The psychiatric disorders that I mentioned earlier play a pivotal role in the story, because when you put together a group of characters like that, things are bound to spin out in some odd directions. I rather not go too deep into the story (part of my master plan is to get at least one reader to go back and give this title a try), but I do want to mention a couple of things. Distinctive components that no other director would have dared to include in a game. This title, made me realise just how plain the protagonist in other games usually are whereas other stories portrait casts with somewhat dark secrets, and certain level of villainous Drakengard had characters with thematics that you won’t ever expect to find in gaming, such as incest, pedophilia, insanity (no, not the crazy clown kind of insanity, I am talking about dangerous levels of insanity) and child abuse, among many other “taboo” subjects.

The protagonist is not the only element that was completely different in Drakengard, as I progressed through the story, I remember being shocked with every newly added character, and they were all… marred. Caim is a very perturbed fellow, he lost both his parents early in his life and developed a very disturbing relationship with his sister, although he probably loves killing even more than he loves her I mean, you can even see him smiling whenever he is bathed in the enemy’s blood. For example take Caim, the protagonist yes, he is a prince, yes, he wears armor and uses a sword (among many other weapons), but that is as far as the stereotype of hero goes, and the Taroism (this is now a word, get used to it!) kicks in. Drakengard was the answer to my call, because it was just so unconventional. Related reading: NieR: Automata is a strong contender for the greatest game of all time, and Matt’s review is not helping to keep the hype in check.īack in 2004, I was in a very dull moment of my gaming life, I was getting tired of playing the same old pseudo-Disney stories of hero saves the heroine and don’t get me wrong, I love cheesy love stories, but I wanted to experience a new approach in storytelling.

With NieR: Automata now in the open and receiving critical acclaim (you did it Yoko Taro, you finally did it!) I thought to myself, what better time to write about what makes Taro’s games so special, and specifically my favorite (for now) of them all, the first, the original, the beginning, Drakengard (Drag-On Dragoon in Japan)? So for this week’s retro reflections I will share all of my love for this underrated masterpiece.

Download drakengard switch