History YMMV / Drakengard3

** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgeP31XmTck Kuroi Uta/The Black Song]]", the main theme.
** The boss battle themes for the sisters are all great, but Two's theme, "[[https://youtu.be/n5brY5ED384 Leap Wishes / Egregori]]", takes the cake and is easily the best of the group.
*** And then there's the amped up [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzpXqo5AqV4 Raphael version]].
** Also, a remix of ''Drakengard 1'''s "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FMifItpQ8M Growing Wings]]" returns in Ending C.
** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ph4f06Q5ItE Final Song]]", which plays during the boss fight in Branch D. While the final boss for Branch D is [[ThatOneBoss hair-rippingly frustrating]], most players have agreed that the song is gorgeous.
** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGbja6xxM2w This Silence is Mine]]", the credits theme for Ending D.

** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vS_Sb0wSTq8 Seere's Prayer - Sky]]", which originated from the very first game, returns with a remixed version. Like the original, this track conveys a sense of insanity, and builds up to new, surprising vocals.

* BrokenBase: The game's focus on the more fanservicey approach has this status in some circles. Some wanted a focus more on a ''Drakengard 1'' cast, basically a bunch of [[AntiHero Anti-Heroes]]. Some like the new cast since it's unique and also has a female lead.

** Is Cent genuinely loyal to Two in Branch A and only joins Zero because he feels he has to if he wants to maintain his existence, or are his actions an attempt to manipulate Zero into performing a MercyKill on Two? Cent being loyal to Two is present in all routes so his loyalty is unquestionable, but his actions don't make sense if he was trying to protect Two. Namely, Cent kidnaps Mihkail but causes the dragon no harm, and claims to be working under Two's orders, which is a lie since she's not able to truly talk. This suggests that he recognized that Two was too far gone to save, but couldn't bring himself to end her. Route B also brings up elements of this as well: [[spoiler:does he join with the crazed Two solely on his love for her, or is it possibly because he feels has no choice?]]
** Did Octa betray Three because she lost interest in having sex with him or because he was disturbed by her human experimentation? When meeting Three he cites the latter as the reason but she says he's lying and just following his libido. Both may have influenced his decision. The game heavily leans towards the former interpretation, but does acknowledge Three's perspective as being ''somewhat'' true.
* AntiClimaxBoss: [[spoiler:One, at the end of Branch C]]. Unlike the fight against Two in the previous route, and the fight immediately prior to this one, you aren't fighting on even ground at all, due to the boss having a pitifully weak weapon. The only real issue the fight has is [[spoiler:One being much stronger than you in Intoner Mode, which she only activates when you do,]] and can be avoided entirely.
* AudienceAlienatingPremise: The game's initial premise of playing as a character who comes off as a rather unlikable VillainProtagonist for most of her screentime is a rather tough sell--while Zero does get fleshed out considerably more in the other branches, this requires playing through all of Branch A first. The game's link to its predecessors (which were never very successful to begin with) is also very loose, only revealing itself very late in, which causes it to seem InNameOnly at first. Consequently, the game was a rather awful seller. Or, as Demolition D+ put it:

** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgeP31XmTck Kuroi Uta/The Black Song]]" the main theme

** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGbja6xxM2w This Silence is Mine]]" the credits theme for Ending D

* BrokenBase: The game's focus on the more fanservicy approach has this status in some circles. Some wanted a focus more on a ''Drakengard 1'' cast, basically a bunch of [[AntiHero Anti-Heroes]]. Some like the new cast since it's unique and also has a female lead.

*** [[AxCrazy Nero]], one of the last elves alive, is a swaggering sadist and the traveling companion of the [[WellIntentionedExtremist male One]]. Together the two have been slaughtering their way through entire towns and kingdoms in an effort to extinguish [[TheVirus the otherwise-incurable Red Eye virus]]. Unlike his partner, Nero only cares about indulging himself, having fun, and murdering as many people as possible--infected or not--while constantly imploring the male One to become even worse. When Nero and the male One ingratiate themselves to a kingdom by saving its princess, Nero attempts to [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil rape]] her, and is only forced to substitute her with the princess's handmaiden by the male One's intervention. Not even the revelation that his own sister is an OmnicidalManiac dampens the grin on Nero's face; Nero always wanted to destroy the world with his own hands, and when his sister is dead, Nero hacks off his partner's still-living head to keep with him as he moves on to keep spreading the virus and eventually tear apart the world.
*** [[spoiler:[[MasterOfIllusion Nero's sister]], the imposter posing as the female One, is no better than her brother. Likewise a {{sadist}} who tricks the male One into thinking she's his sister before stabbing him [[ForTheEvulz for a sick chuckle]], the imposter [[KlingonPromotion murdered her clan elder to take his magical power]] and then used that power to amass a huge following of people infected by the Red Eye. The healing magic Nero's sister uses is illusory--all of her followers are secretly kept in their physically ravaged states and turned into brainwashed soldiers Nero uses to commit political assassinations and spread the virus even further. Nero's sister is responsible for manipulating war and bloodshed on catastrophic levels, all for the purpose of seeing humanity rend itself apart.]]

* EpilepticTrees: Many believe Zero is the [[spoiler:Grotesque Queen in ''VideoGame/{{Drakengard}}'' as the flower's final form resembles the Grotesque Queen. In ''Drakengard'', it's shown the Grotesque Queen came from another dimension and ''Drakengard 3'' has Mikhail sealing Zero (and the flower) in another dimension. One thing that disproves this theory is the endings aren't connected and ''Drakengard 1'' continues from the side story novel instead of Ending D.]]

* MoralEventHorizon: Four crossed it at the end of her DLC when [[spoiler:she went on a full-blown ethnic cleansing against the elves while they scream in pain and terror.]]

* ThatOneBoss: Four's boss battle is annoying and difficult because you have to hit and destroy four disks while being shot at. No big deal for the first one, but after the first, all of them start moving and throwing green shards at you, making it difficult to hit it. Then you beat that and have to give chase and hit a very small target while large green {{Sword Beam}}s are thrown at you and make you have to dodge. As this is the second Intoner you'll be facing, the jump in difficulty compared to how easy Five's fight was, causes the fight to be much harder then it should be.

** Nero for his sadistic and misanthropic tendencies. It's not strange that some people wished [[spoiler:he died in the manga. Unfortunately, he survives.]]

** If you don't like Dito, then you'll probably be happy that [[spoiler:in Route B, Cent kills him, or in Route D where he gets his joy trampled on for betraying Zero.]]

* UnintentionallySympathetic: Four. The base game makes her appear relatively non-evil, and a lot of players mourned her death... until they played her DLC, which shows she's just as vile as the other Intoners, she's just better at putting a good face on it.

* HilariousInHindsight: Four disliking Decadus' TooKinkyToTorture fetish became this when years later, Four's voice actress, Creator/CristinaValenzuela, would play Darkness in ''LightNovel/KonoSuba'', who is essentially a female Decadus in personality.

-->Yoko Taro, I love you, but sometimes it feels like you derive pleasure from hurting your own sales. 'What do you mean, Demo?' Well, for one, many and most people are going to pick this game up for its story, and when you can reach the credits of a story with a completely unrelatable main character, who does nothing but - spoiler - murder nice people, with motivations fueled seemingly by nothing but lust and power, and call that 'Ending A,' even though half the game's content is locked past that threshold, guess what? That's where a lot of reviewers are going to stop, and draw their conclusions, and [[EightPointEight give a final score,]] and have a bunch of people read it and go 'Oh, that sounds dumb,' and not buy your fucking game.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgeP31XmTck Kuroi Uta/The Black Song]] the main theme
** The boss battle themes for the sisters are all great, but Two's theme, [[https://youtu.be/n5brY5ED384 Leap Wishes / Egregori]], takes the cake and is easily the best of the group.

** Also, a remix of Drakengard 1's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FMifItpQ8M Growing Wings]] returns in Ending C.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ph4f06Q5ItE Final Song]], which plays during the boss fight in Branch D. While the final boss for Branch D is [[ThatOneBoss hair-rippingly frustrating]], most players have agreed that the song is gorgeous.

* BrokenBase: The game's focus on the more fanservicy approach has this status in some circles. Some wanted a focus more on a Drakengard One cast, basically a bunch of [[AntiHero Anti-Heroes]]. Some like the new cast since it's unique and also gives us a female lead.

* EpilepticTrees: Many believe Zero is the [[spoiler:Grotesque Queen in ''VideoGame/{{Drakengard}}'' as the flower's final form resembles the Grotesque Queen. In ''Drakengard'', it's shown the Grotesque Queen came from another dimension and Drakengard 3 has Mikhail sealing Zero (and the flower) in another dimension. One thing that disproves this theory is the endings aren't connected and ''Drakengard 1'' continues from the side story novel instead of Ending D.]]

* HilariousInHindsight: Four dislikes Decadus' TooKinkyToTorture fetish became this when years later, Four's voice actress, Creator/CristinaValenzuela, would play Darkness in ''LightNovel/KonoSuba'', who is essentially a female Decadus in personality.

* ThatOneBoss: Four's boss battle is annoying and difficult because you have to hit and destroy four disks while being shot at. No big deal for the first one, but after the first, all of them start moving and throwing green shards at you, making it difficult to hit it. Then you beat that and have to give chase and hit a very small target while large green SwordBeam are thrown at you and make you have to dodge. As this is the second Intoner you'll be facing, the jump in difficulty compared to how easy Five's fight was, causes the fight to be much harder then it should be.

** If you don't like Dito, then you'll probably be happy that [[spoiler:in Route B, Cent kills him, our in Route D where he gets his joy trampled on for betraying Zero.]]
* TheWoobie: ''Two''. The various events that happen to her in the game make her the only truly sympathetic of the Five Sisters Zero has to kill.

* UnintentionallySympathetic: Four. The base game makes her appear relatively non-evil, and a lot of players mourned her death... until they played her DLC, which shows she's just as vile as the other intoners, she's just better at putting a good face on it.

* EightPointEight: Most reviewers gave the game scores in the [[SoOkayItsAverage average to above average range]]. [[Website/IGN64 IGN]] though? 4/10. A fairly large number of players were upset at this as it was clear the reviewers did not fully play the various routes.

** [[DownloadableContent Four's Prologue Chapter 4]] has its final Verse and "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWecfTMrgNI Out Come The Crawlers]]", a speedy epic track that also sounds like an elegy [[KillEmAll to those]] [[WhatTheHellPlayer you're destroying]].

* AudienceAlienatingPremise: The game's initial premise of playing as a character who comes off as a rather unlikable VillainProtagonist for most of her screentime is a rather tough sell--while Zero does get fleshed out considerably more in the other branches, this requires playing through all of Branch A first. As Demolition D+ put it:
-->Yoko Taro, I love you, but sometimes it feels like you derive pleasure from hurting your own sales. 'What do you mean, Demo?' Well, for one, many and most people are going to pick this game up for its story, and when you can reach the credits of a story with a completely unrelatable main character, who does nothing but - spoiler - murder nice people, with motivations fueled seemingly by nothing but lust and power, and call that 'Ending A,' even though half the game's content is locked past that threshold, guess what? That's where a lot of reviewers are going to stop, and draw their conclusions, and [[EightPointEight give a final score,]] and have a bunch of people read it and go 'Oh, that sounds dumb,' and not buy your fucking game.

* EpilepticTrees: Many believe Zero is the [[spoiler:Grotesque Queen in ''VideoGame/{{Drakengard}}'' as the flower's final form resembles the Grotesque Queen. In ''Drakengard'', it's shown the Grotesque Queen came from another dimension and Drakengard 3 has Mikhail sealing Zero (and the flower) in another dimension. One thing that disproves this theory is the endings aren't connected and ''Drakengard 1'' continues from Ending A instead of Ending D.]]

*** [[spoiler:[[MasterOfIllusion Nero's sister]], the imposter posing as the female One, is no better than her brother. Likewise a {{sadist}} who tricks the male One into thinking she's his sister before stabbing him [[ForTheEvulz for a sick chuckle]], the imposter [[KlingonPromotion murdered her clan elder to take his magical power]] and then used that power to amass a huge following of people infected by the Red Eye. The healing magic Nero's sister uses is illusory--all of her followers are secretly kept in their physically ravaged states and turned into brainwashed soldiers Nero uses to commit political assassinations and spread the virus even further. Nero is responsible for manipulating war and bloodshed on catastrophic levels, all for the purpose of seeing humanity rend itself apart.]]

* ThatOneBoss:
** Similar to the original game, [[spoiler:the TrueFinalBoss is a ridiculously difficult [[UnexpectedGameplayChange rhythm game]].]] However, it's even more difficult because of [[spoiler:[[InterfaceScrew a camera that constantly screws around with the player,]] and the fact that '''''[[KaizoTrap it keeps going after the screen has faded to black as the characters are talking to each other]]''''' ]]. Making matters worse is that you are a OneHitPointWonder during all this, and did we mention that there's no checkpoints, so you have to do the entire sequence in one go or ''start over if you die?''
** Four's boss battle is annoying and difficult because you have to hit and destroy four disks while being shot at. No big deal for the first one, but after the first, all of them start moving and throwing green shards at you, making it difficult to hit it. Then you beat that and have to give chase and hit a very small target while large green SwordBeam are thrown at you and make you have to dodge. As this is the second Intoner you'll be facing, the jump in difficulty compared to how easy Five's fight was, causes the fight to be much harder then it should be.

* {{Tearjerker}}:
** [[spoiler:Mikhael's deaths in the first three endings, as well as Zero's [[DespairEventHorizon reactions to them]]. Especially Route C's.]]
** Two's DLC Chapter. [[spoiler:Her boss fight with the Homunculus has three things that make it a very heartwrenching experience: the voices of Two's orphans (fused into the Homunculus and unaware of their state) wanting her attention, Cent's futile attempts to console Two while wracked with guilt for misusing her Song Powers, and finally, Two's emotional breakdown into a screaming, sobbing, and laughing shell of herself.]]
** [[spoiler:Dito screaming in anger/fear 'No' as he goes after Zero while reverting to his original form.]]

** Is Cent genuinely loyal to Two in Branch A and only joins Zero because he feels he has to if he wants to maintain his existence, or are his actions an attempt to manipulate Zero into performing a MercyKill on Two? Cent being loyal to Two is present in all routes so his loyalty is unquestionable, but his actions don't make sense if he was trying to protect Two. Namely, Cent kidnaps Mihkail but causes the dragon no harm, and claims to be working under Two's orders, which is a lie since she's not able to truly talk. This suggests that he recognized that Two was too far gone to save, but couldn't bring himself to end her. Roue B also brings up elements of this as well: [[spoiler:does he join with the crazed Two solely on his love for her, or is it possibly because he feels has no choice?]]

* AudienceAlienatingPremise: As Demolition D+ put it:

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: While lighter than its predecessors, the game continues the series trend of being very grim. It ''can'' get easy to forget who you're supposed to root for until you learn the full story.

** Is Cent genuinely loyal to Two in Branch A and only joins Zero because he feels he has to if he wants to maintain his existence, or are his actions an attempt tp manipulate Zero into performing a MercyKill on Two? Cent being loyal to Two is present in all routes so his loyalty is unquestionable, but his actions don't make sense if he was trying to protect Two. Namely, Cent kidnaps Mihkail but causes the dragon no harm, and claims to be working under Two's orders, which is a lie since she's not able to truly talk. This suggests that he recognized that Two was too far gone to save, but couldn't bring himself to end her. Roue B also brings up elements of this as well: [[spoiler:does he join with the crazed Two solely on his love for her, or is it possibly because he feels has no choice?]]

*** [[spoiler:[[MasterOfIllusion Nero's sister]], the imposter posing as the female One, is no better than her brother. Likewise a {{sadist}} who tricks the male One into thinking she's his sister before stabbing him for a sick chuckle, the imposter [[KlingonPromotion murdered her clan elder to take his magical power]] and then used that power to amass a huge following of people infected by the Red Eye. The healing magic Nero's sister uses is illusory--all of her followers are secretly kept in their physically ravaged states and turned into brainwashed soldiers Nero uses to commit political assassinations and spread the virus even further. Nero is responsible for manipulating war and bloodshed on catastrophic levels, all for the purpose of seeing humanity rend itself apart.]]