
Locking onto enemies is unreliable, the combat itself is so chaotic that it’s often hard to follow, and the camera is prone to spasming wildly and making it impossible to see what’s going on. The action is somewhat messy, and I’m not just talking about all the spilled bodily fluids. Every now and then, there may be a platforming section, but the majority of the action is focused on bloody murder (with emphasis on the bloody).

Regular soldiers are backed up by annoying archers and giant-sized enemies that can take and dish out a ton of punishment.

Most levels consist of Zero running from point A to point B, taking out the Intoners’ armies as she does. Weapons can be upgraded using gold and materials, gaining more moves and attack power as they level. Over the course of the game, Zero will gain access to four weapon types that can be switched on the fly – swords, spears, gauntlets and chakrams – of which there are many different flavors with their own unique attacks. Like previous Drakengard installments, the meat of the experience is found in slicing up hordes of vulnerable enemies in a fashion similar to Dynasty Warriors. For a game about mindlessly slashing at everything onscreen, Drakengard 3 never fails to surprise. While an old man on stilts declares that he can’t function without “booty in the morning,” and Zero complains about receiving experience points for mundane tasks, this third Drakengard goes out of its way to subvert expectations and lampoon itself at every opportunity. It is crude, both in terms of gameplay and humor, yet it carries with it a total sincerity, a sheer love of its own creative insanity that I can’t help respecting. There’s something about this game that is impossible to hate.
#DRAKENGARD 3 REVIEW FULL#
Full of brainless hack and slash combat that is sloppy in execution, littered with insensible dialog, full of repeated references to extreme masochism, horny old men, and the shoddiness of the game’s own level design, this is a title that picks up the crazy ball and proceeds to hump it without dignity or remorse. She is also the player character, and this is one of the stupidest videogames I’ve ever played.Ĭoming to us courtesy of Access Games – that studio behind the brilliantly demented Deadly Premonition – Drakengard 3 is about as dumb as it gets. She’s sadistic and genocidal, she’s abusive towards her only companions. After killing women, she takes their men and has sex with them, she has a flower that’s sticking out of one eye that lets her regrow her limbs, and her arm falls off but she uses a parasite to keep it attached. She wants to kill her sisters to become the strongest being in the world, and she also has a dragon that urinates compulsively. Zero is an intoner, one of six numerically named sisters with the ability to sing powerful forces into being.
