Part 7: Episode VI: In Which You Sank My Battleship

Episode VI: In Which You Sank My Battleship





Welcome back. Following our previous defeating of the fearsome Gigas, mail order weapon merchant Accord has deemed Zero worthy of handling part-time jobs for some extra scratch. Why? How? Who knows. The postal service in Drakengard's world is fucked in ways you don't want to know!

Accord's requests are... garbage. They're profitable busy work filler reusing old maps with one of about four gimmicks. I'll cover, for lack of a better word, what all of Accord's requests entail at the end of a chapter. But I'm going to pretty much glaze over that whole part of the game on the whole outside of weapon unlocks garnered from it.

If you're wondering: we will eventually meet this Accord character in person much, much later down the road.

Verse 3: The Ocean Ruin

New Music: Exvulsion ~ Battleground





Welcome to the Sunken City. Why did Five have an entire seaside ruin retrofitted to some manner of several mile wide apparatus used to raise and lower the entire region? You got me. This is the same series that straps scaffolding to 20 story giants and has giant flying clam airships.



Yeah, I'm fine. These soldier maggots just piss me off, is all.
Maggots?! Hey, do you like maggots, Zero?
What kind of question is that? Of course not.
Oh. I thought maybe you had some. I'm kinda hungry...
Don't eat maggots, dummy!



Despite being submerged in water mere moments earlier, the Sunken City is already filled to the brim with enemies andmore reinforcements pouring in via landing crafts. None of Zero's opposition is bringing anything new to the table this go around. Five's forces are sticking to their guns with the strategy of throwing enough bodies at the Zero problem and maybe it will go away.



Stop whining.
Hey, flying is pretty hard, okay?
Stop complaining.
I mean... uh... it's fun! So fun! Wheeeee!
You can stop lying, too.

Zero eventually comes to an arena blocked off by a squad of soldiers and no further walkways.



That's my line, shitface!
You're mine, demon! Mine!
Shouldn't you be suckling on Mommy's teat right now?
You're not coming anywhere *near* Lady Five!
"Lady Five, Lady Five!" ...Pathetic. Just die, would you?
I'll give you something to cry about!
Move it, Gramps!





Fifteen soldiers sent off this mortal coil is enough blood for the blood god of the Sunken City to form a new pathway for Zero to continue her vague wandering through the ruins. I'm going to go out on a limb and we're likely not going to find Five hanging out in some soggy back alley of a flooded township.





A few twisting pathways later and we are introduced to the solitary wrinkle to this mission. Remember that battleship back in the very first mission Zero told Mikhail to go sort out...?







As it would turn out Zero probably should have double checked the big dope actually got around to completing that task prior to coming within firing range of its cannons.







For the remainder of the stage, which honestly isn't very much, while outdoors Zero will constantly be bombarded by cannon fire from the battleship just off shore. A large indicator will appear on the ground while the cannons attempt to zero in on Zero. There is a five second or so targeting time and then a follow-up second between the cannon firing and Zero getting her ass out of the way if she doesn't want to be a crater in the ground. Since there's multiple cannons constantly firing, it's best just to book it to a safe in-doors area.

Additionally, friendly fire is turned on in this server so the cannons have no qualms with being more literal than usually with the term cannon fodder.



Aaaaah! Look out! Friendly fire!
Hold your ground! For Lady Five's sake!
Well, aren't you the brave one?
She's a demon!
She'd be super hot if she wasn't trying to kill us.
No kidding! ...A shame...

These fellows clearly have their priorities straight. Man did you see the way she lopped off Larry's head and punted it into the ocean? Status: Rock. Hard.



A bloated goat carcass stuffed with rotting fish.
Oh! That.... doesn't sound good at all.
Heh. Yeah. Now imagine having to ride on that thing.
Tee-hee! I bet it's fun! I'm sorry I smell like fish... But we ARE fighting out at sea.
You're not screwing around in the water, are you?
Who m-me?! I, uh tch... no way! No! _No...
If you're lying, I'm gonna kick your ass.
_{I'm sorry...}





That about does it for the first half of this stage. Eventually the winding walkways of the sunken city give way to... well nothing... The road just kind of ends. Civil engineering never really took off in Drakengard's universe.







With the ground forces taken care of it is time to gears to the second gameplay mode of Drakengard 3: Aerial Combat. Did you know Panzer Dragoon was released on the Sega Saturn in Japan 20 years ago today? Yep sure was! March 10th, 1995.



There are two aerial combat modes in Drakengard 3. This is the first of the two: the arena/boss fight flight mode. Mikhail has free roam of a large open combat arena. There's usually a massive target that needs to either be made significantly less alive and/or structurally sound. In this case, that lousy Five army battleship. I kind of wish the bad guys had a unified name beyond just being [SISTER NAME GOES HERE]'s dudes. I mean they are just the Not-Spain Empire from Drakengard 1 a few decades before that was a thing.



I was saving it for you, Zero!
For me?
Yeah! 'Cause I knew you'd love blowing it up!
Grr...
Just my little random act of kindness. Neat, huh?
Goddammit, dragon!
Ow, ow, OOW! Why'd you just STAB ME!?
Faster! Higher! Keep flying!
It's haaaaaard!
Hard? A real dragon could do this in his sleep.
Hey, you're comparing me to Michael again, aren't you?
I would never do that.
Really?
Yes, really. Because Michael was amazing, and you're a big dummy.
I wish you'd use my name like you use his... Well, you just watch. I'm gonna fight real hard so you HAVE to use my name!



Mikhail has three basic offensive capabilities. A standard large fireball: Tapping the attack button will cause Mikhail to barf up one large, slightly more damaging single shot of burning DPS. The standard fireball has no homing capabilities. It just flies in a straight line at whatever Michael's face was pointed toward.

In addition to the standard shots, Mikhail can also lock onto upwards of six targets in order to fire a series of smaller, homing laser blasts. These shots do around half the damage of the single proper dragon fire.



Another aspect of this type of battle is that while Mikhail can glide around the arena, he is constantly losing altitude. So during the course of the fight you need to constantly be mashing X in order to make Mikhail flap his wings and gain additional height off the ground. It is... kind of really annoying. Doubly so married to the fact that if Mikhail takes any significant damage while in flight... like say from a cannon ball shot to the face... he'll flop straight to ground level.



Okay! Ummm...
What?
Well, I never really learned left from right, sooooo...
...You've got to be kidding me.



There are two halves to sinking this lousy battleship. The first half entails blowing all six cannons on its deck. One or two large fireballs or a couple volleys of homing lasers will take out a single cannon. Just keeping mobile and circling around the vessel is enough to avoid the vast majority of heat being fired our way. Five's naval fleet aren't the best of shots.



SEE!? Battleships are actually super strong!
They can't be stronger than a dragon.
Err...
Cooome on! Cooome on! <flaps wings harder>
You're flying too slow, dummy!
I'm trying, Zero! I'm really trying!
Well, try harder! I want results, not excuses.
Once we sink this thing, we get to see Five, huh?
Yep. Then the real fireworks start.
Oh, yay! Fireworks are the best!
Idiot...





Mikhail's final basic offensive tool is his Stamina attack: just charging and ramming shit with his big dopey head. Setting this boat on fire, igniting all the gunpowder, and torching the crew isn't enough. It needs to be headbutt into submission for good measure. It's the only way that's gonna learn 'em!









And that's a wrap as far as naval combat goes. Five just had the one boat. What? A battleship is fucking expensive. Sure it might be the Land of Seas and the navy should likely consist of more than a tugboat with six cannons on it. It's tough economic times everywhere.



In any case, off to Five's shrine for the conclusion of Chapter 1 and the showdown with Five.



...Wait if Zero knew Five had a huge coliseum shrine just off the coast and its only actual defense was that solitary ship we just sunk... Why did we bother with the last three missions again...? Goddammit, game!








Chapter 1: Verse 3 Highlight Reel



Artwork: Sunken City