Panzer Dragoon: The Beginning

Panzer Dragoon. if ever there was a series that was synonymous with the Saturn experience, this is it.

Panzer Dragoon was unleashed on Japanese gamers in March 1995, and was a launch title in both the North American and European territories. It was young SEGA employee Yukio Futatsugi’s first time producing a game, and he wanted a game that was fresh while at the same time harkened to SEGA’s rich arcade-style gameplay heritage. The finished product elicited an interesting reaction. In Japan, Virtua Fighter was ‘the game’ to own in the Saturn’s early days and thus soaked up a lot of the limelight. In the West, that accolade was widely expected to go to Daytona USA, and yet it was Panzer Dragoon that garnered the highest review scores, the most coverage, and generally, was hailed as the best of the initial batch of Saturn games. Providing the clearest glimpse of what the 32-bit generation of SEGA gaming would usher in, Panzer Dragoon became the western Saturn’s first standard-bearer.

This game holds a very special place in my (Peter) Saturn heart – essentially, it was THE game that hooked me into purchasing SEGA’s black beauty. The fact is that I was initially a Genesis fan and it was thanks to Sonic the Hedgehog that I became a staunch SEGA loyalist. When news of the Saturn broke, acquiring it was a no-brainer for me – PlayStation be damned. There was a slight hitch however: as a young teen, cash flow was a problem, and SEGA wasn’t exactly giving Saturns away.

Nevertheless, I devoured everything I could in the gaming press as the Saturn launched. The console had an air of sophistication to it – it was sleek, it was sexy, and it outclassed – superseded, really – the mighty Genesis that I so adored. The game that captured my attention at the time was, of course, Panzer Dragoon. The magazine screenshots in the journals of the time looked so surreal – a stylish mix of sci-fi and fantasy unlike anything I’d ever seen before. Still, buying the console was out of my financial reach for the moment… But I could always rent!

Indeed, I rented the machine along with Panzer Dragoon and Virtua Fighter 2 that very winter. Truth be told, it was Panzer Dragoon that occupied 95% of my Saturn rental time. The game left me spellbound – to me, this was absolutely the next level in SEGA excellence.

It’s not hard to see why. Although dated compared to later Saturn releases, the game took a giant leap forward with several aspects of the SEGA gaming experience. At first boot, the FMV sequence that plays is unlike anything seen on prior consoles. Team Andromeda became famous for their excellent FMV sequences, and whilst of course they look primitive now, one can’t deny the historical impact they had. Further, these sequences are done expertly from a cinematic perspective. Seeing them, I wanted to know what that giant airship was doing in the canyon. I wanted to know why the two dragons were locked in combat in the air. And the memory sequence that the dragon rider transferred to Keil as he died was mesmerizing. What is this mysterious tower, and what danger does it represent? No videogame had ever grabbed my attention in this manner before.

Playing the game immediately reminded me of the Space Harrier experience, albeit with several improvements. For starters, the use of polygons lent the game a polished look not found in the more cartoon-y sprite scaling affairs of years past. The undulating waters, the (faked) reflections of the columns and archways, the waves rising and crashing into half-submerged walls completely blew me away. Gameplay-wise, I had to get used to rotating my perspective – this was a first in gaming for me. This was an incredibly effective way in conveying that sensational feeling of freedom to what is essentially an extremely movement-restricted game. 

The final aspect that sold me on the power of the Saturn – and definitely my most powerful first impression – was the spectacular soundtrack. Hearing the trumpets, the synth, the violins, the bass… This was light years ahead of what was possible on the humble Genesis. Being a rail shooter afforded Team Andromeda the luxury to commission a soundtrack timed to on-screen action, and in several places in the game this was used to devastating effect. This was immediately felt in the first episode: the score changed from loud and epic to quiet and subtle when transitioning from the open water environment to inside the domed temple. Emerging from the cave in the desert of Episode 2 had a similar, adrenaline-pumping effect. Absolutely stunning.

It was a sad Sunday evening when I had to return my rental to Blockbuster (R.I.P.), but there was absolutely no question in my mind as to what needed to happen next. By hook or by crook, I had to get a SEGA Saturn!

Being a 14 year old, I weighed my employment options, and settled on taking on a huge 330 house flyer route. Twice a week, I’d have stacks of flyers delivered to my parents’ doorstep, and I’d spend hours sorting and bundling. Then came hours of delivery. Doing the job Saturdays wasn’t half bad, but the after-school Thursday evenings were killer. It being a particularly cold Canadian winter didn’t help matters. By the time I had my flyers all sorted and collated, it was always dark out, yet out I went. No amount of dark or cold or snow could stop me, however. Anytime I started to slow down or to lose focus, all I had to do was think of the armored blue dragon.

In the first few months of 1996, Panzer Dragoon Zwei released, and the original Panzer Dragoon dropped in price. Still being quite far from being able to purchase my Saturn, I snapped up a copy of the game. Yes, there were countless times I’d pour over the stylish manual, but more importantly, and to my delight, the soundtrack on the game disc was redbook audio! I could pop it into my CD player / Discman and listen away!

The score is the handiwork of Japanese composer Yoshitaka Azuma. Azuma (deceased 2012) was mostly known for his 80s electronic and new age instrumental output, and for scoring a variety of TV shows for the NHK (Nippon Broadcasting System). Like Futatsugi-san, he was relatively fresh to the video game scene, and Panzer Dragoon remains his only full videogame score. He wrote the music after gameplay had been largely completed, and was thus able to match it to on-screen action.  His blend of layers upon layers of synthesizer sound coupled with full orchestration for no less than three of the game’s tracks was ground-breaking upon release, and still sounds spectacular today. For those interested, Data Discs have released the original soundtrack on vinyl a few years back. It still stands out as a very unique score in the pantheon of SEGA soundtracks.

For months I would listen to the soundtrack and my imagination would fly around in the world of Panzer Dragoon. It wasn’t until November of 1996 that I had finally scraped together enough cash to finally purchase my very first SEGA Saturn. The machine came bundled with SEGA Rally Championship, and as excellent as this game is, it was Panzer Dragoon that commanded a huge amount of my time during my first few months as a proud new Saturn owner.

For those of you who have never experienced it, the game is your standard rail shooter that plays like an evolution of Space Harrier. Your armoured blue dragon knows the way to the Tower, and follows a pre-determined flight path over which you have only positional control within the confines of the game screen. You play the role of Keil Fluge – unnamed in the Western versions of the game – and form a bond with the dragon immediately following the death of the original dragon rider. Following the intense memory transfer between the original dragon rider and Keil, you pick up the fallen’s powerful gun, mount the dragon, and the adventure of chasing down the Dark Dragon begins.

The game is set over seven episodes ranging from open areas such as the desert and overtop a forest canopy, to working through an imperial military-industrial complex and even through a system of ancient tunnels. Your journey culminates in you screaming through the imperial capital in hot pursuit of the Dark Dragon before the final confrontation at the Tower. Some of these locales eventually receive names in future Panzer installments, however there is something very abstract and alluring to their namelessness when considering the first game as a stand-alone title. One of the aspects that Futatsugi got absolutely right was the minimalist approach to story exposition: you are only ever given snippets, often through the eyes of Keil only, and there are always just enough elements to make you wonder about the greater story happening all around you. The fictional, Teutonic language employed thru ought the adventure – Futatsugi is partial to linguistics – adds to the mythic feeling the game weaves. ‘Mythological’ is perhaps the best way to describe the story of Panzer Dragoon: through Keil, you are party to a small yet important role in a much grander fable. The weight of the struggle between the Empire and other warring nations is almost palatable, even though you aren’t exposed to much of why it exists. You feel the burden and the hardship of surviving in a world fallen into ruin even though you don’t understand exactly what led to civilisation’s decline. Most importantly, you understand the urgency of your quest to stop the Dark Dragon from reaching the Tower, even though you have no idea who the Dark Dragon, or what the Tower, are.

The music lends a dramatic – at times epic, at times subtle – air to the game, but the set-pieces seal the deal. The feeling of looking behind you in the desert and dispatching small flying enemies, only to witness a gargantuan sand worm burst through and leap at you is unlike anything ever experienced in 16-bit. Likewise, emerging from the dark caves into the merciless desert sunlight is another triumph in mood-setting. There are many such moments in the game: seeing the giant battleship boss at the end of Episode 5 crash and tumble out of control once you have defeated it, or the dramatic chase sequence through the sometimes narrow alleys of the imperial capital, is absolutely breathtaking. Despite the textures looking rough by today’s standards, the sheer scope and grandeur of what was realized in these scenes coupled with the excellent soundtrack give the game a timeless quality that still manages to make one’s adrenaline pump and imagination soar.

Dispatching enemies is accomplished either by firing Keil’s gun via pressing the fire button, or by holding the same fire button down and moving the reticle over enemies to achieve a lock. Releasing the fire button after successful lock-ons triggers the dragon’s homing lasers. Both attacks inflict the same amount of damage, with the gun being quicker but more difficult to land a successful shot. That said, there are definitely instances where using one weapon makes more sense over the other. In the desert, the worms spit a green acid at you which can actually be shot down with the gun, but cannot be locked on, whilst the boss of Episode 4 is impervious to lock-on attacks, and so on.

The shooting action, coupled with shifting perspectives to engage enemies from all sides, sums up the entirety of the gameplay. Extremely simple to pick up; exceedingly difficult to master. Futatsugi himself has stated years after the release of the game that one aspect he would like to change is the high difficulty. Still, whilst novice players will aim to conclude the game in one piece, veterans will want to reach a point where a 100% shot-down ratio is achieved in each episode. This is the true challenge of Panzer Dragoon: it is perhaps reasonable, with practice, to achieve a 100% shot-down ratio through the first three Episodes, but once you enter the system of tunnels in Episode 4 and at all points afterwards, you have to be very quick to gun everything down. You are awarded continues (essentially, lives) at the conclusion of each episode should your shot-down ratio hit at least 85%. At the end of the adventure, your overall shot-down ratio is displayed and you are given a ranking. The game does not employ a save file, so best rankings and shot ratios are never saved, but honestly, this is OK. The game is short enough that saving progress is not needed.

Once the game is complete, another FMV sequence plays out which raises even more questions about the world of Panzer Dragoon and we are treated to some beautiful paintings during the end credits. This is the genius of Futatsugi’s first Saturn effort, really: the gameplay is tried and true but takes full advantage of everything new that the Saturn offers over the Genesis. Spectacular soundtrack, cinematic, ever-shifting perspectives, excellent FMV sequences, and superb presentation all wrapped up in a stylish package. Couple that with the fictional language and the engaging storyline that is fed to us in drips – heck, even the paintings in the end credits add to the ethos of the world the player is invited into – and we have an instant Saturn classic.

One last aspect of the game to expound upon is the presentation. The game has a very high-production value quality to it, and this shines through in both the opening story – snippets of text followed by the stunning FMV – as well as the attractive menu screen and the end credits. An excellent blend of cinematic presentation and mythological exposition. Most very early Saturn titles suffered from very basic presentation, helping Panzer Dragoon stand out even more. 

Panzer Dragoon would go on to be supplanted by Panzer Dragoon Zwei which improved on its’ predecessor in nearly every way, but there is no denying that it was a milestone in the Saturn gaming landscape. If you haven’t played it, you owe it to yourself to do so, whether in its’ original Saturn form or in the forthcoming Remake.

Shiro challenges! This is a fairly straightforward game, so not many surprises here:

• The obvious one: complete the game with a 100% shot down ratio in each episode. Hard, hard task.
• Complete the game on the three difficulty settings to access various goodies tucked away in the game.
• Give the soundtrack a listen. It really does stand out!

Boxout: Secret, secret, I’ve got a secret!

Panzer Dragoon features a healthy amount of secret modes, options and features. Some of these are revealed upon completing the game on the various difficulty levels, whilst others  are only activated via code input. Here they all are:

• Episode Select as you’d expect, a level select code. Enter up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, X, Y, Z at the main menu to access it.
• Scenic Mode this is your invincibility code. Play through the game impervious to damage by entering L, L, R, R, up, down, left, right at the main menu.
• Rolling Mode in the game, when your health is so low that your health bar flashes, you can perform a rolling attack. Double-tapping a diagonal direction on the D-pad causes the double-roll, and while the dragon rolls, every enemy is auto-targeted. This is a very powerful move. The Rolling Mode code activates this feature to be used no matter the status of your health. Enter up, right, down, left (x3) followed by up to activate it. Alternately, just roll your D-pad 3 times clockwise.
• Wizard Mode this causes the game to run much faster. As development progressed, Team Andromeda was able to optimize the framerate up, but by then, the musical score was completed. Playing Wizard Mode means the music will be out of sync with the game, but you get to experience Panzer Dragoon running at a noticeably smoother 30 FPS instead of the standard 20! Impractical to play in because what has happened to provide this framerate increase is essentially an increase in speed, but really cool to see the game running so smoothly. Enter L, R, L, R, up, down, up, down, left, right at the main menu.
• Episode 0 this is a secret episode, non-canon with the story. Essentially a target practice session, you ride in an endless sky with a health meter that continuously depletes. The only way to boost it back up is to shoot down enemies. Thus, this episode can be over very quickly, or can last a fair time, depending on the skill of the player. A score is also kept. Enter the mysterious Episode 0 by keying in up, up, up, down, down, down, left, right, left, right, left, right, L, R at the main menu.
• Space Harrier Mode play as only Keil, without the dragon! In the Saturn’s dashboard, set the console’s language to German (strange, I know), then launch the game. At the main menu, enter up, X, right, X, down, X, left, X, up, Y, Z. PS – Harrier Mode is not the official name of this cheat but it is not hard to see where the nickname came from 🙂
• Dragon Only Mode finish the game on Easy mode with a 100% shot down ratio and the ability to input the code to play as just the dragon becomes available.  The code, to be input at the main menu once Easy mode is 100% completed, is left, left, right, right, up, down, up, down, L, R.
• Extra guns and homing lasers are available to Keil once the game is completed on Normal mode (guns) or Hard mode without dying even once (lasers). The guns offer a rapid-fire or heavy damage features, whilst the lasers are slightly faster and are of different color. To select them, hold down either Y or Z for the guns, or B or C for the lasers as each episode is loading. If you had finished the game in both modes, it is possible to activate a new gun and new lasers simultaneously. These new weapons aid greatly in achieving a 100% shot-down score.
• View the Game Ending by pressing up, up, down, up, right, right, left, right, down, down, up, down, left, left, right, left at the main menu.
• View ‘Hard Mode’ ending message by pressing up, up, down, up, left, left, right, left, down, down, up, down, right, right, left, right at the main menu (basically, a reversal of the above code).
• Finally, the Master Code. Some of the above are pure cheats which must be entered via a code, and some are unlockables. Don’t have time to unlock everything? Then enter this master code to be able to then activate any features you would normally have to unlock. If there would be one use for a small save file for Panzer Dragoon, it would be to keep track of the unlockables! Still, the master code is up, X, right, Y, down, Z, left, Y, up, X at the main menu.

Feature: Inspirations for Panzer Dragoon

Panzer Dragoon was inspired by several other works, some more prominently than others. Here is a list of all the known, disclosed influences for Panzer Dragoon:

• Arzach, comic by French artist Moebius (Jean Giraud). A quadrilogy of comics initially published in 1975, it is a wordless adventure through a dream-like world. Moebius was commissioned to produce the cover art for the Japanese release of Panzer Dragoon, as well as several other pieces used by Team Andromeda. The resemblance between Panzer Dragoon and Arzach is quite pronounced.
• Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind is a Japanese manga by Hayao Mizayaki of Studio Ghibli fame. Set in a post apocalyptic world, Nausicaa is a princess embroiled in a war between nations whilst an environmental disaster looms.
• Hothouse, a 1962 sci-fi novel authored by Brian Aldiss, about the Earth becoming tidally locked with the sun. With the increased sunlight on half of the globe, plant life on Earth has taken over, become omnivorous, and has driven most animals and insects to extinction. Humanity is but a shadow of what it once was and must struggle to survive. The novel was re-named The Long Afternoon of Earth for North America.
• Dune, the 1984 movie based on the novel by Frank Herbert about the desolate planet Arrakis. Despite being a wasteland, Arrakis is highly prized as it is able to grow the valuable Spice. Like Panzer Dragoon, Dune is also receiving a remake 🙂
• The Wings of Honneamise is a 1987 Japanese anime. The main influence here was the use of a fictional language.

We can always dream…

Panzer Dragoon is getting a remake, to be released this winter for the Switch and other, as yet unannounced platforms (see our world exclusive interview with the Producer, Mr. Benjamin Anseaume, for all the juicy details). In celebration of this release, wouldn’t it be swell if SEGA re-released a limited edition of the Saturn game, featuring new cover art, interviews and such in the manual, and maybe full-color postcard-sized prints of the wonderful production artwork, nestled in the game case? The first official Saturn release in 20 years, complete with the security code that would allow the game to play on stock Saturns without any modifications… What say you, fans? Should we pitch this to SEGA? Would you pay $20 to $30 to buy this from the online SEGA store?

*Welcome to the Fantasy Zone is a reference to Space Harrier, the 1980s Yu Suzuki masterpiece and forebearer to the more modern Panzer Dragoon.