Drakengard 3 is all about defying your expectations. Like most of Yaro Taro’s other games, (Nier and the prior Drakengard entries) this game loves to pretend to set up familiar themes, archetypes and situations only to slowly show you how wrong you were in your initial conclusions. Even from my experience with the first two Drakengards and the related RPG, Nier, I was still pleasantly surprised with what Drakenard 3 brought to the table. The game’s story is mostly concerned with discovering who its protagonist really is, what pushes its protagonist to take the actions she is taking, and ultimately what is really going on in the story. The way the game is paced, revealing the nuance of the character and the details of the story slowly, by allowing you draw your own conclusions, and then challenging those conclusions by the deeds of the characters is what makes this game fascinating and ultimately extremely enjoyable. Enjoyable enough that it makes it worth it to overlook its glaring flaws in order to experience it.
Let’s get this out of the way right now, Drakengard 3 is an ugly game with performance issues. The in-game graphics, especially the environments, are dated. They look like they belong to the very early days of the 7th console generation or maybe even the 6th. It is perplexing then, that the game occasionally drops frames when things get too hectic. The slowdown is far from game breaking, and it is not as frequent as some of the reports that I have seen in other sources, but the fact that they there are frame-rate issues in a game that is clearly not graphically demanding almost feels like a personal insult. Still the important characters still look great, and the frame-rate was nothing more than an occasional inconvenience in the great scheme of the game. The cut scenes do look great, although the game often uses in-game graphics to tell the story.
This might be why we have frame rate issues.
Initially the combat in Drakengard 3 seems shallow. Enemies are weak and you can get away with just mashing square throughout the entire level. Even the bosses you fight in the first area will give you ample room to make mistakes. As you progress through the game it gradually becomes harder and more complex, enemies become tougher, varied and more aggressive. They will require strategy, mobility and prioritization. The game has a light attack, a heavy attack that drains stamina, blocking, and a dash ability to avoid enemies. Mastering the use of all these commands is crucial as you charge towards the end of the game. There are also a lot of weapons that fall into four categories: Swords, Spears, Gauntlets, and Chakrams. These categories are divided on small, medium, and large weapons. On top of that a lot of the weapons have specific heavy attacks that might make them more useful. One of my favorite swords in the game, for example, shoots out a beam of energy that allows you to strike enemies some distance in front of you, while other weapons might give you a flurry of blows, or a circular move that strikes many enemies at once.
Zero also has something called Intoner Mode; an ability that briefly makes her invulnerable and also capable of dealing an amazing amount of damage, very similar to the Rage of Sparta ability in God of War. The use of Intoner Mode in short bursts becomes an important strategy later on in the game, but particularly in the side missions which are often timed. During side missions the objectives usually involve getting something in a specific amount of time. They can be brutal and mastering the use of Intoner Mode is crucial to completing them. Side missions are not important to the story but they do pay out in new weapons, components and funds you can use to upgrade your existing weapons or purchase new ones. Weapon selection and upgrading is important. Drakengard 3 won’t let you get away with button mashing for long, and it has a habit of making you face off against old bosses mid level. Sometimes against several of them, along with other enemies, and choosing the right combination of weapons and which weapons to upgrade can make the difference between an harrowing fight and a simple one.
Intoner Mode
Occasionally, Drakengard 3 will have you jump on top of Mikhail, your dragon. This is usually during the biggest boss fights, but there are the also a few flying stages to break the action. The controls in these stages are good, though they can be hard to get used to because they are few and far between making it difficult to remember the controls. These stages also tend to be easier than the main game, especially towards the end of the game, and make a nice break in the game play. It is good to take a break from slaughtering your enemies on the ground to rain firey death on your enemies in the sky… and sometimes from the sky.
Like the gameplay the story seems simplistic and shallow at first but slowly reveals hidden complexity as the game goes on. When I say slowly, I mean slowly, to put it bluntly a lot of the story actually winds up being revealed after you finish the game the first time, which is really deceptively the story’s midpoint and where the real game begins. I’m getting ahead of myself. In Drakengard 3 you play the role of Zero, one of six intoners who get tremendous powers from their song. Zero and her dragon Michael are on a quest to kill Zero’s sisters, One, Two, Three, Four and Five. She fights them, but fails, and in the process causes Michael to die and Zero to lose her left arm and right eye. One year later Zero has a flower in her eye, a new bio-mechanical arm, and now plans to continue her fratricidal journey eliminating her sisters one by one. To do this she must journey through the land of the sea, mountains, forests, desert, and the a place called the capital.
Playing as Mikhail can be… therapeutic.
Zero initially comes across as cruel, fratricidal, foul-mouthed, impatient, and violent. After Michael’s death he is reincarnated into Mikhail, but he doesn’t have any memories of anything that happened prior to his rebirth. Mikhail is a baby dragon, he is innocent, sweet, and childish, His earnestness is a great balance to to Zero’s character. The relationship between the two is perhaps the best part of the game bringing moments that range from hilarious, to adorable, to genuinely touching, but Mikhail is not the only companion Zero will get on her journey. As Zero herself puts it “I kill my sisters, I take their men”. When her sisters are defeated, Zero will take their Acolytes for herself, slowly building something of a harem. They consist of a psychopath, a masochist, a pervert, and an idiot, but the relationships and banter between them, Zero, and Mikhail are fantastic, and can occasionally be hilarious.
Characters and story are where Drakengard 3 really excel. The game loves to play with misdirection, and to challenge assumptions you’ve made about the characters. There are good reasons for the characters to do what they are doing, and to be the way they are, but the game takes its time in revealing this. Drakengard 3 features different endings, and finishing the game once is really the halfway point of the total game time. As you play through subsequent branches of the story, you will find out most of the background info, what is going, what the Intoners are, and who Zero is and why is she doing what she is doing. The story ends up being complex and intresting, and filled with ugly characters in an ugly world doing ugly things for what turns out to be good reasons.
Button mashing won’t get you very far.
Zero herself is one of the best female characters to come out of gaming in a long time. While I am sure that many will take one look at her design and dismiss her as a another gratuitous female videogame character designed for young boys, or that she is the female equivalent of Kratos (a character with no clear motivation other than because they are a psychopath), it is refreshing to play a character like her. Zero is strong, capable, and determined. She does not need to be to rescued, or saved, and always has agency. At the same time, the character retains her femininity. Zero is clearly a woman, and she is not only secure in her sexuality, but enjoys it. However that is also not what defines her as a character. She is flawed, and does have moments of vulnerability, particularly when it comes to her relationship with Mikhail. In a way, the fact that the game unveils its plot so slowly lets the player approach its protagonist as she would be approached in real life. Zero behaves in a way that makes her seem aggressive and shallow, but once the player spends time with her, they will start to see the multi-faceted character that lies beneath. It is a welcome change from badly written femme fatales, female characters who are not given any agency what so ever, or badly written characters who we are meant to identify with as bad asses, but who just come across as one dimensional blowhards.
Uncovering Zero’s story and wanting to find out how the final ending plays out does a lot to keep you motivated to finish the game. It’s a shame then, that the final boss is one of the worst things about the game. If you consider the final boss of a game the test of all the skills you have mastered through your time in the game, then the final boss of Drakengard 3 is a series of differential equations in your history final. This boss consists of a rhythm game where you have to time your button presses to a song. There are minimal visual cues, and no margin of error, if you mess up at any point, you go back to the beginning. So for the final challenge of the game, you have a type of mechanic you haven’t seen before that expects you to be perfect. Fans of the series will note that this is a call back to a section in Drakengard 2. This is usually referred to as “That section”, and not in a complimentary way. It is especially annoying because the game’s other boss battles are fantastic. I wouldn’t say this is a deal breaker, but know that it is there if you choose to pick Drakengard 3 up.
“I kill my sisters. I take their men.” Zero is basically Conan the Barbarian
Drakengard 3 is an ugly, flawed game that has a horrific final boss. Despite all this it is probably one of the funnest games I’ve played all year. The surprisingly deep game play, story, and the interesting characters make the game worth playing. It is said that Yaro Taro never makes the same game twice, and this is true of Drakengard 3. Mechanically it is different from Drakengard 1 and 2, and from Nier, and while there are narrative similarities it still feels unique. if you are looking for a different kind of experience, if you can overlook the dated graphics and occasional frame rate drops, and are brave enough to face its final boss, I say it is worth picking up. As of this writing there has also been story DLC released which gives a prologue to all of the sisters, so there is something to keep anyone entertained after completing the main game. While I won’t blame anyone who doesn’t want to take the plunge I recommend it to anyone who is looking for a good action adventure game with a unique narrative.
