It’s not like I’m wishing to see Panzer Dragoon Saga lose it’s number one favorite spot in my brain. It’s more like a challenge to other game developers. Like a “Let’s see what you got” type of thing. SOMEBODY! ANYBODY! Please make a game that’s original and that will surpass the near flawlessness of PDS. All games so far have failed. There are a couple games that I want to play that I think have a fighting chance.
Mass Effect.
Borderlands(Okay. So this one’s an FPS).
Dragon Age(This one I think stands the best chance. At the very least it’ll make dragons cool again).
Although I haven’t finished it yet, Mass Effect doesn’t dethrone Panzer Dragoon Saga… just my opinion of course. I’ll post here if my opinion changes once I’ve finished it.
I’m looking forward to Dragon Age also, and I will look up Borderlands later to see what’s about (hadn’t heard of that one).
From what I gather, Borderlands is the FPS genre’s answer to Diablo. It’s rumored to have half a million guns in the game, all unique to each other. The story goes that a group of settlers risk it all to find riches on a desert planet. Of course they find nothing. Those that can afford it, hop back on ships to go back. You play one of the losers left behind. The pictures I’ve seen in the magazines make it seem like it has a Road Warrior vibe. The monsters look really freaky and well thought out.
I’ve only recently started Mass Effect so I can’t make a complete judgment, but like the above posts, I just don’t see it happening.
Borderlands looks very cool, but where did you read half a million guns? Even if there are customization options with hundreds of different parts to choose from, there may be half a million different combinations, but I find it hard to believe that they will all be that unique to one another.
When I first saw Borderlands it reminded me of the game id is working on right no, Rage.
This is a rather stupid question if I think about it. Panzer Dragoon Saga works because it’s a rather RICH tapestry, not just a video game. It’s the artistry and the way the characters interact and the history. Plus the ending is just perfect and not like any other ending in an RPG. It’s bittersweet but not “And then everybody dies.” That’s like asking for somebody to make a book that’ll surpass Dune or The Lord of the Rings. It’s just not possible! But I’ll keep on eye out anyway.
It’s possible but only for future generations. Playing a great game when you are 10 isn’t quite the same as playing a game when you are 25.
In theory though a game with even more likable and original mythos and with a great soundtrack, great gameplay, great characters, great story (etc) could be it.
I often say PDS is my favourite game but in all fairness PDZwei is too. I’m reminded of that whenever I hear to The (Un)Expected Enemy.
Oh god yes! I don’t know if it will surpass PDS, but I’m pretty confident that it’s going to be incredible. Judging by import impressions, the story is as amazing as one would expect from folks with such ridiculous RPG pedigree, and the combat and overall gameplay is supposed to be very cinematic. I’ve read that it is very linear and cutscene-heavy, but everything is apparently infinitely more fluid than, say, a Xenosaga game.
One of the reasons I’ve been so looking forward to it is because a decent portion of the Shadow Hearts: Covenant development team had a hand in its development. SHII is one of my favorite games of all time, so having them on Mistwalker projects is nothing but a godsend.
I’ve had the game’s main theme stuck in my head since I saw the very first trailer so long ago. I’m definitely going to be ordering the soundtrack as well!
PDS could be surpassed very easily in certain respects, at least in theory. I agree with the general ideas dragoon lover and Gehn both gave, in that Azel doesn’t exist in a vacuum though, it was birthed by a very special combination of circumstances, and there will also always be a personal context to any attachment. All I know for sure is that, while there’ve been any number of purely fictional novels, films, TV shows, and videogames that have drawn me in to some impressive degree or another, Panzer Dragoon is the only fantasy that, as a scenario, I’ve ever been truly obsessed with.
I could never quite relate to being a total geek for something in this way before, so in that respect I doubt anything will ever replace these games as the sci-fi/fantasy-story love of my life, as it were.
For me Lunar onthe Mega CD is the best RPG I’ve ever played in terms of story and cast of Characters , but hey no one makes a better RPG than GameArts (the Corp I most admire outside of SEGA)
But no RPG will ever really beat PDS or the 1st Panzer Dragoon for one very imporant reason, that is so overlooked in games (barthe likes of ICO) And thats the sense thats its only you, and for a better word your pet against the world , and the feeling that like a pet dog , the Dragon will give its life for you, and its really just you and him (or her :))
That for me is why Panzer Dragoon is so special , and giving the Dragon a pet name in Saga was just the lcing onthe cake, Along with the Camping music , it doesn’t get much better . Most RPG’s are Party based , where as in SAGA all the fighting is done by you and you alone
Absolutely. Too many RPGs spit out too many characters at you. In Saga, it’s just you and your dragon. Heck, the human character doesn’t even get spells or a health bar. I think that makes it realistic.
But I somehow get this feeling that Dragon Age will finally do justice to party based fighting.
This Lost Odyssey sounds interesting. I don’t know too many details, though. I’m also interested in The Last Remnant. However I don’t expect any JRPG to dethrone PDS.
Lost Odyssey is a B average title. Walk into it expecting a generic JRPG experience with a few high points here and there. Also, be prepared for 32-bit era load times… some random battles take over 20 seconds to load up.
It doesn’t stand a chance against a polished title like Panzer Dragoon Saga.
I’m afraid nothing will ever surpass PDS, for the simple reason that new ideas are scarce, and the fact that 99.99% of the companies out there do not care about the games they put out, or the game mechanics involved - they just care about the profits. Moreover, the game industry has become corrupted and now serves the braindead masses; therefore, the chances of seeing a truly intelligent and beautiful game isn’t going to be seen anytime soon, because, to them, the masses are seen as ‘useless eaters’ and are incapable of higher thought (which is true).
As long as the focus remains on satisfying the braindead masses, and as long as inferior mediums are used to play these games, there is no hope of ever playing a game of the same caliber as PDS. I wish this weren’t true - I really do. But, sadly, it is.
I think the problem is that games have now become the rival of Hollywood. Every movie sequence now has to be over the top and have a high body count it seems. PDS’s open sequence starts out kind of reserved but then quickly moves to the dramatic. I think the magic of PDS is that it contains a certain aura about it. Even today’s great games like, oh say, God of War just can’t attain that spark. Today’s games work on a different level now. On my review website, only a handful of games have managed to achieve my highest rating of “legendary”, and all of them were classics. I make it a point to never give that score to a modern game. The only exception was Okami. Okami ALMOST dethroned PDS. But in the end, due to a frisky camera and the fact that it follows an already established pedigree, I was content to seat it as my fifth favorite.
The pre-rendered cinemas in Azel served their purpose very well, giving you a refined image of the characters’ faces and emotions. Like nearly every Saturn game the FMV quality was relatively poor, but I’ve always wondered if that limitation may have also encouraged the team in making them so ‘good’ rather than ‘gee whiz, lookie CG!’ Such as so many other games of the time… particularly ones on a console with far superior video capability. ahem
The main reason that nothing will surpass PDS is because PDS was a “cult” hit, and for many of us it was at the age when we were most open to inspiration.
There’s been nothing in the RPG genre that I’ve enjoyed more than Saga, though other games in different genres have delivered more engaging experiences for me. So in that sense, for me, PDS has already been “dethroned”.
