Drakengard (PS2)

2012-07-17 04:37:49 pm

I. Hear. A. Sound.

I know there are existing threads for this game, but those are old and don't contain any actual content, so I decided to make a new one.

I started working on a single-segment run of this game a couple of months ago.

But before I go into details, I have two questions:

1) If a game has multiple endings, would the any% run only get to the first one?

2) Is there any resource material for a speedrun for this particular game?
So far, I haven't found anything. No vids, no discussion, no times.
The game really isn't that complex (it is a hack and slash after all), but anything helpful would be nice. Smiley

Thread title:

ZenicReverie

2012-07-17 08:26:23 pm

Waiting hurts my soul...

Depends on how the endings work. In most cases, multiple endings are separate categories.

Faster than these times: http://howlongtobeat.com/gamebreakdown.php?gameid=3768
You can try contacting this person: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/604158-/59800502

Good luck!

Neurotik N3

2012-07-18 05:06:05 pm

I. Hear. A. Sound.

Quote from ZenicReverie:

Depends on how the endings work. In most cases, multiple endings are separate categories.

Drakengard's endings work like this:

You must have ending 1 in order to get ending 2. You must have endings 1, 2 and 3 in order to get ending 4 and you must have endings 1-4 in order to get ending 5.

Ending 1 (Any%?)

In order to gain the first ending of the game you must complete
chapters 1-8. You do NOT need to complete the side missions for your
allies, just get to chapter 8 and beat the final boss.

Ending 2

After you beat the game the first time, go to and complete chapter 9.
Beat the boss in ch.9v.5 for the second ending.

Ending 3

Again, go to Chapter 9 and beat verse 3 within 4 minutes and 20
seconds. Roman Numeral verse IV should now be accessible; complete it
and what follows is another boss fight in verse VI. Beat the boss for
the third ending.

Ending 4

To get the fourth ending you must complete all 12 chapters as well as
the sub-chapters for Leonard, Arioch, and Seere. Upon completing
chapter 12 you'll get the fourth ending.

Ending 5 (100%)

To get the fifth and final ending you must collect all 65 weapons.
Chapter 13 will then be unlocked and you must complete that chapter for
the final ending of the game.

Allies and weapons are the only collectables in the game so getting all endings would most likely be the definition of a 100% run. You only get two weapons "for free". Caim's Sword (initial weapon) and Bonebreaker (for beating the first mission). Some weapons would be very annoying to get in a speedrun (e.g. the requirement for obtaining the weapon being something like kill all enemies on the map or WAIT for a certain amount of time to elapse).
I have only practiced speedrunning to the first ending, so I don't know how long a 100% run would take.
Considering how easy it is to backtrack in this game, it would definitely take some intense planning to determine when it would be fastest to get each weapon.

Quote from ZenicReverie:

Faster than these times: http://howlongtobeat.com/gamebreakdown.php?gameid=3768

Those are definitely not speedrun times. Tongue

So yeah, much faster.

This game has two difficulties: Easy and Normal (default).
I have practised on Normal, apart from one run to see how much easier Easy is.

There are five things that make Easy much easier:

1) Enemies have less health.
2) They do less damage to you.
3) Some enemies have a reduced attack rate. (Especially noticeable when flying over arbalesters.)
4) You gain magic MUCH faster.
5) You get health orbs from lower chains. (And I think they restore more health, but I'm not sure.)

My fastest single-segment times (timed from the start of the first mission, real time):

Normal: 3:11:19 (in-game timer approx. 3:00:50)
Easy: 2:40:31 (in-game timer approx. 2:28:40)

In-game timer is a little weird. It stops every time you change a weapon or look at the map in a mission (so it isn't an accurate timing method), but it seems to count during ending credits. Also, the in-game timer isn't shown at the end of the game. Only way to see your in-game time after the ending is to save your game after the credits and load the game, start any mission and go to the status screen.

Quote from ZenicReverie:

Good luck!

Thanks!

[quote="ZenicReverie"]Depends on how the endings work. In most cases, multiple endings are separate categories.[/quote]

Drakengard's endings work like this:

You must have ending 1 in order to get ending 2. You must have endings 1, 2 and 3 in order to get ending 4 and you must have endings 1-4 in order to get ending 5.

Ending 1 (Any%?)

In order to gain the first ending of the game you must complete 
chapters 1-8. You do NOT need to complete the side missions for your 
allies, just get to chapter 8 and beat the final boss.

Ending 2

After you beat the game the first time, go to and complete chapter 9.  
Beat the boss in ch.9v.5 for the second ending.

Ending 3

Again, go to Chapter 9 and beat verse 3 within 4 minutes and 20 
seconds. Roman Numeral verse IV should now be accessible; complete it 
and what follows is another boss fight in verse VI. Beat the boss for 
the third ending.

Ending 4

To get the fourth ending you must complete all 12 chapters as well as 
the sub-chapters for Leonard, Arioch, and Seere. Upon completing 
chapter 12 you'll get the fourth ending.

Ending 5 (100%)

To get the fifth and final ending you must collect all 65 weapons.  
Chapter 13 will then be unlocked and you must complete that chapter for 
the final ending of the game.

Allies and weapons are the only collectables in the game so getting all endings would most likely be the definition of a 100% run. You only get two weapons "for free". Caim's Sword (initial weapon) and Bonebreaker (for beating the first mission). Some weapons would be very annoying to get in a speedrun (e.g. the requirement for obtaining the weapon being something like kill all enemies on the map or WAIT for a certain amount of time to elapse).
I have only practiced speedrunning to the first ending, so I don't know how long a 100% run would take.
Considering how easy it is to backtrack in this game, it would definitely take some intense planning to determine when it would be fastest to get each weapon.

[quote="ZenicReverie"]
Faster than these times: http://howlongtobeat.com/gamebreakdown.php?gameid=3768[/quote]

Those are definitely not speedrun times. :P  So yeah, much faster.

This game has two difficulties: Easy and Normal (default).
I have practised on Normal, apart from one run to see how much easier Easy is.

There are five things that make Easy much easier:

1) Enemies have less health.
2) They do less damage to you.
3) Some enemies have a reduced attack rate. (Especially noticeable when flying over arbalesters.)
4) You gain magic MUCH faster.
5) You get health orbs from lower chains. (And I think they restore more health, but I'm not sure.)

My fastest single-segment times (timed from the start of the first mission, real time):

Normal: 3:11:19 (in-game timer approx. 3:00:50)
Easy: 2:40:31 (in-game timer approx. 2:28:40)

In-game timer is a little weird. It stops every time you change a weapon or look at the map in a mission (so it isn't an accurate timing method), but it seems to count during ending credits. Also, the in-game timer isn't shown at the end of the game. Only way to see your in-game time after the ending is to save your game after the credits and load the game, start any mission and go to the status screen.

[quote="ZenicReverie"]Good luck![/quote]

Thanks! :)

Riskbreaker Y

2012-07-18 05:52:01 pm

berserker status

I never completed this game, but it seems like it would be fun to speedrun. 100% seems like it would be extremely annoying to do considering all the enemies you'd have to clear and revisiting areas. A couple thoughts:

1) What weapon are you going with? Some weapons are clearly better than others, it's been awhile since I've played this. What's overpowered and quick to get along the way?

2) Abusing the dragon as much as possible comes to mind. Seems like the fastest way to clear mobs and such even though it can be easy to eat damage if too eager.

I'll pick this up again and beat it finally. Hopefully I could come up with more useful feedback. G'luck!

RaneofSOTN

2012-07-18 11:36:33 pm

I want off the ride....

The worst about 100% weapons are the spectral ghosts that hold weapons that require a decently powerful weapon to destroy (and that lurk in the non story missions).

I wish you the best of luck and depending on how this goes I might toss my hat in, but I dont think so at this point and time.

Omnigamer

Edit history:

Omnigamer: 2012-07-19 01:07:50 am

2012-07-19 12:51:44 am

All the things

I have not played either of the Drakengard games, but I have been meaning to try them out since they are kind of sort of related to Nier. Since the question on 100% came up though, here's how I have things set up for Nier which has a similar ending system:

-100% constitutes getting ending D, which requires completion of A and B which need to be gotten in order. Ending C is not required for D. It also requires getting all weapons, which takes a bit of extra cash and quests. For my any% submission, it will just be from a completely fresh New Game and end at Ending A. However, since it carries on to other endings through New Game+, I intend to make two additional segments for the remaining two endings, with the 100% run ending at Ending D. I can do this mainly because there isn't anything absolutely crucial I'd need to do in the Ending A playthrough to help to unlock Ending D.

Doing it that way is still possible for me since all three playthroughs can be finished in around 7 hours, which is the soft limit for SDA submissions. Repetitive playthroughs for Drakengard might take a bit too long.

Hope that helps a bit.

I have not played either of the Drakengard games, but I have been meaning to try them out since they are kind of sort of related to Nier. Since the question on 100% came up though, here's how I have things set up for Nier which has a similar ending system:

-100% constitutes getting ending D, which requires completion of A and B which need to be gotten in order. Ending C is not required for D. It also requires getting all weapons, which takes a bit of extra cash and quests. For my any% submission, it will just be from a completely fresh New Game and end at Ending A. However, since it carries on to other endings through New Game+, I intend to make two additional segments for the remaining two endings, with the 100% run ending at Ending D. I can do this mainly because there isn't anything absolutely crucial I'd need to do in the Ending A playthrough to help to unlock Ending D.

Doing it that way is still possible for me since all three playthroughs can be finished in around 7 hours, which is the soft limit for SDA submissions. Repetitive playthroughs for Drakengard might take a bit too long.

Hope that helps a bit.

Neurotik N3

2012-07-19 07:29:00 pm

I. Hear. A. Sound.

Quote from Riskbreaker Y:

I never completed this game, but it seems like it would be fun to speedrun. 100% seems like it would be extremely annoying to do considering all the enemies you'd have to clear and revisiting areas. A couple thoughts:

1) What weapon are you going with? Some weapons are clearly better than others, it's been awhile since I've played this. What's overpowered and quick to get along the way?

2) Abusing the dragon as much as possible comes to mind. Seems like the fastest way to clear mobs and such even though it can be easy to eat damage if too eager.

I'll pick this up again and beat it finally. Hopefully I could come up with more useful feedback. G'luck!

It is fun to speedrun. Hack and slash games can get quite repetitive; speedrunning changes the game from "kill everything you see" into more strategic attacks.

All of the really powerful weapons are only available after the first ending, but there are some decent ones in the main story. In my route, I collect two weapons (besides the mandatory ones), Knight's Vow and Fheng's Glaive.
I also get Leonard.

In a nutshell, it looks like this:

Use Caim's Sword until you get Knight's Vow (Chapter 1 Verse 10).
Ignore Bonebreaker, it's useless. (It's slow and has bad magic.)
Level up Knight's Vow to level 2 during Chapter 2. (Attack from 9 to 18.)
Get Leonard. (Really good against some enemies. Also, you get an extra ground mission with easy to kill enemies while getting him, which helps the leveling of the Knight's Vow.)
Use Knight's Vow until you get Fheng's Glaive (Chapter 4 Verse 5).
Go to Chapter 1 Verse 2 to level up Fheng's Glaive to level 2. (Attack from 14 to 28.)
Go back to (the future :P) where you left off and finish the story.

I did concider getting Holy Mace (Chapter 5 Verse 3, attack 26 at level 1) instead of Fheng's Glaive, but maces (and axes) are slow and short, which makes attacking enemies much harder and leaves you vulnarable to enemies attacks. Speedrun is pretty much a low level challenge as well. You won't get that much EXP for killing only the required targets --> low level --> low HP; stronger enemies will kill you with a couple of hits.

Yes, dragon for groups (except red-armored ones), Caim and Leonard for individual targets.
You won't take that much damage though; when you get hit you get stunned, second hit within a short period of time will knock Caim off of dragons back.

My main priority is to get a really good any% run first (under 3 hours on Normal, possibly?) and maybe I'll start working on the 100% run after that.

Thank you, everyone! Smiley

[quote="Riskbreaker Y"]I never completed this game, but it seems like it would be fun to speedrun.  100% seems like it would be extremely annoying to do considering all the enemies you'd have to clear and revisiting areas.  A couple thoughts:

1)  What weapon are you going with?  Some weapons are clearly better than others, it's been awhile since I've played this.  What's overpowered and quick to get along the way?

2)  Abusing the dragon as much as possible comes to mind.  Seems like the fastest way to clear mobs and such even though it can be easy to eat damage if too eager.

I'll pick this up again and beat it finally.  Hopefully I could come up with more useful feedback.  G'luck!  [/quote]

It is fun to speedrun. Hack and slash games can get quite repetitive; speedrunning changes the game from "kill everything you see" into more strategic attacks.

All of the really powerful weapons are only available after the first ending, but there are some decent ones in the main story. In my route, I collect two weapons (besides the mandatory ones), Knight's Vow and Fheng's Glaive.
I also get Leonard.

In a nutshell, it looks like this:

Use Caim's Sword until you get Knight's Vow (Chapter 1 Verse 10).
Ignore Bonebreaker, it's useless. (It's slow and has bad magic.)
Level up Knight's Vow to level 2 during Chapter 2. (Attack from 9 to 18.)
Get Leonard. (Really good against some enemies. Also, you get an extra ground mission with easy to kill enemies while getting him, which helps the leveling of the Knight's Vow.)
Use Knight's Vow until you get Fheng's Glaive (Chapter 4 Verse 5).
Go to Chapter 1 Verse 2 to level up Fheng's Glaive to level 2. (Attack from 14 to 28.)
Go back to (the future :P) where you left off and finish the story.

I did concider getting Holy Mace (Chapter 5 Verse 3, attack 26 at level 1) instead of Fheng's Glaive, but maces (and axes) are slow and short, which makes attacking enemies much harder and leaves you vulnarable to enemies attacks. Speedrun is pretty much a low level challenge as well. You won't get that much EXP for killing only the required targets --> low level --> low HP; stronger enemies will kill you with a couple of hits.

Yes, dragon for groups (except red-armored ones), Caim and Leonard for individual targets.
You won't take that much damage though; when you get hit you get stunned, second hit within a short period of time will knock Caim off of dragons back.

My main priority is to get a really good any% run first (under 3 hours on Normal, possibly?) and maybe I'll start working on the 100% run after that.

Thank you, everyone! :)

Neurotik N3

Edit history:

Neurotik N3: 2012-08-01 05:27:49 pm

2012-08-01 05:26:26 pm

I. Hear. A. Sound.

Small improvement. I got a time of 3:08:48 with one death, which cost me approx. 3 minutes. Otherwise it was a really solid run without other major mistakes.

The map system in this game is a bit awkward (for a speedrun at least), and I still have to look at the map more than I'd like to. Memorizing target locations and/or drawing my own maps should save a few minutes during the run.

Under 3 hours sounds really difficult at this point, but 3:00-3:05 is definitely possible.

Neurotik N3

2013-05-11 09:26:14 pm

I. Hear. A. Sound.

Quote from Omnigamer:

I'm also psyched that you're still working on this run! I remember you made the thread about running it a while back, but I hadn't heard about any of the progress. Keep it up!

Yes, I'm still working on the run. Actually I took a long break, because I didn't have any way to record my gameplay; just recently got my capture card.

As for progress, I just got my PB on Normal yesterday (2:51:xx). Really good run overall, no major mistakes (read: no deaths), some avoidable minor mistakes though.

Still haven't done more runs on Easy. I was thinking about skipping Fheng's Glaive on Easy, because Knight's Vow might be good enough considering enemies have less health. Should I do runs on both difficulties?

Omnigamer

2013-05-11 10:24:45 pm

All the things

That much is up to you; typically only the harder difficulty is run unless it is a) prohibitively difficult or b)the routes between the two difficulties differ by a significant amount. Really, it all depends on how much work you're comfortable putting into it.

I haven't played Easy but Knight's Vow is probably plenty powerful if enemies have 25% less HP or so. Saves on training up the Glaive as well.

Neurotik N3

2013-05-12 10:24:09 am

I. Hear. A. Sound.

Now that I think about it; enemies lowered health, their reduced attack power and your weapons increaced magic gaining rate might actually make Holy Mace a good weapon on Easy.
It has better attack power and magic than Knight's Vow.

Neurotik N3

2013-07-05 01:36:33 am

I. Hear. A. Sound.

I have improved my route a lot since last time. The dragon is now used even more instead of Caim or Leonard. That's why I first cut out Knight's Vows leveling and then getting Leonard.

Now that I don't have Knight's Vow at level 2, the next best thing is Fheng's Glaive at level 1.
It is an ok weapon at level 1 on Easy (too underpowered on Normal), but it still saves more time in Chapters 5 and 8 to have it at level 2 than how long it takes to level it up.

So, same route for both difficulties. For now at least. I have some ideas for Normal, though.

My best times with this route are 2:05:57 on Easy and 2:38:52 on Normal.

Neurotik N3

2013-07-16 03:27:51 am

I. Hear. A. Sound.

My 2:05:57 Easy run is now on youtube.