A solid rail-shooter in an engaging fantasy world. Worth trying for all Xbox gamers.
Panzer Dragoon Orta is a new game in the series that brings back the classic rail-shooting gameplay. It's pretty fun, for the most part. You explore odd-looking, but mystical worlds while riding on your flying dragon. While exploring, you'll encounter numerous enemies. This is where the shooting comes. You can attack your enemies in 2 different ways. You can ether rapidly press the A-button and aim at the creature, or press and hold the A button and lock-on to your enemies. This is where you release multiple lasers at your targets. After a while, you will have an option to do a full power attack. This attacks all your enemies in your sight automatically. Your dragon even has 3 transformations, which changes your dragon’s color and shape. This way, you attack targets in different ways. So you’ll often try to find which formation is best on attacking certain creatures. The bosses in PDO are sometimes pretty difficult. You have to find out their weakness and how to avoid their attacks. There are a total of 10 episodes to play through. Each of them offers a strong storyline and magical good-looking fantasy worlds.
After you are finished with the main game, not too much is available afterwards. You can play extra missions that involve both the main character, Orta, and other important characters in the game's storyline. There are a big number of extras and unlockables in the game, such as pictures, movies, facts about the Panzer world, and even the first Panzer Dragoon game released for the Sega Saturn in 1995. It may not have some of the type of gameplay found in PDO, but it’s still fun and also offers mysterious worlds. Overall, Panzer Dragoon Orta is a pretty fun game as well as pretty engaging, but the game lacks some replay value a game like this deserves.
Graphics:
The graphics are simply amazing. Panzer Dragoon Orta features some realistic-looking textures found on most Xbox games. The game does a great job with the light-effects and features some gigantic backgrounds. The game is also really colorful on many fantasy-like details. The character models however could have had a bit of a better job on. Most of the characters look a little bit blocky for an Xbox game. Still, Panzer Dragoon Orta offers a lot of amazing textures that some games never usually offer. The unlockable Panzer Dragoon is based on the Saturn's hardware, so don't expect it to surprise you with its graphics. Although I must say, Panzer Dragoon was pretty good looking for a Saturn game. Overall, Panzer Dragoon Orta has some amazing graphics seen in an Xbox game.
Sound:
Panzer Dragoon Orta features some nice orchestra and techno music for certain events and episodes. Some of the music didn't really catch my ear though. Still, at least it wasn't annoying. So, a pretty good music score I suppose. The game has Panzerese language spoken by Japanese voice actors. While no one can understand the language, it does show characters’ emotion and works pretty good. Many of the sound effects are really good for a game like this. PDO has a pretty good soundwork overall.
Conclusion:
Smilebit has resurrected a series and returns it in a good way. Many people thought the series was dead with the Sega Saturn, but thankfully, it isn’t anymore. Xbox gamers really should try this game. Panzer Dragoon Orta was designed as an Xbox exclusive, so I think Xbox gamers should treasure it. Most of them won't be disappointed in this game. So far, Sega has only sold 125,000 copies of Panzer Dragoon Orta to date for the US. I hope there will be more buyers. Anyway, any gamer wanting a classic style of shooting in their ways of gameplay, Panzer Dragoon Orta would maybe do well for them.
Pros:
-Interesting gameplay
-Engaging worlds and storyline
-Some outstanding graphics seen on the Xbox
-Music and voice fit in the Panzer world nicely.
Cons:
-Not very long
-Could’ve had more interesting unlockables.