panzer dragoon saga pimping post!
um, I have never done a pimping post before and have no idea how to do it, but I will try my best for this amazing game, because it deserves it. I'm pretty sure this pimping post will suck but, really, more people should play this. just. yeah
reasons why you should play Panzer Dragoon Saga, in boring and totally insufficient list format:
- you spend almost the ENTIRE GAME on dragonback! and your dragon shoots homing lasers and performs spells awesome berserk attacks and even morphs into different forms! your dragon is amazing and probably at least 50% of why you should want to play this game
- it's amazingly fun; the battle system is really unique (there are no party members, just you and your dragon and occasionally another passenger who doesn't participate in battle anyway) and so cool to play through you'd almost WISH there are more random encounters. speaking of which:
- low random encounter rate; in some places, there are absolutely NO RANDOM ENCOUNTERS whatsoever. included in these places is the final level, of all things... yeah
- its easy; the battle/morphing system may seem a little confusing at first, but it's actually very simple and easy to get the hang of. it's hard to die in this game! the monsters aren't weak, per se, but they're definitely not ridiculously overpowered and challenging and don't require grinding at all. I've only died once in this game and that was because I was careless
- it's short; even though it's 4 discs long, it's totally possible to finish this game in under 24 hours. Team Andromeda is used to doing shooters so when they tried to make this RPG they really made it pretty airtight
- it's pretty; the graphics might not be impressive compared to today's games, but Panzer Dragoon Saga is more than 11 years old and still has some amazing shots like this and this for example... okay these screenshots aren't too great but Uru is definitely one of my favorite levels in any game ever. the concept art is stunning, but unfortunately the art of panzer dragoon site, which has almost every single piece of concept art for every game, is down so I can't find that many examples :'( but here are some anyway: Edge vs. Azel, Garil desert, imperial assault post
- there is voice acting for every single character in this game, I'm not kidding. every single NPC, every single spoken line. and the acting is amazing, no half-assed jobs here (maybe because they keep all the Japanese dubbing and just sub it in English?). also, Panzer Dragoon has its very own language, which weirdly enough only shows up in cutscenes and in the awesome theme song Sona mi areru ec sancitu, which is definitely my favorite video game theme ever other than Anu orta veniya, which is the theme to sequel Panzer Dragoon Orta
- the music is amazing and tribal and really immersive; examples: Atolm dragon, rest, town of Zoah
- the characters are awesome; you control Edge, who is definitely not a silent protagonist at all and just does everything he can to make it in spite of all the shit he goes through. Paet is an awesome mechanic who is too cool to care about you until he finds out Edge's secret. Gash is like the Indiana Jones of Mars the Panzer Dragoon world only possibly a little more badass. Craymen is a traitor and rogue captain of the Empire with a hidden goal that will change life as everyone knows it, but the game remains ambivalent on whether it's truly for the better or the worse
- the story is nicely convoluted and ambiguous and never spells out right or wrong. there's mass murder and genetic engineering and even environmentalism!... also it should be noted that Panzer Dragoon Saga stands out in the Panzer Dragoon series for even having a story at all, considering the fact that Panzer Dragoon/Zwei/Orta's are really lacking in comparison
- Mars the dystopia Panzer Dragoon Saga takes place in is the most immersive video game world I've ever experienced. this place has its own language! the backgrounds are familiar and at the same time very alien and continually enforces a surreal and solitary atmosphere (you don't have any party members and there is only a single town in the whole game, for example). the creatures are amazingly unique. examples: above the excavation, arachnoth, the black ruins
the not so awesome thing about Panzer Dragoon Saga is, sadly, it's super rare and regularly goes for more than $200 or $300 on ebay... which I like to think is also a testimony to how amazing the game is, or something. also, Team Andromeda split up and apparently lost the source code for the game, which means that it will most likely never see a re-release or re-mastering, sob. h-however, it's still possible to emulate it, though you need a more decent computer than a netbook like mine to do so. NORMALLY I wouldn't condone this sort of stuff so openly but this game is rare and obscure and effectively extinct so. so yeah. if anyone is remotely interested in emulating this game please let me know and I will upload my .isos and emulator and everything you need!
otherwise, there is still a really amazing Let's Play of the series, as well as a comprehensive video project and youtube playthrough. all of these are fully complete to my knowledge; watching may not be as entertaining as playing the game itself (this might be annoying but I can't stress how unique and fun the battle system is) but they're still pretty cool I think
the Panzer Dragoon series consists of three other games (mini doesn't exist, okay), though: the prequel and original Panzer Dragoon, prequel Panzer Dragoon Zwei, and Panzer Dragoon Orta. the first two are for the Saturn, same as Saga, but the last is for xbox and acts as an epilogue of sorts for the Saga's story. there are also playthroughs for Zwei (part 1, part 2) and for Orta (... look it up on youtube, I actually haven't searched for them yet but it's out there!). I'm not sure if there's one for Panzer Dragoon, but in any case the stories of the original and Zwei are minimal and aren't required for understanding the plot of Saga. every single game maintains the otherworldly and amazing music/graphics, but Orta specifically just outdoes itself and manages to overachieve in prettiness even with xbox specs. just check out these screenshot examples... I love Orta even if the plot is admittedly kinda nonsensical
a-anyways this post totally fails in explaining exactly how innovative and fun and amazing Panzer Dragoon Saga is, but I guess I tried? really, though, more people should play this because it's an exceptional experience and starkly different from 99% of other video games out there. it's an RPG made by people who are so much more used to designing rail shooters, so it's really a very unconventional game.
... also, you get to fly around on a dragon and shoot things. what's not to love about that!