Seriously, A Realm Reborn is the worst paced story I've encountered so far and I'm not even done with the third of it.

Three fucking hundred of quests, consisted of sleep inducing yapping each time you click on npc that you will instantly forget the moment you close the dialogue window. Or even worse, the cutscene with even more boring dialogue. Not to mention only like 15 quests of those 80 that I've finished so far had actual important plot in it instead of snoozefest filler content. Story quality is "oh that's neat" at its best, but the rest of it is horrifically mediocre. Just a generic fantasy story where everyone's glazing the player that is the chosen one who's destined to save the world.

Three stars solely for a solid gameplay and stellar presentation. Really hope I won't shoot myself in the head before I get at least to Heavensward

It's good, like really really good and insanely fun, but it gets really annoying because of two fundamentally frustrating mechanics that my mutuals here pinpointed in their reviews:

1. Blue movement + Overwatch meta makes every match feel exhausting and boring, because of how passive it is. Alternative to that is just rushing into enemy territory and dying in next turn, which is even worse.
2. You're borderline unable to ambush the enemies, because they insantly get a turn to reposition themselves, while doing absolutely nothing until that

Because of that at some point missions become an obtuse chore that stand in your way of waiting for new upgrades. Game's good, it's just really easy to lose interest in it.

This game got me in a fucking chokehold, because oh my god this is the fifth log and I really hope it will be the last one.

Drakengard is, first and foremost, an experience. Every single aspect of it is a cog in the machine that works tirelessly to create the feeling of pure madness in a rapidly crumbling world, whether it is gameplay, narrative, music or art design. Judging those elements by themselves is pointless, if you analyse this game critically it easily falls apart and you lose a track of what it makes Drakengard truly special. Not to say that those elements are BAD, hell even gameplay is nowhere near "the worst game I played" or "intentionally bad" and is completely serviceable, they are just not really THAT interesting in vacuum, like e.g. Automata's story or Replicant's characters.

Drakengard is hardly enjoyable, not even in cathartic sense. I found it unengaging and straight up frustrating at times, but you know... It is fine that way. Yeah, gameplay is insanely repetitive and clunky, but it is fine that way. Music is pure cacophony to your ears, but it is fine that way. Characters might not develop past their horrible traits, but it is fine that way. Story might be just a constant steam of the unfortunate events with barely any satisfaction, but it is fine that way.

Because the moment you process it all and put everything together in your head is the moment the thought like "JESUS FUCKING CHRIST WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT" strucks into your head and you finally realize how masterfully Drakengard portrays the whole sense of dread, terror, insanity and hopelessness in such a surreal horrifying story, is practically irreplaceable. Every single part of it works just right for its cause and it's absolutely fantastic.

This conclusion might not come immediately, it might take few days, a week, a month(or two, in my case), a year or who knows, maybe never.

But that's the thing that elevates Drakengard above other games, it is art in its rawest, crazy and pain-in-the-ass-to-engage-with form. An absolute must-play whether you will love it or hate it.