It would seem that most reviews of this game start by comparing it to both Dynasty Warriors, and Panzer Dragoon; and they're right to do so, it is similar to both, but the problem is that it isn't as good as either one of them.

Coming from Square-Enix you would expect an RPG - but what we have is an incredibly repetitive action game, with very minor RPG elements.

The game is split into several different chapters, each of which is split into different verses. Each verse has its own style of play ranging from; Ground Mission, Aerial Mission, or Event.

In ground missions, you play as Caim, brother to the goddess Furiae, and as you would expect, these missions involve you running around, basically killing everything in sight. The first thing you notice when you play this game is how short a distance you can see. It feels like Caim has some severe eye problems, and can only see 10ft in front of him. Something quite bizarre about the draw distance is also the way that it draws objects in; I often saw that the cavalry would draw in, and then as you got closer, troops would appear right in front of them. I also found myself having to check the map far too often to see if I'm still headed the right way to kill the next group of enemies, as you have to be so close to see them.

   

Another problem is the enemies themselves. There are hundreds of them in most of the levels, which sounds good (the first level has 1500 alone) but there is a severe lack of variation. Of those 1500 there were only around five different types of soldiers there, and they all look the same, all animate the same, and all die the same way. And, while there are 1500 enemies, it really doesn't feel like it, as they are all in little groups of four to eight, and the bodies fade away almost instantly when you kill them.

Then there's the clipping issues. When there is any "scenery" in the game, such as rocks or trees, you will find that there is a huge invisible barrier around them as you try to go past, but that's not the main issue here. There were several times, especially in the later levels, where I was constantly being attacked and could see that I was not actually being hit by a weapon, but would take damage from it, yet there were times where my sword would pass through an enemy and not harm them.

The camera in this type of game is rarely all that good, and in Drakengard we have no exception. You can move it to look left and right via the right analogue stick, but when you let go it snaps back to where it was. You don't have any real control over it, and you have to stop for a second to let it centre behind you whenever you change direction; this is something else that makes you rely on the map far too often when attacking.

   

There may also be hundreds of enemies in each level, but you only have to kill 10-20 of them to actually complete it - and they are conveniently highlighted on your map. The only real reason to kill these other troops is that you can unlock a new weapon if you kill everything in the level within the time limit. As you will have probably gathered by now - the map is quite important to the game, due to camera and other problems, but Drakengard is still fairly playable once you get used to it. But Square-Enix, in their infinite wisdom, obviously decided that being able to use the map was too useful to us, and added a lot of inane chatter during battles, with subtitles that cover up the map!

Everything seems to move along quite slowly, and the controls feel sluggish; but that's not much of a problem as the game only consists of mashing the square button (attack), and the occasional tap of triangle (magic). I suspect that this has been caused by another fantastic PAL conversion from Square-Enix.

Once you make a pact with the dragon early on in the game, you are able to hop on it at any time in the outdoor ground missions, which makes things a bit more fun - until you realise that a big mighty dragon can get taken down by two tiny little crossbow arrows, forcing you to stay on the ground in most of the later missions, only using the dragon as a faster means of getting from A to B.

There are also aerial missions, which are quite similar to Panzer Dragoon, only free-roaming. They're certainly more enjoyable than the ground-based ones, but that still doesn't make them fun. Another bizarre thing is that on the ground, there doesn't seem to be any enemy technological weaponry whatsoever. Other than swords there are only crossbows - yet in the air battles there are several things which can shoot lasers at you…

   

As well as the ground and aerial missions, there are "event" missions, which don't have much of a point, other than to pad the storyline. They play from an overhead camera, and for whatever reason, you are restricted to using Caim's original sword. These levels seem to be filled with far weaker enemies than any of the others at that point in the game, and most of them are under a minute in length.

It's not all bad though - the RPG elements, while very minimal make it a bit more fun to play. You gain experience for killing enemies, and if you can get high combos, you will earn big bonuses. Not only can you level up Caim, which gives him more health, you can also level up the dragon which gives her more health, a bigger magic meter, and stronger attacks. The dragon's appearance also changes when she levels up which is quite nice. You are also able to level up each weapon in the game three times, which makes them stronger, gives you a bigger magic bar, and changes the magic effect slightly.

However, as with all elements in the game, these additions create problems. Clearing the first level alone will level up your sword to its maximum level, making it far too powerful to start with, and strong enough to just use it throughout the whole game. As you level up Caim you will also end up with far too much health, far too early into the game. The dragon seemed to be the only one that levelled up at a decent rate, but even at level one she is too strong. To add to the levelling problem, once you complete a verse, you are able to go back to it at any time to complete it again and gain even more experience. As you progress, the enemy designs do change a bit - you come across the exact same soldiers, but with red armour! This (magically) protects them from magic, and sends a green fireball in your direction if you attempt to use any on them. In the later stages, you will also manage to get 20-30 enemies onscreen at once, even with the incredibly short draw distance, and it all runs at a fairly constant 60 fps. However, once you get even further into the game you will start to see more "fantasy" themed creatures, which really shows off how few polygons the enemies are actually created with - you just don't notice it on the regular soldiers as you expect the armour to be quite angular.

   

Graphically Drakengard isn't up to much. As I have mentioned, the enemies not very varied, and don't look that good, but the texturing is poor, and makes everything look very dull. When you get further into the game they try and add a bit of colour, but it still looks rather washed-out.

Sound effects are average, the voice acting is actually quite good at times, and the music is good… at first anyway. The problem is that, although the music is good, the tracks are very short; it sounds like it's playing the same thing over and over every 15 seconds or so.

So overall, Drakengard is not up to the quality I would have expected from Square-Enix, (and I don't expect too much from them these days) so I would say you're best to stay away from it, and unless you're a huge fan of the genre - you can decide which one it is trying to fit into.