I’m sure Team Andromeda/Smilebit never revealed the true identity of the ancients just to lend them an air of mystery. They are almost certainly progenitors of the remaining human inhabitants.
Just by looking at the Tower of Uru you can tell it is metallic or even ceramic in nature. That Tower alone must’ve required vast amounts of resources to build.
The stone archways in Uru were still built near the actual Uru labs, which we know were built in the Ancient Age. I would like to know what purpose these archways served before the area was inundated.
I posted earlier on this topic about the Red Ruins in the Forest of Zoah being surrounded by much more primitive stone monuments. Theorising that the stone monuments were built by a later, forgotten human civilisation, I’d suggest that a similar thing happened at Uru. There are arguably two different types of ruins at Uru:
Typical white / black Ancient Age ruins
Blue-ish stone arches and walls, reminiscent of those in PD1 Episode 1.
My guess is that, long after the Ancient Age, a promising human civilisation (now forgotten) built around the existing ruins, possibly so as to enshrine them. After all, not all human nations would necessarily fear the Ancient Age’s legacy, or even comprehend what the ruins really were. This seems to be exactly what happened at the Red Ruins site; the stone monuments there are clearly very primitive, but they are physically aligned with the Ancient Age structure in the centre of the area. I’d guess the same kind of thing happened at Uru.
However, these archways are present in the sunken ruins seen in Episode 1 of Panzer Dragoon, as well as Garil Desert in Panzer Dragoon Saga long before we see them again in Uru. They must be connected.
Maybe all these enigmatic ruins can be attributed to just one forgotten human society, which swept the continent and still fizzled out long before the Empire even existed. Who knows?
The main problem that I have with the idea of an advanced civilization between the Ancients and the Empire is that the towers, and their critters, were created to prevent just such an advanced civilization from sprouting. The Empire is only able to arise because the towers are finally beginning to weaken.
Also, I think a lot of the information from Orta should be taken with a grain of salt. Orta was made by different folks, and therefore may not be completely consistent with the previous three games.
One last thing: I think the Ancients were, in all likelihood, human. All other evidence aside, I can’t imagine why they would build drones in human form if they weren’t human themselves.
[quote=“Lance”]I posted earlier on this topic about the Red Ruins in the Forest of Zoah being surrounded by much more primitive stone monuments. Theorising that the stone monuments were built by a later, forgotten human civilisation, I’d suggest that a similar thing happened at Uru. There are arguably two different types of ruins at Uru:
Typical white / black Ancient Age ruins
Blue-ish stone arches and walls, reminiscent of those in PD1 Episode 1.[/quote]
Now that you mention that these arches and walls had blue patterns on them: the ruins on the image you posted of PD1 have very similar blue patterns don’t they?
Although it’s certainly difficult for Smilebit to stay consistent with the previous storyline, I think they succeeded in doing so. In many ways, PD Orta seems to be a tribute to the older series and at the same time the beginning of a “new” Panzer Dragoon. What kind of information do you think is incorrect?
That makes sense. Although there is another possibility: perhaps the Ancients built drones because they weren’t human. Drones were the only beings that could activate and control the ruins. They may have been necessary to allow the Ancients to evolve.
Many former members of Team Andromeda (10 or so) worked on Panzer Dragoon Orta, so consistency was almost guaranteed. The only major differences we have to consider now is the accuracy of the translated information contained in Panzer Dragoon Orta when set side-by-side with the misleading narrative and dialogue translations of the Saturn games. If anything, Panzer Dragoon Orta alone holds more truth than the English Saturn trilogy combined.
Well, the pillars in PD1 Episode 1 are blue, and the arches at Uru are a similar colour. I think the blue bits in the above image are just some blue lighting tinges, though, and what looks like stained glass windows.
Take a look at these images, comparing the potentially “non-Ancient age” ruins to the Imperial Capital:
I’m pretty sure that the Imperial capital isn’t built out of any existing ruins, Ancient Age or otherwise. The palaces / churches in the previous image would surely not be beyond the Empire’s power to construct. The housing in the above images looks very shoddy and primitive, too; just like those in PDO Episode 8 (Imperial City).
The pieces of artwork from the PD1 ending sequences seem to take a lot of liberties with style; I think that would explain the vague similarity to PD1 Episode 1 (and the differences from the in-game representation of the Capital) more than anything else.
I guess the point I’m getting at is that Orta seems (to me at least) to suffer from a bit of unintended-sequel syndrome. That’s just me, though. You guys seem to know a lot more about the series than I do, so I’ll defer to your judgement ; ).
By the way, how do you guys get that nifty “so-and-so wrote” thingy before your quotes?
No, I do agree that Team Andromeda probably didn’t plan (originally) for there to be a PD game after Saga. The only thing that suggested the dragon would have further adventures was that beating of wings that Gash heard in the PDS epilogue… but I don’t think many people predicted the exact way in which PDO would carry on the plot. I do think that Smilebit have payed good attention to plot continuity in PDO, though, even if things like the graphical style have changed a little.
These things, you mean? Don’t worry, I had to ask the exact same thing when I first came here. If you press the grey “Quote” button in the upper-right corner of a person’s post, it’ll open up a “reply with quote” reply.
