It’s been 25 years since the release of Team Andromeda’s follow-up prequel to their highly successful, ancient-future dystopian rail-shooter, Panzer Dragoon…
Released March 22, 1996 in Japan, Panzer Dragoon II Zwei brought many refinements to the already stellar rail-shooting formula, including a milder difficulty level, improved visuals, branching paths, berserk attacks, dragon evolution and a more ambitious & expanded prequel storyline that added heavily to the world building and mythos of the Panzer Dragoon series.
Beginning development in early 1995, parallel to Panzer Dragoon Saga, a staff of 20 talented artists and programmers worked to push the Saturn hardware in ways that most industry pundits at the time thought impossible…
Andromeda’s signature visual style and aesthetic made use of sprawling panoramas and dramatic camera angles to create an incredibly cinematic gameplay experience. They would even include a special anamorphic 16:9 widescreen mode to increase the movie-like presentation of the game (a mode that was only used in a small handful of games aside from PDII Zwei).
While this second outing abandoned use of the fully orchestrated Redbook audio tracks that were so memorable from the first game, Zwei’s digital soundtrack, composed by Yayoi Wachi, remains one of the greatest game soundtracks of all time…
With instrumentation consisting of both primitive/tribal and synthetic/digital sounds, it speaks of an ancient civilization struggling over the use and misuse of technology, and it lays the foundation and signature sound for much of the series’ musical scores to come…
While the core rail-shooting gameplay itself was implemented to near-perfection and still holds up very well to this day, it is perhaps the game’s story that has had the most impact and staying-power with those that have gone along for the ride…
After rescuing his pet mutant-coolia, Lagi, from execution by the hands of tribe leaders who see such mutations as a bad omen, Lundi follows the trail of Shelcoof (a flying tower) while fending off attacks from indigenous beasts and Imperial forces, who intend to weaponize it against rebel forces.
This perilous journey culminates in an epic climax, as Lundi & Lagi must battle the large mutated dragon that has been hibernating and gathering it’s strength within Shelcoof.
With the release of Forever Entertainment’s “Panzer Dragoon Remake” back on March 26th, 2020 and subsequent patches that have improved upon it’s controls and gameplay, many folks have been crossing their fingers for an inevitable follow-up remake of Panzer Dragoon II Zwei…
On February 26, 2021, the Twitter Account @PanzerDragoonRE (Panzer Dragoon: Remake) confirmed that a Zwei remake would see a 2021 release. Not only is this exciting news in and of itself, but with the Panzer series now in the spotlight and riding high on the wave of fan nostalgia, it seems likely that a Panzer Dragoon Saga remake could also be somewhere out there on the not-too-distant horizon…
So, while only time will tell what the future holds for this masterpiece of a game and it’s incredibly beloved franchise, we at SHIRO! can say without even a shadow of a doubt, that it is one game YOU absolutely MUST go play and experience right away, if you’ve not yet done so. And if you have played it and love it like we do, why not fire it up in honor and celebration of it’s 25th birthday, and here’s to the next 25 years…
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