Drakengard 3 - It's Trash, I Love It
I’ve been trying to finish this write-up for a while now but due to the combination of limited time and constantly changing thoughts about the game it was a rather difficult process. It should be good enough to communicate my feelings about D3 but get ready for a wall of text, lots of rambling and rough edges - sorry about that.
Post doesn’t contain any spoilers.
Intro
Drakengard is a difficult series to write about. None of the entries is objectively good as actual game and yet they can provide a type of experience that’s still rare to this day.
I finished replaying Drakengard 3 some time ago, years after I engaged with it in any form beyond listening to the OST. It has been long enough I managed to forget A LOT (pretty much all of routes B & C as well as some other parts of the game). To some extent this playthrough felt like I was going through this story for the first time and that was probably the best case scenario I could think of before doing it.
I decided to play the game on my Steam Deck - both to see how well it would run and because it was an a great way to put in a session right before sleep. The good news is, game runs surprisingly well. Outside a few specific situations game held pretty stable 30FPS and felt better than the OG experience. Another benefit came from the small screen as it helped mask some of the less impressive visuals - hell, I was surprised how pretty the game could look in motion at times.
One caveat however was the batter life - 2-2.5 hours depending on the load. It’s understandable and worked out pretty well for me (again, I was doing these sessions right before sleep) but seeing such results is never particularly fun on a portable device.
Gameplay
Let’s get the easy part out of the way - mediocre gameplay. It’s neither revolutionary nor complete trash and works well enough for what it is. The biggest issue I had with it stems from the amount of worthless combat encounters used as pure padding.
I’m not sure how much of said padding and reuse of assets comes down to the budget or the studio itself but I feel like game would improve a lot just by making a proper balance pass to cut down on some of the tedium. It wouldn’t be a masterpiece but it would make the grind less of an issue.
I initially wrote a paragraph about a limited enemy variety but after going over them again it’s not actually that bad. The problem with that however lays with the fact that despite a decent number of enemy types, good chunk of them feels pretty similar during gameplay. It’s kind of impressive.
If you heard about this game before you probably know about the final boss. It’s infamous for being unfair and kind of disrespectful towards the player (it’s an 8 minute sequence with disorienting camera, 1HP and no checkpoints) but I ended up loving it. Mostly anyway.
I appreciate the general concept of the fight as well as the gameplay change (it’s pretty simple and fun if you know how to deal with purposefully confusing elements) - at the same time, I think the parts specifically intended to make you fail (especially at the very end of the fight) are bullshit and should never make it into the final product.
It could’ve been a special moment to wrap up the game but ended up feeling mean spirited towards everyone who dared to stick with it until the finale.
Story
Drakengard 3 turned out to be both worse and just as good as expected. While the main story is solid, most of it is dumped right at the end of the game with rest of the playtime focused on side branches that don’t really do much beyond showing “well, this timeline is screwed in a new way, oh well”. This is a pretty big issue with writing as over all, not much happens in this story compared to other titles.
There are some pretty neat nods and setups to other games - not important to this game’s story but I found them to be interesting additions nonetheless.
The finale and some of the major moments can hit pretty hard is you’re invested however that doesn’t excuse the amount of inconsequential stuff happening along the way.
Another problem lays with humor - it’s juvenile and rather one note. If you like or at least can tolerate it that’s fine but this will be a big turn off to a lot of people. Even ones interested in Taro’s other works. It’s not all bad and there are some genuinely funny moments but these were a minority for me.
Characters
Main characters, Zero and her sisters, are interesting. They all start pretty archetypal but they do have their own stuff going on beyond this initial impression. Unfortunately, some of that info is locked behind DLC and outside media (which varies in quality apparently).
Additionally, there’s the issue of localization. It’s not terrible but it does change some of the characters in pretty significant ways - the most glaring example being Zero, our MC. Her JP persona is more mature and calm with a sense of guilt, EN version on the other hand feels more like an angry asshole (though she does have her moments).
I also really love Maaya Uchida as Zero - she did a great job with her role and might be one of my favorite performances in Taro-verse. EN voices in general didn’t fully hit the mark for me to be honest. Some of that comes down to the script and some to VA direction - not great, not terrible, just like the rest of the game.
Side characters, the disciples, are pretty one note - mostly focused on a single trait, related to horny stuff. There is some character development along the way but most of it is relegated to later parts of the game and gets partially reset with each branch.
Mikhail, our dragon, can be hit or miss for people. I get why he is how he is and liked him from the beginning but I can see why others would be annoyed with him. He’s a good baby.
Music
Not much to say about this, it’s good. Good enough that I keep listening to it whenever my mind gets stuck thinking about the series.
Boss themes are fast and energetic, calm and somber songs carry their atmosphere perfectly and generic combat music is memorable enough I ended up humming alongside it during stages. Some of the songs could easily fit on Nier soundtrack (either game).
There’s also an amazingly haunting version of an ending theme from the original game - now even better than before!
Summary
All in all I’m a bit on the fence about Drakengard 3. It has really strong concepts as well as fun and enjoyable moments. It also has a lot of problems with writing, gameplay and technical execution. It can be janky. It can be frustrating. It can be straight up embarrassing at times.
It can be a real gem if you’re able to get over its issues. It can be an frustrating mess if you can’t.
This game is trash and yet, for some reason, I still love it.
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