A great rail shooter with mastercraft art direction that plays perfectly to the Saturn's strengths and weaknesses. Unfortunately, it's held back by how unforgiving its health bar and limited continue system is. Have a level select code or save states on hand for this one.

I know some people dislike this game for being too basic and archaic but I think that's kind of the point? It's this experimental first attempt at 3D about dragon soldiers in desolate wastelands, I don't know why people go into this expecting a more modernist, contemporary approach to game design

REVIEW OF REMAKE
Kid Icarus: Uprising is my favorite game of all time. It is also a game that may never get a sequel, and maybe not even a Switch port. The worst part is, its such a unique specimen, there aren't even any "Uprising clones" that have been made since, at least to my knowledge. It took a while for Dark Souls to get a series of clones and now even Breath of the Wild is seeing duplicates start to crop up. So until an Uprising clone can come out in the future, I'm going back to the past to play as many Uprising-like rail shooters as I can.

Panzer Dragoon has always been on my radar since I started searching for Uprising-likes and I always thought it looked like a cool fantasy alternative to Star Fox. And to its credit, it has a pretty cool aesthetic. It's like Nausicaa meets Skies of Arcadia with a touch of sci-fi. Flying from desert canyons to lush green forests to a dimly-lit underground facility to a military city floating on the sea keeps things interesting. The gameplay, while straightforward, is pretty good, too. You point and shoot or hold the fire button to lock on and fire a homing attack. Girls und Panzer Dragoon's big gimmick is four-direction shooting. Your dragon will always fly forward, but you can turn yourself around to shoot enemies and projectiles that come at you from the left, right, or behind. Two downsides to this, though. One, your reticle moves with your dragon, so in order to shoot at things, sometimes you need to put yourself in their line of fire, resulting in you getting hit. Two, not being able to move your dragon when not facing forward makes getting hit a common occurrence, especially on the rare occasion when enemies are shooting from two sides at once. Thankfully, your dragon is made out of Elon Musk polygon cyber car. I played on normal and ate all kinds of shit yet only died once because running into obstacles hurts you more than projectiles.

The story has a neat premise but the opening cutscene drags for way too long and the story is more an excuse to take us from one cool landscape to the next. Loading times are the biggest problem with this remake. I don't know how it was on the Saturn and other consoles, but on Switch, it would take at least 30 seconds for a level to load, and even then, some of the lighting and shadow effects are wonky. Also imagine my surprise when I found out this game is only one hour long. Yeah you can replay it on harder difficulties and with a bevy of new cheats, but there's no real reason to outside of increasing your shot-down ratio. Music is entirely unmemorable; point a gun at my head and I couldn't remember a thing.

While a decent time, Panzer Dragoon is not worth $25 on modern systems. If you're interested, I'd say wait for a sale of around $10. I heard the sequels are more in-depth and that the same guys behind the remake are doing Zwei this year, so hopefully it goes over better.

A very short, pretty cool rail shooter. The 3D saturn graphics have a neat look to them and the stages are atmospheric. The soundtrack is also pretty good but it can be hard to hear over all the shooting. The story is simple and not very interesting and the intro cutscene goes on for too long but the dragon and rider designs are neat. The gameplay is pretty standard fare for a rail shooter, though it's cool that you can rotate 360 degrees at all times. I'm never a fan of movement being tied to aim but it's only really an issue in the tighter spaces. I don't really have a problem with the length since I didn't pay for it but I do feel they ramped up the difficulty to compensate for it and that can get annoying.

Panzer Dragoon has an amazing aesthetic that I've always admired from a distance as someone who didn't grow up with Sega consoles. However, after playing it I think I'll continue to admire it from a distance, because something about playing it makes me feel legitimately nauseous. I think it's the combination of the speed, the constant switching between first and third person camera, and the texture warping that combines in a perfect storm to just make me feel like shit after playing it for 10 minutes.

Panzer Dragoon aims to impress. It's hard not be awed as you start the game and find yourself on top of a dragon flying over the ruins of an ancient Rome looking city scattered across an ocean of pristine blue water while a beautiful orchestral track plays in the background. For a launch title, Panzer Dragoon represented the promise of what the Sega Saturn could accomplish, and how it wouldn't stay behind the likes of the PS1 and the N64 in the leap to the 3rd dimension.

Panzer Dragoon represents an awkward transition period for SEGA, when the arcade experience was rapidly being ditched on the home console market for more contemplative and slow paced videogames that didn't focuse excusively on challenging the players.
Nintendo in that department was already ahead of SEGA, having it's most prestigious selection of games on SNES be works such as FFVI, Chrono Trigger, Super Metroid and Link to the Past, while the SEGA Megadrive/Genesis was still marketing itself to the arcade audience for most of it's lifespan.

And for me that's where the charm lies in Panzer Dragoon. Panzer Dragoon is a rail shooter, following the footsteps of many of it's arcade predecessors, and it doesn't really try to innovate on the shooter genre in any meaningful way. What elevates it above those previous arcade games, is the presentation that covers the core gameplay. Despite the poor 3D capabilities of the Saturn, the dev team managed to squeeze enough juice from it to give Panzer Dragoon it's epic scale aesthetic, having you fly vast landscapes filled with diverse ships and monsters as you watch your dragon flap his wings with detailed animation and constantly change perspectives to shoot what's around you.

There's also a much bigger effort in trying to contextualize the gameplay through the story. With a unique aesthetic influenced by Moebius, worldbuilding that grounds the story in some sense of realism, a much more grandiose soundtrack, and FMV cutscenes that bookend the game, Panzer Dragoon put's itself into the hands of the player as a more serious videogame than the cartoony ones SEGA was known for.

Despite all this, Panzer Dragoon doesn't come across as a pretentious artsy game, it feels rather humble, actually. With every stage lasting around 5 minutes, you can beat this game in less than 2 hours if you know how everything will play out. The sequels would later on increase the scope of the series, but as it's stands, Panzer Dragoon was a great beginning to an era that unfortunately never got a chance to happen. Maybe in another timeline the Sega Saturn won the console war and Panzer Dragoon games are still a thing.

Turns out, arcade design and pacing makes for a pretty damn compelling concept album mood piece. Who knew?

For years, Panzer Dragoon has existed in a part of mind labelled "love this series, love to finally play it someday" thanks to the evocative art and legendary status of titles like Saga and Orta, and now, due to the much-improved state of Saturn emulation, I've finally shed my "Panzer Dragoon Poser" status and become a full-fledged Fan because I was absolutely enthralled by this wonderful little game.

There isn't too much to say on this one, because, frankly, Panzer Dragoon speaks for itself, being a short, sweet, and gorgeously moody rollercoaster ride through a world that is beautifully evocative, like a playable mid-90s anime OVA. The gameplay is simple, but as it turns out, 25 years later, it's still fun to drag a cursor across a bunch of enemies and let loose a volley of lasers. The fact that this kind of game still hasn't changed that much from Panzer is a testament to that.

You can see touches of Naussica, Dune, and, of course, Moebius all over, but the final effect of this swirling melting pot of influences is distinctly this game's own. A post-apocalyptic earth(?) destroyed by a humanity that turned their own myths and legends into weapons, bio-engineered dragons and sandworms, the fiction of humanity carved into it's very ecosystem is one of the all-time best hooks for a videogame setting I've ever seen, and even if Panzer Dragoon doesn't explore it beyond the suggestion, it's thought-provoking enough on the surface that I immediately crave a whole RPG set in this post-pulp world. Good thing they made one, eh?

Honestly, I kind of loved it, for what it was, and I can't tell you how excited I am to play Zwei and Saga. A lovely little game to sink into for the hour or so it lasts for.

After a strong feeling of listlessness that prevented me from really playing much new, I pushed myself through an hour of saturn emulation config bullshit to finally kickstart my ass into this series. I did make sure to take a break before starting, lest my frustration with getting everything set up to begin with color any of this experience.

The result? Hmm.
Definitely has the charm of what I guess is somewhere in between tech demo and concept album, and well it has dragons in it so I guess I can't complain too much, but what is here is still an extremely scuffed rail shooter to play.

I don't mean from really a mechanical perspective, although that part is only moderately interesting there, I mean from a visual one. Processing the low resolution obstacles required a lot of squinting from my end and there was so many things that hit me that I couldn't tell what did at first. It's very coarse rough sandpaper to just feel through, with lightly sharp edges. I don't enjoy playing with it, but there's certainly some neat feeling to rub against the sandpaper initially.

In conclusion though, I finished stage 4 where I fought a large mech that had some cool animations, and then I decided that maybe this isn't the game I should be playing to try to get back into things at all, as I'm not feeling an ounce of much satisfaction or fun from this history piece. I don't recommend playing it, personally.

Play it on the Saturn with an original 6-button controller. Turn the lights down, and the sound up for optimal experience. It's time to play the most ambitious rail shooter ever made - not the best - it isn't even the best game in the Panzer Dragoon series, but the one that makes the biggest promise.

Spread across 6 levels and 7 bosses, Panzer Dragoon proudly declares that 3D graphics, large environments, and fast multi-directional gameplay is coming to a CRT screen near you; just....not today. It is a game steeped the traditions of the Genesis and Super Nintendo in that you move forward on rails and shoot stuff with a cursor while moving your avatar to avoid taking damage, but with a graphics engine that manages to declare loudly and proudly that big things are on the horizon.

Each levels is bigger, weirder, and more atmospheric than the last, bolstered by unique enemy designs and the wonderful soundtrack Red Book Audio composed by Yoshitaka Azuma. They also get more difficult as each one builds in speed and projectile density. And yet, as you waltz into that final battle, you may be faced with the realization that it was perhaps a bit too brief. That yearning....will simply lead you back to level 1....again. And again. And again.

One thing that I find unfortunate about the influence of popular games like Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time is this belief that, while there was indeed 3D games before them, these were still the only ones that really mattered. I say that because Panzer Dragoon proved on a console that was as hard to develop on as the Sega Saturn, talented developers could still put out games which showed the value of 3D in a time where Super Mario 64 was still well over a year away. Even without the subtlety of an analog stick, Panzer Dragoon is a shining example of why the 3D revolution was one worth jumping on.

Contrary to what the title of the game may imply, you don’t actually control a dragon. Instead, you very explicitly control a man riding a dragon, and because of that you can feel the consequences of a creature like this. It reacts naturally to sudden movements with phenomenal animations. Seriously, I have no idea how they nailed the visual aspect of the dragon so well! The design and animation is elegant and beautiful but also gritty and down-to-earth. The game wants you to feel the majesty of the creature and the feeling of being whisked away into a grand alien world, while managing to feel grounded enough to where it doesn’t feel like a Disney whimsy adventure; the amazement is only heightened by the feeling that the game won’t pull its punches. And that adventure sure is amazing! I just can’t stress enough how beautiful everything in this game is. From the rippling water of the first stage that stretches as far as the eye can see with immersive reflections to the rough sands shortly after, the game never lets up on the sights and even more so the sounds. Nothing beats actually being there, in the experience of Panzer Dragoon.

The particularly exceptional part is how effortlessly the mechanics weave you through the adventure. All 3 main face buttons will shoot at enemies and lock on to them if you hold down the button. You should know what to expect. The main element that sets Panzer Dragoon apart is the aforementioned tangibility of the dragon and the dynamic way the player switches their view. X, Y, and Z will zoom the camera in and out, and the triggers will cause the player to enter a first-person mode and rotate in the corresponding direction. A lot of rail shooters since have had the player shoot in different directions via a scripted setpiece, but Panzer Dragoon is confident enough in its own level design to permit the greater degree of freedom. It creates a sense of one-ness with the player and the character, which is what I think is truly great about this game. It just isn’t something you can accomplish in 2D games and likely wouldn’t have happened if the game didn’t need to prove its worth over its forebears.

Me arguing with myself about Panzer Dragoon:

"Well... that was pretty awesome."

"Awesome? Uhhh... everything beyond the first level is a mess. You can't track enemies for shit, they're 90%-of-the-time just killing you from off-screen!"

"Yes, but also, you are a guy riding a very cool-looking dragon, and that's sweet."

"So? SO? You can't shoot anything with any confidence because of the wonky-ass perspective. The shooting just feels like guessing! It sucks!"

"But the lock-on laser owns."

"But... wh.... I mean, what about the lack of autofire? You gotta admit your hands felt shitty after mashing your way through that whole thing."

"They did; however, as a counterpoint, there are awesome sandworms in the game that fly over you and it looks very rad."

"FUCK sandworms man! You can't even see all of a single one of them because the draw distance is so shitty. Everything that isn't on top of you just looks like a mess of floating pixel garbage."

"I can see your point. Did you know, though, that they made a language just for this game? That rules."

"Are you... are you stupid? Are you insane? This game is bad! Admit it! It's old and it feels old!"

"I actually think it feels fresh and cool and wish more games were like it."

"You wish more games had INSANELY cheap enemies with hitscan lazers that kill you from off screen? You wish more games had no checkpoints, and no ability to save, so you just have to keep starting over and over and over again?"

"Sort of? Yes?"

"Ahhhhh! No. Goodbye, I can't take this. You didn't even finish it! You quit before you beat the final boss!"

"................also the music is pretty neat."

hater-me explodes into dust particles

panzer dragoon whips into full force from stage one, second one with ridiculously lush visuals and a surprisingly orchestral-arrangement soundtrack that still manage to wow even now. the clear influence this would have on yoko taro, particularly drakengard, was far from lost on me. it's rare for launch window games to manage to so clearly define the aesthetic and technical masterworks of the consoles they're on - unless you're a mario 64 or something, which, reminder - this came before.

i found the stage direction and boss battles particularly enthralling as well, with some really creative designs and patterns that kept me thinking that this could've just as easily fit in arcades in those sit-down machines that move around with the player. typing that out, i really wish that'd been what panzer dragoon remake had been, and that it'd come out during that craze about a decade after this title's release... but i digress.

unfortunately, the only places i feel panzer dragoon show its age in a detrimental manner are in the lock-on functionality - or rather, the cumbersome nature of it - and in its camera. i appreciate the fact that with a mere button press you can shift between over-the-shoudler and neutral third-person views, but the tilting of the camera along with the dragon's movement made perspective difficult to ascertain sometimes, and left me getting hit by obstacles i was absolutely in the clear about and avoiding actively. the consensus seems to be that zwei is a direct improvement on this game, and considering i already enjoy the art direction and fundamental gameplay mechanics of this title more than i do, say, starfox... i expect great things. as for the original, definitely give it a go! it's probably an hour-and-change of your time and a true landmark in gaming history. cannot believe the aspects of this game that hold up do so as well as they do.

Panzer Dragoon may be one of the Sega Saturn's marquee titles, but as far as on-rails shooters go, there's better games out there.

I've probably replayed the first level of this game about a dozen times, but for some reason I never sat down to play through the whole thing until just recently. The lack of commitment is weird for a number of reasons, most of all being that the game is only about an hour long. Assuming you have infinite credits of course, which I shamefully resorted to because this is an arcade-ass arcade game. You start your journey with zero credits to you name and only earn one or two depending on how many enemies you shot down by the end of the level. I wouldn't have much of an issue with that but considering your health doesn't fully recharge and dying sends you back to the very start of a level, it can get a little annoying, especially given how steep the difficulty is in the later stages. Getting that far in a game where the pace is largely preset only to get knocked back to the main menu can be irritating, but thanks to the power of the Action Replay, it's now a non-issue. Oh yes, I'm a dirty little cheater. You can't stop me! I'm scurrying around inside your walls, and I'll slip out at night to apply cheats to your games!!

Difficulty aside, the actual on-rails shooting is alright. You can rotate the camera 360 degrees which is a neat touch, although attacking an enemy at your flanks makes it harder to actually dodge projectiles (most you want to shoot down anyway.) Boss fights are probably my favorite part of the game, a lot of them create a good sense of spectacle and have different gimmicks to take them out.

There's been a lot of love given for Panzer Dragoon's visual design, and I'm right there with everyone else. Moebius did art for the game and you can never go wrong with Moebius, though his visual style can be hard to convey on a 32-bit system. I haven't started up the remake yet but if it remains stylistically faithful, then I'm excited to see what the bump in fidelity does. The story is also pretty good. It's mostly told silently, though there are a few CG cutscenes, including a rather long one that the game opens on. This world is surprisingly well thought out for a game that lasts about 45-60 minutes. Imagine what they could do with an RPG...

There's other games of this type that I find more engaging and smoother to play, but Panzer Dragoon is decent for what it is. I've been told Zwei is a huge step up and Orta is well liked, too. Of course, Saga seems to be the entry everyone goes crazy for, and I'm looking forward to it. The nice thing about the original Panzer Dragoon is that while I may find it to be perfectly average, there's definitely a good foundation and I have total faith that the games following it will be great.