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Two attacks for offense; one a standard slash, and the other capable of launching whole groups of enemies into the air. Mix them up in the listed patterns to get some screen-shaking special moves. Both can be used mid-jump, either wildly slashing at the air, or to come smashing down with an area effect that will stagger foes. Magic is waiting to be thrown into the mix, with up to four levels if you've maxed out the weapon and have enough mana to feed it. Evading lets you roll to either side and perform a fairly useless hop back maneuver, while tapping block in mid-air allows you to land on your feet and avoid additional falling damage. On certain levels tapping select as Nowe will summon his dragon companion, making switching between the two effortless, though the landings in narrow areas aren't always so easy.
On rails shooting without the rails.
If not for the draw distance, flying and fighting as a dragon would be perfection. Oddly, the developers not only fixed the camera behind Legna (as they should have done for the wingless characters), but also handed him a lock-on system to keep his steely gaze fixed on important enemies. He can gracefully float through the sky, dashing ahead when needing to avoid fire or reach important objectives in time. His "side step" is made useless by the recovery time involved, but the ability to turn around at a moment's notice means he doesn't need it. Fighting is taken right out of the Panzer Dragon series, with a powerful but difficult to aim fire breath (great for scattering enemies on the ground) and a much easier but weaker lock-on lasers (a must for fast-moving airborne rivals). He'll also slowly gain the ability to perform special, more powerful attacks, though he'll have to collect power ups from destroyed enemies in order to use them. He can also take advantage of Nowe's mana store for his own magic attacks, but these are only available in the mixed ground missions.
These aerial dogfights can be just as intense and exciting as any good WWII flight sim, but like the rest of Drakengard II there's always that one flaw that's too large to ignore. This time it's the draw distance, made incredibly short considering the air this swift-moving dragon can cover. Often you'll find you have to practically smack into foes before you can get a lock on them, and worse is some enemies will be able to fire at you with deadly accuracy when they're no more than a grey spec in the distance...if they're visible at all. Since this all takes place without a framerate hiccup I'd welcome some slowdown during the game if they could only roll back the fog line and let me fight as a dragon was mean to.
If you like it, there's plenty of it.
Even skipping most of the cut-scenes, your first run through Drakengard II is going to clock in at least twenty hours, or longer if you devote some time in free missions raising up the levels of your weapon collection. Everything you've earned from your previous run you keep for the next, including both character and weapon experience levels, along with a few bonus items and a cash reward. You'll even have the ability to use all four playable characters in any mission from now on...but there's a catch. The difficulty is automatically bumped up a notch for your next play, to keep the road to the game's second and third endings from being a cakewalk.
Drakengard II is an extremely uneven game. The core gameplay, weapon selection, and variety found it its enemies and missions puts DW5 to shame, but terrible pacing, poor draw distance, and a broken camera cripple what could have been a truly exceptional experience. As it is, the high points are worth enduring the low points to reach, but there will always be a lingering sadness over what it could have been.
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