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As she defeats foes, a flower-shaped blood meter fills up, and once it reaches a certain threshold, Zero can enter the incredibly powerful and near invincible intoner mode for a very limited time. She can guard, dodge, and cancel her skills into defensive maneuvers as necessary. Zero runs through mostly linear fields, defeating foes with combos and special moves derived from four different weapon types (swords, spears, chakrams, and combat bracers). Side quests are timed and can get downright brutal.ĭrakengard 3 is a hack-and-slash action game.
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Unfortunately, a wise old elder dragon this creature is definitely not Mikhail is an inept pacifist who calls for nonviolent resolution as he whines about his bodily functions like a first grader. To aid her this time around, she has Mikhail, the reincarnation of her previous dragon, by her side. Zero's attack on her sisters ends in abject failure and the death of her dragon companion, but a year and a reconstructed body later, she is ready and rarin' to kill her estranged siblings again. That peace is transformed into a bloody mess when the oldest of the intoners, Zero, decides that her five sisters (all named after numbers) need to die for reasons initially unclear. The game takes place in a miserable fantasy world where goddess-like beings called "intoners" rule the land and keep the masses appeased with their otherworldly songs. Nothing ended well for anyone involved, including the player, but it was fascinating regardless.Īnd that's precisely what Drakengard 3 is: utterly fascinating. It was a train wreck, horrifying to look at and experience, but it kept you playing to see just how much more awful things could get. But what made that game memorable was its distinctly dark and twisted story in a world filled with horrible happenings and broken, deplorable characters. The original game, released a decade ago on the PlayStation 2, was much the same way. It's severely visually outclassed, it has myriad bugs and issues, and the gameplay is fair at best and tedious at worst. From a traditional perspective, Drakengard 3 is not what you would normally consider a good game.
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