Dalton2K5

User Score
9.7

Presentation - 10
Gameplay - 10
Value - 9.0

Panzer Dragoon, when released back in 1995, was one of the most imaginative worlds ever to be concieved in a video game, and still is with Panzer Dragoon Orta. It was one of those sleeper hits for Saturn that never hit the casual game market like it shouldv'e, and in so, not many people got to dive themselves into the magnificent world that the game had in it. Panzer Dragoon 2 Zwei was released a released a year afterwards, and after that, Team Andromeda decided to make a Panzer Dragoon RPG, to really show off the world they have created.
The results were nearly perfect in every possible way.

Panzer Dragoon Saga is far and wide the best Saturn game to exist. Sure, there's nothing completely original in the game that some RPG's haven't seen, but the true thing is that Panzer Dragoon Saga draws you so far into it's world of bionic enemies, wierd mutated creatures, among other things that you've never seen in a way no other game has and might not ever do again in the future. To add to the feeling of being in the post-apocolyptic world of PDS, the battles are original, fast, and great to play through. Yes, there is random battles, but the fact that there's a radar to tell you when there might be a battle coming is something rare in those times, and a welcome feature to this RPG. The Battles always take place on top of the dragon, in which you have a radar, a "berserk meter" that is really a more advanced ATB meter, and the ability to move into one of the sectors of the battle field by merely pressing a button. A radar shows where you are in the battle field, and where it is green means it is safe, blank if you can get moderately hurt, and red in the areas that if you are in the area, you could get brutally hurt. Most enemies have a weak spot on a part of their body that you can find by going through each one of the areas in the battle field, and if your meter is at level 1-3, you can attack it. Well, weak spot or not, you can attack it in level 1-3. When you wait, the meter gradually goes up through all the levels of the meter. Level 1 lets you use items, normal shooting one target, and the option to shoot a good amount at once with the berserk option. Level 2 and 3 lets you use the berserk "spells," if you will, which are more powerful than the normal attack, but use Attack points, or ATB, etc. If you use a move in level 1, then it goes down to zero, if the meter is in level 2, you can use a level 2 move once, or a level 1 move twice, and have to wait for the meter to get up from zero again, and so on and so forth. That part is pretty understandable if you're a RPG buff. How this is worked out is nothing less than perfect, and you'd only understand the big deal if you played it yourself. By the way, you actually do have to go on foot in this Panzer Dragoon game to talk to people and wander around villages. Normal RPG stuff there, good as usual.

The Sega Saturn can't do transparencies! The Sega Saturn can't do reflections in water! It's worthless!
Panzer Dragoon Saga proved all naysayers wrong... too bad it was just too late by the time it came out. PDS is the best looking game for Saturn, with everything that people didn't think the Saturn couldn't do and more. Light sourcing, amazing real-time cutscenes, thousands of polygons a second (or so it seems sometimes), incredibly locales, great FMV sequences... all of it is indeed in Panzer Dragoon Saga. This was just as good as anything else on the market out at the time for Saturn, Playstation, N64, whatever you name, PDS matched it. There is only some slow-down here and there and some pop-up, but that is in all 32-bit games at the time that had to do this much processing at one time. I still think this looks better than Final Fantasy VIII and almost better than Chrono Cross for PSX, if that gives you more of an idea of how good this game is in action.

The sound is nothing short of spectacular, whether it be the music or sound effects. But, what do you expect from the Panzer Dragoon series? The score rivals the best out there when it comes to how well it fits in with the scenery, the cinematography of the music, and just how good the music is in general. Too bad this just isn't as good as the original Panzer Dragoon's score, which is nothing but perfect. But, you can't really argue with 2nd from perfection, right? The sound effects are great as well, with your Dragon's squeling in pain getting to you like almost no other game before it. (I worded that badly, yes.) And the sound effects for firing at enemies is just as good as you'd think they'd be, but most of it is taken from Panzer Dragoon 1 or 2, so there's nothing incredibly new here either. Still, can't complain too much about that.

4 disks = long.
For Final Fantasy VIII and IX maybe.
For Panzer Dragoon Saga, 4 disks = 15 hours. Yes, that is just long enough to really get into the game, but is just short enough to leave you wanting for much more. There's enough variations to your dragon you probably haven't tried out yet though, I'm sure, and the fact that there is always secret items and areas to find, if you haven't found them yet, to keep you going for another play through.

With Team Andromeda, and even Smilebit, who made Panzer Dragoon Orta in 2003, long gone and just a part of gaming history, one begs the question, will there ever be a Panzer Dragoon Saga 2?  Considering the climate of the gaming world, niche games like this don't come around too much or at all, so chances are seriously slim, so if you can get a hold of this decade old gem, and the money for it, it is well worth every penny.

~From my review on Gamespot in 2005, updated slightly.