I talked a fair bit about Panzer Dragoon in show 27, so it's only fair that I do a post on what is an excellent series.
The first Panzer Dragoon was one of the launch titles for the Sega Saturn, and laid the foundations for the series' style with its unique Panzer language (a mixture of Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian and German with a dash of Japanese), distintive art direction, and haunting music. French artist Moebius contributed to the design process by providing original artwork which was also used in the Japanese edition's cover art (which I've also used to illustrate this post).
A sequel arrived in the shape of Panzer Dragoon Zwei. Story-wise, this was a prequel to the original Panzer Dragoon. The next game in the series, Panzer Dragoon Saga, was an RPG instead of an on-rails shooter. Saga was released on 4 dics towards the end of the Saturn's short life span, and therefore didn't get the attention it rightly deserved. It has since become highly sought after and goes for stupid prices on eBay.
All was quiet on the Panzer Dragoon front after the death of the Saturn. The series' developers, Team Andromeda, split up and re-formed in various new Sega development teams, most notably Smilebit (the guys behind the awesome Jet Set Radio series). It took 5 years for the next Panzer Dragoon game to make an appearance on the Xbox. Panzer Dragoon Orta took the series back to its on-rails roots but continued the plot from the previous games and retained the trademark art direction.
I have to admit, I wasn't a huge fan of the first two Panzer Dragoon titles. I'm not fantastic at on-rail shooters, but I enjoyed the games for their sheer style and charm. Panzer Dragoon Saga, however, remains one of my favourite RPGs ever, and its atmospheric soundtrack always brings back fond memories of the time I've spent in the game. The graphics are obviously dated by today's standards, but the game remains incredibly playable, and the consistency of the art and music direction over the years is incredible, considering some video game developers barely think of such things, let alone pull it off. Team Andromeda and Smilebit desrve a lot of respect for creating such a detailed, unique, and immersive world.
So what now for the Panzer Dragoon series? Smilebit has been merged back into Sega, so the staff are still around, but apart from having the original Panzer Dragoon as an unlockable extra in Orta, there has been very little activity. Hopefully, the original Saturn games will become available to download through Xbox Live or the Wii's Virtual Console, otherwise my faith in this being the Golden Age of Videogames will be diminished. In the meantime, there's always emulators, eh?
More from the net
Lagi - The art of Panzer Dragoon (an excellent fan site with a plethora of artwork from all games and more)
The Will of the Ancients (recommended for its extensive secrets section).
Panzer Dragoon Orta official website (not much here, but it's still going after 4 years, which is impressive)
More from Wikipedia
Panzer Dragoon
Panzer Dragoon Zwei
Panzer Dragoon Saga
Panzer Dragoon Orta
The Panzer Dragoon series
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