Almost every series at some point has 'that game', the black sheep, the bad one. Sure there are exceptions in some cases but it's statistically likely. Sure enough Panzer Dragoon is not exempt from this with Panzer Dragoon Mini, a spin off game on the Sega Game Gear. there are often a variety of reasons for this, rushed out by publisher's staff turn over the years not to mention game development is just hard and things just don't always work out.

In this case though it could be down to two reasons that I can establish. Firstly it was outsourced to a team called Rit's who I can find little info on but worked a lot with Sega and secondly trying to move the on rails 3D shooter from the Sega Saturn to the limited power of a Sega Game Gear which must have been an extreme challenge. The idea alone is pretty brave to be fair and there just wasn't going to be a way for it to work without immense compromise but even then the result here is barebones at absolute best, a completely unfinished prototype at worst.

That isn't to say everything here is bad, I think the actual scrolling effect of the ground underneath your dragon is reasonably decent and the game uses a nice effect on bosses to rotate quadrants mimicking it's bigger brothers and sisters to engage enemies in side and front views. It's a really nice implementation that makes it feels like a Panzer Dragoon game.

Sadly those are the only positives. That implementation is limited to bosses only rather than through the levels as you fight enemies and everything else is just awful. The levels are completely bereft of art or personality. The bottom of the screen are scrolling strips that change colour between levels and the top half are static backgrounds. Nothing ever moves in the level though, no obstacles to avoid, no scenery, nothing the world is empty and lifeless except for the three enemy types that come at you. It's a barren experience that may be due to technical limitations with the scrolling but it makes the game feel incomplete.

The actual gameplay isn't better with the dragon moving only on the bottom half of the screen with the reticule locked a certain distance above him to only hit enemies on the top of the screen. The dragon has no rider and only two attacks. A rapid shot and a homing attack. The rapid attack is so slow that the bullets don't hit where the reticule is so if you aim at an enemy you are likely to miss. The homing attack just kills them in one shot though so there is no point. In bosses it's the reverse where trying to find a lock on point to home in on some of them is more effort and aiming at them due to their size with the rapid shot is just way easier.

The levels are normally a few seconds followed by a mid boss, a few seconds followed by a level boss. There are 5 stages, they are all the same, they all look the same, the enemies are the same, there is no story at any point. This just feels lifeless for a series so known for it's interesting art and world and honestly there just isn't anything fun here. I played this as it was the game missing from the series in my play history and I do like trying the good and the bad. While the story was non existent at the end at least it said:

CONGRATURATIONS!

+ The quadrant rotation effect on the bosses was pretty neat.

- The world is empty.
- The levels are repetitive, short and boring.
- The shots don't hit where the reticule is.
- The Game Gear is capable of so much more.

One of the things I love about backloggd is finding out about different games I've never heard of. Whenever I have some spare time I scroll through the reviews here to see peoples thoughts on various games and have expanded my wishlist and backlog from other peoples experiences. Shin Megami Tensei: Syncronicity Prologue is one such title I saw someone had played. I initially thought is was some mobile game which is why I didn't know about it until looking further and finding out it was a Japanese only release Metroidvania set in the Shin Megami Tensei Universe. First launched as a free title for a limited time to promote the release of Strange Journey it has of course been patched by fans in English to be fully playable since.

The game's cover does what it says on the tin staring both Jack Frost and Pyro Jack. Both of them are after Black Frost who seems to have gone a bit mad. The story is fairly threadbare with a lot of the bosses across the game's 5 stages mostly laughing at you for trying to chase Black Frost when you are weak demons as the main plot point. There is a little more running in the background which I presume ties into Strange Journey I won't spoil with a true ending available for collecting all the collectables.

The game is fairly short at 2-3 hours which is to be expected for a free promo release but the gameplay aspect is fun. Taking Frost and Pyros elements as key aspects of the gameplay as you can swap characters on the fly to deal fire or ice damage as well as defend against it due to their immunities. Use Frost to take the hit of an incoming ice attack not only defends against all damage but also then charges the characters MP to allow for more magic attacks of various elements against their weakness. It fits thematically with the Shin Megami Tensei turn press system but is also fun mechanically. It's also a system the developer Team Ladybug would expand on in a later title of theirs I have played, Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth.

As far as it being a Metroidvania goes though it's extremely basic with only a couple of abilities to open up areas to traverse as the map is very small and they are collected early on. I'd hesitate to call it a true Medroidvania, maybe a Metroidvania-lite. One of the stages does do some neat things with switches and floors disappearing and reappearing to make it feel less like a basic corridor run though. The visuals for these stages and the characters are really good. Team Ladybug is known for their excellent sprite work and though only their second game at time of release it really shows with great animations, details and colour. It's not the best looking title I've ever seen but it's still enjoyable aesthetically and has a good little soundtrack to go with it.

Overall this is a fun little spin off title you can beat in an afternoon and was a pretty cool promo idea. The developer would take this and go on to greater heights making more Metroidvanias so being able to see some of their early work is always a fascinating experience for me. If this game has taught me anything however it's that I would love a bigger more fleshed out Metroidvania experience based on Shin Megami Tensei.

Recommended. Hee-ho!

+ High Quality for a free promo game.
+ Nice sprite work and excellent music including some series remixes.
+ Nice to see some of Team Ladybug's earlier work having only played one other title of theirs so far that clearly built on mechanics here.

In around 1999 - 2000 for a while I had quit gaming, the only time in my life I ever did. The Sega Saturn had been discontinued at that point and I was a young adult finding interests in other things as you do at that age. Around 6 months after that a friend of mine was going on holiday and randomly dropped his PlayStation at my house with a handful of games unannounced for me to play while he was away. To this day I don't know why he did it, I didn't ask, he never said. In the pile of games was a game called Final Fantasy VIII. Never played it before, hadn't really kept up with gaming news that wasn't Sega related but decided to give it a try, 4 discs, cool description on the back.

Honestly it blew me away. It might seem outdated now but I can't begin to explain How impressive the opening CGI was at the time. The art direction, the music, the atmosphere. This was the coolest thing I'd ever played. There wasn't a thing about it I didn't like. The set up, the guardian force animations and spectacle, the junction system, not to mention how obsessed I became with Triple Triad trying to get all the cards. (The internet was less easily accessible for me back then so I used the book strategy guide, which I recall being wrong about how to get some of them.) I bought playing cards, imported the soundtrack on CD and even bought figurines of Quistis and Rinoa which I still have proudly displayed on my shelf from 25 years ago.

Replaying the HD version of this game when SquareEnix released it again in 2019 only served to remind me of how much I like it. Yes there is nostalgia in the feeling but all the qualities of this game for pushing storylines, art, atmosphere and mechanics are all still there. There are some games that are hard to describe for me why I love them so much. It's like a feeling of all the ingredients coming together to form something that tastes amazing. Final Fantasy VIII is just one of those games. People say it's flawed, they point out their issues with it and I can even agree with a lot of their points but I just don't care. This game just brings me joy like a little warmth in my core.

It's the game that got me back into gaming and will always be perfect to me, flaws and all.