After completing Panzer Dragoon Saga, I had reservations about how this game would continue the story. I think Saga had as good of an ending as it gets. It ties the first two games into itself so elegantly. It also introduces some wild and cool concepts into the universe that recontextualize the whole thing. I really loved how hopeful yet sad it was. You and Edge save the world, but Azel is left wandering in search of the person who loved her and made her understand her humanity. It was left open, but it wasnt something I really needed answers for. Unfortunately, upon finishing Panzer Dragoon Orta, my worries were realized.

Panzer Dragoon Orta's narrative is easily the most disappointing part of it. It continues the story in the most boring way possible. The empire messes with ancient technology, they make new weapons, you have to take down a tower, and there is a rival dragon that you fight along the way. Saga left things open for big change and the game does none of that really. Some of the aesthetics are different, but its the same kind of thing. It felt like the journey that Edge and Azel went through was for nothing. Even beyond that, the new ideas are just not that interesting. Orta is such a boring character. I think they were trying to do like the silent protagonist mixed with the more active roles in Saga, but she just doesnt have any of the drive that the other characters do. She seems to move around aimlessly and the chain of events all feel really vague. The villain seems kind interesting at first, but his motivations end up being really boring. The friends she meets are really annoying and dont do much either. Orta being Azels daughter is really uninspired and pointless to me. I thought exploring the Sestern in a rail shooter context was really cool and probably the highlight of the whole thing, but it didnt really last. I dislike how each level has an opening monologue, I wish it took more of a hands off approach. The games writing isnt great overall in my opinion, and I was left just kinda scratching my head afterward.

I wanted to like the gameplay more than I did, but I was left annyoed. This could just be me being bad at the game and not taking the time to really learn it like other people probably did. It has a lot of great ideas, taking the form change and box system of Saga and injecting it into the rail shooter gameplay. Having three dragon types as well as level ups, boosts, breaks and control over the direction you face the boss makes the game feel incredibly technical and execution heavy. I havent seen rail shooter give this kind of control over the pace to the player before. With this alone, I understand why people really love the gameplay. But I did end up having some issues with it that held me back from really liking it. I think the systems are clunky. Shifting dragon types is weird and the game expects you do it in quick succession most of the time. The boosting and breaking system makes certain enemy attacks really hard to predict. Sometimes you are supposed to boost away or break behind enemies, but the game doesnt really make this clear at all. It lead to multiple deaths where I just didnt understand what I was supposed to do. This makes the box system in the boss fights really confusing since it uses the break button to go backwards and the boost button to go forward. I would have much prefered if the dpad was used like in Saga. I think the absolute worst part of it all is that the bosses take FOREVER. The game seems inspired by Treasure Games because it ends up feeling like a boss rush at times with multiple layered phases. Some of them are really excellent, I really enjoyed the last two bosses in particular. But most of them just go on for so long with little way to bring the pace up. They are also really challenging, so when you die, having to start all the way back from an (at least) five minute boss fight in a rail shooter is kind of exhausting. I do find this game interesting, but it just doesnt really have the simple arcade appeal of the first game, or the well rounded ideas and pacing of the second. Its a bit messy.

I think this game is a great example of the franchise problem. When one team makes a rather complete set of games on a console and then it finally comes back, it puts the franchise in a tight spot. You could build off of the incredible intrigue of Saga and really open up the worlds potential, but then there is the danger of it not feeling like Panzer Dragoon. So now we are just back to the same old stuff, just prettier and more technical. And while I can appreciate the tough as nails gameplay and all the systems that come with it, it felt a bit disappointing as a fan of the Saturn trilogy. The music is really good at least.