It’s probably the most universally inspirational fictional creature. I think that the dragon is a very fascinating creature to people all over the world. I was born in the year of the dragon, and I have a lot of childhood memories associated with being born in the year of the dragon. But in Japan, we follow the Chinese New Year of the 12 animals. For a brief time we talked about something like that. Created by a team of approximately 15 people - a size that’s today often associated with indie game development - Panzer Dragoon was a technical marvel made possible by inspiration and youthful energy.īecause we were tasked with creating a shooting game, the first thing that came to mind was to make a game in outer space, like a Star Wars type of shooter. But before Panzer Dragoon Saga was even a blip on the game industry’s radar, Sega first had to get Panzer Dragoon out into consumers’ hands. Panzer Dragoon and then Panzer Dragoon 2 Zwei offered such a rich aura while using so little - short vignettes of imperial ships chasing an elusive dragon and its rider, even with a fictional language - that the premise of the third game expanding the universe in the form of a role-playing game made long-suffering Saturn fans euphoric with joy. The first two Panzer Dragoon titles were on-rails shooters, which meant they were much like Space Harrier - a game where the player flies towards the foreground on a predetermined path, tasked with shooting down as many projectiles or enemies that fly at the screen. Its first game: Panzer Dragoon, a standout for Saturn not tied to an existing arcade or console franchise. 1, the uniquely named Team Andromeda spun off to ramp up development of Saturn-specific software. W i th staff initially a part of Sega’s Consumer Software R&D Dept. To understand what made Panzer Dragoon Saga so anticipated, it helps to know what came before it. This is one of those stories.įor this story, former Panzer Dragoon Saga character designer Katsumi Yokota filmed himself sketching heroine Azel. As you’ll learn firsthand from the people who were there, not all legends have a happy ending. In the story that follows, you’ll learn about how this peculiar RPG - designed to be a solitary, avant-garde counterculture experience - wound up becoming the Sega Saturn’s last great hope. In order to pull off the exponential, ambitious growth of the Saga concept, Team Andromeda founders Yukio Futatsugi and Manabu Kusunoki had to grow the staff. Panzer Dragoon Saga pivoted sharply from its predecessors, taking the unusual step of shifting from the on-rails shooter category. However, given their fast-paced action setting, there was little time to dive deeper into the series’ fiction outside of their atmospheric CG cinematics. Taken at face value, Panzer Dragoon and its much-improved successor, Panzer Dragoon 2 Zwei, offered just enough mythos to compel players to work through each game’s handful of beautifully realized stages to completion. While 2002’s Panzer Dragoon Orta (developed by ex-Team Andromeda members who later joined another studio, Smilebit) kept the series going later, it was the role-playing game Panzer Dragoon Saga that ended up becoming the standout. Over the course of three initial games - Panzer Dragoon (1995), Panzer Dragoon 2 Zwei (1996) and Panzer Dragoon Saga (1998) - Team Andromeda continued to mine this simple yet compelling premise: that of a rider and his dragon facing off against a mysterious empire. Part Space Harrier, part Dune, part Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Panzer Dragoon filled Sega Saturns around the globe with evocative 3D shooting action featuring a blue dragon and its rider. Its debut game was the on-rails shooter Panzer Dragoon. It was Team Andromeda - an internal R&D team at Sega of Japan - that first revealed the potential of the Sega Saturn.
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