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Panzer Dragoon


The NZA

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been meaning to talk about this amazing series on here for years - Panzer Dragoon & it's amazing sequel Zwei are on-rails shooters (like Sin & Punishment) but work with recticle shooting (like Rez), meaning you hold the button down & highlight the things you want to shoot, rather than jamming the button constantly.  

 

They're beautiful games (moebius did the concept art & some designs), both visually and their soundtracks - what's also cool is how they were so well done for early 3D, and enemies could attack from front, back or both sides...in between combat, i'd use this ability to look around & observe the alien environments, because they were just so well done.  it's awesome to me that not only did they hold up so well, but so many countless games in the time since didn't do half as good a job creating such a foreign & interesting atmosphere about them.  cooler still, Zwei offered multiple paths & endings as you went.  

 

and then came Panzer Dragoon Saga, the long-lost (and expensive) RPG that showed up at the tail of the US saturn's life & got called their answer to FF VII.  what it is is something far better though - it takes the magic of the worlds the prior games built & gives you an even better soundtrack with a unique battle engine.  it's crazy ambitious too, as most encounters are fully voiced over, and while this makes the adventure span 4 discs, it's on the shorter end & bucks the RPG trend of dragging on, making a really memorable experience.  

 

as you level, you can work on your stats & how your dragoon grows 

 

 

here's some of that OST

 

 

 

we've an old thread for Orta, but it's still a gorgeous game: 

 

 

i didn't get to finally play these games until a few years back when i got a modded Saturn, so i can say without rose-tinted glasses that they hold up incredibly well, and there's all kinds of tricks going on to hide the saturn's limitations as well.  just a beautiful series & i hope it comes back one day, or at least gets a collection so more folks can experience it. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Panzer Dragoon Saga Retrospective: Gaming's Missing Masterpiece

Introduction

 

 

Works that were influential in the creation of Panzer Dragoon

 

 

Technical challenges during development, and a new approach to the JRPG

 

 

Paying respect to one of the greatest video game finales of all time

 

 

just get a load of this awesome boss battle

 

 

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Hailed as a great game but I doubt anyone's played it. Big investment to not only buy a Saturn but the game at a ridiculous price. No one wants to fiddle writing a good Saturn emulator either, because the rest of the games for it were garbage. I wonder how this game would hold up today - must be a reason why they've never made a remake either.

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21aqbc.jpg

 

...well, okay: Saturn is a really expensive library these days, though Panzer 1 & 2 imports are still fairly cheap

 

the source code for Saga is long gone though, SSF (best windows emulator for it) has actually been good for a while now, and you just reminded me i really should make a thread highlighting the many awesome gems in the saturn's library - it's pretty arcade heavy, so fighters, SMUP's, racing games and shooters abound, but there's no genre that it slouches on either when you dig through imports (the bulk of said library)

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The majority of what was available on NTSC and PAL seemed awful. This is what my comment is based on.

You must be on about gems that were only in Japan. I'd be interested in seeing the SMUPs - great news to hear an emulator's decent for it. I know someone cracked the Saturn a while ago, brlliant video: 

 

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yeah, i'd wager a top 50 best saturn games list (which would be really good, again if you're into arcade type gameplay), a good 30-40 would prolly be JP imports.  the library's up there with the turbografx/PCE in terms of being japan release heavy. 

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  • 2 years later...

 

remake (already listen on steam) is looking good - a little worried the graphic update stands to lose some of moebius' alien world magic, but ill wait to see more.

 

meanwhile, there's a new game coming as well, from another team!

 

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

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