I won't spoil it for those who are still getting to that point in the game, but it is the very definition of weird and infuriating game design. After so many hours of playing an action RPG with fairly standard gameplay (which contains some nice touches, like different weapon models for upgraded weapons) the final boss fight has absolutely nothing to do with any of the skills or weapons you ultimately amass. I had no way of knowing which treasure chests or side quests I had missed before reaching this roadblock, so I was forced to slowly work my way through them all until I got lucky.ĭrakengard 3 seems to actively work against explaining its own plot and the frustrating weapon roadblock is followed up by probably the most strange, unexpected, and difficult final boss ever created. The main issue with this isn't the weapons you can buy - that's a goal you can easily work towards - but the weapons that come in treasure chests within a standard mission or rewards for completing side quests. This added about two hours of straight grinding to a game that only took me 21 hours to complete in the first place, making it feel purely like an attempt to artificially increase the game's playtime. In order to unlock the final chapter you have to obtain every single weapon possible. The voice acting is serviceable and the soundtrack is interesting, although I wouldn't go out of my way to buy the soundtrack separately it works well with the game world but doesn't strike me as something worth listening to outside of that context.Ī confusing plot is perfectly capable of being enjoyable if, at some point, it all gets explained and the pay-off is worth it, but I did not appreciate how Drakengard 3 locked the only ending with any real explanation behind one of the most arbitrary barriers I've ever seen in a game. Other presentational aspects are fairly low quality, with obvious texture pop-in and some of the worst framerate dips I've ever seen in a console game, to the point where I'd call it momentary freezing. Crucially it also helps to keep the player motivated when the main story remains too confusing to be entertaining. The masochistic and old pervert characters are particularly amusing, and when all of this is played against the naivety of Zero's dragon it makes for some hilarious interactions.

Some may view it as unnecessarily filthy but I actually enjoyed the conversations between these characters where sexual matters were just as mundane and common a topic as the weather. As Zero deals with her sisters she takes on these disciples for herself and each one has its own little quirks. Disciples are taken by intoners to help them in fights but even more so to help them in the bedroom. Until you approach the end of the game, and the climax of the story, the only narrative elements that pull things forward are the interactions between the game's central characters, which mostly revolve around sex. It's the combination of the interactions between these diverse characters and the ill-explained main plot-line that makes Drakengard 3 such an odd experience and, if nothing else, it was worth my time playing Drakengard 3 just to see a dragon interrupt a serious conversation by taking a piss. Along for the ride is her dragon friend and, eventually, the disciples of her sisters that she'll pick up along the way. You play as Zero, a songstress god who is out to kill her five sisters for unknown reasons.

Drakengard 3 is no different in that respect. Perhaps the most striking thing about the Drakengard JRPG series, and its spin-off game Nier, is just how strange the stories are. By Karl Koebke, posted on 02 June 2014 / 5,209 Views

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