Drakengard 3

[HandsomeDead]

Despite this game being just awful I was still getting a bit of enjoyment out of it, that is until I hit a bit of a wall with it and I had enough.

It's a very hard game to like. I'm astounded that when this game was made it still turned out the way it did. Early on one Japanese developers started using the Unreal engine at the start of last gen there were some games with poor performance. I heard instructions on how to use Unreal were never translated into Japanese so most just blundered through with trial and error. This game seems like no-one told them what had been learned so far. It has some horrible graphics with a very choppy frame rate that can be an eyesore when trying to track the action in a third person hack 'n' slash.

It's also not very responsive. There is a countering system that I barely used due to a bad camera that made it hard to see where attacks were coming from as well as the previously mentioned choppy frame rate. You can fudge your way through the combat since it does have RPG elements that make it possible to grind experience, money and materials to upgrade yourself and your weapons and just plow through that way.

It's pretty bad in a way I've not seen in a long time. Special mention also goes to the large enemies that aren't clear to read and have moves that are hard to dodge, and deal loads of damage, and take loads of damage. They are the worst.

So why did I stay with it as long as I did? Well, everything else is really good. As bad as the graphics are they are just functional enough to create a good sense of place which is heavily amplified by the music. For those that don't know it's the same composer from NieR, and some of the leads from that worked on this, and you can tell. It's not as good but it does follow those lines well.

It's a strange one. As for what you do you are a lady called Zero and you are tasked with killing your sisters (One, Two, Three, Four and Five) with the help of your pet dragon who has the personality of a little, naive boy. The sisters all have male disciples you get when you defeat them. So kill sisters and get their boyfriends.

Despite being very violent and often melancholic it does also throw in a lot of smutty humour but it does it with a brashness that does come off pretty well and there are laughs to be had (unlike when a lot of nerdy stuff tries sex humour). It juggles those three things well. There are some subtle character arcs in Zero and her boyfriends, too.

It's just a shame that it is tied to a game that is difficult to forgive. I'd be okay with it if the action was a bit tighter and it performed more stably as it's a bit of a head ache to see through to the good stuff. But I'm still glad I played it. I wouldn't recommend it.