Part 107: Episode LXXXII: In Which We Finally Get Zero's Backstory

Episode LXXXII: In Which We Finally Get Zero's Backstory



Music: Aethernox

Well here we are at the final campfire scene of Drakengard 3. I'm not sure how many there have been total. It's got to be at least two dozen between the main game and all the DLC. Good grief, all those smores... This last one is a bit lonely now that we're down to just Mikhail and Octa as our remaining companions.



Feeling lonely, are we?
Yeah. I miss chatting with everyone before bedtime.
No point thinking about it now. Go to sleep.
I really liked having everyone with us, you know?

Sorry, Mikhail. It's the endgame. Those halcyon days of Dito poking a fish carcass with a stick while Cent pulls a definition for shooting fish in a barrel out of his ass and Decadus sits in the corner and groans about the thought of things being pulled out of one's ass are long behind us.

Now then, let's get this mission underway by speaking with Octa.



Ah, yes... I tell you, it is really quite strange... The little scamp won't rise for me tonight. Not a single twitch!
That's unusual.
So much for the great Octa's illustrious career, eh? Oh ho ho ho!
…..
And just when I had your exclusive attentions, too. Such a shame...

I'm going to go out on a limb here, no pun intended, that maybe using your junk as a man-launcher to fling a burly comrade three times your size into low orbit was not the usage intended for your endowment. Just a thought... Anyway, let's get down to business.



.....
Forgive me, my lady. Have I overstepped my bounds?
No. I suppose it's about time. It all started two years ago...



Verse 7: The Truth





We return to the sepia toned past in the Land of Seas. We are a full half year before Zero's original ill-conceived prologue assault on Cathedral City. But don't worry about the time frame too much.



Zero will be fighting her way along the coastal maps during this chapter. But the gameplay really doesn't matter. There's a healthy mix of low level mooks. But mostly, this is just an excuse for Zero to pull up a comfy chair, sit beneath a spotlight in a black void, and take some time in the Narration Zone™.

Don't fret too much, we'll be returning to our regularly scheduled program soon enough. It won't last the remaining 40% of the game like certain titles one could mention.



Music: Kuroi Uta – Instrumental Ingame Version



...was the day I died. ...Now I'm just a corpse being kept alive by the flower's magic. ...A corpse. My brain, my heart, my body—it's all being kept in motion by the flower. I'm no longer alive in any real sense of the word.
This flower is a calamity that threatens the entire world. It's growing. Feeding off me. Eventually, it's going to consume me entirely, and once that happens? Once it's fully grown? ...It's going to destroy everything.
Heh. Pretty shit deal, huh?



I tried to kill myself. Well, technically I was already dead, but... yeah.
Anyway... I tried to rip the damn thing out, but... in the end, that just made things worse. The flower freaked out. Started sprouting these... children. Five little girls, one after the other. They burst out of me and ran off before I could blink.
Basically... To prevent me from killing it, the flower made copies of me. And that's how I ended up with my sisters. Course, these “children” aren't any more alive than I am. So now... The eldest corpse is running around killing all of its little corpse sisters.
...Heh. Insane, isn't it?



They each ran off with a piece of my magic. ...Or the flower's magic, I guess. At first I tried to recapture 'em, but... They had all my power, and I had... nothing.
But you wanna know the best part? After a while, my sisters started fighting for “peace.” They come from a flower that's gonna end the world, and they fight for PEACE? ...Hilarious.
Anyway, that's when I made my choice: I decided to kill my sisters... and then destroy the flower.
So that's about the long and short of it. That's what this whole thing's about.

So there you have it. Remember when I posted all those loading screen blurbs collected in an update earlier in the LP? Well, there was one I omitted. The game can just randomly drop this on you while loading a mission at any time following Ending A:



Spoiled by loading screens. Of course, Drakengard 3. Of course. The actual origin of Zero's particular flower parasite is not really directly given. But there is a fairly clear through-line of it being everyone's favorite pan-dimensional horde of cannibal space babies and friends getting a foothold into the Drakengard world.

Brother One goes on to found The Cult of the Watchers. But I don't think I mentioned he also goes to be the origin of the whole Red Eye disease business that ends up possessing the better part of the Empire. Which is the same business that spills over to NIER's world in the backstory when things go all Drakengard over there. Don't expect to see any cannibal space baby holocaust here, though. That's still a century off before The Watchers/Angels get their shit together enough for apocalyptic invasions. No double dipping in doomsdays.







Once Zero reaches the beaches of the coast, a few landing parties of rather lost sand ogres come ashore to rumble with the Intoner pre-prologue.



But we get some help here to deal with the challenge at hand. Not all the gameplay is irrelevant in this stage.



I learned there was only one option. If I wanted to put 'em in the ground for good, I was going to need a dragon. See, to break the flower's magic, only a dragon, or a weapon made from a dragon, will do the trick. So I joined up with Michael, the strongest dragon of them all. And the two of us worked together.



Music: Kuroi Uta – In-Game Version

Michael!







Michael utterly wrecks all the sand ogres in short order. In case you forgot he was supposed to be kind of a badass prior to the reset button getting pressed on him early on.





Zero.
Yeah?
Are you certain about this?
What's wrong, Michael? You scared?
Bah. I fear nothing!
Heh heh heh. A dragon who reneges on his word? That'd be somethin'.
I would never sully myself so!
Then you now what to do.



...you have to kill me too. Deal?
...Agreed.



While the course we'd been traveling was following the coast back to Zero's future safehouse. There is a new structure ahead that will bring this mission to its close.



...And a familiar face sitting out front waiting for us. At least Accord wrangled herself a better business front location in the following couple of years.



Well, well. Glad to see you're finally interested in hearing me out.
Yeah.
Though, you could sound a bit more thankful, at least...
Just start talking before I tear you apart.
Oooh, scary!



Fine, fine. Listen up. For starters, let's talk about your sisters, shall we? You know? The accursed sisters that you're destined to fight?





And that ends Zero's flashback mission and brings us to the designated <ZERO'S BACKSTORY GOES HERE> block of the LP. We'll be hitting up Zero's DLC Prologue where she meets Michael and they begin their partnership. We've also got Zero and Michael's short stories to hit up around now as well. So look forward to all that.

After a break in the past, it'll be back to Notspain's Cathedral City for the endgame. Literally. Verse 8 is called Endgame. It's been a bumpy road, but Drakengard 3 is drawing toward its final end at last. I'm almost free from Taro Yoko for a couple more years!








Video: Branch D Verse 7 Highlight Reel



Drakengard 3 Cover Art Early Drafts