My cousin first brought this home as a rental, and after a few frustrating minutes we put it away. Nobody liked it. But he was always bad about returning stuff, so a week turned into a month turned into a year, and the next thing you know Drakkhen just ended up being a permanent part of our collective library. But in spite of its flaws, there was just always something that drew me to it. It was one of my first experiences of an open, fully explorable, 3D world. A bizarre, surreal, low-poly landscape full of weird creatures, huge panther heads, living constellations, and black giants with red hearts. A beautiful, colorful day/night cycle, and one of the best soundtracks on the SNES. I'm a fan of games that have a unique, singular, original vision, things like Out of This World, Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee, The Neverhood, Ico, Outcast, etc. and Drakkhen is right up there with me as one of those. One trick to this game is that if you want to do some grinding, just park your party in a fairly low level spot and leave the game on overnight. Random encounters are automatic even if you're just standing still. Every once in a while you'll wake up to see that you had bad luck with the RNG and you've been wiped out, but if you stick to the early, lower level areas of the game the chances of that are slim. It will make leveling up slower, but you'll be asleep. As you get more powerful, you can risk going to more dangerous areas to do the same trick.
I was about 8 or 9 when I first played this. I remember being totally awe-struck at the graphics and landscape. My imagination went wild as I yearned to explore this entire new world that existed on my television. Then I wandered into some water and everybody drowned. It wasn’t so much that my party got killed, it was the way that they just kind of idly accepted their instruction to walk into the water and just stood there while the last moments of their lives passed by. I was used to heroes like Cecil and Kain who had feelings and would FIGHT for themselves and each other. These fools just accepted their fate without so much as a twitch. Something about that was just incredibly depressing, a level of depression no 8 year old should ever face. Screw this game.
I kinda like games giving you that freedom, like "sure go ahead, go drown yourself, jump down a cliff or touch this dangerous-looking machine, we're not gonna stop you", but it all depends on the saving system. If you risk losing like an hour of progress from stupid curiosity, then no thanks.
they didn't idly accept their "trama" they were just controlled badly. the player is the brains behind the operation, not the Captain! the player IS the party, not thier "boss".
I remember playing the X68000 version, but I played this SNES version mostly - I even get to the first temple in this version. I also played Dragon View though. The game was initially came out in 1989, and this version came out in 1991. The Amiga version was later published by Data East in the USA, and appropriately enough, Infogrames published the SNES version in Europe. This game was also released for Atari ST, FM-Towns, Sharp X68000, and the NEC PC-98. One of the programmers in this version, Osamu Tani, hid some easter eggs that were placed in the endings of the game - there is a guitar if you had none of any party members died in the game.
I found out a few things that helped me beat this game. -The bows are the best weapon due to their range and accuracy. -Always be armored up. -Don't hit the rocks or tombstones. Those are when the dog heads pop up. -Don't fight flying creatures. Your weapons suddenly start missing 90% of the time. -Don't fight Dragons unless you're well geared and at a high level. -Avoid the Gargoyle. At. All. Costs!
I remember this being one of our very first SNES experiences. It was so different from anything we’d had on the NES. The atmosphere from the haunting soundtrack, the lack of any clue as to what to do, it actually keeps me coming back time and time again every few years... for about five minutes. Yet, I know I’m going to want to pick it up again. If only the game had actually been any good. “Vaguely unsettling” is a tremendous way to describe this, Drunk.
Man, I really loved Drakkhen. I played it so long and figured out the story as well as sequence of events. I had a blast and loved its quirkiness. It gets a lot of hate and I see why but I still adore the game. Really love the music, it is so relaxing.
I would play this game late at night and fall asleep to its amazing and peaceful soundtrack, only to have my party encounter a wandering merchant and gain 0 xp.
I downloaded the soundtrack on my phone, this game was cool at the time, I played it when I was a kid and yes I beat the game it took a while to figure it out but it was interesting and yeah I would most likely play it again
@@battlefox8460 I recorded the soundtrack as I played level to level biome to biome and all the castle music and incidentals too. All of it, off of my stereo TV onto a Stereo mic (dual mic) cassette deck back in 1992. I converted that to CD and then to MP3.
I rented this game probably 3 times and was obsessed with it. I'd stay up all night wandering the map and getting legit creeped out. Had pretty much no idea what I was doing, but I managed to fumble my way into beating it. I still love to listen to the music and hear about other people's experiences with it. I doubt any SNES game left as much of an impression on me as this one.
Because the graphics were primitive back then i always felt that games like drakkhen had a charming creepiness. Kinda like exploring a fantasy land that exists outside of space and time
I really love this game. It was the first game I ever played that really had an atmosphere. Way before Super Metroid taught me about permeating with style and Resident and Diablo taught me to be apprehensive about playing games at night, Drakkhen would kinda freak me out. The music was extremely moody, the enemies and the sounds they made were absolutely bizarre, and the landscape was surreal.
I don't care what the popular consensus is, I still love this game and go back to it every couple of months to this day. Maybe it's partly nostalgia, but it's one of those games that even today I won't shut off after 5 minutes because of boredom. There's just something about it.
Drakkhen (SNES) is hot garbage, but I've had conversations with a few folks that swear by it, and it almost makes me want to give it a chance, then I play it for 5 minutes and am IMMEDIATELY reminded that these people lie on the fringes of the gaming paradigm, but I still admire their enthusiasm. Dragon View on the other hand is fantastic. Took a risk on it, and bought it on a whim for 5 bucks back in like 2005, still fire that game up once or twice a year.
I'm not one of those people that swear by Drakkhen but I did revisit it last year with a steadfast determination to conquer that which my 12-year-old self could not. I kept a guide close at hand because I don't have time for this game's BS these days, and, if I'm being honest? It was actually pretty fun to get through. I'm sure a lot of that is nostalgia talking, and I would never recommend this game to anyone unless they already had a spark of curiosity about it. But hey, finishing it was a pretty special feeling for me.
I'ma just say that this is my favorite SNES game man. And there is no nostalgia talking because I am not old enough to be nostalgic for the game. But yeah, in my opinion it is a pretty good game.
Its a good game, but 1989 PC game was terrible and poorly executed. SNES fixed lot of those issues when it was ported to that, also better music aswell! Just overall more understandable gameplay mechanic as compared to PC where it made zero sense on what you are supposed to do
The game being translated from French to Japanese to English reminds me of the episode of NewsRadio when Jimmy James had his autobiography translated to Japanese and back into English and the title of the book became Macho Business Donkey Wrestler.
You should definitely check out Star Wars Revenge of the Sith for GBA. It's a cute little beat em up where you play as Obi Wan or Anakin, with a lightsaber, and force powers that you can add and upgrade with money collected from killing enemies. I've never seen anybody talk about it, and I never knew of its existence, so it's surprising that it's a good little game
This game is extremely ambitious for the time, if we think about it, it is probably the first game to have a 3D overworld on consoles and it is basically an open-world, this for a 16-bit console is impressive.
A wandering merchant approaches the SNES drunk's youtube channel to leave a thumbs up. Someone sold me this game for almost nothing 25 years ago and I felt in love immediately with it, the graphics, the setting, the vibe, the music (Oh the music!, I still like to hear it when I'm reading something). The "Mini me from the past" found that you must visit the castles in certain order to finish the game, so I squized the juice out of that cartridge until the day I had to say goodbye to my videogame collection. I have the ROM in my cellphone because I like to play it from time to time. Even if this game is a downgraded port I still like it. SNES Drunk forgot to mention something, the leveling up system is as random as the fights but not as random as the magic system. The game story is about a soap opera between dragons and to save your life (human specie) you must serve as messenger carrying incendiary messages between the game castles to thrigger events in Drakkhen. This is one of those games that you just love or hate, just don't forget that Hey don't go to that INN!! They serve lousy drinks!! Just kidding!!
Is a shame there are games that people give up on, because they can't figure out how to play the game, because the developers assumed people would figure it out.
Drakkhen (and also 7th Saga) have some of the strangest and occasionally unsettling enemy designs of SNES RPGs. Case in point: Drakkhen's "I love you" monster.
I loved this game and still pull it out sometimes. The music, the constant imagination from the sense of unguided exploration. Can be frustrating, yes, and I seldom make it all the way through before returning to less tedious midgame experiences. But it's still a special jewel in the SNES treasure collection of my mind.
This is why I love this fucking channel. I remember this game. I remember so very little of it that it's always haunted the back of my mind. I never knew what it was. All I remember is the very basic but cool graphics (especially the buildings and trees) and the four characters on the bottom. My dad was playing it. I was probably 2-3 years old, forming my very first memories. How insanely satisfying.
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and disagree with you on this one. I'm not saying that this is the best game ever for the SNES, but I definitely feel that it's worth playing along with early titles like Super Mario World and Pilotwings to see what we all expected from the SNES right from the outset. A game console which could match or outperform an Amiga or my RAM-loaded 486 was a pretty cool thing. I was a PC kid growing up and I still play mostly on PCs, but I have to admit that watching Amiga games running even smoother than native almost won me over. Honestly, if there had been a keyboard and mouse, or any R/W media for it at launch, I might have begged harder for it.
Another great video man. I don't think i would have been happy with this one as a little kid but its fun to look back at videos like this. Thanks man and i hope your doing well in these troubled times. Hugs to clyde.
This was my first rpg. Loved it. I level grinded so much that by the time I reached the last boss my scout traveled across the screen and just one shot him🤣! It was hilarious! Fond memories.
Yeah, it is a guilty pleasure for me as well. I know its horribly flawed, but for some reason I just can't help but enjoy it. Though these days I would presume play it one of its other ports rather than the SNES version, despite the SNES version's great soundtrack.
Excellent choice for a topic. I finally decided to see this one through last December and managed to finish it (with the help of a guide). All of your criticisms are absolutely valid, but I somehow walked away from the game feeling satisfied. This really isn't for most people, but if you want to try something off the beaten path, it might be worth a shot.
This doesn't fix most of your problems with this game, but here's something you may have overlooked: When you're walking around on the world map, you can press L/R to bring out your party members or to call them back. This lets you run from battles and save your characters from drowning. (You can actually walk across bodies of water if you're patient.) Whenever the giant snakes or wolf heads appear, you can just run from them. You'll die a lot less this way. I personally love this game. I always have. Just like any other weird game, it only becomes fun once you get good at playing by the game's rules. I get why most people have little patience for it though. I'm glad that you gave it a chance at least.
What murders this game for me is the drowning: you'd be strolling by a river and meet an enemy, or even a friendly NPC, and your guys will deploy to interact with it and one or two will just walk into the water and drown.
I wish I still had this cart. I bought it at a pawn shop for $10 back in 95. Took me a while but I finally did get into it. I even beat it. The lore, soundtrack and everything is great imo. You can get your team mates back by visiting an Anak. The healers there will revive them.
Hey, just wanted to say thank you for the videos you make. It takes me back to being a kid and seeing all these badass game covers on the shelves of a store, never knowing what's behind it. Pocket money was short and the amount of games was insane. It always sparked my imagination. You're like giving me opportunity to see all this stuff again and it's great. Like a tiny time capsule. Plus it gives me inspiration on what I might add to my retro collection. So thanks for the inspiration and merry Christmas.
I played it feverishly for tens of hours. I’m not sure why I quit 🤔 The best thing about it is the music. When the frustration was almost unbearable, I could seek refuge in the music and be lulled back to a more docile state...
Recently did a full Lp of this with a friend. Hopefully it geta uploaded some day. It was hilarious. This game is just one insane moment to the next. Freaking shark in the moat around the castle eats everyone. So crazy. We also did the sequel and it's a really good game. Way better. But it has quite possibly the longest snes ending ever. We'll over 20+ minutes of just ending
This was one of my first RPGs. Well, I had played Dungeons of Daggorath on the Tandy Computer several years earlier, but I was very young, but I still read the instructions and figured it out, but never beat the harder enemies. But with Drakkhen, I was in 6th grade, I was able to figure this game out. I liked the music and open world, it was very unique at the time. I liked how you either had gems given to you as good deeds, or sometimes you got the gems for killing an enemy. I think I played through it a few years ago, and figured out that having the wizard use certain spells constantly, allowed you to steamroll much of this game. I had won this game in the day too. The ending credits shows scenes of the game, and in the music credits, it shows a scene in the desert near the water, and there are some guitars on screen, almost implying there was a music number at one point during the adventure.
For Me, 7th grade started in the Fall of 1991. The Super Nintendo arrives. Drakkhen is one of My first rentals on a Friday night. Happy beautiful memories were then made on the SNES for a lifetime that Fall. 🍁❤️💯💪🎮 90s Forever!!
I owned this game as a kid. I loved the atmosphere and music of the game and it's what kept me playing all the way to the end, with no guides! My friend's dad also had this game and he could clear it in about 2-3 hours. It took me months, though.
Your comments about the time period are absolutely correct. My brother and I were big into RPGs and we got this at or near its release and thought it was very cool, but really had no idea what to do with it. I distinctly remember my brother messing with me and saying "head to those mountains" and I got super excited thinking you could do that....jerk! Something about it's opaqueness is oddly alluring even to this day.
Hey can you talk about the sufami turbo and its games it’s a really interesting SNES add on that never made it outside of Japan that has some exclusive games for it
Looking back on this, it’s hard to believe my best friend and I beat this when we were children. We must have really been desperate for any rpg to have even played this.
I've always been fascinated with the cover art and have been tempted to get this a few times over the years. I was just about to bite the bullet and get it complete on Ebay for 30 bucks but decided to finally watch a review. Your review saved me 30 bucks. Still, awesome cover art.
Drakkhen was one of our first snes games, my brother and me where kids and had a hard time figuring out, but honestly I was amazed of the 3D map and the soundtrack for me was one of the best music I heard. Once my older got to the ending of the game was a weird but feel good moment. I have great memories with this game even though I agree with the flaws you mentioned. I guess the nostalgia of those times is which makes my opinion biased I suppose. Great vids man, I like your work a lot, keep them coming, cheers
I played this on the Amiga back in the day, it was... honestly a great experience for how not well made it is. Never did beat it, but when it and dragonview came to steam I picked them up there and finished it (the DOS version). Definitely worth it.
Oddly, the music in the SNES version is entirely original.. In my opinion the soundtrack of this game is amazing; its so unique and atmospheric.. I think the music is the only reason I stuck with this game as a kid; I got the game close to when the system came out and admittedly didnt beat it until the late 2000's. Its a weird one but I love it for all the nostalgia and mystery :) Thanks and have a beautiful day!
My neighbor's older brother had this game. He was pretty far into it with a high level team. I was to young to grasp it, but running around the world in first person and seeing the basically auto battles left a huge impression on me. Also, check out the Continue episode on this game. It's fantastic and one of my favs. "Check out this SCIENCE Dragon! He's telling it like it is!"
Seeing that transition in Dragon View from an encounter with an enemy in the 3D map to that beat 'em up almost Street Fighter look for the battle just made Dragon View Super attractive to me and makes me wanna play it at least once... It looks like the fighting is pretty fun
I drowned the first time that I played it, it was amusing...it's one of the things that led me to really enjoy this game, like falling in the moat in King's Quest. It's cool that the game is open-ended enough to give you the freedom to make dumb mistakes like that, and not to hold your hand but instead to allow you to freely explore it's expansive in-game world however you like.
@@Offensive_Username obviously the SNES still holds up against the cruel passage of time. Desert Island scenario, definitely the PS2, most likely the SNES.
"You check them out by hitting the press button thing" No, you press the eyeball thing to read whose symbol's is whose. You press the symbol that corresponds to the element of their castle if you want to open the doors and any other symbol if you want to fight a guard. Oh and you should try talking to people who stick around on the screen, you might get more fights or even make some of them bugger off. This stuff isn't about giving it a chance, the game is definitely deeply flawed. The most important thing to watch out for is literally anything that looks red on the upper screen because it's probably something you can either take or look at. If you can't do either, it's something to activate. And for the love of god run from battles if you even think you're losing using the L+R buttons. My usual strategy is wailing on those infinite spiders in Hordkhen's Castle as soon as I can afford to. They get progressively stronger and eventually the only way to hit them is to use Strength magic or to leave the castle and come back. Also I pile as many swords as I can in my inventory and sell them early at the shop. Then I can at least afford to buy some life containers for each character since... okay, the SNES version got the short stick, once a character is dead, their items can't be used or given to someone else.
When I started my computer programming career in 1989, I remember the demo for this playing on the Amiga in my local software store. I LOVED the main song! I later learned that the tune was based on a song by Vangelis. In any case, the Amiga version had some kind of pseudo 3D sound effect with the music. It was COOL! I was hoping to hear it once again in this video, though I knew that this would be unlikely, given that this is for the SNES version. I know that if I ever hear it again, the sound will take me back to the good old days. I never played the game, by the way.
I rented and eventually owned this game. I get why people dont like it, and why it may not be playable to people today. But I really liked this game. It was rough starting out but once you got on track you could start appreciating it. This games appeal is all about a slice of atmosphere. The video mentions all the good about this game that contributes to that, but glosses over it. The worst parts about this are going in with expectations of something more fast paced and linear. This game does not hold your hand. It lets you figure it out yourself. It could stand to convey itself better in the beginning and get you used to the interface and gameplay style. But after that you should be exploring on your own.
I was in 5rh grade. I remember asking my friend if I could borrow a game and he said sure. Next day at school he handed me this game and laughed. I took it home, and while I didn't like it at first, it totally grew on me and I ended up loving it. I couldn't put it down and played through it multiple times.
This looks pretty amazing for an SNES game though, I mean this could've passed as a 32x game. That 3D exploration and battle system looks fucking awesome
I'm not sure where we got it from or why, but we had the DOS version of Drakkhen. Now that I'm older, I'm more able to appreciate the backstory written in the manual, but at the time I had no idea what I was doing. Most of the time, I'd just blitz around the overworld getting lost and - like you said in the video - eventually having the entire party killed by the giant beast heads at a crossroads, or one of a number of what I think were meant to be elemental boss monsters that just kind of show up whenever they feel like it.
Holy crap I think about this game all the time! I had no idea what was going on. I thought it was because I didn't find out how to play RPGs until college. Up to that point all I knew was "touch flower, get power" game play. Thank you for making young me feel not so stupid.
This game is on Steam, too, apparently. This looks so cool with the moving view in the overworld, and a story involving dragons that aren't always mean, but it also looks hard to play, like he said.
I remember playing this game as a kid on PC. It was one of my first pc games and I really wanted to like it, but I was completely lost. This was before I had internet so I couldn't look up what to do, I just wandered around totally confused until I quit. Still as a part of my childhood their is some kind of deep-seated nostalgia towards the game. I do remember it also giving me an odd vaguley unsettling feeling as well which I kinda liked, but I just couldn't figure out what was going on or what to do.
Vaguely unsettling is right on the nose. It was interesting, but overly incomprehensible back in the day. Those random encounters with the constellations attacking used to give me anxiety, because they always seemed to wreck my party and I couldn't tell if I had any real agency in a fight.
My cousin first brought this home as a rental, and after a few frustrating minutes we put it away. Nobody liked it. But he was always bad about returning stuff, so a week turned into a month turned into a year, and the next thing you know Drakkhen just ended up being a permanent part of our collective library.
But in spite of its flaws, there was just always something that drew me to it. It was one of my first experiences of an open, fully explorable, 3D world. A bizarre, surreal, low-poly landscape full of weird creatures, huge panther heads, living constellations, and black giants with red hearts. A beautiful, colorful day/night cycle, and one of the best soundtracks on the SNES. I'm a fan of games that have a unique, singular, original vision, things like Out of This World, Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee, The Neverhood, Ico, Outcast, etc. and Drakkhen is right up there with me as one of those.
One trick to this game is that if you want to do some grinding, just park your party in a fairly low level spot and leave the game on overnight. Random encounters are automatic even if you're just standing still. Every once in a while you'll wake up to see that you had bad luck with the RNG and you've been wiped out, but if you stick to the early, lower level areas of the game the chances of that are slim. It will make leveling up slower, but you'll be asleep. As you get more powerful, you can risk going to more dangerous areas to do the same trick.
That shark scene reminded me of Homer trying to eat his potato chips but the greyhound puppies keep stealing them.
Doh!
*snake bouncing around the screen aimlessly*
THERE'S NOTHING UNUSUAL.
Ha ha ha, I love how that's the note this video went out on
It happens all the time, making it usual!
It's like the 16bit version of "This is fine".
I was about 8 or 9 when I first played this. I remember being totally awe-struck at the graphics and landscape. My imagination went wild as I yearned to explore this entire new world that existed on my television. Then I wandered into some water and everybody drowned. It wasn’t so much that my party got killed, it was the way that they just kind of idly accepted their instruction to walk into the water and just stood there while the last moments of their lives passed by. I was used to heroes like Cecil and Kain who had feelings and would FIGHT for themselves and each other. These fools just accepted their fate without so much as a twitch. Something about that was just incredibly depressing, a level of depression no 8 year old should ever face. Screw this game.
Shit, that’s some level 10 trauma.
I kinda like games giving you that freedom, like "sure go ahead, go drown yourself, jump down a cliff or touch this dangerous-looking machine, we're not gonna stop you", but it all depends on the saving system. If you risk losing like an hour of progress from stupid curiosity, then no thanks.
they didn't idly accept their "trama" they were just controlled badly. the player is the brains behind the operation, not the Captain! the player IS the party, not thier "boss".
@@fucheduck lol. that's how I read this. "I walked into water, and drowned! stupid game!"
@Mikey I take it you never beat this game😆 I beat it when I was 10 or 12
7:55 - "There's nothing unusual."
I legit laughed out loud. Thank you.
Lmao
Even knowing it was bad, was still good to see parts of the game I never had the patience to access. Good video!
I remember playing the X68000 version, but I played this SNES version mostly - I even get to the first temple in this version. I also played Dragon View though.
The game was initially came out in 1989, and this version came out in 1991.
The Amiga version was later published by Data East in the USA, and appropriately enough, Infogrames published the SNES version in Europe.
This game was also released for Atari ST, FM-Towns, Sharp X68000, and the NEC PC-98. One of the programmers in this version, Osamu Tani, hid some easter eggs that were placed in the endings of the game - there is a guitar if you had none of any party members died in the game.
This was on the X68000 and FM Towns?!? Those versions must've been AWESOME!!! O_O
I found out a few things that helped me beat this game.
-The bows are the best weapon due to their range and accuracy.
-Always be armored up.
-Don't hit the rocks or tombstones. Those are when the dog heads pop up.
-Don't fight flying creatures. Your weapons suddenly start missing 90% of the time.
-Don't fight Dragons unless you're well geared and at a high level.
-Avoid the Gargoyle. At. All. Costs!
It was pretty bad so don't bother kay
I remember this being one of our very first SNES experiences. It was so different from anything we’d had on the NES. The atmosphere from the haunting soundtrack, the lack of any clue as to what to do, it actually keeps me coming back time and time again every few years... for about five minutes. Yet, I know I’m going to want to pick it up again. If only the game had actually been any good. “Vaguely unsettling” is a tremendous way to describe this, Drunk.
Man, I really loved Drakkhen. I played it so long and figured out the story as well as sequence of events. I had a blast and loved its quirkiness. It gets a lot of hate and I see why but I still adore the game. Really love the music, it is so relaxing.
Do you smoke crack ? I think you smoke crack
I would play this game late at night and fall asleep to its amazing and peaceful soundtrack, only to have my party encounter a wandering merchant and gain 0 xp.
I downloaded the soundtrack on my phone, this game was cool at the time, I played it when I was a kid and yes I beat the game it took a while to figure it out but it was interesting and yeah I would most likely play it again
most of the hate comes from people who prefer graphic novels to patience and playing a real game.-requiring exploring.
@@battlefox8460 I recorded the soundtrack as I played level to level biome to biome and all the castle music and incidentals too. All of it, off of my stereo TV onto a Stereo mic (dual mic) cassette deck back in 1992. I converted that to CD and then to MP3.
Those constellation monsters brought me to the edge of despair as a child.
always quit when I saw them at night, never could beat them.
Lol yes!
Even now as a grown woman, I still half expect the stars to start moving when I look up. It scarred me so much, I used it in one of my books. XD
Say what you will about instadeath-by-constellation as a gameplay mechanic, but it was evocative as hell!
@@DVX_BELLORVM no kidding
I rented this game probably 3 times and was obsessed with it. I'd stay up all night wandering the map and getting legit creeped out. Had pretty much no idea what I was doing, but I managed to fumble my way into beating it. I still love to listen to the music and hear about other people's experiences with it. I doubt any SNES game left as much of an impression on me as this one.
I love these old wacky games. even when they fell short, it was cool to see chances taken during the early days of gaming.
I have no idea why, but I always found Drakkhen's primitive 3D landscape charming and fascinating.
Because the graphics were primitive back then i always felt that games like drakkhen had a charming creepiness. Kinda like exploring a fantasy land that exists outside of space and time
I really love this game. It was the first game I ever played that really had an atmosphere. Way before Super Metroid taught me about permeating with style and Resident and Diablo taught me to be apprehensive about playing games at night, Drakkhen would kinda freak me out. The music was extremely moody, the enemies and the sounds they made were absolutely bizarre, and the landscape was surreal.
I don't care what the popular consensus is, I still love this game and go back to it every couple of months to this day. Maybe it's partly nostalgia, but it's one of those games that even today I won't shut off after 5 minutes because of boredom. There's just something about it.
Drakkhen (SNES) is hot garbage, but I've had conversations with a few folks that swear by it, and it almost makes me want to give it a chance, then I play it for 5 minutes and am IMMEDIATELY reminded that these people lie on the fringes of the gaming paradigm, but I still admire their enthusiasm. Dragon View on the other hand is fantastic. Took a risk on it, and bought it on a whim for 5 bucks back in like 2005, still fire that game up once or twice a year.
I'm not one of those people that swear by Drakkhen but I did revisit it last year with a steadfast determination to conquer that which my 12-year-old self could not. I kept a guide close at hand because I don't have time for this game's BS these days, and, if I'm being honest? It was actually pretty fun to get through.
I'm sure a lot of that is nostalgia talking, and I would never recommend this game to anyone unless they already had a spark of curiosity about it. But hey, finishing it was a pretty special feeling for me.
Hey I'll defend that hot garbage. That game is MY steaming liquid diarrhea. Like he said there was nothing else at the time
Honestly, it's still a fun and interesting crpg despite it's flaws; the beginning is the roughest spot, to be sure.
I'ma just say that this is my favorite SNES game man. And there is no nostalgia talking because I am not old enough to be nostalgic for the game. But yeah, in my opinion it is a pretty good game.
Its a good game, but 1989 PC game was terrible and poorly executed. SNES fixed lot of those issues when it was ported to that, also better music aswell! Just overall more understandable gameplay mechanic as compared to PC where it made zero sense on what you are supposed to do
The game being translated from French to Japanese to English reminds me of the episode of NewsRadio when Jimmy James had his autobiography translated to Japanese and back into English and the title of the book became Macho Business Donkey Wrestler.
Oh damn, I hadn't seen that in forever, it's maybe the best moment in that entire show
You should definitely check out Star Wars Revenge of the Sith for GBA. It's a cute little beat em up where you play as Obi Wan or Anakin, with a lightsaber, and force powers that you can add and upgrade with money collected from killing enemies. I've never seen anybody talk about it, and I never knew of its existence, so it's surprising that it's a good little game
oh yeah, that game is awesome! It turned Mace Windu into a boss fight, which I always wished the movie had done.
That game was one of my favorites back in the day. Heck, I still think it's worth playing.
I'll give it a gander.
A bit late, but ya this game was something I really enjoyed
This game is extremely ambitious for the time, if we think about it, it is probably the first game to have a 3D overworld on consoles and it is basically an open-world, this for a 16-bit console is impressive.
A wandering merchant approaches the SNES drunk's youtube channel to leave a thumbs up.
Someone sold me this game for almost nothing 25 years ago and I felt in love immediately with it, the graphics, the setting, the vibe, the music (Oh the music!, I still like to hear it when I'm reading something). The "Mini me from the past" found that you must visit the castles in certain order to finish the game, so I squized the juice out of that cartridge until the day I had to say goodbye to my videogame collection.
I have the ROM in my cellphone because I like to play it from time to time. Even if this game is a downgraded port I still like it.
SNES Drunk forgot to mention something, the leveling up system is as random as the fights but not as random as the magic system.
The game story is about a soap opera between dragons and to save your life (human specie) you must serve as messenger carrying incendiary messages between the game castles to thrigger events in Drakkhen.
This is one of those games that you just love or hate, just don't forget that Hey don't go to that INN!! They serve lousy drinks!! Just kidding!!
Is a shame there are games that people give up on, because they can't figure out how to play the game, because the developers assumed people would figure it out.
*In Drakkhen, game plays you!*
Drakkhen (and also 7th Saga) have some of the strangest and occasionally unsettling enemy designs of SNES RPGs. Case in point: Drakkhen's "I love you" monster.
I LOVE seventh Saga. Had no idea what it was but picked it up a few years ago. Loved playing it.
And both are just crazy with their unbalanced difficulty, both are flat out brain cancer to play.
One Word:"It's ungreat." The best Ranking System in one Quote :D
(giant snake bounces around the playfield)
"There's nothing unusual here."
I loved this game and still pull it out sometimes. The music, the constant imagination from the sense of unguided exploration. Can be frustrating, yes, and I seldom make it all the way through before returning to less tedious midgame experiences. But it's still a special jewel in the SNES treasure collection of my mind.
This is why I love this fucking channel. I remember this game. I remember so very little of it that it's always haunted the back of my mind. I never knew what it was. All I remember is the very basic but cool graphics (especially the buildings and trees) and the four characters on the bottom. My dad was playing it. I was probably 2-3 years old, forming my very first memories. How insanely satisfying.
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and disagree with you on this one. I'm not saying that this is the best game ever for the SNES, but I definitely feel that it's worth playing along with early titles like Super Mario World and Pilotwings to see what we all expected from the SNES right from the outset. A game console which could match or outperform an Amiga or my RAM-loaded 486 was a pretty cool thing. I was a PC kid growing up and I still play mostly on PCs, but I have to admit that watching Amiga games running even smoother than native almost won me over. Honestly, if there had been a keyboard and mouse, or any R/W media for it at launch, I might have begged harder for it.
Total length of video: 500 secs.
Total length of "SNES Drunk": 5 secs.
1% of the video was spent listening to "SNES Drunk."
Another great video man. I don't think i would have been happy with this one as a little kid but its fun to look back at videos like this. Thanks man and i hope your doing well in these troubled times. Hugs to clyde.
I don’t know why but I actually like this game. Loved the music, I think it’s music was one of the best of SNES games.
Me too, and the music is definitely good. It is challenging but just takes playing to figure it out, like many retro games. Certainly not impossible.
This was my first rpg. Loved it. I level grinded so much that by the time I reached the last boss my scout traveled across the screen and just one shot him🤣! It was hilarious! Fond memories.
Yeah, it is a guilty pleasure for me as well. I know its horribly flawed, but for some reason I just can't help but enjoy it. Though these days I would presume play it one of its other ports rather than the SNES version, despite the SNES version's great soundtrack.
Wow can't believe you actually did this game. I've been hoping you would. Now I'm feeling snes hungover
That shark moat had me laughing my ass off.
Excellent choice for a topic. I finally decided to see this one through last December and managed to finish it (with the help of a guide). All of your criticisms are absolutely valid, but I somehow walked away from the game feeling satisfied. This really isn't for most people, but if you want to try something off the beaten path, it might be worth a shot.
1:37 pretty sure that's a cat. Like a jaguar.
Which we can blame atari for the extinction of
The giant dog heads remind me of the top of Cat's Lair, from Thundercats.
This doesn't fix most of your problems with this game, but here's something you may have overlooked:
When you're walking around on the world map, you can press L/R to bring out your party members or to call them back. This lets you run from battles and save your characters from drowning. (You can actually walk across bodies of water if you're patient.) Whenever the giant snakes or wolf heads appear, you can just run from them. You'll die a lot less this way.
I personally love this game. I always have. Just like any other weird game, it only becomes fun once you get good at playing by the game's rules. I get why most people have little patience for it though. I'm glad that you gave it a chance at least.
The night themes would play in my head when I work late nights as a temp and had to ride my bike home.
I absolutely love your videos, dude. I’m always so happy when ya upload new videos. ☺️
Some of Drakken's music should be on your next SNES CHILL MUSIC compilations. Btw i love those compilations
What murders this game for me is the drowning: you'd be strolling by a river and meet an enemy, or even a friendly NPC, and your guys will deploy to interact with it and one or two will just walk into the water and drown.
Imagine being a character stuck in that game. I get why they would drown themselves. It's the only way out lol
Loved the music and creepy atmosphere
The Blue’s Clues reference made my day at 5:15.
I spit my morning coffee at "blue skidoo".
"Novelty always has a shelf life" probably my favorite quote from your channel as it can apply to almost anything... Games, politics, music, anything.
Damn right. These pioneer games experimented/risked/dreamed of gimiks for all future games to learn from.
I wish I still had this cart. I bought it at a pawn shop for $10 back in 95. Took me a while but I finally did get into it. I even beat it. The lore, soundtrack and everything is great imo. You can get your team mates back by visiting an Anak. The healers there will revive them.
Hey, just wanted to say thank you for the videos you make. It takes me back to being a kid and seeing all these badass game covers on the shelves of a store, never knowing what's behind it. Pocket money was short and the amount of games was insane. It always sparked my imagination.
You're like giving me opportunity to see all this stuff again and it's great. Like a tiny time capsule. Plus it gives me inspiration on what I might add to my retro collection. So thanks for the inspiration and merry Christmas.
I used to wonder about this game when I was a kid. first time I actually see gameplay and learn what it's about. great video as always!
I played it feverishly for tens of hours. I’m not sure why I quit 🤔
The best thing about it is the music. When the frustration was almost unbearable, I could seek refuge in the music and be lulled back to a more docile state...
I'm the end the all the Dragons land in front of you and you present the stones.
Recently did a full Lp of this with a friend. Hopefully it geta uploaded some day. It was hilarious. This game is just one insane moment to the next. Freaking shark in the moat around the castle eats everyone. So crazy. We also did the sequel and it's a really good game. Way better. But it has quite possibly the longest snes ending ever. We'll over 20+ minutes of just ending
Oufff, I remember this game, nostalgic but rough to play today... Thanks SNES Drunk for the amazing content!
5:17 I have not laughed that hard since COVID quarantine, thanks man.
"Defeated is the monster!" - Game Grumps
Always love these. Stay safe and healthy, keep on rocking. I think one of my favorite things about the SNES was the cover art for the games!
This was one of my first RPGs. Well, I had played Dungeons of Daggorath on the Tandy Computer several years earlier, but I was very young, but I still read the instructions and figured it out, but never beat the harder enemies. But with Drakkhen, I was in 6th grade, I was able to figure this game out. I liked the music and open world, it was very unique at the time. I liked how you either had gems given to you as good deeds, or sometimes you got the gems for killing an enemy. I think I played through it a few years ago, and figured out that having the wizard use certain spells constantly, allowed you to steamroll much of this game. I had won this game in the day too. The ending credits shows scenes of the game, and in the music credits, it shows a scene in the desert near the water, and there are some guitars on screen, almost implying there was a music number at one point during the adventure.
It had great title music screen music.
I rented this game several times as a kid because I thought it MUST be cool - it was a 3D fantasy game . I tried so hard to understand .
Thank you for making this review, I remember playing this as a kid and being completely confused.
For Me, 7th grade started in the Fall of 1991. The Super Nintendo arrives. Drakkhen is one of My first rentals on a Friday night. Happy beautiful memories were then made on the SNES for a lifetime that Fall. 🍁❤️💯💪🎮 90s Forever!!
I owned this game as a kid. I loved the atmosphere and music of the game and it's what kept me playing all the way to the end, with no guides! My friend's dad also had this game and he could clear it in about 2-3 hours. It took me months, though.
So glad you mentioned Dragonview. Such a great game, and deserves so much more attention than it gets.
Your comments about the time period are absolutely correct. My brother and I were big into RPGs and we got this at or near its release and thought it was very cool, but really had no idea what to do with it. I distinctly remember my brother messing with me and saying "head to those mountains" and I got super excited thinking you could do that....jerk! Something about it's opaqueness is oddly alluring even to this day.
Hey can you talk about the sufami turbo and its games it’s a really interesting SNES add on that never made it outside of Japan that has some exclusive games for it
Drakkhen: “Your princess is in another castle!”
Mario: “Are you taking the piss?”
Looking back on this, it’s hard to believe my best friend and I beat this when we were children. We must have really been desperate for any rpg to have even played this.
I think that Severed (by Drinkbox) has a similarly eerie vibe, only this time it's on purpose.
Severed is pretty cool!
I've always been fascinated with the cover art and have been tempted to get this a few times over the years. I was just about to bite the bullet and get it complete on Ebay for 30 bucks but decided to finally watch a review. Your review saved me 30 bucks. Still, awesome cover art.
The pixel art is so beautiful.
Drakkhen was one of our first snes games, my brother and me where kids and had a hard time figuring out, but honestly I was amazed of the 3D map and the soundtrack for me was one of the best music I heard. Once my older got to the ending of the game was a weird but feel good moment. I have great memories with this game even though I agree with the flaws you mentioned. I guess the nostalgia of those times is which makes my opinion biased I suppose. Great vids man, I like your work a lot, keep them coming, cheers
Older brother*
Had this game. Loved it. Wish they would remake it!!!
I played this on the Amiga back in the day, it was... honestly a great experience for how not well made it is. Never did beat it, but when it and dragonview came to steam I picked them up there and finished it (the DOS version). Definitely worth it.
Thank you SNESdrunk, great review... Stay strong.
I remember this game being advertised in some of my game magazines at the time. The box art and dogs heads look so familiar.
This an Moria were my favourite games for my Amiga. Absolutely loved it.
I LOVE this game. It's one of my favorites on the SNES.
what are some of your other favorite games?
Oddly, the music in the SNES version is entirely original..
In my opinion the soundtrack of this game is amazing; its so unique and atmospheric.. I think the music is the only reason I stuck with this game as a kid; I got the game close to when the system came out and admittedly didnt beat it until the late 2000's.
Its a weird one but I love it for all the nostalgia and mystery :)
Thanks and have a beautiful day!
My neighbor's older brother had this game. He was pretty far into it with a high level team. I was to young to grasp it, but running around the world in first person and seeing the basically auto battles left a huge impression on me.
Also, check out the Continue episode on this game. It's fantastic and one of my favs.
"Check out this SCIENCE Dragon! He's telling it like it is!"
Seeing that transition in Dragon View from an encounter with an enemy in the 3D map to that beat 'em up almost Street Fighter look for the battle just made Dragon View Super attractive to me and makes me wanna play it at least once... It looks like the fighting is pretty fun
When I first got my snes back in 2000, This Was one of my first RPG Games and I died when I went in my first castle lol
I drowned the first time that I played it, it was amusing...it's one of the things that led me to really enjoy this game, like falling in the moat in King's Quest. It's cool that the game is open-ended enough to give you the freedom to make dumb mistakes like that, and not to hold your hand but instead to allow you to freely explore it's expansive in-game world however you like.
SNES in 2000?
@@Offensive_Username - He obviously didn't grow up with it then...my question would be "BACK in 2000?", that was like practically YESTERDAY! O_o
@@Offensive_Username obviously the SNES still holds up against the cruel passage of time.
Desert Island scenario, definitely the PS2, most likely the SNES.
I love this game back in the day. I wrote a thorough strategy guide for all my friends since there was little information available about it
For April Fools, I sincerely hope you make a 7 minute video of the just the SNES drunk intro.
"You check them out by hitting the press button thing" No, you press the eyeball thing to read whose symbol's is whose. You press the symbol that corresponds to the element of their castle if you want to open the doors and any other symbol if you want to fight a guard. Oh and you should try talking to people who stick around on the screen, you might get more fights or even make some of them bugger off.
This stuff isn't about giving it a chance, the game is definitely deeply flawed. The most important thing to watch out for is literally anything that looks red on the upper screen because it's probably something you can either take or look at. If you can't do either, it's something to activate. And for the love of god run from battles if you even think you're losing using the L+R buttons.
My usual strategy is wailing on those infinite spiders in Hordkhen's Castle as soon as I can afford to. They get progressively stronger and eventually the only way to hit them is to use Strength magic or to leave the castle and come back. Also I pile as many swords as I can in my inventory and sell them early at the shop. Then I can at least afford to buy some life containers for each character since... okay, the SNES version got the short stick, once a character is dead, their items can't be used or given to someone else.
🖤
When I started my computer programming career in 1989, I remember the demo for this playing on the Amiga in my local software store. I LOVED the main song! I later learned that the tune was based on a song by Vangelis. In any case, the Amiga version had some kind of pseudo 3D sound effect with the music. It was COOL! I was hoping to hear it once again in this video, though I knew that this would be unlikely, given that this is for the SNES version. I know that if I ever hear it again, the sound will take me back to the good old days. I never played the game, by the way.
I rented and eventually owned this game. I get why people dont like it, and why it may not be playable to people today. But I really liked this game. It was rough starting out but once you got on track you could start appreciating it. This games appeal is all about a slice of atmosphere. The video mentions all the good about this game that contributes to that, but glosses over it.
The worst parts about this are going in with expectations of something more fast paced and linear. This game does not hold your hand. It lets you figure it out yourself. It could stand to convey itself better in the beginning and get you used to the interface and gameplay style. But after that you should be exploring on your own.
I was in 5rh grade. I remember asking my friend if I could borrow a game and he said sure. Next day at school he handed me this game and laughed. I took it home, and while I didn't like it at first, it totally grew on me and I ended up loving it. I couldn't put it down and played through it multiple times.
That combat looks amazing. Never seen anything like it. It also kind of cracks me up
This looks pretty amazing for an SNES game though, I mean this could've passed as a 32x game. That 3D exploration and battle system looks fucking awesome
I remember beating this game. I liked it.
mindrapeart Olympus nes game looks better ☺️
@@only257 - They were both excellent games TBH...
Hey its Frank, Langley, Bill, and Big Bill! Good to see you again my friends
I'm not sure where we got it from or why, but we had the DOS version of Drakkhen.
Now that I'm older, I'm more able to appreciate the backstory written in the manual, but at the time I had no idea what I was doing. Most of the time, I'd just blitz around the overworld getting lost and - like you said in the video - eventually having the entire party killed by the giant beast heads at a crossroads, or one of a number of what I think were meant to be elemental boss monsters that just kind of show up whenever they feel like it.
Holy crap I think about this game all the time! I had no idea what was going on. I thought it was because I didn't find out how to play RPGs until college. Up to that point all I knew was "touch flower, get power" game play. Thank you for making young me feel not so stupid.
This game is on Steam, too, apparently.
This looks so cool with the moving view in the overworld, and a story involving dragons that aren't always mean, but it also looks hard to play, like he said.
"There's nothing unusual"
Hmm...you don't say, last clip of the video
Good to see Brian, Bill, Langley, and Big Bill finally made it to 7/11
I remember playing this game as a kid on PC. It was one of my first pc games and I really wanted to like it, but I was completely lost. This was before I had internet so I couldn't look up what to do, I just wandered around totally confused until I quit. Still as a part of my childhood their is some kind of deep-seated nostalgia towards the game. I do remember it also giving me an odd vaguley unsettling feeling as well which I kinda liked, but I just couldn't figure out what was going on or what to do.
Vaguely unsettling is right on the nose. It was interesting, but overly incomprehensible back in the day. Those random encounters with the constellations attacking used to give me anxiety, because they always seemed to wreck my party and I couldn't tell if I had any real agency in a fight.
I remember seeing this when I was younger but never got the chance to play it. Maybe I'll play it on an emulator one day.
The music was amazing in it! My Dad beat this game back when I had it for the SNES!
great content! will you ever cover wizardry?