Drakengard

Drakengard is a series of action role-playing games in which the player controls a dragon rider and performs a number of missions both in an on-foot hack and slash style and in aerial combat.

The world of Drakengard is protected by seals that prevent it from falling into ruin. Any person or creature can become a seal but the burden is heavy. The fewer the seals the greater the burden grows which may become great enough to drive one into insanity. The various mystical creatures of the world can grant special powers or abilities to humans through "pacts". A human and creature who enter a pact combine their souls into one and the human must surrender something of theirs. The human will not know what they’ll loose until the pact has been made but it can range from their voice, sight, womb (ability to conceive), artistical/musical talent, or ability to feel a certain emotion such as joy.

Nier takes place within an alternate realm in the Drakengard world, exploring and expanding upon the endings in the previous Drakengard games.

"It was about 10 years ago when we were working on the original Drakengard that I thought about the meaning of “killing.” I was looking at a lot of games back then, and I saw these messages like “You’ve defeated 100 enemies!” or “Eradicated 100 enemy soldiers!” in an almost gloating manner. But when I thought about it in an extremely calm state of mind, it hit me that gloating about killing a hundred people is strange. I mean, you’re a serial killer if you killed a hundred people. It just struck me as insane. That’s why I decided to have the army of the protagonist in Drakengard be one where everyone’s insane, to create this twisted organization where everyone’s wrong and unjust. I wanted to weave a tale about these twisted people.
And then we worked on Nier…We created this game called Nier, and after the world experienced the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the war in Iraq, we were being bombarded with updates on terrorist organizations and activities even in Japan. That’s when my opinion changed. The vibe I was getting from society was: you don’t have to be insane to kill someone. You just have to think you’re right. So that’s why I made Nier a game revolving around this concept of “being able to kill others if you think you’re right,” or “everyone believes that they’re in the right.”"

-Yoko Taro

Microbadges:

Drakengard: You're a villain.
Drakengard 2: You're a hero.
Nier: You think you're a hero, but you're really a villain.
Drakengard 3: You think you're a villain, but you're really a hero.
Nier Automata: There are no heroes or villains.