2003 - Drakengard
To now, I've been trying to write these in chronological order, but I started thinking about this game and decided to write about it.
We're gonna go on a little trip down memory lane, so take my hand and let's go. When I was in high school, my friend had to interview workers for a class--don't ask me for more details than this--so, we went to the mall and he conducted his interviews. One store we stepped into was Suncoast. Suncoast, if you don't know, used to be part of a chain of stores that sold CDs, games, music, merch, etc. More specifically, Suncoast was focused on movies and box sets of TV shows. And in the early 00s, this meant it was a one of your few legal outlets to get into anime. So, of course, being a nerd, I wanted to work there. A few years later, when I was 16 and had access to a car, I was able to do so.
While I worked there, I remember seeing a box for a video game with a picture of a guy holding a sword with a dragon breathing fire behind him. And it was a Square Enix game! That game was Drakengard. I remember staring at it for a while before finally picking it up, seeing it near every time I was in the store. Eventually I did and then it sat there for a while until I found time to play it.
And I loved it. If you've played it post Nier/Automata, then you probably didn't. It's a messy, slow, sometimes painful game to play. But the gameplay is best described as a hybrid of Dynasty Warriors and Ace Combat. On the ground, it's the former--it's you, the protagonist, vs. an untold horde of enemies. Early on, those are almost all humans and later they become monsters and things. Then, when you make a pact with a dragon, there are aerial levels where you fly around on your dragon and shoot enemies out of the sky. But , on the ground, those early enemies being humans is something that the game doesn't shy away from. Every enemy you kill leaves a big blood stain on the ground where they died. And in the opening cutscene, it's clear that your character is relishing in this violence; he loves it and killing all those enemies in the game is perfectly in line with his character and goals.
If you aren't familiar, Drakengard follows Caim, a prince of a fantasy kingdom whose parents were killed by the evil empire. His sister, Furiae, is the "Goddess of the Seal." Basically, she is the magical seal preventing the apocalypse from happening. I'm sure you can guess what the bulk of the game is about, then. Back to that first cutscene: as Caim fights the Empire's soldiers, he is mortally wounded, but manages to make his way to the castle courtyard, where he meets the dragon. Caim, of course, hates dragons because an imperial dragon killed his parents and the dragon hates humans because, well, she just hates them, probably. Still, they make a pact, healing them both and robbing Caim of his voice. From here, the game alternates between the two game modes described above.
What's interesting about this game is that when it was in development, the directors and producers decided early on that they wanted it to be distinct from SE's flagship series, Final Fantasy. Hence, the world itself is just a dark, nasty, shitty place. This is almost palpable throughout the game: every level is kind of dingy and dreary, even the forests are muted and sort of washed out. Further, we learn that the gods that created this world kind of resent it and part of the whole world-ending plot is the gods of the world wanting to erase it and try again. Even the characters in this game are shitty, as people. Every one of them.
The development of Caim was meant as a real examination of the action video game hero. Consider the amount of violence the average action game protagonist goes through in order to achieve their goals. Many games paper over this one way or another because if we thought of it in a real sense, it's kind of horrifying. But again, Caim enjoys it; he practically craves it. Despite the countless dead he leaves in his wake, he believes himself right. As a result, Yoko Taro felt he didn't deserve a happy ending. And he doesn't get one. In all of the five different endings for the game, not one of them is "happy" for pretty much anyone. The most optimistic, the one that leads to the direct sequel, has the dragon sealed away as the new Goddess, leaving Caim still speechless and now, completely alone. Indeed, the plot of that game is ultimately precipitated by Caim's desire to be reunited with the dragon, something he achieves the only way that he knows how: unspeakable violence. And all of this ignores the nature of his relationship with his sister and the kinds of people he ends up aligned with throughout the game.
There's a lot more to be said about this game and why it will probably NEVER see any kind of rerelease or remaster and that's okay. But, I think that for all its flaws, it's a game that deserves a bit of consideration. Post-Nier and especially Post-Automata, Taro was hailed as a kind of genius and those two games--deservedly--got a ton of good press. But, it's kind of fun to think of these two facts: 1) there are five endings to the game because they fully did not expect to get a single sequel, so they wanted to put it all out there and 2) the ending which leads to Nier and Automata was something of a joke ending, one which is frustratingly difficult to get and rewards you with an incomprehensible boss fight. Consider that the entire game is inside of a medieval fantasy world: swords, magic, dragons, the whole nine. And then you escape into a portal that leads you into modern day Tokyo, right above the Square Enix building, actually! And instead of flying around killing fighter jets or anything, you play a fucking rhythm game. And then some 7 years later a sequel to THAT ending comes out.