"It makes me really happy to know that people still remember the game"

April 30, 2018 6:20 PM

"I think I was inspired by Nausicaä. I like that movie and watched it many times. I didn’t want to admit it, but I think it did affect my design. In regards to Dune, I actually only saw it for the first time a couple weeks ago. Many people have mentioned similarities between Panzer Dragoon and Dune, so I finally watched it. I was very impressed with the product design in the movie." Panzer Dragoon Saga: An oral history
posted by Bangaioh (6 comments total)

Panzer Dragoon previously on the blue.

Saori Kobayashi's 20th Anniversary Arrangement of the OST.
posted by Bangaioh at 6:26 PM on April 30, 2018

Why must you always make me lose the game, Metafilter?! WHY!?
posted by oddman at 7:22 PM on April 30, 2018 [3 favorites]

A little less than 20 years ago, I went to a charity thrift shop in a not-nice part of Edmonton after visiting my mother at the hospital up the street. The place was a grungy mess, all cracked linoleum and dirty CRT TVs, which was - now I think of it - a lot like the hospital. I found a battered Sega Saturn that had been saran-wrapped with a handful of cables, a controller, and a few games in rental store cases. I had to have it.

The Saturn as a platform was already dead at that point, but I was a teenage nerd with a lot of troubles and not much money. I wanted the distraction of something new to play with, especially if the thing itself needed some time and attention. I paid enough that I remember being worried about the cost of my bus ride and I brought it home.

It was a goddamn mess. Half the buttons on the controller stuck, the CD tray lid didn't open without a screwdriver, the ducts were clogged with dust, and the only way to connect it to my television was through the Saturn RF converter, a big, hot clunk of a box that rendered everything in flickering over-saturated colours.

I cleaned the controller. I found a screwdriver. I got a can of pressurized air from a sympathetic computer science teacher. I got it to work. And waiting inside the machine was the first CD of Panzer Dragoon Saga.

I played that first disc at least two dozen times, starting over again every time I hit the Disc Load screen. The saran wrap held no sign of the other CDs, and I didn't have the money to buy the game new - if I could even find it - so the first disc was as far as I ever got. I've always wondered how the game ends, but it's such a strong, bittersweet memory I've never had the heart to look it up.
posted by ZaphodB at 10:05 PM on April 30, 2018 [8 favorites]

I was fortunate enough to play this when it came out because I had a roommate who worked as a game reviewer and got access to lots of stuff. I remember it being rather easy; the battle system is neat but not deep enough for an RPG. I loved the art, Moebius plus Miyazaki is like my dream aesthetic. The Saturn was not really up to the task, sadly.
posted by fleacircus at 10:39 PM on April 30, 2018

I used the Panzer Dragoon Saga music as [background music] when I pitched the Phantom Dust prototype to the executives at Microsoft in Seattle, as well. One of the executives said, “So, I guess you like Panzer Dragoon Saga?” And I responded, “Like it? I created it!” And they were like, “What?!” and they were quick to approve Phantom Dust after that.

Oh man - didn't know there was a connection. Phantom Dust is a really cool and underappreciated game.
posted by atoxyl at 11:16 PM on April 30, 2018 [3 favorites]

Phantom Dust is a really cool and underappreciated game.

Cool, underappreciated, remastered, and free, albeit just for Xbox 1 and Windows 10.
posted by lumensimus at 12:34 AM on May 1, 2018