I’m sad he was so vague when talking about the dragons cycle but if anything I think it confirms that the dragon’s spirit was the same for all three Saturn games (which was kindda obvious anyway).
Hmm maybe the Divine Visitor’s spirit was present within Kyle and Lundi as well as Edge and that was the link that effectively helped the dragon-rider bond.I wonder how fleshed out the finer details concerning the PanDra world’s story are, in Futatsugi’s head…
Anyways I’m so happy to see that PD is still on his thoughts.And I’m kindda happy too that he also saw Orta with wtih differente eyes… Takayuki Kawagoe also mentioned how there were mixed expectations and how memories had some differences.It makes me feel at peace with Orta in a way.
Very very cool feature, as well as being very agitating at a few points. James Mielke sums up the game scenario very frivolous and just plain skewed at times. Plus I was extremely saddened by how many individual times he beat the “Saturn was the weakest hardware” drum, without ever any qualification. Saturn was the “weakest” in about the same degree and manner as PS2 was the “weakest” of it’s generation, but you’d never see it represented as such in a commercial feature of course…
And my guess on Futatsugi-san’s comment about Edge and Azel meeting up, is simply that he doesn’t necessarily recall the particulars of something that was not his project and isn’t representative of his personal vision anyway. Unless it can be shown that the English translation of Orta radically changes the implication, it remains very clear to me that Azel never found Edge as such. Orta was the her only answer to her “search” after all.
>>Or I want to create a Panzer without a dragon. [Laughs] You know, you’re not the person riding the dragon this time. You’re just a person, a nobody in the game, and you see a dragon flying in the distance, and you can’t even imagine riding such a thing. It might even appear to be an enemy.<<
OMIGOD I’ve been saying this forever! the world and story is more interesting to me than the dragon. Save the dragon for the end or something …
I’m happy to hear that he kind of thought of PDO as being a sort of “fanfiction”, because that’s how I felt. After playing the Saturn trilogy, Orta didn’t quite feel “right.” Not bad, mind you. I found its gameplay to be absolutely phenomenal. However, its world design, atmosphere, and overall story just reeked of fanfiction. Not bad fanfiction by any means, but it certainly lacked the soul of the original three.
And though I’m obviously a “n00b!” to the series, I really have fallen head-over-heels in love with it, and I really enjoyed this feature. For the most part, I thought it was well written, and the interviews were glorious.
I really like the idea of making the dragon not as much of a focus, and isntead focusing on a “nobody” and going around exploring this incredible world as was described. In the end, I only hope that he is given the opportunity to have his wish realized.
By the way, since I tend not to post much (and have had a lot of computer problems until recently), I don’t think I got to thank everybody. A lot of people at this site really helped out with a lot of my questions with the series and the Saturn itself before I made my “risky” purchase, and I don’t believe I’ve expressed before how happy I am to have taken that risk. This series truly is something special, and I eagerly anticipate the day that we get another entry into the series. So yeah, thanks!
It sucks major balls that they lost the source code to PDS - it’s no wonder there haven’t been any ports to other consoles, etc. I wonder what the story is behind the lost code? I thought companies usually archived old source code to be reused later? It’s absolutely insane that they lost or disposed of it.
They could still port it without the original source code. All the emulation packs you see out there are usually done without original source code.
As a side, it looks like they have some art I haven’t seen before. Also it is nice to see some of the art I made (like the orta creatures) up there like it is official artwork!
[quote=“lagi_webmaster”]They could still port it without the original source code. All the emulation packs you see out there are usually done without original source code.
[/quote]
True, but I meant actually MODIFY things within the game, itself. Such as graphics, text, function calls etc. With the source code, they wouldn’t need to create a remake from scratch.
I’m pretty sure SEGA lost the sorce Code from Daytona USA Model2 , and the Team had to play the Arcade version to death, when making the Saturn version becasue they lost the sorce code by mistake . I’m sure I remember an interview with AM#2 talking about it .
Great feature on the Panzer series , Part 1 is still the best for me . I wonder if any of the Team left inthe SEGA group want to make another games inthe series ?
Even though this may seem selfish, and it’s not that I don’t wish more people a chance to fully experience Azel, but it’s somehow fitting that it should never get released again. It’s too specific an experience, and as progressive as the storytelling and content was, a major part of the experience was also undeniably how stunning it looked for it’s time. To me the most immersive and beautiful game of the generation.
I agree to an extent - however, the atmosphere, the story, and the amazing soundtrack have yet to be surpassed by ANY game, and I doubt they ever will.
If it’s never emulated isn’t there the danger that it will one day be unplayable by anyone? There can’t be a much worse fate than that for such a masterpiece.
Hahaha, Kawagoe-san has a new hairstyle as it seems. And they all gained some weight as well. I guess that’s the fate of late-working beer-drinking developers, right Abadd?
I still remember Kawagoe-san from when I first met with the panzer/smilebit team and Abadd in Shibuya. Everyone was losely chatting and drinking, but when Kawagoe-san came in he became quite the leader of conversation, he’s a pretty entertaining person. He gave me the nickname “pantsuke-kun” , a mixture of “panzer” and my family name.
The PD 1UP feature had been planned for over 2 years now! I met with Futatsugi-san and a freelancer for 1UP.com when the first interview was held.
Originally we thought it might be interesting to have some Genos information in the feature as well, but since James took so long writing the article (2 years!), I kinda lost contact. James is such a Panzer geek.
I’m currently building a reference website with stuff I made, and I will probably include an article about how SK and I made Genos So maybe some people can learn and make something even better than Genos.
Well since the game can more or less be played emulated already, it’ll always be around I suppose. And if Gametap has already got Zwei on offer it’s not too much to hope they may get around to Azel as well, though it seems clear there’s many little issues that would have to be cleared up on that game for flawless emulation. But emulation isn’t what I meant anyway.
I would just really hate to see the kind of straightforward port up such as (like that article already mentions) all the Final Fantasy games keep getting. Just redoing the graphics and tweaking the game here and there, would most likely just diminish the soul of the game and leave it looking even more dated in a way. And while I firmly believe the fundamentals could hold up as brilliantly today as they ever did, it would need to be a completely reworked package to have anything like the impact it truly should.
So I guess what I’m trying to say is that, it could only be a disappointment as a classic game with “updated” graphics, since I feel it would be cheated of making the full impression that it still deserves.
I’m disappointed that he wants to make another shooter instead of an RPG - Azel was absolutely brilliant and was a perfect way to end the series. Ending the series with another shooter in the vein of Orta would be a total turnoff.
Though, I do like his idea about focusing less on the dragon and shifting focus to a simple citizen just trying to get by, especially if it’s executed generation by generation (i.e. Phantasy Star III) - you could actually do some pretty interesting perspectives if it’s executed properly.
i would like to see more tragic heroes, IMHO the Ivar sidequest is the best part of Orta and stays true to the series tenor. Especially closely after PDS there is a great political shift with the emperor dead and most of his military destroyed, it could give a nice setting.
Yeah I definitely liked reading Futatsugi’s thoughts on a possible sequel.I’m glad he likes the prospect of letting you play a more mundane role in the PanDra world.
There is so much unexplored stuff.I want to see the hunters,the seekers,the coolia farms,the Imperial academy (etc) all up close.The more I think of it, the more I’d like to see a PDZ sequel (PD1 prequel).
Even though a more mundane approach would be good I’d still would like to get my PD history fix.That’s why a time where both (Skiad Ops?) Lundi and Sky Rider were alive would be cool.How/why did the Sky Rider get to ride the Blue Dragon?Is there a rule to the dragon cycle?Do new dragons always start as baby-coolia spawns?How did the Heresy program appear in the first place?As a glitch or a virus?etc
There are loads of subtle ways to explain these.Inductive visuals and the like.I wouldn’t like to see an answer coming right from the horse’s mouth (in this case SkyRide/Lundi) but I reckon “some” of the PD mysteries need to be addressed.
I think part of the magic in the PD games (particularly Saga) is, although you’re just as clueless (about the Ancient Age) as most characters most of the time, you still get some bits and pieces.The whole picture spoon fed to you would definitely not be good but I think some of the stuff I mentioned would be nice to know to put things into perspective.
When Futatsugi mentioned the main character seeing a dragon flying in the distance I immediately thought of the Sky Rider riding the blue dragon.It would be so cool if we got to see a battle between the Blue and Dark dragons from afar
I see the main character befriending a seeker who is charged with investigating the blue dragon (maybe he is the guy that came to the “conclusion” that the dragon was the DV) as a means to let us get some answers by juxtapositioning the seeker’s gathered intellegence (which might not be 100% accurate) with what we already know from past games.
So maybe some people can learn and make something even better than Genos. 