Works great in Xbox One compatibility mode. I think I saw two small stutters through my entire playthrough. Quite short, but the right length. I thought there were a few too many things that were hard to evade with the controls, but after playing Crimson Dragon I definitely think the essence of the game is to keep that tied with the aiming, to keep the player only in direct control of the aiming reticle.

Great soundtrack - great audio overall in fact - gives the whole thing an extra punch (again, CD has weak lockon and fire sounds which completely ruins the impact), and there is loads of extra stuff there to fill in the story. It's the kind of package you'd expect from a remaster, rather than an original release. I'd say to anyone who's even remotely interested to give it a go, whether from a place of curiosity about the Xbox compatibility, people curious as to how it's held up or people who've never tried this kind of rail shooter.

Even better than Zwei, Orta retains the fantastic setting, visuals and music from the prior games while developing the gameplay in a fun and natural way. The dragon forms make the gameplay more involved and complex with just a simple button press and the gliding is a great way to make the movement and positioning feel less restrictive which is nice in a rail-shooter. The levels are all distinct and difficult while rarely feeling unfair and even the story was more developed this time around. While the story still wasn't particularly impactful, it at least gave me some characters to recognize and care about this time around and I quite like the designs of both Orta and the antagonist. Too bad panzer dragoon's dead.

Pretty much panzer dragoon but with more powerful hardware, tries to wrap up all the lore of panzer dragoon but i never understood any of that shit in the first place. Game is short and sweet and looks fantastic both graphically and artistically. Its even on xbox backwards compatibility so you can even play it officially in HD which is kickass. Comes with the first game as well so it works pretty well as a beginners panzer dragoon. Absolutely worth a play if you have any system with "Xbox" in its name lying around.

The MO for Sega at this time was refining the formulas for many of their classic franchises. We got the ideal version of their arcade racing franchises (OutRun 2 and Crazy Taxi 3) and this represents the absolute refinement of the Panzer Dragoon formula.

The production in this game is pretty stunning. It looks and runs fantastic on the original hardware. The frame rate remains smooth and consistent even when there's a ton of shit happening on screen. My mind was blown playing this at a demo kiosk back in the day and it's still impressive today. No doubt it looks even better running on the Series X. The music is pretty fantastic too and there's an occasional appearance of tracks from previous games which is great.

The gameplay is also very satisfying. There's a high skill ceiling to it and it's one of those games that feels good to get better at. Managing the different dragon forms can be tricky at first, but once you get into the zone on this game zapping between forms to defend and attack feels incredible. Even when you know the trick to beating the bosses they still feel fun to fight. This is one of the few score attack style games that I enjoy to play.

In addition there's a ton of unlockables in the Pandora's Box. These include some bonus missions and scenarios which are nice (especially the entirety of the original Panzer Dragoon). The world encyclopedia is especially cool to browse through.

I only have a few complaints for this game. Leveling up your dragon forms can be tricky as they occur by collecting power ups mid gameplay. I felt like sometimes these power ups were very hard to see and as someone who has played this game multiple times I still find myself powering up the wrong form all the time. I wish you could just bank all of the power ups and then distribute them the way you want at the end of the level.

It also feels like there are portions of the game with mandatory damage. I've played this game multiple times and have it pretty well mapped out but there are certain segments where I get hit and I don't know why. I've always struggled a little bit with dodging in Panzer Dragoon games - attacks don't feel as telegraphed as they do in a game like Starfox 64 - and I feel like it is really noticeable in this game given the expanded offensive and defensive vocabulary you have access to compared to the older games.

Panzer Dragoon Orta is a great swan song to the Panzer Dragoon franchise. It's a cinematic and technical spectacle that feels incredible to master and play.

i technically didn't finish bc my xbox emulator will no longer load my save for this game for whatever reason but wow i found this really disappointing.
following up on saga's ending is a fool's errand by nature, but the way they do it feels like it just totally spits on what that game was trying to say, and it gives me a terrible taste in my mouth. going from a game that is all about how history shouldn't rule us, a game that provides a very definitive and satisfying end, and just... resetting the world to be even worse than when we last saw it is so uninspired and lazy. it's not even worse in a way that's interesting. what was the point of anything i did in saga if this is how the world is supposed to turn out? i can appreciate that they tried at all here, because the easy thing to do would have been to just make a reboot or a prequel or even just ignore the story entirely, but the story here doesn't justify it's own existence and takes up far more time than the story in the original 2 rail shooter games.
the soundtrack isn't anything special compared to the saturn trilogy, and by default the sound effects are about 3 times as loud as the music, so i think they might have been aware of this, lmao. on the subject of atmosphere, this game's environments are very lush and detailed, but feel lacking in art design compared to the saturn trilogy. orta feels like it's focus is more on providing the audience with as much stuff to look at as possible, so these environments are extremely dense and lifelike, but don't feel as though they have the melancholic tone that i loved so much in zwei and saga especially. the lack of pastel tones in favor of a lot of browns is especially noticeable, to me. it's a shame because the concept art for this game is wonderful, especially all of the art of orta's design, but it doesn't translate in-game.
to me, PD's appeal as a franchise is heavily rooted in it's lore and atmosphere, so we're already not off to a great start, but the real issue to me with orta is the gameplay. first off, orta is a very, very hard game. i'd say i'm an average level video game player, and i did fine in PD1 and 2, but orta outright kicked my ass, and not in a way that made me want to keep coming back. as i mentioned earlier, orta feels as though it's designed to overwhelm the player with visual noise, which leads to a lot of points when i lost health to things i couldn't even identify, or boss mechanics that I still don't really know how to counter. i could not fucking tell you what the second phase of the episode 8 boss actually does, to this day, man. bosses also feel like they had at least twice as much health than what was normal in the previous games, even mid-bosses for some reason. normal mode here feels more on par with the hard modes in previous panzer dragoons, whereas easy is maybe the easiest game in the franchise apart from saga, solely because you sponge hits easier. an actual middle ground would be greatly preferable to what we have here. the big issue with orta's gameplay, though, is that it's new mechanics feel like they crush the game and make the weaknesses of this genre more apparent than ever before. orta introduces two new mechanics, gliding/braking and transforming your dragon. both of these mechanics are clearly inspired by saga's battle system, which is a cute idea and feels like it should be the natural evolution of panzer dragoon's gameplay, but to me it doesn't feel that they work in tandem. gliding and braking is used to imitate saga's quadrant-based positioning system in boss fights, but these boss fights don't allow you to freely maneuver around the quadrants, instead making some quadrants only available through braking and some only available through gliding. you also can ONLY move to a quadrant by doing these moves, and the energetic nature of the bosses means that you're occasionally blocked off from moving at all, leading to the player feeling trapped and crushed. this is made worse by the fact that the dragon transformation only has glide/brake bars on two of the three dragons, and you cannot freely cycle through transformations, you have to go in a set order. the heavy dragon is the dragon the player is encouraged to use against bosses for dps, and it's also the dragon that cannot glide or brake at all. the glide dragon is much more maneuverable, but does very little damage, cannot lock on, and is recommended to use for the purpose of defense. if you were switching between just these forms, i could see the boss fights being an engaging mix of defensive maneuvering and taking advantage of burst windows, but there's also the normal dragon, which can do a little bit of everything, just not as well as either of the other two. this means you're generally going through at least 2 button presses to get where you're wanting to be in boss fights, and switching on the fly tends to feel clunky and unrefined. all of these limitations imposed on the way the game is played, in addition to the extremely chaotic sensory-overload level design, makes orta feel more blatantly on-rails than either of the previous games did. i found myself struggling against the game very often, which is never a feeling you want the player to have in a franchise that had previously sold itself on the exhilarating feeling of being free in flight. it's a real shame, because the game shows off the promise a true sequel to zwei has in it's 5th level, but it never realizes that promise.
there are two good games here, but those games don't want to play nice with each other.

ideologia é o privilégio do não-desespero. o tempo necessário para tomar uma decisão teórica depende da ética que advém do desapego, de certa distância, do eterno "e se". o ethos não é um sobrevivente e sim um acadêmico. a ideologia se confunde com a política pois a política depende de um movimento em massa para acontecer, então ela se vende como um fator ideológico em que existe Informação a ser Interpretada: a normalização (criação de denominador comum) da heurística, um véu comunitário sob algo que é inerentemente solitário e solipsista. o pathos é a sobrevivência, a divisão definitiva entre o que é o Ser e do que é sua Ideia, pois embora um, claro, influencie o outro, corrija o outro, esse um nunca comanda o outro. há um abismo dificilmente cruzado entre a prática e a ideia quando não existe tempo de planejamento, quando a ideia já é um resultado de outros atributos ativos de antes. a única defesa contra a ideologia é o suicídio. o barulho de tiro é mais alto do que a música. não existem perigos universais pois eles não são necessários: o mundo está sempre acabando pra alguém.

Ah, Smilebit. How I miss that studio. Part of Sega's restructuring following the demise of (my beloved) Dreamcast and the company's exit from the console manufacturing side of the video game market, Smilebit produced numerous titles for Microsoft's original Xbox. One of which was a follow-up to Sega's Panzer Dragoon series, unseen since the days of the Saturn. While it wasn't a direct sequel to Panzer Dragoon Saga, the RPG-infused installment of the franchise, Orta did reintroduce gamers to the impeccably designed world and unique dragons and characters featured in the series. It doesn't reinvent the mechanics of the previous action-oriented titles in the franchise, but what it does achieve is solid gameplay, excellent visuals and music, and an interesting and mysterious storyline. I wish we could see another sequel, but I can't see it happening anytime soon. Now that Sega's reinvigorating older series, perhaps there's some hope? I suppose we shall see.

(Would like to give a big thank you to @IronLuis for making this review possible. He let me borrow his Xbone just to play the game)

I can't with this shitty game anymore I'm done.

Panzer Dragoon is a series that had intrigued me and finally checking it out, I loved all of it.

Despite Mini, a game that was not only barely functional but also a game in between two fantastic games, the series, and overall Trilogy really, were all incredible and reasonably difficult. Deserving its status as the incredible landmark on the Sega Saturn. I had known the series did get another shot on Xbox but finally playing the games made me more intrigued regarding the entry that is Orta.

As a follow up to Saga I knew it couldn't top it, and all I had thought and expected was for it to just be a good game. A great game. The worthy continuation it dares to be to a very fulfilling trilogy that ended on a fair note.

It ended up being an arse to finally play the game however. Right after beating Saga, I checked it out off Xemu which didn't play the cutscenes. Then I ordered a og Xbox copy for 45 buckos then after some convincing got @IronLuis to let me borrow his Xbone just to play this game. And ALSO finally got the official rechargeable batteries for mine and his Xbox controller.

And so after all this work and effort, I finally played it.. and was remarkably disappointed. For starters I will still ponder why was the lock on nerfed so badly??? Saga introduced other forms for your Dragon but in this game you have to be switching all the fucking time if you wanna be doing any damage or any health resourcing when none of that bullshit was in the previous games. Playing it the old way, your damage just tickles them at most.

The game also has the most bullshittingly difficult difficulty to a point it made me genuinely mad in literal years. it's buttfuckingly unfair. Zwei is a game where it became harder by the paths you decided to choose. In Orta it's just fucking difficult because it said so, fuck you, you dare have fun? kiss that ass goodbye. BE SURE TO GET A NICE WHOPPING OF TWO BOSSES IN A FUCKING ROW!!!!!

I thought maybe I was delusional, I thought maybe I was wrong after simply beating Easy, but I ended up being right. I gave Normal another go and just could not. It's so fucking bullshit.. And not even fucking worth it. As all you need to know about the story is that it is LITERAL BULLSHIT!!! I don't like Mobo and his stupid fucking posse. Every time I see these imbeciles talk I miss the humanity of Paet, Gash, and Azel. They spoke with character. Growth. Personality. I miss it so much.. It was all in Saga. All dissipated in Orta.

Orta in general for me is a literal disappointment. I wasn't expecting or hyping up that it'd be the best of the series. Literally the minimum for me was just it simply be a fun time. A great time. A journey in a unique world.

But instead I get a game that can't fucking make up its mind on if it desires to be ambitious like Saga or have the simple storytelling of Zwei and the first one. It doesn't help either when you look into it even the Developers themselves feel mixed on if they should've even made a 4th one after Saga.

Which anymore is that I recognize the Pandora's Box which in fact is why my rating isn't any lower even if to be completely honest, I think alot of it is buttfucking padding. ESPECIALLY WHEN SOME OF THAT INFORMATION COULDVE BEEN TOLD WITHIN THE GAME.

What's that? You want to be told the story's details in the STORY!?? NAHHHHH!!!! GO READ ABOUT IT JERKWAD!!! STOP ASKING QUESTIONS!!!!

Something about the visual style of early 6th gen games is so hauntingly beautiful to me. The textures, lighting, models, fog are all very distinct to the time and feel almost alien. Panzer Dragoon Orta is the game that I had been picturing in my mind every time I thought about that aesthetic, but I just didn't know it yet. The atmosphere and vibes of this game are just off the charts, and I fell in love with this world despite only seeing a small chunk of it.

On a gameplay front Orta is also fantastic. The bones of a good, basic rail shooter are here of course - the shooting feels solid, attacks are telegraphed enough you can dodge them on your first time through a level, the encounter design feels fair. All that is great, but it's elevated by the different dragon forms and the 360° camera. Those elements added just enough complexity to keep me constantly engaged and thinking about what the optimal way through any encounter is in a way that most other rail shooters can't do.

This is arcade design transformed into aesthetic experience. This is a shooter made into a poem. And that sounds absurd— but, in some sense, it seems true every time I play through this one more time. This is a flight through ancient places held together by the beauty of their images and songs; modern settings torn apart by machines, humanity, ambition; all punctuated by struggle, death, and dragonfire. The pacing establishes a rhythm between the gripping and the tranquil. And the sheer artfulness of every element sometimes allows a meditative calm to emerge inside moments of intensity. There are perfect moments made from cutting through a blue sky threading a dragon’s flight through bright twisting barrages of laser fire.

And for all its poignance—which has stayed with me for twenty years now— this is as much of a video game as it is anything else. The shooting and movement is fast but graceful. The game can be demanding enough to be rewarding. And
the mechanics have enough depth to make moment to moment tactical decisions feel significant. Shooting incoming missiles out of the sky, dashing out of danger at just the right time, building up your meter and making the best use of it to survive —all that feels great. And then there are the the three dragon forms your dragon can swap between on the fly. Each embodies a trade-off between speed and damage. Any form is capable enough to clear the game, but they provide a flexibility to the play that wouldn’t be there without them. The way you bring about destruction and vengeance with a continual stream of orbs and homing lasers can be strategically satisfying and kinetically elegant and beautiful— but the explosions dotting the sky and across the earth still add up to something more than arcade gratification. The designers have, at points, somehow woven regret into the gratification. The stunning world in the background is shot through with a kind of quiet sadness.

Panzer Dragoon proved that the rail shooter could become a work of art. Zwei was the perfection of that ideal—pure, simple, strange, beautiful. And with Orta they retained the same strange magic and made it all just a little more sophisticated than they had before.