![]() In Drakengard the dragon gains greater attack power as it gains experience and levels up. It also has two difficulty modes, Easy and Normal. In Free Expedition Mode the player can jump on and off the dragon for a combination of both playing styles. In the less-common aerial missions the player flies on the back of a dragon destroying enemy fortresses in mid-air, which was repeatedly compared to Panzer Dragoon Orta by reviewers. The ground missions, where the player and their party run on foot attacking enemies, have often been compared to the hack and slash gameplay of the Dynasty Warriors series. Years later, in an interview with GameInformer, Yoko reveals that the original, rejected plan for Ending E consisted of the player battling a giant version of J-pop idol Ayumi Hamasaki in a singing competition to decide the fate of the world.ĭrakengard features three basic gameplay types: ground missions, aerial missions, and Free Expedition Mode. He adds that the phrase used for this ending is "a rip-off" of The End of Evangelion, which is a series he considers a spiritual inspiration of sorts for Drakengard's gloominess. ![]() Yoko became quite fond of the reaction it had on the team and players, and it was one of the reasons why it was revisited again for Drakengard's alternate continuity, NIER. The ending wasn't shown to the entire team until the very end of development Shiba hated it once he saw it. The E ending (Tokyo ending) and its dramatic gameplay change were added by him and a small group of developers to be a "surprise joke" for players –following a similar train of thought as the UFO endings in Silent Hill. In his eyes, Furiae and her many monstrous clones in this ending represent how shallow and heartless these sister characters are in fiction. At the time, Sister Princess was the prime source of his ire he doesn't like the current title which represents this idealism, Oreimo. Yet the B ending represents his opinion for fetishism regarding the superficial "idealistic younger sister". He made them with the intents to present unexpected and painful experiences for the playable cast. Even so, Yoko considers Iwasaki the "true father" of the series since he pushed for the project's completion the most.Īlthough the game is infamous for its multiple "bad" endings with fans, Yoko doesn't feel the same way. Iwasaki and Shiba had no experience writing stories and were mainly driven to have as many game mechanics and content as possible over creative issues. Yoko was originally planned to be the art director. In another part of the interview, Yoko confesses that he became director only because Iwasaki was too busy with other projects at the time. He is personally surprised to learn that the characters have stood the test of time in people's memories and had no idea the game has a fanbase. Yoko felt Drakengardwouldn't stand a chance against Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy if the characters were normal. Many of the characters' odd quirks and personalities were conceptualized by him for the sake of originality. He strongly resisted them multiple times as he sought to keep the landscape surreal and dreary for the game's tone. One particular example which he named was how executives kept pressuring him to have a blue sky for natural realism. He reveals later that a jump feature was originally in the game but was too buggy for the programmers to fix it had to be removed due to time constraints.Įven back then, Yoko remarked that he had to fight a lot with Square-Enix to keep many of his creative decisions in the final product. They were rushed by Square-Enix to finish it within their deadline on one disc, a decision which still upsets Yoko to this day. Yoko revealed that Cavia was severely undermanned for Drakengard's development process and that he wanted to present the game on two discs. ![]() Shiba then pushed to include this title's gameplay into their project. ![]() However, Dynasty Warriors 2 came out during Drakengard's development and became a popular hit in Japan. Originally, Drakengard was going to be centered on just this aspect. Since there were members of Cavia who worked on Ace Combat, Iwasaki pitched the idea of making a dragon flight simulator. The game's theme revolves around pacts, as most characters initiate a pact with other entities to gain certain abilities, and must pay the price of the pact in return.Īccording to his comments within a Dengeki Online interview, Taro Yoko answers how the game's general concept was spontaneously conceptualized between Takamasa Shiba and Takuya Iwasaki during a night out at the bar. Drakengard, known in Japan as Drag-On Dragoon, is a PlayStation 2 role playing game developed by Cavia and published by Square Enix and Take Two Interactive.
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