Topic: Drakengard 3 (Drag-on Dragoon 3) Action RPG NA + EU localization in English

[affinity]

It's coming to PS3 in english!!!!

Six Sisters
Drakengard 3 - Bande-annonce

PV1
ドラッグ オン ドラグーン3: 1st PV

LOS ANGELES (Oct. 9, 2013) – Square Enix, Inc., the publisher of SQUARE ENIX® interactive entertainment products in the Americas, today announced that its action (RPG) Drakengard®3 will be coming to the Americas exclusively for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system.

A prequel to the original Drakengard, Drakengard 3 transports players to a medieval world where six goddess-like sisters known as “Intoners” have brought peace to the earth with their power to manipulate magic through song. Harmony is disrupted, however, when the eldest sister, Zero, attempts to murder her younger sisters with the help of her dragon companion, Mikhail. As the story progresses, players find themselves in a battle to unravel the mystery of Zero and learn her true intentions.

Featuring the series’ signature brand of action, Drakengard 3 pits players against hordes of fiends and foes in remorseless hack-and-slash ground combat, and then sends them soaring for pitched aerial battles on the back of Mikhail.

Drakengard 3 will be available for $49.99 next year on the PlayStation®3 system and for digital download on the PlayStation®Network and the Square Enix Online Store. Starting today, players can pre-order the game at the Square Enix Online Store.

fansites

http://drag-on-dragoon3.com

http://facebook.com/DragOnDragoon3

English
http://www.drakengardgame.com/

news
http://rpgamer.com/news/Q4-2013/100913b.html

Looking awesome!!   I read somewhere that Zero can switch weapons during combos.   Oh here it is
http://www.siliconera.com/2013/07/22/drakengard-3-lets-you-perform-weapon-switching-combos-in-battle/

Also Dual Audio language options confirmed:

I saw your comment on our blog post, and I’ll get back to you on there too. I know it’s not what you want to hear, but Drakengard 3 will only support English and Japanese languages, with English and French subtitles also available.

http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2013/10/09/drakengard-3-is-coming-to-ps3-in-2014/

Only?  lol.  Having both English and Japanese VA language options is a luxury.   

[Munchy]

I never played these but my brother seemed to get a kick out of the first one. Kinda astonishing it got a sequel after all these years.

[VladCT]

I never played these but my brother seemed to get a kick out of the first one.

Gameplay-wise it was a slog, but the hilariously grimderp story made up for it IMO. The second one, while slightly better gameplay-wise, lost much of the first one's grimderp charm.
In any case, you should go and read The Dark Id's LP/sporking of the games, they're absolutely hilarious.

[affinity]

Gameplay will surpass is predecessors!!   

"Speaking of Access, how did they become involved to develop Drakengard 3," I asked. Shiba had a surprisingly candid reply.

"They’re just really good at creating action games," Shiba said of Access Games. "And… this might seem odd coming from the creator himself, but Drakengard was known for the story, but the action wasn’t very good. It was not as strong. So we really wanted to have a studio that’s known for action, for it to be their strength. Why is why we asked them to join the team."

"Cavia wasn’t very experienced… they never really created action-based games before. Whereas specific studios specialize in creating action games… it’s a difficult skill to have. You really have to be experienced in it,"

Drakengard 3 will be the first in the series with higher quality combat!!

http://www.siliconera.com/2013/10/09/drakengard-3-producer-long-taro-yoko-square-enix-can-make-drakengard/

new awesome screens

http://www.gamekyo.com/newsfr54915_drakengard-3-nouvelles-images.html

for mature gamers
http://www.polygon.com/2013/10/9/4821742/drakengard-3-was-developed-with-mature-jrpg-players-in-mind-says

Previous Drakengard games have also been criticized for their mature themes — the original game included an incest plot and a character who liked to eat children. Drakengard 3 is rated M, and previous games have had some of this less kid-friendly content removed for their North American releases. Shiba said he realizes this might be an issue this time around as well, but the game is targeted at mature gamers who are familiar with Japanese role-playing games — criticisms outside of this target audience are just that, outside criticism.

"We may keep the game as-is, with the exception of the dialogue — we may make some tweaks [for the North American version]. Our core users — mature JRPG players — want something authentic, they don't want any changes. As long as we don't upset our PR and Marketing teams or our European audience, we want to keep it authentic.

It has been a problem in Japan before, too; it's been criticized every time. We're intentional with our content. This is a unique franchise that has a dedicated audience because of what it is. We wanted to keep it close to what it's supposed to be.

We're aware that North America also tends to be sensitive, but again: we have to keep it authentic. That's what fans want."

Shiba added that if Drakengard 3 is successful, it could open doors for other JRPGs series in Square Enix's back catalogue. One in particular stood out in my mind: the underrated Valkyrie Profile series. Shiba, who worked on the games, said that even though the core market of JRPG players may be shrinking, it's not impossible to think we could see another Valkyrie Profile if the audience remains loyal to the genre — and vocal.

"The size of the market is shrinking but the cost of development is growing; it's hard to create a game just for JRPG audiences," he said. "But if Drakengard 3 is successful, the possibilities may open. Personally speaking, I would love to explore that."

[shelverton.]

I hear these games are like Dynasty Warriors. Is that true? I loved Nier but I've been hesitant towards Drakengard cause Dynasty Warriors is quite possibly the most awful kind of gameplay I can think of.

[affinity]

Just because it can be "related" to Dynasty Warriors, doesn't make it Dynasty warriors gameplay.

That's like saying Sonic Adventure and Mario 64 are the same thing just because they are both 3D platformers.  or DOA compared to Tekken.   You might as well call Kingdom Hearts a Dynasty Warriors clone since it involves mashing and juggling enemies in 3D enviornments.

It's simply 3D hack n slash action.  Dynasty Warriors didn't trademark that style, DW only made it mainstream because it's practically the ONLY beat em up series with numerous sequels across 3+ platforms, not counting the wannabes like Ninety Nine Knights and Sengoku Basara.

Drakengard 3 is made by totally different developers with differences in hack n slash gameplay mechanics in mind.  And DW series has
no dragon mounts that fight in the sky and ground, that's for sure.

Some of the properties can be related, but the way the gameplay is delivered is very different.   

I read that the a.i. in this series is actually better than anything DW has and there is a more noticable flavor of difficulty. 
Plus since the gameplay centers on Zero, she will expand a more flexible moveset than your average DW character.

[St.Tweeter]

The first two games were utter garbage...in terms of gameplay. Nice music, but delightfully smegged up story. All of the characters are sexy ladies in this and while I skipped Nier, I have heard they learned how to make a much more compelling gameplay component. I'm looking forward to this and all of its (hopefully) disturbing story elements. =3

[affinity]

Here is new media released.     Releases December 19 

http://ex.famitsu.com/dod3/

Some demo previews out there note:

* Fast paced battles
* Changing weapons are easy and don’t upset the flow of battle
* Missions last around 20-30 minutes
* Difficulty level is well balanced – Even if you die or find it difficult to complete a stage, it’s easy to level up in extra missions or save strong Utautai (Intoner) attacks for difficult enemies.
* Fans of the original series or Nier will be quite pleased with the improvements this makes to gameplay.
* there's an option to turn off the blood splatter effect that usually fills the screen in combat.
* You can freely switch between ground and air battles with Mikhail; air battles feel more like a shooting game.
* The freedom of the battleground with the high-speed nature of battles keeps the game interesting and fun!

http://dengekionline.com/elem/000/000/756/756761/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wu_1NFGw8uQ

http://www.square-enix.co.jp/music/sem/page/dod3/

some interviews
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=722209


live broadcasts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERJOb_mjTww

http://drakengard-3.com/images/links/dod3-ad-small.jpg

[St.Tweeter]

I hope they mean it when they "balanced" difficulty. A lot of games are either too mindnumblingly easy, or too busy trying to ape Souls and doing it wrong these day. That comment makes it sound like "grind if you suck" though....which has its ups and downs.

[affinity]

http://rologeass.tumblr.com/post/69747638607/some-dod3-related-pages-from-dengeki-556-the

Here’s the summary about their review (edited some of their summary so its easier to understand)

- The Scenario is the highest level (best) of the series, it can bring some laughter and tears.

- Some “certain scenes” makes you want to scream up (TL note: maybe it’s a twist scene)

- They expected more from the camera(well I dealt with Ninja Gaiden camera and worse camera, this will be fine.)

- It is easy to play, but the action is more exhilarating than the previous works

- Characters speak non-stop (hurray! more character interaction = more story/relationship depth)

- Completing a stage will takes a little longer time than DOD and DOD2

- It takes an average 40 hours to finish the game and 100+ hours to perfect things up

- The game music is definitely a gem and masterpiece

Overall:

It brings back memories of the previous works (DOD, DOD2, and Nier), but it is really improved.
 Dengeki’s Scores: 100/90/85/95

[DragonSlayr81]

http://rologeass.tumblr.com/post/69747638607/some-dod3-related-pages-from-dengeki-556-the

Here’s the summary about their review (edited some of their summary so its easier to understand)

- The Scenario is the highest level (best) of the series, it can bring some laughter and tears.

- Some “certain scenes” makes you want to scream up (TL note: maybe it’s a twist scene)

- They expected more from the camera(well I dealt with Ninja Gaiden camera and worse camera, this will be fine.)

- It is easy to play, but the action is more exhilarating than the previous works

- Characters speak non-stop (hurray! more character interaction = more story/relationship depth)

- Completing a stage will takes a little longer time than DOD and DOD2

- It takes an average 40 hours to finish the game and 100+ hours to perfect things up

- The game music is definitely a gem and masterpiece

Overall:

It brings back memories of the previous works (DOD, DOD2, and Nier), but it is really improved.
 Dengeki’s Scores: 100/90/85/95

Sounds awesome!!! Kinda seems like Square's lesser projects(Bravely Default, Nier, this) are really trumping their major projects(FF).

[affinity]

Drakengard 3 has its rough edges, but overall from what I researched and all the results,  it's a solid hack n slash RPG.

It's very tragic and dark (with some humor), overall it's crazy, but really epic.  It also has the best gameplay in the series
(and I'm liking the look of combat mechanics. makes Lightning Returns combat look boring.)

I don't think they are putting their DLC budget to great use, but maybe the expanded story DLC will be interesting.

I wonder if the localized version is getting english dubs? Drakengard 3 really deserved a bigger budget.  I think a lot of critics
are gonna pan it because of the "PS2" graphics (though it does have some amazing effects here and there).

[affinity]

So the preorder bonuses are confirmed. Japanese VA fans that preorder before March get the Japan voice DLC for free.  That sucks that only One is playable in the prequel DLC, the other sisters should be playable too (gah, that just goes to show how most developers don't take full advantage of their characters in the gameplay, even if it doesn't make sense storywise.)  CE looks to be online SE store only, but I'm preordering the regular version, that is a sweet deal a brand new action RPG for only $50 (yea people criticize the graphics and framerate, but hardcore gamers won't even notice or be bothered by that stuff. plus we played things with lesser graphics. Plus the art and cutscenes does possess beautiful visuals here and there.)   http://gematsu.com/2014/02/drakengard-3-dated-us-collectors-edition-announced

[affinity]

A little news update.   It looks like each of the Intoner sisters will be playable in upcoming DLC story expansions that takes place before Drakengard 3.     http://gematsu.com/2014/02/drakengard-3-prequel-story-dlc-hitting-japan-soon  http://www.siliconera.com/2014/02/10/report-drakengard-3-getting-prequel-dlc-playable-characters/ 

[Neobelmont]

Okay I heard that the mc needs to bang every guy or something is that true? If so well..... I also got the first one by chance from a swap meet for pretty much four dollars so I'm game for this series also i hear it's like panzer dragoon and PD is one of my favorite games so....