Drakengard 2 Part #23 - Episode XX: In Which We Don't Fear the Reaper

Part 23: Episode XX: In Which We Don't Fear the Reaper

Episode XX: In Which We Don't Fear the Reaper

"Thanks. We owe you one."

"No problem ladi-eh... That was sort of a deep voice...? Oh huh... Sorry, kiddo. Takes a minute for my eyes to adjust after taking off that tin can. Mistook you for...well, a miss... Oh well, no harm no foul. Though... Hey... Wait a sec..."

"Well, what do you know? There I was thinking you were some regular crook, and it's Nowe! Fancy meeting you here."

"Who are you? How do you know my name?"

"Well, the shouts of 'there's that Nowe, he's gotta huge price on his head' and all the wanted posters kinda clued me in. But I thought it was just a coincidence. But hell, what do you know? But gee..."

"What, you've forgotten me already? How quickly the young forget."

"Wait...I know that voice."

"Yes! You're Urick! The Urick who used to serve under General Oror. Right?"

"A cutie too. Huh. That's a relief. Me and Oror were always a little worried you weren't uhh...you know... Batting for the same team as most boys... But, looks like we were wrong! Good on you. I guess you just had more of a thing for blondes, eh kiddo? Whatever happened to whatsherface that was always hanging out with you... The bossy little brunette..."
"..."
"Eris...?"
<snaps fingers> "That's the one! Whatever happened between you two kids? Live up to that 'dragon child' name of yours? Hahaha!"
"Uhh... She's still my friend... Well she was... I guess we're no-"
"Oooh... Fell victim to the dreaded friend zone...? My condolences, kiddo. Not even a dragon can fly you out of that dark pit, my friend."

"...You haven't changed-still playing the fool as always."

"Damn!"

"You still good with that sword, kiddo? Haven't stopped training, I hope."
"Yes."
"Great... Let's go show this lot how men deal with rudely interrupted conversations between old friends."

Alright, Urick has now joined the party as the fourth and final playable character of the game. Urick also comes equipped with...

Drakengard 2 Weapon Stories posted:

URICK'S AXE

History:
A king who made offering to the reaper, hoping to live forever, commissioned this axe to act as an instrument of the gods. Its purpose: to sever the necks of beautiful young men and drink their blood in the reaper's honor. It has tasted the blood of many hundreds, and the reaper has prospered from these tributes.

For the first ceremony, the king chose two men and ordered one to execute the other. Every subsequent month, he would choose a new executioner to sacrifice the last. So it continued, year after year, executioner becoming sacrifice, until the month of the kings one hundred and fiftieth birthday.

The pair involved in the ceremony this month were best friends. When one had sacrificed the other, he turned to the king, crying and said: "I shall give my own life to the reaper. I shall walk the road to Hades with my friend." The he cut off his own head and the axe pierced the altar so deeply that none could remove it. The king's long life was at an end.

The axe finally found its way into the hands of Urick, where it once more provides sacrifices to the reaper. The cycle of blood which curses it cannot be halted - a secret known only by the reaper himself.

Description: The reaper's axe.
Traits: Excels at both linear and ground-sweep attacks.
Magic: "Deadly Fang" - Fangs of death slice through the earth, tearing enemies apart.

Urick: Metal as fuck.

Verse 3 - The Roadblock - Music: Impatience

We're immediately swamped by Knights of the Seal goons from all sides. Apparently entire platoons of them were on leave in town getting laid or something as they're now crawling out of the stonework. Let's try out our new ally, Urick, for a spin, shall we?

Urick is...fucking ridiculously good. He's got the strength and HP of Nowe, just shy of the speed of Manah, and just shy of the range of Eris. He doesn't get any buff against standard enemies like knights, but he can still kill any of them in about 3-4 hits just like our main hero even without them. In addition, his default combo with near all weapons ends in a whirlwind swing of his axe/sickle that has invincible frames, does a metric ton of damage, and has amazing crowd control. His magic ability is pretty shit, but otherwise he's a pretty great alternative to Nowe.

Urick can also keep up combos like nobody's business, as each swing of his axe has a huge arc spanning pretty much 180 degrees in front of him and he swings the thing slightly quicker than Nowe. Each swing also has a very satisfying slicing sound to punctuate his massive amounts of shit wrecking.

In addition, Urick's odd stance seems to make enemies swing their sword just shy of hitting him more often. He's sort of hunched down when standing still, but straightens himself up when attacking, causing foes to whiff their strikes more often than not. As if he needed an additional reason for being great.

In any case, the first Murder Meter is quickly run down thanks to our new purple haired buddy. Time for another chat...

"Uhh... But we know each other already."
"I meant your lady friend. Where are your manners?"

"Right. Uhh... Manah, this is Urick. He served under my adopted father, Oror, in the Knights of the Seal. I guess he was kind of like a brother to me."

"D'aww. You're giving me a warm and fuzzy feeling, kiddo."

"Pleased to meet you. My name is Manah. I've come here looking for the fugitive from the Knights of the Seal. I need you to tell me about the districts."

"Any information at all would be a great help. No matter how trivial..."

"I know this place that makes the BEST gyros just a way outside the District of Shining Life."
"...What?"
"Not your taste? Well... I do know a pretty good bar over by the District of Hallowed Water. Just don't drink the water if you've got a hangover the next day. That stuff will kill ya."
"No...I meant more...

"Sorry, miss, but we should probably think about getting out of here. I suspect those guys will have called their friends by now. One more thing. A one-eyed man, armed with a huge sword, is hanging around. I think he'd make a fight with bounty hunters seem like nothing."

"...A one-eyed man?"

"Uh-oh. Guess we spent too long chatting. They're back again."

"Just a word of warning, kids. If you see this one-eyed man...turn the other way and start running. Very, very quickly."
"Why...?"
"Just take my word on this one, Nowe..."

We now need to fight our way to the northern gate to get the hell out of dodge. However, waiting there is a bunch of advanced heavy armed dudes and after them is an ogre. The Knights of the Seal is teamed up with monsters now since the curtain has been pulled on their whole corrupt antagonist angle and making new enemy types is too much effort.

Luckily, on top of Urick's already impressive display with cannon fodder mooks, the masked man also gets a huge buff against all monsters. Including ogres. Where one of these monsters would take Nowe a minute or so to take down, Urick can annihilate on in about twenty seconds. Jumping downward pounds will take about a quarter of one's life bar and their animation can immediately be rolled out of for another follow-up of ass kicking. And gods help an ogre if you get it kneeling by chopping at its ankles. Urick will take it down in one combo at that point.

On top of all this, I should mention that Urick regains HP when he's not in battle. Seriously, he's an amazingly good character.

Backtracking across the entire map again...

There are more ogres guarding the southern gate of town. I should mention that huge monsters like ogres and the like do not have friendly fire turned off. They'll bash other KotS as well as each other to the ground if their extremely poor AI is herded together. Which makes the simplest way of dispatching ogres is to just run off to one choke point of the map and let them beat each other to hell.

A ogre knocked off its feet counts as it being downed and so Urick does about 3x damage to them, leaving them pretty much instantly dead. Easy...

Following the ogre trio's demise by the Onimusha, the KotS bring in a goddamn minotaur to battle the party.

Minotaurs are a bit of a rare mini-boss. Gameplay wise, they're basically the ogres combined with the behemoth mid-boss from back in Chapter 2. Only with twice the speed of either of the two and it's not dumb enough to slam its head into walls when charging.

"Do you now? Hey...I've got one bit of advice I remember giving you back during those days."
"Ohh?"
"Yup. Save the chit-chat for when NOT being chased by an angry furry creature. Unless there is a particularly buxom damsel in distress in need of rescuing. Then it's not idle chatter...it's a call to duty!"
"I...see..."

"I thought you said no more small talk?"
"Oh well, you see this isn't just small talk. See I was thinking to myself 'gee...you know what I wish I had on my side against the crazy horse-man trying to cram a horn up my ass? A fire breathing dragon.' Don't suppose you could make that happen, could you...?"
"I kind of told Legna to meet us again at the edge of town in a couple hours..."
"Oh well... Guess I'll stop daydreaming about anything going right for a change... Those fantasies are never healthy."

In any case, the minotaur is none too difficult to slay. Basically just running up with Urick, doing a downward slam, and then rolling away to avoid a charge or counter-attack before repeating is a more than effective way to deal with the beast. Once it's dead, a key appears to the southern gate.

However, once we reach the southern gate we are greeted with a welcoming committee of another half dozen Knights of the Seal. But fret not. Despite that new mob, the mission has concluded as soon as we step through to fight them...

Click to view cutscene

We swap over to FMV land as Manah notices a strange man in the crowd behind the armored Knights of the Seal soldiers barring the party's path.

"You got some kinda problem, fella?"
"..."
Move...
"Get lost! This is official Knights of the Seal business."
You'd think that after nearly two decades, I'd stop being annoyed about not being able to yell at people. Lemme try out some of that sign language I picked up...

My way...

...get the fuck out of it!

Glad we understand one another. Now then...

Ya know I almost skipped this shithole town on my way traveling to that District of Shimmying Lights or whatever the hell it's called. Didn't expect to get my murder on so soon. So hey, bonus!

Glad I did though. What are the odds?

Long time no see, ya little shit...