Drakengard 3: Canon worthy

King of Posters
1

Yoko Taro is a genius. He is one of the few people using the medium for purposes besides mere vulgar entertainment. In sum, he deserves to be called an absolute master at the evocation of every emotion except entertainment.

I submit that everything that is hated about Drakengard 3 is precisely the point of Drakengard 3, making it one of the most tightly crafted ludonarrative examples of this decade, falling just short of Undertale. It is also filled with symbolism and intent, in ways that exceed my ability to analyze.

I would like to start everyone off reading this: https://dancefighterredux.wordpress.com/2016/06/10/drakengard-3-a-family-matter/ (spoilers obviously)

In short, Drakengard 3 is a psychological and interpersonal allegory of the first degree. Given that the matter of plot is well-handled in the linked blog-article, I move on to the relationship between gameplay and story.

A lot has been made of the framerate and stutter in Drakengard 3. But this is precisely an artistic matter, whether by intent or serendipity (Consider Nietzsche RE: Wager: “geniuses like him have seldom the right to understand themselves”). To begin with, it must be understood that the perspective the player is meant to empathize with is not Zero’s, which is bewilderingly opaque and seemingly two dimensional, but Mikhail’s: the dragon pacifist who wonders what the point of all the violence is constantly.

I submit then that the framerate and stutter issues are precisely symbolic of Mikhail’s cognitive dissonance, of his own inability to process all the slaughter and death and pain transpiring around him. Furthermore, they amplify and transpose to the player the fact that the situation must be very unpleasant for him; literally, the unpleasantness of the game maps directly to the unpleasantness of the events of the game to Mikhail.

Narratively, the opacity of Zero’s motives dovetails with the impression of being a child and not understanding what is going on around you (especially not as it pertains to abuse and adult misery), which contributes to the overall effect: the game is an allegory about growing up as a child with an abusive headcase mother who still loves you. I am unable to go into further depth at the moment, but with this information to orient you, it should be easy to interpret the game along appropriate lines and extract the proper experiential effect from it.

Given all of that, I submit that Drakengard 3 is a masterpiece, worthy of being spoken of in the same breath as an Ico, a Metal Gear Solid 2, or an Undertale

5 Likes
2

agree

3

I torrented an iso for when ps3 emulation is ready

2 Likes
4

when is that happening. Guess I should set up ps2 emulation.

5

http://rpcs3.net/ not too much longer I wouldn’t think

I tried playing drakengard 1, but I heard you had to 100 percent it to get the real ending or whatnot, so I loaded a save that was already 100 percented and tried just playing through the campaign. but I guess it has different routes unlocked and it does a good job of making you pick the one that’s not the default regular story that would help you understand what is actually going on in this other shit so I just kept getting confused and ending up back up at the mission select screen not sure what to do and thinking I should just watch an lp

6

Normally you have to play through, and know what the secret things are in a level to 100% and if memory serves you have to do it in a run since you can’t go back, and there’s like 4 ‘endings’ but one of them technically shouldn’t count. Because you just play beyond it.

But to 100% I’m fairly convinced you’d need a guide anyways because some items on the checklist seem esoteric and how you’d figure it out is beyond me.

I think I only ended up playing 60% of the First one because I just couldn’t stand the combat after awhile, it truly becomes a slog.

7

You don’t need to 100% it to get the good ending, you just need to get 100% of the weapons and also complete all the other branches.

8

but do you want to get the “good” ending, is what this question should be about.




because, Drakengard 1.

9

All the endings are miserable but the good ending is the least miserable. The only ending that’s completely unacceptable is ending C.

10

Never play Drakengard 3.

A certain boss fight is so frustrating, the entire rest of the game is brought down with it.

You think I’m overreacting. I’m not.

Never play Drakengard 3.

Not even once.

11

are you saying it’s Shinobi all over again?

12

I think most of my favorite games I decided were my favorite games way later just thinking about them, and how frustrating they might or might not have been to actually play in the moment didn’t have much to do with it

2 Likes
13

Look, I loved Drakengard 3 until that boss fight.

You know what the FAQ for that boss fight is?

Guitar tabs. That was the only way to explain what the hell you’re supposed to be doing.

14

It’s nobodies fault but yours that you suck at music games. The timing windows are pretty big, it’s only hard because it’s long.

15

There’s no way to hit those last notes except through a tutorial video or trial and error. Trial and error on a boss fight that lasts nearly 10 minutes and each error means you repeat the whole shebang. No cues, just guesswork, 10 minutes at a time.

16

you have to suffer for art

1 Like
17

weirdly this just makes me wanna play it more.

-edit: to spell play correctly, because my keyboard hates me-

18

It’s not worth it.

I can’t even begin to explain just how disappointing that final sequence made the entire “experience.” I was having a hell of a lot of fun with the game until it threw something in my path that was downright unfair and purposely nigh-unplayable as some sort of “artistic statement,” and now when I think about the game as an “experience” all I can remember is a rhythm game with no real rhythm. Not the cool dragon fights, not the amazing feeling of fulfilling a vendetta against the character’s sisters, just CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG, CLANG CLANG.

Nobody would enjoy Citizen Kane as an “experience” if the last half hour was just a naked elderly man swearing about every possible race. It’d have its fans for being a ‘brave artistic decision’ but clearly restraint was called for in terms of real artistic integrity.

As one human being to another, don’t do it. Please.

19

It absolutely has rhythm. It’s all divided into four, a note plays within that space, and you have to press the button in the subsequent four at the same place. It’s basically a children’s clapping game like the kind you play in kindergarten, which further reinforces the interpretation as being about a child’s perception of events.

20

[quote]I’m well versed in music production and composition, but how the hell
are you supposed to keep track of that note released during the
ritardando? What?ï»ż[/quote]

[quote]the worst part about it is that it seems to come just before the beat,
which you have no way of knowing.
1 2 3 4
Counting 16th-notes: 1234 1234 123[4] 1234
As you can see on the beat within brackets, just one 16th before the 4th
beat, which you have no way of knowing. You can hear the
bells/glockenspiel play 1,2,3,4, but the note you’re supposed to hit
seems to come just before beat 4.ï»ż[/quote]

Child-like.