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ONE OF THE BEST FANTASY ADVENTURES ON THE XBOX YOU NEVER PLAYED 9.5 OUT OF 10

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: June 03, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I really don't understand why Sega only really ever does re-releases for Genesis titles, yet completely ignores the plethora of classic Saturn and Dreamcast titles which are waiting patiently to be resurrected. The Panzer Dragoon series was born on the Saturn, and did not resurface again until Orta was released on the Xbox, where the franchise, along with many others would die. This game did not sell very well, mostly over the fact it was hardcore, and did not reach out to a broader Xbox audience. And let's be honest, this game is bust-your-balls hard.
WHAT THE GAME IS: The follow-up to the classic Saturn franchise comes to life on the Xbox as a gorgeous on-rails shooter (Think Starfox, if you don't know what I mean by that term), with an amazing fantasy backdrop that no Xbox game can compare to. You play as a girl named Orta who was kept imprisoned because she is basically a war machine that the empire is trying to capture. When the village she is imprisoned at is attacked, a mysterious dragon rescues her, and from then on it serves as your form of transportation and your war machine. So you fly to different locations and try to discover the secrets of your past.
GRAPHICS: Old, and dated, but they really milk Xbox for all its got with its vast environments, plethora of enemies on-screen, many explosions, and more. It was real eye-candy when it released those six years ago.
MUSIC: It fits, and it's nice, but I expected a little more from a fantasy title.
SOUND: Explosions, decent voice-acting, even with the made-up language in the game. That's right, the game has its own language.
GAMEPLAY: The game is very difficult, do not make the mistake I did and put it even on normal because there are ten missions in the game and they're pretty damn hard (Hope you played a lot of Starfox at least). The controls work great, and are what you'd probably expect. It can be a little difficult to avoid obstacles sometimes, but the bosses are the things you want to worry about. Also worth mentioning, if you play up to five hours or beat the game you unlock the original Panzer Dragoon game because there is a crapload of stuff to unlock.
OVERALL: An amazing game that you never played, shame on you. But maybe it was because of the punishing difficulty and unfair save system (be warned) or perhaps you owned a PS2 instead of an Xbox and this game is an Xbox exclusive.
THE GOOD: An amazing on-rails shooter set in a wonderful fantasy backdrop, good controls, challenging gameplay, decent graphics.
THE BAD: Punishing difficulty, unfair save system (WHY?!).
PANZER DRAGOON (SATURN, PC, ARCADE) SCORE: 9 OUT OF 10
One nice feature hidden in Panzer Dragoon Orta is you can unlock the original classic if you beat the game or have five hours of recorded gameplay data. The original game is quite beautiful and mesmerizing and I was amazed by it.
WHAT THE GAME IS: A space shooter similar to Starfox, though not quite as good. A mysterious blue armored dragon is being chased by another dragon, and when the rider is shot, he flies down towards a guy who was just so happened to witness what happened and gives him the duty to ride the dragon to a specific location before he dies in front of you. So you ride the dragon, shoot things, and accomplish you goals.
GRAPHICS: This game came from an old 32-bit system and relatively looks bad, even compared to the original Playstation which was also a 32-bit system. But when I played the game my eyes lit up and I loved the graphics and environments no matter how ugly they were. Cutscene graphics were impressive however.
MUSIC: Feels a little cheesy, and out of place, but relatively good.
SOUNDS: Shooting, explosions, characters speaking the bizarre language featured in the game.
GAMEPLAY: Playing this port of the game, the controls are a little confusing and difficult at first but easy most of the time. This game is surprisingly easy in comparison to Panzer Dragoon Orta and I was able to defeat bosses pretty quickly.
OVERALL: Impressive, even by today's standards. Now I definitely want a Saturn, but the question is; Do I buy the Saturn or the PS2 first? Saturn for the Panzer Dragoon games? Or do I buy the PS2 for RPG Maker and Resident Evil 4? Someone help me decide.
THE GOOD: Good shooting gameplay, and it still feels like a classic.
THE BAD: Ugly graphics, confusing controls.

Check your bargain bin.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: April 15, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Let me start out by saying I got this game used for $6.99 so even though I wouldn't say its an amazing game, its still not a bad purchase. The graphics were amazing when the game came out, and I'd say they still hold up, although the clean Ninja Gaiden style graphics do have trouble keeping up with some of the texture focused games around today. The action is pretty different from what most would be used to. I liked it at first but it got pretty old pretty fast. The game gets pretty hard, making it very frustrating at times. The music was fine, nothing super memorable. The story line is the same case as the music, fine, but nothing spectacular. To tell you the truth I was really looking forward to this game because of all the great reviews and opinions focused around it, but it kind of let me down. If you like dragons I'd say there's no harm in giving this game a try.

A classic onrails shooter that now works with the XBox 360...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 26, 2007
Author: Amazon User

...what more could you want!

This is a classic and beautiful game - this is for those of you who appreciate games like Rez, Psychonauts, Beyond Good & Evil - or any criminally overlooked games.

the best game on the xbox

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: June 06, 2005
Author: Amazon User

panzer dragon orta was by far one of the most gorgeous video games i have ever played an my life the graphics are ahead of its time gameplay is perfect stoyline good the ony thing i heated was the subtitles and the difficulty of the game if you loved the sega saturn verison you will loved the xbox verison

Not so much a game but a test of your frustration...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 8
Date: October 27, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game requires a great great great deal of patience. The environment's graphics are eye catching. You play Orta who escapes from a prison where you were kept not for crimes but as a weapon to be used in future wars. This escape leads to a chase through different lands battling the Empire trying to recapture you. The game is a rail game in that the direction of motion is already chosen like a roller coaster. Your job is to dodge and destroy the enemy with the drone at your disposal. There are 10 long levels with bosses at each levels. The frustration comes in that any mode the game is in is not easy. You can make it up to and pass the boss but if you don't finish the level you either have to start ALL over again at the beginning of the level or if your lucky at the boss. This may or may not be a good thing since you start with the life points at the level you entered with. No whole new life so if you're barely alive you might as well restart the level. The other problem I have with this game is that if you do get to the boss and have to leave to do errand or homework there's no saving AT the boss. You either have to keep the box on or start the level all over again. Changing dragon modes takes practice but my next gripe regards control response after trasforming to the desired dragon especially from Heavy wing to Glide Attack. There's a lag in that you can't glide for 3-4 seconds after tranforming and this has nothing to do with the regeneration bar. I've played video games sinces 1976. This game is way difficult and not recommended for little kids. You will get blisters on your fingers from firing and transforming. There are subtitles and the characters speak an unfamilar language. The movies can be skipped by pressing "start". There are lots of "Easter eggs" in the game. The real bad thing about this is it's replayability. I'm presently on Level 4 (Normal) and after all the levels are done I WON'T be playing this game any more. There's just no way I'lll take that trip again. It's like Boot Camp. You'll do it once and don't want to do it ever again!!!

Great shooter with original, wonderfully created worlds

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: September 03, 2004
Author: Amazon User

The rail shooter has gone the way of the dodo, now that most shooters allow the player to move around at will as in Doom or Full Spectrum Warrior. However, the folks at

Panzer Dragoon Orta has made the move from Sega onto the Xbox, and it's gameplay should please most fans. Your dragon can alter between three main modes; heavy mode gives you more firepower but less manoeuvring capabilities, Glide mode allows for better movement while normal mode is a compromise between the two. You'll have an opportunity to upgrade with powerups as the game proceeds, giving you most blasting power. However, you can only upgrade one of these modes, so you'll have to choose wisely.

The player takes on the role of Orta, a prisoner all her life, who escapes after her jail is attacked by a troop of dragonmares. Riding on top of a dragon-like beast, she goes in search of answers.

The game takes you through several different worlds, beautiful in both conception and design. I was particularly taken with the organic nature of the second level, as well as the jump into TRON-like computer environment at the fourth. Enemy design is unique and occasionally surreal,

Some splendid cut-scenes break up the game and they're fairly entertaining, including an episode where the character joins a desert being's harem, though briefly.

Completing the game doesn't take too long, however, and you should be able to finish in about two hours. There are harder modes available for you to tackle, and if you want to go back to the roots, there's even the original Panzer Dragoon on the disc, accessible once you win the game.

One can tell Panzer Dragoon Orta is a labor of love; fast moving and varied gameplay, a compelling story and excellent world design rack it up a notch above the normal shooter.

My favorite game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: May 29, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I just got my xbox today, and I bought this along with Halo and Ninja Gaiden.

Out of the three games, i find this one more enjoyable. It's just plain fun. In those other 2, it takes some time to get into, but this game jumps right into action.

It's also easy to get a hang of. You can play through the first level on you very first time holding the s-controller. It's just insanely fun.

The graphics also keep me happy. In the opening cutscene, I was going insane. It just looked so nice.

I love this game.
This game loves me.

A Beautiful Work Of Weirdness

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 10
Date: May 04, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I got this game for its graphics. Every time I saw a screenshot of this game, I always thought it would be amazing. Unfortunately, the game let me down a bit, being nothing more than... "good".
As I told you before, the game has unbelievable graphics. Controls do take some time to learn, so they're not that good. The soundtrack is very good, but the voice acting feels a little weird for me since I can't understand what they're talking (I speak spanish, english and portuguese, but I don't speak any japanese, so...). Fortunately, the english subtitles help me a lot.
I didn't get the game's story. Every place, every character and every situation is just so weird for me, I feel like I'm playing during an effect of some drug... I know it sounds crazy, but that's what the game is for me. Crazy doesn't mean bad, but since I don't get what's going on behind all that beautiful nonsense I see, it turns into a bad thing.
But since I see that lots of people like it, maybe it was just me who thought this game was "just good". I was playing this game in Easy mode, and even there I had some serious difficulties to continue the game in some parts, that's why I didn't beat it (I'm not the only one who complained about this game's high difficulty). But a good aspect from this game is that it has tons of extras. Extra levels, some texts and much more, you'll spend some time just as this game's extras. As you complete the main game, the extras just keep coming.
Overall, I think this game is worth a looks for you all Xbox owners out there, because there is a good possibility you'll like it, and it's a Xbox exclusive. You may don't agree with me on this one, but I tried to say why I think this game isn't that good. So I hope I was helpful doing so.

Very nicely done

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: April 03, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Panzer dragoon is rightfully one of the xbox's premier titkes but it's sad that much people have not enjoyed this game.It pretty much has "all the makings of a truly epic game except for a few nitches here and there 1st the good stuff:VERY nice graphics,alotta action,a hell of alotta of replay value,sweet sounds(fully dolby digital i think),original panzer dragoon game hidden(very nice) Now the bad stuff: the game suffers from really sucky mini games I mean I hate these things AND U HAVE TO PLAY THEM IN ORDER 2 GET THE UNLOCKABLES,the game has great graphics but ur stuck 2 much in dark corridors rathe rthan nice rolling land scapes.But lemme keep it real this game is a must have for any action fan trust me!!!

Good, but not Zwei

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: February 18, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Let's get something straight right now. Panzer Dragoon Zwei for Saturn is my favorite video game ever. The music, control, level design, and graphics (not to mention storyline, secrets and multiple endings!) of that game simply put every other 3D shooter to shame (well, Sky Gunner is pretty darn good too).

When it was announced that another Panzer Dragoon game was beign made, I was going crazy with anticipation, daring to hope that a game surpassing (or at least equal to) the great Panzer Dragoon Zwei was going to come my way. Now, I own both games and I have to say that Panzer Dragoon Orta (while by no means a bad game) does NOT measure up.

Any shooter fan can tell you that in the world of shooters, it really comes down to only a few things. Graphics, control, music, and gameplay. The graphics are the eye-candy that makes you play, great music is what sets the perfect mood, and without great gameplay and control there would be absolutely no point in playing.

The first Panzer Dragoon had a gun shot and lock-ons. Panzer Dragoon Zwei had gun shots, lock-ons and berzerkers. Now, we have gun shots, lock-ons, berzerks, dragon morphs, speed-up, and slow-down. Call me crazy, but I DO think that you can have too much of a good thing. I mean, the berzerkers were great and really added to the second game. But when a big boss is killing me the last thing I want to do is slow-down instead of speeding-up while switching to the WRONG FORM OF DRAGON. Sadly, over and over again this is what ended up happening.

Shooters are all about reflexes, shooting down all the enemies before they can attack you. This game makes it more about shooting the same enemy in the same way over and over and over. And what of the branching paths? While they add some to the game, there is nothing like the path branch from the second level of Panzer Dragoon Zwei (left take flight, right stay on the ground for the whole level).

I have to also say that (sadly) while the visuals of the between-level movies are incredibly animated, they aren't worth watching more than once in most cases (the one in the snow is always cool to me). And why on earth should I watch cinemas when there is no compelling story? Don't even try to tell me that there is the same sort of story-telling in this game that there was in Panzer Dragoon Saga or Zwei (Azel blows Orta away and the intro movie to Zwei where the kid's village is destroyed is better than every cinema in this game combined).

In the area of Graphics, Sound, and extras this game really shines. Not only does this game feature some of the best graphics on the X-Box and feature some great sound effects (the music is okay), it also includes the complete first Panzer Dragoon game.

Games like this are becoming more and more rare. If you're hungry for a 3D shooter fix give this game a try. It has awesome graphics, sweet sound, and IS set in the Panzer Dragoon world (and get a load of the Panzer Dragoon Encyclopedia in the extras!). Just don't expect more Zwei.

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