Drakengard rules and it is art
Recently I've found myself thinking about Drakengard more and more. It was a game that I swore off for many years, mostly because everyone I personally knew who had played it said that it was a miserable, awful time that would make you feel depressed and insane. They were very much so right, that game is a true test of your resolve and your constitution and it is actively trying its very best to make you feel miserable and upset.
I also think its one of the most important games ever made. It is truly art, it doesn't want you to enjoy yourself or feel good, it wants you frustrated and irritable and at your worst and that's what art is to me. Its something that makes you feel something, that feeling can be horrible and actively detrimental and it can still be worthwhile as an experience. I often find myself saying to people "I love that game so much and think its great and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy" and I think that's really special. When I was making my most recent epic video game grid I struggled to put a game down for my favourite soundtrack, I ended up settling on putting down like 7 games instead of narrowing it down to one. Recently I went back to that grid and put down Drakengard because I realized that the music of that game hadn't left my mind ever since I began my journey with it. Its grating and repetitive and it hurts to listen to, it makes you first feel annoyed and then slowly turns you insane as the game continues. To put it in the words of a video game reviewer, it really makes you Feel Like Caim, which I think is very neat. I also think that the "dated" gameplay and insanely tedious level design works in the games favour. There is no fun to be found anywhere in this game, the entire way through is a repetitive slog that slowly turns you bitter and angry. You reach a point where you've attacked the same enemy type 100 times in one map and the droning soundtrack starts to give you a headache and then the level ends and the cutscene shows your party somehow still failing as the world is further flung into chaos and you wonder if its even worth finishing. You may think you've found a way to speed things up or a cheeky exploit to make the game easier and every time you think that the game will take it away unceremoniously and laugh at you. There is no way to cheat yourself out of the experience of trudging through the cold, cruel and unfeeling world that Drakengard provides. I think my tl:dr for this post is that games are art and more people should play games that challenge them in the same way that Drakengard challenges you. I wish we had more games like Drakengard, it was unbelievable levels of ahead of its time and it achieves the goal it sets out to achieve perfectly. I love video games a lot and ill never stop being really annoying about them, love all the wheezechads, pce. If you got this far I think you should go and watch this video or at the very least listen to the song "growing wings" from its soundtrack.
