The game that DRAGS-ON! [SPOILER ALERT Drakengard 3]

I really buckled down and made an effort to complete Drakengard 3 (Drag-On Dragoon 3 in Japanese) this past weekend.  Drakengard 3 is an Action game with aspects of hack-n-slash and RPG elements.  The game starts out with the main character Zero slaughtering dozens, if not hundreds, of soldiers to get to her sisters to kill them.  The game doesn't give much context and just showing the player that Zero really wants to kill her sisters and take their powers.  I see this plot device pattern used in a lot of games where it doesn't tell you what the true motive or reasoning behind the adventure is until it's close to the end of the game.  Even when the player kills the last sister and then dies, it still doesn't tell the player what the whole story was about.  Then an alternate timeline reveals itself and you play through that one, and then again on another timeline.  After the third time, the game pulls a game design choice that virtually extends the gameplay time before the player can progress.  It required the player to collect 100% of the weapons in the game before they can continue to the 4th and final arch of the story.  That was an extra 5 hours of grinding for money and hunting down weapons.  Then I got through the last arch which was as twice as long as the past 2 story arch before reaching this BS, final confrontation.

The confrontation begins at 2:30

Honestly, an ending like this is absolutely beautiful and memorable.  But the problem is that the gameplay side of this section is absurdly difficult and unforgiving that it didn't feel worth practicing over and over for.  It's a music-rhythm mini-game that goes to Game Over if you miss even one note.  I tried 7-10 times before I gave up.  The long loading times between each retry didn't help encourage me either.

So there's a lot I want to say about this game, but I'd rather keep it short and simple.  I want to start out by saying that this game has flaws and problems, but I don't regret playing through it.  I guess it'd be best if I just complained about everything I didn't like first before explaining why this game is even worth talking about.

Cons:
- In-game graphics is garbage compared to what the opening cinematic looks like
- Lots of textures and models look outdated
- Many levels are reused; you will play each level 2-4 times throughout the game
- There isn't much depth or backstory to any of the characters, even though I like them
- Long loading times, despite eating up 5 GB worth of hard drive space to install the game
- Dubbing; the English voice overs weren't bad, but they changed the characters' personality
- Combat is largely because of combos and camera angle
- Usefulness of weapons; knuckles and chakrams were largely useless throughout the game
- Some enemies would strike for 25%-75% of your health, and you'd fight multiples of them
- Some levels throw so many enemies out that they literally block the view
- Forcing the player to gather 100% of the weapons to progress the story
- The game felt like it dragged on a lot and kept going when it should have ended
- The final confrontation being absurdly difficult; it wasn't worth my time

So with that out of the way, I can start talking about what I did like about the game.

[Story]
The premise is quite simple, but I enjoyed it.  It starts off explaining how mankind was at constant war with each other.  5 beings went around and sang their songs that soothed the hearts of men and ended the wars.  These beings went on to become known as intoners who the men worshiped like gods.  They were sisters of serenity that brought peace back to mankind.  But then there was a 6th sister that wanted to kill them all and take their powers for her own: Zero.  Zero charged into the castle with a dragon named Michael to slay her sisters.  As Zero fought each one of her sisters, they retreated one by one only to have a dragon summoned by them counter-attack Zero.  Michael dove in and blocked the attack aimed at Zero.  It is assumed that Michael perished shortly after as the player is introduced to a tiny Dragon named Mikhail.  After a time of recovery from the loss of her arm, Zero set out to kill her sisters again.  One by one, she hunted down her sisters: Five, Four, Three, Two, and One.  Each Intoner has a disciple that helps in summoning an angel to fight for them.  After killing each Intoner, Zero takes their disciple and has sex with them every night.  I kid you not, that is brought up a lot in the game (but nothing is ever shown).  There's Dito the sadist, Decadus the masochist, Octa the old man with an insatiable sexual appetite, and Cent the handsome idiot.  They all join Zero in the slaughter of soldiers, trolls, beasts, and all sorts of enemies to reach the other intoners for Zero to kill.  After getting 3 different endings, it is finally revealed why they were on this journey in the first place.  Zero had died, supposedly.  But she awoke and with great power.  She found out that there was a parasite living within her in the form of a flower and would one day bloom and destroy the world.  She tried killing herself when she found out only to be reborn out of the flower again and again.  Then she tried pulling out the flower from her eye only to have spawned 5 copies of herself.  They, in a sense, became her sisters and ensured the power of the parasite to come to fruition to destroy the world.  The only way to destroy that power was the strength of a dragon.  Zero had met Michael and agreed to cooperate in order to save the world.  They would kill all 5 sisters and then Zero would sacrifice herself to Michael in order stop the end of the world.  It is revealed in the middle of the game that right before Michael died, he respawned but lost all of his memories.  And that is how Mikhail became to be.  The responsibility fell on Mikhail to end it all, and that meant killing Zero.

So why did I like the story?  It was different and I was able to empathize with the characters.  It sounds so contradictory when Zero wants to save the world from destruction yet slaughters hundreds to thousands along the way to do so.  It's contradictory for the Intoners to bring peace to the people when they will ultimately become the end of all living things.  I felt the whole theme around the story was about being alone.  Zero didn't really face the quest alone because she had Michael.  Although short, that opening scene reveals a very intimate camaraderie between the two.  Zero had a lot of confidence, faith and trust in Michael while he, as an all mighty dragon with wisdom and power, had this caring nature for Zero which ultimately got him killed as he shielded the blast for Zero in the beginning of the game.  Mikhail is a totally different character.  He is depicted as young, innocent, naive, and playful.  He is incredibly faithful to Zero, yet Zero consistently yells and insults him throughout the game.  You would think that Zero would slowly become attached to Mikhail, but near the end of the game, I had a different impression.  She had already loved him from the beginning, but only she knew of the deal that she and Michael had; that Michael would be the one to end her to prevent the end of the world.  With Mikhail's innocence, I can't help but feel like Zero tried her best to prevent Mikhail from being too attached to Zero so that he would be able to fulfill that same responsibility.  It was also a way for Mikhail to toughen up and never settle for being weak, and it really reflected at the very last confrontation (as much as I hated the gameplay), because it was very difficult but it befell to Mikhail to see it through and destroy the flower.  That's one instance of showing loneliness in the game.  Zero always felt isolated.  Even when asked about her "friends" the disciples, she retorts and says she didn't have friends and never had any to begin with.  She didn't want to become attached or have anyone attached to her.  But it was clear that she enjoyed the company, as weird as they were, as in one arch, she decides to save them before they disappear and in another arch she looked pained when they left.  Zero couldn't trust anyone else to help her kill her sisters as they were the ones that brought peace back to the land.  Suddenly, that contradiction I stated earlier makes sense, doesn't it?  She killed all that impeded her way because no one would believe her or help her.  And with the Intoners having such a large influence over the people of the land, the men would fight and die for them which is what the parasite probably wants.  The only sister that understood their purpose in the world was "One" but she didn't trust Zero to follow through and wanted to fulfill the same goal Zero had.  In the end, the one who was truly left alone was Mikhail, which is why it was such an emotional scene when Zero finally told Mikhail that he had gotten stronger as he was about ready to destroy the flower (Shown in beginning of video above).  It's a very sad story in contrast to the abundant humor the game had throughout the journey, but it was one that I enjoyed.

[Humor]
I heard the first two Drakengard games were very dark and moody (I have the 2nd one, but haven't played it).  So it was kind of a shock to fans when they realized how much humor was put into the dialogues, cinematics, and characters.  A lot of the humor is vulgar, slapstick, or twisted/dark jokes as the writers said they wanted to write for a mature audience.  You can bet there will be a lot of bantering between the disciples when there's a sadist, masochist, sex maniac, and a big idiot.  The writers know the game is extremely violent, offensive, and has tons of innuendos, so they just roll with it and turn it into something funny (as messed up as it sometimes seems).

Start the video at 3:56

[Characters]

Zero - Zero is sort of a tsundere.  She isn't really honest with herself, but she has a very good reason for being so.  She knows that she must end her life at the end of this journey and doesn't want to be attached to anyone or have anyone attached to her.  She's often foul-mouthed, angry, and very frank with her words.  But there are times she shows weakness of losing people around her.  It is most evident whenever she loses Mikhail.  I kind of want to know what kind of person she was before she was infested with a parasite, but I realize that it's not important for the player to know at all in her current journey.  I kind of liked Zero's character.  She's very tough, but her rare moments of compassion reminds the player that she still human emotions and isn't just a killing machine.  If anything, she feels like a really lonely character to me.  She knows she's not a hero and not a savior.  There was no good guys and bad guys; there were only countless victims.  She just wants to set things right and take responsibility.

One, Two, Three, Four, Five - It's difficult to remember boss battle characters sometimes in videogames because you encounter them and defeat them within several minutes.  The 5 sisters make reoccurring appearances and you'll face them multiple times.  It kind of leaves an impression after a while and you start to pick up the differences between them.  If anything, Two, Three, Four, and Five were more for dramatic and humorous encounters.  One was the most serious one of the sisters and the only one that seemed to understand what was going on as well as being the only one to have not been driven mad by the flower's power.  She wants the same thing as Zero, but neither one trusts each other with the job.  Four left the biggest impression on me because she seemed very sincere about loving Zero and not wanting to fight.  Perhaps the five sisters each possess a piece of Zero's original personality.

The Disciples: Dito, Decadus, Octa, Cent - This band of weirdos made the journey less boring.  You can bring two of them into battle with you to aggro some of the enemies off of you and help you in a fight.  Along the way, they'll have plenty of things to say.  They'll complain about their situation, give advice, and yell at one another.  At one point in the game, Mikhail felt like it was so much quieter when three of the disciples were gone.  Even the one disciple felt off without the company of the others around.  It was then I started seeing the theme of "loneliness" in the game's story.  As messed up as he was, Dito was one of my favorites.  The way he reveled in violence and the pain he inflicted was entertaining and felt fitting with all the fighting you do.

Mikhail - He was a rather lovable character.  He was so carefree and childish that I couldn't help but feel sorry for him sometimes whenever he receives a barrage of insults from the party.  But I can see why his character works so well as he's so contradictory to the rest of the game.  That contrast made him stand out.  He didn't like fighting and definitely didn't like killing.  He wants to do his best and be praised only to mess up and get yelled at.  He didn't really care about anything as long as it made Zero happy.  So it was a really sad parting for him to say goodbye to Zero.  He wanted to become strong for Zero and was finally able to prove it on the very last confrontation where he bested the flower's song and finished it off.

[Combat]
One of my complaints was about combat, but I also kind of liked parts of it.  I didn't like how clunky combat felt.  There are many hack-n-slash games where starting a combo meant you were locked in animation until it's over.  You can't block, evade, jump, or cancel the animation in any way.  This meant getting hit when you're fighting something else.  I also didn't like how the efficiency of two our of four of the weapons dropped shortly after you acquire them.  They hold almost no potential usefulness throughout the game.  You only needed to use swords for multiple enemies and the spear/lance for single-targets.  What I did like is the simplicity of combat and its challenges.  The game is challenging, and sometimes not in very fair ways.  But to make the battle possible, you need to utilize everything you've got.  This means dodging, block/parry, buying and using items, upgrading weapons, going into intoner mode, switching between weapons, and sometimes using combos.  There are a lot of games where I end up saving up all the money and items and never using them because they were never needed.  Other times, there are games where you don't even use certain moves.  But the game's design and difficulty forces you to utilize them all in order to get through the game, and I think that's great.  Through its simplicity, there's a lot of planning and techniques you must use to survive and overcome impossible situations.  I honestly think it's impossible to play the end levels without Strength and Defense potions because enemies hits too hard and frequently in large groups while having too much HP to be able to be defeated normally.  Also, I love how the music has an added operatic voice melded in whenever you go into intoner mode.   That part in presentation made for such dramatic effect and lasting impression.  It reminds me of Chaos Legion where the music changes whenever you bring out your summons or in Final Fantasy XIII-2 where the music gets more aggressive when an enemy is close by.

[Presentation]


This opening cinematic was breathtaking and is sadly the only one with this kind of quality.  This made me really disappointed in the in-game graphics with some of the blocky models and outdated textures.  I was thinking that maybe they lowered the assets so that it would run smoothly, but even Dynasty Warriors 7 & 8 didn't look so bad when they have almost 4-5 times more enemies on screen than this game.  Even then, the game's frame rate would drop a lot whenever there's an explosion.  Lots of levels are reused, but are presented differently each time (different atmosphere/color tone, going backwards from last time).  There were many problems and flaws with its presentation.  But what made up for it was the writing and audio.  The jokes and humor were actually pretty good and gave a good laugh throughout the journey.  And even though I didn't like how the English dub changed the personalities of the characters, I felt like their delivery really accentuated the type of characters they've changed.  And then there's the music.  I think I might have given up on this game too half-way if it weren't for the magnificent music that ranged from being very aggressive and loud to mellow melodies of sorrow.

Arrival of the Guards – Battle Stage
Prevolt / Battleground
防来／戦場


This is possibly my favorite track and probably even the director's favorite because it was used so many times.  There are three boss fights that use this melody!

Arrival of the Guards – Zophiel
Prevolt / Zophiel
防来／ゾフィエル


That energy and that haunting melody spends a chill down my spine.  I really liked Four that much more because of her Boss Fight songs.

Kuroi Uta -black song- (International)
クロイウタ／日本国外向け製品収録版


The 8 minute final confrontation song is also amazing too (the video on the very top) called The Last Song.  The music really made for an enjoyable experience.  Without it, I don't even know what to think of how the game would be like.


I'm sad I couldn't truly finish the game, but I'm really happy that I played it through to at least that part.  It was funny, sad, and beautiful.  Sadly, I don't think it's a game I can easily recommend.

Ready for Steam Summer Sale!

A few days ago, the dates for the Steam Summer Sale seemed to have been leaked on a Russian Social Network post.  Dates for seasonal sales have been getting leaked for the past few years because a developer, publisher, or editorial "accidentally" slips it out.  If the dates are real, then Steam Summer Sale will be between June 11th to June 20th.  As usual, I'm not exactly ready to buy more games when I still have a backlog to get through; however, there are a few games I'd be willing to buy and play right away if they're cheap enough.

[Lords of the Fallen]


I highly doubt it'll get a sale under $20, but this game's on the top of my wishlist as I'm kind of craving for something like the Souls series, but isn't Souls because I'm not quite ready to play it yet (Bought Dark Souls 2 and haven't played it yet).  Lords of the Fallen received mixed reviews of people loving it and people hating it.  It's obvious its influence and inspiration comes from the souls series, so it's not surprising a lot of people compare it to those games.  But I think that is why I'm so interested in the game.  It's designed to be like a Souls game, but what are they offering different to make it stand out on its own?  If anything, this is the one game I kind of want above all the rest this Summer Steam Sale, but I don't know if I'm willing to pay anything over $20.

[Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires]
I never did get to play any of the Empires iteration of the Dynasty Warriors series.  I want to give one a try, but the one for PS3 is digital only (I think) and my PS3 is already stretching thin for Hard Drive Disk Space.  So I was a bit excited to hear it made it onto steam.  The problem now is that a lot of user reviews complain about the port and how poorly it was handled.  So I'm a bit reluctant to spend a bit more on it, if that's the case.  But if I know it'll be a smooth experience, I'm pretty sure I can make even $25 worth while.  I've been having a Hack-n-Slash craving and I think Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires would be a great game to satiate that hunger.  I'm really hoping this gets a good sale.

[Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor]
If Lords of the Fallen doesn't go under $20, I hope this one does.  I've heard so many great things about this game and I've already seen it get discounted down to $20 twice if not three times already.  I saw a lot of comparison it had with the Assassin's Creed series, but it also seems to be more of an Action-RPG of sorts.  I think that's what I'm actually craving for right now: Action-RPGs with a kind of Hack-n-Slash feel.  Because I've been having the urge to play Vindictus again, but haven't since I've been trying to complete games.  I guess I've also been having craving for Metroidvanias, possibly because of the announcement of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night.  Out of the three games listed so far, it has the greatest potential for a good sale price.

[Cooperative Multiplayer Games]
I'm trying to look for new multiplayer games I can play with my friends because we kind of burnt out everything we have with multiple games completed several times already.  Dying Light is one game I'm looking out for, but it came out so recently that it doesn't seem like it will go down in price by all that much.  Borderlands: Pre-Sequel also hasn't been getting much of a discount, but I'm not too excited to play it anyways since I still feel kind of burnt out from playing Borderlands 2.  Divinity: Original Sin hasn't been getting much of a discount ever since its launch last June, which I'm kind of happy for the developers because they put a lot of love and passion into this game and it seems like it's doing incredibly well.  It's definitely one of the higher priority multiplayer games I want to get since it has lots of depth and gameplay hour potential that my friend and I could get out of it.

[Indie Games]
There's a bunch of indie games I'm curious about and want to play.  I loved Hotline Miami 2, so I'm keen on playing the sequel.  Titan Souls boasted itself for being a difficult game and I seem to want to play challenging games recently.  Perhaps I've been playing too many games on "Easy".  Among others, there's Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure, Broforce (Which still isn't out of Early Access!), Freedom Planet, Wings of Vi, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, and the Shadowcrypt.  Everything else, I feel like I can kind of wait for (though it'd be nice to get Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes for $5).  More recent games like Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R, Bladestorm: Nightmare, Ys VI, and Axiom Verge will probably get a small discount if any.  So I'm going to have to wait if I want those for cheaper.

[Dragon Age: Inquisition]
I know this isn't on Steam, but other digital distribution services often have sales alongside Steam Seasonal sales.  Besides playing the main game, I'm also interested in the Online co-op multiplayer mode.  From what I've researched, there are 4 playable maps and 16 unlockable classes to choose from.  If I can find friends to play with, I'd be willing to pay more than $20 for it.  But right now, I'm still kind of on the fence about it.  If I'm just going to be playing the single-player mode, I rather just wait for a heavier discount.


Steam Summer Sale starts next Thursday (if the leaked dates are true) which isn't too long from now.  But anticipating the sales will make these next two weeks drag by.  I need to work hard these next two weeks because I know I'll be heavily distracted once Steam Summer Sales begin.