#Drakengard 3 growing wings series#

The music was intended to be 'experimental' and 'expressionistic' rather than 'commercial'. Their main objective was to create music that emulated the game's hack-and-slash gameplay, as well as the dark story and general narrative theme of 'madness'. In creating the score, they sampled excerpts from pieces of classical music (selected by Aihara), then rearranged, remixed and layered them in various ways.

#Drakengard 3 growing wings series#

The music of the first game in the Drakengard series was composed by Nobuyoshi Sano and Takayuki Aihara. The chiptune compilation was generally liked, except for its exclusivity to the special release. The third game's soundtrack also received fairly positive comments, mainly praising its quality, although critiques were made concerning its variety. The second game's soundtrack received a more positive reception, with the general opinion being that it was a more traditional and consequently more comfortable soundtrack. It has been generally cited as an experimental soundtrack. The first game was noted for its disturbing style, which both drew criticism for repetitiveness and praise for suiting the game's atmosphere. The soundtracks have received mixed to positive reviews from both dedicated video game music outlets and video game critics. All three singles have been in the top 40 best-selling singles in the Japanese Oricon music charts. The latter was specially written and sung by Onitsuka Chihiro, who created the song around the themes and characters of the game. The former was sung by Eir Aoi, a fan of the series, and written by Nier writer Kikuchi Hana. Two theme songs were written for Drakengard 3: 'Kuroi Uta' and 'This Silence is Mine'. A re-orchestration of Mika Nakashima's single 'Hitori' was used as the theme for Drakengard 2, incorporating elements from the game. The series has also received theme songs from multiple Japanese pop artists, all of which have been released as singles. A compilation of chiptune remixes of the previous games and Nier, Drag-On Dragoon Chips Music, was released on Decemas part of the Drag-On Dragoon 10 Anniversary Box. The official soundtrack for the third game, Drag-On Dragoon 3 Original Soundtrack, was released January 21, 2014.

A promotional disc with two tracks from the soundtrack was released in the same year.

The Drag-On Dragoon 2 Original Soundtrack was released on July 20, 2005. Multiple albums have been released for the music of the series: Drag-On Dragoon Original Soundtrack Vol.1 and Vol.2 were released on October and November 2004, while a two-disc re-release titled Drag-On Dragoon Original Soundtrack was released in April 2011.

Sano remained as a sound director for the second game, and his music was used as a reference for the third. Drakengards composers were Nobuyoshi Sano and Takayuki Aihara, Drakengard 2 was handled by Ryoki Matsumoto and Aoi Yoshiki, and Drakengard 3 was composed for by Keiichi Okabe, the composer for series spin-off Nier. The music for the Drakengard series, known as in Japan, has been handled by multiple composers since the release of the original game in 2004.