Video Game Review #236: Panzer Dragoon Orta

Panzer Dragoon Orta

Xbox

Nostalgia Factor:

I am familiar with both Panzer Dragoon and its sequel for the Sega Saturn, Panzer Dragoon II: Zwei. I rented and played through both of these games back in the late 90s at some point. While I liked the games, I was never too crazy about them. I preferred other rail shooters like Star Fox and Solar Eclipse instead.

After the Sega Saturn’s unceremonious death, I thought that the Panzer Dragoon series was gone forever. I really, REALLY wanted to play Panzer Dragoon Saga (a much heralded RPG released at the end of the Saturn’s lifespan), but limited copies were shipped out, and I was never able to get my hands on it. I still haven’t been able to play the game, and now copies of it are selling for over a thousand dollars online. No thanks, I don’t want to play it that bad!

Much to my surprise, Panzer Dragoon Saga would not be the last game released in the series. In 2003, Panzer Dragoon Orta was released for the Xbox. I would end up finding a used copy of this game a few years later when I was dating my ex-girlfriend, Jessica. While I never owned an Xbox myself, she did. We lived together, so I figured I’d buy the game and give it a shot.

I played through the game and I beat it, but I never gave it much of a second thought. I’d say this was back in 2006 or 2007. Jessica and I ended up separating. She took her Xbox with her. I kept my copy of Panzer Dragoon Orta. Up until just recently, I haven’t had an opportunity to replay this game, because I didn’t own an Xbox.

Well, now I do own one – as of a few years ago. I always knew I would get around to replaying Panzer Dragoon Orta at some point, it was just a matter of time. Well, now that time has come! What would I think about the game? Let us begin.

Story:

I’ve always struggled understanding the storylines in Panzer Dragoon games, and this one is no exception. Let’s just say it is very abstract. I’ll do my best to break it down for you.

This game takes place in a post-apocalyptic world filled with fantastic creatures, mystical technology, and flying dragons engineered for the purpose of being living weapons. There is some kind of evil Empire controlling all the technology and trying to take over the world. Everyone speaks German and moves in slow motion from time to time. The whole tone of the game is very surreal and dream-like, and for some reason this makes it very hard for me to understand what the heck is supposed to be happening on the screen. It is hard to put into words. Best description I can come up with is David Lynch meets Mad Max, but with flying dragons instead of cars.

Panzer Dragoon Orta begins with a girl locked up in a tower. The tower is attacked and the girl is about to be killed when a giant attack dragon swoops in and annihilates her attackers. She hops on the dragon’s back and blasts her way to freedom. You play as this girl (Orta) and her dragon.

After escaping, Orta meets up with a pack of hunters and helps them kill a giant creature. They take her back to their city to show her gratitude. The Empire attacks the city to get their hands on Orta, and she attacks the enemy fleet head-on. She’s shot down, her dragon badly hurt. There’s a level where you run on the ground (like a tank) and shoot your enemies before jumping off a cliff just in time for your wings to heal up and allow you to fly again.

You fight the Empire. A creepy bad guy takes you into an ancient computerized relic where you learn secrets about your creation and your past. You have some kind of destiny. I don’t know. The game had lost me at this point. I can’t even tell you what happens at the end of the game. Surreal and dream-like is a bit of an understatement.

You fight a bunch of giant monsters. There’s cutscenes, there’s credits. Game over.

I wish I could recap things better, but like I said I’ve always struggled to understand the story in Panzer Dragoon games. You kind of just play them for the experience. Or maybe that is just me.

Gameplay:

Panzer Dragoon Orta is a rail-shooter, so its gameplay is make or break. You’re going to constantly be locking-on and firing at enemies as they streak across the screen. If the controls suck and are sluggish or unresponsive, it will break the whole game.

Luckily, Orta’s overall gameplay is about as smooth as you can get. The aiming reticle is accurate. Controls are responsive and crisp. This game is very easy to pick up and play, but very difficult to master. When I first started playing, I came in expecting Star Fox, only to quickly learn that Star Fox is a walk in the park compared to Panzer Dragoon Orta. Not only is this game more difficult, there are so many more intricacies to be found here. For example: the camera. You mainly fly on a fixed course, but enemies will attack you from all directions, not just from in front of you. As a result, you have to constantly swivel around and look in different directions. Make no mistake, they are coming at you from every angle.

Like I said, this game is challenging. You have to be alert and on your feet from the very first level on. When I first started playing this game, I struggled a bit to adapt to this game’s style and I died a bunch of times. Your dragon has three different attack modes, and knowing when to switch back and forth between these modes is critical if you want to do well with this game.

Standard attack mode is what I would tend to use the most. You have a regular gun, you have missiles that can lock on to your enemies. You have a boost meter of two. Boost gives you a burst of speed you can use to dodge enemy attacks or gain angles on bosses.

You have Glide mode, which showcases a very weak rapid-fire attack. It has a boost meter of four. Mainly you want to use Glide to shoot down enemy projectiles since it locks on to them and fires so quickly. It is so weak though, it is pretty much useless against bosses and tougher standard enemies. The boost meter of four comes in great handy, however.

Then you have a heavy attack mode with strong weapons, but no ability to boost whatsoever.

Like I said before, switching back and forth between attack modes is key. Say you are fighting a boss who fires homing missiles. Switch to Glide mode to quickly shoot down the missiles. Switch to heavy attack mode to pummel the boss while his defenses are down. The boss starts to accelerate, so you switch to regular mode to boost a couple times. Then you switch back to heavy mode to continue the beat down. It fires homing missiles at you. Switch to Glide mode to take the missiles down.

Etc.

Master the strategies of the game, master the game.

Panzer Dragoon Orta is challenging, but balanced and fair. Whenever I died, I knew it was because I wasn’t alert or fast enough and I had let my defenses down. I struggled mightily with the first few levels of this game when I first started playing, but that is because I wasn’t switching attack modes appropriately at all. Once everything clicked and I started to understand the strategies involved. I began to enjoy the game much, much more.

Graphics:

This game is over 15 years old, but it still looks really good. Being an Xbox game, its graphics completely annihilate the Saturn games. Bright, vibrant colors. Unique, mystifying creatures. Stunning and surreal game environments. What really makes this game tick is the dream-like atmosphere it creates. 

Sure if you look really close, there are aspects of this game’s graphics that appear outdated. I’m sure a remaster or an updated HD version of the game could smooth out of its some rough edges. But I think these rough edges add to the game’s gritty charm. I may not understand this game’s story, but I fully appreciate the work that went into giving its world such a unique look and feel.

Sound:

Panzer Dragoon games have always had strong soundtracks, and Orta follows suit. Nothing is too iconic or memorable here, but the grand orchestral scope of the game’s music is impressive and gets the blood pumping in battle.

Like I said about this game’s graphics – Panzer Dragoon Orta creates a stunning and surreal dream-like world for the player to inhabit. This game’s music and sound effects play a massive part in bringing that vision to life. The battle sound effects, the distorted voices, the otherworldly whirring and wooshing magical sound effects – they all play their part.

Overall:

My journey with this game was weird. I came into it with high hopes, carrying mainly fond (but very vague) memories of enjoying this game back in 2005 or 2006. I actually didn’t care for it at first, and nearly turned it off so I could play something else. But I stuck with it. Once I figured out the intricacies of the game, I was able to relax and really enjoy it.

I played this game off and on over the course of a couple weekends (why did no one tell me how much having a baby would cut into my video game playing time???)  before finally beating it and combing through the extra chapters just a few nights ago. The extra chapters add a few hours of gameplay. Some bonus missions that fill in the story blanks. An extra mode where you play as a kid who fights for the Empire. But the most important extra, for me anyway, is that the entire version of the original Panzer Dragoon for the Sega Saturn is unlockable. Sweet! I shall have to play through it and review it in the near future.

So this game is truly worth the 15 bucks or whatever I paid for it back in 2006. It doesn’t have the personality or the heart and soul of Star Fox. It is not as fun as Star Fox. But its not Star Fox. Panzer Dragoon does its own thing. It feels a bit serious and overly challenging at times, but it is rewarding if you stick with it. The graphics are beautiful. The music and sound effects help create a very eerie and different fantasy universe. The story: who knows what is going on here, but I am sure some people like it.

This game may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I enjoyed it. I am not necessarily jumping up and down for it, but I understand it is a unique and very well-crafted game. Could it have been more fun? Yeah. Sometimes it felt like a chore to play, particularly on challenging levels where you’d repeatedly die and have to play the level over and over again. It’s missing that certain fun and joyful element that Star Fox has – that would have put it over the top. Instead of a great game, I simply look at this as a good game. And there is nothing wrong with that.

This is a good game. But that’s it.

Final Grade:

B

If you liked this review, please check out some of my other game reviews:

Solar Eclipse

Star Fox 64

Virtua Cop 2

Star Wars: Rebel Assault II: The Hidden Empire

Heavy Fire: Shattered Spear

Video Game Review #235: Final Fantasy VII Remake

Final Fantasy VII Remake

PlayStation 4

Nostalgia Factor:

The original Final Fantasy VII is quite possibly my favorite video game of all time. In fact, when I sat down and ranked my favorite video games about 12 years ago, it topped the list. I am not sure if it would STILL sit atop the list, but off the top of my head I would be hard pressed to name a game that’s had quite as big an impact on my life as this one.

As you can imagine, I have been eagerly awaiting this remake for years and years now. At first I wasn’t sure if I liked the direction they were taking the game, as I was expecting more of a recreation of the original game, but updated with today’s graphics. After playing the demo, my mind changed. Okay, maybe this could work. When the game finally came out shortly thereafter, I actually didn’t rush out to buy it. My wife and I were expecting our first child, and I simply could not justify dropping so much money on a brand-new game, given the circumstances. I had to wait an agonizing amount of time, hearing both good and bad things about the game as the reviews poured in. Luckily, a friend of mine at work had a copy of the game, which she loaned to me. She hated the game with a passion and warned me that it was terrible and completely ruined the original game for her.

This didn’t exactly inspire much confidence in me that I would like the game, but I was still more than willing to give it a try. I wanted to like it, but if I didn’t the original game would still be out there for me to play.

How would I feel about this remake? Did it wreck my favorite game of all time? Have I waited all this time for nothing? Read on and find out.

Story:

This game follows the same basic events as the original Final Fantasy VII, but with some tweaks and alterations made along the way. The first thing you should know is that the remake only covers up until the characters leave Midgar in the original FFVII, which takes place about five or six hours into that game. How do you expand a five or six hour experience into one full length game? Lots of ways, the results of which are very mixed.

I’m getting ahead of myself. If you haven’t played the original Final Fantasy VII and aren’t familiar with its story, this game follows the efforts of a terrorist group named Avalanche, who is in open rebellion against the tyrannical Shinra Power Corporation. Shinra has been sucking away the planet’s life blood, Mako, to use as fuel for their cities and experiments. FFVII Remake takes place entirely in Shinra’s capital city of Midgar. The city consists of a run-down slum section on the planet’s surface, comprised almost entirely of poor, lower class individuals. Above the slums is a giant plate suspended in the air by eight separate pillars, each marking a different sector of the city. Atop the plate live the upper-class citizens of Midgar, living in luxury at the expense of those below them. At the heart of the city looms Shinra Headquarters, overlooking it all. Powering the city are eight different Mako reactors, each working around the clock to drain the planet of Mako and supply energy to the citizens of Midgar.

The game begins with you in control of Cloud, a mercenary who has loaned his talents to Avalanche as they launch an assault to destroy Mako Reactor #1. After the reactor is destroyed, the group retreats to their hideout where they plan their next strike against Shinra. During an assault on a separate Mako reactor, Cloud is separated from the group and meets a young woman named Aerith, who doesn’t hesitate to join Avalanche’s cause. Shinra, in an attempt to discredit Avalanche and win the opinion of the people through fear, destroys the Sector 7 plate and send it crashing down on top of the slums below, killing nearly everyone in the process. During all this commotion, Aerith is kidnapped by Shinra. The surviving Avalanche members launch a successful assault on Shinra HQ to get her back. Aerith in tow, the group flees Midgar, only to run into an unexpected roadbloack, which I won’t spoil just yet.

This is the very, very basic version of this game’s events. Like I said, these events comprise only the first five or six hours of the original FFVII. Things are expanded and stretched out for this remake. We get longer cutscenes, more background info on the game’s various characters, expanded quests, and brand-new missions which weren’t available in the original game. Some of these changes worked, and some didn’t. More to come on that shortly.

Gameplay:

I was hesitant about this game’s combat system at first, as I was hoping for a return to the turn-based system of the original game. But FFVII Remake’s emphasis on real-time action grew on me very quickly once I got the hang of it. Mainly you are in control of Cloud, but you can switch to the other members of your party with the push of a button. Each character has a basic physical attack, either short or long range. Blocking and doling out physical damage fills your ATB gauge, which allows you to cast a spell, use an item, or unleash a special attack on your enemy.

The key to battle is to constantly switch back and forth between your party members building up your ATB gauge enough to unleash strong physical or magic attacks, and then moving on to the next character and taking advantage of that character’s unique strengths. It can be a bit overwhelming at first, but once I got the hang of it, it became second nature.

When you aren’t fighting, you are walking around and doing what you need to do to progress the game’s storyline. Certain things like buying items from shops, opening chests, upgrading your character, and discovering new Materia all make their return here, but FFVII vets will find lots of new things to see and do in this remake. Certain areas have you completing NPC sidequests in-between story segments of the game. This is a nice way to get a little extra background info on Midgar and some of the residents of the slums, but some of the sidequests like “find the missing cats” can feel a little tedious and out of place.

Speaking of tedious, some areas of the game feel a bit too drawn out for my tastes. One that comes to mind is the area before you fight the Airbuster boss. You run through Shinra’s reactor facility, fighting enemies and accessing computer terminals that allow you to weaken the boss before you even fight him. This area seemed to drag on FOREVER. You run through corridors that look exactly the same, fighting enemies that look exactly the same. It didn’t seem like it was ever going to end. It was a good idea, but executed very poorly. Some variety in the scenery or in your enemies would have helped here. Same with the area of the game where you run through Hojo’s laboratory with your party split in two. Everything looks the same. You keep doing the same thing, which is running through corridors and flipping switches. All the enemies are identical. It goes on for waaaay too long. There are probably other areas of the game like this, too, that I am forgetting about. Completely pointless! I understand that they needed to stretch a five or six hour segment of the original FFVII into a full length game, but certainly there were better ways to do it than through tedious monotony.

All in all, I didn’t think these segments did too much to drag down my enjoyment of the game. My main problems with the FFVII Remake have to do with some of the liberties taken with the game’s plot. Again, I will be getting to this shortly.

Graphics:

You just can’t criticize this game’s graphics. Everything looks amazing. As a lifelong FFVII fan, it was a real treat seeing the world of the original game brought to life in such painstaking detail. As I traversed through Midgar, I often had to pause to soak it all in. Seventh Heaven, Aerith’s church, the train station, the reactors, Wall Market, the Shinra building lobby, all of it looks absolutely sensational. This sounds corny as hell, but it was kind of like a dream come true seeing all these iconic FFVII locations brought to life with today’s graphics. It hit me hard, really hard, in the nostalgia. Heck, just looking up and seeing the plate above me, or looking off in the distance and seeing all the buildings and wreckage in the slums, all of it truly brought the world of this game to astonishing life.

The character models are very well-done. They do the original characters true justice. Cloud, Barrett, Tifa, Aerith, Sephiroth – even minor characters like Biggs, Wedge, Jessie, Marlene, Don Corneo, Heidegger, Scarlett, the Turks, and Rufus Shinra - ALL look terrific. Not a single character did I look at and say “hmmm…. I don’t agree with what they did with their look.”

Truly top-notch work here. This may be one of the best looking video games I have ever played.

Sound:

Voice acting is for the most part excellent as well. All of the characters sound exactly as I pictured they would. A lot of real emotion is put into the voice acting, which truly helps to give each character a distinctive personality. You really get to know almost everyone in this cast, and the voice acting has a LOT to do with that. There are a few corny dialogue scenes here and there, but you can’t blame the voice actors too much for that.

The original FFVII had a sensational musical score, and this game follows suit. Many of the tracks you hear are remixes of original game’s music and they are all very well done. Some new, memorable tunes are added to the mix as well. A cool thing about this game is that although you don’t visit many of the original FFVII’s iconic locations just yet, you can purchase and listen to some of the music from these locations at jukeboxes and vending machines scattered around Midgar. So although you never visit Costa Del Sol in this game, you can still hear what its music would have been like if this remake had made it that far.

If I had to make a complaint at all about the remake’s music, it is that a couple of my favorite tunes were either completely left out or altered to the point where I didn’t even realize I was listening to them. I understand they couldn’t bring back ALL of the original game’s music, but there were a few omissions of tracks I considered to be “definitive FFVII” that left me seriously scratching my head.

Overall:

So we’ve established that the game looks good, it sounds good, and its production values are very high. Now it is time for me to nitpick.

I don’t like what they did with this game’s story, most notably the Whispers. When they first started swarming around Aerith at the beginning of the game, my initial reaction was “WTF is this dumb shit?” I knew that in order to expand the story of the game, they’d have to change a few things. I was okay with that. But this was just dumb. Really dumb. There was enough source material to go on without having to add stupid, Dementor-like ghosts who randomly showed up into the mix.

The whole point of the Whispers (which we don’t find out until near the end of the game) is that they appear whenever something that is destined to happen falls into jeopardy. With the defeat of the Whispers at the end of the game, this gives the developers a chance to take FFVII into uncharted territory. Anything is fair game now. Will Aerith live in future installments? Maybe. And I am okay with that (kind of). My issue is - if they wanted to make changes to FFVII lore, just make the changes. Look at the Resident Evil 2 remake, for example. There are many changes made from the original game, but did they explain those changes? No. They just made them. They didn’t need to introduce some kind of intrusive, gimmicky plot twist to justify the changes. It’s a remake, we expect that things will be different this time around. The Whispers ruined literally every scene they were in, and honestly this game would have been much better if they had been left out.

Sephiroth was also introduced far too early in the game. I understand that Sephiroth is a major character, and people want to see him brought to life with today’s graphics. But all the visions, all the flashbacks, all the slow-walking Cloud segments were just too much. And the battle at the end of the game? Don’t even get me started. We don’t even hear the name Sephiroth in the original FFVII until the Shinra building segment of the game. He is constantly shoved down your throat in this game, to the point where it becomes obtrusive. It’s too much. Sephiroth himself is never really explained, either, despite his numerous appearances. If you’ve never played the original FFVII or are unfamiliar with the game’s story, you were probably left wondering “who the heck is this guy?” on several different occasions.

Other story deviations annoy me too. There’s another branch of Avalanche out there, that is well-coordinated with an army of soldiers at its disposal? What? The whole point of Avalanche, at least I thought, was that this was a ragtag group of rebels that was on its own in the fight against Shinra. When the “other” Avalanche showed up in this remake, it seriously left me scratching my head.

Same with the appearance of the villain character Roche. His sudden appearance was a bit too “Kingdom Hearts”-y for my taste. Too ridiculous, too over-the-top, too random. I was not a fan of him. And then once he leaves, you never hear from him again. What was even the point of introducing him? I’m sure he’ll be brought back for future installments of this series, and I am not looking forward to that. Also, Roche wasn’t in the original game, so isn’t his appearance interfering with destiny? Where are the Whispers now?

Other changes I didn’t like: when you break into Jesse’s parents’ house and steal from her comatose dad’s bedroom. Seriously? Gee, I wonder why that wasn’t in the original game. The laboratory underneath Sector 7 was pointless. I also didn’t like all the filler-ish sidequests, some of which I already mentioned. The missing cats, the missing kids, having to pick a flower bouquet, all that kind of stuff. Why do you specifically have to pick three different types of flowers when there are only three different types of flowers to pick from? Many things in this game seem like they were added simply to stretch the plot of the game to full-length. Why not just expand things past Midgar and end the game at a later time?

*sigh*

I could go on and on about all the changes I don’t like. How hard was it to port a classic, nearly flawless game into today’s era? All we wanted was a similar game, but with improved graphics. How do you screw that up??

Bloat. That’s how you screw it up. So much stuff could have been eliminated and the game wouldn’t have missed a beat. Did we really need hour-long dungeons like the Train Graveyard, the subway tunnels, the sewers, the reactors, and the underground laboratory? No, not at all. Not at all.

And while I said the battle system was fun, some of the boss battles can drag on for WAY too long. So many of the bosses you fight are bullet sponges that take 20-plus minutes of repetitive walloping to kill. The house monster that you have to fight during the Wall Market section of the game? Ugh. Kill me now.

All right, I think I am done complaining now. After all those rants, you’d think I probably hated the game. I didn’t. I would say overall I had a pretty enjoyable time with the FFVII Remake, actually. I think my expectations were just a little bit too high. Being such a big fan of the original game, I was going to be critical of each and every change they made to this game. Some worked, some didn’t.

What did work? The graphics, the setting, the music, the way the world of this game was brought to life. I can’t say enough about how impressive this game is visually. Just walking around and looking at things and admiring all the small details was a real treat to me.

I had fun with the combat (for the most part). I loved wandering around and talking to people and soaking in the game’s lore. The game is at its best when it is moving fast, things are clicking, and you really become invested in its story and its characters.

Overall, it worked. I may not have liked everything about this remake, and it may not have been the game I was expecting or wanting, but it worked. Will I play the second installment when it comes out (whenever that will be)? Absolutely.

But that does not mean that this game measures up to the original. Because it simply does not. And at this point, I'm beginning to wonder if another Final Fantasy ever will.

Overall:

B+

If you liked this review, check out some of my other game reviews:

Final Fantasy VII

Final Fantasy IX

Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus

Final Fantasy X

Chrono Trigger