Suffice it to say that major spoilers follow so you’ve been warned. It also helps to have knowledge of the events of Drakengard 1 and 3 along with the NieR games. Seriously.

After deleting one’s save data, starting a new game with a new name will commence an entirely different route. It starts with Kaine who, despite being alive, suffers from nightmares and seems to recall losing something precious to her. She then embarks on her own and hears about Shades in the Forest of Myth. Upon arriving in the forest, it appears to have been overrun with machines. After disposing several machine foes, Kaine delves deeper into a tree while two mysterious voices blame her for destroying the Original Gestalt, causing the various Gestalts to run wild and slaughtering several Replicants.

Eventually, she arrives at a mysterious facility where two machine twins emerge and will look very familiar to those who played NieR: Automata. These twins are the administrators of a data terminal and have long been watching and listening to the so-called “recycled world” (with the forest itself recording “anything and everything about the world”). Kaine disposes of a machine boss before eventually fighting against android copies of herself created through Maso particles. Before she’s totally overwhelmed, Emil – thought to be dead – arrives to help her, eventually breaking through to a doorway that leads to “that which was lost.”

This new area resembles the aesthetic of the Copied City from NieR: Automata. As Kaine and Emil traverse its walkways, they both have the feeling of forgetting something really important. They come across a replication of the Shadowlord’s castle and battle the “core frame” of the forest which stores a great variety of information, including Kaine’s lost memories. As she damages the frame, the forgotten protagonist’s voice rings out.

Upon destroying the frame, Kaine suddenly ends up in a virtual space that encompasses her memories (with her health bar looking more like that from NieR: Automata). She battles Shades along with reconstructed versions of old bosses, including Hook who killed Kaine’s grandmother. Old memories of abuse at the hands of different villagers begin to emerge before Kaine eventually collapses. What follows is a text adventure where she awakens in the Aerie.

Her grandmother is alive and everything seems well. Of course, this doesn’t last as the village, its residents and eventually her grandmother are all obliterated. Just when things seem hopeless, however, who should speak out but Grimoire Weiss who reminds Kaine of her goal.

Suddenly, she’s back in the virtual space with Weiss by her side, ready to fight Hook with magic. The duo eventually take it down, and the administrator twins begin to dissipate, awed by the potential of a Replicant. They note that “possible futures are blending with the time we currently inhabit” before remarking that they “hear a song.”

Kaine then finally remembers the protagonist and all of their trials and tribulations together while cursing him to finally return. She then comes across the protagonist’s body and the player is given the choice to recover the person they cherish most. The deleted save data from Ending D is restored and everything from the menus, weapons collected and abilities to the maps and tutorials returns.

Grimoire Weiss departs and a giant flower resembling a Lunar Tear blooms. Kaine and the protagonist are in the middle of it, with the latter reverting to the state in which they first met. Kaine and Emil then speak about the past being a mistake and the journey being meaningless but vowing to carry on, even if the world ends, for the sake of those they cherish.

There’s a lot to unpack here. You could just call this ending an attempt to provide some kind of happy conclusion for NieR Replicant fans. However, it’s actually based on another novella from Grimoire NieR called “The Lost World.” This story sees Kaine venturing to the Forest of Myth and encountering the overseer who states that the forest is actually a computer where “the ancient people” studied the demonic element (implied to be Maso) and quantum physics.

The overseer is an existence akin to Grimoire Weiss who apparently controls all of the demonic elements along with the life and death of the Gestalts and Replicants. He notes that the world is a “failure” and that robots and humans aren’t needed. After Kaine fights to recover her memories of the protagonist and save him, the Lunar Tear is formed and they’re reunited.

However, in NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139…, the whole route serves to directly connect the game to NieR: Automata, specifically with the administrator twins. These are theorized to be Number 2 and Number 9 which would form the basis for 2B and 9S (as their appearances imply). The fact that Kira Buckland and Kyle McCarley return to voice these characters lends further credence to this theory. This is where things get a little weird though.

The “flower” seen at the end could just be a giant Lunar Tear, which appears throughout NieR. However, it also resembles the Flower from Drakengard 3 which bloomed in its protagonist Zero’s right eye and was responsible for much of the evil events in that game. When all was said and done, the Accord revealed that the Flower had been sealed. She then adds that it may reappear in another time and place while Zero, who had allowed the Flower to bloom within her, could still be alive.

Drakengard 3 is a prequel though. In Drakengard 1, the antagonists are the Watchers whom the Empire tries to summon by breaking the Seals and thus having them destroy Midgard. In the fifth and final ending, Caim and his dragon Angelus fight against the Queen-beast (theorized to be Zero from Ending D of Drakengard 3) in modern day Tokyo. The death of the Dragon and the Giant, as they were referred to in NieR, would directly lead to the creation of Maso, Project Gestalt and the Legions among other things.

Given that the Watchers could be summoned by the Intoners, whom Zero fought against in Drakengard 3, along with their Disciples, it seems like a decent enough connection between the two games. Right?

However, things are never that simple. In the book Drakengard 3: The Complete Guide + Settings where novelist Eishima Jun – who wrote the Drakengard 3 side stories – novelist Matsushita Ayaki and NieR/Drakengard scenario writer Natori Sawako discussed the connections between Drakengard 1 and 3. As per Eishima, Taro never said that any of Drakengard 3’s endings directly tie into Drakengard 1. Ending A of the former is connected to Drakengard 1.3, a series of short stories with its own timeline and continuity separate from the first game.

Something or the other happens in each branch of Drakengard 3 that makes it impossible to directly connect to Drakengard 1. The only real clue seems to be the Intoners, their relationship with the Watchers and Zero potentially being the Queen-beast.

Let’s go back to Ending E of NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139… where the twins talk about “possible futures blending with the time we currently inhabit” and then hearing a song. The first part could refer to Kaine’s actions creating a new timeline – which wouldn’t be too far off, considering the number of changes that have happened based on different endings and branches in previous games. This could be the new timeline where the Flower re-emerges, playing off of a set of possibilities and results occurring after the Dragon and the Giant died.

As for the song, the Intoners were capable of harnessing the Power of Songs which granted immense fighting strength and unique abilities. It can also be used to bring back the dead. The Queen-beast in Drakengard 1 was also capable of wielding the Power of Songs and it’s known that the Flower can resurrect its host. Assuming the Flower was still within Zero when she theoretically became the Queen-beast, it’s possible that it wasn’t completely destroyed by Angelus. The twins hearing a “song” could be in reference to the Flower singing.

It’s also worth discussing Singularities, the beings capable of creating new branches. Whenever a timeline has split into a new branch, it’s called a “shift.” These can only be triggered when a “certain amount of Maso has been gathered” as per Eishima in the guide book. A Singularity isn’t recorded as such until a new branch is created. So it’s possible that Kaine became a Singularity like Zero and caused a shift in the NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139… timeline but only after the fact.

So to roughly summarize: Drakengard 1 is confirmed to tie into NieR Replicant’s Ending D, which leads to NieR: Automata. However, slight aspects of Drakengard 3 presumably tie into Drakengard 1 and seem to connect to NieR Replicant’s Ending E. This is speculation though and there are many more questions to ask with how Ending E was ultimately handled.

If a new timeline has theoretically been created and the twins have been eradicated, then do the events of NieR: Automata not take place? The short stories, which do lead directly to Automata, only have the singular overseer of the Forest of Myth. What was the point of including Number 2 and Number 9 if they were only to be removed from the equation?

Perhaps these aren’t even the true versions of the twins, especially since the YoRHa androids first entered development in the year 11937 (while NieR Replicant‘s story began in 2053). Does Kaine have any direct connection to Zero? The android copies of her having glowing right eyes – the same location where the Flower resided on Zero – wasn’t exactly subtle.

Now for the real question: Could there be another sequel that carries on events after Ending E? As is usually the case with Yoko Taro’s works, it’s definitely possible. That being said, it may not even be a direct sequel, instead tying in through various other ways while presenting its own unique tale set hundreds or thousands of years later.

Taro’s approach within Drakengard’s continuity indicates a desire to not directly connect everything, instead presenting bits and pieces while leaving it to fans to draw their own conclusions. Drakengard 1, NieR and NieR: Automata deviated from this by being directly connected to each other though, again, through different endings.

One thing is for sure though – as the themes of identity, existence and love persist through each game, so too will the unending cycle of hope and despair. There are still so many potential threads to explore, from the Accord to the true nature of the Seeds of Destruction. At least we can rest assured that throughout it all, Taro and friends will find some way to utterly ruin our emotions yet again.

THE GENERAL (KAISER KNUCKLE)

The end of Kaiser Knuckle’s campaign sees players coming up against The General, in what proves to be one of the cheapest and most frustratingly tough bosses you’ll ever face in a fighting game. Thanks to ridiculously unfair teleportation moves, slide kicks that he just won’t stop spamming, and various attacks that can do devastating damage, the General is an absolute nightmare.

Blair Witch

Protagonist Ellis suffers from PTSD and enters the haunted woods to locate a missing boy named Peter. As it turns out, he’s been constantly seeing the face of a girl that he failed to save during the war, not to mention being haunted by the his comrades that died by his negligence. He enters the infamous house from the first film and kind of has to avoid shining a flashlight on a creature who may or may not be the Blair Witch? Long story short, Ellis dies. Peter could be discovered safe depending on the player’s actions or be killed. The only really important detail is that Bullet survives. That’s it.

Unfortunately, Nier’s developer, Cavia, was shut down following the game’s release, and absorbed back into AQ Interactive, its parent company. But that hasn’t stopped the Drakengard team, who reunited at Access Games, from making Drakengard 3. And man, is this game something.

"The game plays like a hack n’ slash, but it’s really an action RPG. Zero has access to four different weapon types - swords, spears, combat bracers and chakrams (think the circular throwy thing of death from Xena) – each of which has normal and special attacks as well as built-in combos, and can be upgraded between missions with gold you’ll acquire from defeating enemies and finding chests."

Drakengard 3 takes place in a dark fantasy world ruled by five sisters whose songs have the power to alter reality, an ability they use to bring peace to the world around them. Everything’s fine and dandy until Zero, the oldest sister, shows up to murder the rest of her kin for reasons that aren’t initially clear. Thing don’t go well. Zero is seriously wounded, as is her dragon companion, Michael. Zero recovers, but not without cost. When she returns, she’s sporting a prosthetic arm and a strange flower where her right eye should be, and Michael has been reincarnated as an inept pacifist named Mikhail who has no bladder control and acts more like a five year old than a dragon.

For all that, though, the mission hasn’t changed: Zero’s sisters need to die, and she has to kill them. The game plays like a hack n’ slash, but it’s really an action RPG. Zero has access to four different weapon types – swords, spears, combat bracers and chakrams (think the circular throwy thing of death from Xena) – each of which has normal and special attacks as well as built-in combos, and can be upgraded between missions with gold you’ll acquire from defeating enemies and finding chests. She can also block, parry (with a perfectly timed block), and dodge, as well, which makes Drakengard 3 pretty standard as far as hack n’ slash games go.

The wrinkle is that Zero has the ability to switch weapons on the fly. Switching weapons mid-combo causes you to enter a slow-motion state for a couple seconds, which means that you can pull off a full combo, switch weapons, and continue that same combo with another weapon before your enemy has time to react. This is exceptionally useful against larger foes and can lead to some truly ridiculous numbers on the combo counter (I’m talking about the low hundreds here) as many of your foes have no choice but to sit there and take the continuous punishment that Zero dishes out.

"But Zero doesn’t just hack n’ slash. Every now and then, she’ll mount her dumb dragon and fly through the air, often taking on huge boss monsters or large groups of enemies in rail sequences that resemble the Panzer Dragoon series or in large, free-form encounters in open environments. "

Wasting enemies will fill up a flower-shaped meter, and after you hit a certain threshold, Zero can enter the incredibly powerful mode, which boosts her speed and damage considerably, in addition to making her nearly invincible. In a nice touch, the meter doesn’t have to be full for Zero to enter this mode, and you can leave it at any time, making it ideal for large foes and groups of weaker enemies, too. It’s these little things – the upgrade system, parrying, and the weapon change combos – that keep Drakengard’s combat interesting in the long run. It’s not a particularly deep experience like, say Devil May Cry, or Ninja Gaiden, and there’s a lot of fun to be had in acquiring, mastering, and upgrading the games thirty plus weapons.

But Zero doesn’t just hack n’ slash. Every now and then, she’ll mount her dumb dragon and fly through the air, often taking on huge boss monsters or large groups of enemies in rail sequences that resemble the Panzer Dragoon series or in large, free-form encounters in open environments. Mikhail doesn’t always control as well as you want him to (for instance, it’s very difficult to land without hurling yourself at the ground with his dash attack), but the sections are great fun overall, mostly because they come right when you want them and don’t overstay their welcome, and that provides a nice change of pace from the hacking and the slashing. Also, roasting giant beasties and tiny soldiers as a dragon is a ton of fun, no matter how you spin it.

That’s about all there is to Drakengard 3 from a gameplay perspective. It’s not an incredible game, but it is a solid one that will keep you entertained, and the continual unlocks ensure that there’s always something new to learn and play with, and hey, you get to ride a dragon. Unfortunately, the game’s presentation doesn’t fare as well. The graphics are dated, most notably the environments, which are pretty low-res, but on the upside, you do travel to a lot of different places, from deserts to forests, and the variety makes each section play a little differently.

"Unfortunately, the problems with the environment don’t stop with the visuals. Enemies are also prone to getting stuck in the environment, meaning they’ll sometimes find themselves inside of hills or atop places that there’s absolutely no way to get to. "

Unfortunately, the problems with the environment don’t stop with the visuals. Enemies are also prone to getting stuck in the environment, meaning they’ll sometimes find themselves inside of hills or atop places that there’s absolutely no way to get to. This never caused me any real problems, even when I had to kill an enemy to proceed, because I could usually find a way around the issue, such as a ranged attack or a weapon that was long enough to pierce through a wall just enough, but it’s still annoying when you have to stop what you’re doing and try to figure out how to break the game that’s already busy breaking itself.

The characters fare a little better, especially in the cutscenes, where they actually look quite good. They aren’t as appealing in-game, but the game is carried by a visually distinctive art style, and the strength of the designs themselves often makes up for any technical failings in the visual department. The main visual issue, however, is the framerate, which drops any time there are a lot of enemies on screen. It’s never really a problem, because the framerate never dips to the point where the game becomes unplayable or actively interferes with the gameplay, but it can be a bit grating in bigger engagements.

But you don’t come to a game like Drakengard 3 for the graphics, or really, even for gameplay. You come to a game like this for the other aspects: the story, the characters, the art style, the dark world, and yes, the ridiculously crude (and funny) jokes. In that regard, Drakengard 3 is amazing. The juicy center to Drakengard 3’s orange is Zero, and as you may have guessed by now, she’s not a very nice person. She mocks or murders pretty much every character she comes into contact with, and constantly belittles her companions, be they Mikhail or one of her disciples, often in a sexual fashion. When Zero kills one of her sisters, she takes her Disciple, literally and figuratively.

"It would be really, really easy to dislike all of these characters, but the interparty chatter between both the disciples themselves, and each party member and Zero, is frequently well-written and voice acted, and it’s easy to like almost all of them despite their many flaws."

Pretty despicable, right? And yet, Zero is oddly sympathetic, and only becomes more so as the game goes on. Her reactions to the things around her – the other characters, who are almost universally terrible people outside of Mikhail, the ridiculous plot twists, and silly game segments – will often mirror your own, and you’ll find yourself relating to her more and more as the progresses. Her disciples are much the same way, though nearly all of them are sexual deviants who are into some really weird stuff. Seriously, one’s a sadist, another is a masochist, the third is a perennially horny old man with, in the game’s on words “a massive member,” and the fourth is a insufferable narcissist who constantly spouts false trivia as fact.

It would be really, really easy to dislike all of these characters, but the interparty chatter between both the disciples themselves, and each party member and Zero, is frequently well-written and voice acted, and it’s easy to like almost all of them despite their many flaws. Serious praise must be lavished on the localization team, because this is a game that doesn’t sound like it was written in Japanese and then translated. It sounds like it was a game written in English, and that’s a rare feat.

The story bounces between darkly serious and joyously irreverent, and the game takes a lot of joy in skewering itself as it makes fun of game design tropes, the player’s expectations, leveling systems, and Japanese character design. It’s the little things, like when Zero questions why she got experience for solving a simple puzzle or when she speaks directly to the game (and the player) when it has the audacity to end without her permission. Everything wraps up in a bizarre and fairly disappointing ending, but Drakengard 3 doesn’t actually end there.

"Drakengard 3’s odd like that. It’s a game that makes you think: about game design, about the way games portray violence, about characterization and how characters that start off as horrible people can become incredibly sympathetic."

The game has multiple endings, or branches, each with a different take on the story, and the further down the rabbit hole you go, the more you’ll learn about the characters, the story, and the world. Each ending adds something significant, and a full understanding of the game isn’t possible without having seen every ending all the way through, so when the final ending asks you to unlock and upgrade every single weapon in the game to attain it, which will require a significant amount of grinding in the game’s side missions, you’ll probably want to do it to see things through because you’ve become so invested in the game’s world.

Drakengard 3’s odd like that. It’s a game that makes you think: about game design, about the way games portray violence, about characterization and how characters that start off as horrible people can become incredibly sympathetic. It’s a game that isn’t afraid to use its content to make a point about video games, and one that constantly subverts your expectations. Zero may be hyper-sexualized, but she owns it. The only sex that takes place in the game happens on her terms, and most of the time her conversations with her disciples about sex end in her either denying them outright and telling them to shut up or taking them down a peg by mocking their performance.

And when the game starts using multiple endings to make points about the nature of game narrative and design… man. Yeah, Drakengard 3 is that kind of game. It’s not perfect; in fact, it’s got a lot of flaws. But I can think of very few games that have engaged me on the same level, or made me laugh as much, or made me think as much, or constantly surprised me as much, and I loved it for that. It won’t appeal to everyone. Some people will be turned off by the game’s intense violence, crude humor, and graphical issues. But if it sounds interesting to you at all, I urge you to play it. It’s not what I expected, and I love it. It’s flawed, and beautiful, stupid and deep, all at the same time.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation  3.

Drakengard 3 finally launches on North American PlayStation 3 systems today, both at retail, and digitally over the PSN Store. To celebrate the launch, the game’s received a new trailer, which shows off the game in its full glory.

Alongside the game’s release comes some news that is sure to be controversial for some, but pleasing for others- the Collector’s Edition of Drakengard 3, which sold out very quickly, included a lot of DLC that is now available to everyone to buy on the PSN Store for $64.99. Doubtlessly, that price should help soothe those who are pissed off that their Collector’s Edition suddenly means a whole lot less.

Square Enix are also making the newest in a series of developer interviews available today.

Drakengard 3 is available exclusively for the PlayStation 3 worldwide, and it serves as a prequel to the other games in the series. Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more coverage of the title.

Square Enix have just posted a new developer interview video for Drakengard 3 with Keiichi Okabe, the sound director of the game, and it shows us him musing over the role that music can play in a video game. The video also shows us the extent of Okabe’s involvement with the game and the composition of its sound score. To demonstrate the music being discussed, Square Enix have uploaded samples of the game’s soundtrack to the game’s official website, under the music section.

Drakengard 3 serves as the prequel to the series so far, and will be available exclusively for the PlayStation 3, both physically at retail, as well as digitally over the PSN Store. It will cost $49.99, so it’s already cheaper than a full priced game, and it will also be getting a pretty sweet looking special edition. The game launches later this month, so stay tuned to GamingBolt for more coverage.

Once it was announced that Drakengard 3 wouldn’t be having a physical release in Europe, fans were disappointed, and they made it known. Square Enix has actually done something surprisingly right for a change, and they have taken the feedback into account- the game’s collector’s edition will now be seeing a European release as well.

The Collector’s Edition will include the Japanese voiceover tracks, the clamshell box, the hardback novella, a sampler CD, an add on pack to the game, and the game itself (which is still only going to be a download code, since the game is not physically releasing in Europe and PAL territories). This will be a very limited run, with only 2,000 copies anticipated to be printed, and it being available exclusively from Square Enix’s website. It will set you back by €69.99.

Drakengard 3 releases exclusively on the PlayStation 3.

Square Enix’s PS3 Action RPG Drakengard 3 which came out in Japan in December will be out in western markets in May of this year, and Sony have now revealed a bunch of pre-order bonuses for the game in what they’re calling the second wave of pre-order bonus announcements.

If you pre-order Drakengard 3 between now and April 9th, you’ll get a Nier costume pack free, which means you’ll be able to dress the protagonist Zero in Kainè costume, and your dragon can wear an Emil hat. Those who’ve already pre-ordered this game will, of course, have access to this costume pack too.

The developers have also put together a little video, talking about the eight years of development that it took to finish Drakengard 3, how the series has evolved and how the prequel novella idea came to fruition.

The pre-order bonuses included in the third wave of pre-order bonus announcements will be confirmed after April 9. Stay tuned for more updates.

Drakengard 3, the newest game in Square Enix’s long running series that acts as a prequel, set before the events of the first game, finally has a confirmed, concrete release date for Europe- in Europe and other PAL territories, it will be launching May 21.

Perhaps to cut their losses in bringing over what has to be a low selling game at best, Square Enix have also confirmed that Drakengard 3 will hit these regions as a downloadable release only, with no physical version planned.

The game promises to feature the trademark hack and slash action that the series has come to be known for. Square Enix released a new trailer for the game in celebration of this news. Check it out, and stay tuned to GamingBolt for more news and coverage of the game.

New year’s is infamous for its revelations and telling stories in the resolutions of others, and 2014 was no different. Square Enix director Yoko Taro recently posted his resolution on a Japanese blog and indicated that he’s currently a “no-job person”. The man is credited for directing Drakengard and Nier, and recently completed Drakengard 3 which released in Japan for the PS3 as Drag-on Dragoon 3.

Taro stated that, “I know you have to work hard this year. Going life is crazy difficult. Now, Drag-on Dragoon 3 is released in Japan. I have no plan for next year because I will be no-job person. But I hope you will be happy in the next year. bye.”

Even though Drakengard 3 didn’t really notch up high sales numbers, it’s a little weird for Taro to be out of a job considering his earlier experience with Square Enix. Hopefully he’ll find employment sooner rather than later in the new year.

(Source)