Panzer Dragoon Saga: An Oral History

Sonoshee

Sonoshee

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"For the 20th anniversary of one of the most beloved role-playing games, we tracked down 15 people who worked on it and asked them to look back."

Saga remains my personal favourite right after the Shenmue series.
I found this sublime article by Polygon about a month or so ago and thought I should share for other fans of the title, or for those who haven't played it but want a bit more insight into the development of one of the most unique RPGs of our time.

https://www.polygon.com/2018/4/30/17286042/panzer-dragoon-saga-sega-saturn-oral-history
 
It'd be awfully nice if they ever re-released Saga so a wider audience can experience it. Always heard nothing but raves, but there's no friggin way I'm ever getting my hands on it, the prices it goes for. I've always enjoyed the regular old rail shooter entries in the series; would be great to play something a little more elaborative. Seems like just the kind of thing I'd be in to.
 
We live in an age of constant remasters/ re-releases/ remakes/ reboots.
Honestly, it would be weird of Sega not to revisit this game at some point in time, especially when it has such a dedicated cult following.
 
Apparently the source code has been lost making it almost impossible to do anything apart from make it from scratch.

I'd say we have a better chance of getting a HD version or remake of the on rail games but it's not a series I ever see people yelling from the rooftops about, most people who played it love it but aren't banging the drum like they was for Shenmue III all those years.
 
Futatsugi (director) said this, which I thought was interesting:

“If [they were] able to reverse-engineer [Atlus side-scrolling Saturn RPG] Princess Crown [for PSP], perhaps we might be able to reverse-engineer Panzer Dragoon Saga. Princess Crown is a pretty complex game, as well. But unless someone somewhere adds pressure to remake it, we probably won’t remake the game. I don’t think Sega will ever make it happen.”

So, I suppose it could be feasible, but, as you suggested, would probably require quite a bit of [social] pressuring to get Sega to even think about doing anything about it.
 
I also think that the game would have too be touched up quite a bit as just upping it to 1080p and adding widescreen wouldn't make it look good like you can pull off with some PS2/Xbox era games. That generation hasn't aged well in terms of how the games look, the only ones I can think of that still get released from that era are the PS1 Final Fantasy games but the pre rendered backgrounds help.
 
Awesome! I've been meaning to talk to this about with y'all.

I've never actually played any of these (as I didn't have a Saturn) but a few motnhs ago when Panzer Dragoon Orta reached backwards compatibility of XB1 I decided to buy then and there digitally even though I knew it was the fourth one in (I was told it wasn't that important to play in order?). I got it (not only because it's a SEGA title) but because I was so blown away from Futatsugi's Phantom Dust (remaster) that came out the year prior.

Then I played it (on easy first, then the extra missions, then most of hard) and wow... just wow, this game is a spectacle to behold. I love the visuals (which look amazing today! I run it ran native 1080p widescreen on my setup but I can only imagine how good it must've looked back then w/o the rest bump) extremely fluid, responsive, GORGEOUS environments and the Skies of Arcadia-esque soundtrack is absolutely sublime! Worth every penny!

Now I want to play PD 1-3 but I know doing that today is (unfortunately) problematic with prices and such. I unlocked the original panzer dragoon 1 in orta but I have to be honest: I can handle playing majority of retro stuff just fine but something about 1 (maybe it's because of the way it's been ported?) it gives me a headache: it's difficult to try and discern things because of the lower fps/blur or something that's happening? Maybe it's better playing it on the saturn? I found that If I stand further back from the TV my experience is better but I struggle to play it well. Maybe I just need to try it on a CRT instead (is it cheating if I play with infinite health? ?)

I'm with you all: If sega managed to re-release these somehow or just make it available to all: I'm definitely on board! It doesn't need to eb anything fancy like new assets and such (in fact i'd ratehr they just made the originals look better in motion/sharper).

But yeah, for now I'll remember how awesome Orta is...
 
@punkmanced @Riku Rose Interesting. Phantom Dust's rerelease in 2017 faced the same issue as well (lost source code). I've mentioned this before but the way the developers [Code Mystics] handled this was to hack into a retail disc and perform something called a boot-hack(?) iirc. At first it was only meant to be the original game in 480p/4:3 w/ online modes available but the backlash was a bit harsh on that so they kept at it and found a way to get scale-able resolutions at 16:9. They also managed to somehow find the uncompressed versions of the original game's cutscenes and added them.

It's a great game to anyone who's not played it and free on W10/XB1, definitely recommend giving it a go!

What's notable about this is that the phantom dust re-release's producer was on a stream recently and BEGGED sega to port panzer dragoon 1-3 this way by hiring these devs. I assume sega probably doesn't need them because M2 could perhaps do it but honestly I hope they figure out a way.

Sorry for the wall of text visitors.. ?
 
Mr. OL said:
It'd be awfully nice if they ever re-released Saga so a wider audience can experience it. Always heard nothing but raves, but there's no friggin way I'm ever getting my hands on it, the prices it goes for. I've always enjoyed the regular old rail shooter entries in the series; would be great to play something a little more elaborative. Seems like just the kind of thing I'd be in to.
Click to expand...

Same. I would have loved the chance to play it in my gaming heyday, and even though I don't think I have time for RPGs anymore, I would definitely purchase a remake or re-release of this one (and I hear it's only about 15 hours long)

I really adored Orta, and it was cool that you could unlock the original Panzer Dragoon within the game. I don't think I've played 2 or 3.
 
I'm able to play saga via psuedosaturn, but I'm finding it really hard to get into. Might need someone to hold my hand in the beginning until I get used to it because I have no idea what I'm doing...
 
Riku Rose said:
I also think that the game would have too be touched up quite a bit as just upping it to 1080p and adding widescreen wouldn't make it look good like you can pull off with some PS2/Xbox era games. That generation hasn't aged well in terms of how the games look, the only ones I can think of that still get released from that era are the PS1 Final Fantasy games but the pre rendered backgrounds help.
Click to expand...
I think that might be a completely legitimate concern/problem if they were trying to release it individually, but I think the more sensible thing to do with a franchise like this would be to put out a full series compilation.
Orta already featured the original game (and maybe the second? I can't remember) as an extra, so porting the early ones is probably no big deal. Maintaining the original graphics with some optional antialiasing or something (basic shit that any old emulator can do) would be completely reasonable for the old Saturn games (Saga included). I'm not sure what kind of work Orta might require, but it was a beautiful game to begin with, even looking at it now.
Anyway, even the simplest of ports would be completely reasonable if they were releasing the entire series on one disc. The game are generally short individually, but all together they'd give a lot of bang for your buck.

But then again, Sega also haven't done a remaster of Jet Set Radio Future, which is beyond me... so it all seems pretty unlikely either way.
 
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