Whoa that was quite interesting to hear a perspective of someone who puts TAG above OOTF😅 I mean, for most folks Drakan: OOTF came first and the sequel was… pretty underwhelming. But either is pretty subjective, I suppose. It’s great that either of the games still inspire people regardless of the dated graphics! I’ll just leave my 5 cents after watching the entire review: 1) On “positive” glitches. Drakan OOTF is not just glitchy, it’s the CHAMPION of glitches. Some players literally built their play style around those glitches, including (annoyingly) in the multiplayer. Drakan OOTF speedrun record has been reduced to the maddening 9 minutes - that’s from main menu to the final cutscene - and even though I admire the dedication, I found that it was way more fun to use those glitches sparingly just to explore the possibilities. Did you know, for example, that you can do a controlled continuous hover using a well-timed jump and block? Just try that lol - Ruined Village and Islands Night will never be the same… 2) Music is something that either resonates with certain people or it doesn’t so there’s no point arguing - but I don’t necessarily agree that more tracks of music in the game makes it better. FWIW, I found the TAG soundtrack fairly forgettable - of course, it was a few painful playthroughs in the PS emulator as opposed to years of exploring the original game on PC and doing a bit of a multiplayer revival for a couple of years. But even though that was long ago, the OOTF music is still baked into my brain because each track wasn’t just good, it was unnecessarily well thought through and dynamic for a game like this. Yes, it sounds like simple MIDI when ripped from the game files while we’re now used to badass VST orchestras and even whole bands of live instruments employed by game composers. But I think OOTF was one of those games where everything was minimalist and it simply worked. Sad fact about those “MIDI” soundtracks of OOTF: you can’t really experience the way they were intended to sound unless you have an ancient sound card with DirectSound 3D + EAX support (like, Creative) or software emulating that support (I see Creative Alchemy being recommended on Arokh’s Lair). That actually makes a huge difference in how the OOTF music sounds in-game. 3) Game difficulty. I’ve seen this point being brought up as either a plus and a minus and maybe I’m leaning to the side where adding a bit of a challenge to the game is what makes it worthwhile. Some folks like mastering their game maniacally while others are content with strafing their way through without learning any moves - funny thing is, both work pretty well in Drakan OOTF and both provide a challenge. You can also do something in-between on a new playthrough. Fun fact: unlike the original single player, Drakan’s multiplayer game was at one point entirely built on mastering combo moves, which not only look kinda cool but also deal a set amount of damage that you could strategically calculate with a bit of simple math. Applying those in single player may look unnecessary if strafing “works best” - but it doesn’t mean you can’t have fun with camera-controlled 360 hits against annoying critters or do the powerful skullsplitter jump moves against giants that actually enables you to approach them in melee without the “cheating” dragon alt attack or “boring” arrows. In OOTF, you could definitely pick a particular strategy and combos for each type of opponent as opposed to locking onto a target and slashing away. Of course, you could also simply bypass most of the wartoks and run away - but where’s the fun in that? 4) Optional quests and hidden locations: OOTF has them! I completely ignored the flaming sword quest in Wartok Canyons on my first playthrough because I sincerely thought the “weapon” the old man was blabbering about was… the longbow from his caves. I didn’t even return to chat with him after the quest. That made the armor-piercing mythril sword from the forge, otherwise a fairly forgettable weapon, my favoured and most powerful weapon for hours of gameplay - and the first flaming sword that I actually looted from the knights an exciting surprise. I kept discovering hidden stashes with unique weapons, including one near the starting location, years after finishing the game. So I don’t think it’s fair to say OOTF doesn’t have optional content and surprises - it’s just that they were not as complex but also not as generic and tedious as some of the skippable content in TAG (all IMO). 5) The way OOTF thrusts you into action and you have to learn how to deal with it on your own… I agree it’s a horribly dated approach and it can be frustrating initially - but isn’t there some priceless experience in all that! Drakan was my first game with manual saves and the guy that generously installed it for me never explained those nuances, probably thinking it’s common knowledge. I didn’t even have enough English to figure it out by reading. Thinking that you have to keep playing until a key point, an autosave, I was literally storming through Ruined Village and then dodging giant pendulums on every session until finally realizing that by accidentally pressing some key I created my own custom “key point”. Years later I find that it’s simply hilarious - as is the fact that I learned the scary-looking English words “decrease” and “increase” from Drakan’s option menu while figuring out how all those controls work!! But even though it’s a bit hardcore, without someone leading my hand I found many of the transitions into a new location to be incredibly emotional. Spreading Arokh’s wings over the canyons for the first time ever? Ending up in a vast expanse of the tropical islands with deadly dragons in the sky? Being punched in the gut with news of your dragon friend missing after returning from a dungeon crawl? Those were some real feels. I can’t even begin to describe how influential that game was for me and yet I know people who spent thrice as many years playing it which would probably make my experience pretty tame in comparison. I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree that TAG is superior to OOTF because it has PS controls, a leveling system, “better” graphics and all those other nice things🤭
I'm 19. Order of the Flame and The Ancients' Gates are goddamn great games and I actually found a full durability Plate Armour (which was not in any guide or secret list) in the Islands' Night section of the game. Also, the Mourn Bringer (from either game) is the coolest weapon I have ever seen in any game (that I can remember at the moment).
One day i just sat down and pondered i remember a demo that reminded me a lot of Baldur’s gate riding dragons but it wasn’t baldur’s. Only way I remember this game was from a demo from PlayStation Jampack of Winter 2001 volume after doing some hunting around.
I played through The Ancient Gates about 7 times back in the day. I probably had 300-400 hours in it. The first time was kind of hard for me. I took my time attacking enemies and snuck around a lot. I didn't have a bunch of money or weapons. The last time that I played, I had too much of everything. One thing that I never hear mentioned about this game that I found very rare....almost nothing disappears. If you kill a guy, he is there for the rest of the game. You can go back in 8 weeks and hack & slash him some more. I used that knowledge and would leave items in the main blacksmiths place on the floor. They will be there for the rest of the game and it keep your inventory light. I liked all the hidden things that you get rewarded for because you chose to explore too. That is a really good exploration game. I wish that I could play it on PC...I know that there is a way, but not all that easy. I had so much fun playing this. This is back when games were good, not product made by businesses looking for ways to micro transaction people. I paid $20 for this back in 2000'ish and would pay $50 on steam right now if they had it available.
I played this game so much when I was younger that I ended up writing myself a personal guide on one of the earliest versions of Word at the time, including some glitches and where to find unique weapons like the Crown of Thorns or the blade in the mushroom cave that freezes things solid on low health; amazing at early levels. It's great to see this game given attention. It solidified my interests in fantasy and that love for it has never let go 😊
Wartok Canyons is burned into my brain, might my favorite area and song in all of video games. I still boot up this game on my old 98 machine to mess around in the Canyons.
Search every so often for new drakan stuff, order of the flame is one of my favorite games of all time, TAG is right up there as well. Play order of the flame on the lowest settings at 800x600 at a blazing 10fps. I'm in my late 30s now and I don't remember a ton from my childhood but I remember drakan vividly. Good video my man
Hi. Big fan of both games here since the order of the flame demo in 1999. I still play both games every one or two years and I casually look for new drakan review on youtube at the same time. I can easily say your video is one of the best on the matter. Hope your content get more views, the quality of your work clearly deserve it. I suscribe right away !
Im honestly baffled that there are no other rpgs like this. Riding a Dragon is one of the coolest things you can do in a game, but for some reason almost no game has that as a core mechanic and the Drakan games are the only games who did that well.
Damn I loved this game, I remember installing the demo from a computers magazine CD, and I loved it so much I replayed it a lot of times. Couldn't get ever get the full game tho.
Drakan Order of the Flame, The Wheel of Time, Arx Fatalis and Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines are my favorite PC games of all time, and one of the first ones I ever playd. That says allot for modern gams. They just don't make them that good anymore.
I have two copies of the ancients gates. One to play and one for just in case. Actually thinking about buying another copy 😊 best game, you can find hidden weapons not sold by vendors. I played the demo version too when it came out in a video game magazine. My favorite game ever
Draken was the first ps2 game I've ever played, My Cousin gave me his console (And I believe It was Because I Deleted his save files on his console...I was a kid and very dumb) And this was the first game for said console. I barely had a Understand on how it worked. Never getting that far. I'm tempted to get a Emulator and trying my hand at the game
Thanks for the shout out PJ. Found out about this video and your channel in turn through a post on r/Drakan. Your review was well made and I didn't even notice that almost an hour passed 😆. I was going to give you a like, but realized after everything I watched, the effort you put into this review, and shout out, *"it would be a disservice to give you anything less than"* a like, a sub, and hitting that bell icon. Thanks for sharing your love of the game/series with the rest of us.
The bad (there were a couple useful ones) glitches and need to skip the cutscene weren't in the original 98 version, and the "being unable to do anything until you can get on your dragon" problem wasn't a thing. Arokh is supposed to fire at them and draw attention/"dodge" (they would kind of just conveniently miss the first few) There were also plenty of cheats. I only remember a few offhand because they were often inside jokes that the developers had, but \gimme runeblade \iamgod \iamgoddess \opensezme \floy \drop You just had to hold shift on startup to enable developer mode. There's also different attacks. If i recall correctly, forward+attack=stab forward+back+attack=wide spin slash forward+back+forward+attack=combo move. If you haven't already, try calling for our sweet scaley boi when you're already close to him out in the open, he has things to say about it. And there ABSOLUTELY was a trick for the tornado room, but i can't remember it.
They teach you that in the tutorial, and in the game book. I honestly found this out after getting bored, and decided to read the book for fun. Now I think every game needs a manual for hidden features.
Hello brother. I too have loved this game for many years. Nice to meet you. I'm playing right now on steam deck and I just found out you can combine all 4 elemental swords. I'm about to get the flame sword and go search the stores until I find all the ones I sold lol
You don't need to combine them. I'm pretty certain you only need to have obtained all four, and the Mournbringer will appear in Brekk's inventory. I don't think you need to have them all on your person.
@@Dachimotsu I WAS ON MY WAY BACK TO SAY THIS LOL! This thing is cool, I like the shadow effect. I've played this game for years and just now discovered it, neat.
20:00 speaking of weird secret mechanics, do you know about the backstabs/sneak attacks? If you get close to someones back and they havent noticed you, rynn will jump and do an extremely damaging attack. There are only a handful of instances where you can pull it off in the entire game. Invisibility spells and potions dont work, and it also doesny work on the teleported wartoks at the end of the andrelian isles. The most consistent enemy to pull it off was the first out of 2 brown trogs you meet after the area with the blowdarts. He has his back turned on you so you can sneak up on him but you have to be quick because the 2nd trog sees you immeditiately. This feature is borderline impossible to pull off in general so i bet many people never even pulled it off once
@@TheVoid13 You can sneak attack most enemy types. Normally, Rynn does that attack animation if you hit down on the d-pad twice followed by square. If you successfully sneak, just hitting square will activate the downward attack if the enemy's back is turned and they don't detect you. It does more damage than normal and knocks enemies to the ground in most instances. You can do it with or without invisibility. I've found that lightly pressing the analog stick to slow Rynn's run speed and staying out of the enemy's line of sight allows for a fairly easy sneak. Don't swing your weapons around, draw your weapons, break things, or cast because that typically alerts them.
@@TheVoid13 If you hold the analogue stick very slighty forward, Rynn does the sneak walk, like in order of the flame. Then the monsters dont hear you. You can do this also with the wartok who guards Perry in the cave. And lots more.
My favorite skill spread: Melee: 7 (I like the Tempest, which is unlocked at Melee 7. I also like Mithril Greatsword and Lastat's Blade, which are unlocked at Melee 6 and 5, respectively. Don't care for the slow, clunky Melee 8 weapons). Archery: 1 (Not a fan. Many of the best bows do AOE damage that hurt Rynn. Also, don't like how much inventory space for ranged attacks [magic takes no inventory slots]). Magic: 6 (Good enough for me. I typically only use Clone and Time Slow in most cases, as Fear is OP for easier enemies, so I'd rather fight them using Melee. I also invest in Lightning and Fireball, but that's about it. Don't care for many of the other spells).
Incredible game man. Also, I would have fucking KILLED to have a dad to chill and play video games with. Some people have no idea how damn lucky they are… don’t you grunt and whine when you explain how you were “finally allowed on the internet”, obviously they were good parents, the internet was and still is a disgusting horrible place where children have no business playing in.
Really want to explore this title again, has been since 2000 the last I played this game, I have found the game on abandonware but have no idea how to apply patches or mods
Use the circle button to parry more and dodge so you don't take damage. Use the d-pad for special attacks that can knock enemies down (only 2H weapons can knock down Wartoks and 2H heavy weapons [not swords] can knock down Half Men).
Strangely enough, I would not have looked into that, if I hadn't remembered the guy from my local video store mentioning it, when I talked to him about the game, way back shortly after it was released. @@TheVoid13
Hi! Interesting review and analysis. But as some people mentioned a few stuff is a little bit wrong. Just my two cents amongst others: I wanted to clearify , you can also do the combos in the first game. Like spinning slash, or frontflip slash (wich also almost nullifies falldmg), stabbing, somersaulting etc. Little people know about since if i recall correctly it wasn't even in the manual, so i would not be surprised if it was missing in the second games manual too. Also at 38:40, the trap you mentioned is literally a copy and paste of the first trap you'll find in the "goblin fortress" in the first game where you have to retrieve the elemental amulet from. But all in all great Video maybe more people will end up wanting to play Drakan! Also I would really love to see a remake of Drakan. But I fear that's never going to happen.
Could you tell me where that missable region is? I think is missed it. Also, how can I go into that dungeon in Surdana with the closed fence? It's on a island you can only reach with Arokh. It's in an far end of the map. Thank you!!
That closed fence LEADS to the missable region. To open it, you have to speak with General Dehrimon immediately after opening the first gate (the one in Ravenshold). Sometimes, a glitch occurs and he won't tell you about it, but there are ways to clip through the mountains and get there whenever you want. If you wait too long after opening the gate, you can also miss the chance to speak to Dehrimon about it.
I don't believe it was stated that the Desert Lords were the weakest in Sessool, but I could be wrong. I just know that they fled. Also, they were a rather underwhelming enemy to me. They weren't in it much, and they don't take many hits to kill. I find the golems in the Flesh Mage's palace to be the hardest enemy. They can one-shot you even when you're wearing the best armor in certain cases. They're doable, but I usually just run past them since I'm always max level when I reach that level.
Its in the surdana map, in the direction of the andrelian isles there is a camp with some wartogs and a door in the wall next to it. There is a cave entrence over the door thats how you get in.
If I wasn't trying to parry, I was just tanking the hits. In my experience, enemies are too good at catching up to you when you roll, or their attacks hit you mid-roll anyway. It might look terrible to you, but I almost never die in The Ancients Gates.
I fought different types of enemies different ways. What I did most though was run circles around them, literally. They would just spin around trying to keep up.
Umm, i don't think you are allowed to be swearing!!! Tisk tisk, what if mom hears you!?!? She'll shut the game down!!!!! Lile, MA!!!!! I'M FLYING DRAGONS HERRE!!!! CA'MON!!!!
![Behind the Scenes - Drakan: The Ancients' Gates (PS2 Game) [Making of]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/PotPKL_kwM8/mqdefault.jpg)
![Chino Pacas - Smith (ft. Junior H & Fuerza Regida) [Video Visualizador Oficial]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/BVK6k56X30Y/mqdefault.jpg)
![GEEK TIMË [OFFICIAL AUDIO]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/ry-6RvkH880/mqdefault.jpg)
My heart can't take it 😭❤️
My all-time favorite game.
My Rynn.. My Arokh.. My Dylan.. Atimar.. aaaaaaah
NOSTALGIA 😭❤
Whoa that was quite interesting to hear a perspective of someone who puts TAG above OOTF😅 I mean, for most folks Drakan: OOTF came first and the sequel was… pretty underwhelming. But either is pretty subjective, I suppose. It’s great that either of the games still inspire people regardless of the dated graphics! I’ll just leave my 5 cents after watching the entire review:
1) On “positive” glitches. Drakan OOTF is not just glitchy, it’s the CHAMPION of glitches. Some players literally built their play style around those glitches, including (annoyingly) in the multiplayer. Drakan OOTF speedrun record has been reduced to the maddening 9 minutes - that’s from main menu to the final cutscene - and even though I admire the dedication, I found that it was way more fun to use those glitches sparingly just to explore the possibilities. Did you know, for example, that you can do a controlled continuous hover using a well-timed jump and block? Just try that lol - Ruined Village and Islands Night will never be the same…
2) Music is something that either resonates with certain people or it doesn’t so there’s no point arguing - but I don’t necessarily agree that more tracks of music in the game makes it better. FWIW, I found the TAG soundtrack fairly forgettable - of course, it was a few painful playthroughs in the PS emulator as opposed to years of exploring the original game on PC and doing a bit of a multiplayer revival for a couple of years. But even though that was long ago, the OOTF music is still baked into my brain because each track wasn’t just good, it was unnecessarily well thought through and dynamic for a game like this. Yes, it sounds like simple MIDI when ripped from the game files while we’re now used to badass VST orchestras and even whole bands of live instruments employed by game composers. But I think OOTF was one of those games where everything was minimalist and it simply worked. Sad fact about those “MIDI” soundtracks of OOTF: you can’t really experience the way they were intended to sound unless you have an ancient sound card with DirectSound 3D + EAX support (like, Creative) or software emulating that support (I see Creative Alchemy being recommended on Arokh’s Lair). That actually makes a huge difference in how the OOTF music sounds in-game.
3) Game difficulty. I’ve seen this point being brought up as either a plus and a minus and maybe I’m leaning to the side where adding a bit of a challenge to the game is what makes it worthwhile. Some folks like mastering their game maniacally while others are content with strafing their way through without learning any moves - funny thing is, both work pretty well in Drakan OOTF and both provide a challenge. You can also do something in-between on a new playthrough. Fun fact: unlike the original single player, Drakan’s multiplayer game was at one point entirely built on mastering combo moves, which not only look kinda cool but also deal a set amount of damage that you could strategically calculate with a bit of simple math. Applying those in single player may look unnecessary if strafing “works best” - but it doesn’t mean you can’t have fun with camera-controlled 360 hits against annoying critters or do the powerful skullsplitter jump moves against giants that actually enables you to approach them in melee without the “cheating” dragon alt attack or “boring” arrows. In OOTF, you could definitely pick a particular strategy and combos for each type of opponent as opposed to locking onto a target and slashing away. Of course, you could also simply bypass most of the wartoks and run away - but where’s the fun in that?
4) Optional quests and hidden locations: OOTF has them! I completely ignored the flaming sword quest in Wartok Canyons on my first playthrough because I sincerely thought the “weapon” the old man was blabbering about was… the longbow from his caves. I didn’t even return to chat with him after the quest. That made the armor-piercing mythril sword from the forge, otherwise a fairly forgettable weapon, my favoured and most powerful weapon for hours of gameplay - and the first flaming sword that I actually looted from the knights an exciting surprise. I kept discovering hidden stashes with unique weapons, including one near the starting location, years after finishing the game. So I don’t think it’s fair to say OOTF doesn’t have optional content and surprises - it’s just that they were not as complex but also not as generic and tedious as some of the skippable content in TAG (all IMO).
5) The way OOTF thrusts you into action and you have to learn how to deal with it on your own… I agree it’s a horribly dated approach and it can be frustrating initially - but isn’t there some priceless experience in all that! Drakan was my first game with manual saves and the guy that generously installed it for me never explained those nuances, probably thinking it’s common knowledge. I didn’t even have enough English to figure it out by reading. Thinking that you have to keep playing until a key point, an autosave, I was literally storming through Ruined Village and then dodging giant pendulums on every session until finally realizing that by accidentally pressing some key I created my own custom “key point”. Years later I find that it’s simply hilarious - as is the fact that I learned the scary-looking English words “decrease” and “increase” from Drakan’s option menu while figuring out how all those controls work!! But even though it’s a bit hardcore, without someone leading my hand I found many of the transitions into a new location to be incredibly emotional. Spreading Arokh’s wings over the canyons for the first time ever? Ending up in a vast expanse of the tropical islands with deadly dragons in the sky? Being punched in the gut with news of your dragon friend missing after returning from a dungeon crawl? Those were some real feels. I can’t even begin to describe how influential that game was for me and yet I know people who spent thrice as many years playing it which would probably make my experience pretty tame in comparison. I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree that TAG is superior to OOTF because it has PS controls, a leveling system, “better” graphics and all those other nice things🤭
I think "most" people who know anything about this series know only of the second game because they rented it once 20 years ago.
I'm 19. Order of the Flame and The Ancients' Gates are goddamn great games and I actually found a full durability Plate Armour (which was not in any guide or secret list) in the Islands' Night section of the game. Also, the Mourn Bringer (from either game) is the coolest weapon I have ever seen in any game (that I can remember at the moment).
One day i just sat down and pondered i remember a demo that reminded me a lot of Baldur’s gate riding dragons but it wasn’t baldur’s.
Only way I remember this game was from a demo from PlayStation Jampack of Winter 2001 volume after doing some hunting around.
omg. I played Order of the flame when i was a kid. Had NO IDEA there was a second one. Absolutely loved Drakan 1.
I love this game
I played through The Ancient Gates about 7 times back in the day. I probably had 300-400 hours in it. The first time was kind of hard for me. I took my time attacking enemies and snuck around a lot. I didn't have a bunch of money or weapons. The last time that I played, I had too much of everything.
One thing that I never hear mentioned about this game that I found very rare....almost nothing disappears. If you kill a guy, he is there for the rest of the game. You can go back in 8 weeks and hack & slash him some more. I used that knowledge and would leave items in the main blacksmiths place on the floor. They will be there for the rest of the game and it keep your inventory light.
I liked all the hidden things that you get rewarded for because you chose to explore too. That is a really good exploration game. I wish that I could play it on PC...I know that there is a way, but not all that easy. I had so much fun playing this. This is back when games were good, not product made by businesses looking for ways to micro transaction people. I paid $20 for this back in 2000'ish and would pay $50 on steam right now if they had it available.
I played this game so much when I was younger that I ended up writing myself a personal guide on one of the earliest versions of Word at the time, including some glitches and where to find unique weapons like the Crown of Thorns or the blade in the mushroom cave that freezes things solid on low health; amazing at early levels. It's great to see this game given attention. It solidified my interests in fantasy and that love for it has never let go 😊
The order of the flame made my childhood! I hope for a 3rd game
Me too...
That softlock gag was hilarious.
Wartok Canyons is burned into my brain, might my favorite area and song in all of video games. I still boot up this game on my old 98 machine to mess around in the Canyons.
Search every so often for new drakan stuff, order of the flame is one of my favorite games of all time, TAG is right up there as well. Play order of the flame on the lowest settings at 800x600 at a blazing 10fps. I'm in my late 30s now and I don't remember a ton from my childhood but I remember drakan vividly. Good video my man
Hi. Big fan of both games here since the order of the flame demo in 1999. I still play both games every one or two years and I casually look for new drakan review on youtube at the same time. I can easily say your video is one of the best on the matter. Hope your content get more views, the quality of your work clearly deserve it. I suscribe right away !
Im honestly baffled that there are no other rpgs like this. Riding a Dragon is one of the coolest things you can do in a game,
but for some reason almost no game has that as a core mechanic and the Drakan games are the only games who did that well.
Yeah, but if anything, it keeps the Drakan series completely unique.
Divinity 2 Ego Draconis is kinda like this. Except you don't ride a dragon, but turn into one.
I think it's because, it's so hard to get right.
Loved both games! 😊
Would love to see a remake.. 🤩
Yes finally the void is back!!
Damn I loved this game, I remember installing the demo from a computers magazine CD, and I loved it so much I replayed it a lot of times. Couldn't get ever get the full game tho.
The Ancients' gates was my favorite game. Beat it a dozen times or so in the early 2000s
Drakan Order of the Flame, The Wheel of Time, Arx Fatalis and Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines are my favorite PC games of all time, and one of the first ones I ever playd. That says allot for modern gams. They just don't make them that good anymore.
I have two copies of the ancients gates. One to play and one for just in case. Actually thinking about buying another copy 😊 best game, you can find hidden weapons not sold by vendors. I played the demo version too when it came out in a video game magazine. My favorite game ever
Woooah! Nichols the Bold sounds a lot like Warrior Jar Alexander! I wonder… 🤔
Draken was the first ps2 game I've ever played, My Cousin gave me his console (And I believe It was Because I Deleted his save files on his console...I was a kid and very dumb) And this was the first game for said console. I barely had a Understand on how it worked. Never getting that far. I'm tempted to get a Emulator and trying my hand at the game
Thanks for the shout out PJ. Found out about this video and your channel in turn through a post on r/Drakan. Your review was well made and I didn't even notice that almost an hour passed 😆. I was going to give you a like, but realized after everything I watched, the effort you put into this review, and shout out, *"it would be a disservice to give you anything less than"* a like, a sub, and hitting that bell icon. Thanks for sharing your love of the game/series with the rest of us.
The bad (there were a couple useful ones) glitches and need to skip the cutscene weren't in the original 98 version, and the "being unable to do anything until you can get on your dragon" problem wasn't a thing. Arokh is supposed to fire at them and draw attention/"dodge" (they would kind of just conveniently miss the first few) There were also plenty of cheats. I only remember a few offhand because they were often inside jokes that the developers had, but \gimme runeblade \iamgod \iamgoddess \opensezme \floy \drop
You just had to hold shift on startup to enable developer mode. There's also different attacks. If i recall correctly, forward+attack=stab forward+back+attack=wide spin slash forward+back+forward+attack=combo move.
If you haven't already, try calling for our sweet scaley boi when you're already close to him out in the open, he has things to say about it. And there ABSOLUTELY was a trick for the tornado room, but i can't remember it.
I have the second game, but never could hunt down the first. Good to see that you can find it somewhere
Hey great video, however you can use shields with two handed weapons, I’m playing right now and using the lestat blade with a shield
Inquisitor's Lair at Level 1 is a fun challenge.
Dude, Drakan 1 has alt fire for dragon weapons. That completely changes them.
ohw my god what a great review. I didnt know you could do a summersault in the ancient gates. Wowwwwww
They teach you that in the tutorial, and in the game book. I honestly found this out after getting bored, and decided to read the book for fun. Now I think every game needs a manual for hidden features.
And she can get in a diving position when jumping into a lake, but have to be pretty high up
Love your content keep up The great work!
Hello brother. I too have loved this game for many years. Nice to meet you. I'm playing right now on steam deck and I just found out you can combine all 4 elemental swords. I'm about to get the flame sword and go search the stores until I find all the ones I sold lol
You don't need to combine them. I'm pretty certain you only need to have obtained all four, and the Mournbringer will appear in Brekk's inventory. I don't think you need to have them all on your person.
@@Dachimotsu I WAS ON MY WAY BACK TO SAY THIS LOL! This thing is cool, I like the shadow effect. I've played this game for years and just now discovered it, neat.
I still have both games and the boxes
20:00 speaking of weird secret mechanics, do you know about the backstabs/sneak attacks?
If you get close to someones back and they havent noticed you, rynn will jump and do an extremely damaging attack. There are only a handful of instances where you can pull it off in the entire game. Invisibility spells and potions dont work, and it also doesny work on the teleported wartoks at the end of the andrelian isles.
The most consistent enemy to pull it off was the first out of 2 brown trogs you meet after the area with the blowdarts. He has his back turned on you so you can sneak up on him but you have to be quick because the 2nd trog sees you immeditiately. This feature is borderline impossible to pull off in general so i bet many people never even pulled it off once
How did you learn about that? Is there a video where I can see it in action?
@@TheVoid13 You can sneak attack most enemy types. Normally, Rynn does that attack animation if you hit down on the d-pad twice followed by square. If you successfully sneak, just hitting square will activate the downward attack if the enemy's back is turned and they don't detect you. It does more damage than normal and knocks enemies to the ground in most instances. You can do it with or without invisibility. I've found that lightly pressing the analog stick to slow Rynn's run speed and staying out of the enemy's line of sight allows for a fairly easy sneak. Don't swing your weapons around, draw your weapons, break things, or cast because that typically alerts them.
@@TheVoid13 If you hold the analogue stick very slighty forward, Rynn does the sneak walk, like in order of the flame. Then the monsters dont hear you. You can do this also with the wartok who guards Perry in the cave. And lots more.
I can't ever get Arokh's melee attack to work.
My favorite skill spread:
Melee: 7 (I like the Tempest, which is unlocked at Melee 7. I also like Mithril Greatsword and Lastat's Blade, which are unlocked at Melee 6 and 5, respectively. Don't care for the slow, clunky Melee 8 weapons).
Archery: 1 (Not a fan. Many of the best bows do AOE damage that hurt Rynn. Also, don't like how much inventory space for ranged attacks [magic takes no inventory slots]).
Magic: 6 (Good enough for me. I typically only use Clone and Time Slow in most cases, as Fear is OP for easier enemies, so I'd rather fight them using Melee. I also invest in Lightning and Fireball, but that's about it. Don't care for many of the other spells).
Incredible game man. Also, I would have fucking KILLED to have a dad to chill and play video games with. Some people have no idea how damn lucky they are… don’t you grunt and whine when you explain how you were “finally allowed on the internet”, obviously they were good parents, the internet was and still is a disgusting horrible place where children have no business playing in.
Really want to explore this title again, has been since 2000 the last I played this game, I have found the game on abandonware but have no idea how to apply patches or mods
The Drakan discord server and Arokhs Lair are how I found out how to get it running.
Use the circle button to parry more and dodge so you don't take damage. Use the d-pad for special attacks that can knock enemies down (only 2H weapons can knock down Wartoks and 2H heavy weapons [not swords] can knock down Half Men).
The swords, indeed, were both inspired by an older source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stormbringer
Ooh, very nice. Thanks for telling me about that!
Strangely enough, I would not have looked into that, if I hadn't remembered the guy from my local video store mentioning it, when I talked to him about the game, way back shortly after it was released. @@TheVoid13
37:12 You can also break the sink and flood the pool
Hi! Interesting review and analysis. But as some people mentioned a few stuff is a little bit wrong. Just my two cents amongst others: I wanted to clearify , you can also do the combos in the first game. Like spinning slash, or frontflip slash (wich also almost nullifies falldmg), stabbing, somersaulting etc. Little people know about since if i recall correctly it wasn't even in the manual, so i would not be surprised if it was missing in the second games manual too. Also at 38:40, the trap you mentioned is literally a copy and paste of the first trap you'll find in the "goblin fortress" in the first game where you have to retrieve the elemental amulet from.
But all in all great Video maybe more people will end up wanting to play Drakan!
Also I would really love to see a remake of Drakan. But I fear that's never going to happen.
Could you tell me where that missable region is? I think is missed it. Also, how can I go into that dungeon in Surdana with the closed fence? It's on a island you can only reach with Arokh. It's in an far end of the map. Thank you!!
That closed fence LEADS to the missable region. To open it, you have to speak with General Dehrimon immediately after opening the first gate (the one in Ravenshold). Sometimes, a glitch occurs and he won't tell you about it, but there are ways to clip through the mountains and get there whenever you want. If you wait too long after opening the gate, you can also miss the chance to speak to Dehrimon about it.
@@TheVoid13 thank you for the reply
such a fire game 🔥
I don't believe it was stated that the Desert Lords were the weakest in Sessool, but I could be wrong. I just know that they fled. Also, they were a rather underwhelming enemy to me. They weren't in it much, and they don't take many hits to kill. I find the golems in the Flesh Mage's palace to be the hardest enemy. They can one-shot you even when you're wearing the best armor in certain cases. They're doable, but I usually just run past them since I'm always max level when I reach that level.
Darkness Breath is the best in the game. It's special attack can one-shot almost any enemy.
49:16 where is this? Ive played this game dozens of times and ive never seen this area with the wartok and the spider
Its in the surdana map, in the direction of the andrelian isles there is a camp with some wartogs and a door in the wall next to it. There is a cave entrence over the door thats how you get in.
It's in the mountains just south of the witch-hating bitch's house.
@@TheVoid13 XD
i played this with my dad in like 02/03
Just saying but goblins are actually though green dudes with the crossbows
You CAN use shields with 2H weapons.
470 sub and 80 like
Am I the only smart one that rolled back from attacks after finishing a combo? I feel like the footage was showing horrible gameplay on purpose…
If I wasn't trying to parry, I was just tanking the hits. In my experience, enemies are too good at catching up to you when you roll, or their attacks hit you mid-roll anyway. It might look terrible to you, but I almost never die in The Ancients Gates.
3 hit combo roll back lunging strike, swipe to finish it off. Kinda how I played lol
I fought different types of enemies different ways. What I did most though was run circles around them, literally. They would just spin around trying to keep up.
Umm, i don't think you are allowed to be swearing!!! Tisk tisk, what if mom hears you!?!? She'll shut the game down!!!!! Lile, MA!!!!! I'M FLYING DRAGONS HERRE!!!! CA'MON!!!!
Wouldnt it be nice if drekan 3 came out on ps5
Drakan 3? Yes.
PS5? No.