It began on the wings of an armored blue dragon… the Panzer Dragoon series is perhaps the premier Saturn franchise, helping launch the system in the West with the first game back in 1995. After a lengthy, excellent FMV introduction sequence, the player takes control of Kyle Fluge (unnamed in the Western releases) and mounts the blue dragon, taking over for the mortally wounded dragon-rider and assuming his quest to stop the Dark Dragon from reaching the Tower.
What ensues are seven episodes of fast-paced, on-rails, 360-degree 3D shooting action. The player controls the reticle to either fire Kyle’s handgun or lock on to multiple enemies and fire the dragon’s lasers. The action requires the player to pay attention to the radar and adjust their viewpoint as appropriate — a very new concept in 1995. Episodes feature sunken cities, deserts, forest canopies, underground complexes, and even the imperial capital city. Enemies range from imperial adversaries to mutated beasts that roam the land.
Yukio Futatsugi and his team took advantage of the Saturn’s ability to display infinite fields to create sprawling visuals to depict the Panzer world and commissioned a gorgeous orchestral-techno-synth soundtrack composed by Yoshitaka Azuma to match the on-screen action. The world itself was inspired in part by the works of Jean Giraud (Moebius) and his 1975 comic series Arzach, and features bio-technology in the hands of a primitive people. The audio-visual punch of these elements is profound, and Panzer Dragoon was considered a highlight in an otherwise lackluster launch lineup of games.
The game is an important first chapter in the Saturn’s Panzer trilogy and remains a worthy play today. The levels are challenging, the music is sublime, and the game’s story is only revealed in drips and drabs, paving the way for the subsequent games in the series. Panzer Dragoon is an excellent Saturn title.
It’s my all time favourite franchise on any console. So deep and engrossing. From the gut-punch of a score to the groundbreaking visuals, there was nothing like it at the time. I played the demo to death before I got the full game.
nothing impressed me more than this game on the system at the time. I honestly cannot pick a favorite from the series. I was very critical of the re-release of this game, but it did actually reinvigorate me and get even more interested into the game. Nothing will steal the thunder from the orginal though, its pefect.