Drakengard 2 (2005)

It's over: I've reached all three endings in Drakengard 2. I have 100% weapon completion, but three weapons have yet to hit level 4. I'll chip away at that. Everyone is max level except for Manah and Legna.

I think this is a bad game. The additional endings really twisted the knife. For beating the entire game two more times, you get two additional missions that last around five minutes each. The last ending is entirely reused content. Unbelievable. To make matters worse, one of the endings teases an epic battle that you never actually get to play or see, and it was one of the few things I was interested in seeing resolve.

The whole game is shockingly bad on a narrative level, both in a vacuum and in its relation to Drakengard. It's one of the worst-told stories I've seen in a video game. The other qualities of Drakengard 2 peak at being mediocre. What a sad experience.

I'll play Drakengard 3 some time, but right now I need a palette cleanser so as to not burn out.

I actually beat Drakengard 2 a week ago... sort of. In what feels like a brand obligation, it also has multiple endings. But unlike Drakengard, which allowed you to freely move between Chapters and Verses to see new content, Drakengard 2 requires you to replay the entire game. Yep, to see god knows how much new content, I have to trudge through the exact same shit.

To slow me down further, there are actually new cutscenes on a second playthrough. While this would be cool, there's nothing denoting their presence. Basically, I have to rewatch every scene to make sure it's NOT a new one. So I'm progressing through the second playthrough only slightly faster than the first one. I also stop to max the level of every new weapon, so that's not helping...

Drakengard, for a budget-conscious gamer in 2003, could be criticized for being too short. But it extended replay value only as long as it could possibly supply content for. Story mode and Free Expeditions reused assets, but they at least they technically weren't the same missions. Drakengard 2 just wants to inflate its hour count in exchange for 90% nothing. I think that stinks.

I'd heard about it going in, but the difference in tone, style, and presentation from the first Drakengard is so utterly stark that calling the experience "surreal" feels like a massive understatement. Seeing any character from the first game appear warrants a spit-take every time. It's fanfiction. This uncanny experience is most comparable to when I played through Deus Ex: Invisible War.

Also, really cool of the opening FMV to have massive fucking spoilers. Appreciated that.