Story
Desert Lords from the planet Sesool (which is always visible in the sky) have come to offer humanity their "guidance" (aka slavery). The swords-women Rynn and her dragon companion Arokh (specifically Arokh) are asked by the Queen to defeat their new adversary by summoning forth the dragon mother Mala Shae. To do this they must open the ancients gates found across the land.
The map is surprisingly large, and open, for an early PlayStation 2 game with environments ranging from forest, swamp, desert, and tundra to floating cities and alternate realities. There are several non-quest related caves, underground caverns, and ledges to explore, many of which can only be accesses from the air or found behind waterfalls. Although few in number, what side quests the game has to offer will have you rescuing kidnapped children from boar-people, battling giant roosters, and chasing necromancers into alternate spirit worlds.
Half of the game will be spent alone as Rynn whenever she has to travel underground. Rynn can use melee weapons, archery, or cast magic spells ranging from fire balls to cloning. Points gained from leveling are simultaneously used to improve those skills and allow the use of better weapons and armor. Enemies visibly roam the world, and a lock-on feature greatly improves combat accuracy. The enemy AI is not great; it is not uncommon for them to get caught on obstacles allowing the player to whittle away their health from afar. Other times they can be hit from a distance but seemingly continue to be oblivious to your presence. Defeated enemies do not re-spawn, so any area previously cleared can be revisited without having to repeat battles.
When exiting a cave, regardless of where the player entered or exited, Arokh will be waiting, often with an exclamation of "there you are" or "I've been looking for you." Most of the exploration of the open world will be done on Arokh's back, either in the air or while riding him on the ground. Arokh initially only has fire breath, but will gain the abilities to use ice, lightning, a sonic blast, and darkness. Aerial combat is finicky at times but manageable, and is a great way for quickly taking out land based opponents with little risk to the player. Even while fighting out in the open as Rynn, Arokh will often fly down to help Rynn, without having to be called or given commands.
When called by Rynn, it is not uncommon for Arokh to sometimes get caught on vegetation, ledges, or other obstacles while attempting to land. Arokh will then exclaim "I can't land here" and the game will attempt to reposition him someplace nearby, with surprising accuracy. I was really impressed by the amount of detail in the game, like the translucency of Arokh's wings or the sound of Rynn's footsteps changing with the surfaces she's walking on. Even calling Arokh while standing next to him will get a response of "I'm right here" or "there's no need to shout", which may seem like a minor thing today but for one of the earlier games on the PlayStation 2 is an unexpected detail.
The game is notoriously buggy: gates that won't open, Arokh disappearing or getting permanently stuck in a doorway. Most can be avoided, minimized or worked around, but this requires knowledge of the known issues beforehand. Even so, I found Drakan quite enjoyable, enough to play it again after a glitch erased all my save data.
The game has four save slots with each save file eating up approximately 1500KB of space. You also can't play the game, or in some instances even start it, without a PlayStation memory card.
First posted to videogamegeek.com
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