The story mode is divided into chapters, each sub-divided into separate levels and cutscenes called Verses. At certain points, the dragon may evolve into a more powerful form that enhances its attacks and allows it to lock on to more enemies. Both Caim and Angelus gain experience and level up as they defeat enemies, which raises their hit points and attack power. In aerial levels, the player flies on the back of the dragon to shoot at enemies in mid-air with fireballs and locked-on energy blasts. The story mode also features shorter narrative-centric "strafe" levels, where Caim must run to the objective without the need to defeat specific enemies. When in wider open spaces, Caim can ride on Angelus's back to travel faster and attack with dragonfire. In ground levels, Caim and his allies run on foot attacking enemies with one of up to eight equipped weapons, each with their own unique magic spell. The gameplay is divided among three types of levels. Gameplayĭrakengard features a story mode and a "Free Expedition" mode that allows replays of completed levels. Taro eventually revealed that Ending E was first conceived as a singing competition against a giant version of pop singer Ayumi Hamasaki, but the plan was immediately rejected. Taro was surprised by the reactions from players and developers alike, which partially drove him to revisit the scene for Nier. It became the game's most famous sequence, due to its bizarre premise and disconnection from the rest of the story. This ending was only revealed to the rest of the team at the end of Drakengard's development while it irritated Shiba, Iwasaki pushed for its inclusion. Because Taro was told the game would not have a sequel, Drakengard is infamous for its five endings, all of which are tragic Taro did not intend them to be truly depressing, but rather to present painful and bizarre experiences for the playable cast.Įnding E was added by Taro and a small group of developers as a practical joke and a homage to The End of Evangelion. The latter in particular shares a core trait with Drakengard: its formulaic premise is a hook for a darker cosmic horror story. The world of Drakengard is heavily influenced by European folklore and the 1995 anime Neon Genesis Evangelion. Taro created the backgrounds of Seere, Leonard and Arioch while Takuya Iwasaki created Caim, Inuart and Verdelet. To achieve this, the world of the game was made dark and desolate and the cast was written as morally gray, with taboo themes such as incest, cannibalism and pedophilia. Yoko Taro wanted Drakengard to stand out against Square Enix's flagship franchises Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest.
Drakengard's development proved so stressful that Taro swore off working on a sequel at the time. Yoko Taro had planned the game for two DVD discs, but time constraints forced the team to reduce its size to one disc and remove a jump feature which could not be debugged within the deadline. Īs Enix went through its merger with Square, the team's advisory board was repeatedly asked to change the game's content, but Saito refused most of the requests. Redesigning Drakengard caused setbacks in development, as the team had trouble running the transitions between melee and flying modes in the ground levels. As a result, the game had to be redesigned to balance ground levels and aerial levels, while adding flying mechanics to the former. Midway through development, the success of Dynasty Warriors 2 inspired Shiba to push for the inclusion of ground battles. He consulted with Enix producer Yosuke Saito, who flew to Los Angeles to pitch the game to Sony at the E3 event when Saito arrived, the Sony staff on-site had gone through so many pitches that, out of exhaustion, they approved Drakengard without reviewing it. Taro worried that the dark tone of Drakengard's story would hamper the game's release. Yoko Taro had joined the project as art director, but his art did not impress the team since Iwasaki was too busy with other projects at the time, Taro was assigned to direct the game and write its script alongside Sawako Natori. īefore Drakengard, Iwasaki and Shiba had no experience with creative writing. The development team assigned to Drakengard was named Project Dragonsphere. With Enix's support, Iwasaki quit Namco after completing Electrosphere and founded Cavia with Shiba. In 1999, during a night out at the bar, Enix producer Takamasa Shiba and Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere director Takuya Iwasaki brainstormed an aerial combat game with dragons.
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