would most likely feel the exact same way as I did while playing through this game.

Score
Gameplay: 9
Graphics: 7
Sound: 10
Value: 10
Tilt: 10

Overall: 9.3
Ubisoft has done an amazing job at localizing Drakengard 2, and I for one am grateful because if it wasn't for them, this game never would have seen the light of day on North American shores. The voice acting is top notch, greater than I imagine it would have been if Square Enix was responsible for localizing the game, and everything else in the game has remained true to its Japanese counterpart. I truly must say that this game was a dream come true for me. I really never through that there would ever be a sequel to Drakengard, but the sequel came. This sequel gives great, yet sad closure to the original game, gives a great although slightly less disturbing story, great voice acting, and addicting hack and slash gameplay. Anyone who even remotely enjoyed the original must play this game and anyone who loves hack and slash should definitely give this game a go. Overall it was just an amazing experience for me and few games give me this feeling, despite whether or not the game is accepted by the mainstream I feel this game is truly a classic and it will be cherished forever.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/14/06