At first the dragon’s claws bothered me too until I saw it run in the snow level it was a cool moment imo. I still prefer the old dragon designs though.
Also I think the float engines are still very much visible in PDO’s airships, what I don’t like is that they look as good as new, totally smooth and even those trademark black “cracks” look smooth and symetrical. That’s the change I don’t like in them, and ofcourse like everyone else the fact older airships don’t make a re-appearance. And that change in art direction can’t be explained in any “they now use the technology better” way, it’s a thing that exists in both old PD games and PDO and yet it still looks very different. And different in a way that has nothing to do with the higher quality models and textures.
Anyway, I can just about live with that (though I’d love a return to the roots) but another thing that ruined it for me was that airship boss with the claws rotating around it, like someone else said the first time I mentioned it, this boss would be more fitting in Skies Of Arcadia than in a PD game. I hope we won’t see more of that type of designs in a next PD.
About the dragonmares, I quite like their design, I didn’t like the fact a level was devoted entirely to them though, they aren’t that interesting to me. I don’t think they look like Aliens at all though, I mean, you can clearly see it’s some kind of totally altered/mutated animal that used to be something else… Eyes on their back, a “neck” which is actually the mouth extended that shapes the neck (all those teeth on the sides) and other parts make them look just how they should imo…
Anyway, overall I like the new creatures though I’d like to see old creature designs more and I like the new ship designs though I’d both like to see the float engines with the old look on the new ships and also the old airship designs. Oh and ofcourse some more interesting enemy patterns like PDZ had.
About the dragon, I like the base form the least of all (though the running was cool) but I think the other two forms, glide wing and heavy wing had some very interesting and nice looking transformations that wouldn’t have been out of place in the previous PD games. Again though I prefer the old style more.
And to whoever says that all I want is a remake of PDZ or PDS, well, that’s not true at all. Did you see anyone have bad things to say about PDZ after having playing PD1? Or bad things about PDS after having played PDZ? Cos I haven’t and yet if you compare them the style in them IS different, it’s just a natural evolution of the previous games rather than something new and totally altered in ways, it just looks right that way, and ofcourse none of those games is a remake of a previous one. Imo Orta’s changes aren’t natural and that’s why they look out of place to me, I went as far as saying it has a “Washed out” Panzer feel in another thread and I still stand by that…