Abadd (the poster) said that in the Japanese version of Panzer Dragoon Orta, it was the dragon who narrated the game, not an external narrator who isn’t linked to the story. Looking at it from that perpective, a lot of the text that the narrator speaks could be different, but the blinking eye that looks the young Orta is too big of a scene to be altered.
If that was the case, wouldn’t it be Azel’s voice speaking, rather than the dragon’s?
How does the narration “work” in the Japanese version, I wonder? I mean, does it do the Iva’s story trick of switching to the dragon’s “spirit” after he dies? There’s definitely a passage of narration after the death of the dragon, after all…
Anyway, assuming for the moment that the “eye” literally is meant to be Lagi observing the young Orta: the eye does open and close in a very lethargic and blurry manner. That might imply that the dragon was in some kind of deep slumber - hibernation or rejuvenation? - during that long period of time. So although the dragon was dimly aware of Orta’s situation back then, he might not have been able to come to her aid until much later.
Bubuk - Early web videos of PDO Altered Genos have these (I believe) creatures in them- there was a discussion of these on Lord Craymen’s site- it looked like they were barely in the levels- maybe they took up too much memory for how little you got out of them. If I can find the videos at home, I’ll put them up.
Just a random thought, but if that’s a direct Panzerese to English translation, does that mean it could be quite a useful resource for PD fans to have? For anyone looking at the Panzerese language, I mean; a literal word-for-word translation would provide yet more insight into the language. (Unless this direct translation already exists elewhere, that is.)
As Solo reminded me though, that voice was originally meant to be associated with Lagi. I agree that the Sestren / memory orb idea would make sense, but it does seem as if it’s not the case…
Lagi was watching her. How else did he know who she was, and where she was etc unless he was keeping an eye on her? The Heresy dragon may have died at the end of PD Saga but he still asked Lagi to keep an eye on their friends. This may not be referring to Orta specifically, but the creators included that dialogue to shed light on why Lagi sought to protect Orta in the first place.
Oh, and because Lagi narrates the Japanese version (I’m not quite sure why this was changed).
If the Heresy dragon was hibernating that might explain why the Empire kidnapped and tortured Azel to death without any interference… Ok, now that was overkill. I mustn’t allow my imagination to run rampant.
Though I might have got the wrong idea about what you’re saying, I was thinking about one of your earlier posts:
Now, if the narrator’s voice was always meant to be Lagi talking about Orta - including during that FMV where we see her as a young girl - then it would make sense if the eyelid we see opening and closing belonged to him also.
Like I said earlier, I thought that it was probably a “memory orb”-style flashback, too: but I’d forgotten that it was originally Lagi recounting the tale to us.
How does the narration “work” in the Japanese version, I wonder? I mean, does it do the Iva’s story trick of switching to the dragon’s “spirit” after he dies? There’s definitely a passage of narration after the death of the dragon, after all…[/quote]
Maybe… I don’t actually know anything about the Japanese version of Orta beyond the little that Abadd said about it. It’s likely that was the dragon’s spirit telling the story, yeah. I assume he meant the physical dragon telling the story too… it would complicate things a lot if the Heresy program was the narrator!
Good theory - maybe he was hibernating within one of those dragon crests. The Orta teaser (from 2001) showed the dragon hatching out of some kind of crest (see my “Mystery of Dragon Crests” for more details) which implys that might have been what he was doing for the 30 or so years between Saga and Orta. We don’t know the full reason behind the dragon crests, so maybe they are somehow linked to Sestren, allowing Lagi to watch the world from within them? I’m just speculating here…
Correct me if I’m wrong but wasn’t the voice of the narrator the same as that of the Heresy program you see in-game?[/quote]
They have similar voices at least - but Sestren also had a voice like that. It’s hard to be sure. Maybe someone could confirm if the narrator’s voice or the Heresy program’s voices are mentioned in the credits or not? It’s possible that Sestren, the Heresy Program, and Lagi all have the same voice because they’re all linked to the Sestren system.
[quote=“GehnTheBerserker”]
[quote=“Lance”]Lance wrote:
it was originally Lagi recounting the tale to us.[/quote]
Who told you that?[/quote]
I did, and I was told that by Abadd, as I mentioned earlier in the topic. The Japanese version featured ‘the dragon’ as the narrator of the game.
It would seem to be, but then that’s the only “voice” that has ever been associated with the dragon anyway. If any existing voice would have to be chosen to articulate Lagi’s thoughts, it certainly makes some kind of sense. Given that the Heresy Program was one with Lagi for so long, and that it made him what he is, it would make sense for him to adopt that as his inner voice.
As far as Solo and Geoff have told me, Abadd (the poster) revealed at some point that the narrator in the Japanese version was Lagi, but that this detail was changed for the western version of the game.
Gehn: I think that answers your question too; and as you pointed out, that voice also apparently belonged to the Sestren AI.
Whoever else it may be associated with though, it seems that in the Japanese version of the game it was meant to be Lagi, just as in the western version it’s meant to be an impersonal / omnipotent narrator.
EDIT: Sorry, it seems that Solo covered much of that in his slightly more timely post
As far as I can remember, the only voice listed for them in the credits is “Sestren”. This is obviously a bit inaccurate, both because the Sestren system seems to have the same voice as Azel, and the Sestren AI - which they do sound like - never appears in the game because it’s long dead. But then there’s no official name for the Heresy Program, and the credit listings are pretty odd (they list Abadd as “Drone”, for example), so I don’t think that this helps or hinders much.
Indeed. It would confirm that the Heresy dragon was still alive. I doubt he is still alive now, given the fact Lagi only talks to him in a memory. But if it was still alive, and if the memory of the conversation was recent, the Heresy dragon could be referring to Orta when it asked Lagi to watch their friends for it.
However, the Heresy dragon was supposed to be destroyed at the end of Panzer Dragoon Saga. I’d like to confirm if this was the case in the Japanese version…
[quote=“Geoffrey Duke”]Indeed. It would confirm that the Heresy dragon was still alive. I doubt he is still alive now, given the fact Lagi only talks to him in a memory. But if it was still alive, and if the memory of the conversation was recent, the Heresy dragon could be referring to Orta when it asked Lagi to watch their friends for it.
However, the Heresy dragon was supposed to be destroyed at the end of Panzer Dragoon Saga. I’d like to confirm if this was the case in the Japanese version…[/quote]
It kind of complicates things when we start refering to the physical dragon’s other half as the Heresy Dragon, because technically Lagi is the the heresy program (see the Old Diary). Since PDO shows that the physical dragon had a mind of its own, that would imply that both the physical dragon and the program were the heresy dragon when combined. Perhaps we should just refer to the two halves as “the physical dragon” and the “heresy program”?
Sorry if I’m nitpicking here, it’s just getting a little hard to follow the conversation at times.