The Panzer Dragoon Saga Bibles

Sega of America’s old PDO site contained plot summaries of the Sega Saturn games, which were unique because they directly tied the Panzer Dragoon world’s “Bibles” in with the background story of the series. Of course most of us never gave those books from PDS a second thought the first time around because their contents seemed so random, but this development created a bit more discussion about them.

I’ve just discovered something, however. It seems that although the author of the text for that website was the senior content writer for Sega.com at the time, he wasn’t directly involved with the Panzer Dragoon series. Here’s a quote from his website:

I’m a Panzer Dragoon fan from way back. I can’t think of a game series that can match the unique style of the Panzer series. Sure, the first two games were just rail shooters – but they were damn good ones. And then there was Panzer Dragoon Saga, which is definitely in Marc’s Pantheon of RPGs. I have yet to experience a better combat system or more unique setting in an RPG.

I was really pumped to do the Panzer Dragoon Orta site, as it gave me a good reason to figure out the series’ sprawling storyline. To that end, I created “The Chronicles of Panzer Dragoon” section, which was my attempt to create the definitive (and official) history and timeline of the Panzer series. To make it, I culled together all the resources I could, including game scripts, concept art, and rough translations of Orta. The game scripts went back several years, and were localized by different people; therefore, there were many inconsistencies that had to be ironed out. Even simple things like character names (Randy or Lundi?) caused me headaches.

What strikes me is that - although he clearly did an excellent job on the site - it doesn’t sound like he was much better informed than the Panzer community at large, and it’s possible that he took the PDS Bibles more seriously than the games’ creators or localisers intended. It seems at least plausible that those Bibles existed to show the confused beliefs of the PD world’s people, and that they weren’t meant to fit into a realistic (or at least an accurate) Panzer timeline.

Not that any of this is a big deal, but it seemed worth mentioning.

(Incidentally the text of the deceased PDO site is archived on the page I’ve linked to, and I’d say it deserves to be added to TWotA’s links section.)

Nice find Lance. I still wonder why SOA took away the PD Orta site. The game isn’t even mentioned anymore in the Xbox games list on their site. I noticed this part when I first read the history section:

[quote]"At the Dusk of Genesis, the knowledge of the Gods was used to create weapons. The Gods’ fire burned the earth, the Gods’ tools ended life, and the monsters were taught to devour human flesh.

Over time, a semblance of order emerged from the chaos. A prosperous and technologically advanced civilization rose to power, and reshaped the world with their creations. Records of this ancient civilization have been lost over the millennia, but its influence casts a shadow on the world to this day."[/quote]

That’s where he misinterpreted the PD Saga bibles. Everything seems to suggest that these Gods were actually the Ancients themselves.

From an average person’s point of view the ancients were gods.

The theme of gods shaping the future of the world is a part of the game’s story as much as it is something dreamt up by the primitive tribes of the Panzer world. The Divine Visitor existed in the Ancient Age and even if Lundi invented the name “Heresy dragon” the theme of gods remains at the forefront of Panzer Dragoon Saga’s story (whether it’s about humans playing gods or becoming them).

It’s no secret that I don’t like the Xbox. It’s powerful and all, but its designers had no concept of console asethetics – it’s the size of one of those old top-loading VCRs, and the original American controllers are perhaps the worst ever designed, Jaguar controllers included.

These are just some of the reaosn why you shouldn’t hate the XBox :stuck_out_tongue:

Btw D-Unit who says he missinterpretated them?His version is at least a little more official than “our”…

It would be sad if there ws no definitive official version of the story…

[quote=“GehnTheBerserker”]Btw D-Unit who says he missinterpretated them?His version is at least a little more official than “our”…

It would be sad if there ws no definitive official version of the story…[/quote]

I guess I can’t be sure, but it’s just that he makes a clear distinction between the Gods and the Ancients. I believe the “Dusk of Genesis” was in fact the Fall of the Ancient Age. This text makes it seem that the Ancient Age began *after *the “Dusk of Genesis”.

Well yeah it says that the techonologically evolved civilization appeared after the Gods and the Genesis…

I’m gonna try and think of some “patch theory” for this to go with the “ancients=god” line of thought… :stuck_out_tongue:

Not quite. He was writing all that as his personal interpretation. Since he wasn’t directly connected to the developers, SOA had to provide him with information, but the presentation of that information was his own thing.

Talk about light hearted concern…