Drakengard

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Drakengard (Drag-On Dragoon in Japan) is a PlayStation 2 action game published in Japan by Square Enix on September 11, 2003 and in North America on March 5, 2004. It was originally developed in the Enix name. Drakengard was scored by Takayuki Aihara and Nobuyoshi Sano.

The game's sequel Drakengard 2 was released in Japan on June 16, 2005. It takes place 18 years after the events of the original Drakengard.

Story

The game's protagonists are Caim, his best friend Inuart, and their companions. The plot revolves around a war between the Union and the Empire. Every playable character makes a pact with a powerful beast, and pays a price for joining the pact. This concept in the Drakengard series is called "pact pricing." In the process of forging such a pact, humans are branded with a mark called a "pact emblem," which appears on a part of their body associated with the price they pay.

Prior to the beginning of the game, Caim's parents were killed by a black dragon sent by the Empire, breeding a hatred in him toward all dragons. During the war against the Empire, Caim is mortally wounded, but comes across a red dragon imprisoned by the Empire. Although neither Caim nor the dragon are fond of each other, they cannot deny that they need each other's help to survive and become pact partners. The price Caim paid to enter the pact was his voice, rendering him mute and causing a pact emblem to appear on his tongue.

Together, Caim and the dragon fight against the Empire with the help of allies they meet along the way, including other humans that have entered pacts with various creatures. Together, they eventually discover that the Empire is led by a six-year-old girl named Mannah. Having been driven insane, the young girl has been possessed by the mysterious Cult of Watchers in order to destroy the seals that prevent chaos from overwhelming the world. In the end, Caim and the dragon manage to stop them, though the dragon, whose name is revealed to be Angelus at the game's end, volunteers to become the new seal.

Gameplay mechanics

Drakengard features ground missions, aerial missions, and Free Expedition Mode. It also has two difficulty modes, which are Easy and Normal. The player does not need to erase his or her game and start over for any reason whatsoever. He or she can go back to an earlier chapter or verse if he or she has missed something. In Drakengard the red dragon gains greater attack power as it gains experience and levels up. At certain points of the story the dragon evolves into a different form, which enhances the dragons attack powers, magical attacks and allows to lock on to more enemies.

Like the Bible, Drakengard is divided into chapters and subdivided into verses. Missions numbered with Roman numerals lead to endings other than the one merited in Chapter 8, and can only be played if the player meets certain requirements.

Trivia

• In the first opening movie of the game (prior to the Start screen), the word "dragon" is spelled out by flashing letter by letter, and then putting that letter into a sentence that has to do with the game's story. However, after flashing the letter D, it goes straight to A. Fans noticed the missing R in the Japanese release, but for some reason the error was never fixed for the English version.

• The map of Drakengard is in fact Europe upside down.

• The American and European Drakengard disks contains an mpeg2 audio stream of the Japanese version of the trailer that runs when the games menu is left on, containing the song "Growing Wings" and that also plays during one of the end credits. It is located in the movie1.bin file, a container file for most of the fmv in the game. To access simply make any movie playing software startup the file or use software that can extract Playstation 2 mpeg2 files.

• Besides the original Song "Growing Wings" performed by Kay Jemsen ("Tsukiru" performed by Eriko Hatsune in the Japanese version) Drakengard featured samplings from Antonín Dvořák (Othello, Op. 93; Carnival Overture, Op. 92; Symphony No. 9 "From the New World"), Bela Bartok (The Miraculous Mandarin), Claude Debussy (La Mer), Gustav Mahler (Symphony No. 5), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Le Nozee Di Figaro), Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (The Swan Lake; Capriccio Italien; The Nutcracker Suite; 1812 Overture Solennelle; Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture), Ottorino Respighi (Feste Romane), Richard Wagner (Götterdämmerung; Die Walküre; Tannhäuser), Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov (Capriccio Espagnol) (credited twice, once without "Nicolai"), Modest Mussorgsky (Pictures at an Exhibition) and Gustav Holst (The Planets).

• The Japanese version of Drakengard, Drag-On Dragoon, featured such risqué plotpoints as incest and pedophilia. However, this was toned down and outright removed from all western versions.

Cast

See also

• List of Drakengard chapters and verses

External links

• [Official American Website]
• [GameTab reviews]
• [Oritsuru - Drakengard Section]
• [GameFAQs entry on Drakengard]
• [Drakengard] at MobyGames

 

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