Drakengard 2 is probably the most fun action game I have ever played. While I have enjoyed the Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors games, this game makes them seem rather… crappy. Most of this stems from the fact that the Dynasty and Samurai Warriors games are based around completing missions, which usually center around killing specific people. This leads to beating missions in mere minutes while only killing 20-30 enemies, if that. The Drakengard series realized how stupid that is, and changed it into more of an all-out killfest, which is what action games are supposed to be.
While the first Drakengard is probably a better game in terms of allowing you to kill thousands of enemies at a time, Drakengard 2 manages to put itself above its prequel in other ways. The improvement of the party system is definitely one of the best improvements. In Drakengard 1, you can summon a party member for a limited time who has access to a single weapon and a single magic ability. In Drakengard 2, each type of weapon can be wielded by only one character, so this enables you to switch characters and play as any of them so long as you keep a weapon of their type equipped. Another major improvement is that higher attack combos now increase the speed of your character, so you get faster and faster in your attacks as you kill more and more enemies. If you can’t understand why this is an awesome feature… oh well.
This game also makes great use of a new game plus feature. When you complete the game, not only do you unlock things like extra outfits and hidden weapons for your characters, but you get to replay the game and discover a new ending. You can even replay the game for a third time and unlock yet another ending and more outfits. Now, outfits don’t change the actual gameplay at all, but I for one say that any game could be improved by giving you the ability to look cooler as you progress through it.
The weapons are awesome. Threre’s 70-something in the game, I believe, and even though they don’t change appearance when they level up as they do in the first game, it is still just as fun to run around killing enemies and improving your variety of weapons.
I should mention the dragon. The dragon-flying levels have been very much improved from the first game, and are now much less irritating to deal with. In fact, they are even fun now. I wasn’t sure that was entirely possible.
On a final note, the cutscenes: There are some very awesome cinematics. That is all.
On a finaler note: The voice acting rocks.
On a finalest note: This game is better than the first, overall. If you want to buy one, or want to buy an action game in general, do this one. Unless you want multiplayer.
