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Drakengard 3 |OT| This Silence Is Mine

cj_iwakura

Member
I disagree.

some people freak out over any context when it comes to spoilers. if you highlight it, you can decide the context within the first two words and decide if you want to continue or not. otherwise I'll continue to err on the side of caution.

For all we know your first four words are '[x] is dead now'.
 

HawthorneKitty

Sgt. 2nd Class in the Creep Battalion, Waifu Wars
I disagree and its happening on this page lol.

some people freak out over any context when it comes to spoilers. if you highlight it, you can decide the context within the first two words and decide if you want to continue or not. otherwise I'll continue to err on the side of caution.
I like how you neglect to comment on the last sentence.
 

d0c_zaius

Member
For all we know your first four words are '[x] is dead now'.

yea that's why you don't read spoiler text if you are concerned

I like how you neglect to comment on the last sentence.

huh? helps to quote what you are referencing

ok then, I'll give it another try.

ENDGAME SPOILER HELP :
Last boss timing video. Sync it with gameplay if you are having problem with timing and good luck! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgSR__0qs_c#t=11

quick review:

good:
-voice acting (great performances and character diversity)
-characters ("mature" approach to dialogue and subjects)
-combat flow/pace (dodging feels nice, character looks cool zipping around covered in blood)
-weapons (all feel useful, unique and effective and most look cool)
-music (close to Nier quality, feels unique for a game released today)

bad:
-frame rate (at least 3 times was borderline playable...like should have failed submission bad)
-screen tearing during cutscenes and odd moments
-environments have little depth or movement (corridors connect to rooms, doors lock, rinse and repeat)
-particles kill performance, with some areas that will make you scratch you head as to why the devs went too FX heavy at the cost of smooth gameplay
 

Reknoc

Member
had the game since friday rage spoilers:

last boss is totally unplayable for me. after collecting every goddamn weapon, doing some levels WAY early for my level and still overcoming, going through areas with the worst framerate I've seen (worse than blightdown) down to 0 visibility...just to get hit with this nonsense troll boss with intentionally horrible design.what a buzzkill. It's exactly the one thing I WOULD NOT WANT in my action game. I'd love to see peoples faces as they get one shot with no explanation as to whats going on, just to sit though a loading screen and then the minute long boss intro, just to have it happen again, and again. and when you finally get what you are supposed to do, good luck not messing up once while the game purposely throws shitty camera angles at you to mess with depth/timing judgement. and say you do get used to it, well I hope you don't mistime anything ONCE during the 7+ minutes cause thats back to a loading screen then boss into then possibility of getting one shot again.

I doubt most people will even get that far though, once they figure out they have to get every single weapon in the game to get access to the final branch, which has more gameplay and meaningful encounters than a quarter of the game. Unfortunately that requires you to do pretty much 95% of the in game content to get a remote idea of whats going on since the main story has little to no explanations.


yea I'm mad.

I found the game compelling enough to play it almost non stop since friday, and unfortunately that experience has since been soured somewhat.

edit: not really sure why I need to label a spoiler. it says what it is in the first two words

sounds like Drakengard alright
 

Parakeetman

No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
I haven't seen game length mentioned in any of the reviews I read. How long is it?

Game is pretty damned long if you do everything. But its a lot of rinse and repeat the same stuff so quite mind numbing. Not to mention its not like the stage designs are actually good.
 
Game is pretty damned long if you do everything. But its a lot of rinse and repeat the same stuff so quite mind numbing. Not to mention its not like the stage designs are actually good.

What range are we talking about? 20 hours? 30 hours? I have no perspective here.

Honestly, the game being long and repetitive is a turnoff given the impressions I've heard of the combat. I was at least hoping for something well-paced.
 

Parakeetman

No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
What range are we talking about? 20 hours? 30 hours? I have no perspective here.

Honestly, the game being long and repetitive is a turnoff given the impressions I've heard of the combat. I was at least hoping for something well-paced.

Yes it is and basically if you dont want to grind its using the same general move over and over for ハメ技祭り (stun lock) basically which generally means using the lance, not the heavy type. Other weapons bring you in too close causing you to get hit at the same time which is pretty bad when there is a difference in levels between you and the enemy.

Im not sure what the playtime is as my US PS3 with the data on it is packed up so I cant switch it on and tell you what my playtime was.
 

Holykael1

Banned
Honestly the gameplay doesn't look too bad and the music is great judging from that video.
The graphics are not that great but to be honest I don't care, Nier had terrible graphics and I enjoyed it a whole bunch.

Im definitely buying this.
 

Christhor

Member
Aw yeah, just got my European CE. It was actually delivered to my door, strangely enough. Guess I can't complain about the service, lol.
 

Parakeetman

No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
What range are we talking about? 20 hours? 30 hours? I have no perspective here.

Honestly, the game being long and repetitive is a turnoff given the impressions I've heard of the combat. I was at least hoping for something well-paced.

Just poked around the JP side for you seems like folks are saying 15-30. 30+ is like for folks going for a plat with the game.
 

raven777

Member
So I assume they didn't fix the frame drop from JP version? Or they improved it so it's not as bad as Jp version but still have drops?
 

kn1ves24

Member
I guess I'll throw in my impressions so far. I've only completed one chapter.

The Good:

The characters and dialog are great. Its got this weird serious but comedic tone going on and I really like it. I've been playing with the english dub and I think its been pretty solid so far. There are some groan worthy lines but overall solid. I can't speak about the overall story but individual characters are interesting. I'm also liking the music. No where near as good as Neir but some of the tracks are pretty solid.

The Bad:

Combat is half-baked and average at best. There's an overall janky-ness to everything. Nothing seems to flow properly. The combat is some sort of mix between Neir and Dynasty Warriors but not as good as either of those. I've played worse but so far it hasn't been too promising. It may improve when more weapons unlock. The graphics are nothing to write home about either. The Sisters look good but everything else is just kinda bland. Neir was no graphical power house but at least it had a certain style to it.

The Ugly:

The frame-rate is terrible. Ground combat isn't bad but you can still notice drops. During dragon combat you're looking at single digit numbers, or at least it feels that way. I'm pretty tolerant of frame drops but I know some here that's a deal breaker. The load times are also rather long.

And in spite of all these problems, I still really like the game. Its a B grade game but its got a certain charm to it that I like. Its a shame too cause if you ask me most of the major issues (framerate, load times) could have been addressed.
 
So I assume they didn't fix the frame drop from JP version? Or they improved it so it's not as bad as Jp version but still have drops?

I didn't want to go into spoilers as I mentioned, so I focused on everything else I could talk about in the game, specifically the performance. It's weird, because the game is usually rock solid but then suddenly it'll drop when one of the dragons shoots a bit of fire, or a big boss explodes in a bloody mess, etc. I noticed it in cutscene dialogue too.

Nice, added to the OP !

Thank you!! This means the world to me/the guys :)

Nice review. I didn't even know this game had much of a comedic side.
It'll be interesting to see how it turns out.

It's REALLY crazy, and really silly at times. Most of my favorite parts are with Mikhail, and the exchanges between him and Zero. She's just so mean to him, and yet there always seems to be a joke around the corner.

Thanks I really appreciate the spoiler free review and I will check your site for more niche games :)

Thank you!!! We're all about those games :) I know this kind of game has a very special story, and believe me it does. It's worth playing for the story alone IMO, although the performance issues hold it back from being a must-buy.
 

Zafir

Member
Aw yeah, just got my European CE. It was actually delivered to my door, strangely enough. Guess I can't complain about the service, lol.
Did your order status say dispatched on the site, if you don't mind my asking?

Just worried because mine still says order sent to warehouse.
 

zeopower6

Member
Watched a few gameplay videos to prepare for the game... OMG. The dialogue and characters are pretty amazing imo, lol. ('Kill that tacky SOB')Very well done. The framerate and camera angles though... yikes. Especially during boss battles/dragon stages.
 
Quick question!

I believe I'm closing in on the end of Nier (three of the five fragments). From a story perspective, is it worth at least getting the first ending there before starting Drakengard 3?
 

mid83

Member
Quick question!

I believe I'm closing in on the end of Nier (three of the five fragments). From a story perspective, is it worth at least getting the first ending there before starting Drakengard 3?

I was just about to ask if I needed to play the first two games and Nier before trying this one out.
 

jorgeton

Member
Reviews are around what I expected. Janky combat/graphics but crazy story and good music? Sounds like Drakengard. I'm pleased that the game went with a little innuendo and M-rated humor from the sounds of it. Nier had some pretty funny bits so it's good this continues in that vein.

I did the PSN early unlock but fell asleep by the time midnight rolled around, so I will be diving in this evening.
 

koutoru

Member
Quick question!

I believe I'm closing in on the end of Nier (three of the five fragments). From a story perspective, is it worth at least getting the first ending there before starting Drakengard 3?
You mean ending A?
If that's the case then
no, only ending E of Drakengard 1 connects to Nier and Drakengard 3 is a prequel.

Chronologically, I believe the timeline of Nier and Drakengard would go something like this:
D3 -> D1 -> Nier/D2.

However, If you look at it from a game design and music perspective, playing Nier is still a valuable experience before playing Drakengard 3.
 

Yasumi

Banned
Quick question!

I believe I'm closing in on the end of Nier (three of the five fragments). From a story perspective, is it worth at least getting the first ending there before starting Drakengard 3?
Get to at least ending B. That entire playthrough where the real magic of Nier lies. You only have to go through the second half of the game, so it just takes a few hours. You can YouTube endings C and D.
 

fvng

Member
Does every game need to extract every drop of juice from the GPU? Really we are taking away points for that now? I honestly would not knock any game's visual fidelity as long as the art direction was great and there was no ACTUAL visual problems like shitty collision detection, terrible physics, shitty visual bugs, etc.
 
Your first impression is correct.
Game is like a 6, +1 if you are a fan of the series.
Story/characters are decent. The tone is just weird, it is like a parody of itself.
Gameplay is Dynasty Warrior-lite and pretty bad due to frame drops, and the drops are like in the 10-15 range. Can't really give you a hard number tbh, but boy, you will know when you are playing the game.
I am only on Ch 5 so far, but yeah, I wouldn't recommend buying it at full price right now.

Thanks for the impressions. Now I know this one probably isn't for me. I really don't like Dynasy Warriors combat much, and to hear that it's half-assed makes me want to stay away even more. Framerate sounds bad. Might get it on sale some day but certainly not for full price.

But still I am really glad this actually came out in the US. Was totally not expecting that at all.
 
Does every game need to extract every drop of juice from the GPU? Really we are taking away points for that now? I honestly would not knock any game's visual fidelity as long as the art direction was great and there was no ACTUAL visual problems like shitty collision detection, terrible physics, shitty visual bugs, etc.

If you aren't going to go for amazing visuals, at the very least the game should perform well (framerates, loading, etc.) and all reports suggest the game kind of fails on both fronts. While personally I can forgive a lot of that if I enjoy other aspects of a game (as I believe I will with this game), its not at all an unfair complaint
 

Christhor

Member
Did your order status say dispatched on the site, if you don't mind my asking?

Just worried because mine still says order sent to warehouse.

Mine said "fully dispatched" I'm sad to say. I live in Norway though, so maybe they are shipping to the further away countries first.
 
Drakengard 1's true final secret ending is one of the best endings in this series or any video games ever.

I'm judging this based on the emotions it stirred up between myself and roommates who played it as well.
 

Reknoc

Member
Did your order status say dispatched on the site, if you don't mind my asking?

Just worried because mine still says order sent to warehouse.

yea same, guess they're sending UK orders out last. Pushing it for release day delivery though. =/
 

N0N1337H41

Neo Member
I'm so excited to play this, even though it seems to be flawed. I preordered the digital version through SE/Digital River. Has anyone gotten their game serial yet? I'm ready to start this download!
 

Groof

Junior Member
yea same, guess they're sending UK orders out last. Pushing it for release day delivery though. =/

That is a bit pushing it, but mine was sent out on Friday and arrived Monday at around lunch time here in Sweden. So their shipping seems to be quite quick.
 

Perfo

Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest
I just got the game in my mailbox, YAY! Too bad in Europe is still not officially out, I can't probably start downloading it. Funny how S-E Europe took efforts to make this collector's edition while ignoring all the whining about having a LR: FFXIII's one -_-'
 

Zafir

Member
yea same, guess they're sending UK orders out last. Pushing it for release day delivery though. =/

Mine said "fully dispatched" I'm sad to say. I live in Norway though, so maybe they are shipping to the further away countries first.
Ah right. Guess they must be. I know they are based in the UK. Annoying either way. They should have just shipped them out together. It's not as if we can download the game before they put it up.
 

Reknoc

Member
That is a bit pushing it, but mine was sent out on Friday and arrived Monday at around lunch time here in Sweden. So their shipping seems to be quite quick.

I imagine they just use Royal Mail which probably alright when it's only half the journey :(
 

Ibuki

Banned
I have a chance to get the LE for 100 USD plus shipping and fees. Am I crazy to go for it since I missed out initially? Or should I just get the standard copy I have reserved? I'm so confused.
 
Does every game need to extract every drop of juice from the GPU? Really we are taking away points for that now? I honestly would not knock any game's visual fidelity as long as the art direction was great and there was no ACTUAL visual problems like shitty collision detection, terrible physics, shitty visual bugs, etc.

I'm of the same mindset, and I was expecting this game to have visual issues, but I didn't expect the framerate issues to be so noticeable. It wasn't as consistent as say New Little King's Story on Vita, but it was frequent enough for me to not consider it like a "GREAT game", but it's definitely worth playing.

I mentioned in my review how Zero's feet are basically always floating an inch above the ground, regardless of the environment. I also noticed some other weird things, like roots of trees that I could walk through, enemies that I flung away from a combo getting stuck in non-accessible parts of the field, and so on.

Thankfully the game considered them dead, so I could move onto the next area but if I had to restart due to them getting stuck, I would've lost my shit.
 

Parakeetman

No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
I'm of the same mindset, and I was expecting this game to have visual issues, but I didn't expect the framerate issues to be so noticeable. It wasn't as consistent as say New Little King's Story on Vita, but it was frequent enough for me to not consider it like a "GREAT game", but it's definitely worth playing.

I mentioned in my review how Zero's feet are basically always floating an inch above the ground, regardless of the environment. I also noticed some other weird things, like roots of trees that I could walk through, enemies that I flung away from a combo getting stuck in non-accessible parts of the field, and so on.

Thankfully the game considered them dead, so I could move onto the next area but if I had to restart due to them getting stuck, I would've lost my shit.

So had fun with the
day / night desert?
lol
 

cj_iwakura

Member
I'm of the same mindset, and I was expecting this game to have visual issues, but I didn't expect the framerate issues to be so noticeable. It wasn't as consistent as say New Little King's Story on Vita, but it was frequent enough for me to not consider it like a "GREAT game", but it's definitely worth playing.

I mentioned in my review how Zero's feet are basically always floating an inch above the ground, regardless of the environment. I also noticed some other weird things, like roots of trees that I could walk through, enemies that I flung away from a combo getting stuck in non-accessible parts of the field, and so on.

Thankfully the game considered them dead, so I could move onto the next area but if I had to restart due to them getting stuck, I would've lost my shit.

Well, this was by the Deadly Premonition guys. I'd be more surprised if it didn't have framerate issues.
 

chifanpoe

Member
If you ordered in January you won't be getting any of the DLC. Only orders placed in February (when the preorder bonuses were announced) were eligible to get them. If you ordered BEFORE February you had to cancel and then reorder.

Might wanna double check when you placed that order.

I contacted S-E support who pointed me in the direction of Digital River support as they handle all of the DLC e-mails. After talking to DR and sent them an e-mail with a screen shot of the promotion (wave 1-3) I was e-mailed out the codes... I ordered on Dec 19th. Your mileage may very.

To save anyone else the time here is the contact info: S-E 310-846-0345, DR 866-585-3251, DR E-mail squareenix.us.cs@digitalriver.com
 
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