Will the Tower Network be brought back online?

Panzer Dragoon
21

The original trilogy, while ultimately made more “Hollywood” in the last chapter, was great storytelling. It was the perennial hero journey, set to a backdrop of epic proportions never seen before in cinema. Whether or not you actually liked the subject material is irrelevant.

Besides, how is it you can say with such confidence that the Panzer world has “much more vision” than the Star Wars world? I could just as easily say that Panzer is just a rip off of Mobius and Miyazaki, and the conversation could end there.

PDS was the resolution to the Tower legacy. Regardless of what the audience knew about the Towers when it happened, they were laid to rest, and their reign ended. Just because not everything is revealed doesn’t mean that it’s bad storytelling. It’s in media res, and a very valid way to do it.

Just because the Nausicaa movie doesn’t go deep into the backstory of how the world got to be the way it was, or how the Oumu came about doesn’t make it a bad movie. It may appear shallow in comparison to the manga, for instance, but that doesn’t make the movie bad.

Same thing with Panzer. Just because there’s more to the story, doesn’t automatically make the part that was told bad storytelling.

22

[quote=“Abadd”]
Same thing with Panzer. Just because there’s more to the story, doesn’t automatically make the part that was told bad storytelling.[/quote]

No, you misunderstand. I’m not saying that Panzer Dragoon Saga was bad storytelling…that would be blasphemy…on the contrary, it was the best damn story I have EVER seen in any game…or movie for that matter…what I was pertaining to was a FUTURE Panzer Dragoon game (which is coming very very soon). If the writers simply forget about the Towers and introduce new elements, like the Cradle - things which have NO HISTORY in the Panzer Dragoon universe, will be a bad case of storytelling.

What has made the the Panzer Dragoon series so wonderful to me is the Towers - and taking them away would be like taking the whole point of the series away, as well.

As I said before, I do not consider Panzer Dragoon Saga a resolution to the Towers storyline - it was actually a beginning. If it were a resolution like everyone seems to claim, then all 13 Towers would have been destroyed…but they were merely shut down, is all…not destroyed. Therefore, the Towers still have alot of life in them to tell a good story.

23

Ah. I see what you’re saying.

But still, the Towers are the last part of a legacy… of a much larger story. They aren’t the story themselves. They were a tool, left behind by the Ancients. Perhaps the Towers could be reactivated by someone else, but that, in my opinion, would diminish the significance of the Towers, because they would be serving someone else’s purpose.

Perhaps if/when I finish the story I’m writing, it will explain in a little further detail the story of the Towers.

24

[quote=“Abadd”]Ah. I see what you’re saying.

But still, the Towers are the last part of a legacy… of a much larger story. They aren’t the story themselves. They were a tool, left behind by the Ancients. Perhaps the Towers could be reactivated by someone else, but that, in my opinion, would diminish the significance of the Towers, because they would be serving someone else’s purpose.

Perhaps if/when I finish the story I’m writing, it will explain in a little further detail the story of the Towers.[/quote]

Well, it really isn’t about the Ancients anymore, anyway. Panzer Dragoon Saga was basically the end of the ‘Will of the Ancients’ (or so we’re lead to believe). The curse was broken only to bring along a greater curse - the seekers believed that shutting down the Towers would give mankind back it’s free will - which it did - but with grave consequences. Now there is no system in place to keep mankind in check, and the Ecosystem is failing, due to the Tower network shutdown.

Many people believe that the Towers were created after the Ancients fatally wounded the world…but I believe the opposite occured…I believe the Towers were originally created as weapons (obviously disguised as something else at the time) and when they were finally used, they severely damaged the world. It would be kind of ironic that the same weapons which were used to destroy the world, were also being used to restore it, don’t you think?

The Panzer Dragoon story has always been a very dark one, and I personally would be rather disappointed to see a happy ending. I would personally like to see the old Empire members activate the Towers again out of resent for the new Empire, and start a completely new war. Yes, that’s sadistic…but it’s all good.

25

But, the Towers are the will of the Ancients.

Perhaps you see them as simple weapons, but there is much, much more to it. Which is part of the reason why I believe that if the will of the Ancients must die, so too must the Towers. The Towers were the ultimate tool in the Ancients accomplishing their goals. Every aspect of them was built to that end.

Enough hints for today :slight_smile:

26

“What was made can also be destroyed”.

Well I say : What was made can be destroyed and then remade.

This isn’t a theory it’s a wish … :slight_smile:

27

Story, Abadd? It better have a clever badass human villain in it somewhere… preferrably without pure white hair.

28

Just working on a Panzer story on the side. I’ve got most of the details worked out, and I’m about a page and a half in. Here’s a snippet (the title is placeholder):

Epoch of Ruin: A Panzer Dragoon Story

*What right does man have to play at being god? What knowledge does man possess that makes him believe he truly is the master of his own world? These are questions that I ask myself now, after all is said and done. Perhaps I should have asked these questions a year ago, a month ago, or even yesterday. But now, it is too late. Not that it matters. All those who would care to answer me are dead, or soon will be. The whole world will be.*

Chapter 1: The Academy

Riad en Skial lived in a modest home with his parents on the outskirts of the city, in a tower just outside the borders of the Industrial Sector. As was usual whenever he was bored, Riad sat by the window in his room and watched the sun as it disappeared over the distant mountains to bring day to some other part of the world unknown to him. The sun lingered but a moment on the horizon, staining the ivory-hued towers of Sol?Vire in a soft orange. In the waning light, the looming monoliths cast their shadows upon the city below, as people scurried home before the darkness set in.

Lazily, he rolled his head to one side, casting his eyes away from the capital city eastward to watch Nebulos, the second moon, appear over the smokestacks of the factories of Ir?den across the Eastern Plains. It would soon be winter, so Nebulos was slightly further south in the sky than was usual, but Luminos, the larger moon, kept its steady course through the evening sky.

Riad was by no means a remarkable boy. At fourteen, he was rather smallish for a young man of his age. His unkempt brown hair was always just long enough to get in his eyes, and his hand-me-down clothes never seemed to fit quite right. But, he was not one to worry about such things. Riad kept himself occupied, and quite happy, playing and tinkering with the toys that his father brought home from work: a broken machine here, a man-made crystal there.
29

Interesting. I look forward to reading the rest.

You couldn’t resist writing about the two moons, could you?

30

Of course. The difficult part about a purely text-based narrative, is that with a fantastic (in the literal sense) world like Panzer, it’s hard to get that across in the beginning.

Had I just jumped right into the story, the uninitiated would automatically assume that it’s just some futuristic sci-fi story, or even a modern sci-fi story, but as was discussed in a previous thread, establishing that there are two moons automatically transports it the story to the realm of fantasy.

Oh, and just so you know, those names for the moons are made up.

31

Ah, so one of those moons could still be a Death Star after all? :wink:

32

OMG - that is very well written right there. You should just keep writing that little snippet as if were written in a journal by someone in the Empire who suffered from severe guilt of his/her actions. Forget about the rest - this is the part that sticks out the most and has the most impact. As a would-be writer, I’m quite jealous I didn’t write it myself.

33

Thanks :slight_smile:

The voice in that snippet is intentionally different from the rest. There’s a very specific reason for that. Hopefully, if I ever finish, you’ll see why.

34

I like all of it, greatly written, I could almost see the city and the huge monoliths and people going about their business the way it was described :slight_smile:
Don’t worry Kadamose, I’m sure we’ll see more of that type of storytelling as the tale goes on, it doesn’t look like it just ended there at all… It’s just a change of setting to explain us something more (propably about the past, before the first paragraph was written?) before continuing that part later… or much later… or much much later… We’ll have to wait and see when Abadd is done :slight_smile:
Great job Abadd, I envy you :slight_smile:

35

Question: Is that narrator in the beginning an Ancient? Is the reason why italics are used for that paragraph is because it’s past tense?

36

well… ok even if the new things weren’t 1000 times more powerful, i think they could get some interesting stuff out of it. i personally just love the guardians (nuse, golia, guardian dragon) and all of those really giant monstrousities from the ancient age. i think drones could be the key to the new series, rather than always have a tower being the problem in the end, it could be crazy drones like abadd. i’d love to see a drone reawaken an army of guardians and attack the empire or even just seeing the golia attack a caravan would make my day :smiley:

or how about this: the game would be about the tower’s purpose and the ramifications of cutting them off. say the towers were supposed to prepare the world for something… the arrival/awakening of something… but those pesky humans shut them down… yet this unknown something still arrives/awakens on schedule and it’s pissed cause someone turned off the towers…

37

It’s a character that will appear in the story that is talking. :smiley:

38

Your story seems very promising Abbad. I would like to see more of it.

I don’t know if the Towers should make a comeback in a new game, but I would like to see the interior of a tower again. If they were very beatiful in a hardware made in 97, I can only dream how it would look in a next-gen system.

39

If it wasn’t for my english Id be working on a real fanfic right now…
That’s what I hate in English, it’s so basic that it gets tough to translate Romace languages to it without sounding basic…

Oh well.

About that fanfic Abadd : those names sound Panzerish enough :slight_smile:

thinks about Jean Jacques Lundi and Karl frederic Craymen

NOOOOO!!!

40

English is definitely not an easy language. Most of the subtlety comes from slight nuances in the phrasing and the wording, so unless you know exactly how you want the line to feel, and you have the appropriate vocabulary, it can be difficult. I’ve given up on many stories just because I didn’t know how to express certain things in words…

Which is why I wish I studied film :frowning:

I so envy Charlie Kaufman.