I rented this several times as a child. I think it was the closest I ever felt to being high without drug use, something about its ambient environment lulled me in.
The most iconic SNES launch screenshots: Super Mario World, F-Zero racing, Pilotwings skydiving, Actraiser centaur boss battle, and...Drakken's giant dog heads shooting lasers at you.
Very grateful to people like you who sit down and give a detailed overview based off a firsthand playthrough. This is the type of game I was always curious about but lacked the time or patience to actual sit down and play myself. This is a nice compromise. Well done.
Drakkhen and Ultima:Exodus on the NES will always hold a part of my heart, as a kid I watched my dad play and somehow beat both of those games, pre internet guides. I even have nostalgia for the jank. I love Drakkhen.
I think one of the differences between you and most other players is that you are really patient, which is a virtue necesary to get into obscure games. Sometimes when I see you play an "bad" game I feel this "I got this game for my birthday, I don't have any other and I wont get another until chrismass so I better start enjoying it" kind of vibe and I really like it.
This made me chuckle! In a way you're right! I have a sense of accountability when I stream a game to try my best to finish it since the people watching also want to see it through. But also in that vein, most people ended up having to like the games they had to finish... hmmm. Interesting!
I received Dahkken for my birthday not long after it came out. After acknowledging the shortcomings of the gameplay, something kept me playing it.... maybe it was just trying to overcome the absurd difficulty, but I was constantly drawn to it. The open world environment was revolutionary to me (I was still a few years away from beginning my elder scrolls addiction), and the soundtrack was one of my favorites on the console. Especially the night stuff. I never played the PC version, so I've got nothing to compare it against, but I can't help but love it. ..... then again, maybe I have Stockholm syndrome....
I grew to love a lot of the games I had growing up whether they were good or not, but I do think your feelings are founded in this game's goodness too. The night tunes are amazing. I wanted to include more of them in the review but they were a little too quiet. I do enjoy putting them on while I'm working though!
If you don't mind giving an older game a try and if you didn't already play it as a kid, give Betrayal at Krondor a try. It also has a pseudo open-world environment that was mindblowing to my ten-year old self, and I keep going back to it. (Pseudo because certain areas are restricted depending on the chapter you're in, but a lot of the world is open at various points)
@@hungrygoriya I hope you enjoy it! I also hope it has aged as well as I think it has, but nostalgia is strong with this one for me. It's the game that got me into reading and writing fantasy, so I'm well aware of my bias. It usually comes up for sale on GOG fairly frequently (Currently so at $3.89!), and last I checked it runs fine on Windows 7 and 10. Comes bundled with Betrayal in Antara.
@@TuxedoMagnum Ooooo that's a steal! I'll have to pick my husband's brain and see if it's in our physical collection somewhere but otherwise, I might pick that up. It's cool that it was such an influence for you!
I didn't come close to beating Drakkhen when I rented it as a kid, but I always remembered it was rather cool and unique and the music was atmospheric.
I played this game on the SNES when I was younger, and absolutely loved it. You mentioned it briefly in the video, but the fact your character's "paper doll" actually changed to reflect the equipment they were wearing blew my mind at that time. Something so small made me fall in love with this game and, although you're right it was frustrating at times, I never stopped playing it.
I'm so glad you liked it too! I wish I'd come to it a little earlier in life just to experience it back in my more formative years. Who knows how many more RPGs I might've picked up after experiencing this one earlier in life? It's definitely got its quirks, but it's a fun one nonetheless. It's possible to look past some of the rough parts and laugh at the cruelty of things like the swamps and the sharks. I hope more people give this one a try sometime!
I received this game for Christmas in 1990, I have so much nostalgia for it despite it being too difficuly for me at the time. I really love going back and hearing the moody music and magical atmosphere. Thanks for saying good things about it!
Things that are different require patience is a great lesson for all of life. I love how you eschew "angry" reviews and honestly engage with the games that were only made to be enjoyed.
Oh really? I don't know much about the Evercade but it's good to know that Drakkhen's available for it. I hope if you do play it again that you enjoy it. The manual gives you a good push on where to start and the rest of the hints flow naturally as you progress on through.
I agree. Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation cheekily taking the piss out of a game for 5 minutes is fine, but people who do nothing but push out a contrived, forced rant for half an hour is tiresome. Yes, I am talking about the Angry Video Game Nerd.
@@three-quartersbadger2929 If his rants were totally real and he wasn't playing a character, I think it'd be different. I don't usually gravitate towards angry stuff but I enjoy the older stuff as a form of comedy more than anything serious. I have been watching AVGN for many years and have always appreciated finding out about new games from that channel. If there's one thing I especially appreciate, it's the personal experience presentation versus a lot of game history, etc. I want to know how people actually feel about a game and you never leave one of those videos with that question lingering, haha
Chill out and give people you don't know the benefit of the doubt... The AVGN's purpose seems to celebrate these games in his own unique way. I might be mistakened but both him and mike matei mentioned that and the fact that show is mainly about humor. The exaggerated negative criticism is not supposed to be taken at face value, from what I understood. If you stayed in your friends house as a kid in the 90s, having fun by bitching about all these über hard games was inevitable. It was either that or admit you were trash (the latter was never really an option). The issue is that some of his fans are unrefined troglodites that didn't live that era and that, therefore don't get the requirement for a few pinches of salt, proceeding to use AVGN's takes as incentive to brigade reviews of these titles. So blame them but J. Rolfe is not responsible for that behavior. Ggs!
Drakkhen was pretty much the most unnerving and yet addicting video game experiences of my youth. I remember staying up until 2 AM just running around, having no idea what I was doing, and being terrified of running into something horrible.
It's a very unique experience. I didn't experience anything quite like it before I played it and have yet to enjoy anything else that's similar in the same way.
bought a sealed copy i saw at my local shop as a kid- just tryna buff up a tiny collection i was starting- came to realize it was kind of a gem. playing another rpg recently this crossed my mind again.
I've only ever played this game on SNES and it was definitely one of my favorites. My little brother and I used to control 2 characters each and managed to beat the game multiple times.
Gotta love that instruction manual's description of the Agility stat: _"The greater the agility value, the more effective the character will be in battle."_ Wowee, that is truly one of the ProTips of all time! 😂
Wasn't there a game, I think reviewed on this very channel, where the instruction manual just said for the sword "will help you do better in the game" or something.
I forget how I ended up owning this cartridge when I was 15 pr so but I put it off for a while. It seemed difficult and felt different than most games at the time. But when I actually gave it a chance I was blown away by the vibe and music. Walking around at night was so beautiful. Combat was great too. Thanks for the video. Its so good to hear someone elses opinion on this rare game.
I'm so glad you came around to it eventually. Getting immersed in the music and general vibes of this game was one of my favourite parts. The combat, once I figured out who to run from and how to survive drowning, was awesome! I hope others give this one a try.
I've been directed here because I keep trying to stream Drakken OST into DnB vaporwave and breakcore. Some SNES soundtracks are legendary. Secret of Evermore is over the top.
In the Eastern half of the desert zone there is a monster with a red silhouette of a dancing woman who repeatedly says "I love you" with different pitch and speed while attacking you. No joke check it out for yourself
I loved Drakkhen honestly. Even after playing other RPG’s of the time. Pro tip you can avoid drowning by rapidly changing characters while moving. I even owned Dragon VIew the sequel
Oh really? I didn't realize that you could avoid the water that way. I just tapped the shoulder buttons like I was running away from a battle and that seemed to work.
Despite all the times that I have seen this game mentioned and seen advertised in many video game magazines since it is an early snes title this is actually the first time I've seen such a detailed review on this game. This game doesn't really interest me that much since I'm a hardcore jrpg player, but it's actually nice to see what this game truly is about and the good points and bad points about it. The fact that you beat the game yourself and you get to see the game for all of its positive negative aspects is one less game that you need to beat for yourself. On to the next title.
There's a lot there that I think people just write off completely without giving it much of a chance. I thought it was a blast and had some good laughs at all the weird stuff that tries to get you.
@@hungrygoriya A lot of the game's charm isn't always apparent. It's unfortunate that it's a bit linear but I've taken days to play it just to enjoy the music and ambience the game can provide. It's PC versions can be scary though. I love this game, flaws and all. I love it's music especially (hence why I redid it's soundtrack). Drakkhen deserves a chance.
Yeah! It's funny to contrast the tranquility here to an RPG soundtrack like Lufia 2's where they're mainly emulating a full band with a drum kit. Two totally different feels!
So glad I found this hidden gem of a channel. Played this game back in '93 when I was only 10. Wasn't able to apppreciate this game at the time but have grown to appreciate what it accomplished in its day.
I'm glad you found me here! I think Drakkhen is a lot better when you're older, to put it bluntly. Being a kid and trying to figure this out would've been pretty tough. Random stuff happens very often!
The Nintendo port is far easier than the previous versions. I played the original Atari ST version and the later Amiga and MS-DOS (VGA) ports, all in French. I can confirm that there are several instances of "lost in translation". Computer ports allow to include two characters of the same class in your party, provided that they are of opposite sexes. It is like you are selecting four characters out of a pool of eight. On the computer ports, enemies are brutally stronger. I had to thread very carefully even through the first castle ("donjon" in French). The computer ports include no compass and no automap. Players have to learn how to get oriented with the sun (rise east, set west) and the moon (oddly, always south), then using the mountains along the horizon, then other landmarks. It gave me a sense of accomplishment. Many other elements were omitted in the Nintendo port. No magic wands, no magic rings, no flasks, no pools in the castles. Even some castle furniture was omitted. On the other hand, no wandering merchants in the original. There is just one, in a house in the frozen north-east. Final note: Drakkhen is the third game in a series, after "Mandragore" and "Oméga, Planète Invisible" (the latter only available in French and German). Those two earlier games were not role-playing games, though, "just" action-adventure games.
@@hungrygoriya No, constellations are hostile, instead of useful. A character in the Nintendo port suggests to get oriented with the stars, while the same guy in the French original clearly refers to the sun and the moon.
The monsters that appeared when the stars moved was always scary; almost horror movie like. I do like that you can separate your characters. You can have them in several rooms to deal with traps and puzzles.
Yeah it's totally something out of a horror movie! It scared the heck out of me when it happened the first time. I did like that you could separate your party too, but I rarely did it. I mostly kept everyone together and once in a while, someone would get paralyzed and I'd be wondering where I left them, haha
I didn't hate it as a kid, and I surely don't hate it as an adult. I think it's interesting, also, those constellations totally scarred me. Now even as an adult, when I look up at the night sky, I fear the stars will start moving
This video is amazing. I am so glad someone finally, finally explained Drakkhen in-depth and gave it the critical analysis it really deserved. It is so difficult to find that much information about it online. Like you mentioned, people try to steer others away from it "because it's bad". Ever since the Game Grumps video all those years ago, Drakkhen is often only found when being made fun of. If something hard to explain suddenly happens, then it's just a bad game being a bad game. But you didn't do that. You gave way more knowledge of this game than I have ever seen before! I didn't know you could read things in the castles. I didn't know there was a map. Everyone said there wasn't one because they didn't want to play around with the game that much. Everyone said there was no story, but there was! Just like there is a direction to moving around, and a logic to the encounters. Drakkhen is such an overlooked game with all its flaws.
I try to get the most out of every game I play and only use the manual for advice/help the majority of the time. This game has a lot going for it and is a ton of fun once you get used to the interface and some of the quirks about battles and how people level up. Drakkhen deserves way more love than it gets and I'm glad I gave it a try with an open mind. Thank you for your kind words too! I appreciate it!
I have to admit, you have way more patience then most people. You have played a lot of games that from the looks I don’t think I would’ve played for very long before bailing.
Well, I might also just have a knack for finding fun where most others don't see it. I don't get frustrated at games nearly as much as I see other people do.
The problem with this game mostly stems from how it was one of the first RPGs for the SNES in the West. I imagine that the game could have been better if the developers had more time with it, but something tells me that the production was probably rushed to get something out for the console.
This was one of the few games I had for the snes growing up, so I managed to play through the whole game. It gets super easy as you upgrade equipment. The morning song is in my head often.
It definitely gets easier as you find better stuff. I remember getting the Dragon Sword (or some kind of dragon equipment) and that really flipping things to my advantage. And the soundtrack is so good. I put it on a lot when I'm working and it's perfect.
The music in this game was so unique! (Really everything about it!)I absolutely loved the night music outside in Drakkhen - I even still hear it in my head if we are camping at night lol
It seems so rare to meet someone who's played Drakkhen, and even more rare to hear about it from someone who had the patience to play through the entire game. I rented this game to play as a little kid and it was a frustrating (and scary!) experience. A few years ago I tried to give it another shot as an adult, but gave up on it and moved on to other things. Thanks for making this video, I feel like I have some insight on how to appreciate older games like these. I'm a bit inspired to revisit this one again.
I honestly try to come into every game with an open mind. This is fun once you get used to what the game wants from you, and I had plenty of laughs along the way too. So many unexpected and silly things happened!
I remember that when the constellations decided to swoop down and kill me was around the time I decided to take Drakkhen back to the rental shop early. It was a major disservice to us 90's kids that you could never count on a rental game to actually come along with its manual. For instance, I didn't know until just a little while ago that you set your party's attack mode and they auto battle. The soundtrack takes me all the way back to the early Super NES days, though. It sounds a lot like Lagoon, another "objectively terrible" game that I absolutely love.
Yeah, I can't imagine playing this without a manual. Even as a full grown woman, there were still aspects I struggled to figure out with a manual and with a bunch of people's brains to pick in chat while I was streaming it. It was really good once I got the basics down! The soundtrack is so good... so relaxing and nice for such a mean game, haha
I know first hand how difficult it can be to put in the effort with some old games, yet I am one of those who tinkered with this game years ago and wrote it off. With your reminder that there is good with the bad I can see how I never gave the game a fair chance. I am looking forward to giving this one another go. Once again thank you for the insight and awesome video.
I've only been honest in my take on this game, but I'm glad to hear it's inspired you to have a second look. I think it'd be really easy to pass over it, especially as a kid or without a manual. Enjoy it if you decide to give it another try.
I haven't started collecting for the SNES yet but I plan to do so. I'm primarily a Sega Genesis guy. However I have been expanding my collection to the NES, Sega 32X, Sega CD, Sega Master System, PS1, PS2 and PS3. I like investigating various RPG games to add to my collection so that I can play them in-between Electrician Construction Jobs. I will keep this game in mind when the time comes that I start collection for the SNES.
there were things about drakkhen that i couldn't forget. funky music, the passage of day and night, the constellations coming to life and fighting you! i came back to this game several times even after i beat it. i LOVED all the mysteries and quirks in the castles, like the water that teleported you, the poison rooms, and the little fireplace blob creature in the first castle basement. not the best snes game, but truly one of the most remarkable
@@hungrygoriya no, YOU did. i don't know if you;ve seen the continueshow episode featuring drakkhen but watching them try to figure this game out in 30 minutes had me crying laughing. it reminded me of my brother and his friends trying to play it when i was a wee tot. they dismissed it as rubbish but i, on the other hand, experienced weird drakkhen themed dreams that night and had to see everything this ugly duckling of an rpg offerred. i did not know it was french. did you know that the melody at the anak shrine and that groovy tune during character creation are the same? anyway. this review was a joy. i have my notifications on so i'll see if you decide to stream an LP of this one
Having a game like represent the closest you've ever come to a vicarious alternate reality, the advent of 3-D open world exploration, was a trippy and memorable experience I'm grateful to have had. Older folks weren't interested, and younger people had much more vivid worlds, like Grand Theft Auto and the like.
While the gameplay has that late 80s PC RPG crust I absolutely adore the atmosphere and soundtrack. There is just something so creepy but yet relaxing about it, the empty overworld combined with the occasional sunset really adds to it. Thankfully this game is one of the very few SNES RPGs that is reasonably priced, I might pick it up one day to give it a chance.
The price is definitely right! I hope you enjoy it if you try it out. That early game learning curve is tough but once you get going, the adventure has some good flow.
I feel like Drakkhen's setting, especially with the incredible flavor of the dragons' names and scheming, could be *incredible* for a tabletop campaign.
For sure! I've never played any tabletop, but from what little I know of how it all works, I agree wholeheartedly. I wonder if someone's done that already!
I didn't even know this game stemmed from a PC version. I did not play this on original hardware years ago. Instead, I played on emulator and felt this game really did have a number of things working for it that the casual gamer may disregard or not appreciate as much. As always, you are one of the most knowledgeable and adept people in analyzing and convincing others why games should be better respected than quickly hated on. Masterful job by you in this video!
Preach it, Goriya! ;) I'm the only person I know who owned AND COMPLETED this game on SNES as a kid. I didn't LOVE it, by any means, but I certainly did enjoy my time with it. The overworld was clunky and annoying to navigate, admittedly (though it was novel, at the very least!), but exploring the castles was what drew me in and made me keep coming back -- I didn't know at the time that it was based on a computer game, but it definitely had the feel of one, and the novelty of that alone was enough to make the game feel exotic and interesting. Plus, I was SUPER into castles and medieval weaponry and such as a kid, so I REALLY dug going through all the different rooms, looting all the different armor, etc. It was so immersive for me! I also remember talking about the game with my friends and making fun of its insanely hard-to-pronounce dragon names. I remember Nakkhtka (SP?) in particular being one of my favorites to say out loud, since it involved making a K sound, a T sound, then another K sound in rapid succession without a single vowel sound between them, which is just SO AWKWARD, yet somehow satisfying. ;) I'm sure I was mispronouncing it, but to be fair, I'm sure EVERYONE was mispronouncing it. Heheh. I also loved the weird music. I really enjoyed the soundfont used for this game, and as you say, the chill, atmospheric tracks were a real joy to listen to... but then you get to the Wise Man with his weird autotuned grunting, or the dragons with their unique funky 5-second looping war beats, and it's just super quirky and entertaining. This video really brought me back to my childhood, as I haven't thought about Drakkhen in a long time. Thanks for another great watch!
I think if I could've gotten the basics down as a kid, I would've loved this if I had it for all the reasons you mentioned here. The sibling names were so mindbending, haha... I made a little map on a notebook so I could remember whose castle was where in case I needed to backtrack, and I had to go a few letters at a time while I was writing them down so I didn't butcher them. I'm sure my map's filled with spelling mistakes! The merchant music is so funny. The "voice" font and the randomness of that song always made me crack up, especially since so many of those merchant characters came with doomsday messaging! And my pleasure. I'm happy to share my thoughts on this fun little game with everyone. I hope it'll get some more people interested in what's honestly a very fun and unique adventure.
I think a lot of the problem with home computer ports was nearly entirely down to the translation from mouse/keyboard to controller. Having to map a device with over 80 buttons to one with only eight often either made the ports feel really clunky or have a huge chunk of the original game removed to compensate. and this was going on way into the 2010's until they decided to simplify the original PC version's controls to begin with. (that or they intended to also release the game on console, so have that as the flagship control method) Sometimes they found better ways than the original, like with Theme Park, but most of the time they just stuck it either in forgetful multi button presses, or through a labyrinth of menus.
Yeah, these are all good points. The game I have the most experience with like this is King's Quest V on NES, and it's obviously way more intuitive to play the way it was originally intended. I'd love to play more PC ports though. I enjoy the challenge!
I rented this game many times as it was an early title from the debut of the SNES. An early lesson for me was giving the entire party bows to fight with. While not as strong as fireballs, they kept your party safe from most enemies melee attacks and cost no MP. Makes early-game leveling so much easier.
@@hungrygoriya Yeah, you can buy them after a couple of levels. I usually sell off excess found gear or loot to afford them. But all characters can use them, even casters.
I remember my friend bought this game when he first got his snes. For 3 kids sharing time with the console, we just didn't have the patience for learning the gameplay. I've always wanted to revisit it to see if I'd like it. Thanks for the video.
Do you think you will revisit it? It's honestly a lot of fun once you figure out how the fights work. There's lots more than just the overworld wandering too. I loved exploring the different castles. Either way, thanks for watching!
I grew up playing nes and snes games in the 90´s and even though I later moved on to other consoles, I still kept playing those two into my late teens. When I was 17, I saw this game in a local store, almost discarded and bought It since I loved the cover art. I don´t know exactly what I was expecting but It probably wasn´t this rpg with weird 3d navigation. I started playing and the mistery of the game, combined with the exploration and music just got me. I played It for almost 3 months and even though I didn´t finish it, I did enjoy It. I played It while I helped a friend study during school break so he wouldn´t have to stay a grade below. It marked that time for me and I remember It with joy.
❤ Thank you. You helped me unlock a core memory of playing a game I was too young to comprehend at the time. 30 years of wondering if my memory was real, has been solved.
Oh right on! Glad to help somehow. I had a similar experience a few years ago when I was trying to remember the name of a Sherlock Holmes text adventure I'd played when I was really young and that felt so satisfying to remember.
This is the first SNES RPG I played back in the early 90s. To this day, I'm amazed by its soundtrack. It a weird, intriguing, and too random game, yet I couldn't stop playing it. Eventually I found bows and ranged attack would kill anything and started making progress. I think this game didn't get much love because it's not the typical JRPG that people expect in consoles, at least back then. Although I have to admit it's neither the one of the best PC-based RPG ever but it has its charm. I also played the so called sequel, Dragon View. A much better experience in my opinion, though it doesn't feel like a sequel at all. Thanks for letting me remember this game!
I wish I would've tried out a bow at some point! That probably would've really helped my cause! I loved this game and all its uniqueness, and its weirdness too. There's nothing quite like it! I also really liked my experience with Dragon View. It's definitely a more polished game but I find it hard to compare to Drakkhen just because of how much more depth it has. It's similar but a different beast altogether at the same time! Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts with me here.
I remember hating the drowning system with a passion when I was trying to cross the narrow land bridges. That's the most I remember about the SNES version though I own the PC version digitally.
I am so glad to see that you covered this game fairly. I personally love it and it is one of my favorite RPG's. In fact, it was my very first RPG, hence my rose colored glasses. This game, along with Super Mario World were my first SNES games back in the winter of 91. My initial reaction to this game was like most people who react to it now, which was... WTF is this? I got frustrated, put the game down after a while and forgot about it. However, once I started playing more accessible RPG's like Final Fantasy 4, I decided to go back and give it another shot. And once I spent some actual time with it figuring out how the games systems worked, it became one of my favorite RPG's. I also like that you pointed out the games artwork and how good it is. I quite enjoyed the dank, foreboding sort of atmosphere that the interiors of those castles created. In fact, Drakkhen just screams "atmosphere" in general. The game always had a habit of putting me slightly ill at ease due to the strange music and generally creepy vibe. Like something was always lurking just out of view... and wouldn't you know it, things frequently were! :D For the past 30 years I never really knew if Drakkhen was a genuinely good game, or if I was just blinded by nostalgia. Especially since I've seen hardly any "good" reviews of it on the internet. But your balanced and fair review made me realize that perhaps, at the least it is an underappreciated curiosity. *edit* And while I'm sure someone has mentioned it already, the SNES version is the one to play for a couple reasons. #1, the music is way better and was completely redone for the port. But #2 is a big one... which is... the Amiga, DOS and other PC versions lacked an in game map. So yeah, that would be pretty brutal IMO. While the SNES version's story and dialog got somewhat lost in translation, I think it made up for it in other important ways.
It makes me really happy to read a first-hand account of this one from a long-time fan. Thank you for sharing your experience with the SNES version. For all the reasons you mentioned, while the other versions are a curiosity, I still think the SNES game would reign supreme. The soundtrack alone is worth playing it with no mouse in my opinion. I think objectively, there's a great game here even if it's not like other games and might not feel as polished. Maybe it's not meant to though, you know? The ride through Drakkhen is a wild one and I think anything too smooth would feel wrong in a universe with so much whimsy and weird to experience. I hope more people give this game a try someday. I meant it when I said that Drakkhen really deserves it.
I found your channel through the red cow arcade podcast. You should definitely be a guest on there. They had great things to say about you and now Im a big fan !
I was very honoured to be mentioned by them! I've heard from a few people here that have popped over from their channel so some more thanks are in order.
I played it on the Amiga 2000 in the very early 90's, it was a bit obtuse. I did enjoy it after learning certain things. Obtuse things I remember: 1) You started unequipped with your base gear and the equip menu was a little hard to find 2) That damn water 3) The weirdly placed auto-kill enemies like the stars and crossroad dog I don't recall if I read the manual, which might have helped. I think I beat two of the elemental challenges and the experience was moderately good. Eye of the Beholder was a better Amiga RPG experience for me.
The menus were pretty confusing at first, I agree. And the water made me laugh out loud the first time that happened. I panicked trying to switch characters when I should've just told the whole party to run, and that's the clip I showed in the video here. The crossroad dog put so much fear into me... it's right near where you start the game too! At least it's upfront with you about what to expect! I still need to play Eye of the Beholder one of these days. It's definitely on my list of SNES RPGs to find.
The first RPG I ever really got into as a kid. I'm a huge RPG fan now at 39yo. Japanese and western games alike. The magic I felt as a kid especially with the soundtrack at night captured my heart. I would just sit and listen and dream. Recently I was playing Skyrim VR and connected a direct line from Drakkhen to my present gaming. Magical game, even the shortcomings, perhaps especially because of the shortcomings. I replayed it recently, it's confusing but doesn't take long to beat.
There's such serenity in the nighttime soundtrack and its ambience. I did really love this game completely, even its weirdness and its little difficulty curve at the beginning. I didn't really find it confusing since the siblings always told you where to go next. Getting there was the hard part, and trying to figure out why my armour kept blowing up, haha
I think I would've enjoyed this as a kid if I could've gotten going, but I definitely appreciated it more now in my 30s. I'm glad you came around on it!
This game is honestly super ahead of its time. It sort of feels like a proto Elder Scrolls/KoToR experience with the first person perspective and being able to control your party in real time. The sequel, Dragon View, is apparently a really good game.
I thought it was really cool all said. I haven't played any Elder Scrolls before, but I did play KOTOR and really enjoyed it. I can definitely see some parallels there! I've played Dragon View, and I can definitely attest to its awesomeness!
I know I'm awfully late to comment on this, but I wanted to say I loved this video. This was one of the first SNES games I ever played, and I never got very far in it. But my dad had a spiral notebook where he took detailed notes and, over the course of a few weeks (he really only had time to play on the weekends), we slowly chipped away at it until we finished it. I mean, I didn't help much, but still... Looking back at it, there's a lot that's so frustrating about this game: the way even the strongest equipment can be permanently lost to random encounters, and the way you can just randomly get into totally unwinnable fights against the giant dog heads or different constellations come to mind. But I've still gone back and played through it multiple times over the years. It just has a charm to it! It just FELT so experimental and new, and I'll always laugh at how characters can be devoured by a shark in a split second or how they just stand there slowly sinking into the swamp until they drown unless you specifically command them to NOT stand there sinking. Anyway. Thanks for the fun video.
I really liked this game and all of its ridiculousness! There was always something new to kill you for reasons you may not realize until later, and that was engaging to me! Most of all though, it kept me laughing. The stuff that happens to you and the dialogue for some of the characters is just so funny to me, even though it's supposed to be serious! I'm glad you have such wonderful memories of this one with your dad. Thanks for sharing!
I LOVE THIS GAME!!!! Years ago I had a box full of SNES games and accessories that got stolen, so I took the L and put them on a list to eventually buy again. A few years after that I found this game at a garage sale for like $5 and to my surprise it was MY copy that got stolen. My saved game with my characters and data was STILL there when I popped it in to play. Definitely a WTF moment for me.
Whaaaaaaaaaaaat!!! That's horrible but also super cool to hear that you got your game back! Did you find any of the other ones out and about in your search to get them back again? That's wild!
First time I rented it I was so mad at it 2nd time, I learned to appreciate to and wanted to take my time. I'm glad I did. You hit everything perfectly on the game.
@@hungrygoriya this was after me and a friend finally finished ff1 after like a year and a half. Just beat final fantasy mystic quest. Didnt play ff3 yet..so I thought I could beat this game. Oh boy was I wrong for a bit
@@cliffjumper1984 Oh man... FF1 is a rough time so I'm not surprised it took you that long! And Drakkhen's such a different flavour haha... you must've been so surprised by how different it was!
One thing many can agree on is that this is a very unique game with mystery to it, even if partially out of rather obtuse systems. That and great soundtrack and atmosphere~
I played this on PC, in French, when I got my first PC around 1995. I didn't live in France, but the nice thing about PC games is that they have always been region-free. I remember my impression of it being favourable, but with the passage of time I can't really praise it. I later became aware of the SNES version, which was hilariously never in French. There was a US English version, a European PAL English version, a Japanese version and a German version of all things, but no French. Multilanguage games then were fairly rare due to memory limitations, but French-only titles were not totally uncommon. As an example, my copy of the great game Actraiser was from France. I even know of two games, one SNES and one NES, that specifically had French Canadian versions in NTSC format. The former was the legendary Link to the Past, and I still have my French Canadian copy to this day. That game also had a PAL version for France, and the translation is identical for both.
How was the story/text in French? I wonder if it was more coherent. I'm Canadian but not fluent in French by a long shot so I couldn't dream of playing something like a fantasy game in French. I have seen an occasional French-only game around these parts, and I think I own a French Rayman game? It's cool to see that sort of stuff in NTSC regions, especially here in Canada.
I'm glad you enjoyed it too! I'm currently playing through Warriors of the Eternal Sun on the Sega Genesis, and it's my first real D&D experience. It's kicking my butt, haha
This was the first SNES game I bought. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. I liked it so much, Drakkhen was the first name I picked for an internet handle.
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.
I had this game as a kid, my older brother to be more precise. This was the game that everybody borrowed from me and returned and ask me 20 years later WTF it was. 😆 Edit You can stay next to a building, where your characters are "out" and let the clock advance to avoid the constellations if you need to travel and it's night. Equipment: if you use stuff that's higher level, which you can easily get by advancing the story, it will break more often. I'm not sure if strength etc plays a role but in my experience your warrior can reliably use the strongest equipment sooner. I liked the game I think because grinding had a profound effect, there were spots you could essentially idle and get exp and items. Delete the cheap stuff every once in a while and then visit the merchant to unload the ones that sold for 5-10k. You could also get the accessories you wanted just by chance. At that point why bother with the cash? Why not.
This was a game that I was completely unfamiliar with but had seen over and over again at conventions in the discount SNES bin. Thank you for giving it some exposure and showcasing both the positives and negatives. I really enjoyed your analysis as well as your live playthrough of this one! Although I don't think this is a game for me, I appreciate its awesomeness much more so now than before.
Save all the Drakkhens from the bargain bins! Disseminate them among the masses! Thanks for the support, as always. It was great having you there for those Friday streams!
Like most early WRPGs, The word I would use to describe Drakkhen would be 'Esoteric'. The actual mechanics of the game are quite easy to understand, even for 7 year old me back in the day...It's just that the game doesn't bother to tell you what those mechanics are and thus, you spend most of the early game scratching your head and wondering why your party wiped out on an enemy that you've been able to handily best up to that point. In spite of that, once you DO figure out what the heck is going on, The game becomes an unforgettable experience. As an aside: I've always love how even the stars in the night sky would descend to attack you. That blew my mind back then *EDIT: Spelling
Yeah there's definitely a lot of mystery in how things work, even after reading the manual. Those enemies that blow up your armour or insta-kill you were so mysterious to me. Those green centaurs always broke my stuff even if I was mashing the buttons to back out of the fight. Even still, I do love the risk factor in never knowing what's going to happen the first time you meet an enemy!
@@hungrygoriya Same, Part of the fun of most old school RPGs is striking out and doing your own exploration. Part of the reason I love RPGs like 7th saga, Final Fantasy 2 and Dragon Quest 6.
I played Drakkhen on PC so much and was so excited when I first beat it (took me over a year). It's one of my favorite "bad games" of all time. That said, I played it only with keyboard and no mouse (didn't have one) so I found the interface even clunkier than the SNES version which I played years later. The SNES version on d-pad for me was more responsive and had smoother animations and UI feedback IIRC. The PC version was so much more terrifying to me for a variety of reasons. For a start, there was no automap on the PC versions (both x86 and Amiga) for the world map; we were forced to navigate the treacherous wilderness from forest to tundra to desert and memorize landmarks and navigate by them to find temples, castles, etc. The PC versions also didn't shy away from blood and gore which always seemed to make things more horrifying to me. But the biggest difference to me was the music. If you listen to some of the OPL-MIDI music (available here on YT) for the PC version like for the Tundra theme, Forest theme (my two faves), etc, it's so bleak and foreboding! I enjoy the SNES version's soundtrack as well and they introduced interesting variations between night/day themes, but it's world apart tonally (more energetic or tranquil). The PC version reflects the relentlessly brutal nature of the world and makes us feel like we're on the verge of death at any given moment.
This was my first SNES RPG so i had no choice but give it a chance. When you beat it, there's a picture of a guitar on a pedestal in the overworld - i explored every inch looking for it only to realize it wasn't in-game 🤣
The real time combat reminds me of Darklands, although in Darklands there's a battle map you wind up on with each encounter. The combat can move that quickly, though, with your party members either totally wrecking the bad guys or getting wrecked themselves within seconds. That took a lot of getting used to, but there was a pause mechanic for that game available that really came in handy at times.
This is a game I just happened to find in a used game store (I believe a Funcoland) in the mid-2000s and I just took a chance on it. I'm glad I did. It quickly became a favorite. In fact I'm overdue for a revisit.
Oh good point! I hadn't considered the release window for the mouse. I had a friend growing up with Mario Paint, and so the mouse just always existed in my mind alongside the SNES.
My neighbor had this game when I was we were kids both on the Snes and I adored the game. Drakkhen is on pc and I got it for nostalgia. The pc version has a very different story but I still enjoyed it. I get why people didn't like it but I really enjoyed the challenge and just how different each playthrough could be.
Thanks for the review and trip down memory lane. 100% agree with your points. For context, I played this right after it was released on the SNES. In 1991, this game was pretty amazing. As someone who had just moved on from the Atari 2600 two years prior (lived in Germany and didn't get an NES until 1989 upon coming back to the U.S.), the graphics and music blew me away. There was something soothing about exploring outdoors at night. 3D was primitive to today's standards, but impressive 30 years ago. Still, the gameplay and bizarre dialogue turned me off for over 20 years. Never understood what I was supposed to do or where to go. Additionally, 16-bit games were $50-60 back in the early 90s. That is a LOT of money, especially when you're making $4.25/hour as a minimum wage teenager (about 2 days of work for 1 game). Now there are a lot of ways to check this game out with little or no $$$ investment depending on how you go about it. Imagine paying over $100 for a game today, and it's just... okay. Finally sat down with the game around 2015 and beat it. Just a few minutes searching tips on the internet and armed with a lot more patience as an adult, I was able to progress. The game has its charms, notably the interpretive dancing your party does when it's time to "fight". Love the relaxing music, bizarre character sounds (the talking of some is like the "wah-wah-wah" of the adults on Peanuts cartoons) and variety. Overall, not a great game... but pretty good. Played so many games over the past 40 years, and there's nothing quite like it. I'll play Drakkhen again for nostalgia's sake, and look forward to those relaxing evening walks (just be careful not to touch anything!). Loved the video. Subscribed.
I think it would've been cool to experience this game when it was new, but in many ways I'm happy I got to play it when I was a little older, and maybe even a little wiser. It was very quirky but in all the right ways for me. I definitely enjoyed my time with it. I hear you about the price issues. Where I live in Canada, new games with taxes come out to almost $100 and that's a reality I hate living in. I wish things didn't cost so much.
What a treat it is to come back from a long vacation and find not one but three new HG reviews! I thought I might be blinded by nostalgia in liking Drakkhen, since it was my first SNES RPG and the only SNES game I had apart from Super Mario World for a while. It's great to listen to someone who doesn't have any nostalgia and actually played the game before making a video about it. I've grown tired watching videos on TH-cam in which someone trashes Drakkhen and I can tell they only played it for a few minutes. I didn't like the combat because it didn't allow me to give comands, and I thought the game was often too cruel, but I looked past the flaws because I was spellbound by the game's visuals, which at the time were unprecedented on console. The sense of wonder was fabulous because of the color and perspective, even though the exploration itself was limited. All I need to know about the Amiga version of this game is that it doesn't have any music. Kemco were clever to port this. Shadowgate, Deja Vu and Uninvited were also music-less on Mac, and Kemco added beautiful soundtracks to them for the NES ports. People who played videogames exclusively on computers in the eighties and early nineties missed out a lot! Games such as Ultima III and Ultima IV were much better on NES. Even the SMS version of Ultima IV beats the original. Anyway, great video and great review!
I could never really get the hang of the gameplay, but I always loved the atmosphere. I actually thought of this game when describing an otherworldly walk through post-apocalyptic USA in my last book (Winter Queen Contingency).
I've always genuinely loved this game. I didn't have much experience with PC RPGs when it was released, so the gameplay felt very fresh to me and I loved the music, the visuals, the lore and even managing active-time turn based combat rather than having to select Attack over and over again. The overworld becomes a lot less deadly (especially in the first section) once you figure out that you can avoid random encounters by staying on the road. Buckler may not be the best non-alcoholic beer available in my market anymore, but it's still the best one that makes me think of this game.
I recently discovered your channel and really appreciate all these retro games that you've been covering. Drakkhen is one of my favorite RPGs of all time. I even uploaded a playthrough a few years ago and ended the run with a smile. I've seen people trash this game and saying it's one of the worst RPGs and I suppose they have valid reasons because of the high difficulty and cryptic directions to advance the story. I felt the same way until I figured out the battle system and other game mechanics. The only complaint I have about this game is that armor and shields can get destroyed randomly. It's really frustrating to see top-notch gear getting destroyed but saving frequently helps and just load when gear gets destroyed. As soon as I saw the shark guarding the castle from your video, I immediately thought of making a beeline for the castle gate with the first character going North East. They'll take some water damage but it's the easiest way to avoid death and I figured that out on my own back in the SNES days. The tough and intimidating looking mobs that pop outdoors I don't even fight most of them. I just press L and R and make them run away instead to avoid unnecessary deaths. I find it funny that they show the enemies running away instead of the party like we normally see in RPGs. My favorite farming spot is the infinite spider spawn in Hordkhen's Castle in that dark room far west of the entrance. Can get lots of EXP and item drops to sell for lots of money. Anyway thanks for the memories. I plan to slowly watch your videos even about games that I've never played. Maybe I'll find some old games that I want to play at some point!
Oh thanks so much for checking out the channel here! Drakkhen was such a pleasant surprise after I figured out what the heck was going on. I hated having my clothes blown off too, for reasons I didn't understand especially! I didn't realize that you could go into the castle on an angle or through the water and avoid doom with the shark! I'll have to try that out for myself sometime and see if it saves me some frustration! And nice note about the monsters running away instead of the party. I'd noticed that, but hadn't really considered that as something new or different from other games. You're absolutely right though! You know what? I fought those spiders for so long not realizing they were infinite... I thought I was going to get to the bottom of that spider nest eventually, haha... I pieced it together after a while, but I'm a little ashamed at how many times I died first trying to get the job done. I hope you enjoy your trip through the channel. Thank you for the thoughtful comment!
Ah great, another video, it had been a while! I really do enjoy you taking a deep dive through the obscure corners of the 8 & 16-bit generations. There've been so many games that I've been curious about over the years, but never taken the leap. This was certainly one of them, it looks so unique in screenshots but I haven't seen anyone go this in-depth on it. The reason for the lack of SNES mouse support is quite straightforward; the game was an SNES launch window release (and had only released in Japan a couple of months prior), and so came out a year before the mouse did.
I was sick for a few weeks but I'm better now and hopefully back on track here. Sorry for the wait! And the release timing of the mouse makes good sense. To me, the mouse just always existed with the SNES. Either way, the game would've been way better with it if it had been possible at the time.
Okay, the drowning mechanic made me laugh a bit. That's such .. a literal interpretation of the first person screen... Geejuz. ... I'll try this game, but I'll come back and make grumpy noises when I finish.
This was one of the first SNES games that I got-- solely based on the cool-sounding title and the Mode 7-- I was so lost, but kept exploring because of the open-world feel/3D (mode 7) elements. This was amazing at the time. Alas, I gave up on it and it's probably still sitting in my sock drawer at my parents' house. Good review. Now I know why I never got far... Lol.
I loved how this game felt to play. Full of risk, yet calm and serene all at the same time. Filled with angry laser animal heads and stars to smite you off the face of the planet. What more could you ask for?
I played the japanese version of this game expecting the worst, but I got hooked and completed in a week playing every night. The constellations scare the crap out of me though it was funny and unnerving at the same time. The feeling of exploration plus a strange story about dragons were winners to keep my attention. Strangely I never felt too lost or too underpower to advance little by little the japanese booklet has a tiny but helpful map it felt very happy to have one. But even when I can understand the game hit or miss feeling for the most I can say that the sequel Dragon View did everything right. Thank you for the review! it feels great to know about someone who felt the way I felt when I played this game.
Definitely played this at a friend’s house quite often when it first came out. As mentioned by someone earlier, the constellation coming alive and attacking was a jump scare moment for sure. Had a lot of issues trying to figure out where to go or what to do next and the unorthodox battle scenes and controls led to some controller throwing for sure. Over all I have decent memories of Drakkhen.
I'm glad that despite the scares and challenges that you came away from this with some positive feelings. I feel the same way, minus the controller throwing, haha
This was such an amazing and unexpected game for me. I played it many times. I also tried Drakkhen 2, which was totally different, and I found unplayable. Thank you for the wonderful review.
I really liked Drakkhen as well. Dragon View is cool as well, but for different reasons than this one. I don't think it's fair to compare the two at all since they're so different!
The soundtrack here kicks butt! Drakkhen was published for the SNES by Kemco, so I was sure its music must have been composed by Hideki Suzuki, who did Lagoon's music (also published for the SNES by Kemco), because of how much the one reminds me of the other. But I was surprised to learn it wasn't! Hiroyuki Masuno did Drakkhen's soundtrack.
Huh! Maybe they were inspired by one another or something. I love Drakkhen's music. My pal @BurstError did some really great remixes of the tunes and is the reason I played the game to begin with. He's Drakkhen's other biggest fan!
The constellations coming to life was the most unnerving moment of the 16-bit era.
I thought it was pretty intense as well!
truly unforgettable
The ONLY memorable moment from this game for me. Well... that and taking the bucklers off the walls.
It was so unnerving! It was a very unique experience on the SNES lol
Used to scare me a little. If you walk in front of an anak or hut you can wait out the night 😮
I rented this several times as a child. I think it was the closest I ever felt to being high without drug use, something about its ambient environment lulled me in.
The music and all the colours can make a surreal-feeling experience.
The most iconic SNES launch screenshots: Super Mario World, F-Zero racing, Pilotwings skydiving, Actraiser centaur boss battle, and...Drakken's giant dog heads shooting lasers at you.
This made me laugh out loud, haha
Very grateful to people like you who sit down and give a detailed overview based off a firsthand playthrough. This is the type of game I was always curious about but lacked the time or patience to actual sit down and play myself. This is a nice compromise. Well done.
Awww thanks!
Drakkhen and Ultima:Exodus on the NES will always hold a part of my heart, as a kid I watched my dad play and somehow beat both of those games, pre internet guides. I even have nostalgia for the jank. I love Drakkhen.
I'm glad you do! I wish more people loved this game because it deserves it!
I think one of the differences between you and most other players is that you are really patient, which is a virtue necesary to get into obscure games. Sometimes when I see you play an "bad" game I feel this "I got this game for my birthday, I don't have any other and I wont get another until chrismass so I better start enjoying it" kind of vibe and I really like it.
This made me chuckle! In a way you're right! I have a sense of accountability when I stream a game to try my best to finish it since the people watching also want to see it through. But also in that vein, most people ended up having to like the games they had to finish... hmmm. Interesting!
look at secret of evermore, she doesnt, i did pass the game so i can tell my patience is beyond hers
@@blacklabel130 Secret of Evermore pushed all my buttons and never got fun. At least this game felt rewarding after a while!
30 years ago,I was 15 in the summer of 93 & had this game & just sat down & figured it out. I love the soundtrack. Nostalgic to this day
Right on! This was an awesome game and I think if I'd had the opportunity to play it as a kid, I would've really enoyed it too.
I received Dahkken for my birthday not long after it came out. After acknowledging the shortcomings of the gameplay, something kept me playing it.... maybe it was just trying to overcome the absurd difficulty, but I was constantly drawn to it.
The open world environment was revolutionary to me (I was still a few years away from beginning my elder scrolls addiction), and the soundtrack was one of my favorites on the console. Especially the night stuff.
I never played the PC version, so I've got nothing to compare it against, but I can't help but love it.
..... then again, maybe I have Stockholm syndrome....
I grew to love a lot of the games I had growing up whether they were good or not, but I do think your feelings are founded in this game's goodness too. The night tunes are amazing. I wanted to include more of them in the review but they were a little too quiet. I do enjoy putting them on while I'm working though!
If you don't mind giving an older game a try and if you didn't already play it as a kid, give Betrayal at Krondor a try. It also has a pseudo open-world environment that was mindblowing to my ten-year old self, and I keep going back to it. (Pseudo because certain areas are restricted depending on the chapter you're in, but a lot of the world is open at various points)
@@TuxedoMagnum I will definitely have a look into this! I love stuff like that so I imagine it'd be right up my alley.
@@hungrygoriya I hope you enjoy it! I also hope it has aged as well as I think it has, but nostalgia is strong with this one for me. It's the game that got me into reading and writing fantasy, so I'm well aware of my bias. It usually comes up for sale on GOG fairly frequently (Currently so at $3.89!), and last I checked it runs fine on Windows 7 and 10. Comes bundled with Betrayal in Antara.
@@TuxedoMagnum Ooooo that's a steal! I'll have to pick my husband's brain and see if it's in our physical collection somewhere but otherwise, I might pick that up. It's cool that it was such an influence for you!
I didn't come close to beating Drakkhen when I rented it as a kid, but I always remembered it was rather cool and unique and the music was atmospheric.
I really appreciated coming to it as an adult. I don't think I would've made it too far as a kid either.
As a little kid, I was both terrified and fascinated when the constellations would come alive to attack my party at night. Great video!
Thanks so much! I had a panic moment the first time it happened to me! I can't imagine how spooked I would've been as a kid!
I played this game on the SNES when I was younger, and absolutely loved it. You mentioned it briefly in the video, but the fact your character's "paper doll" actually changed to reflect the equipment they were wearing blew my mind at that time. Something so small made me fall in love with this game and, although you're right it was frustrating at times, I never stopped playing it.
I'm so glad you liked it too! I wish I'd come to it a little earlier in life just to experience it back in my more formative years. Who knows how many more RPGs I might've picked up after experiencing this one earlier in life?
It's definitely got its quirks, but it's a fun one nonetheless. It's possible to look past some of the rough parts and laugh at the cruelty of things like the swamps and the sharks. I hope more people give this one a try sometime!
I received this game for Christmas in 1990, I have so much nostalgia for it despite it being too difficuly for me at the time. I really love going back and hearing the moody music and magical atmosphere. Thanks for saying good things about it!
It's my pleasure! I'm no liar and all of the good praise was well-deserved in my opinion!
Things that are different require patience is a great lesson for all of life. I love how you eschew "angry" reviews and honestly engage with the games that were only made to be enjoyed.
Oh really? I don't know much about the Evercade but it's good to know that Drakkhen's available for it. I hope if you do play it again that you enjoy it. The manual gives you a good push on where to start and the rest of the hints flow naturally as you progress on through.
I agree. Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation cheekily taking the piss out of a game for 5 minutes is fine, but people who do nothing but push out a contrived, forced rant for half an hour is tiresome. Yes, I am talking about the Angry Video Game Nerd.
@@three-quartersbadger2929 If his rants were totally real and he wasn't playing a character, I think it'd be different. I don't usually gravitate towards angry stuff but I enjoy the older stuff as a form of comedy more than anything serious. I have been watching AVGN for many years and have always appreciated finding out about new games from that channel. If there's one thing I especially appreciate, it's the personal experience presentation versus a lot of game history, etc. I want to know how people actually feel about a game and you never leave one of those videos with that question lingering, haha
Chill out and give people you don't know the benefit of the doubt... The AVGN's purpose seems to celebrate these games in his own unique way. I might be mistakened but both him and mike matei mentioned that and the fact that show is mainly about humor. The exaggerated negative criticism is not supposed to be taken at face value, from what I understood. If you stayed in your friends house as a kid in the 90s, having fun by bitching about all these über hard games was inevitable. It was either that or admit you were trash (the latter was never really an option). The issue is that some of his fans are unrefined troglodites that didn't live that era and that, therefore don't get the requirement for a few pinches of salt, proceeding to use AVGN's takes as incentive to brigade reviews of these titles. So blame them but J. Rolfe is not responsible for that behavior. Ggs!
@Three-Quarters Badger
Drakkhen was pretty much the most unnerving and yet addicting video game experiences of my youth. I remember staying up until 2 AM just running around, having no idea what I was doing, and being terrified of running into something horrible.
It's a very unique experience. I didn't experience anything quite like it before I played it and have yet to enjoy anything else that's similar in the same way.
bought a sealed copy i saw at my local shop as a kid- just tryna buff up a tiny collection i was starting-
came to realize it was kind of a gem.
playing another rpg recently this crossed my mind again.
I really like it. I'm glad you do too! Did you ever open your copy to play it or did you enjoy it a different way?
@@hungrygoriya yeah I opened it (wish I'd have kept it sealed Esp how easily snes emulation is, but when Ur little you don't consider all that).
I've only ever played this game on SNES and it was definitely one of my favorites. My little brother and I used to control 2 characters each and managed to beat the game multiple times.
That's awesome! Sounds like some good times!
Gotta love that instruction manual's description of the Agility stat: _"The greater the agility value, the more effective the character will be in battle."_ Wowee, that is truly one of the ProTips of all time! 😂
Hahaha I'd like to shake the hand of the person who wrote that. They're not wrong...
Wasn't there a game, I think reviewed on this very channel, where the instruction manual just said for the sword "will help you do better in the game" or something.
I forget how I ended up owning this cartridge when I was 15 pr so but I put it off for a while. It seemed difficult and felt different than most games at the time. But when I actually gave it a chance I was blown away by the vibe and music. Walking around at night was so beautiful. Combat was great too.
Thanks for the video. Its so good to hear someone elses opinion on this rare game.
I'm so glad you came around to it eventually. Getting immersed in the music and general vibes of this game was one of my favourite parts. The combat, once I figured out who to run from and how to survive drowning, was awesome! I hope others give this one a try.
I've been directed here because I keep trying to stream Drakken OST into DnB vaporwave and breakcore. Some SNES soundtracks are legendary. Secret of Evermore is over the top.
Awww well thanks for checking out the video. I liked Secret of Evermore's music when it wasn't just ambient sounds.
In the Eastern half of the desert zone there is a monster with a red silhouette of a dancing woman who repeatedly says "I love you" with different pitch and speed while attacking you. No joke check it out for yourself
I remember running into her!
I loved Drakkhen honestly. Even after playing other RPG’s of the time. Pro tip you can avoid drowning by rapidly changing characters while moving. I even owned Dragon VIew the sequel
Oh really? I didn't realize that you could avoid the water that way. I just tapped the shoulder buttons like I was running away from a battle and that seemed to work.
Despite all the times that I have seen this game mentioned and seen advertised in many video game magazines since it is an early snes title this is actually the first time I've seen such a detailed review on this game. This game doesn't really interest me that much since I'm a hardcore jrpg player, but it's actually nice to see what this game truly is about and the good points and bad points about it. The fact that you beat the game yourself and you get to see the game for all of its positive negative aspects is one less game that you need to beat for yourself. On to the next title.
There's a lot there that I think people just write off completely without giving it much of a chance. I thought it was a blast and had some good laughs at all the weird stuff that tries to get you.
@@hungrygoriya A lot of the game's charm isn't always apparent. It's unfortunate that it's a bit linear but I've taken days to play it just to enjoy the music and ambience the game can provide. It's PC versions can be scary though. I love this game, flaws and all. I love it's music especially (hence why I redid it's soundtrack). Drakkhen deserves a chance.
I really like the music in this game. It's very chill and ambient in a way that SNES games don't usually go for.
Yeah! It's funny to contrast the tranquility here to an RPG soundtrack like Lufia 2's where they're mainly emulating a full band with a drum kit. Two totally different feels!
So glad I found this hidden gem of a channel. Played this game back in '93 when I was only 10. Wasn't able to apppreciate this game at the time but have grown to appreciate what it accomplished in its day.
I'm glad you found me here! I think Drakkhen is a lot better when you're older, to put it bluntly. Being a kid and trying to figure this out would've been pretty tough. Random stuff happens very often!
The Nintendo port is far easier than the previous versions. I played the original Atari ST version and the later Amiga and MS-DOS (VGA) ports, all in French. I can confirm that there are several instances of "lost in translation".
Computer ports allow to include two characters of the same class in your party, provided that they are of opposite sexes. It is like you are selecting four characters out of a pool of eight.
On the computer ports, enemies are brutally stronger. I had to thread very carefully even through the first castle ("donjon" in French).
The computer ports include no compass and no automap. Players have to learn how to get oriented with the sun (rise east, set west) and the moon (oddly, always south), then using the mountains along the horizon, then other landmarks. It gave me a sense of accomplishment.
Many other elements were omitted in the Nintendo port. No magic wands, no magic rings, no flasks, no pools in the castles. Even some castle furniture was omitted. On the other hand, no wandering merchants in the original. There is just one, in a house in the frozen north-east.
Final note: Drakkhen is the third game in a series, after "Mandragore" and "Oméga, Planète Invisible" (the latter only available in French and German). Those two earlier games were not role-playing games, though, "just" action-adventure games.
I don't know how I would've made it through this game without the map. Are the constellations any help?
@@hungrygoriya No, constellations are hostile, instead of useful. A character in the Nintendo port suggests to get oriented with the stars, while the same guy in the French original clearly refers to the sun and the moon.
The monsters that appeared when the stars moved was always scary; almost horror movie like.
I do like that you can separate your characters.
You can have them in several rooms to deal with traps and puzzles.
Yeah it's totally something out of a horror movie! It scared the heck out of me when it happened the first time.
I did like that you could separate your party too, but I rarely did it. I mostly kept everyone together and once in a while, someone would get paralyzed and I'd be wondering where I left them, haha
I didn't hate it as a kid, and I surely don't hate it as an adult. I think it's interesting, also, those constellations totally scarred me. Now even as an adult, when I look up at the night sky, I fear the stars will start moving
It would be a scary day if they started moving sometime... here's hoping they don't! It's good to hear you liked this one a lot.
This video is amazing. I am so glad someone finally, finally explained Drakkhen in-depth and gave it the critical analysis it really deserved. It is so difficult to find that much information about it online. Like you mentioned, people try to steer others away from it "because it's bad". Ever since the Game Grumps video all those years ago, Drakkhen is often only found when being made fun of. If something hard to explain suddenly happens, then it's just a bad game being a bad game. But you didn't do that. You gave way more knowledge of this game than I have ever seen before! I didn't know you could read things in the castles. I didn't know there was a map. Everyone said there wasn't one because they didn't want to play around with the game that much. Everyone said there was no story, but there was! Just like there is a direction to moving around, and a logic to the encounters. Drakkhen is such an overlooked game with all its flaws.
I try to get the most out of every game I play and only use the manual for advice/help the majority of the time. This game has a lot going for it and is a ton of fun once you get used to the interface and some of the quirks about battles and how people level up. Drakkhen deserves way more love than it gets and I'm glad I gave it a try with an open mind.
Thank you for your kind words too! I appreciate it!
I have to admit, you have way more patience then most people. You have played a lot of games that from the looks I don’t think I would’ve played for very long before bailing.
Well, I might also just have a knack for finding fun where most others don't see it. I don't get frustrated at games nearly as much as I see other people do.
The problem with this game mostly stems from how it was one of the first RPGs for the SNES in the West. I imagine that the game could have been better if the developers had more time with it, but something tells me that the production was probably rushed to get something out for the console.
It's a little clunky but I still think it works well enough. The soundtrack's phenomenal at the very least!
This was one of the few games I had for the snes growing up, so I managed to play through the whole game. It gets super easy as you upgrade equipment. The morning song is in my head often.
It definitely gets easier as you find better stuff. I remember getting the Dragon Sword (or some kind of dragon equipment) and that really flipping things to my advantage.
And the soundtrack is so good. I put it on a lot when I'm working and it's perfect.
The music in this game was so unique! (Really everything about it!)I absolutely loved the night music outside in Drakkhen - I even still hear it in my head if we are camping at night lol
I agree with you. I don't know a single other game that sounds anything like Drakkhen.
It seems so rare to meet someone who's played Drakkhen, and even more rare to hear about it from someone who had the patience to play through the entire game.
I rented this game to play as a little kid and it was a frustrating (and scary!) experience. A few years ago I tried to give it another shot as an adult, but gave up on it and moved on to other things.
Thanks for making this video, I feel like I have some insight on how to appreciate older games like these. I'm a bit inspired to revisit this one again.
I honestly try to come into every game with an open mind. This is fun once you get used to what the game wants from you, and I had plenty of laughs along the way too. So many unexpected and silly things happened!
I remember that when the constellations decided to swoop down and kill me was around the time I decided to take Drakkhen back to the rental shop early. It was a major disservice to us 90's kids that you could never count on a rental game to actually come along with its manual. For instance, I didn't know until just a little while ago that you set your party's attack mode and they auto battle.
The soundtrack takes me all the way back to the early Super NES days, though. It sounds a lot like Lagoon, another "objectively terrible" game that I absolutely love.
Yeah, I can't imagine playing this without a manual. Even as a full grown woman, there were still aspects I struggled to figure out with a manual and with a bunch of people's brains to pick in chat while I was streaming it. It was really good once I got the basics down!
The soundtrack is so good... so relaxing and nice for such a mean game, haha
Or bumping into a grave would add 4 more graves (your characters lol)
I know first hand how difficult it can be to put in the effort with some old games, yet I am one of those who tinkered with this game years ago and wrote it off. With your reminder that there is good with the bad I can see how I never gave the game a fair chance. I am looking forward to giving this one another go. Once again thank you for the insight and awesome video.
I've only been honest in my take on this game, but I'm glad to hear it's inspired you to have a second look. I think it'd be really easy to pass over it, especially as a kid or without a manual. Enjoy it if you decide to give it another try.
The cart flex for the intro.
I'm really proud of my collection!
@@hungrygoriya as you should be, solid picks!
I haven't started collecting for the SNES yet but I plan to do so. I'm primarily a Sega Genesis guy. However I have been expanding my collection to the NES, Sega 32X, Sega CD, Sega Master System, PS1, PS2 and PS3. I like investigating various RPG games to add to my collection so that I can play them in-between Electrician Construction Jobs. I will keep this game in mind when the time comes that I start collection for the SNES.
I think it's relatively cheap still, so I hope you can find a copy! Good luck!
@@hungrygoriya Thank you. Hopefully I can find one.
there were things about drakkhen that i couldn't forget. funky music, the passage of day and night, the constellations coming to life and fighting you! i came back to this game several times even after i beat it. i LOVED all the mysteries and quirks in the castles, like the water that teleported you, the poison rooms, and the little fireplace blob creature in the first castle basement. not the best snes game, but truly one of the most remarkable
I loved how everything was never what you were expecting it to be. You nailed what's special about it!
@@hungrygoriya no, YOU did. i don't know if you;ve seen the continueshow episode featuring drakkhen but watching them try to figure this game out in 30 minutes had me crying laughing. it reminded me of my brother and his friends trying to play it when i was a wee tot. they dismissed it as rubbish but i, on the other hand, experienced weird drakkhen themed dreams that night and had to see everything this ugly duckling of an rpg offerred. i did not know it was french. did you know that the melody at the anak shrine and that groovy tune during character creation are the same? anyway. this review was a joy. i have my notifications on so i'll see if you decide to stream an LP of this one
Having a game like represent the closest you've ever come to a vicarious alternate reality, the advent of 3-D open world exploration, was a trippy and memorable experience I'm grateful to have had. Older folks weren't interested, and younger people had much more vivid worlds, like Grand Theft Auto and the like.
I think it's a pretty cool experience. It's so different from anything else I've ever played.
New Goriya productions always bring smile to face. 🤗
Thanks very much!
While the gameplay has that late 80s PC RPG crust I absolutely adore the atmosphere and soundtrack. There is just something so creepy but yet relaxing about it, the empty overworld combined with the occasional sunset really adds to it.
Thankfully this game is one of the very few SNES RPGs that is reasonably priced, I might pick it up one day to give it a chance.
The price is definitely right! I hope you enjoy it if you try it out. That early game learning curve is tough but once you get going, the adventure has some good flow.
I got it for a dollar at GameStop many years ago. Just thought I'd give it a try.
@@AgainsaidBen Oh nice! Let me know what you think!
I love to hear people say nice things about Drakkhen!
It deserves a lot of praise! It's a fun game!
I feel like Drakkhen's setting, especially with the incredible flavor of the dragons' names and scheming, could be *incredible* for a tabletop campaign.
For sure! I've never played any tabletop, but from what little I know of how it all works, I agree wholeheartedly. I wonder if someone's done that already!
This video gave me so many nostalgic feels. I played this for literally hundreds of hours as a kid. Thanks for the reminder! :)
My pleasure! That sounds like an awesome part of your childhood. I have many memories wandering around in Zelda 1 and Faxanadu as a kid.
I didn't even know this game stemmed from a PC version. I did not play this on original hardware years ago. Instead, I played on emulator and felt this game really did have a number of things working for it that the casual gamer may disregard or not appreciate as much. As always, you are one of the most knowledgeable and adept people in analyzing and convincing others why games should be better respected than quickly hated on. Masterful job by you in this video!
Awww thanks so much! This was a fantastic adventure, even with all its quirks.
Preach it, Goriya! ;) I'm the only person I know who owned AND COMPLETED this game on SNES as a kid. I didn't LOVE it, by any means, but I certainly did enjoy my time with it. The overworld was clunky and annoying to navigate, admittedly (though it was novel, at the very least!), but exploring the castles was what drew me in and made me keep coming back -- I didn't know at the time that it was based on a computer game, but it definitely had the feel of one, and the novelty of that alone was enough to make the game feel exotic and interesting.
Plus, I was SUPER into castles and medieval weaponry and such as a kid, so I REALLY dug going through all the different rooms, looting all the different armor, etc. It was so immersive for me!
I also remember talking about the game with my friends and making fun of its insanely hard-to-pronounce dragon names. I remember Nakkhtka (SP?) in particular being one of my favorites to say out loud, since it involved making a K sound, a T sound, then another K sound in rapid succession without a single vowel sound between them, which is just SO AWKWARD, yet somehow satisfying. ;) I'm sure I was mispronouncing it, but to be fair, I'm sure EVERYONE was mispronouncing it. Heheh.
I also loved the weird music. I really enjoyed the soundfont used for this game, and as you say, the chill, atmospheric tracks were a real joy to listen to... but then you get to the Wise Man with his weird autotuned grunting, or the dragons with their unique funky 5-second looping war beats, and it's just super quirky and entertaining.
This video really brought me back to my childhood, as I haven't thought about Drakkhen in a long time. Thanks for another great watch!
I think if I could've gotten the basics down as a kid, I would've loved this if I had it for all the reasons you mentioned here.
The sibling names were so mindbending, haha... I made a little map on a notebook so I could remember whose castle was where in case I needed to backtrack, and I had to go a few letters at a time while I was writing them down so I didn't butcher them. I'm sure my map's filled with spelling mistakes!
The merchant music is so funny. The "voice" font and the randomness of that song always made me crack up, especially since so many of those merchant characters came with doomsday messaging!
And my pleasure. I'm happy to share my thoughts on this fun little game with everyone. I hope it'll get some more people interested in what's honestly a very fun and unique adventure.
I think a lot of the problem with home computer ports was nearly entirely down to the translation from mouse/keyboard to controller.
Having to map a device with over 80 buttons to one with only eight often either made the ports feel really clunky or have a huge chunk of the original game removed to compensate.
and this was going on way into the 2010's until they decided to simplify the original PC version's controls to begin with. (that or they intended to also release the game on console, so have that as the flagship control method)
Sometimes they found better ways than the original, like with Theme Park, but most of the time they just stuck it either in forgetful multi button presses, or through a labyrinth of menus.
Yeah, these are all good points. The game I have the most experience with like this is King's Quest V on NES, and it's obviously way more intuitive to play the way it was originally intended. I'd love to play more PC ports though. I enjoy the challenge!
I rented this game many times as it was an early title from the debut of the SNES. An early lesson for me was giving the entire party bows to fight with. While not as strong as fireballs, they kept your party safe from most enemies melee attacks and cost no MP. Makes early-game leveling so much easier.
Good idea! I don't know that I found bows right away. Do you remember if you bought them?
@@hungrygoriya Yeah, you can buy them after a couple of levels. I usually sell off excess found gear or loot to afford them. But all characters can use them, even casters.
As always, well done. First review I've seen of this one that attempted to play the game as it was designed to be played and explain it.
I dove straight in and had a blast once I got a few things figured out. I hope more people will give Drakkhen a try.
I remember my friend bought this game when he first got his snes. For 3 kids sharing time with the console, we just didn't have the patience for learning the gameplay. I've always wanted to revisit it to see if I'd like it. Thanks for the video.
Do you think you will revisit it? It's honestly a lot of fun once you figure out how the fights work. There's lots more than just the overworld wandering too. I loved exploring the different castles.
Either way, thanks for watching!
I grew up playing nes and snes games in the 90´s and even though I later moved on to other consoles, I still kept playing those two into my late teens. When I was 17, I saw this game in a local store, almost discarded and bought It since I loved the cover art. I don´t know exactly what I was expecting but It probably wasn´t this rpg with weird 3d navigation. I started playing and the mistery of the game, combined with the exploration and music just got me. I played It for almost 3 months and even though I didn´t finish it, I did enjoy It. I played It while I helped a friend study during school break so he wouldn´t have to stay a grade below. It marked that time for me and I remember It with joy.
That's great that it has such a special place in your heart! Glad you stumbled into it back then!
❤ Thank you.
You helped me unlock a core memory of playing a game I was too young to comprehend at the time.
30 years of wondering if my memory was real, has been solved.
Oh right on! Glad to help somehow. I had a similar experience a few years ago when I was trying to remember the name of a Sherlock Holmes text adventure I'd played when I was really young and that felt so satisfying to remember.
This is the first SNES RPG I played back in the early 90s. To this day, I'm amazed by its soundtrack. It a weird, intriguing, and too random game, yet I couldn't stop playing it. Eventually I found bows and ranged attack would kill anything and started making progress.
I think this game didn't get much love because it's not the typical JRPG that people expect in consoles, at least back then. Although I have to admit it's neither the one of the best PC-based RPG ever but it has its charm.
I also played the so called sequel, Dragon View. A much better experience in my opinion, though it doesn't feel like a sequel at all.
Thanks for letting me remember this game!
I wish I would've tried out a bow at some point! That probably would've really helped my cause!
I loved this game and all its uniqueness, and its weirdness too. There's nothing quite like it! I also really liked my experience with Dragon View. It's definitely a more polished game but I find it hard to compare to Drakkhen just because of how much more depth it has. It's similar but a different beast altogether at the same time!
Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts with me here.
I remember hating the drowning system with a passion when I was trying to cross the narrow land bridges. That's the most I remember about the SNES version though I own the PC version digitally.
If you tap the shoulder buttons to run, you pretty much cancel out the drowning immediately. Thank goodness!
I am so glad to see that you covered this game fairly. I personally love it and it is one of my favorite RPG's. In fact, it was my very first RPG, hence my rose colored glasses. This game, along with Super Mario World were my first SNES games back in the winter of 91. My initial reaction to this game was like most people who react to it now, which was... WTF is this? I got frustrated, put the game down after a while and forgot about it. However, once I started playing more accessible RPG's like Final Fantasy 4, I decided to go back and give it another shot. And once I spent some actual time with it figuring out how the games systems worked, it became one of my favorite RPG's.
I also like that you pointed out the games artwork and how good it is. I quite enjoyed the dank, foreboding sort of atmosphere that the interiors of those castles created. In fact, Drakkhen just screams "atmosphere" in general. The game always had a habit of putting me slightly ill at ease due to the strange music and generally creepy vibe. Like something was always lurking just out of view... and wouldn't you know it, things frequently were! :D
For the past 30 years I never really knew if Drakkhen was a genuinely good game, or if I was just blinded by nostalgia. Especially since I've seen hardly any "good" reviews of it on the internet. But your balanced and fair review made me realize that perhaps, at the least it is an underappreciated curiosity.
*edit*
And while I'm sure someone has mentioned it already, the SNES version is the one to play for a couple reasons. #1, the music is way better and was completely redone for the port. But #2 is a big one... which is... the Amiga, DOS and other PC versions lacked an in game map. So yeah, that would be pretty brutal IMO. While the SNES version's story and dialog got somewhat lost in translation, I think it made up for it in other important ways.
It makes me really happy to read a first-hand account of this one from a long-time fan. Thank you for sharing your experience with the SNES version. For all the reasons you mentioned, while the other versions are a curiosity, I still think the SNES game would reign supreme. The soundtrack alone is worth playing it with no mouse in my opinion.
I think objectively, there's a great game here even if it's not like other games and might not feel as polished. Maybe it's not meant to though, you know? The ride through Drakkhen is a wild one and I think anything too smooth would feel wrong in a universe with so much whimsy and weird to experience. I hope more people give this game a try someday. I meant it when I said that Drakkhen really deserves it.
I found your channel through the red cow arcade podcast. You should definitely be a guest on there. They had great things to say about you and now Im a big fan !
I was very honoured to be mentioned by them! I've heard from a few people here that have popped over from their channel so some more thanks are in order.
I played it on the Amiga 2000 in the very early 90's, it was a bit obtuse. I did enjoy it after learning certain things.
Obtuse things I remember:
1) You started unequipped with your base gear and the equip menu was a little hard to find
2) That damn water
3) The weirdly placed auto-kill enemies like the stars and crossroad dog
I don't recall if I read the manual, which might have helped. I think I beat two of the elemental challenges and the experience was moderately good.
Eye of the Beholder was a better Amiga RPG experience for me.
The menus were pretty confusing at first, I agree. And the water made me laugh out loud the first time that happened. I panicked trying to switch characters when I should've just told the whole party to run, and that's the clip I showed in the video here.
The crossroad dog put so much fear into me... it's right near where you start the game too! At least it's upfront with you about what to expect!
I still need to play Eye of the Beholder one of these days. It's definitely on my list of SNES RPGs to find.
I like this game more in my old age then I did when it came out
The first RPG I ever really got into as a kid. I'm a huge RPG fan now at 39yo. Japanese and western games alike. The magic I felt as a kid especially with the soundtrack at night captured my heart. I would just sit and listen and dream. Recently I was playing Skyrim VR and connected a direct line from Drakkhen to my present gaming. Magical game, even the shortcomings, perhaps especially because of the shortcomings. I replayed it recently, it's confusing but doesn't take long to beat.
There's such serenity in the nighttime soundtrack and its ambience. I did really love this game completely, even its weirdness and its little difficulty curve at the beginning. I didn't really find it confusing since the siblings always told you where to go next. Getting there was the hard part, and trying to figure out why my armour kept blowing up, haha
The music and the day night cycle alone make it truly magical
I agree. I love this game's soundtrack and the sunset skies.
I first played it when I was like 12 and was totally lost. Played it a few years later and ended up enjoying it a lot more then
I think I would've enjoyed this as a kid if I could've gotten going, but I definitely appreciated it more now in my 30s. I'm glad you came around on it!
This game is honestly super ahead of its time. It sort of feels like a proto Elder Scrolls/KoToR experience with the first person perspective and being able to control your party in real time.
The sequel, Dragon View, is apparently a really good game.
I thought it was really cool all said. I haven't played any Elder Scrolls before, but I did play KOTOR and really enjoyed it. I can definitely see some parallels there!
I've played Dragon View, and I can definitely attest to its awesomeness!
I know I'm awfully late to comment on this, but I wanted to say I loved this video. This was one of the first SNES games I ever played, and I never got very far in it. But my dad had a spiral notebook where he took detailed notes and, over the course of a few weeks (he really only had time to play on the weekends), we slowly chipped away at it until we finished it. I mean, I didn't help much, but still...
Looking back at it, there's a lot that's so frustrating about this game: the way even the strongest equipment can be permanently lost to random encounters, and the way you can just randomly get into totally unwinnable fights against the giant dog heads or different constellations come to mind. But I've still gone back and played through it multiple times over the years. It just has a charm to it! It just FELT so experimental and new, and I'll always laugh at how characters can be devoured by a shark in a split second or how they just stand there slowly sinking into the swamp until they drown unless you specifically command them to NOT stand there sinking.
Anyway. Thanks for the fun video.
I really liked this game and all of its ridiculousness! There was always something new to kill you for reasons you may not realize until later, and that was engaging to me! Most of all though, it kept me laughing. The stuff that happens to you and the dialogue for some of the characters is just so funny to me, even though it's supposed to be serious! I'm glad you have such wonderful memories of this one with your dad. Thanks for sharing!
I LOVE THIS GAME!!!!
Years ago I had a box full of SNES games and accessories that got stolen, so I took the L and put them on a list to eventually buy again. A few years after that I found this game at a garage sale for like $5 and to my surprise it was MY copy that got stolen. My saved game with my characters and data was STILL there when I popped it in to play. Definitely a WTF moment for me.
Whaaaaaaaaaaaat!!! That's horrible but also super cool to hear that you got your game back! Did you find any of the other ones out and about in your search to get them back again? That's wild!
First time I rented it I was so mad at it
2nd time, I learned to appreciate to and wanted to take my time. I'm glad I did.
You hit everything perfectly on the game.
I can't imagine renting this with no manual and actually getting very far. I'm glad you gave it a second chance!
@@hungrygoriya this was after me and a friend finally finished ff1 after like a year and a half. Just beat final fantasy mystic quest. Didnt play ff3 yet..so I thought I could beat this game. Oh boy was I wrong for a bit
@@cliffjumper1984 Oh man... FF1 is a rough time so I'm not surprised it took you that long! And Drakkhen's such a different flavour haha... you must've been so surprised by how different it was!
One thing many can agree on is that this is a very unique game with mystery to it, even if partially out of rather obtuse systems. That and great soundtrack and atmosphere~
The systems aren't so bad if you take the time to figure them out. At first the learning curve feels more like a brick wall though!
I played this on PC, in French, when I got my first PC around 1995. I didn't live in France, but the nice thing about PC games is that they have always been region-free. I remember my impression of it being favourable, but with the passage of time I can't really praise it. I later became aware of the SNES version, which was hilariously never in French. There was a US English version, a European PAL English version, a Japanese version and a German version of all things, but no French. Multilanguage games then were fairly rare due to memory limitations, but French-only titles were not totally uncommon. As an example, my copy of the great game Actraiser was from France. I even know of two games, one SNES and one NES, that specifically had French Canadian versions in NTSC format. The former was the legendary Link to the Past, and I still have my French Canadian copy to this day. That game also had a PAL version for France, and the translation is identical for both.
How was the story/text in French? I wonder if it was more coherent. I'm Canadian but not fluent in French by a long shot so I couldn't dream of playing something like a fantasy game in French.
I have seen an occasional French-only game around these parts, and I think I own a French Rayman game? It's cool to see that sort of stuff in NTSC regions, especially here in Canada.
@@hungrygoriya I've tried three times to reply to this reply and it never posts it. I simply wanted to let you know that I saw it.
yeah i loved this game. got me fallin in love with a D and D style fantasy world as a kid before I knew what D and D was.
I'm glad you enjoyed it too! I'm currently playing through Warriors of the Eternal Sun on the Sega Genesis, and it's my first real D&D experience. It's kicking my butt, haha
This was the first SNES game I bought. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. I liked it so much, Drakkhen was the first name I picked for an internet handle.
It's a cool name to have had! Even if people didn't understand where it came from, it sounds cool!
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.
I agree! I think it has a ton of charm as well, though mileage seems to vary on that opinion!
I had this game as a kid, my older brother to be more precise.
This was the game that everybody borrowed from me and returned and ask me 20 years later WTF it was. 😆
Edit
You can stay next to a building, where your characters are "out" and let the clock advance to avoid the constellations if you need to travel and it's night.
Equipment: if you use stuff that's higher level, which you can easily get by advancing the story, it will break more often. I'm not sure if strength etc plays a role but in my experience your warrior can reliably use the strongest equipment sooner.
I liked the game I think because grinding had a profound effect, there were spots you could essentially idle and get exp and items. Delete the cheap stuff every once in a while and then visit the merchant to unload the ones that sold for 5-10k. You could also get the accessories you wanted just by chance. At that point why bother with the cash? Why not.
Some interesting tips here! Thanks for that!
This was a game that I was completely unfamiliar with but had seen over and over again at conventions in the discount SNES bin. Thank you for giving it some exposure and showcasing both the positives and negatives. I really enjoyed your analysis as well as your live playthrough of this one! Although I don't think this is a game for me, I appreciate its awesomeness much more so now than before.
Save all the Drakkhens from the bargain bins! Disseminate them among the masses!
Thanks for the support, as always. It was great having you there for those Friday streams!
Like most early WRPGs, The word I would use to describe Drakkhen would be 'Esoteric'. The actual mechanics of the game are quite easy to understand, even for 7 year old me back in the day...It's just that the game doesn't bother to tell you what those mechanics are and thus, you spend most of the early game scratching your head and wondering why your party wiped out on an enemy that you've been able to handily best up to that point. In spite of that, once you DO figure out what the heck is going on, The game becomes an unforgettable experience.
As an aside: I've always love how even the stars in the night sky would descend to attack you. That blew my mind back then
*EDIT: Spelling
Yeah there's definitely a lot of mystery in how things work, even after reading the manual. Those enemies that blow up your armour or insta-kill you were so mysterious to me. Those green centaurs always broke my stuff even if I was mashing the buttons to back out of the fight. Even still, I do love the risk factor in never knowing what's going to happen the first time you meet an enemy!
@@hungrygoriya Same, Part of the fun of most old school RPGs is striking out and doing your own exploration. Part of the reason I love RPGs like 7th saga, Final Fantasy 2 and Dragon Quest 6.
Lol, HG supporting the underdogs. Probably the most thorough and thoughtful video on this game. Love it.
I support the games I believe in, and this is certainly one of them. Thanks for checking this out!
I played Drakkhen on PC so much and was so excited when I first beat it (took me over a year). It's one of my favorite "bad games" of all time. That said, I played it only with keyboard and no mouse (didn't have one) so I found the interface even clunkier than the SNES version which I played years later. The SNES version on d-pad for me was more responsive and had smoother animations and UI feedback IIRC.
The PC version was so much more terrifying to me for a variety of reasons. For a start, there was no automap on the PC versions (both x86 and Amiga) for the world map; we were forced to navigate the treacherous wilderness from forest to tundra to desert and memorize landmarks and navigate by them to find temples, castles, etc. The PC versions also didn't shy away from blood and gore which always seemed to make things more horrifying to me.
But the biggest difference to me was the music. If you listen to some of the OPL-MIDI music (available here on YT) for the PC version like for the Tundra theme, Forest theme (my two faves), etc, it's so bleak and foreboding! I enjoy the SNES version's soundtrack as well and they introduced interesting variations between night/day themes, but it's world apart tonally (more energetic or tranquil). The PC version reflects the relentlessly brutal nature of the world and makes us feel like we're on the verge of death at any given moment.
This was my first SNES RPG so i had no choice but give it a chance. When you beat it, there's a picture of a guitar on a pedestal in the overworld - i explored every inch looking for it only to realize it wasn't in-game 🤣
Oh really? I don't think I noticed that! I'll have to go back and watch the end!
Played this a few months ago. All I could think was, ah this could be fantastic, but we're just not quite there yet with all this. So I tapped out.
I can understand that. I stuck it out and ended up really enjoying it but it took some getting used to for sure.
This was one of my early snes games... And it's not bad at all. I still love to play it today.
Yes! It's a great one. I'm always glad to meet another fan!
I love how much effort you put into games you are my retro gaming role model
Awww that's super kind of you to say! Thanks so much!
The real time combat reminds me of Darklands, although in Darklands there's a battle map you wind up on with each encounter. The combat can move that quickly, though, with your party members either totally wrecking the bad guys or getting wrecked themselves within seconds. That took a lot of getting used to, but there was a pause mechanic for that game available that really came in handy at times.
Darklands eh? I'll have to check into that! It sounds like I might get on well with it.
This is a game I just happened to find in a used game store (I believe a Funcoland) in the mid-2000s and I just took a chance on it.
I'm glad I did. It quickly became a favorite. In fact I'm overdue for a revisit.
Oh nice! What a lucky find. If you do end up replaying it, I hope you enjoy your adventure.
Iirc drakkhen was among the first crop of games for snes in 1991. The mouse didn’t come out until 1992, when it was released alongside Mario paint.
Oh good point! I hadn't considered the release window for the mouse. I had a friend growing up with Mario Paint, and so the mouse just always existed in my mind alongside the SNES.
My neighbor had this game when I was we were kids both on the Snes and I adored the game.
Drakkhen is on pc and I got it for nostalgia. The pc version has a very different story but I still enjoyed it.
I get why people didn't like it but I really enjoyed the challenge and just how different each playthrough could be.
Oh nice! I think I would've loved playing this with friends growing up. More heads to put together!
Dragon View is a kind of spiritual successor thats also worth a look. Its a bit like an SNES Zelda 2
I've played through Dragon View a long while back now. It was great!
Thanks for the review and trip down memory lane. 100% agree with your points. For context, I played this right after it was released on the SNES. In 1991, this game was pretty amazing. As someone who had just moved on from the Atari 2600 two years prior (lived in Germany and didn't get an NES until 1989 upon coming back to the U.S.), the graphics and music blew me away. There was something soothing about exploring outdoors at night. 3D was primitive to today's standards, but impressive 30 years ago. Still, the gameplay and bizarre dialogue turned me off for over 20 years. Never understood what I was supposed to do or where to go.
Additionally, 16-bit games were $50-60 back in the early 90s. That is a LOT of money, especially when you're making $4.25/hour as a minimum wage teenager (about 2 days of work for 1 game). Now there are a lot of ways to check this game out with little or no $$$ investment depending on how you go about it. Imagine paying over $100 for a game today, and it's just... okay.
Finally sat down with the game around 2015 and beat it. Just a few minutes searching tips on the internet and armed with a lot more patience as an adult, I was able to progress. The game has its charms, notably the interpretive dancing your party does when it's time to "fight". Love the relaxing music, bizarre character sounds (the talking of some is like the "wah-wah-wah" of the adults on Peanuts cartoons) and variety. Overall, not a great game... but pretty good. Played so many games over the past 40 years, and there's nothing quite like it. I'll play Drakkhen again for nostalgia's sake, and look forward to those relaxing evening walks (just be careful not to touch anything!). Loved the video. Subscribed.
I think it would've been cool to experience this game when it was new, but in many ways I'm happy I got to play it when I was a little older, and maybe even a little wiser. It was very quirky but in all the right ways for me. I definitely enjoyed my time with it.
I hear you about the price issues. Where I live in Canada, new games with taxes come out to almost $100 and that's a reality I hate living in. I wish things didn't cost so much.
What a treat it is to come back from a long vacation and find not one but three new HG reviews!
I thought I might be blinded by nostalgia in liking Drakkhen, since it was my first SNES RPG and the only SNES game I had apart from Super Mario World for a while. It's great to listen to someone who doesn't have any nostalgia and actually played the game before making a video about it. I've grown tired watching videos on TH-cam in which someone trashes Drakkhen and I can tell they only played it for a few minutes.
I didn't like the combat because it didn't allow me to give comands, and I thought the game was often too cruel, but I looked past the flaws because I was spellbound by the game's visuals, which at the time were unprecedented on console. The sense of wonder was fabulous because of the color and perspective, even though the exploration itself was limited.
All I need to know about the Amiga version of this game is that it doesn't have any music. Kemco were clever to port this. Shadowgate, Deja Vu and Uninvited were also music-less on Mac, and Kemco added beautiful soundtracks to them for the NES ports. People who played videogames exclusively on computers in the eighties and early nineties missed out a lot! Games such as Ultima III and Ultima IV were much better on NES. Even the SMS version of Ultima IV beats the original.
Anyway, great video and great review!
I could never really get the hang of the gameplay, but I always loved the atmosphere. I actually thought of this game when describing an otherworldly walk through post-apocalyptic USA in my last book (Winter Queen Contingency).
That's really cool! Drakkhen being an inspiration for that kind of scenario sounds very reasonable. Congratulations on the publication!
I've always genuinely loved this game. I didn't have much experience with PC RPGs when it was released, so the gameplay felt very fresh to me and I loved the music, the visuals, the lore and even managing active-time turn based combat rather than having to select Attack over and over again. The overworld becomes a lot less deadly (especially in the first section) once you figure out that you can avoid random encounters by staying on the road. Buckler may not be the best non-alcoholic beer available in my market anymore, but it's still the best one that makes me think of this game.
I recently discovered your channel and really appreciate all these retro games that you've been covering. Drakkhen is one of my favorite RPGs of all time. I even uploaded a playthrough a few years ago and ended the run with a smile. I've seen people trash this game and saying it's one of the worst RPGs and I suppose they have valid reasons because of the high difficulty and cryptic directions to advance the story. I felt the same way until I figured out the battle system and other game mechanics. The only complaint I have about this game is that armor and shields can get destroyed randomly. It's really frustrating to see top-notch gear getting destroyed but saving frequently helps and just load when gear gets destroyed.
As soon as I saw the shark guarding the castle from your video, I immediately thought of making a beeline for the castle gate with the first character going North East. They'll take some water damage but it's the easiest way to avoid death and I figured that out on my own back in the SNES days.
The tough and intimidating looking mobs that pop outdoors I don't even fight most of them. I just press L and R and make them run away instead to avoid unnecessary deaths. I find it funny that they show the enemies running away instead of the party like we normally see in RPGs.
My favorite farming spot is the infinite spider spawn in Hordkhen's Castle in that dark room far west of the entrance. Can get lots of EXP and item drops to sell for lots of money.
Anyway thanks for the memories. I plan to slowly watch your videos even about games that I've never played. Maybe I'll find some old games that I want to play at some point!
Oh thanks so much for checking out the channel here! Drakkhen was such a pleasant surprise after I figured out what the heck was going on. I hated having my clothes blown off too, for reasons I didn't understand especially!
I didn't realize that you could go into the castle on an angle or through the water and avoid doom with the shark! I'll have to try that out for myself sometime and see if it saves me some frustration!
And nice note about the monsters running away instead of the party. I'd noticed that, but hadn't really considered that as something new or different from other games. You're absolutely right though!
You know what? I fought those spiders for so long not realizing they were infinite... I thought I was going to get to the bottom of that spider nest eventually, haha... I pieced it together after a while, but I'm a little ashamed at how many times I died first trying to get the job done.
I hope you enjoy your trip through the channel. Thank you for the thoughtful comment!
You're welcome! Thanks for replying as well!
Ah great, another video, it had been a while! I really do enjoy you taking a deep dive through the obscure corners of the 8 & 16-bit generations. There've been so many games that I've been curious about over the years, but never taken the leap. This was certainly one of them, it looks so unique in screenshots but I haven't seen anyone go this in-depth on it. The reason for the lack of SNES mouse support is quite straightforward; the game was an SNES launch window release (and had only released in Japan a couple of months prior), and so came out a year before the mouse did.
I was sick for a few weeks but I'm better now and hopefully back on track here. Sorry for the wait!
And the release timing of the mouse makes good sense. To me, the mouse just always existed with the SNES. Either way, the game would've been way better with it if it had been possible at the time.
@@hungrygoriya Glad you're feeling better, welcome back!
i put so much time into this game. Love it. It was way too early in SNES life to have Mouse Support.
Fair enough... the mouse seemed like something that was just always there in my memories of playing SNES at my friends' houses when I was a kid.
Okay, the drowning mechanic made me laugh a bit. That's such .. a literal interpretation of the first person screen... Geejuz.
... I'll try this game, but I'll come back and make grumpy noises when I finish.
I hope you have fun! It's a real trip!
The star constellations attack you?!?! That's wicked stuff, wow! I love it how it isn't even explained!
This game is full of very weird surprises that made me laugh out loud and also terrified me at the same time.
This was one of the first SNES games that I got-- solely based on the cool-sounding title and the Mode 7-- I was so lost, but kept exploring because of the open-world feel/3D (mode 7) elements. This was amazing at the time. Alas, I gave up on it and it's probably still sitting in my sock drawer at my parents' house. Good review. Now I know why I never got far... Lol.
I loved how this game felt to play. Full of risk, yet calm and serene all at the same time. Filled with angry laser animal heads and stars to smite you off the face of the planet. What more could you ask for?
I played it at the neighbours place as kid back then and it was so obtuse to us and we didn't accomplished much.
Really liked the atmosphere though
I can't imagine getting very far without the manual!
I played the japanese version of this game expecting the worst, but I got hooked and completed in a week playing every night. The constellations scare the crap out of me though it was funny and unnerving at the same time. The feeling of exploration plus a strange story about dragons were winners to keep my attention. Strangely I never felt too lost or too underpower to advance little by little the japanese booklet has a tiny but helpful map it felt very happy to have one. But even when I can understand the game hit or miss feeling for the most I can say that the sequel Dragon View did everything right. Thank you for the review! it feels great to know about someone who felt the way I felt when I played this game.
I'm glad you enjoyed this one. It's nice to find other fans!
Definitely played this at a friend’s house quite often when it first came out. As mentioned by someone earlier, the constellation coming alive and attacking was a jump scare moment for sure. Had a lot of issues trying to figure out where to go or what to do next and the unorthodox battle scenes and controls led to some controller throwing for sure. Over all I have decent memories of Drakkhen.
I'm glad that despite the scares and challenges that you came away from this with some positive feelings. I feel the same way, minus the controller throwing, haha
4:41 That's some of the coolest-craziest shit I've ever seen lol! High-level videogame surrealism
That dog head scared the heck out of me, haha... of all the things it could shoot, of course it's lasers!
@@hungrygoriya lol!!!!!
This was such an amazing and unexpected game for me. I played it many times. I also tried Drakkhen 2, which was totally different, and I found unplayable.
Thank you for the wonderful review.
I really liked Drakkhen as well. Dragon View is cool as well, but for different reasons than this one. I don't think it's fair to compare the two at all since they're so different!
The soundtrack here kicks butt! Drakkhen was published for the SNES by Kemco, so I was sure its music must have been composed by Hideki Suzuki, who did Lagoon's music (also published for the SNES by Kemco), because of how much the one reminds me of the other. But I was surprised to learn it wasn't! Hiroyuki Masuno did Drakkhen's soundtrack.
Huh! Maybe they were inspired by one another or something. I love Drakkhen's music. My pal @BurstError did some really great remixes of the tunes and is the reason I played the game to begin with. He's Drakkhen's other biggest fan!