![]() It isn’t until later on in the story you witness Caim slowly become desensitized with killing and it becomes clear his intentions for fighting aren’t so clear cut. For example, Caim, our main protagonist, while bitter due to the brutality he’s had to endure, fights on in honor of protecting his sister and as a way to seek retribution for the loss of his parents. Largely stemming from Taro’s idea that: “you don’t have to be insane to kill someone - you just have to think you’re right”, this “immorality” takes center stage in the development of many of Drakengard’s characters. While most other contemporaries at the time were content with establishing their main conflicts as black and white, Drakengard revels in the grey. To put it simply, Yoko Taro isn’t afraid to make his characters messy. While Drakgengard’s setting might not be the most unique compared to other dark fantasy series, its character drama is what separates itself from the other works in its genre. It’s a lot to take in but suffice it to say, all is not well in the world of Midgard and it’s up to Caim and his draconic companion, Angelus to protect what they value most. From then on, we’re introduced to our main character, Caim, the crown prince of Caerleon, who is desperately fighting off the neighboring Empire, manipulated by the same cult who controls the spread of the Red Eye disease bent on the destruction of the Seals, objects magically linked to a woman known as the Goddess of the Seal who just happens to be Caim’s sister, Furiae. From the opening sequence, Taro establishes the dark, gritty world of Midgard, a land ravaged by war largely due to a mysterious illness known as the Red Eye disease turning its victims into violent mindless husks of their former selves. Drakengard, for better or worse, is full of ideas that went against the grain of standard videogame narratives at the time. Intentional or not, Drakengard is a hellish experience that serves as a reminder that games don’t have to be a smooth experience for them to still be enjoyable.īeing the first entry in Yoko Taro’s long-running series as well as his directorial debut, Drakengard represents Taro’s design philosophy of “making weird games for weird people” exceptionally well. If anything, its faults are its greatest strengths in creating its unique oppressive atmosphere. Despite this, the series has endured in the hearts of those who loved it initially, myself included. An unfortunate fate mostly due to the poor reviews its first entry received citing convoluted plot, awkward controls, and repetitive gameplay. While its spin-off series, Nier has found much love in the west with the release of 2017’s Nier Automata opening up the rest of the series to the public eye, Drakengard’s success was mostly domestic while remaining in cult classic obscurity internationally. Yet this year’s replay felt different, somehow more engaging probably due to my knowledge of how far the series has gone since then. My relationship with the Drakengard (or Drag-on Dragoon as it’s known in Asian territories) series is a long one and I’m no stranger to replaying these games in general. And what better way to start than one of my personal favorites of all time, Cavia’s 2003 cult classic Drakengard. In a year where most publishers released remasters and remakes, it only felt appropriate to look back on some of the series that defined my taste. From crowd pleasers like Pokémon Platinum to more niche entries like Mistwalker’s The Last Story, I’ve replayed a lot in an eager attempt to fill in the gaps in my nonexistent backlog. 2020 has been a rough year but it’s also been a year that’s been mostly marked with replays of some of my most beloved games.
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