Drakengard 2 Ps2 Review

The AWHP was created and compiled by Eddie Drueding and is maintained and updated by Mike McGavinAWHP was created and compiled by Eddie Drueding and is maintained and updated by Mike McGavin. The detailed synopses for May 4, 1964 to June 13, 1974 are being written by Eddie and Michael McGavin. The weekly synopses from mid-1976 to 1999 were taken from a weekly syndicated column (originally entitled 'Tune in Tomorrow'). It was written by Jon-Michael Reed from the 1970s until he died in 1986. Character guide. Family trees entry guide addison, wayne anderson, kevin. Bancroft, brian bancroft, ted. Another world home page.

Drakengard for PlayStation 2 game reviews & Metacritic score: Conflict has erupted between the Empire and the Union. The Empire, once part of the Union itself, has forsaken peace and accumulated awesome power in a surprisi.

SynopsisIn the world of Midgard chaos is held at bay only by the strength of the Seals, magical bonds placed upon a woman who is then given the title of 'the goddess of the seal'. If the seal is destroyed, demonic beings known only as 'the watchers' would enter the world of man and wreak havoc upon the mortal realm. Caim, the elder brother of the present goddess of the seal, is mortally wounded during a siege upon his family's castle as an army corrupted by a demonic cult devoted to the watchers invades in an attempt to slay the goddess and break the seal holding their masters at bay. Desperate to survive, Caim forges a pact with a captured dragon, a creature he holds deep resentment towards. In forging this pact, Caim looses his ability to speak but gains the strength of his dragon, who now shares his life force.

Together, Caim and his dragon, Angelus, rise against the empire and the cult of the watchers to defend the seals and the world as a whole. Developer: Square Enix, Cavia, Publishers: Square Enix Genre: ARPG Rating: Price:The Drakengard series has a small but loyal following. It’s a very obscure game that has only recently been re-discovered through the success of NIER, a game that takes place following one of the many endings of Drakengard. The graphics aren’t stellar, especially for the time that it was released, and the trailer vaguely portrayed the content of the game so it was overlooked for bigger titles like Final Fantasy XI and Far Cry. I happened upon Drakengard in the used bin at GameStop and knew very little about it. My sister is a massive dragon fan and had been gravely disappointed in an older game, Dragon Rage. I took a gamble and scooped up this game knowing very little about it.

In this case, we got just what we had been looking for and a bit more. The game is dark, and touched on a lot of uncomfortable themes but the main characters are fighting against these things while struggling with their own inner demons. What we really enjoyed about this title was the fact that for the first time, we had control over a fire-breathing dragon, free to fly about in missions and burn our enemies to the ground. Content Guide Spiritual Content. Mannah, the leader of the Cult of the Watchers.

Drakengard is an extremely dark game with heavy themes relating to the occult. The main malevolent force is a group known as the Cult of the Watchers. This cult seeks to destroy the seal binding the Watchers—essentially demonic beings—to unleash them upon the world so the world can be reborn. The cult operates by infecting their followers with a magic-based illness known as “the red eye” which robs them of their will and turns them into mindless drones. Demonic practices and disturbing imagery are common, but they are present to more firmly establish the nature of the evil that the protagonists face. The leader of the cult is a young girl who occasionally speaks with a multitude of deep voices, implying that she is under demonic influence. She is shown delighting in bloodshed and praising the watchers as she dances about.

I actually cover the watchers in my list (but be forewarned of spoilers).Violence. And this is how our main characters are introduced- bleeding to death and insulting each other.

Our main characters are introduced bleeding to death and insulting each other; this game is not shy about bloodshed. Every stroke of the sword sends blood flying out of enemies. When you defeat them, the enemy vanishes in a large spatter of carnage, staining the ground for a few brief seconds. The opening cinematic shows Caim taking a serious wound in the back.

Later he happens upon Angelus chained to the ground with arrows sticking out of her body and what looks like a summoning circle around her written in blood. This game is extremely violent with twisted visuals consistently present through the cut scenes, gore through the actual combat, and even the graphic nature of the little stories included with the weapons. One side character, Arioch, is absolutely bat-poopie insane. It’s hinted at, and outright stated later on, that she enjoys eating people. Specifically children people.

Drakengard’s content isn’t for the faint of heart.Language/Crude Humor: While “big daddy” words such as the F-bomb and Shhhhikaka aren’t present, the characters still possess a rough yet colorful vocabulary. Caim loses his voice after the very first mission and Angelus is tactful for the most part, but there are several side characters with potty-mouths. Arioch, a woman who has lost her ability to bear children, is the worst of them all.

She’s gone bonkers and doesn’t exactly censor herself in any way. There goes my sleep for the next five days. Sexual Themes: Drakengard has fully earned its mature rating, even in this regard. While there are nobits present, there are exposed female breasts at one point in the game (though they hold Barbie doll anatomy). The aforementioned Arioch also seems to be a bit of a nympho as the price of her bond was her ability to bear children.

Somehow, the pact-price seems to have spiked her libido.Drug/Alcohol Use: There are no specific mentions of either. Positive Themes.

In a game as dark and twisted as Drakengard, one would think that you would have to really milk around for anything positive, but Drakengard is largely about redemption, forgiveness, and confronting evil within and without. Through the majority of the game, the main protagonist, Caim, makes it very clear that he has a thirst for blood and an anger management problem.

He seems to delight in killing. When he stands at the threshold of death itself, he’s shown to be terrified and desperate. So desperate is he, in fact, that he is willing to forge a pact with a creature that he deeply loathes for the crimes of her species—specifically the murder of his parents.

In forging a pact with Angelus, the two are bound by the same life force and are able to communicate mentally as well as share each other’s every strength and pain. ( DragonHeart much?) The price of Caim’s pact is his ability to speak. This leaves Caim essentially unable to communicate with anyone but the dragon that he begrudgingly took as his pact partner.

Through the course of the game, Angelus becomes his voice of reason. She often reprimands him for his bloodlust and presents him with moral arguments that leave Caim uncomfortable. Eventually, Angelus is able to forge a deep friendship with Caim. He seems to have forgiven her of her species’s crimes and embraces her as the better half of himself. The friendship that they forge develops through the course of the game and by the end, it’s almost heart-wrenching to see just how far the other will go to see to the safety of the other.

They sacrifice literally everything that they have for the sake of the other, fighting as one, and rising up against evil. Mind, Caim is still an extremely flawed person. Angelus acts as his conscious.

This is made more evident in the game’s successor.Review The overall atmosphere of Drakengard is one of despair, loneliness, and corruption. The story sets a dark tone in a world that’s consumed by violence, death, and evil.

Even the main character is far from noble. While his intentions are pure enough, he retains a violent nature and a delight in the necessary shedding of his enemy’s blood. Even his dragon, a creature with no love for humanity, maintains a higher moral standard than Caim. In a way, it is a refreshing take on the dragon/human relationship as in a lot of popular fiction, it’s the human that tames the dragon, not the other way around. The story itself, true to Cavia’s reputation, is strange and dour.

In order to get the true ending, you have to play through multiple “alternate” endings (one of which actually leads into NIER, one of Cavia’s more recent releases). The combo counter on the bottom left shows a chain of four and the kill count on the bottom right shows how many enemies have been killed. The map on the upper right shows the enemies in the area, shown by red dots. The gameplay only reinforces the nature of Caim in that you gain rewards, both small and large, through kill count. In ground missions, Caim must accomplish “chains” in order to gain health orbs (which recover his hit point) or blast orbs (which send out a wave of energy to kill surrounding energies). Chains are achieved when Caim lands non-stop blows on the enemies around him within a few seconds from each other. Fear in the night 1972 wiki.

Ground missions, those where you focus on playing Caim or, later down the line, one of his companions, are swamped with enemies that you must plow through in order to defeat the level. Each level is timed to one hour and instances are unlocked upon meeting certain conditions. For example, reinforcements will arrive after an area is cleared or a certain amount of enemies are killed. To progress to the next step of the ground mission, you have to route those reinforcements by killing the officers. Ground missions are mostly comprised of Caim fighting with a set of weapons against hordes of enemies. In a way, they’re similar to the “musou”+ feel of Hyrule Warriors.

The enemies range from simple foot soldiers to cavalry or tower shield infantry soldiers. The goal of ground missions are to clear the field, and accomplish the little side missions as they appear, such as seeking out a treasure or destroying a guard tower. In outdoor ground missions, Caim can summon Angelus and fly her low to the ground. She is able to cross the field quickly and unleash devastating fire attacks from the sky. However, Angelus is very weak to archers and magic users which shoot projectiles into the sky.

When she takes a few hits from the air, Caim is thrown to the ground, takes damage, and Angelus flies off. Caim must dispatch the soldiers capable of projectiles before calling upon Angelus again. When fighting indoors, Caim is unable to call upon his dragon and must rely on his own strength to cut down his enemies. Indoor ground missions are often maze-like in structure, often taking place within castles or fortresses where as ground missions are often on the outside of these structures or on open fields. One notable element to Drakengard is the arsenal of weapons that Caim has access to. Most battles will have hidden weapons appear after certain conditions are met. Caim must seek these out during the battle.

Before the beginning of any mission, you can select which weapons to take with you and during combat, you can change out weapons to best confront a situation or to level up said weapons. The weapons grow stronger with how many enemies are killed by them, though experience is given out at the end of the level rather than during. On top of that, any weapon can only level up once per mission, so it’s a good idea to check on the experience progress in the menu frequently so you don’t waste time trying to gain exp on a weapon that’s maxed out. As a weapon levels, it grows stronger, unlocks more powerful magic, and reveals a little more about its origin in the weapon select screen accessible between missions.

Often times the ground missions will lead up to or follow up an air mission in which the player takes command of Angelus with Caim mounted upon her back. Air combat is very different from ground missions as the types of enemies are often larger, tougher, and Angelus has a very different way of attacking. This aspect makes the game 110% worth it. In air missions, Angelus must confront things such as battle blimps, winged monsters, and magical entities. She can lock onto multiple targets (the number increases as she grows stronger) and blast them with flames. Often times air combat involves locking onto targets, attacking, then evading return fire.

She can fly up and down, dive from heights, and execute a sharp flip-turn. Whereas Caim is a charge in and spill as much blood sort, Angelus’ combat is more strategy and agility based. Some enemies are surrounded by smaller enemies so air combat becomes a delicate balance of thinning the herd, defending Angelus, and striking the main enemy. As with Caim’s weapons, Angelus grows in strength. As she grows, her fire is much stronger, she is able to execute more powerful blast attacks (which are unlocked through kill count, much the way Caim unlocks a blast attack on the ground), and she gains more hit points.

Her appearance is also altered as the grows stronger, making her more intimidating and much larger. The game also allows you to enter two modes: Story mode and Expedition mode. In Story Mode, you are guided through the main story of the game and Angelus is forced to take the form of whatever was appropriate for that point in the story. If you defeated the game and replay it from the beginning of story mode, she will return to her first stage and grow as the story progresses. In Expedition mode, you can return to certain areas and grind. This is handy between missions because it allows you to level your weapons without having to wade through the story.

WHERE’S YOUR TOWER SHIELD NOW!? Visually, Drakengard is fairly dated.

Some of the minor cut scenes are clunky as the characters are limited in movement and expression. The cinematic cut scenes have held up very well, however, and are worth the effort it takes to unlock them. The voice acting is fantastic and adds to the characters what the strained graphics cannot. The biggest problem I have with the game, however, is the soundtrack.

The score is very small in comparison to a lot of games that came out in its time, and the music itself is repetitive and annoying. Oftentimes the music in the background is the same five notes repeating over and over with a “climax” that lasts about ten seconds before looping back to the same five notes. The little music offered is supposed to sound intense and intimidating but it comes off more as annoying than anything. Overall, fans of hack-and-slash adventure RPGs will find something to love. Anyone who wants to take control of a dragon will definitely not be disappointed.

The story is dark and depressing, but it’s inventive and takes a lot of twists and turns. It’s worth a peek, especially if you happen upon it in the discount bin at your local GameStop.amazon template=iframe image&asin=B0001A86EG. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent.

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Classical music critics regularly have to review well-known compositions from long dead composers reinterpreted by a contemporary conductor. Be it Fritz Busch orchestrating Mozart's Operas, Serge Koussevitzky recreating Tchaikovsky's symphonies or Sir John Barbirolli's defining interpretations of Mahler, a classical critic essentially weighs one person's interpretation of another's idea.Likewise, in modern music there's the cover version: Jose Gonzalez transferring The Knife's fizzy bass of Heartbeats to nylon string, Ryan Adams lending melancholic sincerity to Oasis's Wonderwall or Johnny Cash acoustically gravelling his way through the desperation of Nine Inch Nails' self-harming Hurt. The cover version allows artists from different fields to recast well-loved melodies; they put their fingerprint on someone else's handiwork. Sometimes the result is horrible, but often it's mesmerising, casting a sheet of fresh light over all too familiar places.But there are no cover versions in videogames.Imagine. Hideo Kojima's Ico: Yorda all khaki-shirt and boot-polish blackened cheeks; John Romero's Kirby Canvas Curse: hot, smoking Gatling gun peeking out from pink fluff holster; Tom Clancy's Super Mario Land: armour-plated Yoshis whispering past night-vision Koopas.

No, that couldn't happen. Rather, one publisher just has to rip off another's ideas, try to make them their own, and hope for the best.

Arguably, this is a good thing; Shadow of the Colossus might never have worked as a J-pop squeaky Rhythm Action game but still, the chance would be a fine thing.The Drakengard series, as you might have guessed from this winding but determined introduction, is a cover version in all but name; borrowed gameplay ideas and execution implemented by a publisher trying to carve significance in a genre it has no notable history with. There's no shame there: some of the greatest games have been sneaky tributes. Remarkably though, Drakengard steals from two pockets with one swipe: part Dynasty Warriors action-RPG, part Panzer Dragoon airborne dragon-galleon warfare action this game Pongs back and forth between two originals with metronomic regularity.The former gameplay casts player as a spinning-top soldier, a blur of weapon shearing swathes of clear space between ten thousand heaving antagonists, each with a line of targeting code tied around their waist pulling them irresistibly towards you. Your whirlwind of juggling judgement knocks limb and armour off at all angles with ever-quickening pace as in-game skills are augmented and out-of-game thumb tap muscle memory locks into place.The latter mode sees your character leap onto his pet dragon mid-fight to take to the skies, clenching rough hide, locking on targets and blurting flame missiles while lurching and swooping over the clash of foot soldiers 200 metres below. The two gameplay styles segue together with the select button which allows you to hop into and out of the skies at most points (at least on and over open battlefields) in a remarkable display of courageous coding ambition by the developer.And the cleaved ideology doesn't end there. Your character, Nowe, is a split lead: a weak-armed solider boy carrying the weight of a nation's expectations heavy on slight shoulders.

In real life he would be broken by responsibility and frozen with inadequacy. But this is fairytale. Here, legionnaire graduation impending, pubescent lungs burst with warrior aspiration, mind brimming pride and implicit self- significance. His bold confidence is a little nauseating to watch as the weighty, dark (and pretty good) plot unfolds; something made palatable by the acceptance that such attitude would likely afflict anyone first raised by a dragon, then adopted by a king and still befriended by both.Levelling up too is a split dynamic encouraged through the way new characters are integrated into your team. New members that join Nowe are each represented by a weapon which can be assigned to a quick fire R-Trigger in-battle menu.

By switching from, say, sword to spear, you change character, opening up a whole new set of specials and closing the door on others. Any experience you then accrue goes straight into that character's pot so you can build those you like best. They system works well but, as only lead character Nowe can mount the dragon mid-fight, the excitement of experimentation is sadly undermined.Likewise, this is a split sequel, the narrative separated from its forefather by 18 in-game years, developed by a team clearly determined to break free of the critical prodding the first game received. The overhauling, tweaking and readjusting of each and every gameplay element is obvious and that makes Drakengard 2 the better title. But, the problem here is that the idea is still too closely tied to an epic vision out of kilter with the technical present. In trying to haul what games should be able to do in five years time into today the gameplay cracks and tears, spilling ideas too numerous, bold and voluminous to be contained by mere PS2 architecture.

The draw distance is metres so you'll soar hungry for encounter across seemingly empty plains only for a platoon of enemy monsters to fizz into view at the last moment necessitating tight turns and camera wrestling frustration. In the end you'll often just stop watching the main screen instead fixing upon the little map in the corner to guide your character towards hostile red dots that only materialise polygonal just seconds before you lock swords.And this is a split review. On the one hand the ideas are rudimentarily implemented, the feel of battle is too lightweight, the in-game graphical engine two or three generations of PS2 games too old, the character designs crude, backgrounds cruder, the balance between fighting on ground (where you can take out maybe ten enemies every minute) wholly out of proportion to the airborne option where legions can be obliterated in seconds. But collecting the 90-odd upgradeable weapons is compulsive, the presentation predictably slick for a Square-Enix game and the feel of being a tiny full stop in a gathering narrative storm gripping.Most of all you can't begrudge its pluckiness. We all love an underdog and, for a game so relatively unrefined and immaturely realised as this to be attempting the things it attempts, is heart-warmingly commendable. That said Drakengard 2 just doesn't have the style or grace or education or expertise or power, to pull it off. Like The Flaming Lips trying their hands at Bohemian Rhapsody you really want the homage to work but, to be honest, it just doesn't.

Seeing as Square-Enix chose to call this Drakengard 2 and not Dynasty Warriors Panzer Dragoon edition, it's hard not to knock what essentially comes down to some pretty weak imitation and implementation.6/10.