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January 2014: Year of the Saturn Begins with Panzer Dragoon and Panzer Dragoon Zwei
- Thread starter bishopcruz
- Start date
Saga will be a separate thread, right? Because I gotta gush nostalgia about the battle at dusk over Uru. Good lord.
Seeing Panzer Dragoon being played in EB Games on the (surprise!) US launch day is what convinced me to buy the Saturn. I picked it up later that day, with Panzer Dragoon and Bug! (which is totally under rated, huge and hard).
The art and music in PD just connected with me and sparked my imagination like no game had until that time. The universe in PD is still probably my favorite in all of gaming, and that's almost entirely on the back of the art and music. The music to the intro - particularly the opening and this moment - have stayed with me from that moment to present day. Mysterious, powerful, ethereal. Climbing on the dragon and flying into the horizon...my childhood right there. The full OST is one of very few I've imported from Japan.
I probably played through the game 100+ times. It's still brilliant how the score is synced to the action.
Seeing Panzer Dragoon being played in EB Games on the (surprise!) US launch day is what convinced me to buy the Saturn. I picked it up later that day, with Panzer Dragoon and Bug! (which is totally under rated, huge and hard).
The art and music in PD just connected with me and sparked my imagination like no game had until that time. The universe in PD is still probably my favorite in all of gaming, and that's almost entirely on the back of the art and music. The music to the intro - particularly the opening and this moment - have stayed with me from that moment to present day. Mysterious, powerful, ethereal. Climbing on the dragon and flying into the horizon...my childhood right there. The full OST is one of very few I've imported from Japan.
I probably played through the game 100+ times. It's still brilliant how the score is synced to the action.
bishopcruz
Member
bishopcruz
Member
Yeah, Saga will be a different month. That game deserves it's own thread for sure. Cannot wait to replay it.
Yeah the art in this series is just incredible. What amazes me is how they chose an art style that was both unique, and could be represented well by the limited technology of the time. The weird alien looking stuff worked because it didn't have the dissonance of not looking right rendered with the few polygons on screen the Saturn could pull off. Both PD1 and PDZ have moments that are still IMO, gorgeous. I was playing a bit of Zwei last month and a friend of mine who isn't even a gamer was impressed by the graphics, especially for the time. He had no idea a game like this even existed.
PDZ is gonna be replayed by me soon.
IrishNinja
Member
EB given your posts on Phantasy Star, i tend to think we're kinda in tune on these kind've experiences, and again playing through PD 1 recently i can totally see where had i saw an actual demo unit of that (and not the EB one i did with the rush-job of VF) i tend to think i'dve felt similar & had to jump on, certainly by the soon-after price drop anyway. kinda sad i didn't but then getting to experience these things for the first time now & still able to contemporize these things feels pretty unique too.
and please believe, i was trying to push Saga till later this year just to make sure i secure a copy before then...ive got a couple (sort've) offers on the table, really hoping one of em pans out!
he truly was the best of us, & died for our sins~
HueyFreeman
Banned
Thank baby Jesus for people like you OP.
I will dig on this thread so hard. For all the love Saga gets, OG panzer and zwei don't get anywhere near the love they deserve.
I will dig on this thread so hard. For all the love Saga gets, OG panzer and zwei don't get anywhere near the love they deserve.
Yeah. Looking back on the games, it's interesting how the art really comes across when scenes of a greater scale are being used. Whenever the action is confined to smaller areas - the end of the interior ruins on the first mission, for example - the pixelation of the textures shows through and muddies the art style. Then that gets blown away and we get this vast undulating sea and a recognizable yet alien airship with a fantastical style. And it's beautiful, if still rough around the edges.
I vividly remember the Uru fight in Saga as being one of those where the combination of the art and the way the engine was able to handle great scale so well that is created a very striking, epic scene, and one I didn't think was possible on the hardware.
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
I hope so. We can have a nice thread about Panzer Dragoon Saga, all 4 of us who's played it.
Those poor souls...I always enjoy your classic Sega/Saturn-related posts because they are so relatable. <3
had an extra hour of free time finally... gave this game a serious go.
dang freakin died at Stage 4 boss >_<
anywayz I never really played the first PD til now,
as a kid all I had was Zwei which I got from a rental store as they were getting rid of all their Saturn games lol.
I also was never able to beat it ;_;
dang freakin died at Stage 4 boss >_<
anywayz I never really played the first PD til now,
as a kid all I had was Zwei which I got from a rental store as they were getting rid of all their Saturn games lol.
I also was never able to beat it ;_;
IrishNinja
Member
gonna try Zwei again tonight but i don't think i'll beat it by the month's end at this rate...really is a gem though; again i think 1 ages better than some give it credit for but 2 is just a world apart.
bishopcruz
Member
Yeah, hoping to get some time to play Zwei soon, myself. We still have some time though.
Thread got me thinking about how different the soundtracks between the games were, but how both styles worked, somehow. Then I remembered how great Zwei's final boss music was. Played over some good bassy speakers the sound was just HUGE. Which was fitting considering the monstrosity that is the final boss.
Going to at least make an effort to blast through 1. Need to get an earlier start.
Zwei's final boss music is simply epic, absolutely love it. It's so good that they decided to reuse it in Saga.
I've always preferred Zwei's soundtrack over PD1's.
Oh man, I'd forgotten about his return in Saga, how he's awakened. I remember my stomach dropping right into the floor when that music kicked in the first time. Such a great callback; a real "oh crap" moment.
I used to go to the music screen and just blast the track for 20 minutes at a time. Pretty sure I vibrated the whole apartment for a while.
I have a hard time picking a single soundtrack over the other. But I really love the sequence of the opening theme, first mission, and closing credits from the first game. Played as back to back like a suite, it's a really remarkable set of orchestral music and among my favorite game themes.
Nothing on it tops the ending to Zwei, though.
Yep, don't get me wrong, the original PD has some awesome music. I also really like the opening and stage 1 music, too.
Speaking of the opening, I remember watching it for the first time and just couldn't believe what I was seeing. The 7 minute long intro was truly something I hadn't seen before, and the music was a perfect fit. Some amazing CGI (during it's time) that I'll never forget.
UK reporting in,
Nice! 2 copies of PDS!
Just curious - were there a lot of copies made in the UK? I remember my local Electronic Boutique (now known as GameStop, I think?) only received 1 copy. I reserved it very early on and got it like a week after it was released. I called everyday after it launched in the US to see if the game had arrived, even though the fella who worked there promised to call me when it finally came in, which he did.
UK reporting in,
Where do you live? (full address please). I'm not going to rob you or anything... I just need your address for... reasons...
Thanks to my friend lending me his saturn I"ve been having a go at 1 and while it's fun I'm not sure I'll beat it, maybe time to grab zewi and try my hand at that.
Got to admit though it's a pretty cool game overall, while I'm not very good at it I do love how they did the entire on rails mechanics, just being able to look around in 360 really adds to the whole game. Maybe I'll pop it in one last time...
Got to admit though it's a pretty cool game overall, while I'm not very good at it I do love how they did the entire on rails mechanics, just being able to look around in 360 really adds to the whole game. Maybe I'll pop it in one last time...
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
Nice! 2 copies of PDS!
Actually that's one copy; the UK release was packaged in 2 cases.
vagabondarts
Member
I bought a Saturn at the Dawn of the dreamcast /ps2 era just to have these games.
Probably my favorite games on the platform
Probably my favorite games on the platform
Riky
$MSFT
Nice! 2 copies of PDS!
Just curious - were there a lot of copies made in the UK? I remember my local Electronic Boutique (now known as GameStop, I think?) only received 1 copy. I reserved it very early on and got it like a week after it was released. I called everyday after it launched in the US to see if the game had arrived, even though the fella who worked there promised to call me when it finally came in, which he did.
Yeah as said it is one copy as it is four discs two in each box.
I'm pretty sure the Pal print run was only 5000 copies, which explains the prices these days.
IrishNinja
Member
dammit, i dropped the ball here - got my ass whupped on Zwei stage 4 or so and just started playing Albert Odyssey, heh. i totally have to finish this before whenever Saga is though!
speaking of, i should prolly look up what we have on schedule for Feburary & who wants to write that up.
speaking of, i should prolly look up what we have on schedule for Feburary & who wants to write that up.
The ancient weapon in the tunnel? Make sure to watch its hands.
MikeHattsu
Member
Incredibly LTTP, and I've had no time to play any this month, but here's a picture of my Panzer Dragoon games at least.
stephendedalus
Member
Panzer Dragoon Orta works with the Xbox 360 now, for those who want to experience Panzer Dragoon without purchasing a Saturn.
I totally missed the window but I actually did beat Panzer Dragoon, Panzer Dragoon Zwei, and Panzer Dragoon Orta for the first time over the past week. They're all pretty cool games.
The perfect PD game would probably have the soundtrack from the original, the visuals of Zwei, and the mechanics of Orta. It's a shame that everything is so spread out! I'd probably put Zwei on top, ultimately.
The perfect PD game would probably have the soundtrack from the original, the visuals of Zwei, and the mechanics of Orta. It's a shame that everything is so spread out! I'd probably put Zwei on top, ultimately.
IrishNinja
Member
it's never too late man, still the Year of the Saturn over here! i myself still have to finish Zwei before finally playing Saga later this year.
There are more where this came from.
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