Panzer Dragoon is one of a rare breed of games that delivers in style for every aspect that makes gaming so fun.
First of all the first thing that you will notice is that the dragon that you ride upon you don’t have strictly full control over, you can move in about the screen and in certain parts in the game where you are able to take multiple paths you simply point the dragon in the right direction and you will take the alternate path. At first it feels weird, its basically an old gameplay mechanic that was used in the classic side scrolling games such as defender, but after a while you get an immense appreciation for the game and you realise just how well this style of gaming works and how much it effects how you choose to play the game. This kind of gaming mechanic has been put in place so that your focus is more upon shooting down your enemies than that of having to direct the dragon around the levels as well, also due to the complex level design that the game has some parts in the game would simply be unplayable and disorientating in a way if you had full control over your winged friend.
Panzer dragoon Orta also incorporates another interesting gaming mechanic into its quite simple system and that is that your dragon has multiple forms each with there own specific abilities. Firstly there is your standard form or the base wing, the base wing is the form that if you are new to the series you will probably use the most throughout the course of the game, it is relatively fast has the option to boost and can lock on to multiple targets at a time making it easier to get around your enemies and is overall a well balanced form. Secondly there is the heavy wing, and as the name suggests it is relatively heavy and from that it suffers a slower rate of fire than that of the base wing, looses out on the boost ability all together and it can only lock on to a small amount of enemies at once. But all is not lost about this form as though it may be a bigger much slower form than that of the Base wing its attacks are significantly more powerful than that of the base wing and this allows you to dispose of bigger enemies a lot faster. Lastly there is the Glide wing, and as the name suggests this form is a lot more agile and nimble than the other two forms. It is a lot smaller and is relatively faster and a lot easier to control than the other two forms, but as with the heavy wing it has its flaws it can not lock on to enemies at all but when you fire the bullets will automatically trace your enemies so the loss of the lock on feature isn’t a major handicap.
The different forms that your dragon can change into eventually will level up. As you dispose your enemies some of them will drop energy orbs, collect enough of these and your dragoon will level up giving it not only a new look but increased abilities such as a higher rate of fire, speed or power.
The main strategy behind playing Panzer Dragoon Orta is not to be bias between choosing one specific form and going through the game using just that, in which doing so would be a very big mistake, but instead switching between the three different forms to get the three forms evenly balanced out and allowing you to go through the levels a lot easier than just using one of the forms. When you first play the game it even states that new players to the series will find that the base winged form would be more user friendly due to it being an overall balanced form to play with, but when experiencing some of the bigger boss battles later in the game you will appreciate the three forms equally and get an understanding of how and when to use them to there fullest potential.
Though there are not many characters that are featured and built upon in Panzer Dragoon Orta, the characters which are described and featured in the story are fun and interesting and are one of the many memorable experiences that you can get from playing Panzer Dragoon Orta. Orta is a very isolated character that is unsure of who she is herself, and has little knowledge of her parents or of her past. Mobo the leader of the Worm riders whom you meet up with early in the game is a very outgoing character that seems to take life very easily and does not let the threat of the dragonmares and the empire scathe his very outgoing personality.
In this game the best part about it is easily the story, the way it is delivered though has been done before, fits the game perfectly. There are sub sections of narrated dialogue where part of the story will be explained to you threw a write up and a voice over, these sections frequently occur and usually happen before each levels cut scene as a familiarisation in a way of explaining what has happened in the world while you haven’t been playing. Though this formula of story telling has been done before and isn’t new in any way, really suits Panzer Dragoon Orta and gives the games story just that little bit more depth that keeps it so compelling and full of flavour
The story revolves around a young girl named Orta, from the opening cut scene you get a great understanding about her and what sort of a situation you are faced with. Orta has been imprisoned by a resistance force known as the seekers; she lives alone and knows little about her past. Not to long into the games opening cut scene destruction occurs, the evil empire who have been conducting experiments from the ancient age to create biogenetically engineered dragons known as dragonmares start destroying the city in which Orta is located. The dragonmares then attack Ortas tower her peril is certain as she is cornered but to her fortune she is saved from her definite peril to the jaws of three dragons by the legendary dragon. The story portrays you Orta riding upon the legendary dragon in a way trying to find an existence and seeking refuge from the ever growing empire, it is a very memorable experience though is somewhat a brief one though it only lasting a mere 3-4 hours max to complete it on normal difficulty it has huge replay value and the story of the game is one of the main reasons why you will keep returning to this game on the harder difficulties due to it being so entertaining.
Another reason that you will keep on returning to this game is that it has a very accomplished ratings system, after each level that you complete you are given an overall rating as regards your performance in that level, you are rated on such things such as how many times you were hit, to what your hit ratio was, your overall score and the time in which it took you to kill the boss at the end of the level, you are given these stats at the end of each of the levels and they add to the replay ability of the game immensely as you will go threw the games levels countless of times due to not only them taking no longer than 6-7 minutes to complete but due to the games all round high quality you will have no problems returning to the levels after finishing the game to try and beat your scores from the previous attempts. All of the statistics for your end of level scores are located in a place called the Pandora’s Box.
The Pandora’s box is basically a place where you can find a load of extras that really enhance the whole experience that the game gives you, at first all of the items will be locked but as you play through the story mode in the various difficulties and complete the levels under a certain score you will be rewarded with unlockables from the Pandora’s Box. These unsociable can vary from a movie theatre where you can view the games cut scenes from, to an encyclopaedia that has background information on various things that are in the Panzer Dragoon world. Also located in the Pandora’s box are a handful of sub scenarios which in its own is a whole new game, as you get to play the game threw the eyes of a person from the empire, this is interesting as it gives you another eye on the story and adds even more depth to the already complex storyline, like the main game these sub scenarios wont take you long to finish but as they also have rankings you will probably keep returning to them until you get 100% on each stage. There are a load more unlockables that are available but the best unlockables is easily the original game, you can unlock and play through the whole entire original Panzer Dragoon game, the game looks a little dated now alongside its counterpart but still holds up well as like its predecessor it too plays extremely well, that 3-4 hours that it will take you to complete the story mode may be short but with all these added extras and the massive replayability that the game possesses you could be playing for 12 hours and more at ease.
To take it into account that this game was one of the original games out for the Xbox, graphically it stands tall and still looks awesome even amongst today’s graphical standards. This game looks amazing, the environments are highly detailed and are hugely impressive and that are a real joy to play in, as the level design never gets repetitive and you will be battling from numerous different great looking locals from desert landscapes, to in between a canyon, to inside empire mother ships and many more. The character models such as Orta and the dragonmares look amazing and have a very distinctive Japanese anime style to the human characters. The effects in the game are also of high quality, when performing berserk mode of the Base form of your dragon, the screens colours invert as you unleash the attack and is visually pleasing. The games cut scenes are also very graphically pleasing and though they look better than the in games graphics they are not a complete far cry from that in which you can expect to see in the main game, the cutscenes in this game are not just visually pleasing but deliver some tension filled actions scenes and some scenes of emotional crisis to movie like standards and are a joy to watch. Overall Panzer dragoon is a great looking game that could not have looked this good other than on the Xbox.
From an audio perspective, the game continues to shine. The games soundtrack is of high quality and is very mystifying and is set with some moody low-key tones that switch to faster more dynamic pieces of music when you enter a boss battle. The one point I noticed about the soundtrack in Panzer Dragoon Orta is that it is very similar to the original games, though that is no bad thing due to the original games soundtrack being very good also. Though the voice acting isn’t in English and thank god it hasn’t been dubbed is still of high quality and in no way annoying or does it disrupt you from the amazing experience that this game has to offer, both from a gameplay perspective and from an audio point of view. The sound effects in this game are also of very high quality from the high pitch squeals of your dragon from the noise of the air rippling past Orta's ears as you dragoon accelerates to the piecing noise of Orta’s gun are an absolute pleasure to hear and also fit in very well with the futuristic sci fi tone that the game has.
Panzer Dragoon Orta is one of very few games that combines high quality graphics and audio displays with an interesting immersive style of gameplay and high replayability all into one package. If you are looking for a game which has a bit of everything, then this game is for you, but you would be doing yourself harm for not experiencing this game as it is surely one in which you should not miss. This is truly just an amazing spectacle of gaming that is rarely done to such high standards as you can expect from this game.