Drakengard 2

by UBI Soft

Product Features

• Lay waste to entire armies in the ferocious ground battles, or engage in intense aerial combat as you fly freely through the game world on the back of the dragon
• Change freely between four playable characters with specific weapons and abilities
• Gathering information plays a key role, as a way to upgrade characters, weapons and items
• Over 20 hours of gameplay, with epic struggles spread across 90 missions as you crush enemies with over 60 unique weapons
• Exciting new combo system and enhanced ground battle system, for wilder and more intense battles

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000CSUKY6
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches ; 8 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: February 15, 2006
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,438 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #26 in Video Games > PlayStation 2 > Role-Playing

Product Description

Drakengard 2 takes place 18 years since the world-shattering events of the original game. The Union has once again appeared, in the guise of a group known as the Knights of the Seal. It appears that the world has found peace, but it is a deceptive peace. Behind the scenes, thousands of powerless people are trampled in the name of the Seal. Join a young hero named Nowe as he bonds with his dragon and faces a threat that can destroy the world! The bond with the dragon, the loyalty of friends and the love of those who need protection all come together in a gripping tale

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Fun at first, but later aggravating for the casual gamer, September 4, 2006

By 

Onikaze (St. Louis, MO) - See all my reviews

= Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Drakengard 2 (Video Game)

I picked up Drakengard 2 for $20 since I was wanting something of a medieval vein and RPG-like without the classic RPG combat interface that is about as menu-heavy as doing your taxes. At first, Drakengard filled this niche. Most of the other reviews have covered the general pros and cons of the game. It has full voiceover, which is typically nicely done, though the British accents are a little hammy. For sword-swinging mindless fun, it's pretty good at first. It does get pretty repetitive, though.

The real problem starts when you discover that there are 3 different endings. You must play the game through on Hard mode to get the second ending, and Extreme mode for the final and supposedly best ending. For the casual gamer, Normal mode will prove slightly challenging, but not really frustratingly so. Hard mode will step things up a bit, mostly in the form of enemies having more hit points and doing significantly more damage to your characters.

In Extreme mode, the difficulty steps up exponentially. Bosses can kill you in 1 hit no matter how high your levelled up. Your strongest swords will do fair damage to enemies, but you'll still be bashing each one 3, 4, or 5 times to take them down. Throw a couple hundred enemies into the fray, and that's a LOT of button mashing. As a result, you have to go through the game 3 times with increasingly frustrating difficulty levels. If you're one of those folks that likes to get all characters maxed out, and see having "1337" gaming skills as a major life accomplishment, you'll have no problem. If you are just a casual gamer, however, you'll start to question if the repeated playthrough and aggravation are worth seeing a varied ending and slightly different end level.

The real headache comes in the form of the final boss on Extreme mode. This boss is harder than anything else you will encounter in the game. I grappled with this same level for 3 hours straight for 3 days before deciding to invest the time in levelling up my character to max. At present, I can't tell you if that will have helped significantly. I still haven't beaten the game.

If you're a casual gamer that likes to swing a sword for an hour or so in the evening and not worry about maxing out a character just to have a sporting chance, this game is probably not for you. If you're willing to have a go at Normal mode and not worry about the endings for Hard and Extreme modes, you'll probably be okay. But if you're the type (like me) that figures you paid for the game, you might as well see what there is to see, stay away. The drive to see the final ending versus the frustration of the final boss is about like hitting yourself in the head with a hammer for fun.

Oh, I should mention there are NO CHEATS out there like health or god mode that can help you tackle the parts where you feel the difficulty factor outweighs the fun factor. I personally hate it when developers don't make such concessions to those of us that don't spend every waking moment playing video games.

I gave the game 3 stars for fun, because it is a fairly decent game at first. But I gave it a 1 overall because the frustration factor far overshadows anything out there. I might also mention the music is pretty grating. I shut it off and used the soundtrack to "King Arthur" and the Lord of the Rings soundtracks to provide ambience. The problem is the cutscenes' volume is controlled by the music volume, so you have to make sure to leave it on at least 1 so you can turn the TV up to hear the cutscenes.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A vast improvement, July 4, 2006

By 

J. Kennedy (KS United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Drakengard 2 (Video Game)

As a pretty big fan of the first "Drakengard," I did my best to approach this sequel with some objectivity. I expected nothing more and nothing less than what its predecessor delivered.

I was pleasantly surprised, however, by the vast improvements Square-Enix et. al., made with this game. If you've played the first installment, then you are definitely familiar with the mind-numbingly repetitive music that seemed composed of only two or three different measures of music. This second game, however, has a much more varied soundtrack, and the music is far more lush and pleasing (as opposed to the harsh synthesizer music of the first).

They tweaked the way you use the additional characters as well. Instead of a limited "summon" of a character with even further limited attacks, they have allowed you to use all other playable characters whenever you want for as long as you want (as long as they are still in your party and you have at least one of their weapons equipped on the weapon wheel). This, to me, was a huge step in the right direction. Manah's magic is stupdendous. Urick's attacks are brutally strong, and Nowe is like the "Mario" of the group with his all-purpose talents, and "decent" skill level in everything. Although the gameplay CAN be repetitive, levelling up your various weapons and various characters may soothe any irritations you have over this repetition. If, however, the redundant repititious repeating (ha ha!) of the battles gets to you, then feel free to blast away at whatever targets there are and breeze through the levels.

Speaking of breezing through the levels, in Drakengard 2, you actually have that option in many of the air levels (which you NEVER had in the first one). Don't want to fight those obnoxious planes or griffins? Just fly straight to the target! Of course, this isn't available in every air mission, but still...!

The story line picks up eighteen years after the first game ended. It's an intriguing continuation on the original story, and my only complaint is that in a few cases, the character's actions were a bit contrived. Manah's reunion with her long-estranged brother Seere? Yeah...Not believable at all. Nowe and Manah's refusal to hear Seere out until after it's too late, and then they are (for seemingly no reason) adamant about finding him and hearing what he has to say? Silly...but necessary for plot development, perhaps? Nevertheless, I've seen many games with far worse flubs in storyline, so I overlooked this.

Basically, "Drakengard 2" is, as my title clearly states, a vast improvement over "Drakengard." More weapons than you can shake a stick at, TONS more super attacks (overdrive) for your dragon (you can EAT PEOPLE!), playable characters you can use for more than, like, thirty seconds (as in the first one) with weapons specific to them, incredible new spells, killer movie scenes, HEALTH AND MAGIC POTIONS YOU CAN BUY AND USE DURING BATTLE, and an interesting-enough story line make for a great game. I recommend this game to almost everyone.

Just FYI, too...try and get your combat chain up to 1,000...it's so cool!

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Dragon Boy Enters The Knights!, February 24, 2006

By 

James DeSantis "Elevate" (Usa, Ny) - See all my reviews

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Drakengard 2 (Video Game)

*The begining is just my reaction and happiness*
Well i never thought i see Drakengard 2 come out but it came out in japan but what really surprised me was the release here. The day i heard it was going to also be a US release i smiled with joy since the first one was so good in my opinion. Well time went by and the release date wasn't given. Then after a few months i checked and it was coming out on tuesday the 17! I mean i just looked and it was sunday night. So i of course call to make sure at my local video game store if there getting it and they gladly say "Yes we will be reciving that on tuesday" Well i was set. The days took forever to finish but once done i drove to the store and grabbed a copy of the game along with Xbox 360. I get home, open it up, look at the nice cover, and put the game into my PS2!

THE GAME -

First i noticed were the voices, at first i couldn't stand the dragon's voice but over time you begin to really enjoy it. Then i knew there would be 12 Chapters which at first i was like "ONLY 12!?" But soon after i found out some chapters have up to 11 Verses in each chapter and some of those verses could take up to a hour. Well when you start you could pick either Easy or Normal mode and i choose Easy to get use to it and good thing i did because later on chapters begin to get hard. If you played the first you know the big thing was the multi endings, well there back. Maybe only three this time but there quite larger and with the beatiful CGI into work you could really enjoy it.

The CGI Cinme's are great but the regular graphics are that hot. I mean you could get passed them but they aren't "Up To Date". Next thing i must point out is there are alot of twist and surprises in this game and i'm sure you will enjoy. The sadness of the first game is back so this game is not for the weak of heart.

The fighting system has improved big time. Each weapon has it's own special and there are four speacials for that one weapon. The ultimate special is always nice looking and does a mass amount of damage while the first hurts many but usally doesn't kill them. The dragon system is better then the first and it's always fun to have a special that could wipe out forty or fifty soldiers at a time.

There are now four playable characters and after you beat the game the first time you will have to play on a harder mode you could use them all. *Spoilers* Come characters you can't use do to the story results*

So in the end this game is a worty game that should not be ignored. I promise any RPG fan out there will get some joy our of this game for it has alot of elements from RPG's and adventure players will have a great time.
Final Score - 4 1/2