The character designs, as one may expect, have been taken directly from Square's art department archive. Nowe would fit right in alongside all the other stylish swordsmen wielding oversized blades that we've seen over the years. The other characters you encounter along the way mix things up, though, for whenever you need a break from Nowe's sword-swinging; and believe us, there's quite a lot of it. As can be expected, there are attractive heroines to interact with and take up arms alongside, as well as other commonly used character archetypes, including the effeminate dandy more concerned with his looks than anything else, and the angsty girl with the sunken eyes and demeanor to match. The characters are nicely fleshed out, and the voice acting seems to match up well with each personality, so we're interested in seeing if the story is compelling and cohesive enough to keep the mission-based gameplay progressing in interesting ways.

The weapon variety is sparse at first, but as you encounter new characters along the way, you will gain access to many more, over 60 in all. Drakengard 2 utilizes a rotating wheel interface, where you can fill slots with any of the implements of war that you've acquired during the adventure. Swapping to a weapon like Eris' spear will magically swap Nowe out and bring her in, allowing you to switch between characters at will. The difference between characters is evident in the different combos that can be executed by weapon type, and in the characteristics of each weapon. Some weapons have longer reach than others, wider swings, or are better capable of breaking through opponents' guards.


The enemies we've seen thus far haven't been particularly intelligent; suicidal seems more like it. The challenge lies in the type of encounters you'll face, generally being you against swarms of enemies. Much like how generic soldiers are killed with ease in the Dynasty Warriors games, we were mowing through monsters non-stop, with defensive tactics only really being needed for boss fights. Battling ogres, for instance, we had to sidestep the wide swings of a massive club and hack at the gargantuan's exposed heel, which would cause him to kneel down, now exposed to our big damage dealing combo. Nothing groundbreaking, but satisfying.

The graphics didn't do much to impress, with bland textures being used throughout, and a fairly short draw-in distance for enemies who would appear on radar, but couldn't be seen until you got pretty close. Some creatures were downright laughable. The floating gargoyle cubes we incinerated during our initial flight look like something out of a game's early development tech demo, setting a fairly low standard for creature models to come. The characters fare better, with smooth attack and dodge animations, and decent looking effects to accompany the more impressive magical abilities. It goes without saying, though, that current generation PlayStation 2 games have set a much higher standard for visuals.

After playing some of Drakengard 2, we're left with the impression that the series hasn't changed drastically since the last game. Still, there's a place in many game libraries for the kind of hack and slash game where you can sit back and wail away on dozens of foes without skipping a beat, and here you've got a dragon raining carnage from above for good measure. We'll be diving headfirst into the storyline and unlocking every character and weapon we can find for our full review, which you'll find here when the game is released.