Such an anomaly of a game, in retrospect. A 3D on rails shooter on a console that can't really render 3D and has a standard control without a joystick. Now that I think about it, this genre just peaked way before it should, so most of the better remembered ones are stuck on hardware that wasn't made for playing them. These titles should be made today and be like an hour and a half and cost twenty dollars. Just let me fly away in a weird world facing weird shit.
Anyway, Panzer Dragoon looks great despite, and in some way because, the poor hardware it's running in, everything feels like a facsimile of what it is in theory, and the velocity at which you move contributes to this feeling of just watching at the airplane window without glasses (I couldn't recognize my mother face at three meters without glasses). It's great.
It's kinda sad that it never quite reaches its full potential though. The story it's extremely minimal, almost nonexistent, and while this may be by design, I can sense a lack of some sorts. The controls are what you expect and sadly the game gets HARD in some places, harder than it should be, perhaps as a way to lengthen a really short campaign, and doesn't explain the intricacies of the system. Like, it's perfectly doable if you are constantly changing perspectives while shooting. See, this is not as much a game about being precise with your shooting while avoiding hits, a la Star Fox, but rather a game about moving your camera to face enemies that are attacking you from every angle. But here's the catch, you can't move when facing your sides, only when you are facing upfront or your back, so when an enemy escapes your front view, your meant to look to your side, shoot them and when projectiles and whatnot are approaching change your perspective to evade them. Sounds convoluted? It is.
Even having all of these in mind, is hard not to like this. It's much weirder than your average game, and it is so elementary gamey in a hipster way that I enjoy. Movies, for example, have this indie-like language, movies that, while recognizable, felt a certain way. Like you can quickly see when you're watching 'those' kind of movies. Panzer Dragoon is a little like this, when games where mostly not. If anything, that's something to be appreciated.
Anyway, Panzer Dragoon looks great despite, and in some way because, the poor hardware it's running in, everything feels like a facsimile of what it is in theory, and the velocity at which you move contributes to this feeling of just watching at the airplane window without glasses (I couldn't recognize my mother face at three meters without glasses). It's great.
It's kinda sad that it never quite reaches its full potential though. The story it's extremely minimal, almost nonexistent, and while this may be by design, I can sense a lack of some sorts. The controls are what you expect and sadly the game gets HARD in some places, harder than it should be, perhaps as a way to lengthen a really short campaign, and doesn't explain the intricacies of the system. Like, it's perfectly doable if you are constantly changing perspectives while shooting. See, this is not as much a game about being precise with your shooting while avoiding hits, a la Star Fox, but rather a game about moving your camera to face enemies that are attacking you from every angle. But here's the catch, you can't move when facing your sides, only when you are facing upfront or your back, so when an enemy escapes your front view, your meant to look to your side, shoot them and when projectiles and whatnot are approaching change your perspective to evade them. Sounds convoluted? It is.
Even having all of these in mind, is hard not to like this. It's much weirder than your average game, and it is so elementary gamey in a hipster way that I enjoy. Movies, for example, have this indie-like language, movies that, while recognizable, felt a certain way. Like you can quickly see when you're watching 'those' kind of movies. Panzer Dragoon is a little like this, when games where mostly not. If anything, that's something to be appreciated.