Atypical action RPG from Cavia blending dragon flight and ground hack-and-slash. The dark nihilistic world, story with multiple endings and dissonant soundtrack make it a polarising but memorable work. Worth discovering for its singularity rather than its gameplay.
Your verdict
Category
Action RPG1 player16+
Description
Western edition of the first Drag-on Dragoon, released in 2004 by Square Enix as Drakengard. A Cavia action-RPG blending ground-level Musou combat and aerial dragon battles, famous for its bleakness, multiple endings and an end-of-the-world story written by the then-young Yoko Taro.
Drakengard review
4/5
Art direction
★★★★★
"Striking"
MAX
Music
★★★★★
"Legendary"
MAX
Story
★★★★★
"Masterful"
Radical and disturbing, the music of Nobuyoshi Sano and Takayuki Aihara mangles dissonant orchestral loops into a deliberately nightmarish score. Mirroring the nihilistic story, it embraces an abrasive strangeness that haunts the listener. This sonic daring, without equivalent, remains one of the most singular in the JRPG.
A pact sealed in blood between a vengeful warrior and a dragon, this nihilistic tale sinks into madness, war and the darkest of urges. Broken characters and multiple endings, each more disturbing than the last, make it an uneasy, fascinating work. The cornerstone of Yoko Taro's universe, it still unsettles.
Dark and disturbing, this mix of ground action and aerial dragon-back battles pits you against guardians of deliberate ugliness, half-organic, half-nightmare. Diving from the sky onto a colossus or mowing down an army before facing its leader sets up a raw violence. The sickly atmosphere and the excess of these clashes make it an experience as grueling as it is striking.
