Panzer Dragoon Saga - First time playing the Saturn’s masterpiece

After years of wanting to play it coupled with the likelihood we aren’t getting a Sega Ages style remaster anytime soon and setting aside a few other purchases for later, I was finally able to get a copy of Panzer Dragoon Saga. The dealer actually came down on the price a bit and everything is in near mint condition.

I started playing the game yesterday and it’s amazing so far, I just wish I’d known that having a Panzer Zwei II save file on your Saturn before you start Saga unlocks a bonus item in the game later (but based on what I read it’s just a “lullaby” style music track from Zwei which plays at your campsite so not a big deal I guess?) I don’t currently own Zwei anyways so oh well, Zwei and Panzer 1 are next on my list. Will be great to have all three on my shelf eventually along with my copy of Orta and maybe a copy of Panzer Mini for Game Gear if I ever find a copy.

Anyways, I’m a few hours in and the game’s atmosphere, music and world building so far are all just incredible. The battles are fun and not frustrating at all, I like the ability to switch between the dragon’s lock on and Edge’s gun and experimenting with regular attacks and Betserk abilities. The encounter rate also isn’t bad and gives you just enough time to relax, breathe and take in all the wonder and little details and scenery of the levels. Please let me know if there is anything I should know about the game before I dig deeper or any advice that will help me enjoy the game’s incredible world even more.

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Congrats. One of my last grails and I don’t even want to look up the going price right now.

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My advice would be take your time and explore every corner of every map. It’s not a long game, but it’s so much fun to explore the world. Amazing game in every aspect.

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It’s so good. The first time I played it I wasn’t in the right mood so I moved on right away but when I got back to it later it really clicked. The battle system is really great and I love the mood of the whole game. It’s the perfect length and is really satisfying all the way through.

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Pet your dragon at every campsite, it’ll pay off later on.

Man I love this game and try and play whenever I can (recently it’s been a while since I last cranked it.). The music is the best and the lighting when running around towns and stuff is pretty cool too.

For the most fun in battles, make sure you try new things(skills) out as you go along, I don’t want to spoil anything for you so I’ll leave it at that.

I always thought the combat options allowed for a lot of variation.

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Played PDS for the first time a few years ago when I finally got my Pseudo Saturn Kai in. It really was a masterpiece. Can’t believe Sega slept on this one. I never did finish it though, got to disc 3 I think, then life took over. I must revisit it one day. Maybe when my MODE comes in.

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I don’t think they really slept on it as such, it’s just that the game came out after the ‘good’ times of the Saturn.
I remember getting mine and still remember taking from the delivery driver’s hands on a cloudy Saturday morning. The fact that I had to go to the effort of ordering the game from the UK (though SSM adverts) to get the thing into Australia was a lot of effort. Totally worth it though. But I can state that from my experience at the time, the Saturn was running low on juice and even with more copies (Of PDS) available it wouldn’t have changed much.
If they had the game available sooner and marketed it a bit harder than their previous efforts then things might have been a bit different. Maybe

Slightly off topic, but it reminds me that the only reason I got a copy of Sonic R was because a local game shop had ordered Sonic Jam for another customer and SEGAOzisoft had sent the game shop Sonic R instead. Seeing Saturn games on shelves was a rarity back then and they had practically no shelf presence. Sega’s marketing was rubbish.

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I’m super jealous of all you folks who enjoyed it. I really want to play this one and Zweii. Orta still remains one of my favorite video games of all time, and I really want to learn more about this universe.

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Just got Zwei in the mail a few days ago! It’s so good and a real visual tour de force for the Saturn. Feels like I’m going through Panzer Dragoon sensory overload and I’m more than OK with that.

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Zwei is so much fun! I was super impressed that Zwei has a widescreen mode slapped in there very cool!
The other day I was playing some Panzer Dragoon 1 and for a change I put the difficulty to hard mode, well blow me down, but I was impressed at how much things changed. I assumed that the enemies would just need more blasting to be done, but the bosses had new attack patterns and enemy placement and waves were significantly varied. I really need to practise more and get better at though, because I kind of suck :sweat_smile:

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