An interesting article:
Citation
That said, Futatsugi did share his ideas of what he would change if given the opportunity to remake Panzer Dragoon Saga to The Ringer. “Make it open-world and as much as possible allow the player to make their own choices,” said Futatsugi. “Make a strong correlation between the characters’ responses and behaviors and the player’s actions, so that the characters change depending on the player’s choices.”
It’s interesting to see him express that sort of ideas which we haven’t read in a looong time.
I think it’s time to email him again 
Btw, here is another great read, probably one of the best article I have ever read about it.
Two things I disagree with though:
- yes a game like FF7 had much more success and is having an ambitious remake. But FF7 was using old mechanisms hence is going through dramatic changes, while SAGA had set 3D mechanisms that could be kept in a remake. For instance the battle system is still acceptable if you modernize visuals. FF7 fighting system was old school when you compare. So there would be less deep dramatic changes to make in terms of gameplay.
- why would it be dubious to remake the game, more than making a new IP? There is always a risk when making a game. When you produce a remake or a brand new game there is always this risk. And considering so few people played the original game, it should pretty much be considered, treated, marketed as a brand new IP to appeal to 2018 generations. It should target a wider audience than the original fans only. I mean today, shitty indie games can sold more on the Switch than PDS did back in time because the Saturn was just dying and they didnt market the game correctly…
Unlike ShenMue3, don’t remake Panzer Dragoon Saga just for the original fans. Don’t kill me ^^ I just believe it’s the only way to make it viable.
I only read a bit about the Brink article, but one thing that I hadn’t really considered that is so obvious now that I read it from someone else’s words, is how much PDS resembled Mad Max in a way. It might very well have been part of the difficulty in “selling” it audiences back in the day.
I’d really like to g back to that time and really put myself in the shoes of a consumer again and figure out WHY PDS didn’t sell. I can only think it was because of the Saturn dying. I think comparing it to FFVII might not be the best thing to do though…FFVII was a game in an established and beloved series with popular appeal. Only rail shooter fans knew PD.
Can anyone think of a better RPG title contemporary to PDS that was either a new IP or was part of a less succesful series (compared to Final Fantasy) that still managed to match FFVII’s numbers?
I like to know this sort of stuff for certain. I hate when people in companies fail to understand why something doesn’t sell. There’s no chance in this sort of thing. There’s no way of hoping to make the next game a success if one doesn’t learn from the past. To me this part of the business is not ART but SCIENCE.
The Mad Max stuff is a nice story but clearly it is quite obvious.: The failure of the Sega Saturn in the West, the fact they didn’t communicate for the game (a series not very known by the masses) and the fact it was released in the last days of the console are all an interconnected factor that is the main reason it failed, let’s be honest.
I can remember this time when people where making fun of the Saturn… 
It’s also not easy to introduce a RPG game in a series that was previously a different genre. Your fanbase… we can still see it today.
Yeah I remember people making fun of the Saturn too. In fact I remember being a tad depressed when I got mine because by then the Playstation was where “it” was at.
So releasing it in a strong/popular console, making sure it’s released in the relevant part of its lifecycle and having a good marketing campaign…should solve the problem. We need to look for comparable examples…other series…success cases of series comparable to PD…and see what did and did not work.
Or series that were not popular once…and with a new entry became so…
I was just reading this http://www.businessinsider.com/why-classic-game-series-die-2015-7
Yes, I’m convinced timing is a major factor for the success of a game and platform too.
Look at the Switch + Zelda BotW.
I can remember back when pds originally came out. At that time almost all the shops around me that used to stock Sega Saturn games had stopped doing so. And the few that still had Saturn games never got it, I wasn’t aware of any way to get it from somewhere else at the time so couldn’t get it - I could quite imagine other people being in the same situation.