Panzer Dragoon Remake

Panzer Dragoon spans six levels, each lasting about five minutes, with a variety of boss battles. Over the course of the game, the plot is revealed through cutscenes using the game's own graphic engine. Gameplay consists of a player controlling a flying dragon and his rider through an aiming reticle that can be moved over the whole screen with the D-pad; the player must shoot a variety of enemies (ranging from machines to monsters) in a 3D post-apocalyptic fantasy environment of barren landscapes and mysterious ruins of a fallen civilization. Progression through the levels is made at a predetermined pace, as the player is constantly set along a rail of gameplay.

The only time the game pauses is during boss battles. The field of vision can be directed with the aiming reticle on the x and y-axis, but the overall direction of travel is predetermined. The dragon follows the reticle movements, allowing the player to avoid enemy projectiles and obstacles.

Panzer Dragoon is set in the distant future, thousands of years after a great war between humans and their biologically engineered weapons, when humans live in everything from small tribes to large nations. One nation, the Empire, has discovered a black tower in the middle of a lake near their capital, which gave them access to large amounts of ancient weapons which they used to beat back and control the ever present monsters in the world. The Imperials were corrupted by this power and became conquerors of others as opposed to liberators from a violent world.

The introduction movie opens with the protagonist, Keil Fluge (unnamed in the North American version), hunting in a canyon. After seeing an Imperial flying battleship in the sky, he is attacked by two creatures and chases one of them to a large, ancient complex built directly into the rock. He explores the ruin, and sees relics of old technology still hanging from the ceilings. Another gigantic creature suddenly attacks him, and though his weapon is useless against the armored creature, a rumbling triggers a cave in, which crushes the monster and saves Keil.

Panzer Dragoon was created in the early 1990s as the Japanese video game company Sega was preparing to release its Saturn console. In 1993, as the Saturn lacked third-party games, Sega asked its developers for game ideas; according to art director Manabu Kusunoki, Sega asked for shooting game ideas to add variety to the Saturn's launch library. Twenty-three-year-old Yukio Futatsugi, who had joined Sega only two years before, proposed several concepts, including Panzer Dragoon. Futatsugi became the head of Team Andromeda, a development team that Sega assembled for the project in early 1994 and was built around the duo formed by Futatsugi and Kusunoki. Development lasted almost a year, with a staff of 15.

The project was designed as arcade-style, as core members of the team like Kusunoki came from Sega's arcade department. Team Andromeda wanted to create a fully 3D arcade game, having worked on similar games such as Out Run which were not truly 3D. With influences including Space Harrier, Starblade, Star Fox, and RayForce, the project became a 3D rail shooter. Usually, in 3D shooters, the player rides a 3D object like a jet fighter or a tank.

Panzer Dragoon received positive reviews, both in 1995 and in retrospective coverage. Though sales were not as high as Sega expected, possibly due to the success of Sony's PlayStation console over the Saturn, they were substantial enough for Sega to develop sequels.

As one of the first Saturn games, Panzer Dragoon was highly anticipated by journalists after its appearance in promotional material. A reviewer for Next Generation said the game "orchestrates incredible story animation with brilliant, 3D flight graphics to create what is, basically, the ultimate evolution of Space Harrier." He also highly praised the gameplay, particularly the variety of enemies, the difficulty slope, and the controls. Ed Semrad and Danyon Carpenter from Electronic Gaming Monthly praised the game for its "innovative game play" and its "awe-inspiring visuals" from the opening cinematic to the backgrounds and the dragon's animations.