Drakengard
Drakengard, known in Japanese as Drag-On Dragoon (Japanese: ドラッグ オン ドラグーン, Hepburn: Doraggu on doragūn), is an action role-playing game developed by Cavia for the PlayStation 2. It was published in Japan (on September 11, 2003) and North America (March 2, 2004) by Square Enix and in European territories (May 21, 2004) by Take-Two Interactive. A Europe-exclusive mobile phone adaptation was co-developed and co-published by Square Enix and Macrospace for Vodafone devices in August 2004.
The game is the first installment of the Drakengard series and features a mixture of ground-based hack-and-slash, aerial combat, and role-playing elements which have become a staple of the series. The story is set during a religious war between two factions—the Union and the Empire—with the war tipping in favor of the Empire. The player controls Caim, a deposed prince of the Union, in his quest for vengeance against the Empire. Wounded in battle while protecting his sister Furiae, he is forced to make a pact with a red dragon named Angelus. As they journey together, they join with Hierarch Verdelet on a quest to prevent the Empire from destroying magical seals that keep the world in balance: Furiae acts as the central seal, and her death will drop the world into chaos.
Drakengard (series)
Drakengard, known as Drag-On Dragoon (Japanese: ドラッグ オン ドラグーン, Hepburn: Doraggu on doragūn, commonly abbreviated as DOD) in Japan, is a series of action role-playing video games. The eponymous first game in the series was released in 2003 on the PlayStation 2, and has since been followed by a sequel, a prequel and a spin-off. It was conceived by Takamasa Shiba and Takuya Iwasaki as a gameplay hybrid between Ace Combat and Dynasty Warriors 2. The story was created by Shiba, Iwasaki, Taro Yoko and Sawako Natori, who were influenced by European folklore and popular anime series and movies of the day. Shiba, Yoko and Sawako have had involvement in every entry of the series since its debut.
The setting of the main series is a Northern European-style dark fantasy world where humans and creatures from myth and legends live side by side, while the spin-off game is set in an alternate reality leading from one of the first game's possible endings. The stories generally focus on the fortunes and personalities of a small group of protagonists either directly or indirectly connected to and affected by the events of the story. Dark or mature plot and character themes and multiple endings have become a staple of the series. Their popularity in Japan has resulted in multiple adaptions and additional media in the form of novelizations and manga.
Drakengard 2
Drakengard 2, known as Drag-On Dragoon 2: love red, ambivalence black (Japanese: ドラッグ オン ドラグーン2 封印の紅、背徳の黒, Hepburn: Doraggu on doragūn 2: Fūin no kurenai, Haitoku no kuro, commonly abbreviated as DOD2) in Japan, is an action role-playing game developed by Cavia for the PlayStation 2. It was released in Japan by Square Enix on June 16, 2005 and by Ubisoft on February 14 and March 3, 2006 in North America and Europe respectively. It is the second entry in the Drakengard series and a direct sequel to the original Drakengard: the story revolves around Nowe, a boy raised by the dragon Legna, fighting against a tyrannical faction of Knights, encountering characters from the previous game and becoming entangled in the fate of the world.
Like the original, Drakengard 2 combines on-foot hack and slash with aerial combat stages and RPG game mechanics. The previous game's producer, writer and character designer returned to their respective roles. The game was designed as a more mainstream game in light of the previous game's dark aesthetic and story. The game sold 206,000 copies by the end of 2005. Western reviews praised the story, but gave mixed opinions about the graphics and widely criticized the gameplay. A spin-off from the series, Nier, was released in 2010, while a third entry in the series, Drakengard 3, was released in December 2013 in Japan and May 2014 in North America and Europe.
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