Panzer Dragoon Saga
For: Saturn
Genre: RPG
Reviewed by: Escee (Brandon)
Developer: Team Andromeda
Publisher: Sega
Released:5.6.98
 
Yes, yes, I know. The Saturn is dead. It was dead long ago. Yes, yes, I know that this game is old. But I just recently purchased it over Ebay. Being a rare game with limited copies released as well as a being a agme that had been called the best RPG ever made it hard to find. After tracking down this game and playing it through, I decided that I must give this game its due credit.

Panzer Dragoon Saga is an epic RPG. You take the role of Edge, a 15-year old guard for the Empire. One fateful day, a fleet led by Craymen invades the Empire excavation site which Edge is guarding, and Craymen captures the relic of interest at the site: a strange girl who had been uncovered at the excavation site. Craymen's attack had killed all of Edge's friends. The Empire, after the attack, turned against Edge. Edge, the lone survivor of the attack, was saved from death by falling, when a dragon came to his rescue. Edge seeks revenge against everyone. Both Craymen and the Empire are against him. You will fly through the world on dragonback, which creates a unique RPG experience.

Spanning four CDs, Panzer Dragoon Saga is an epic experience that does everything right. The battle system is possibly the most innovative and fun battle system ever seen in an RPG. Ever. Combining realtime and turn-based elements, the battle system makes every last one of your battles entertaining. No easy feat for an RPG. You have a meters that fill up, so you still attack in "turns," but even while your meters are filling up, you can be doing things. The system revolves around the movement of your dragon. You move your dragon to different sides of the enemy in order to shield yourself from their attacks, or get to a place where you can do extra damage. You also have three meters. It only takes one full meter to attack normally (or use healing magic), but attack magic takes two meters, and special attacks take three. This system combined with the strategy of movement in battle makes this one of the best battle systems ever seen in an RPG. Ever.

You can also change your dragon's attributes (even during the heat of battle) to strengthen his attacks, at the expense of defensive strength. You can make his magic stronger at the expense of speed. After major battles, your dragon will advance to a higher class (this is seperate from your personal experience-gaining and leveling up), but in order to advance to the final two classes of dragon, you must do exploring. The first of the final two classes must be obtained by collecting 12 "D-Units" throughout the game. This makes it worthwhile to explore everywhere so that you don't miss one. The final, "true" form of your dragon must be obtained by returning to an old area after obtaining all the D-Units (obtaining all the D-Units will upgrade both your dragon class your laser rank. with the stronger laser rank you will be able to enter the new area). In this new area you will be able to acheive the true form of your dragon. This is a very cool feature of the game that advocates exploration and also just adds a cool touch to an already-awesome game.

Deus Ex also features an augmentations system. In various places in the game, you will find augmentation canisters. Each canister contains a selection of two augs. You can select one and install it. You will then be able to use special aug features, such as cloaking, healing, or speed enhancement. These features drain bio-energy, which you must manage seperately from your health. Once I got the healing aug, I would run into situations where I was far outnumbered, turn on my healing aug, and be victorious. I would then refill by bio-energy and have full health. The aug system adds a whole new twist to the game. Not only must you manage both your health and bio-energy, but you can customize your game even more. For those that want to sneak around, you can equip a cloaking aug and slip past enemy forces.

If you a) own a Saturn, or b) call yourself an RPG fan, there is no excuse for not picking up this kick-ass game. The only bad thing about this game is that it is too short, especially for a four-disc game. But this game is so damn fun that you will want to play it again and again.
 
Graphics
For a Saturn game, Panzer Dragoon Saga has amazing graphics. The Saturn was never designed for 3d gaming (the chip which even allows 3d gaming to exist on Saturn was added as an afterthought, at the last minute), but Saga shows what the Saturn might have been. If this game wasn't one of the last games ever released for Saturn, it could have saved the system. The lighting, 3d quality, animations, and everything is outstanding for a Saturn game.
 
Sound
Great voice acting (although it is Japanese with subtitles) and wonderful sound quality. You can hear everything as it should be, from the sirens when you set off an alarm to the sounds of the birds in the background.
 
Gameplay
The most fun ever in an RPG. Period.

Control
The Saturn (especially with the "3d" analog controller) handles the 3d flying of your dragon perfectly.
 
Lastability
The game itself is too short, but you will want to play it again and again since it is so fun. Also, there are extra mini-games that are accessable once you beat the game.
 
Ratings

1.4.1

click on the above screenshots for larger versions.
 
images from rpgamer