Game:

Drakengard 2 (2005)

Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 15:11

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Drakengard 2 is, of course, the sequel to Cavia's 2003 title, Drakengard (or Drag-On Dragoon). The game improves on the original game in various aspects, from the audio/visuals to storytelling and general flow, turning a mediocre hack and slash that many relegated to "A poor clone of the modern Dynasty Warrior games" into a game more along the lines of "A good combination of modern Dynasty Warriors with more compelling characters and a smidge of Panzer Dragoon or SkyGunner for good effect". As the game is a proper sequel, it recaps some of the events of the first game, but you won't fully understand Caim and crew unless you've played the original, so this fact may determine how much you enjoy Drakengard 2 as a standalone title. It's hard for me to actually recommend the original though, even though it had a few decent story segments...

Taking place almost 20 years after the first game, you assume control of a young demi-human named Nowe, who was raised by a stern but kind blue dragon named Legna (he is almost the exact opposite of the red female Dragon, Angelus, who only rarely showed anything but angst towards mortals) and a great warrior named Oror, who has passed away. Nowe joins the "Knights of the Seal" to follow in Oror's footsteps and to take revenge on his father's enemies, but a lot of conspiracies soon take place that has Nowe question his morality as well as who is truly a friend or foe. While not nearly as out-right insane or macabre as the first game's story (it's amazing its characters weren't edited more upon leaving Japan), it has some interesting events and the few recurring characters is a plus. An alternate continuity semi-sequel to the first game, NieR, was released back in 2010.

The gameplay is basically refined in Drakengard 2. There are more weapons, playable characters have a variety of different abilities and fighting traits, the dragon has been modified with Dragon Drives and is readily available when mission prerequisites are met, and stages are a little more intricate in design overall. A few things made playing the original a tad bit easier, but for the most part, I think the sequel is much easier to pick up, if only because the stage music won't immediately drive you insane.

The game comprises of three stage types: "Ground" missions, "Ground & Air" missions, and "Air" missions. The first two deal with taking out mainly ground forces, with Nowe usually possessing the option to summon Legna for Dragon Drives or to make short work of most ground forces. The third deals with you controlling Legna specifically in free-flying battles where you evade enemy fire and take down highlighted targets to advance. Various items can be bought and weapons can increase in levels, which increases their parameters and allows characters to learn new combos. The game has a fair deal of missions and a few endings too.

If you enjoy titles like Dynasty Warriors 2+, then you'll probably find something to like in Drakengard 2. If not, then you'll most likely hate it. As this is a hack and slash with minor RPG elements, you'll be killing enemies by the hundreds and calling the game repetitive would be an understatement. This is a series of videos of some things in the game (some early portions and more advanced gameplay). It was originally one clip, but YT has recently done something to the time limit again without informing anyone, so I'm breaking it up into several clips (though I still have the original). There may be gaps of several hours as they take a while to capture and save on my older computer (I typically use the newer one for web design and surfing the net). There are three intro segments and a basic sample. Enjoy.

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