Panzer Dragoon: Remake Will Patch In Saori Kobayashi's Remixed Soundtrack

It's clear this game was rushed out as soon as possible to meet corporation deadlines. I mean, upon closer inspection, it doesn't even LOOK like a remake, just a slightly brushed-up port.

EDIT: Following replies, I feel I need to make an amendment to that last part. I didn't mean a Saturn port. I meant something more like a last-gen port.

I've finished the game on normal and working my way through hard mode to unlock the shadow menu and increase replayability (something your review never covered). Overall I think it's a better game than the review on this site suggests and one which looks really nice with it's only real concern being that rotating the camera happens when releasing the button, causing the lag. I've had a lot of fun playing it and it's a game I'll return to many times and after a couple of tweaks which are coming it'll be even better. The original was always the weakest in the series yet its still a very fun game, easily a 7 and possibly an 8 when the tweaks are rolled out

@TheAwesomeBowser you've clearly not seen the Saturn original then

No gyro, no buy. You know the rules.

@carlos82 I have. I got this game on launch. It was the first Saturn game I ever played, having played a demo in Dixons before the game had even been released. Ive played through the whole series. On that note; this game sucks! So many problems with this, it hurts. Either it was rushed, or the devs suck at developing. Take you pick.

Yeah I don’t see why they didn’t put the release back slightly instead of patching x x x x

@Pigeon O it was clearly rushed, they tried to take advantage of players so quick they forgot to add the music.

@Pigeon I'd agree in that the best way to play this game is still the Saturn original and I do wish Sega would have done this themselves or game to M2 to port over the original somehow with some tweaks. But taken as it is with a small studio on a small budget, I personally only have a few niggling issues with the game that don't detract from the overall experience. It should have been priced lower though due to this and to get people on board

Fix the bouncing, the reticle, and the lack of shadows and I'm in. New music being missing is the least important issue.

@TheAwesomeBowser Well there are differences in some levels so that quantifies it as a remake, but it's definitely more of a remaster and as far as i am concerned that's good. If they'd strayed too far off the path i fear it would of become somehting terrible. 'Flappy Dragoon' ?

@mesome713 it has the original tracks in the game and a game like this will be timed to those tracks, so that was the far more important aspect to get right

Isn't the remixed music a bonus anyway – why should it have been there from the beginning?

@TheAwesomeBowser Blimey, you need to get to specsavers. It's a ground up re-make, that should be obvious to everyone.

It has issues for sure, but this is a million miles away from a port.

The developer confirmed that the physical version at LRG will get the patched version on cart.
You will be able to select between OST and Remixed from the options menu.

There's something about this in action that just looks all wrong. I'm not quite sure how they managed to mess things up when the original was right there as a source. Maybe they would have been better taking the original code/game and just layering some HD textures over the top and eliminating the pop-in, much like was done on the recent version of Virtua Racing.

@gdog I'm in a discord with Forever Entertainment and a few groups on Twitter who (including myself) have been in direct contact with the developers and they have been asking for feedback from the community to work on the game

Sega Lord X on YouTube gave a pretty good review of this and was constantly comparing it to the Saturn Original and besides a few small nitpicks the updated version got a favorable review.
In the end I will get this because of the great effort that was put into the remake deserves to be supported.

The game doesn't feel rushed. It's not full of bugs, it works, has a decent framerate that doesn't get in the way of the action. I welcome the updated soundtrack to give it a listen but playing thru the game with the original isn't a bad thing going on how amazing it is.

@Bloodmetal yeah Sega Lord X is pretty good at reviews. His was fairer than Chris' review.

Bouncy Dragoon.

@gdog so far in addition to the remixed soundtrack, there will be an update to the photo mode and the controls including how the targeting system locks on.

Despite what some want to believe, the game actually plays really well as it is and I had no trouble beating it, just with a bit more polish it'll play even better and this will put them in a good place for the remake of Zwei

Reviewer gets a 5 out of 10. Better job next time.

Review was spot on. This game was rushed and it shows.

I skim the headlines and I saw the word Dragon and Kobayashi and my heart jumped for a second. And then I realised this was Nintendo Life

A real shame this wasn’t the quality remake we all expected.

I'm having a good time with this remake, i really think some people have unrealistic expactations of what this could have been.

Sure, there are some minor annoyances in this remake, and the original itself was always just a very good game, not a masterpiece like Star Fox 64, Sin & Punishment 1&2 or the later Panzer Dragoon games, but in the end of the day this is still a very good shooter.

The level design (route, enemy placements...), music and the core gameplay mechanics are still the same good stuff from the original.
The art direction for cutscenes, enemies and characters does the original justice, of course it's kind of sad that the graphics just got upgraded to modern indie download level, instead of modern AAA, but that's not something that came out of nowhere.

I guess I’m waiting a month or more becuase I preordered the physical version and I refuse to double dip, if I know about physical beforehand.

The response to this game divides the classic Sega and arcade gamers from people who probably never had any interest in this type of game.

It is the wing flapping that puts me off. Even when you rotate the camera to the side, the wings keep flapping and obscuring the view. I am not buying it until they fix that.

@JayJ Couldn't agree more. There's so much wrong with some of these complaints, and the review on this site is rather disappointing.

Having the reticule on top is not an 'odd visual quirk', it's a deliberate design choice and is consistent with many other games in this genre.

Complaining about the brevity of the game is a little unfair, this is a remake and they were never going to add new content. Games from the '80s and early '90s would often only take 15-30 minutes to complete once you had mastered them, usually over the course of many weeks or months. This isn't an easy game, and you certainly aren't going to see the full story by completing hard mode on your first try.

For those who wish to criticise the game, I wouldn't cite the GameXplain review to justify your position. Look at the ratings and the comments for that video, the majority disagree with the reviewer and even he says that it is still a great game.

This is the best version of the original Panzer Dragoon. With the other ports: the ps2 isn't faithful, the xbox is faithful and higher res and runs at a higher framerate BUT postprocessed into a dark and blurry mess, and each pc release has its own quirks.

As for the remake: the game runs at a stable framerate, no bugs that I can find, a reticule that's more useful than the one in the original and more in line with modern shooters (although I wish the original one was there simply as a nostalgia option). My only quibbles are the price and that it doesn't include a faithful port of the original.

Someone named Kobayashi worked on a dragon game? I'd make an anime/manga joke, but I'm not clever enough.

@carlos82 original version is on the Xbox 360/One and even PS2 has it on SEGA AGES

Can't wait to hear the updated OST. Saori Kobayashi made OST for both Panzer Dragoon Saga and Panzer Dragoon Orta so it's looking promising!

@ClassSonicSatAm they are all a port of the early PC version and not the Saturn original, some of the effects have a different look to them and on the PS2 in particular the fmv sequences look awful. So the Saturn is still the best way to play that game for me, if it's an option of course

I’ve played this remake through about 5 times, the most recently on hard mode to unlock the shadow mode. Not quite the pandora’s box, but decent options. Having played the living sith out of the original 4 games, this game really captures the flavor of Panzer Dragoon. My only beef is the long load time, frankly. They’re not charging full price for this game, either, folks. It’s not a 59.99 release. It’s worth the price of admission imo.

Got the update. Being able to switch between 2 excellent soundtracks will make the game even more replayable.

Fox the frame rate and the constantly flapping wings and I will pick it up.

@carlos82 best way to play the game is the PS2 port with a saturn ps2 controller. It's awesome!

Just played through the first two levels again with the new update.... for me, the soundtrack sounds massively inferior. Cant see the point if it doesn't bring anything new over the amazing OST.

Biggest gameplay gripes, camera seems to occasionally go off centre despite being on rails which is very off putting and the aiming just feels slack compared to previous efforts.

5/10

@X68000 can't really agree I'm afraid, you get a higher resolution sure but it's visually quite a big downgrade from the Saturn. Floor and sky textures can be quite ugly by comparison with far less colours and lack of textures, even waves on the water. This is mainly due to the effects being originally created with the Saturn's Infinite plane engine, something which wasn't even possible on PS1/N64 and the PS2/PC having to recreate those using textured polygons which lose a lot of detail for the time. It plays well on PS2 but give me the Saturn version any day

@carlos82 I'm going to replay them both tomorrow. It definitely plays correctly as far as control and gameplay are concerned....have both systems hooked up to an old 37" CRT.

I'll let you know my thoughts later! Thanks for the constructive reply!

@X68000 no worries and yeah it definitely plays correctly, have fun

So far in this thread I see two Sega Saturn avatars, one Dreamcast, one TurboGrafx, plus a Bomberman 64. Where'd all you retro nerds come from? Haha.

(Also, what I'm pretty sure is a frame from that old Zelda NES commercial.)

@carlos82 never had so much spare time so......

PS2 port

PS2 Saturn port

Saturn 60Hz Version

Sky and sea are definitely better along with better colour on the Saturn original....

Let's forget about the PS2 Saturn version

PS2 Arrange has a flat lifeless sea and less detail in the clouds. The colour is washed out, but graphics are overall very crisp.
I'd say it plays identically to the Saturn version, but should have been a better port looking back.

Give me the Saturn version for authenticity and better control!

@X68000 great work, yeah and the visual differences can get bigger on some levels such as
Really fun game whichever you play on but Saturn version all day long for me, awesome controller too

@Dr_Corndog occasionally we get let out to comment on modern games but only if it's a remake of a retro game 😉

@carlos82 completley in agreement with you overall.

Guess I have been holding the PS2 version in higher regard after buying the pricey Pandora's music Box LE import!

It's on my wishlist. I feel sorry for the developers, sega obviously needed some income sharpish and rushed it out. Hopefully they allow them some time to smooth some of the issues out.

@carlos82 That would suit me fine! Right now I'm in the middle of a five-month abstinence from buying new games, and it's great (re)visiting the old classics.

I haven’t been enticed to buy this based on reviewer feedback so far but it did Inspire me to play Panzer Dragoon Orta on the X Box One X. What an amazing game with fantastic graphics that really hold up by modern standards, especially in 4K. Oh and by the way, it includes the original Panzer Dragoon as a bonus for completing the game or X amount of hours playtime.

@carlos82 Well it be nearly impossible to port the Saturn version seeing how I think they only kept the source code of the slightly newer PC version, which is the closet your get to the original version on a newer console still think the Xbox version is a good buy, it has a another Panzer Dragoon game include and works on both the 360 and One

@ClassSonicSatAm it hasn't got much to do with the source code, it's due to the unique Saturn hardware and certain games would simply have to be rebuilt for later consoles anyway. Even the recent Grandia HD collection is missing effects from the Saturn relating to its Infinite plane engine which Panzer Dragoon heavily relies upon.

Your right in terms of gameplay it plays just like the original and is a good option to play it today for the majority. Even more so because it's an added extra for Panzer Dragoon Orta, which itself is a great game and easily available on the Microsoft store and looks amazing on Xbox One X. I'd even say that's the way to go instead of the remake if you have an Xbox, it's less than half the price from what I remember, it essentially contains this game and Orta is simply a much better game than the original

@carlos82 Point I'm making SEGA would of kept the PC source codes rather then the Saturn versions when it came to porting it again to later systems Sonic R, Sonic CD, Sonic Adventure DX, Crazy Taxi to name a few, even with House of the Dead 2&3 port on the Wii, it's just the Xbox port of HOTD3 that had 2nd game as extra already unlocked on the Wii version more often then not it looses the original effects it had when been ported to the PC version only good thing was the boosted frame rate if we really wanted the Original version I think M2 would be the only option to port the Saturn version to modern systems