Panzer Dragoon Saga

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Panzer Dragoon Saga
PanzerDragoonSaga Box.jpg
North American cover art
Developer(s) Team Andromeda
Publisher(s) Sega
Director(s) Yukio Futatsugi
Designer(s) Manabu Kusunoki
Artist(s) Katsumi Yokota[1]
Composer(s) Saori Kobayashi
Mariko Nanba
Series Panzer Dragoon
Platforms Sega Saturn
Release date(s) JP 19980129January 29, 1998
NA 19980430April 30, 1998
PAL 19980605June 5, 1998
Genre(s) Role-playing
Mode(s) Single-player

Panzer Dragoon Saga (アゼル　パンツァードラグーンRPG Azel: Panzer Dragoon RPG?) is a role-playing video game for the Sega Saturn developed by the Sega studio Team Andromeda and released in 1998. It is the third game in the main Panzer Dragoon series and the only Panzer Dragoon game that is not a rail shooter, combining traditional RPG elements with elements from the previous games. It features fully 3D environments and full voice acting, unusual for RPGs at the time. The player controls Edge, a young soldier who battles an empire with a flying dragon and encounters a mysterious girl from a vanished civilization.

Development began around the same time as the game's predecessor, Panzer Dragoon II Zwei (1996). It took approximately two years to complete, after which Sega disbanded Team Andromeda. Several staff joined Sega's Smilebit studio and went on to develop the final game in the series, Panzer Dragoon Orta, released for Xbox in 2002.

According to GameRankings, Panzer Dragoon Saga is the most critically acclaimed game for the Saturn, and it has appeared in several "greatest games of all time" lists; critics praised its story, cutscenes, graphics, music, and unusual battle system. As Sega had shifted its focus to its next console, the Dreamcast, the game had a limited release, attracting a cult following, and is now a rare collector's item. In 2007, 1UP described Panzer Dragoon Saga as "the greatest RPG you've never played."[2]

Gameplay

File:Pds screen.jpg
Edge and his dragon in combat. Note the combat menu on the left, radar indicating safe and dangerous zones in the center, and the three action gauges, one depleted, on the right.

Unlike the other Panzer Dragoon games, which are rail shooters, Panzer Dragoon Saga is a role-playing video game (RPG). GameSpot described it as an "innovative hybrid" of RPG elements and elements from the previous Panzer Dragoon games.[3]

The player controls the young mercenary Edge as he explores 3D environments on foot and on a flying dragon.[3][2] A targeting reticle is used to interact with interactive elements such as non-player characters and objects; on the dragon, this can be used to fire lasers to activate triggers or break locks.[3]

The battle system mixes real-time and turn-based elements,[3] with three gauges that charge in real time. When a gauge fills, the player can make a move; by waiting for multiple gauges to fill, they can make multiple moves simultaneously. The player can attack with the dragon's laser, which strikes multiple targets, or Edge's gun, which focuses damage on a single target. The dragon can also use special moves called "berserks", the equivalent of magic spells in other RPGs, which may require multiple action gauges.[2][3]

The dragon can circle the enemy to target weak points and escape dangerous positions. A radar at the bottom of the screen indicates safe, neutral and dangerous areas. Weak points can sometimes only be attacked from dangerous areas, and enemies' attack patterns often change mid-battle, forcing the player to adapt.[2] The gauges do not charge while changing position.[3] The dragon can be morphed during battle to change its attack, defense, agility and berserk attributes; boosting one attribute diminishes another.[3]

Plot

Edge, a mercenary hired by the Empire, guards a site where artefacts from an ancient advanced civilization are being excavated. Fending off an ancient monster, he discovers the body of a girl buried in a wall. The site is attacked by the mutinous Black Fleet, who seize the girl and kill Edge's companions. Edge escapes with the help of a flying dragon and swears revenge on the Black Fleet leader, Craymen.

Edge rescues Gash, one of a band of scavengers called the Seekers, from a monster. Gash mentions that he is seeking the "Divine Visitor" and directs him to a nearby nomadic caravan, where Edge learns the location of the Black Fleet. Edge and the dragon defeat the fleet, but learn that Craymen has already reached the Tower, an ancient structure of tremendous power. They fend off an attack by the girl from the excavation site, who rides an enormous dragon, Atolm.

File:Panzer Dragoon Saga - Azel.jpg
Azel riding her dragon Atolm

In the town of Zoah, Edge meets an engineer, Paet, who will trade information about the Tower for ancient artefacts. Searching an ancient vessel for parts, Edge is captured by imperial soldiers but rescued by Gash. Paet reveals that the Tower can be reached via the ruins of Uru; there, Edge is attacked again by the girl and Atolm. Separated from their dragons, they fall into an ancient underground facility and form a truce to escape. She explains that she is an ancient bio-engineered being named Azel, created in the facility, and designed to interface with ancient technology. After Edge's dragon rescues them, Azel warns Edge that she will kill him if he crosses Craymen's path again and leaves on Atolm.

Craymen surprises Edge in Zoah and asks for his help fighting the Empire. Paet tells Edge he can find the Tower by deactivating an ancient machine, Mel-Kava, that obscures the Tower's location with fog. In exchange for destroying an imperial base, the village leader gives Edge access to an ancient artefact that grants him a vision of Mel-Kava's location. Edge and the dragon destroy Mel-Kava, clearing the fog, but are attacked again by Azel and Atolm. They shoot down Atolm and rescue Azel as she falls.

The Emperor's flagship, Grig Orig, destroys Zoah. The Black Fleet intervenes before Edge and the dragon are killed. At the Tower, Craymen tells Edge that it is one of several that manufacture monsters to combat humanity's destructive forces. He needs Azel to activate the Tower and destroy the Empire before they can use it as their own weapon. Imperials arrive and capture Edge and Craymen. After the Emperor forces Azel to activate the Tower, monsters emerge and kill everyone but Edge and Azel, who escape on Edge's dragon. At the Seeker stronghold, Gash explains that the Tower will destroy humanity if it is not deactivated. He believes Edge's dragon is the prophesied Divine Visitor who will be humanity's salvation. Edge and the dragon battle rampaging monsters and destroy the infested Grig Orig.

Edge rescues Azel from the Uru facility, where she has returned to contemplate her purpose. They infiltrate the Tower and Azel prepares to transfer Edge and the dragon into Sestren, the AI network that controls the towers. She confesses her love for Edge and he promises to return. Inside Sestren, Edge and the dragon defeat the network's "anti-dragon" programs. Through visions, Edge learns his dragon originated as the Heresy Program, a rogue AI purged from Sestren. The Heresy Program explains that the Divine Visitor is actually "the one from the outside world" who has guided Edge, and who must now destroy Sestren with Edge inside.

Gash awaits Edge in the desert, to no avail. Travelling alone, Azel asks directions across treacherous land.

Development

Panzer Dragoon Saga was developed by Sega's Team Andromeda studio for the Saturn. Development began around the same time as the game's predecessor, Panzer Dragoon II Zwei (1996), with a team of about 40, twice as many as the Zwei team.[3] Director Yukio Futatsugi later said: "Saga was the hardest Panzer Dragoon game to make. I had no idea it would be so challenging. Making areas in full 3D with free movement and full voice - that sort of thing didn't really exist then. We had to figure out how to integrate the shooting elements into a different sort of game."[3]

The game was inspired by the highly successful PlayStation game Final Fantasy VII, which was released in 1997.

Rather than create a typical "save-the-world" story, Futatsugi wanted to concentrate on a small number of characters, designed by Katsumi Yokota, and have the story "mean something".[2] Although Edge is not a silent protagonist, Futatsugi minimized Edge's dialogue outside cutscenes to focus on Azel's story instead, whom he felt was the most important character.[2]

As the dragon's movement is not "on rails", unlike other Panzer Dragoon games, the engine had to support free exploration along with battle sequences and real-time morphing and shading; according to GameSpot, this pushed the Saturn's hardware further than any game.[3] Futatsugi felt the game would not have been possible on PlayStation, as the Saturn's "cloudier" color palette gives the Panzer Dragoon series its atmosphere.[2] Unlike the original Panzer Dragoon (1995) soundtrack, which was orchestral, Panzer Dragoon Saga's music is mostly generated via PCM by the Saturn’s sound hardware, as with Zwei.[3]

Futatsugi originally conceived a battle system in which the player would fight enemies for space.[3] Although the final system resembles a "command-type" RPG, it uses Zwei's shooting engine.[3] The dragon's morphing ability was added to compensate for the lack of a party of characters with different skills common in other RPGs.[3] After the battle system was finalized, development proceeded quickly, and some members were moved to help complete Zwei.[3]

Two staff died during development: one in a motorcycle accident and the other from suicide.[3] Futatsugi attributed the deaths to the stressful working conditions of the video game industry.[1] In 2013, he said: "All we could do was carry on and finish the game - it was out of my hands. Part of me did want to stop though. That was definitely the toughest project I've ever worked on. Personal relationships became strained. The stress was overwhelming."[4]

Panzer Dragoon Saga took approximately two years to complete, after which Sega disbanded Team Andromeda.[3] Futatsugi left Sega and joined Konami,[4] while other staff moved to Sega teams including Smilebit, which went on to develop the final Panzer Dragoon game, Panzer Dragoon Orta (2002), for Xbox.[3]

Release

Panzer Dragoon Saga was released in North America in April 1998 on four CDs, one of the last Saturn games released outside Japan.[3][5] As Sega had moved its focus to its next console, the Dreamcast, fewer than 20,000 copies were released in the west[6] and the game's voice acting was subtitled rather than rerecorded in English.[7] IGN's Levi Buchanan characterized the release as an example of the Saturn's "ignominious send-off", writing that "sunset Saturn games like Panzer Dragoon Saga and Burning Rangers demanded far better launches. The way these games were slipped into retail with zero fanfare and low circulation was insulting to both hard-working developers and Sega fans."[8]

Because of its limited release, English-language copies of Panzer Dragoon Saga are rare and sell for extremely high prices - throughout the 2000s, the game was traditionally priced in the $100-$200 range. By 2008, it rose over the $200 range. Since then, the price has skyrocketed to almost $1000 by 2019 - a major cause of this is, in addition to the game's extremely limited print run and very high demand, a series of factors such as disc rot (which has generally caused the entire North American Sega CD, Sega Saturn and Dreamcast, as well as PlayStation and Nintendo GameCube libraries to skyrocket in price on the whole), which has caused the limited amount of copies that have not been in production for many years to decrease overall, thus making the game rarer. It has not been re-released either, which adds to the ever-increasing value.[1] In 2009, game-downloading service GameTap’s general manager Sene Sorrow stated that GameTap had the rights to distribute the game, but as Saturn emulation is difficult, he did not believe there was enough demand to make it a priority.[9] In the same year, Futatsugi stated that Sega had lost the game's source code, make porting the game difficult.[10]

Reception and legacy

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Edge 9/10[7]
GameSpot 9.2/10[11]
Game Informer 9/10[12]

According to GameRankings, Panzer Dragoon Saga is the most critically acclaimed Saturn game, with an aggregate score of 92.46%.[13] In 2007, Game Informer wrote that "critically, the game was a smash hit, lauded as one of the year's best, and generally considered the Saturn's finest title."[6]

Sega Saturn Magazine (UK) described the game was "a monumental effort, a work of art, and quite clearly a labour of love... Quite simply the best-looking, best-playing adventure UK Saturn owners will ever experience."[14] Game Informer described it as "easily the best RPG on the Saturn, and on 32 and 64-bit platforms only Final Fantasy VII tops it ... Fresh ideas for RPGs don't come along every day, and this is one of the most original in quite some time."[12] Edge wrote that it was "an RPG of true creative integrity. It's a tragedy that the Saturn’s standing will ensure Team Andromeda's adventure, with a radically different approach to FFVII, will enjoy a fraction of its rival’s success."[7] GameSpot wrote that game was "flawlessly executed, limited only by the hardware (and barely that at all) and medium. Unlike other recent RPGs, such as Parasite Eve and Grandia, Panzer Dragoon Saga is truly a 'cinematic RPG'."[11]

In 2007, 1UP described Panzer Dragoon Saga as "the greatest RPG you've never played. It may not be the best RPG of all time, but it's definitely one of the most unique."[2] In 2005, Electronic Gaming Monthly placed Panzer Dragoon Saga #1 in its list of cult classic games.[15] Game Informer ranked it #1 in its 2006 list of the "top 10 rare RPGs you need".[16] It was named one of best games of all time by Computer and Video Games in 2000, Electronic Gaming Monthly in 2001 and 2006, IGN readers in 2005,[17] IGN in 2007[18] and G4 in 2012.[19] In 2010, NowGamer named it the 30th greatest retro game and called it "one of Sega’s greatest non-hedgehog moments".[20]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 3.17 3.18 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Top 100 Games of All Time: No.22, G4.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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