JRPG Review: Drakengard 3

[Andromeda]

Drakengard 3, also known as Drag-on Dragoon 3 from Square Enix and the developers of Nier, is a strange game. At base level, it is what you would expect from an action RPG. Plenty of waves of enemies, some fighting on the dragons and big boss encounters. What you won’t expect is the massive amount of sexual content in the game or the more strangely timed humor. It is an odd game, a bloody game, a very adult game.

My time with the series prior to Drakengard 3 was limited to the PS2 demo of Drakengard. It seemed like the normal hack and slash action RPG mowing through enemies to get to the boss and have dragons tossed in. Seemed fun, but I didn’t give it most more time. Doing my reading on the series, I regret that decision now.

Drakengard 3 peeked my interest when I started hearing things about the characters and the world. A violent world with some mentally unstable highly powerful girls running things and sex around all the corners. It was an unusual thing to see Square Enix’s name on. It seemed like something to give a try.

And so I did, it’s whacky, zany, ultraviolent, crass and loaded with sex talk. It’s good to go in with that sort of mind set. The other mind set, expect to feel like you’re playing the villain the whole time. It’ll be nothing like other games you’ve played and that is what makes it so fascinating to play.

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So let’s start with the story. You play a woman named Zero, she has five other sisters all named the same as her using numbers one through five. They are all god-like beings that descended upon the world and keep things in order. Zero however has other plans in mind. It opens with her attacking all five sisters with the help of her dragon. Unfortunately, she ends up losing. Her dragon dies and must go through a reborn type of cycle, so the rest of the game you’re stuck with a child-like dragon. As for Zero, she’s lost both an arm and an eye. In place of the eye though is a flower, which has importance to the plot.

Her goal to kill all of her sisters hasn’t changed, just tempered her outright slaughter. Now she’s going to take them all individually. So your goal is to kill all the sisters and hope you understand why by the end. The game has 4 different endings and they are all equally mind scratching until you start to piece things together. Playing through a couple of the endings is required to just feel like you’re getting what’s going on and Zero’s motivation.

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But it is a horribly bloody affair. The one curiosity though, is that all of the sisters have a male attendant with them. This male attendant serves for all their needs, including their sexual ones. The game’s conversations and story are very adult, so as I said before sex talk and sex are direct or implied. Zero specifically takes her sisters attendants and sleeps them to mark her ownership of them. She’s very much alpha dog. The main characters are in some ways more twisted and perverse than even her. So it gets dark.

Focusing on combat, it is largely your common everyday hack and slash action RPG setup. You have multiple weapon types, each with different speeds and strengths. They are all designed for different needs. Some for quick attacks, others for reach and others for penetration through defenses. They are all well balanced and provide a great sense of both mobility through enemies and power. Zero is meant in a way to be very god-like and though she is mowing down enemies with weapons like an everyday warrior it doesn’t change the fact that she is doing it with ultraviolent flare and strength.

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Serving the ultraviolence, one other aspect of the combat is the Intoner Mode. This is sort of like a berserker mode. While you are attacking and killing enemies the blood of your enemies coats you. This allows your tension meter to increase. Once full enough you can unleash your Intoner Mode, the nice thing about it is that a full meter is not required, but does naturally grant more time in the mode. While in Intoner Mode you move around quickly with great strength and can generally blow through defenses like they’re paper. It is great for taking out large chunks of boss health or just laying waste to a horde of enemies, nothing can really stop you while in that mode.

There are two attendants that will travel with you as you go along from map to map. So there are AI assistance to give the battles a little more weight on your side. You will largely end up doing most of the work though.

The standard chests and collectibles can be found around maps as well, granting for a little exploration on some maps. They are largely a linear design, but they will often do well in hiding the collectibles in different locations off the standard path. Often meaning you’ll have to return or back track.

Last part of the gameplay is the dragon riding. This is all purely an on-rails event. Whenever you’re on dragon-back, the path you take is largely locked in. It’ll be your job to attack the incoming targets or boss. The challenge of these range widely, as early ones are pretty easy to clear with little to no effort while it will quickly change in later ones forcing multiple retries. The number of these are not great, so it is not a huge pain, but since you don’t get tons of practice with it, it is definitely one of the more annoying aspects of the game.

Touching on the customization, this is all down to the weapons. Like any good action RPG, there are a large variety of weapons. Within the four class types, there are different speeds and strengths. So it’ll come down to individual player skill and preference if you pick the slower heavier hitting weapons or the faster weaker ones. They can be upgraded and improved through materials found from combat and exploration. This can bump up and change weapon performance overall even with they are jumping ranks. It is a solid system that rewards well, but best done as something where you pick your favorites and not try to upgrade them all.

Drakengard 3 does not have a lot of to really write home about when it comes to visuals. It is a respectable game in appearance. It is not down-right ugly, but it is not beautiful either. In a way, the dark, gritty and adult world it presents sort of works for the less detailed more grimy and muted visuals. It is all serviceable, but you’re not playing the game for the looks.

Which gets to the uniqueness for the game. Unfortunately, I did sort of already address that point. So there is not a lot more to say. It is a hyper-violent world with adult characters making crass adult conversation. There is a boy that is dark and sadist and an old man that is a sex crazed addict always talking in innuendo. But you’re also playing Zero, someone that is more suited to being the villain rather than the hero. And even after I was done, I’m still not fully convinced she is a hero. Anti-hero would be the best way to put it after you learn what’s up with her.

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Dark and twisted world with blood and sex everywhere. It’s nothing like what you’ll expect from Square Enix, though if you’ve played Nier or the other Drakengard games you know what you’re getting into.

Reason to Play:

Drakengard 3 is a prequel, so in a way it is almost better to play the other games to get the references, but I hadn’t and I was still fine. You play the game for the story, the whacky story. That and the characters who are dark, twist and just cruel at times. There is still something endearing about them. They don’t completely come off as someone you can out right hate, but more like you want to know what makes them tick. There is something bigger going on in the background and you just need to know what it is.

So long as you’re not put off by sex, blood and crass behavior, you should be fine playing the game. It is a fun and challenging action RPG that is well put together, but doesn’t necessary do anything new or inventive design wise. Most of the attention was definitely put into the world and characters.

Story – 8.5/10 – It’s not save the world, feels more like destroy the world. It’s different, dark and bloody, so be ready for a wild ride that you’ll probably run blind for most of the story until things start to fall into place.
Combat System – 6/10 – Well put together and responsive, but nothing really new or special. It does what it needs and challenges those that want to get more out of it.
Customization – 3/10 – Limited to just the weapons, but that is really all that is necessary. It isn’t a deep system, but gives you enough control to do what you need.
Graphics – 4.5/10 – An average looking game that doesn’t push things or hurt, though it’ll probably look more like an early PS3 or late PS2 game at times.
Characters – 9.5/10 – They are insane, sadist, crazed, crass individuals, but they all have their stories and they get to be very dark and depressing. No one is really happy in this world and they’ve all been broken, but it makes for some fascinating and unexpected characters.
Uniqueness/Quirkiness – 6/10 – The characters and story are really where the games shines in just being bonkers. It’ll take until you getting to the second or third ending before you feel like you know what’s happening, not that it changes the fact that you’re running around with some pretty nuts, if not broken individuals.

Overall – 7.5/10 (Not an average)

[Michael Swayne]

Are the scores given solely main game, or were they including the DLC costumes and stories? If the DLC were to be included in this review, would it raise or lower scores of specific categories? Specifically customization because there are outfits, both main game and DLC, that affect Zero's stats.

[Andromeda]

Yeah main game only. I hadn't played any of the DLC, though I did want to since they were sister missions and seemed to actually talk more about their stories and history. I'd probably have to see what stats we're looking at, but typically I don't count changing gear as a part of customization, since that is part of the general RPG experience. Customization focuses on areas beyond that. Which was why it was pretty low, upgrading weapon is pretty minimum customization.

[Odin1199]

Just how adult is this game lol? Nude play or full blown hard core?

[Andromeda]

It's still a M rated game on a console, so nothing that extreme. It's all just talk and implied. You don't see anything actually happen, but explicitly stated when it does happen off-screen. Otherwise, there is a fair bit of sex talk just in the idle conversation with your attendants. There is a masochist mixed in with a sex crazed old man, so you can get a pretty good idea. Zero tells him to shut up about it on a few points because he doesn't know when to stop.

[01habbo]

I haven't played the series before and this was on my list to try, I'm glad to hear it is a prequel which means I can probably play it without getting lost.

Is the game difficult? Does it have difficulty settings?

[Andromeda]

It's been several months since I played it, so I forgot if it had a difficulty. But it does get more challenging the longer you play it. The way the endings work is that they build on after the other and you branch off at different points, but keep your progress. The last boss is really rough because it doesn't require skill, but a lot of patience. It is a rhythm game with no cues like any normal rhythm game and the last one you have to hit is with the screen all black and all you have is the audio to cue you in. It's not kind.

[Michael Swayne]

One thing to mention about difficulty level, is that there technically is just one difficulty setting. And if you unable to complete a Verse (what the game calls Levels), then the game will actually lower this setting automatically the next time you try it. So eventually you will complete each Verse. And that final "Boss" is probably one of the three that I have had the most trouble with in any game.

And I would highly recommend playing the DLC stories. It really shines a light to the other side of the battles, and lets you know about the other sisters. Two's, in particular, is very emotional and made me cry when I played it.

[Andromeda]

I'll probably try them out once the DLC prices are a little more in range with what I want. I believe they were all $5 a piece and there are 5 sisters. So that was a lot of money for extra missions, which are great story additions. I'd prefer to get them all for something less than that. So I'll be keeping an eye out for them.