Europe's BEST cRPG ?

Drakensang: The Dark Eye is possibly the best RPG you’ve never played. Hell, you most likely have never even heard of it, if you live in North America. Drakensang: The Dark Eye is a decent-looking 3rd person party-based offering for the PC from 2008 however, what differentiates it from other similar titles of the time is its supremely crunchy mechanics which truly offer something different than your more run-of-the-mill DnD-influenced or even DnD-licensed games.
Drakensang Highlights - 00:10
Drakensang Character Creation - 01:39
Drakensang Character Sheet - 02:21
Drakensang Story - 05:20
Drakensang Combat - 09:17
Drakensang WOUNDS!!! - 10:45
Drakensang Items, Spells and Abilities - 12:15
Camera Control - 17:04
THE WALKING - 18:32
Drakensang Atmosphere - 20:03
Drakensang Score - 21:01
Drakensang Pronounciation - 21:46
Drakensang/Drakengard Confusion - 22:32
Drakensang Tips&Tricks - 22:50
Stefan's Miscellaneous Musings - 24:38
Drakensang Conclusion - 25:48
Is Drakensang: The Dark Eye Worth Playing? - 26:20
Is Drakensang the best European RPG? - 27:01
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#drakensang #rpg #plotjuice

[@yamadakoji00]

Thanks for raising my awareness of this game! I enjoy retro and crunchy, and a good game doesn't always have to be too free-form in story. Looking forward to trying it, hadn't heard of it before now.

[@StefaNonsense]

Glad you found out something new today and hopefully you also enjoyed the video :) Stick around, you most likely won't regret it, likewise check out my cRPG backlog of videos, there's plenty to choose from ;)

[@kaipacifica1289]

Great series with a timeless art style. So wish they'd made a 3rd game!

[@StefaNonsense]

Considering their finances, it is quite surprising they managed to put out two of these and an expansion, tbh :) However, I think nowadays, this crunchy approach would find a fairly comfortable home niche via crowdfunding.

[@MonsieurMadWaste]

@@StefaNonsense Drakensang is my all time fav game and just has a special place in my heart. I went through it like 3-4 times and would do it again xD also when you mentioned crowdfunding, I would participate for sure, just wish they wanted to continue the franchise.

[@brainfreezecommentaries]

@StefaNonsense Drakensang The River of Time is more linier, a more story focused, but also a shorter game than The Dark Eye Drakensang ... The first game has some JRPG elements like a bigger open map were you can enter forest inbetween ereas to farm monsters xD

[@brainfreezecommentaries]

@kaipacifica1289 well... it cant be called Drakensang tho ... they soled the name and made Drakensang Online, which has nothing to do with The Dark Eye

[@samflood5631]

I wish they made console versions of the first 2 games for the PS3/4/5, Xbox 360/One/Series X and Nintendo Wii/Switch.

[@entropy6e]

I agree this is one of the top European RPGs. Wish we got a remake or a new Dark Eye CRPG! ❤️ the crunchiness, most titles today are far too simplistic

[@StefaNonsense]

Glad you dug it, I've worked on the video on-and-off for more than half a year, I can only hope others will enjoy it enough to watch through its entire length. Did you catch the visual Dranor joke? :D

[@derherredur4468]

The characters forget that they are in a fight because you have them on "Defensive Mode" all the time ;) just click on the shield symbol on the character symbol. Then they will search for their next target after finishing one. Great Review, you should maybe try out DSA5 if you haven't done so yet :D The system is even more german and crunchy than Drakensang is tho xD

[@StefaNonsense]

Yeah but if they're not in Defensive Mode they aggro from a football field's distance on everything :)) What is DSA5 ?

[@derherredur4468]

@@StefaNonsense DSA5 is the new ruling system of the dark eye TTRPG, basically one version newer than Drakensang was based on :D

[@StefaNonsense]

Aaaah I see :)) Alas, actual tabletop is outside my realm of access for various reasons but I do appreciate you suggesting it. Glad you enjoyed the video, I worked a lot of months on it 😅

[@gentleZenTv]

Gothic 1 & 2 are the ones for me. Plus Sacred (1). Lot's of folks also do love the Divinity series.

[@StefaNonsense]

I hear ya and maybe I'll get around to covering the Gothic titles in more depth in the future - although at least one of them will be featured into a future video - but in the meanwhile I'll tell you I am currently playing Divine Divinity and plan to do a similar deep dive on it once I'm done :) Thanks for watching!

[@Tan3l6]

Also Archolos. Gothic's "real sequel"

[@diegoyuiop]

One of the first RPGs I played! Loved it back in the day

[@StefaNonsense]

I'm glad you stuck with it, it's still very much playable, keeping in mind the longer-than-it-should length :)

[@stevejackson4340]

Excellent video review. Well made and the comments were well thought out. I found the video informative and very interesting to watch, thank you. I had this game and the sequel when they were originally released. I managed to get about a quarter the way through The Dark Eye and maybe half way with The River of Time. Unfortunately back then I never really clicked with the mechanics of the game and how attributes and different talents and skills all worked together. Well the games have always remained in the back of my mind and recently I decided to give Drakensang TRoT another go. Amazingly this time the whole skill mechanics made a lot of sense and I am currently about three quarters the way through, and looking forward to completing it and then replaying The Dark Eye. For some who may be interested you are able to run the game under windows 10 with some simple fixes found on the net and it looks great on a 27" 1920x1080 screen. :)

[@StefaNonsense]

I'm glad you enjoyed it, hopefully the deep breakdown of talents and attributes as well as the hints help you experience the game in its entirety :) Drakensang worked out of the box from GOG for me with no issues tho however I have watched the video on a large screen because I upscale them to 4K and the game does look tremendous!

[@HerrFenrisWolf]

On my regard, you understood the title name pretty good. It isn't exactly High German, but an old timey sounding (like in the whole vibe of The Dark Eye) version. You could say it would translate to High/Standard German into Drachengesang, dragon song, or song of dragons/story of dragons.

[@StefaNonsense]

Before going deep into the game for the video, I thought it was Dragon('s) Blood, because "sang" is close to "sanguis" which is blood in Latin, and I thought it could've been a German/Latin combo. Truth be told, Dragon Blood is just as metal as Dragon Song as far as I'm concerned :) Also, I appreciate you watching the video up until that part at the very least :)

[@HerrFenrisWolf]

@@StefaNonsense Yeah :) it was a trip down memory lane. Thank you for that. Every so now and then, there are a few good The Dark Eye video games, like the old Realms of Arkania trilogy from the 90s. If you are interested in The Dark Eye, there is a documantary calle "Hinter der Maske des Meisters" (Behind the masters mask), the first part is also avaible with English subtitles.

[@HerrFenrisWolf]

@StefaNonsense the first two parts actually: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jWaskK1_jrt6o5Y

[@almaelma11]

This is the review I have been waiting for and it does not disappoint! I really enjoyed my time with this game and I feel it has more good points then bad. Honestly the RPG system was a dream come true for me, I love the level of customization I had even if some of the skills were kinda useless. Seduction worked a few times but fast talk was WAY more useful. For a game with a lot of busty women, seduction isnt really used much. I will be watching this like I watch your Septerra Core video from time to time :) Thanks! and I hope you look at the second game one day too!

[@StefaNonsense]

The River of Time is gonna have to wait for awhile :)) I've had enough Drakensang for awhile BUT the next deep dive is gonna be another German-made game ;)

[@Bellathor]

0:11 - Age of Decadence is that you? :D - that shot really reminded me of Age of Decadence lol. OHH YEAH I remember that rat quest. Hard but also funny. I remember liking the wounds mechanic. So many things seem like I'm seeing them for the first time though, even though I know I finished River of Time and everything... I remember trying out Drakensang Online back in the day just to see what it was like, and yeah just Diablo-ish stuff.

[@StefaNonsense]

Yeah that shot does look a little bit like a more dynamically-filmed Age of Decadence area :)) Well the game is so vast you are bound to forget chunks of it 10 years later. I have almost no memories of Dragon Age: Origins, for instance, and I also played the expansion for that. But hey, that's what's great about this sort of videos right?

[@federicocalvo7660]

It did have some commerciak success in Italy and Spain as well thanks to the publisher "FX interactive". This video reminded me of the evenings spent on that game and it's prequel, pure nostalgia!

[@StefaNonsense]

I am familiar with "FX Interactive", besides finding their releases on ebay - unfortunately in Spanish or Italian - I have been fortunate enough to visit Spain a fair bit this past year and I've seen other FX Interactive releases, in the wild as it were, and I also have a Spanish patron who told me about them, as a result of my Drakensang video :) Thanks for watching and commenting, Federico!

[@yobama9880]

I remember playing this as a kid on the Laptop of my father. Back then it was my (and also my father's) favorite rpg! I played the 2 drakensang game several times and fell in love with the world. Kinda sad how forgotten it is today. So thank you for making this video and giving this game some attention!

[@StefaNonsense]

Really glad my video brought back nice memories :) I appreciate you sharing then.

[@artursartemjevs6097]

Never played this one, but its sequel The River of Time is the GOAT :) Thank you for the review.

[@StefaNonsense]

Maybe at a certain point in the future I'll cover River of Time as well, but I've had enough Drakensang for awhile. This video took a VERY long time to make :) I am glad you found it and enjoyed it, check out some of my other videos maybe you'll find some other stuff and stick around ;)

[@tobiasschwarzberger2267]

The title is in fact german. It is just what you would call poetic or older german. "Draken" is effectively just a poetic version of "Drachen", and "sang" is abbreviated from "Gesang". So "Dragonsong" is a direct translation.

[@StefaNonsense]

I see, it makes a fair bit of sense to use a "ye olde" version of German but you can see how that would be difficult to research as a non-German speaker trying to suss it out. Thanks for watching and for commenting this, it helps clarify my assumption :)

[@tobiasschwarzberger2267]

@@StefaNonsense Oh, absolutely. There is no way you could have been reasonably expected to know these things. In fact, I am mildly impressed at both your pronounciation and your figuring out what it was supposed to mean. As for the confirmation, that is what native speakers like myself are here for.

[@JohnyParuwka]

The title really makes me want to scream "GOTHIC!"

[@Bellathor]

First thing that popped into mind when I saw the title lol.

[@StefaNonsense]

Well, I gotta exaggerate with the titles, it is what it is :)

[@andrewvincent7299]

The game looks very similar to the first Witcher. The footage in the main city looks a lot like Vizima.

[@StefaNonsense]

Medieval-era Germany and Poland share a fair bit of geographical influence and cultural overlap, so it makes sense for the medieval-inspired cities in both games to look alike :) Thanks for watching and commenting!

[@burningsheep4473]

Good review, I played through it a few years ago for the first time and enjoyed is surprisingly much. I have seen quite a few complaints about the generic setting and fairly generic epic story. But to be honest, this kind of High Fantasy story does usually work fairly well for me. The kind of story that does take its setting and story seriously, but is neither grimdark nor averse to some humor. The tone is really quite similar to NWN2. I guess both of them could be a bit too light-hearted at times, but especially with the Drakensang-games that's at least pretty consistent. River of Time may be better when it comes to party characters and dialogue reactivity, but I did quite appreciate some of the more fantastic environments from the later stages of the original game. There is also more choice when it comes to party-building, which helps with replayability. I think aside from many atmospheric environments and the great character system it was probably the most satisfying that all urban environments are substantial. Ferdok may be no Athkatla or Neketaka, but all towns and cities in the game have about the scale and the density of people and content that you may resaonably expect. Especially Murolosch was definitely a favourite.

[@StefaNonsense]

Happy you found the video and thanks for watching! I likewise enjoyed the no-dark-twist fantasy setting, sometimes you just want to go around and have adventures without needing to ruminate on the nature of humanity or the duality of man :)

[@andrewvincent7299]

@@StefaNonsense Ugh I agree with you whole heartedly. That's why i LOVED NWN 2's original campaign. It was just some good ol fashioned high fantasy adventuring. No overly dark moments, no philosophical flowery language, and a more clear level of morality that isn't overly grey. Just a nice little place to escape from reality and be a hero or a villain if you so choose. I enjoy MOTB and play it because it concludes my characters story but I was so disappointed it took a more serious and grim tone from the OC. It just wasn't what I was wanting. If Drakensang really is like NWN2 in tone and style of fantasy, I should probably get this game and give it a shot.

[@StefaNonsense]

Ah, have been thinking of maybe deep diving into the first NWN but the time investment to do it propper makes it fairly prohivibitive, at least currently

[@andrewvincent7299]

@@StefaNonsense The first NWN campaign is rough. Definitely a snoozefest. The NWN 2 main campaign is far better.

[@st1ka]

haha where did you get that "sometimes maybe good, sometimes Maybe sh**" clip? I need to use that

[@StefaNonsense]

It's on KZbin, just search for that :)

[@eggardkingofthemountain1592]

I'm loving all the attention this series is getting the last few years! Something i want to add about the art style/graphics is it feels warm and comfortable, like a story book. Compare it to all the edgy stuff from that time, it actually aged better in my humble opinion.

[@StefaNonsense]

It is more fairy tale-y but only in that it uses proper colors as opposed to the desaturated grimdark of the time :) Glad you found and enjoyed the video.

[@aFewBitsShort]

Looks cool, but Steam says it's not available in my region (Australia).

[@StefaNonsense]

Screw Steam get it from GOG ;)

[@janoschjobstmann4588]

My dad showed me river of time when i was 5 and noe that i properly understand it i love playing it i will soon play the first game because of your good video. Truly a good creation from my fellow countrymen

[@StefaNonsense]

Glad you liked the video and lots of luck with your adventure into Aventuria :)

[@Pokerface-tr1ds]

Drakensang - The dark Eye, the river of time and Phileasson's secret are hidden Gems. I decided to revisit this series a couple of days ago and boy, oh boy I'm having a good time. Since I am from Germany, of course I play the game in German and although the game is an oldie.. it still can be considered a Goldie! Anyway, I started with TroT and PS and now I am in pursuit of Ardo's healing. As for Mother Ratzinski.. well.. I had my fair share of struggle, when I played the game, when it came out back in the day. But.. as an RPG Veteran, of course I decided to retreat, live and fight another day. After I leveled up, geared up, pushed my skills to the maximum... I just well.. how does the internet likes to say "roflstomp'd" Mother Ratzinski in less than a Minute :P

[@StefaNonsense]

Hopefully videos such as mine will reveal the gem(s) to many more :) Thanks for watching!

[@Pokerface-tr1ds]

@@StefaNonsense So do I. Thing is... we will never get to see a third installment of Drakensang. Pity.. but since Radon Laps, as well as their publisher DTP both went bankrupt, they got bought out by Bigpoint who made this pathetic excuse of an online game, using the Name Drakensang. Shame, shame..

[@StefaNonsense]

@@Pokerface-tr1ds it is quite unfortunate because nowadays, a cRPG with Drakensang-style super crunchy mechanics would totally find a niche via crowdfunding. I imagine the German-speaking market alone could be enough to crowdfund such a game.

[@Pokerface-tr1ds]

@@StefaNonsense I guess we will never know. As for me.. I gave up hope when it comes to Drakensang.I decided to revisit the Game Series a couple of days ago and now I am in full nostalgic mode hehe!

[@barry-allenthe-flash8396]

Only ever heard of Drakensang Online, but I don't care about MMOs. Seeing something like this though? _This_ is interesting. Always cool to see someone highlight a lesser-known game - I love that about your channel. It's a shame that Radon didn't find enough success with this; I'm guessing the lack of any console ports may have played a part in that. I mean, by 2008, these things were going to Xbox 360 and PS3 for sure, and finding an audience there. Not everything was a Dragon Age-style financial windfall, but I'm sure the _potential_ for any additional sales made any crpg more attractive to publishers. After all, the 360 was the first time I remember learning about series such as Sacred, The Witcher or Divinity (thanks to Fallen Angel, Assassin of Kings and Dragon Knight Saga, respectively). And heck, even Deck13 got Venetica out on PS360. Would've been interesting to see if a console port could've turned Drakensang's fortunes around...

[@StefaNonsense]

Super glad you found it interesting AND you learned something new :)

[@samflood5631]

How come the Drakensang games never got a console port for PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo? That would have helped the franchise gain some sort of recognition to the console market and any rpg gamer like me whose never play these kinda games before.

[@StefaNonsense]

Oh my, I think the scope of the game mechanics is such that console versions, of the time at least, wouldn't come anywhere close to the complexity the devs wanted to put into it. That's why I have special part of the video dedicated to explaining the character sheet's various parts, even for cRPG players, this title has a steep learning curve.

[@samflood5631]

@@StefaNonsense Well, Baldur's Gate 3, Divinity Original Sins 1 and 2, Pillars of Eternity 1 and 2, Pathfinder King Maker, Dungeon of Naheulbeuk and Sacred 2 were CRPGs and they ended up getting console ports probably a year after the game was released on PC.

[@StefaNonsense]

Nowadays yes, it is much more likely and possible. I did say "at the time", this was 2008, I don't see Drakensang's mechanics running on consoles of the time, and not be severely simplified. You also need to keep in mind that this was made basically by what we would now call an indie studio in Europe. Resources were considerably harder to come by back then. Even nowadays, cross-platform development requires extra resources, and there are indie projects that can only do it IF their initial release does well enough - I'm looking at Zoria in particular. Unfortunately, Drakensang didn't do that great, except for Germany, and also cross-platform stuff wasn't nearly as common back then as it would become after the 2010s. Larian managed to also do an Xbox 360 version of their Divinity 2 back in 2009-2010, but they were on their third game by this point and were making action RPGs. An ARPG like Sacred 2, which is also from '08/'09, is a very different beast than smth like Drakensang. I explain all of these things in my video about the RPG genre: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nWrUk6mPdtWFpKc After which you may want to check out my latest video to find out about many more cRPGs from the past 30 years: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eJfKYniVrLp1pLM

[@Zanji1234]

:-P Drakensang is based on the Das Schwarze Auge / The Dark Eye Ruleset which is nothing compared to easy D&D random stuff. Here you basically have full freedom of character growth (mundane and (if you are a magician) magic). the ruleset is detailed (VERY detailed).

[@StefaNonsense]

I do talk about that in detail...

[@Zanji1234]

@@StefaNonsense another funny weird fact: The 4.1 rules (were this game is based on) has 4 rulebooks. One for character generation (with all classes, cultures and stuff) of 300 pages, a general rulebook for mundane non magic characters (with all talents, skills and stuff and it explains the general gameplay rules) of 400 pages, a Rulebook specially for mages and one for priests (both around 400 pages) as well as an additional book for all the over 200 spells ;-) (The did cut down the page count a little bit in 5th edition)

[@MrMangoTime00]

Hello, very nice rewiev, i really enjoyed. I finished this game about 4/5 times each time with a different character. One of the main problem ( my opinion) of this game is it’s difficulty, it’s too EASY once u understand how it works. I was searching online and I found a savegame editor and a mod that allows the game to became harder. I tried to set up the mod but i don’t understand. Did u heard about this mod? It’s called ergo’s fixpack. If u are curious about it would u like to make a tutorial how to download it? Thanks and keep going :))

[@missininaction3680]

Europe's best cRPG? Disco Elysium? DOS2? Baldur's Gate3? HELLO?

[@StefaNonsense]

...watch the entire video...

[@unacomn]

The game came around the same time as Divinity 2. I managed to finish this one, but not Divinity 2. What I'm saying is that you should make a video about Divinity 2 at some point. You play as a mind-reading dragon-type-person.

[@StefaNonsense]

Fret not, for I shall tackle at least one Divinity, next year most likely ;)

[@williamkeltner5119]

The negative of this game is the lack of difficulty settings.The intro level is fairly easy, but just wait until further into the full game and things really get hard. Never could finish the game on the mountain-top with Malgorra until I used the save-game editor. Is that cheating, maybe. 😜

[@StefaNonsense]

It definitely is cheating but that's not necessarily a bad thing. You wanted to finish it and you choose to experience the game however you wish to experience it. Sometimes, some games, are better with cheats, even I say so ;) : kzbin.info/www/bejne/poGXonWGaLmEmNk

[@radudumitriu9444]

The lore is awesome, the graphics are super catchy, the game is oh so German though :) still a blast to play back in the day

[@StefaNonsense]

I'm just glad I got to finally finish it. The first time I tried, 15-ish years ago, my HDD died :))

[@deividassimkus9725]

this game is wery nice i played long time ago

[@namelesshero434]

They will never make a game like this anymore because the Publishers of this kind of games have no money anymore and in Germany they are not in business anymore, so it can never give a DSA 3, the rights holders of Drakensang is a part to many other labels and the license are part of lables like big point and ulisses games, its very complicated in this and so sadly no one makes games like this anymore. sorry for my bad english 😂

[@StefaNonsense]

Don't worry about your English, I understood what you said without any issue :) Thanks for watching and commenting! I'm glad you found the video.

[@CommanderCOOL45]

Now I have to give this game a shot, note to self fight rat dude at level 10 😂

[@StefaNonsense]

Go forth and have fun!

[@Barnaby3060]

Is this like Neverwinter nights 2

[@StefaNonsense]

Not at all

[@r.kolemaistos7788]

Drakensang is neat, but it has nothing on Enderal as far as European RPGs go.

[@StefaNonsense]

First time I hear of it and quickly checking... it seems to be a Skyrim mod which explains why I've never heard of it. Thanks for watching!

[@AndrisGameDev]

Hmm, actually you didn't convince me. It is just too dated and honestly, I wasn't inspired by the mechanics either. But that's okay, we all have our itches! :)

[@StefaNonsense]

But I did convince you that it's not for you ;)

[@Xandercorp]

Dat slav accent. :D

[@StefaNonsense]

It iz uat it izz.

[@deenaxic9134]

Max fast talking.. It must be good

[@StefaNonsense]

I dunno if it's worthy maxing :)) but there are a fair few Fast Talk checks along the way

[@stupidreligionz]

Oh another question i forgot. Do enemies scale with your lvl or they are standard?

[@StefaNonsense]

In general, the quest locations are set up in such a way that you should be able to overcome them, either after a few reloads and better use of buffs and abilities OR after doing a few other quests in the same area and improving your characters afterwards. This goes for the quests in Ferdok, because at each trip back, you'll usually have different quests, besides some of the optional ones that stick around for the entire game more or less. The one exception being the rat quest which I mention in particular in the video.

[@stupidreligionz]

Questions. IIRC u cant go back to some areas after u are done with? Do enemies re spawn ?

[@StefaNonsense]

The only place where you can return to is Ferdok, all the others will prompt you before leaving and tell you that you won't be able to return - so you better solve all the quests and explore and get all the raw ingredients you can. Enemies don't respawn unless you're later in the game and you don't destroy the things that spawn them :)

[@stupidreligionz]

@@StefaNonsense ty

[@gerdforster883]

​@@StefaNonsense You can also return to Tallon. But it is the exception. I believe this was done to prevent having to update the regions to account for the player's actions