Trivia / Drakengard

• Acting for Two: Caim, what with losing his voice not that far into DOD1, obviously doesn't have that many voice lines; as such, his Japanese voice actor, Shinnosuke Ikehata, was also given the role of Angelus to provide him with a sufficient amount of voice work, while his English voice, Fleet Cooper, was given the role of Inuart alongside Caim.
• Creator's Pest:
  • Furiae is seen as the character who is hated the most by the development team, even referred to as the heroine "who fails to be the part" and only exists for Caim and Inuart's rivalry. Yoko Taro even states that she was created based on his hatred of the Little Sister Heroine trope seen in works, particularly Sister Princess, and embodies the type of woman he would hate to be with.
  • Seere is almost viewed as a joke character as he greatly contrasts against the rest of the main cast, but was seen as necessary to the story as Manah would have otherwise been a Flat Character. Producer Takamasa Shiba views Seere as irritating to the point where he felt haggled when he was requested to add at least a reference to him in Drakengard 3.
• Executive Meddling:
  • During the first game's development, Yoko had to consistently fight Square Enix to preserve the artistic vision of the project, and by the end the team had to make multiple changes to the content based on the advisory board to the point Yoko didn't want to make another game.
  • On Drakengard 2, Yoko was tied up with other projects and was replaced by a different director. Said director ended up making the game more colorful and less oppressive than the first game, under pressure from Square-Enix who thought the first game was too dark and nihilistic and wanted something more mainstream.
• Newbie Boom: As noted on its own page, Nier Automata saw a gigantic boom of new players interested in the wider franchise and curious about the backstory to Automata (that is, D1 and Nier Gestalt).
• Surprisingly Lenient Censor: Drakengard's subject matter was, and still is, so dark and horrifying even by modern standards that its creators were extremely worried that it would not be able to be published. The game was brought to Sony in order to get their approval, but the reviewers at Sony were so exhausted from going through so many other reviews that they gave Drakengard the stamp of approval without even looking at the game. In other words, the censor was too tired to care.
• Trolling Creator: Yoko has earned some infamy for this in the fanbase.
  • He had some really dickish moves planned for Drakengard 3 but didn't follow through on them — namely, calling it Drakengard 4 to confuse fans with the idea of a non-existent third game. Also, he was planning to have it take place in a contemporary setting following the adventures of a Japanese high school girl who would call for her dragon companion using her cellphone. Of course, a few fans think this could be awesome, rather than trolly, since it would by implication be a game set in the oft-mentioned interstitial period between D1 and Nier when White Chlorination Syndrome was ravaging the planet and the Legion was active.
• Troubled Production: Cavia was woefully inexperienced and undermanned for the first Drakengard, and they had trouble with the PS2 hardware when the ground-based battles started to be implemented. This led to the first game's various technical and gameplay problem, which was made worse by the late development shift from "Ace Combat but with Dragons" to "Dynasty Warriors but with Dragons"
• Urban Legend of Zelda: For quite some time, even on this very wiki, it was mistakenly believed that Leonard was away while his brothers were slaughtered without him because he was having sex with an underaged boy in the woods. This is false; while Leonard is canonically a pedophile, there's nothing to suggest he's ever laid hands on a child, and what was actually distracting him in the woods at the time was of a more solitary nature.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The first game was originally going to be just "Ace Combat but with Dragons". However, the release and success of Dynasty Warriors made the team quickly add in ground combat so that they could include something similar. This is why the ground combat is somewhat awkward and clunky.
  • The time theme for the final non-Goddess seal in the second game and the concept art casting Seere in a decidedly sinister light suggests he was the original final guardian.
  • As for the first game, Arioch was apparently supposed to have been eaten alive by normal-sized babies. Onscreen.
  • Yoko Taro revealed in an interview with Game Informer that his original proposal for Ending E was for Caim and Angelus to defeat a giant version of real-life J-pop idol Ayumi Hamasaki in a singing competition. Quite understandably, this proposal was rejected immediately.
  • Early in development the protagonist was written to be Inuart, with Caim serving as his rival. The idea to switch them around was raised and it stuck.
  • Verdelet was originally going to be a main villain and possibly even one of the Final Bosses. His creepy design is a remnant of this.
• Working Title: "Dragon Sphere".

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