I want to get into Nier before Automata comes out, do I have to play the Drakengard games as well...

I want to get into Nier before Automata comes out, do I have to play the Drakengard games as well? Or should I just play all of them in general.

General thread about all Drakengard and Nier games.

I mean, you could jump in with Nier, but you'll be missing out on some world stuff. I would recommend playing the first Drakengard, Drakengard 3, then Nier. Just be warned that you'll have to put in some serious time in order to get all the endings. It's worth it though.

Yes OP, you have to play Drakengard 1 until you get the final (Nier) ending and you also have to play through all of drakengard 2 and get the true ending on that in order to understand Nier properly
Sorry, it's tough, but you have to do it or you just won't appreciate Nier as much as you should

Sounds like I'm playing all of them.


Yeah I'm kinda worried about the time it'll take. I also have to get the games first, can the PS2 games be emulated?


Does this mean Drakengard 3's story is unrelated to Nier? In that case I would just play it later and not feel like I'm in a rush for that one.

it is but it was released after Nier, although it's earlier chronologically in the series it reveals (or at least heavily hints at) several spoilers for the earlier games

Jesus Christ. And how am I supposed to do that without getting a PS2?

just emulate it if you don't have a ps2, pcxs2 works well enough, isos shouldn't be too hard to find but might take a while I guess

You make it sound like there is more than one Nier.

Drakengard 2 is completely unrelated to Nier. Also, while Drakengard Ending E is definitely the basis of Nier, you'd only know that reading Grimoire Nier, there's nothing related in the game itself.

So while OP should play Drakengard 1, it's just factually incorrect to say it's needed to play Nier. The game itself is stand alone, only the supplemental reading ties in.

In fact, the whole Drakengard and Nier universe plays heavily with the concept of multiverse. Every ending of every game is canon, or that what I was told.

Shh! Stop spoiling my fun!

Condemning anyone to Drakengard 2 is a very serious crime, user.

Is Drakengard 2 really that bad? Why?

I think people dislike the game because it goes against the whole philosophy of the game, and that is having the world get worse with every ending that goes further, or just crush your soul.

The game has some positivity on it and the original creator wasn't involved on it.

Sometimes I get tired of being the only person who ever 100% both drakengard 1 and 2. Someone else should know the pain of seeing Nowe go through the exact same special snowflake story three times in a row with naught but 3 ever-so-slightly different scenes as your only reward.

In short, different dev-team which had pretty much nothing to do with the original game
In full
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Just play Nier (good luck finding a copy) then read Grimoire Noir, it explains all the tie ins with Drakengard.

And for the love of all that is holy AVOID NIER SPOILERS LIKE THE PLAGUE. I can hardly imagine a game experience being ruined mkre by spoilers than Nier. You need to do all 4 endings to get the full things, although it's not as bad as it sounds since NG+ starts halfway through and you are so OP from that point that you just steamroll through everything.

not really, the reason is because drakengard 1 is 'Berserk: featuring the musical talents of DJ Stravinsky'
whereas drakengard 2 is: 'Teenage anime guy saves da world: featuring crazy uncle caim from the Drag-on-Dragoon Series(tm)'

Well, you know how Drakengard is a bit of a shit game but is worth going through all the tedium because the story is ridiculously dark and goes full insane at the end ?
Drakengard 2 is just as shit gameplay wise, but is handled by a different team. Its story is both generic animu bullshit and infuriating. The protagonist is worse than early-FF10 Tidus and he thirsts for worst girl so hard he actively ruins everything. Basically, they tried to make you play as a villain like in the first game, but it's handled so badly you're just playing as the worst teenage heroes ever.

Nier did nothing wrong.

On the topic of spoilers, anyone who doesn't figure out at least the gist of the sad 'twist' you see in playthrough 2 after playing the game for a couple of hours must be mentally retarded. There are still a ton of plot points that are pretty good though
If I see one more idiot whining about that sob-story robot boss…

When I saw the thumbnail of that picture I thought that was for a Final Fantasy VII movie or the remake. Jesus christ.

I genuinely believe that is the only real sad thing that happened in the game. The rest is their fault.

Fuck you Shadowlord.

You'll have to complete Drakengard3

Never ever play Drakengard. It is a horrible Dynasty Warriors clone with a batshit ridiculous edgy plot. Nier is a passable game with a great world and good plot.

So, play Drakengard 1 and 3 and skip 2?

Play just 1. You could play 3 after Nier because there are a lots of references in that game.

So Drakengard 1 -> Nier -> Drakengard 3. Okay.

Play 2 if you want afterwards, and try Brother Nier and Papa Nier versions too if you got a modded PS3.

And remember, fucking Moonman Yoko Taro likes to fuck with your mind.

which one?


I just teared up again every time without fail

Every Drakengard game and Nier so far have not needed you to play the older entries to get the gist of what is going on (except for DoD2 but it's shit anyway), since every entry in the franchise is pretty secluded with a few hints of connection to other titles (Nier is the biggest example of this).

If you're mainly interested in Nier, just start out with it and read Grimorie Nier after you've gotten Ending D to understand the backstory since the game doesn't explain jack except for a few hints (A red dragon fell from the skies…). If you're interested in where all that craziness started, check out Drakengard. If you want even more after that, try out Drakengard 3; keep in mind that D3's translation is a bit more sloppy than Nier's thanks to lol8-4 not doing a proper job like they did with Nier.

The game does a surprisingly good job of foreshadowing the plot twist in many more ways than just common sense
Seeing as Yoko Taro actually used the celestial alphabet for teasing what Automata was going to be at E3's reveal, we can say that this foreshadowing was intentional.

Finished Nier with all endings, starting on Drakengard 3 and holy shit, how could they fuck it up so bad? UE3 a shit.

Hopefully Nier 2 will run like in that reveal trailer, smooth 60fps. I'm not usually a total asscancer 60fps or more whore, but holy shit, Drakengard 3 is abysmal in this respect. And it's a PS3 exclusive to boot.

Also, how bad did 8-4 fuck up with both Nier and Drakengard 3? And is it already known who will translate Nier 2 and how bad they'll censor it?