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Drakengard 3 is on the verge of
being a unique and rewarding RPG experience. Its dark, gritty nature and
fast-paced combat is a refreshing change from the more syrupy tone and
traditional turn-based battles that dominate the JRPG scene. Yet clunky
controls, repetitive gameplay, ugly graphics, poorly written characters, and
massive framerate issues make the idea of playing again to see another ending
completely unappealing.
In the first of the 40 hours I
spent with Drakengard 3, I noticed the subpar graphics and framerate. (Yes, I
know, every game in the Drakengard 3 features the series’
signature brand of action, pitting players against hordes of fiends and foes in
remorseless hack-and-slash ground combat, and then sending them soaring for
pitched aerial battles on the back of the dragon Mikhail.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim --
DragonbornCrimson DragonWorld of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria Drakengard series
has suffered from these issues, but repeating a mistake doesn’t make it less of
a mistake.) There are jagged edges everywhere, the framerate plummets whenever
there’s a lot of activity on the screen, the color palette for the world is
bland and uninspired, and textures are so undetailed and boring they look like
they belong in the PlayStation 2 era. It’s all a terrible strain on the eyes.
The next issue is the poor level
design.
Drakengard 3 is an extremely
linear game, and areas have very little to see and explore. Linearity can be a
great experience if it’s done well, but outside of the way developer Access
Games differentiates each location with a special feature (a dark, creepy
forest maze, a desert with drastic weather fluctuations that affect your
characters’ health, etc.), any attempts at innovation are ruined by the
constant backtracking and limited variety of enemies encountered along the way.
“
Drakengard 3 is an extremely
linear game.
Even the sidequests are
repetitive, with protagonist Zero returning to the same handful of places to
acquire items before time runs out (a nod to the original Drakengard’s timed
missions). The writers use self-deprecating humor as a passive mea culpa for
all of this repetition, but after a while the jokes wear thin, and only served
to remind me just how annoying having to revisit the same locations over and
over again is.
An
entertaining story and interesting characters could’ve made all of that worth
suffering through, but Drakengard 3 is devoid of both. The series’ Rubik’s-cube
approach to storytelling doesn’t really work here – Drakengard 3 is too slow to
reveal its secrets, and relies heavily on fans remembering what happened in the
original Drakengard (which came out 10 years ago) in order to understand what’s
going on. It doesn’t help that Zero and her disciples are poorly written, and
no amount of rifling through Drakengard’s database or attempts to engage Zero’s
Disciples in conversation reveals much about them. Even Zero’s motivation for
her quest to kill her sisters isn’t fully explained until quite late in the
tale. Again, that’s something that can be done well if the mystery is properly
built up, but here it left me feeling directionless. If you really want the
full story, you’ll have to go through all four endings (with the last ending
only accessible by collecting every weapon).
Drakengard 3 has one bright spot:
Zero’s combat abilities. I loved being able to dispatch an entire phalanx of
enemies with a few quick swipes of a sword, and changing weapons on the fly
kept the pace of combat fast and furious. The most exciting combat feature is
the Intoner Mode, a special overdrive that makes Zero nearly impervious to
damage in battle. The scream, thrilling music, and accompanying camera spin as
she transforms is impressively dramatic. It’s in these brief moments where Zero
is invincible that Drakengard 3 really shines.
It’s too bad her human A.I.
companions are utterly useless in battle (seriously, they’re dumber than a bag
of bricks), but I rarely needed their help anyway. I did appreciate the English
voice cast’s attempts at making the asinine combat banter somewhat meaningful,
at least.
But while controlling Zero is
fun, controlling her flying dragon companion Mikhail is not. I’m not sure why
the aerial combat is so terribly executed, but whenever I had to fight using
Mikhail, I would grit my teeth and curse the developer for the clunky controls
and unwieldy camera. It really ruined my overall enjoyment of the otherwise fun
combat system.
THE VERDICT
I did everything I could to
overlook Drakengard 3’s shoddy graphics, repetitive gameplay, poor controls,
and shallow characters. Alas, this RPG is its own worst enemy. Everything about
it feels underdeveloped and cobbled together. If there’s ever another
Drakengard, I hope the developers do it justice and invest in smoother
technology and a better-written script.
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