Turning a 3D shooter series into an RPG may seem odd if you are unfamiliar with the prior two Panzer Dragoon games. On paper, they are relatively brief rail shooters. Which is true, but for the breathtaking imagination on display, and the richness of the world building each game packs from end to end. In each game we glimpse a small part of a larger world, filled with history, mysteries, political factions, struggle, danger and wonder.

Turning to an RPG to explore some of that world makes perfect sense - Team Andromeda had build too large of a world to be contained in shooters alone. Revisiting Panzer Dragoon Saga for the first time in 15+ years, I'm struck once again by how audacious it is on all fronts. At every turn, this game defies convention and goes its own way, and all if it works. The world is almost relentlessly bleak, with humanity scraping for survival on the ground and fighting over access to ancient secrets in the sky. The art and music combine to create a mood and set a tone that his wholly unique, making the world where humanity is knocked so far down the food chain that hunters are constantly in fear of being hunted themselves feel vividly real.

The combat system has - somehow - never been imitated, despite it's brilliant adaptation of Panzer Dragoon's core gameplay, a system that looks and feels like a shooter but has the bones of turn-based positional battle.

The story seldom takes a predictable turn, yet there's never a twist for the sake of it; this is a character-driven story through and through. The events in and around the gorgeous, ethereal water ruins of Uru form a key sequence where enemies become tense allies, motivations clarify and alliances blur - and the story flows entirely from the clash of personalities and ideas, not contrivances.

I love the world this series, and this game, create. I love the feeling of flying our dragon through valleys, fields, tunnels and the epic Tower. I love the aching, mournful tone that feels rooted in real struggle. The undulating, cohesive soundtrack where every track is perfectly evocative of it setting. And how in an era when developers were discovering boob physics, Team Andromeda had an absolute refusal to sexualize Azel or deploy a male gaze upon her, creating one of gaming's most compelling characters along the way.

The one knock on Saga is the difficulty - simply put, the game is easy. But it's also relentlessly compelling and engaging. Being hard was never the goal: Panzer Dragoon is all about immersing us in a unique, beautiful, evocative and strange world, and it succeeds on every level. A timeless masterpiece.

Is any game worth 1,000 USD? The single-most expensive standalone Sega Saturn game and one of my Sega Saturn ‘grail’ games.

Spanning 4 discs that bring a unique game world that involves a rider and their dragon taking the fight to an empire that was only peripherally hinted at in the first 2 games, one with its own lore, landscape and language to life - the game clocks in at a relatively modest 25-30 hours (despite the 4-discs) to really flesh out the world-building with cinematics and voiced speech - in the game’s fantasy language.

The semi real-time battle system is my favorite aspect of the game, which smartly adapts and turns the radial camera system from the main Panzer Dragoon series on its head, into one that focuses on positioning your character to avoid enemy hit zones while waiting for your turn to act, reminiscent of Final Fantasy’s ATB system.

Originally conceived as a Final Fantasy killer for the Sega Saturn (that was a term that was thrown around a lot in the 32-bit era), the game faced multiple delays in development and by the time it made it out in the West, the Sega Saturn was on its last legs and thus only 20,000+ copies were printed - as a result driving the current prices for the game beyond 1,000 USD.

Perhaps no game is worth 1,000 dollars, but for 32-bit era JRPG fans, Panzer Dragoon Saga still stands as an interesting testament of that era with a setting and battle system still unique - even by modern RPG standards.

Panzer Dragoon Saga is a game at some point dabbling in anything Sega or old console related you will have heard of.

The legendary game that never got the proper release it deserved. Suffered from an extremely limited release as Sega was burying the Saturn. Is and was the elusive, the rare game for most, that was out of their reach til emulation became more refined. And for some til the capability of a modded Saturn to play such burned games.

And for me, of course it was this game. If there was ever a game I had wanted to play in middle school, it was this game. I hadn't put my focus into it at the time so outside of playing a bit of a Japanese version, I never had made the push to properly play the game. And of course there's when my own eyes got to see a copy for sale at 800+ at a convention.

So years later, I finally get a Saturn once again and knew it got to be modded and even before getting it modded there was already two games I had burned and the first I ever burned was indeed Panzer Dragoon Saga. (the other was the 4 discs of Shining Force III) That was the game I wanted to finally play and beat. And finally check out the game that is inaccessible to so many.

After beating Panzer Dragoon I, II, and then Mini and it was finally time. Time to finally beat the eluded masterpiece that had never been rereleased. And I must say.. it does live up to the hype.

Without saying much about the story beyond that it makes the previous games look like kiddie fodder in comparison is that despite it being very untraditional as an RPG, it in turns lends for a more fun and lively time playing the game. And a battle system based on speed too. Encouraging more beating the enemy quick, and in return alot of exp. Perhaps it could be too easy but honestly I'd rather be spamming and blasting than in agony waiting for shit to get over with like in FF7 or even Burning Rangers lol.

And I haven't even started discussing the presentation. As a response to FF7, it utterly makes some good as hell use of the fact it spans 4 discs. Compared to FF7 where that game opted to have most of itself on the first disc then the last two mainly be the remaining bits. Panzer Dragoon Saga rather smartly has it spanned evenly so you not only have in game cutscenes that utilize lively motion capture but also FMVS that draw you in, and complete voice acting for every single piece of dialogue ever spoken outside of the main character's thoughts.

All of that and the game runs silky smooth 95% of the time with the only time being it chugs a little tiny bit but that's it. And absolutely smashes in the park the idea the Saturn is incapable of any good 3D. The haters have not seen this one yet.

In general, it's a game that to be honest out of the mostly 90's three rpgs for me (FF7, Mother 3 and this) yeah, Saga wins. It's a shame it didn't get the success it deserved at the time as if you ask me, while the devs argue it was from them not caring to make something mainstream, I'd say it had more to do with the Saturn being a console not as many people owned compared to a PlayStation where having your game on there would atleast get more attention. Saga could have used the rereleases in recent time but alas did not happen. Saga is a classic. Delicate. And I am glad and happy to have finally played such an enduring game.

This game feels like it exists in the Ecco the Dolphin universe. I love it.

A good game that respects your time. In-flight RPG battles are pretty great and visually interesting. Feels very of "it's time" which is a good thing. The dragon ability morphing is kind of bonkers how it changes the visuals of the dragons.

I can't imagine if I had played this in the 90's when I was a teenager. Big recommend if you're a fan of low-poly and RPGs.

My decision to play the Panzer Dragoon games was mostly predicated on the insane hype I've seen Saga receive for about as far back as I can remember. The most hidden of hidden gems, locked away on the elusively tragic coffin known as the Sega Saturn. I didn't care much for the first two games, but I'm not particularly inclined towards rail shooters to begin with. RPGs are much more my speed, so I was ready to let bygones be bygones and bask in prime Goon kino. Maybe that's why I feel especially disappointed that this sesh proved so unfruitful.

The most substantive change from previous entries is the level of exploration that comes with being an RPG. You go through dungeons on your dragon, and while having to back it up like a truck sometimes to aim your point-and-click cursor is cumbersome it mostly worked fine and didn't feel too hampering to navigation. The problem is that everything that involves not being on your dragon is tedious as hell. Every town is some geometric hellscape whose uniquely abstract-yet-chunky visuals are immediately outstripped by how annoying they are to navigate through. The day and night cycle and how it correlates to which NPCs are available is a neat idea, but having to repeatedly go back and forth through those awful environments so you can hit the front door and change the time again gets annoying really fast, especially when it involves story progression. But I'm pretty tolerant of whacky/bad exploration segments as long as the story built on and utilized through them is good.

The story in this game is not good. Every character is written so thinly it quickly became impossible to give a shit about anything that was going on. It doesn't matter how many cool worldbuilding ideas you slip in, why should I care about this setting if none of the people in it feel real? Even our main characters get only the slightest bits of fleshing out beyond their initial stock archetypes. The callbacks to the first two games didn't do much for me either. Those games barely made me care about their own plots, I'm not gonna clap cause some boss from Zwei I hated came back as a regular enemy. I initially figured those two would be important to some grand series-spanning narrative but at the end of this little trilogy I still couldn't really tell you what the big point of it is. Maybe I wasn't paying attention hard enough but maybe they should've written something cool instead of boring. Who's to say.

The main reason I got any enjoyment out of this game, and the one aspect that I can wholeheartedly praise alongside the most diehard of Gooners is the battle system. Turning a rail shooter into an RPG sounds insane but they made it fun, satisfying, and strategic while still feeling totally in-line with the prior games. Some elements like the stat customization feel a bit tacked-on but the core of maneuvering quadrants while managing ATB gauges allowed for a lot of freedom in how you engage with enemies and their attack patterns, keeping the combat fresh and exciting right to the very end. I'm honestly surprised more games haven't tried building on this system, I think it's ripe for some further experimentation.

Goon Saga is a game I respect more than I actually like. A lot of the ideas here are pretty novel (some even to this day) but I think the execution of most of them is too clunky. Most of these problems aren't excruciatingly terrible on their own but the way they pile up made the experience more and more draining as I kept playing. I'm glad Team Andromeda got to make something so uncompromised by contemporary trends. But I also can't help but think so much of this game's hype is boosted because of how rare and overlooked it is. I know it sounds douchey to accuse people of loving something for clout and I'm not saying that's entirely the reason for this game's fanbase but I am saying that it's the Sonic CD of JRPGS. Make of that what you will.

panzer dragoon saga is a game with a reputation, to say the least. most of the reviews of saga on this very site spend more time masturbating to the game’s rarity or building up the game’s prestige. this isn’t gonna be that! lol. i really enjoyed my time with PDS, but i don’t really buy into the exclusive narrative that’s been built around it. this isn’t a rare gem shining in the rough, anyone with a computer made in the last decade can go play it right now.
so if panzer dragoon saga isn’t an underrated gem or a masturbatory retro gamer status symbol, what is it? the obvious answer would be that panzer dragoon saga is very unique. members of team andromeda have identified themselves in the years since release as being driven by counter cultural tendencies, wanting to make something fully their own, and that streak of contrarianism certainly does run all over saga. unlike most JRPGs, saga isn’t a character driven game or a plot driven game. saga’s selling point is a lot closer to what we’ve seen in WRPGs that followed it, it’s a game about a lifelike and lore-rich world, where the story is more of an excuse to get the player to engage with it. like the previous PD games, the environmental storytelling is superb, but what i find especially impressive about saga is just how much flavor text is present and just how much detail is thought out for how these imaginary people are able to live. saga is surprisingly textual for a game of its era and with its limitations. for every monster you see, there’s a description of how it’s shell is hollowed out into bowls, or how the stomach is dried into water bags. this focus is refreshing, but it’s also somewhere i could see they could have done more. for a game with such an emphasis on a living world, the way saga handles character interaction is often stilted and limited. a good amount of the playtime in saga is spent in the “village” segments, where the player is essentially exploring populated environments and gathering information, and oftentimes these segments have information that is locked behind talking to characters multiple times or talking to specific characters in a specific order. this means that the pacing of the game, while quick, often feels held up by trial and error. i don’t mind this too much in the main story, because i always enjoyed the dialogue, but it was very deflating to learn that i had missed plenty of side content simply because i hadn’t spent time repeatedly talking to npcs with unchanging dialogue. to me, it also felt disappointing that sidequests were limited in their scope. it feels very cool to go on a hunting mission and solve an environmental puzzle to get medicine to save a villagers life… but it feels a lot less cool when your reward is a stock weapon that you can get anywhere by the time you receive it. i was overjoyed in the few parts of the game when the player is rewarded for exploring with more background information or detail to the world, and wish those types of moments were more common. speaking of background information, saga actually does connect to the rail shooters that preceded it in a lot of really interesting ways, and I appreciate that it didn’t feel as though the game was trying hard to point it out to the audience. they mostly let you connect things yourself in relation to the other two games, which leads to a lot of cool moments that really does make the world feel as though it had always been considered in detail rather than made up as they went along.
one of the things i can give unambiguous praise to in saga is the battle system. i’ve always been a detractor of ATB in the final fantasy games, but saga is able to use its rail shooter roots to iterate on it in a way that makes every encounter engaging. instead of having 1 bar that counts for all options, you have 3, with a standard shot or laser taking up one bar and magic abilities taking up two. in addition, your dragon maneuvers through 4 quadrants around the enemy, with danger and safe zones depending on the enemies position and what attack they’re going for. your standard attacks can be fired with a single button press and can be chained without using up time, meaning effective players will be bobbing and weaving around enemies before unloading their gauges on weak positions. enemy behavior in saga is varied as well, making the player feel as though they’re on a hunt, needing to learn the biology of what they’re up against. in another tradition lifted from the rail shooters, the player is even graded on how well they handle individual encounters, with higher xp gains and item drops given based on better grades, so every encounter is engaging. you never feel like you’re better off brute forcing past the designed strategies, and you never feel like your time is being wasted, which is saying something when dealing with an ATB-like system. my only real complaint with the battle system is that magic feels unnuanced and implemented almost as an afterthought. magic isn’t bad when used against enemies that you don’t fully understand, but it’s not very rewarding to use and many spells just feel like the previous one but stronger. spell descriptions are also extremely unhelpful, giving you basically no hard knowledge for their gameplay application.
i am far from an expert musically but i’ll be damned if this isn’t one of the coolest OSTs i’ve ever heard. an inspired mix of world music and chunky synthesizers, the level of spectacle present in the battles is thankfully matched by the music. the dungeon music is more on the ambient side much of the time, but it’s still wonderful and complements the atmosphere beautifully.
where team andromeda’s countercultural ambitions really hurt the game, i feel, is in the story. sagas story has a very, very strong hook and tons of great ideas. i love the idea of a story where the protagonist is caught in a conflict fought between self-serving factions bickering on the brink of annihilation. i love the idea of the protagonist being more of an unwitting pawn being used by those around him, falling backwards into a political game beyond his understanding. i love the idea of a human weapon learning to be human, and feeling indebted to those who control her. i especially love the core theme of the story, which i won’t spoil here. the issue with PDS’ story is that i don’t feel any of these things. andromeda has been open that it was an active goal to avoid the melodrama that defines franchises like final fantasy in favor of a more subtle and contemplative plot, but i feel that what we get here doesn’t fulfill those intentions well either. the runtime leaves the emotional beats of the story feeling half-hearted and rushed, despite the excellent foundation. a version of panzer dragoon saga with even 2 or 3 more hours of meat to its plot might be worthy of the “best JRPG of all time” title, and what’s here is still very cerebral and thematically interesting, but I find it difficult to analyze a plot that I just don’t care about first. this is especially present in the character of Azel, who the plot revolves around, and is ostensibly intended to be the main character, but has woefully little screentime for how much could have been done with her. the core relationship between her and Edge is no Squall and Rinoa, and it doesn’t need to be, but it’s no Amuro and Lalah either.
all in all, is panzer dragoon saga the best rpg ever made or the most underrated game ever? is it worth 1,200 dollars on ebay? no, i don’t think so. but it is a game that I would wholeheartedly recommend to anyone who is even a little interested, because you will NEVER play a game like this again. saga is always happy to dance to the beat of its own 32-bit african-tribal-inspired drum. with synth flutes in the background. and lasers all over the screen.

Hey, look! It's the coolest game I'll never own!

Panzer Dragoon Saga is, at this point, kind of the cult game - that one that a scarce few had the privilege to play at release and only slightly more have had the good graces to be able to play on the original hardware. To that end, it has something of a legendary status as an elusive but immeasurably important piece of gaming history. Plenty of other people have talked at length about how Team Andromeda busted their asses to put out a blockbuster RPG for the struggling Saturn, while also doing their utmost to keep their vision for the game intact. That, and all the tumult that followed, and the tragic loss of its source code as a result. It's never been officially rereleased and probably never will be, unless that semi-recent Panzer Dragoon remake is a sign of things to come. I won't talk too much more about the history of the game from here on. I just want to talk a little about how I feel it holds up on its own merits, through the eyes of somebody who'd never touched a Saturn before this past month.

The game opens with a young hunter named Edge coming across a mysterious girl sleeping in an ancient stone "casket". Shortly thereafter, a rogue agent of the Empire named Craymen murders the closest thing Edge has to a family before stealing the girl away. Assisted by a dragon with whom Edge seems to share an inexplicable link, the boy sets off for revenge on those who have wronged him - only to end up entangled a web of conspiracy and myth, with the fate of the world hanging in the balance.

Saga follows on from the Panzer Dragoon duology (the original game and Zwei), and while the decision to leap from a rail shooter ala Star Fox to something more akin to Final Fantasy was a bold move, the developers clearly did everything they could to retain the spirit and stylings of those games. Battles are staged much as they would be in any other game of its type: There are random encounters in the overworld, complemented by predetermined encounters and boss fights. The game uses a pseudo-turn-based system much like Final Fantasy's ATB system, wherein a bar fills over time and permits you to perform an action once it is full. In Saga, you have three such bars, with some abilities requiring you to burn two bars to use, and special effects activating when all three bars are full. Meanwhile, your foes take actions more or less whenever they feel like it (but are ostensibly on a similar timetable to the player's). This game, however, does eschew a lot of the other standards of its time. You can freely reposition yourself in a clockwise-counterclockwise fashion relative to your foes. An indicator shows the advantages your position provides you; moving to a green area keeps you safe from attacks, while staying in a red area opens you up to more damage. You can also move to get an angle on enemy weak points. Enemies can also reposition themselves, and as such, you will need to move frequently throughout a fight to perform well. While there is a standard menu, there are dedicated buttons you can press for using both Edge's gun and your dragon's lasers. Making use of these allows you to get a slight edge on your foes by letting you put out an attack instantly. Your performance at a battle's end is ranked. Eliminating your enemies quickly and while taking minimal damage will result in you obtaining bonus EXP and money, and even items on occasion.

There's more! There is no party system; Edge and his dragon are in this alone, but the dragon's myriad abilities give the player a broad range of options that make up for the lack of a well-rounded group of combatants. The dragon's stats can also be adjusted freely, boosting things such as attack and defense at the cost of magical potency and speed, or vice-versa. Utilizing this ability well can give you an advantage in certain fights, as well as permitting you to learn new abilities of a given category faster. There is no true equipment management in this game, either. You can customize Edge's gun with certain parts, some of which do effectively act as upgrades, but there are no sets of armor or other gear or accessories for you to equip. Instead, you simply grow stronger by either leveling up in the traditional fashion or by having your dragon's capabilities improved after certain plot-related events.

As you explore the game's world, you'll switch between two points of view. On the ground, Edge can explore settlements and towns much as you would in other RPGs. You can shop, talk to NPCs and investigate your surroundings. There's a large amount of dialogue and flavor text, and you can even get extra details by making observations from afar (i.e. eavesdropping on conversations between characters). In the overworld and dungeons, however, you'll instead mount your dragon and take flight. The juxtaposition between these two styles of exploration do a good job of making the game world feel grand in scope, even if it is ultimately fairly confined - more on that later.

Before I really get into it here, I just want to highlight what an artistic achievement this game is. Yes, it does look fantastic for a game of its time. Beyond just the base graphic fidelity, though, the art direction and attention to detail are superb. Panzer Dragoon as a series already does a grand job of feeling alien and fantastical, with a Moebius-inspired (and at one point, hired) post-post-apocalyptic world on display. Saga actually lets you see that world up close and personal, and it feels fresh in a different way than FF7's steampunk/cyberpunk blend did. The soundtrack complements the vibes from top to bottom. Even the cutscenes and the CG animation, which holds up about as well as any ingame CG from that era does, feels much more lively and, well, animated than a lot of other examples. All in all, the presentation is stellar, and it's obvious a lot of love and care went into crafting this virtual world.

Now as to the game itself - it's perfectly serviceable. I do very much enjoy the more active role you get to take in combat, and it does a lot to break up the monotony of the random encounters. Having specific actions mapped to dedicated buttons does a lot to make things feel snappy. Being able to modulate your dragon's stats is fun and the way it influences your available abilities is also kind of neat. With all that being said, it still isn't a particularly deep or challenging game. Not all enemies have weak points to exploit, and maintaining a solid position otherwise amounts to "red bad, green good". You only rarely have to look out for specific enemy tells to avoid damage, and sometimes you just can't avoid damage period, no matter how on top of things you may be. What's more, so many battles can be trivialized by simply letting your biggest attacks rip. Indeed, for all the abilities that are on offer, it's the damage dealing ones that really shine - the healing and support "spells" are cool on paper, but are easily supplanted with items and aren't as useful in the long run as a massive explosion that lets you evaporate a full group of enemies at once. Consumables are plentiful and so is money, so there's not much of an excuse to ever run out. I made it to the end of the game without seeing the game over screen once. Still, that doesn't necessarily have to be a deal breaker; my adventure wasn't hindered by any unreasonable difficulty spikes, which made the (fairly short) experience feel rather brisk and action-filled, at least until the last quarter or so.

The pacing does become an issue eventually, though, and there's an issue of scope as well. Things progress quite quickly in the beginning, with you encountering new characters and areas frequently. Towards the end, though, you start to realize there isn't too much more for you to see beyond what's already been shown off. It's blessedly light on backtracking, but some of the final areas are just mazes of same-y looking hallways and small rooms lined with enemy encounters. The ending is wrapped up fairly quickly and doesn't feel like it ever quite reaches a proper climax. On top of all of that, there's so much worldbuilding that this setting begs for, but even when you pick over all the optional dialogue and other secrets, I feel that you're likely to be left wanting. With all that being said, though, there are a good number of secrets to find, and somebody who is determined to pick over every little corner of the game world likely won't be left disappointed.

All in all, Saga does feel more than a little rushed. The narrative never fully takes flight, and neither does the gameplay. I still found myself enjoying it a lot, though. At this point, I think I just have a definite appreciation for games that don't overstay their welcome. Edge's quest was still a fun ride, and I was glad to be able to spend a bit of time in a world as rich as this one. Still, if you're used to RPGs with more sprawling or intimate game worlds, or combat systems with more meat on their bones, I think you will probably be a fair bit underwhelmed with this game. I don't know if it would ever have quite reached the popularity of those other famous 90's RPGs, but I have no doubt in my mind that if the Saturn had performed better, it would be broadly considered a classic.

And I suppose that really is the tragic thing about Saga as a whole. It's a genuine labor of love that never got the audience it deserved because it just had the poor luck of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And that love never got to develop as far as it should have for that exact reason - I think that if Team Andromeda didn't have the weight of the worlds on their backs to put together a masterpiece, they easily could have made one. I don't know that Panzer Dragoon Saga is as excellent as its reputation might insinuate (at bare minimum, it isn't worth $1500 USD), but it absolutely deserves to be treasured and remembered. Panzer Dragoon Saga and its kin are gems that I'm glad to see are slowly but surely growing their audience, and Saga in particular is one of the best arguments to be made for why video game preservation is so important.

Genre: Lonely Dragon Riding RPG | Released: 1998 | Platform: Sega Saturn (sigh) | Developer: Team Andromeda | Publisher: Sega | Language: English | Length: 18 hours | Difficulty: Moderate | Do I Need To Play Anything First: No, I this is the first Panzer Dragoon Game I have played | Accessibility Options: Zilch | Monetization: Single Purchase | Microtransaction: None | Gambling Elements: None | Content Warning: Very mild violence and mild substance references | Parenting Guide: 13 and up for sure | How Did You Play It: On a Sega Saturn. And I totally bought a legit copy and not a knock off, for sure yes yes | Did you need a guide: Yes, I could not for the love of god find a hallway hidden behind a building | Mods: None

Is It Good: Yes, it’s excellent.

Back of the Box: Hey, it’s that game on eBay for $900.

Legend has it that only 10,000 copies of Panzer Dragoon Saga were made for the English world. Plus it’s exclusive to the Sega Saturn which, well, did not sell very well. Given its frankly insane current market value most people have not played this game, nor have they heard of it (unless you are a filthy pirate, which I know none of you are).

This is a shame as Panzer Dragoon Saga a landmark RPG that deserves a spot along in the pantheon of fantastic Japanese Role-Playing games. This is lean, exciting, no fluff RPG with a fantastic battle system, fun plot (Which is fully voiced), great cinematics, and outstanding art design. I loved that battle system, a fascinating combination of a rail shooter and turn-based combat.

This is no hidden gem, it’s a full-on JRPG crown. Wear it if you can.

This swan song of the Saturn is well regarded for good reason - despite its short length (my nearly 100% run clocked in at fourteen and a half hours) and relative lack of difficulty, Panzer Dragoon Saga is filled with unique gameplay, memorable characters, the unique and mysterious setting this series is known for, and an unforgettable conclusion to the trilogy of games on the Saturn. Desperately needs the remake treatment to bring fresh eyes onto it, as this is a journey few who've played it could ever forget.

I find that some of the games I enjoy the most are those that I know very little of, by the time I check them out. Panzer Dragoon Saga is one of them. All I had seen of it, which was enough to spark my interest, was this bit of cutscene, devoid of context. There's something already pretty unique, in there. Most games back then- hell, a lot of JRPGs today, don't have that kind of animation. In just about every scene (and these aren't the "big" ones- those are FMVs) characters act and interact with each other, move around, they don't just stand there and stare at each other while they talk. Today this isn't groundbreaking, but I genuinely cannot think of a single game in Saga's era that did anything like this. Only Vagrant Story, maybe, and that one's a few years newer. It's fully voice acted, too, down to every single unimportant NPC line (Only in Japanese, though. This is probably better nowadays, but it does feel like they just didn't care to dub it, it would certainly have turned people off at the time. Given how few copies were even sold overseas, this isn't surprising. It's nice that the translation itself is pretty alright, though, minus some oddities). This is all already very admirable in a vacuum, but I think that when Panzer Dragoon Saga is looked at as a sequel to its rail shooter predecessors, it all makes even more sense. In my thoughts on the original Panzer Dragoon, I noted that the game felt extremely cinematic in a grandiose way, and Saga is a natural evolution of that. It's impressive just how much it achieves in terms of presentation, and while the story is simpler than the genre's usual fare, that very much does not harm it, in the long run.

Speaking of adapting Panzer Dragoon to the RPG canon, the gameplay is an even clearer and more brilliant example of that, which is no small feat. How do you even adapt a rail shooter into turn-based combat? Simple, you put all of the focus on the positioning of the player and enemies in regards to one another, and turn every fight into a super cinematic little puzzle. It's not the deepest thing out there, though more than satisfying enough: You can move around the foes, ducking in and out of danger and safe zones, positioning yourself so you can hit weak points, but the ability to act recharges in real time, and moving halts it briefly, so you have to be tactical. This is all capped off quite cleverly by a simple ratings system at the end of every fight. Beat it quickly and without taking many hits, and you'll be awarded with more exp and a chance for an item. The game is quite easy, and you'll never really need to play strategically, so it's nice to always have something to push you towards optimal play. Outside of battle, levels are explored entirely on dragonback, flying through caves, ruins, forests and the like, which is a nice spectacle and quite cooler than the usual on-foot dungeon crawling, though ultimately not too mechanically different. Again, Team Andromeda's penchant for the cinematic shines- style over substance is not necessarily a bad thing, especially when there's more than enough of the latter. Speaking of that, you can transform your dragon, and the way it freely warps between any combination of its forms is quite the technological marvel.

When you will be walking on foot, it will be because you're exploring the game's few towns and such. They're small, but populated with fairly memorable NPCs. I think all of them have unique models, and plenty have side-quests associated with them, sometimes small, sometimes not. Good stuff. I don't think you'll be missing out by going in fully blind, but I actually did enjoy checking the wiki's list of "secrets" and poking around at various side stories as I went through the game. As for the main story, I've mentioned already that it's fairly simple, but that doesn't mean it's bad, just more understated than expected. Mercenary Edge's group gets slaughtered by rebel Craymen, who is following some mysterious goals, and he sets out to get his revenge on him, with the help of a dragon that mysteriously bonded with him. Character development is very organic, sometimes subtle and usually not lampshaded, and PDS doesn't mind hitting you with some nasty gut punches, or hiding some pretty vital information from you entirely. It can feel slightly underwhelming at times, but it does fit the setting and tone, and I do appreciate the commitment to the original games' surreal aura.

I do have some genuine criticisms, though. While the game is mostly pretty fun, a few of the dungeons are pretty unbearable. The worst offender is the Ruins of Uru, a massive labyrinth you can only explore with a shitty little landspeeder, populated with pathetically weak encounters that offer no challenge and a lot of wasted time. I actually quite like what it does story-wise but man is it a slog to go through. Generally, the last disc of the game tends to have some of its worst dungeons, with reskinned enemies and lots of flying about with little to do. The final dungeon is a stealth one, and it completely fails as a climactic conclusion of the story and gameplay. Your offensive "berserk" powers, aka your spells, look cool but feel kind of useless a lot of the time, because they require twice as many actions as your attacks and rarely do even just twice as much damage, at least in the late game. They're useful to break past defenses but usually there's some way around them that lets you strike a weak point for great damage, which you can only do with your standard attacks.

It's a damn shame that this game was relegated to the last throes of a console doomed to fail from day one. It is absolutely one of the finest JRPGs I've played and just bursts at the seams with love for its world and for pushing the envelope on what games could be. I absolutely recommend playing it, it's quite tighter and lighter in length than your usual JRPG, has some really awesome things I haven't even mentioned, like the OST, and while Saturn emulation isn't great it is worth dealing with. Do keep in mind that it is highly recommended to be familiar with Panzer Dragoon II: Zwei before playing this- knowing the original PD is nice, knowing Zwei is quite important. So, with that, I guess that's it for Panzer Dragoon and me. I want to play Orta, but I don't know if I want to enough to figure out Xbox emulation, and I'm sure as hell not playing the Game Gear one. All I've said about this game applies to the whole series, these are some really evocative, artful games that did some extremely interesting stuff with the medium, and it's really a shame that they were stuck on a console nobody bought, because if they were on the PS1 or N64 I guarantee to you that Panzer Dragoon would be a household name today.

Esse jogo pra mim é 8 ou 80, tem coisas dele que acho masterpiece, tem coisas que acho extremamente ruins ( e aqui temos que falar que são ruins pois envelheceram mal, um remake consertava) o que é masterpiece no jogo? o combate, um dos melhores que já joguei em um rpg, a arte do game é bem acima da média, tudo criativo e bonito para o saturn, a historia, eu acabei não curtindo muito mas sei que é algo pessoal pois ela é bem construida e cheia de reviravoltas, e o que tornou esse jogo apenas 3 estrelas para mim ? level design. Level design desse jogo é muito chato, é muito ida e volta, labirintos, tudo parece exatamente a mesma coisa sempre, mas, mesmo com esse problema de level design ainda recomendo esse jogo para quem curtes rpgs e quer experimentar um combate masterpiece, é um otimo jogo para conhecer a biblioteca do saturn.

this game is a luxury item. it’s refined. it has no cruft whatsoever. it also has no equal; there are no videogames like panzer dragoon saga. even the other entries in the series (which are beautiful, don’t get me wrong) don’t hold a candle to how excellent it is. it feels like a game from the future, a future where the medium has matured and thrown off so much of the bullshit that holds it down.
all that being said, saga does not go down easy. i had to work to focus on it and play it through to the end, which seems incongruous, given how much i loved it the whole time. i also don’t really know why this was the case or what could have been done differently (either in terms of its design or in my approach to playing it) to counter this. i want to lay the blame at my own feet rather than the game’s, because i think the things that made it harder to swallow are precisely the absence of cruft and excess and skinner-box evils that make it feel so futuristic. it has no grinding or side-quests or time-wasting of any kind. it has plenty of secrets and the world feels rich and dense. it respects itself too much to string you along with little dopamine hits. it’s frankly a miraculous game. i spent my whole playthrough waiting for it to pull some bullshit that would sour everything and it never did.
extraordinarily good game. audio-visually stunning. beautiful towns. great writing. mechanically triumphant. constantly surprising, and so well put together. it’s crazy to me that team andromeda did such incredible work and then just fuckn dipped. criminal.

The misty swirls of the horizon. The eerie darkness of the underground chambers. The imposing fog of the valleys and the oceans. What do they all represent? To me, it represents a sense of uncertainty, especially for the future that lays ahead.

Panzer Dragoon Saga’s reverence in the industry is one of myth - a one-of-a-kind game that even 25 years later, still provides an innovative and refreshing RPG experience with a combat system that no other title has come close to recreating. It’s quite literally an impossible game - a game created completely from scratch, that pushed the capabilities of the Saturn and its developers to the absolute limit. Panzer Dragoon Saga aims to stun its audience, even when it's breaking itself apart to deliver the technical pedigree required to run such an ambitious game, and its audience is practically non-existent. Even with the boundaries pushed to get this game to run as well as it does, there is one issue that persists throughout the entirety of PDS’ 4-disc run: the field of depth. After all, when so much meticulous attention is placed onto making the graphics feel as realistic as possible, something has to give. In this case, it was the draw distance.

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD FOR PANZER DRAGOON SAGA'S STORY. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.











However, in a surprising twist, the draw distance actually helps drive home this feeling of uncertainty that the atmosphere of Panzer Dragoon Saga demonstrates. The story takes place in a continent where the future of the world is uncertain, subjected to a predetermined fate prescribed to them by Sestren and the Towers. There is no predicting the time when your entire town will be razed to the ground by a wave of sudden monster appearances. The places Edge and his dragon travel to loom with the uncertain threat of an impending monster attack. They can barely see what lies ahead of them, whether it be friend or foe. Where most would be left second-guessing on their decisions, however, they choose to trudge forward regardless.

Ironically, the crippled field of depth in Panzer Dragoon Saga ends up being a perfect representation of not just that theme of uncertainty within the game itself, but its implications towards the circumstances surrounding the game is also just as bizarrely interconnected. Panzer Dragoon Saga was always destined to be released on the Saturn, with developers stating that only the Saturn could emulate the intended atmosphere of the world. Unfortunately, the Saturn was never destined to succeed against the almighty Playstation, and by the year 1998, it was on its dying breath. The Dreamcast was already on its way to take its place, and by the time of Panzer Dragoon Saga’s release, the Saturn’s fate was already sealed. Even then, SEGA’s future in the console market hung in the balance. It was uncertain whether they could weather the storm.

For Team Andromeda, that same feeling of uncertainty lingered in their minds as development progressed. Much like the game they produced, their output was pushed to the absolute limit, and yet I’m certain they knew they were releasing their magnum opus on an obsolete console, which meant that sales profits would be near impossible to achieve. People working on this game were strained, they suffered from mental health issues, a few even died. It’s an extremity that is incredibly rare across all media, and for what? Would Team Andromeda even survive beyond Panzer Dragoon Saga? The future existence of this very team was just as uncertain as the future of the company they worked for.

The motives of the people surrounding Edge throughout his journey of vengeance are just as uncertain. The target of his scorn, Craymen, who betrayed Edge and his mercenary team to retrieve Azel, is revealed to be fighting for what he believe to be a good cause - taking control of a Tower to extinguish a power-hungry and destructive force as well as halting the self-destructive nature of humanity, all while unwittingly becoming the thing he swore to destroy. Vaiman, the eccentric old man from Zoah who earnestly seeks Edge’s help in destroying the Empire’s air force, only aims to manipulate Edge for his own personal gain. Even Gash, Edge’s first friend during his journey, is secretly part of an organisation aiming to use him as a weapon in their plight to free humanity from the shackles of the Towers. Throughout this entire story, Edge, despite having the clearest and sincerest motivation of all the characters (to hunt down Craymen as revenge), ends up being the one being controlled.

Despite this, all of these actions are done through Edge’s own volition, his own choice to act. The dragon, despite being the reason why all the senior figures desire to control Edge, ultimately ends up being the one who gives Edge control. Control to travel the continent to fulfill his quest for vengeance. Control of every action in the heat of combat, the choice of how to strike and where to strike. The dragon is what frees Edge from the control of the imperialism placed upon him and society, the freedom of flying symbolising the freedom of choice he is granted. Ultimately, it’s his undying will and the choices he makes that convinces Azel to acknowledge and reconcile with her human side, and give her the choice of free will and agency over her own decisions.

Yet, that’s far from the truth now, isn’t it?

Even from the very beginning, Edge’s fate has always been the biggest point of uncertainty. Did he die when Zastava shot him in the opening cutscene? If so, why is he still alive? Will he still be alive when the journey is over? At the climax of the game, Craymen finally falls - but not at the hands of Edge. Even in his dying breath, he beckons Edge to control his own destiny. However, when Sestren eventually falls, Edge seemingly ends up becoming a martyr to his own cause - by taking control of his own destiny and choosing the path that he ended up taking, he ends up trapped in eternity. The world he saves ends up in environmental turmoil without the sustainment of the Towers, but even with the uncertainty of survival increasing, humanity finally has control of their own destiny, and the freedom of choice.

But this isn’t an effort credited entirely towards him - it is us, the Divine Visitor, the one who controls Edge, who guides him as he and the dragon overcome all the uncertainties that laid ahead, granting the world a choice.

In the real world, where nothing is certain, the only things that are true is the way we take control of our own actions, the choices we make in our lives, and the ideals we believe in.


Final score: 10/10
Focus/Theme: How Panzer Dragoon Saga’s field of depth encapsulates the themes of doubt, control and choice.

Note: This is only shelved because I've had so many emulator troubles up to this point, and the one set up I could figure out to have the gameplay actually functional freezes in just about every cutscene. I desperately want to come back to this once Saturn emulation stabilizes, this game sees a proper rerelease, or I get the patience to just power through even more troubleshooting. But for now with how story-focused this game is, it feels pretty untenable to just not have the cutscenes along with it.

Preamble aside, this game feels like some sort of forbidden relic, and the crunchiness of the Saturn's renderer only adds to that feeling. The game is oozing with artistry that had me kind of floored, with a deceptively deep combat system that sounds like a terrible idea until you really experience even a sliver of what it has to offer. The music is stellar, which makes my need to temporarily shelve this one all the more heartbreaking.

I honestly wish we got more RPGs like this: alien worlds, lean but varied gameplay, and production values that take advantage of their limitations to really push the envelope in terms of presentation and storytelling. Really antsy to figure out a way to finish this one because I can tell it'd easily smash into my top 10 or 20 favorite games ever.

PDS is truly in a league of its own, in a genre I like to refer to as the "arthouse RPG." Much like Shenmue, PDS was an insanely ambitious and forward-thinking game released by Sega as the unintentional swansong for their console at the time, and it still holds up to this day thanks to its bold and unique gameplay and battle system, compelling story, beautiful world and amazing 3D visuals by the Saturn's standards. If you take interest in the Saturn this game is unmissable... unfortunately it's also notoriously rare and INSANELY expensive... but I don't give a shit- pirate it, emulate it, burn it to a CD-R and run it off PseudoSaturn if you have to. You'll never play another RPG quite like it.