Wouldn’t a reboot, still keep the general story of the PD games, but just tell it in a new way? Like keeping the same themes from the old games:
Ancient age, a world in the present overrun by monsters and ancient technology, no one understands, the Empire excavating the ancient technology, a young/middle age dragon rider fighting against the ancient technology/Empire…
I mean, the gameplay would have to change for sure, but the general story and themes from the old games would need to stay or it wouldn’t be PD…
That’s why imo, this reboot should not take place in the Ancient Age.
EI cannot edit the original text of the petition but I can post ´updates’.
Let’s be clear, when I say reboot, we still keep the world, its stories etc… so maybe what you call a soft reboot. I’m not a specialist of the difference between hard and soft reboot but in my 5 reasons, I explain what we need to keep and what made the series unique. I called the petition 5 reasons because when you tweet the title, it makes you want to read it…
Again, for me a good exemple is what they managed to do with Zelda. It’s different but it is still a Zelda game, and a very successful one.
So yea, like you I think we need to keep those unique elements of background of the series.
So again, my petition is not perfect, English not being my mother tongue (I’d have had more vocabulary in French lol) but what I learnt is that it’s better to do something than do nothing.
As for my ancient age suggestion, it was more to emphasize that the current world of PD is richer in terms of possibility, I agree with you.
I also suggest we could have 2 games in 1 in my petition…
If you create an open world, you can still add the possibility to unlock ´routes’ as a bonus. And once your dragon is strong enough (its laser power), you can take the routes and play them as a rail shooter. That would be a bonus as the main gameplay would be to explore the open world, fighting system would need to be designed to work with that, I don’t want to close possible innovative doors.
I find it rewarding and a good reference to the past while modernizing the series.
A soft reboot would take place in same continuity as previous instalments. The events of previous games, particularly The Great Fall, would likely be acknowledged. But the previous stories wouldn’t be required for new fans to understand the story; previous events would just be loosely connected history. It’s a sequel, but also a new story and a fresh start. It wouldn’t require complex knowledge of the heresy dragon’s history, perhaps focusing on a new dragon altogether. An example of a soft reboot is Star Wars: The Force Awakens which has a few story and character connections to the older films but is ultimately a new tale focusing on new characters, capturing many of the same themes.
A hard reboot or continuity reboot would scrap the existing continuity. The new game might retell the events of older games and change around characters stories, or it might focus on new events. For example, it might feature Lundi, but change his backstory to make it so that he grew up in the Empire. But the older games affectively wouldn’t take place in this timeline. An example of a hard reboot is Tomb Raider (2013) which tells a new origin story for Lara Croft which is deliberately inconsistent with the backstory of older titles. This has the advantage of giving the writers a clean slate to work with and to allow them to reenvision the character.
Personally I would rather play a soft reboot because I think Panzer Dragoon has a rich history to draw upon and it would be a shame to throw all of that away because it’s easier. Also, it’s not hugely character driven like super hero stories which are usually hard rebooted, so the writers could easily work around existing character stories without changing them. But I would accept a hard reboot if that was what required to bring the series back.
If you think about it, Panzer Dragoon Orta’s ending set up the story for a soft reboot quite well. “And so a legend came to end. But every ending leads to a new beginning.”
The dragon’s journey came to an end, but we know it’s possible for more dragons to be brought into the world, and not necessarily as part of an existing “program”.
There are rumours of villages of drones on the borderlands pretending to be human, but we don’t know their purpose or what their goals are now that the Towers are deactivated.
We know that there is tension between factions in the Empire.
The Towers are disabled, but there are still active ruins and pure type monsters (perhaps even dragons).
Groups of seekers exist, aiming to make the would more hospitable for humanity.
Humans and their relationship with the environment is still an unresolved and ongoing problem that could be explored in different ways.
Some or all of these could be used as future plot points, and none would require detailed knowledge of the existing events to be interesting to a new audience.
I agree with you, I would also prefer a soft reboot which connects to all elements of previous games in the series.
But my petition doesn’t go this far in terms of scenario as I think it will also depends on who will be interested in this: Yukio the original creator ? SEGA itself ? a third party studio ? they might have ideas.
IMO it is maybe a bit early to go down the scenario route. Of course we can talk about it but I guess it can change widely depending on who would lead this project. That’s why I focused on suggesting elements of gameplay, what made the series good etc… I was not too restrictive in the text. I used the word REBOOT but didnt say hard or soft one.
Also look at Zelda, they didnt car about the timeline, they admitted it themselves, they said they wanted to create a great game, break the conventions and if it fits the timeline good, if it doesnt, that’s not a problem.
Now, of course its a bit different with PD as we would like to see things connect. But for me the priority is make a game we enjoy playing.
And I think at this point, we need to make as much noise NOISE NOISE as possible so people talk about the series.
I am sure there can still be a phase where we discuss the story more in detail with whoever would like to lead this.
My main concern being that we want an ambitious game: a triple AAA is a must I think or a very good indie one coz we dont want a disaster like Crimson Dragon.
And thank you for those story elements you gave, I didnt know all about this as I was young when I played those games, my english was not too good at the time.
Yes, I think this is sensible for the petition. Details can come later.
For me, the Panzer Dragoon continuity is quite important to the appreciation of the wider fictional universe that each story is set in. If the universe gets reset every few games it’s less interesting to consider the series as a whole. Each game has new characters but connects with the events of previous titles. It works well. If the writers had painted themselves into a corner with Panzer Dragoon Saga or Orta, a hard reboot would be understandable. But I think there are many more stories that can be told within the existing continuity.
The more I think about it the more I think it would work, and make sense:
whatever they do about the Panzer Dragoon series, if they want it back on new consoles/PCs, they will most likely have to work from scratch, appart from Orta which might be remastered without too much pain I guess.
But the Saturn games would need to be remade so If you start investing in that, you might as well gather the right team, work on a new open world, model all that and remake the old games INSIDE this open world.
You can sell those old games as DLCs or sell them as standalone as some people probably won’t get them all but at least it gives a choice. Obviously DLCs would be a bit cheaper than standalone games for the end user.
If you work those games together, then your investment is optimized and profit maximized since you don’t have to re start later for the next remaster.
That’s an idea but I think it makes sense to look this option which is viable for SEGA.
One thing I have been wondering, do you know guys why Panzer skipped dreamcast and never made it away on the console ?
Yet we had Orta later on Xbox ?
Something to do with Futatsugi’s team relations with SEGA ?
Probably because the Dreamcast died before Smilebit had a chance to start working on a new Panzer Dragoon. Team Andromeda disbanded after Saga’s completion. Smilebit were considering a cell shaded Panzer game for the Dreamcast at one point but ultimately opted not to go down that route when development on Orta actually began.
I see.
So no their relation with Sega had nothing to do with it then. Anybody knows what those relations are as of today between former employees in grounding inc & Sega ?
I’m not sure of the specifics, but I imagine Futatsugi would have been ready for a change after making three Panzer games. Saga was clearly a conclusion to the story, and he stated that he had done all the things he wanted to with Panzer. There was an interview where he said he’d like to remake Saga as a shooter rather than make a new game too.
Sega restructured their dev teams a while back. Last I heard, members of Smilebit were working on sports titles. Edit: Panzer Dragoon Orta’s director worked on Crimson Dragon.
