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Panzer Dragoon is a series of video games by SEGA, created first by its internal Team Andromeda and later, the Smilebit development team. Aside from the RPG Panzer Dragoon Saga, the games are of the rail shooter genre. All games follow the story of a lone hero or heroine fighting an evil empire in a post apocalyptic world, while riding a Dragon. The games are notable for using their own language — "Panzerese", consisting of a mixture of Ancient Greek, Latin and Russian language words as those languages were a hobby of Yukio Futatsugi, one of the core designers of the first game. This pseudo language is used during cutscenes (in a manner similar to the 'Cityspeak' in the film Blade Runner).
Panzer Dragoon World The Panzer Dragoon series takes place on an unspecified post-apocalyptic planet where the people compete for land, resources and the technology of the Ancients. The ‘Ancients’ is the generic name given to the people that once controlled a world spanning, hyper-advanced civilization thousands of years before the start of the Panzer series of games. The ancients were able to create monsters either for war use or practical uses. These creatures survived the downfall of the Ancients and are one of the main enemies in the series. A mysterious cataclysm, hinted at as a terrible war during the course of the series, would spell the downfall of this civilization and nearly destroy the world, leaving the survivors to eke out a bleak existence among the blasted remains in the ensuing millennia. Eventually, the Ancients and their works would gain a sort of 'godlike' respect, and a horrific regard, among some people as they passed into legend. The remnants of these technologies are used in the development of much of humanity’s own machinery, weaponry and vehicles, such as the unusual floating ships which are a staple of the series. A faction called 'The Empire' have collected and used weapons from the ancient age to gain dominance of the planet. The Heresy Program The Heresy Program is an entity which occupies the Dragons in each of the games. The Heresy program may have been created by ancient rebels to destroy The Towers by deploying it into Sestren itself. The Heresy Program was ejected by Sestren but was able to exist in the real world and occupy creatures. The Heresy program is able to change the DNA of the creatures it occupies which is shown in Panzer Dragoon Zwei in which Heresy occupies a Coolia and is able to turn it into a dragon, the most powerful creatures the Ancients created. The Heresy Program still carries out what it was designed to do and its ultimate goal is to destroy every single tower by destroying Sestren itself. Heresy does not achieve this until Panzer Dragoon Saga. The Towers In each game except Panzer Dragoon Orta the ultimate goal is to destroy one of the Towers. The Towers were created by the Ancients to control the environment of the planet to better inhabit the creatures they created. The ultimate goal of the Heresy Program is to destroy all the towers and free the world from The Will of the Ancients. The Towers are similar to computer networks because all the towers are controlled by Sestren, an alternate dimension created by the Ancients to control all of the towers. In Panzer Dragoon Saga rather than destroying an individual tower, Azel opens the gate to Sestren for Edge to destroy Sestren and therefore destroying all of the towers. Panzer Dragoon This first game in the series was released on the Sega Saturn in 1995, and later released on PC. It follows the story of Keil Fluge, a member of a hunter party who encounters a fight between two dragons, coloured black and blue. The rider of the blue dragon is mortally wounded in the battle and entrusts his mission, as well as his dragon, the Solo Wing, to Keil. Keil must stop the Dark Dragon reactivating an ancient ruin …. This chapter would introduce the basic features of the traditional gameplay that the Panzer series would be known by, starting out as a rail shooter giving the player a choice of two main offences: a lock-on laser weapon, and a rapid fire gun weapon. Panzer Dragoon was one of the few games available at the Sega Saturn's accelerated, surprise launch. In Sega's Japanese PlayStation 2 "AGES 2500" series, Panzer Dragoon is scheduled as a new entry. Panzer Dragoon Zwei Panzer Dragoon Zwei (also known as Panzer Dragoon II) was released for the Sega Saturn in 1996. This game is a prequel to Panzer Dragoon. It followed the story of Jean-Luc Lundi who discovered a mutant coolia, whom he names Lagi, who has a green glow at its throat, and is growing wings. Lundi refuses to kill Lagi, defying his villiages custom that mutant coolias be killed. Together, Lundi and Lagi ride towards the horizon, chasing after a great airship called the Shelcoof, which is responsible for destroying Lundi's village while he was away. This game introduced the berserk ability, where the player builds up a bar that gives them the ability to unleash a powerful attack. it also introduced the ability to choose multiple routes through levels, and these routes could cause the dragon to change shape, and alter the ending depending on the player's choices. Panzer Dragoon Saga Panzer Dragoon Saga (known as Azel: Panzer Dragoon RPG in Japan) is the sole RPG in the series, released for the Sega Saturn in 1998. Edge is a guard at an excavation site of the Empire, and while fending off an attack from a monster, encounters a girl embedded within a wall. The site is then attacked by the traitor, Craymen, who murders Edge's companions and takes the girl, still a part of the wall and asleep. Edge is attacked by one of Craymen's henchmen and falls into a deep pit, splashing into the reservoir deep below the surface. There, he encounters a dragon and begins his quest for vengeance...and to discover the truth behind the girl that was found …. Panzer Dragoon Saga was developed as an RPG, rather than a rail shooter. It translated the Panzer Dragoon game's shooting features into an RPG battle system and greatly expanded the world the player could explore. The player's experience of the game was greatly enhanced by the distinctive soundtrack throughout the game. Due to its release towards the end of the lifespan of the Sega Saturn, very few U.S. copies (6,000) were initially produced for its launch in May 1998. US game magazines such as EGM gave the title rave reviews and Saturn owners preordered the game in decent numbers. As a result, a shortage of the game was apparent from the release with many stores unable to meet their preorders for the title. Almost a month later in June, Sega released a second batch of 12,000 copies to meet the explosive demand, and then later in the Summer another batch of 12,000 copies reached the market. Sega went as far as to have a small advertising campaign in various print magazines using a cut-out Edge face mask to promote the new shipments of the game. Panzer Dragoon Orta Panzer Dragoon Orta is an Xbox game, released in late 2002 in Japan and in early 2003 in America and Europe. It was the first game in the series that was not developed directly by Team Andromeda; rather, it was developed by Smilebit which had been founded by former members of Team Andromeda. Panzer Dragoon Orta follows the story of Orta, a teenage girl being held captive in a town. When the town is attacked by the Empire, Orta is rescued by a Dragon, and encounters a drone named Abbad. While tracking the drone, she discovers the truth behind her own origins, and helps to free the world from the tyranny of the Empire. This game introduced several updated features, such as the ability morph the dragon at will, and manuvering abilities from Panzer Dragoon Saga. This game is unique (especially amongst rail shooters) in that there is a veritable treasure trove of unlockable content to be gained after completing the main story. These unlockables included: Panzer Dragoon Mini Panzer Dragoon Mini was a Sega Game Gear game, released in 1996. Due to the technical limitations of the Game Gear, it plays closer to the classic Sega arcade game Space Harrier; also, for the first and — so far — only time in the series' history, the dragon doesn't have a rider. With its lack of story and the dragon's chibi appearance, this game's events aren't considered to be canon. Other media Soundtrack CDs were released in Japan for all the games, with Panzer Dragoon Ortas being bundled with the game itself. Toykopop released the Panzer Dragoon Orta soundtrack in the USA. An anime adaptation of the first game was released, with the story being slightly altered to include a female heroine whom Keil ('Kyle' in the anime) is trying to save when she becomes bonded to the Black Dragon. It is generally considered about even with other video game OAVs, such as Tekken, Battle Arena Toshinden and Fatal Fury from the time — that is, inferior to the game. The English version was released by ADV Films. An artbook from the second game, Die Welt Von Panzer Dragoon Zwei (The World of Panzer Dragoon Zwei) was also released. There was also a song that was not included in the soundtrack but was on the US version's TV commercial, it is named "Violet" performed by Bones Domingo. | ||||||||
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