Drakengard is sort of a fusion of Dynasty Warriors and Final Fantasy with some dragons thrown in for good measure.
From a RPGers point of view, this game has it all. The orphaned hero. The strong, beautiful sister who is kept apart from the man who loves her. The need for revenge, and the hard choice to pair up with a sworn enemy. You build up skills as you go, learning more about your enemy and finding ways to defeat them.
From a strategy point of view, the game is amazing. It's based on the Dynasty Warriors gameplay which is brilliant. The use of maps, of health information, and gathering new weapons and powers is very similar. I've always loved the Dynasty Warriors map, with the way it lays out the enemy locations, your location and your objectives.
The graphics are very nice - the textured grass, shading on rocks, details on the bodies all draw you into the world you're inhabiting. The sounds are good as well. Even the voices are rather good, making you feel the emotions of the characters.
There's really something to be said for being able to leap on a dragon, fly up into the sky, and then let loose a flame barrage on your enemies!
I love the majority of games that Square has put out there, and it is very refreshing to see them do something totally new and different from their usual RPG/Adventure/Strategy games. Drakengard is essentially a straight-forward hack n slash game, with some typical Square complexity thrown in.
The gameplay itself is very fun. I personally found the ground missions to be much more fun than the sky missions, but it's still nice to have the variety. I heard that this game had really bland environments, and that the world it took place in wasn't very interesting. However, I found there to be quite a large variety of places to go, from castles to forests to canyonlands and even floating sky and ocean palaces. You also have total freedom over where to go, and you can replay any level at any time, which I thought really added a feel of freedom to the game despite the rather linear storyline.
The story itself is very good, and the game is stuffed full of beautiful Square quality CG scenes.
Playing as the blood thirsty Caim was very fun as well. He was a very violent, bloodthirsty, and fun protagonist to play, in contrast to many of Squares main characters, which are often kind of weak and feminine.
The inclusion of experience is excellent in this game, and keeps up your desire to slaughter hundreds of more soldiers. Everything in this game can level up...you, your dragon, and even your weapons.
The weapons are probably my favorite part of the game. There are 65 total, most of which are hidden cleverly throughout the game. Each one has a unique look, feel, name, and magic. The magic powers up as the weapon levels up. Each weapon can go up to level 4 (the maximum), and the appearance of the weapon even changes as it becomes more powerful, which is really cool. As icing on the cake, you unlock a story of the weapons history as you level it up, which is really fun and interesting. It serves no real purpose in the game...it's just one of those great details that Square includes just for the sake of it.
Overall, I really enjoyed this game. I had a little over 40 hours into it when I beat it, though I suppose if you wanted to you could whip through it much faster. It all depends on how you play. It has definite replay value and is highly recommended to fans of action/adventure games.