Episode 46: Panzer Dragoon
This episode Greg Sewart and Justin “JJ” Epperson of 8-4 Play join Kevin to remember and revisit Panzer Dragoon on the Sega Saturn.
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Hosts:
- Kevin Larrabee (Twitter: @KevinLarrabee)
- Greg Sewart (Twitter: @sewart)
- Justin JJ Epperson (Twitter: @sprsk)
Links:
Man I can remember first seeing this game and it blew me away. So I was in South Carolina going to school in the Navy at the time. And not many people had Internet back then. So through game magazines we knew what the Saturn was but wasn’t supoped to come out until way later in the year towards the holidays. So for me it was just walking through the mall the day it was released and looking in the EB window. And there was the Saturn playing Panzer Dragoon. Was one of my holy shit moments in life. I’d never seen anything like it. And then I see that you could buy the Saturn right then and there. I nearly flipped my lid. I had just recently finished playing Phantasy Star IV which I paid 100.00 for. I just didn’t have the money to plop down on Saturn at release at 400.00. But I was just in awe of Panzer Dragoon. I eventually waited until I got to Hawaii and got a Saturn in September with a free game deal they were running. Plus I think Virtual Fighter. And picked up Panzer Dragoon, By that time the PS had just released. And I was pretty amazed by it as well. But I think Panzer Dragoon was the game that made me pick the Saturn of the PS. But really though, Panzer Dragoon Zwie made the first game look like rubbish. It was just so polsished and refined. And had way more replayability, whether trying out all the secret level paths, or getting all the dragon forms, or unlocking everything I. Pandora’s box. PD Zwei is a MUST play Saturn game.
I’m going to comment knowing full well that you’ve probably already received some of these statements on Twitter or Facebook…….but I don’t do the social media thing, so here we are.
First off, I just discovered your podcast while searching for Mega Turrican music, because the music is awesome and I slept on the game when it initially came out.
I love your show. I think I just discovered it two nights ago and I’ve already binge-listened to about 6 episodes. Great stuff. Anyway, on to Panzer Dragoon.
I had my own jaw-drop moments with the game, which I won’t get into so much because there’s not much new to say. I will, however add some trivia which you may or may not have heard by now: Firstly, Moebius isn’t a production company; he’s a famous French illustrator. Team Andromeda hired him to do the character designs for the game. I remember reading back then that Panzer Dragoon was the most expensive game made at the time of its release, and I think hiring Moebuis was partly why.
The other reason is because it was one of the first games to feature live orchestra in its soundtrack. I believe it’s just the title track and the first level, but that kind of expense was unheard of at the time.
One of the things you commented on was the game’s frame rate. It definitely looked chuggy compared to the second generation of Saturn games(the Sega ones, anyway), especially Panzer Dragoon Zwei. One secret in PD I found interesting is a trick to increase the speed of the game by what seems like 1.5x. I can’t remember how to do it, but the interesting thing is, increasing the speed also bumps up the frame rate accordingly. In fast mode, it looks to run at least 30fps, slowdown notwithstanding. I don’t know why they didn’t just make the game run like that from the beginning, but have all the elements moving slower.
Lastly, I’ve heard you discuss NiGHTs on a few episodes, along with the analog controller. I don’t know if you’ve picked up the controller yet, but you should. It’s how NiGHTs should be played, but the stick is also helpful for some racing games. I don’t remember if it worked on Sega Rally, but it totally works on Daytona: CE, which is a really fun game, by the way. For those of us Sega guys back in the day, it was also a necessary tech demo to show the Saturn could hold its own with polygons(at least until Tekken 3, Rage Racer and Gran Tourismo came out). And yes, the trigger buttons are analog, which helps out a lot with the gas and brakes.