Drakengard & NieR: A FULL Series Retrospective 

Hey Dad, how do you feel about the DrakeNieR Series? 🐉

There's an interesting bit of lore associated with the weapon stories. Drakengard 3 established that Accord writes them, and the remake of Nier retconned her into that game. She's also responsible for selling many of the weapons (e.g. the weapon dealer in Automata mentions she's where he gets his supply from). That makes her the main connection between the two worlds besides Caim, Angelus, and the Queen Beast crossing into our world and creating the Nier world. This opens up a lot of questions about just what Accord is; she's clearly more than just a "recorder" as she claims.

A near 8 hour video! Gonna slowly watch this over the day. Well done son! Happy SonDay!!

Drakengard 3's final fight and ending is one of my favorite moments in any game ever. It's an impossible task, something so overwhelming for Mikail and unlike anything he's ever done that having it be a rhythm game fits so perfectly. It's so absurdly different from anything else you've done that it forces you to fight tooth and nail for the ending just behind it. Having it end with This Silence is Mine for the credits just left me weeping... It's over, both I the player and Zero the character could finally rest.

Dang Son, I was genuinely hoping you’d cover the YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse story as well, kinda important but also super wack with its inconsequentiality to the FFXIV storyline but major importance to DrakenNieR

i hate that more people dont (seem to) know that instead of killing Pascal or wiping his memories, you can choose to do nothing and simply walk away and leave him. personally i think this is the best option, since if you wipe pascals memories he'll likely make the same mistakes again

I tend to watch YFS episodes in parts. Til I fall asleep, from where I remember to falling asleep again, til when I finally finish it. He's got a voice that can lull you to sleep, but at the same time a passion that makes you want to hear what he needs to say.

"Grimoire Weiss does not strut about like a common land mammal!" lol that cracked me up.

Weird being called dad by a random youtube video, but either way, this is one of my favorite series of media and this was an excellent retrospective on it, got the sub

The Intoners using the Dissonance in music tones to create awesome magic and theme songs is why i think drakengard 3 is the best.

Thank you for making a series on one my favorite video game franchises of all time. This is gonna be one of my favorites from your channel for sure. Keep up the good work, Son! I'm proud of you.

I love watching a ln essay on something I never played and immediately recognizing VAs. Liam O'Brian as Weiss is great.

My favorite series covered by who is quickly becoming my favorite essayist, thank you son, much love, and keep up the great work.

I appreciate the time you took to make this. The detailed description of the games is very good. My only bit of criticism is that some background music would be nice. Your narrative is clear and easy to follow understand which is great. A little music would add flavor to your narrative.

This is one of my favorite game series, I'm so glad to see someone cover it so masterfully. Not many people play long enough to get and appreciate the whole story.

This entire video must have taken so much effort to make, it’s very well done!

Just finished watching the whole video, thanks for explaining the timeline so well and the game mechanics

Excellent video. One of my favorite series in a commute convenient format. 10/10 floating monster cubes🎉

Phenomenal video. Thank you for the massive effort this must have taken.

I love this whole thing I appreciate the work you put in all of this

Drakengard 1 had me so confused! After I finally beat it, and got a few ending I was done. Thanks for clearing this up!

While Reincarnation's relevance and position in the franchise is still uncertain, I think it's very much worth playing now. Getting through the story with current units is not particularly challenging and the stories within are so worth it. Both of the fully released arcs (The Girl and the Monster and The Sun and The Moon) are quintessential DrakenNier stories that really integrate the game experience with the story being told - there's funkyness with the HUD, skill names give more context, characters give story in combat and so on. My eyes got wet at the end of Girl and Monster but I legit cried at the end of Sun and Moon and the current arc is getting into the deep Cage lore. I really enjoy most of the OG character's stories and there are some interesting tidbits for Nier lore like the Red Eyed Legion and mentions of "Akkorde." Even if you don't get into the rest of the game, the story itself is worth everyone's time. Also shocked you didn't go into the XIV Crossover raid/Dark Apocalypse! It was sold as a Nier Automata crossover but it's really got some deep DoD lore.

This is the first video I’ve watched from you, and I’m sorry I laughed at the hey dad it’s me your favorite son line if it has some super sad story behind it it just caught me off guard 😭

Watching this really reminded me of the The Dark Id from the SA forums. Guy was able to onramp a lot of people onto Taro's work who likely wouldn't have ever looked at it, especially Nier. Things weren't going too great last I heard of him, hope things turned around.

Is "I'm gonna fall soundly asleep multiple times like a motherf cker to this video" considered a compliment?

The smile on Kaine's face when Nier told her they were friends and Weiss still going on made me go "heavens." Such good storytelling

Fantastic video! I enjoyed every part of it.

I make a little dance everytime I see another hour long video about NieR popping up. I'm so excited to watch this!!

Hey Son, papa Gingy told me he is very proud of your work, so I decided I had to come see it. Your videos are incredible, easy subscribe from me, Gingy directed me here, thank you Gingy!

Great choice for a video. This is far from the first series to have me deep in lore (that would be Mother), but I’d say it’s probably the series that has the most interesting and fun lore to dig into. Especially with all the weird side projects that turn out to be canon (like the play! Of all things!). I thought that the mobile game was kind of similar to Lost Odyssey. Having all those little stories and what not.

LETS GOOO i’ve been waiting for this one!

Only recently found you. Super glad I did. This is gonna keep me occupied for a couple days lmao

i didn't have time to watch the parts as they came out but now the whole thing is out and now i can sit down and watch it on my day off

a massive masterpiece perfect for a long day of work

I watched all of these individually and now it's time to watch them all at once! Really love your videos!

The fact that the only game in the series I haven't played through is replicant and ps plus is releasing it into the plus free games soon. The leak being revealed as I watch this I am finding it to be a touch of fate telling me to return to the series

Excellent video!

Nice vid, I was waiting to see if you were gonna slip in the FF14 Automata raids into the timeline since Yoko Taro is a madman that deemed those canon.

Yes!!!! Subbed :) Curious, will you ever do Ico?

Amazing video, well done son.

Honestly the only thing that really got me in Drakengard 2 was Legna's line "you're a sentimental fool, just like your father" because you can kinda take it two ways - the straight forward way where Legna is just comparing Nowe to his father in a somewhat affectionate way, revealing that even though he betrayed him, deep down he did care about both of them. Then there's the read that Legna is somewhat referring to himself as Nowe's father, that in the end he's just as much a sentimental fool as Nowe and his father before him. I know it probably wasn't intentional, but that small amount of ambiguity makes it a pretty good final line from Legna

Amazing video, if I may ask, at 4:54:00 yoko taro is seen playing Last Guardian, is there a video of that? I was curious what were the drawings shown shortly after (at around 4:54:04), iif that's related to Nier at all or something entirely different.

this is awesome, thanks son!!!

What if we've been looking at the timeline all wrong ? For example, what if there are actually two Cathedral Cities (although the city is said to be on the Iberian Peninsula, in the original game, it's located outside the map, beyond clouds) because the timeline is actually this: -Drakengard 3 (routes C and E); -Tokyo, 2003; -Nier; -Nier Automata (route C); -Drakengard 1. What if Brother One and his cult were the ones who came up with project Gestalt ? What if he's the reason the Gestalts became violent before the Shadowlord was thought of ? What if the Seeds are actually Emil's clones, that are harvested by the androids to be turned into angels/Watchers, with those who disobey being twisted into dragonhood ? What if the elves are actually of the same stuff Adam and Eve are made of ? Machines in android form. What if there were humans left ? What if Brother One hid them to start anew, should Gestalt fail ? Leading the Red eyed androids to decide they need to be exterminated ? What if that's why he was exiled from the church ? Because his red eyes were too similar to that of androids, meaning he could turn humans into bloodthirsty creatures too, the same way androids were ?

Is this a reupload or did I mistake it for another long Drakengard & NieR video?

It’s speculated that Nier and Drakengard are paradoxical time loop by EruptionFang In his timeline video.

The perfect gift for all us, thanks son.

Great retrospective on dragon guard and nier series as a whole this was fantastic in my opinion.

Im upset i missed this game back in the day, looks fun.

Bruh, there was no reason to kill my sleep schedule with nightmares for the next 5 days... 1:06:08

I missed out on the Drakengard series, and Nier when it was first released. My first exposure to the series was Automata, and my lord did it change the way I view how games and their stories can be structured and presented. Replicant was a day 1 purchase for me when it had it's remaster and it didn't disappoint. I will say however, that story with the wolves upset me so much that I honestly don't think I can play the game again. Moreso than Automata, Replicant seems almost cruel in how well it's gut punches are delivered in the story.

I didn't get these watched at the time of release but have watched and commented on them both. I never played Draken and have only started playing Neir, since I was never into those kinds of games I'm really having to work at the controls. I've been so impressed with your work but you really impressed me in the way that you told these stories. Whether I have played the game you are reviewing or not, it's always engaging and interesting. Nice work.

Replicant was my favorite of this video. Never played any of the games but I enjoyed that section the most.

A realy nice comprehansive recap. But you are missing a pice, the Alliance Raids in Final Fantasy XIV. It is set after Automatat. The Raids Story was written by Yokotatu. We meet old friends and enimie and most important of all familiar music and theams. It is a tall order to reach the point of th game though.

7 Hours of drakenier universe, tysm!

Ending E wasn't actually a joke ending. Throughout the first drakengard game you can see imagery of a dragon impaled on a building. It was always intended to be the canon ending

2:53:00 Mikhail ... stand proud, you are strong

Awwww baby! 8 hours here we go. Its gonna be interesting working day.

Nice recap.

this is good stuff

Damn, they really must love Evangelion. There is sooo much imagery from it in this series.

A NieRly eight Hour Video about one of my favorite Franchise. I'm proud and greatful for that Son.

Drakenguard 1 was a fever dream of my childhood but still one of my nostalgic favorites. Something about its simplicity, timers, and massive list of weapons was perfect bait to lure in my child brain. Not to mention dragons are cool. But maybe.... maybe i dont play it again and let i stay as rose tinted memories...

5:42:00 why do you call Simone Bovuare?

Good work son. Have anyone recommended Resonance of fate/End of Eternity?

Didnt yoko taro say everything he had his name on was cannon? I could be wrong but I could have sworn the only thing not cannon was drakgard 2. But great video!!!

Son, you've outdone yourself this time. You've made me proud

I would love to see reviews like these for the Voice of Cards games, I think it's so sad that these games sold so poorly and are basically ignored while coming from Yoko Taro, yes yes it was supposed to be mobile titles but it's actually so great I'm eager to see the game and the new anime he's working on

We need platinum games to bring life back to drakengard now

Surprised the crossover with Final Fantasy XIV isn't mentioned as it's technically canon if I'm remembering interviews correctly.

I feel like he needs to cover Rule of Rose.

Thank god for videos like this, it would be so time consuming to get through these games on my own, I recently sat down to try to finish Nier Automata but had to put it down because of how back much back tracking and walking there was. Don't get me wrong, I loved the atmosphere but it took too long to do this, I just burnt myself out when all I really wanted was the story. So cheers homie for making this video, this will no doubt fill the lore craving for me.

Summer is ending, yet the son keeps on shining.

Never knew the two were connected

Yes, I just watched a 6h30 video to understand the whole lore of the Drakengard and NieR universe, and I'm about to do it again with 1 additional hour

4:41:18 I can't tell if they remind me of Seere and Manah or 2B and 9S.

Thank you.

Great video! However, I'm still confused about Devola and Popola. Like...why did let Nier kill all those shades knowing they were human? Why didn't they guide Nier to the Shadowlord. Seemed a bit off, story wise, for them to attack us before the final boss without them trying to guide us throughout the game.

I never played drakengaurd but I bet they could do an awesome remake of it now

The YorHa Girls and YorHa Boys stageplays also add onto the cyclical nature of Automatta. Girls is all about A2 ans how she becomes disillusioned about the YorHa project and Boys explores the nature of the relationship between the 2 and 9 models.

Whelp, I just consumed a 6 hour video from Eruption Fang... Might as well try yours too.

Any chance you will look at terranigma? It’s short but a good game

Ok I know this was made 7 months ago- but since then Nier Reincarnation [while not exactly worth covering] there is some decent stories and information in connection to the nierverse in the game. We got the ending chapter this month. [Service is shutting down] and even though it's not exactly relevant, I believe it added some good fillers. By the end of it, there were more inferences to The Legion, who were rampant [a variant] victims of WCS during the months/year of WCS spreading after the 6/12 incident. I enjoyed your video and the full look into these games which provides a different perspective to view these games in, especially from someone who won't/can't play the Drakengard games and only watch them.

Son, I will make the time to watch this and not skip a single second!

You: "...some androids nearby.." Me: "NIER!" *drinks*

Let's just put it this way... Leonard is the undisputed HERO of mtf Reddit and Bluesky users.

Am i going to watch this for 7 hours straight? Yes

OVER 7 HOURS! 😂😂😂😂😂😂AMAZING.

I played drakengaurd on emulator with x4 resolution x4 draw distance and x2 speed and with that the ground combat is actually really fun ngl

Do we know where the gods or the watchers come from? Do they come from the flower?

Son: "Caiem" Me: "CAIM!!!" Also this series is amazing. I'm glad it made it to the mainstream... but then it up and vanished 😂

Well I called out of work today so I guess I needed something to do for 8 hours 😅😂

Do you think it will be another Nier or Drakengard 4?

When I come back from work today , I'll get you a pizza. Good job son.

Can you do a retrospective on Onimusha thank you

I would love to see the earlier games get remade.

Dad, now that the final chapter of Reincarnation is out, are you planning to do a retrospective?

If you use the laser pod the snake enemies are trivial. Just in case you play the game again or if this video makes people want to

In drakengard three it wasn’t the horror of battle that traumatized 2, it was losing all her orphans.

Just think: we got a series of seriously flawed games and somehow, through all of that, we still managed to end up with a masterpiece