Panzer Dragoon Saga Remake

Panzer Dragoon
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They need to be extra careful if they remake PD Saga. It shouldn’t have the bright colors of PD Orta, for example. I am not against it though.

You are right that it would probably require 10 times the work that it would to remake the rail shooters. We will see about a new RPG (I need to talk to Solo about this because of the environmental theme which he believes is very important).

I think the main concern regarding a new RPG is whether or not it will sell enough to justify the development costs. I don’t think it would at the moment. It needs to be a triple A quality game as well to ensure that it doesn’t hurt Sega’s reputation. You might say “obviously” but in this case if it fails it is still known as a masterpiece and Sega can re-use some of it elsewhere in more mainstream games.

I think we should Final Fantasy 7 a new Panzer Dragoon RPG in terms of quality, while 100 percent completely respecting the source material. It could be done. We shall see.

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I was more referring to the fact that the original Saga’s source code no longer exists. I think. Although a similar situation faced the original Kingdom Hearts when they were making 1.5, and they still managed to do pull it off.

But I’m definitely not the type of person to say a remake should drastically change the original to chase modern trends. I would’ve been perfectly happy with Resident Evil 2 and 3 hewing closer to the style of the first REmake. Now I don’t know much about what Saga looked like, but if the original had bright colors, I wouldn’t want them straying too far from that. If there was an environmental theme, it should be preserved.

Besides, FF7 and PD are practically the least comparable video games you can find. Think how easy it is to access the original FF7, and how many millions have played and replayed it for 2 decades. If you want the original Saga (legally)? Good luck paying any less than $500. Since it’s nearly impossible to play the original, I’d want the experience to be as close as possible.

And if you’re worried about development costs, doing a FF7 style remake will only exacerbate the issue. No one’s clamoring for this game like they were FF7, except us, so anyone who tackles Saga should just keep it simple.

For that matter, despite the complaints about this Remake not changing enough, I actually hope the Zwei Remake doesn’t either. Even more so, in fact. Because it’s just as difficult to get the original as Saga. If you wanted to play the original PD1, you could find Orta at a good price, and I believe the modern Xbox’s are backwards compatible. At least my 360 was. But if you want to play the original Zwei, which I also never have? Again, the $500. For years I’ve wanted to play both Zwei and Saga, not someone’s complete reimagining of them.

It needs to be a triple A quality game as well to ensure that it doesn’t hurt Sega’s reputation.

Ehh I love this series but let’s not overstate its impact. If years of bad Sonic games haven’t done Sega in, I wouldn’t worry about this. Anyway with all due respect to the company, their reputation wouldn’t be the highest on my priority list.

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the hard thing about a remake is that the game featured a lot of simple content the team didn’t spend a lot of time on- many of the levels were just endless floors connected to simple walls (look at the deserts, cnayons, etc) . To upres all of those situations would be tons of work . And then lots of cinematics, etc

Even though the source code doesn’t exist, I more or less wonder if it could be released w/ just high end emulation, maybe some post effects or things on top of the game but don’t really remake it. Take the cinematics and use machine learning to upres them them to HD

Tons of games get re-released, it would just be like an upres of what was there vs a remake

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That might not be entirely true. :anjou_happy:

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There are a few points I need to address here:

  1. Do you remember the first Final Fantasy? Or is the 7th game the one you remember first and the most? The point is it started somewhere. I wrote that a new PD RPG needs to be the same or similar in terms of quality. Budget, talent, marketing. It could be done. Will it sell well? Maybe not.

I use FF7 as an example because it is “mainstream” without being mainstream. I.e. it doesn’t have the harem politics of many stories (watch a soap opera to understand what I mean).

  1. I care about Sega’s reputation. Those terrible Sonic games probably sold well which is a mark of success in this world. Their quality would have been brought under control at some point. But use money as the marker since you brought up FF7 and the word impact. Where is Sonic now? 45+ million games sold? The movie did well too.

  2. There is potential in a new PD RPG. Any sane RPG fan will see it.

I would be against it because of the costs involved, and it is really difficult to continue the story. Sega need some of the original devs there, including me and Solo (/wink). We both came from the Ancient civilization that perished 10 000 years ago.

Personally I think Sega’s strongest Role Playing Intellectual Property was Phantasy Star. If you play Star Ocean 3, it is basically a similar setting that takes the PS gameplay where it should have gone at Sega. Star Ocean 3 sold over 1.3 million copies as well, which was good. Not up there with FF but it was good nonetheless. You could take that further by adding some supernatural themes I think.

Also, you can remake PD Saga from the data on the disks.

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Think we’re talking about different things. You seem to be referring to a brand new PD RPG, which I wouldn’t mind at all. Although I would still prefer a rail shooter, as those need way more love and are obviously less time consuming games.

But I was only talking about a Saga remake.

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I think we really need a new rpg. The rail shooter is over in a few hours. We need an rpg so we can expand the lore and explore more of the world.

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I am working on being specific. In my opinion, a PD Saga remake would need to be greatly altered to bring it up to what modern gamers expect. Sega would need to be careful with it. If they did do that, I think they should simply make a new RPG, and HD upgrade Saga. Final Fantasy a new RPG (verb) in terms of quality.

In any case, it is up for discussion (it is). My main concerns are 1. The quality. 2. Respecting the source material.

If I were one of Sega’s investors, I would pay for the dev costs myself and convince the original developers to continue the series. It certainly has potential.

The setting of Panzer Dragoon is stunning. I wouldn’t want to take that setting and put Final Fantasy in it. It would have sold better on the PlayStation. Ever heard of Silent Hill? Few people thought that would be successful, but here we are.

One of the main reasons why I loved PD Saga was why The Empire sought to control something that was beyond their control. You can see Tolkien in there in that power can corrupt people.

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I’d be all for a simple HD upgrade for Saga too. My main point is, I want the original experience to be easily accessible, or at least something close to it. The video game industry cares plenty about remaking but not at all about preservation. You’ve apparently played the original Saga and loved it, and I would like myself and others to have that chance too.

Even though PD1 and Orta are the only ones I’ve experienced, I love the setting too. It’s incredibly unique, so much so that I struggle coming up with comparisons when describing it to people. The closest I can get is, it’s a little like Dune meets Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, with a bit of the Matrix in there. And even then I’m not sure that’s the most accurate comparison. Is it a steampunk aesthetic? Cyberpunk? Some kind of post-apocalyptic technobuddhism? See, I even have to make up words to label it.

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The best way to describe Panzer Dragoon is “Moebius”. His artwork “is” Panzer Dragoon. Without it, PD wouldn’t exist.

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Right but I don’t think too many people are gonna know what you’re talking about if you only use that example.

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Panzer Dragoon is a combination of Naausica (it has a similar post-apocalyptic world with giant insects), Dune (it has deserts and giant sandworms and a new language based on old languages), Moebius (the art is similar), and some Tolkien as well (it has dragons and people obsessed with power). And maybe some 2001 (with the monoliths that brought evil into the world by making early man more intelligent).

Overall, Panzer Dragoon is a unique combination of settings, which is why we need to be careful with it. What I would want is a way to put normal people in the story without changing the setting, and I want to do more with The Empire (the most efficient form of tyrannical government).

The setting has people who lorded over others with advanced technology like gods, and primitive people who actually believed that those people were actual gods as well. Daniel Jackson from Stargate would probably love all this.