Drakengard 3 Review by: sop281 - 9/10
Dark, Murderous, and SexualI will begin this by saying that this game is in no way perfect. No game is really ever perfect, there are always flaws, and there are always thing that will detract from the game as you play over time. Simply replaying the game can cause one to dislike it more. This game is not without its share of flaws, and I believe I will start with those flaws.
Flaws:
Firstly, there are many occasions where I have noticed an exceptional drop in the framerate. Even from simply fighting a few enemies, the framerate can dip into the range of 10-15 FPS, and I must say, that can be quite frustrating, especially if you are fighting a really strong opponent, or doing a timed challenge. The framerate drops are pretty frequent, but the majority of the drops happen when your dragon, Mikhail, is used as a backup when fighting ground enemies. There does not seem to be a significant drop in the framerate whenever you are actually flying around on him in one of the air-battle missions. However, if you are flying Mikhail, but still fighting ground opponents, then there will still be drops in the framerate. The worst offender of the framerate drops was on one of the earlier missions where you have to fight a battleship. If you use the special roll-attack with Mikhail, and attack the battleship repeatedly, the water combined with the movement of the ship, seems to cause the framerate to drop immensely. It is possible that the FPS dropped into the single digits. I cannot say for certain, but that was what I garnered from my observations.
The second flaw: Long load times. For me, they were not an issue, and they never seemed all that long to begin with, but everywhere I go, there seem to be people bashing the game for its excessive load times. It has been recorded that the load times can even get up to as much as 40 seconds per level. Personally, I have never seen these excessive load times. The most I have ever had to deal with was 30 seconds, and the standard was something around 20 seconds. Though for some, this will certainly be a very strong drawback.
Lastly, there are a few minor glitches. Occasionally, you will be met with a glitch or two during battle. Most games have their fair share of glitches, but this one in particular had a few during battle, which made fighting certain enemies tricky. Specifically, there are the enemies that charge at you with spears. These enemies cannot effectively be knocked back, and if you try to jump over them, and then execute a dash in midair, it will usually register you as being hit by the enemy. This can be frustrating, as their attacks will push you back, and cause you to fall down onto the ground, as well as take a significant chunk of damage.
None of the flaws seemed to take away from my experience though, and I am making the framerate issues sound worse than they are, but this will vary on a case to case basis.
Now, back to the regular portion of the review.
Graphics - (8): The graphics are generally pretty good. The character models look nice, the character textures are also really satisfying. The colors give a nice, eerie feel to them, adding to the general themes and mood set up by the characters and the narrative of the game. Compared to other games, the graphics can be a bit on the low side, but in general, the game looks nice. The cut-scenes are gorgeous, and the endless slaughter looks great in HD.
Sound - (10): Oftentimes, one may be met with a boring soundtrack that is repeated over and over again, and will cause you to go droll. This soundtrack is a little different. Everything seems to perfectly match the current action, and soundtracks flow smoothly between cut-scenes and standard gameplay. Some will dislike the sound, but that is the same with everything. The usual sounds of weapons, fighting, and the voices, specifically the Japanese ones, will really cause you to appreciate the quality of the sound of the game. Not to say that the English cast is necessarily bad, but I tend to prefer the Japanese voice actors over their English counterparts most of the time.
Addictiveness - (10): The game has a really strong pull quality. The gameplay is really frantic, and fast paced, and the story is splendid. The gorgeous sounds of the game top it all off excellently into one nice little package, making for a very addictive game.
Story - (10): The story is exceptionally dark. It revolves around a group of intoners, who are essentially the equivalent of gods. They are, of course, all female, and all of their disciples are male. Each intoner is sister to another, and each has their own sets of quirks, fetishes, dislikes, and tastes. Each intoner is different from the next. For example, Five is a raving sex-fiend, while Three is a raving lunatic. You play as Zero, the oldest intoner, and your goal is to kill off each of the other intoners. Zero wants to be the only one with power left, and the story unfolds in a way that makes this a very exciting and dark tale.
Depth - (8): I tried to not go too overboard on this one. There is a decent bit to do in the game, involving both main story missions, as well as side-missions, you can purchase, upgrade, and mix and match weapons to your heart's content. The game has a decent bit to offer, but is not as inherently strong or varied as a standard RPG, of which this game is not, but it has a sizable chunk of content for what the game is portraying and trying to be.
Difficulty - (6): As per the usual, difficulty is really difficult to measure. Haha. Well, I would personally say that it is around the middle in terms of difficulty. Certain fights can get a little hairy, and I have come close to death on multiple occasions during the main campaign. Especially some of the boss and mini-boss fights. In all honesty though, the side-missions tend to be more difficult than the main-story. This is primarily so that one can gain more excitement out of the story, but I digress.
All in all, the game is really rather solid. I rather enjoyed the game. It is not without its flaws, but it proves itself to be a worthy adversary to many foes within the same genre. I will give the game an overall 9/10 rating.
Graphics
8 Sound
10 Addictive
10 Depth
8 Story
10 Difficulty
6
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