Here we are at the
final review of Original Xbox Love Month! I am going to be a tad controversial
and review a game that I consider to be the best game on the original Xbox,
besides Halo and Knights of the Old Republic. I have not played Knights of the
Old Republic, and while I enjoyed Halo, I am not a super hardcore fan of the
franchise. I mean, you can still play video games and not be a fan of certain
franchises. For me, I’m not a fan of Halo, Gears of War, Knights of the Old
Republic , and a few others. Not that they are bad games, because they are not.
They just never appealed to me. Plus, the only way you would consider a good
game terrible is if you nitpick at every single element and push your opinion
onto others, which is the sad fate of a lot of reviewers I have seen. I try not
to push my opinion onto others because if you enjoy a game that I or others have
given a bad review on, that is fine. You can enjoy it all you want, it just
never did anything for me, and I personally found the game flawed. So, what
game do I personally consider to be more for me than Halo or Knights of the Old
Republic? Well, it’s Sega’s Panzer Dragoon Orta. Let us not waste any more
time, let us get the review started.
The story takes
place many years after Panzer Dragoon Saga, and revolves around this girl named
Orta. She was a prisoner caught by a group called The Seekers who see her as a
bringer of death. While she is being held prisoner, an evil empire attacks the
place where she is being kept and is about to be killed. However, a dragon
flies in and saves her, taking her away from the attack and saving her life. It
is up to her and this unknown dragon that saved her to stop this evil empire
from destroying everything and taking over the world. There is more to the
story, like a mysterious ex-imperial drone character, who from time to time,
helps Orta and is also flying a dragon that is basically like the one she
rides. Overall though, the story isn’t the game’s biggest focal point, but it’s
a solid story. You can tell there was a lot of thought put into this game’s
story and characters to be something epic. It does succeed at times, but most
of the time, the story is there to just take you from level to level. I still
enjoyed it though, and I bet some of you really enjoyed it.
The gameplay is of
a rail shooter, like the previous games in the series, or something like Vanark
on the PS1 or Star Fox on the Nintendo 64. You fly through pretty linear levels
and shoot down enemies small and large, and each level ends with a huge boss
that you need to take down. There are a couple of main gimmicks that you will
need to master if you want to beat the game’s 10 levels. The first gimmick is
the ability to change into three different dragons. You have your normal dragon
that can do both rapid-fire shots and heat-seeking shots. You then have a
dragon form that can shoot only quick shots and is much faster. Finally, you
have a strong dragon that can only do heat seeking-shots and is much stronger,
but slower. Each of these forms can be upgraded through a simple upgrade
system. The next gimmick this game offers is hard to describe, but you can’t
just move freely through this rail shooter. During boss fights, you have to
position your dragon on a specific side of the boss to either hit its weak spot
or dodge attacks aimed in that direction. There is a lot of depth to this, and
the bosses revolve around this gimmick so you better get good at using it. Even
if you could move around freely like in Star Fox’s All Range Mode, they would
have to redesign the entire game and that would ruin the strategy of choosing
the right dragon and being on the right side to take down enemies faster and to
take bosses down quicker. The single player itself is kind of on the short
side, but the game is fun, and the unlockables are timed-base, meaning they
will be unlocked after a certain amount of time has passed. One of the cooler
unlockables is the ability to play a complete port of the first Panzer Dragoon,
which was one of the classic games on the Sega Saturn. The game is also
challenging, and the way you move can be a bit of an issue, but overall, the
enjoyment you will have playing through the levels and unlocking so many cool
unlockables will easily overshadow the bad.
The graphics are
outstandingly beautiful. Sega definitely made a good chunk of the budget for
this title focus on the graphical presentation. Even after so many years and
one console generation, this game still holds up graphically. It’s very
beautiful, well-animated, and a lot of nice character models and CG cut scenes.
The music is gorgeous, with some really nice atmospheric tunes and just good
music overall. The composer of this beautiful music is Saori Kobayashi. He is
mostly well known for doing the music for Panzer Dragoon Saga, one of the most
expensive and sought after Sega Saturn games and is also one of the most
requested games to get a sequel or HD port. The last thing I want to talk about
this game is its atmosphere. It seems like a huge amount of work went into this
game, and you could tell the creators had a lot of passion making this game. It
is just an excellent presentation overall.
So, what is wrong
with Panzer Dragoon Orta, or what do I personally think is wrong with it? I
feel like the direction-changing gimmick is slightly clunky, and your dragon’s
movements are not as fluid due to being on a set path. Play this game and then
play Star Fox 64 and you will see what I mean.
I wouldn’t make a big deal of your character’s movements if it didn’t
end up with sometimes getting a bunch of cheap hits from enemies. I also feel
like the game is a bit on the short side, but there are a bunch of things that
will expand on the single player experience that this complaint very minor. Due
to how short the game can be though, is that you only have one life, but
unlimited continues. You will just have to restart at the beginning of the
level. It can be a bit annoying if you are not familiar with the dodge mechanic.
Panzer Dragoon
Orta is one of the best games I have played, due to how much work and heart
went into this game. It might have its small issues, but this game is just too
good to be moaning and groaning about its faults. I highly recommend you get this
for your original Xbox. I know a lot of people would say get it for your 360,
due to the backwards compatibility update given to the system, but it didn’t
work for me, so I’d still get an original Xbox for this game. Let us hope the
spiritual successor to the Panzer Dragoon series known as Crimson Dragon can do
well enough to get the series back on its feet.
This
game gets a 9 out of 10
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