Panzer Dragoon: Remake is a Third-Person shmup that sees us play as a nameless protagonist who is suddenly entrusted with both a dragon and an important mission after witnessing an aerial fight that ended badly. This as the title suggests is a remake of 1995’s Panzer Dragoon which was a standout game for the Sega Saturn and was then ported over to the PC a year later. It is largely overshadowed by its sequel these days, yet this is a near-exact recreation of the original with no added gameplay mechanics or stages. If that is for better or worse is up to the individual, though it unmistakably feels like an older title.
That fact is far from a bad thing. Sure its sequel Zwei is near objectively the better game, however, the original is far from a slouch and very much worth playing. Booting it up will greet you with a completely remade cutscene using this game’s new engine. All cutscenes in this game are frankly pretty unnecessary and offer little information about anything, yet that was how the original was like. Once again, for better or worse, this is an extremely faithful remake.
Digging into the options menu you will see a couple of interesting choices. You can change between the original soundtrack or a remastered one, make the controls feel more modern, and change the targeting cursor. For your first run, I’d recommend not changing anything aside from maybe the cursor if its depth is too strange to get used to. Once you select New Game, it will let you choose from three difficulty options. If it has been a while or if you’ve never even played Panzer Dragoon before, I’d suggest picking the easiest since this title has some rather unique mechanics that will take some time to get used to.
And then we’re off into the first of seven stages. On the technical side of the graphics, this is clearly a low budget title. What carries it is the amazing art direction of this colorful and very detailed world. I was taken aback by how great it looked, more so when compared to the old Saturn version. The stage’s enemy placements and hazard layouts are near identical to the original, it is in the environments where they took a ton of creative freedom. It was an exciting prospect to finish this level and see what they have done with the rest of the game. None of the remade visuals for the stages disappointed, it is art in motion and always quite the sight to behold.
As for the gameplay itself, we have two forms of attacks. If we tap the face buttons, our character will shoot his gun as fast as we can press them. On the other hand, holding one of those buttons will have our dragon mark any enemy the cursor hovers over and release a powerful tracking beam. The latter will be your main form of attack due to its high damage, yet your gun has its uses. For one, it can shoot enemies at a greater distance, and another key aspect is that it can destroy some unavoidable projectiles coming your way. Enemies do not stay onscreen forever, they will disappear if not destroyed quickly and we are solely graded on how many of that level’s foes were slain.
Depending if you are playing with the modern or classic control scheme, your dragon will move to where you are aiming. The modern scheme allows you to control movement and aiming separately, though I found it made the title more difficult as situations can be a bit too chaotic & fast-paced at times. It plays like a regular shmup when you are facing forward, but in this title, enemies can appear from any direction. When you face to either side or behind you, you can not control your dragon. You’ll find yourself stationary as it merely flies forward where you left it. This is where your gun is at its most handy. Many times you have far too little time to face forward again to move and dodge an attack, instead you must shoot it down. It plays similar to a light gun game ala House of the Dead on these occasions.
That 360-degree area to worry about can get overwhelming if you are not used to it, hence my suggestion to start on Easy. This may have been designed for a console, but it plays more like an Arcade game. It is around an hour long and it will be a challenging experience to make up for that. Destroying as many enemies on a stage and getting a good grade is more than just a thing to do for bragging rights. Doing so will grant you more credits to restart a level should you die. Lose all of them and it is back to the beginning of the title.
If you are playing on Easy and have ever played a shmup, you shouldn’t have much of a problem. It is nowhere near the level of difficulty you’d find in most Arcade titles as this is still a console title. The entire journey will take you just under an hour from start to finish. Even less if you decide to skip the cutscenes. Each of the seven levels have a greatly different theme from one another. You’ll start off fighting your way through flooded ruins, make your way across what appears to be an alien ship, and fight your way through what looks to be a WW2 era European city, to name a few. Panzer Dragoon has a ton of style and this remake amplifies that with the amazing art direction.
After you finish the title on any difficulty, you will unlock Episode 0. It is a survival type mode where you fight until you ultimately meet your end. You will need to enter a cheat code on the main menu to access it. I for the life of me can not enter this code and access that mode. All my information comes from people that have the Switch version, while I played it via Google Stadia with a PS4 controller. The Switch can hit 60fps via performance mode and has motion controls. Stadia has much-improved graphics and maintains 60fps throughout. As of this writing, those are the only two platforms in where you can get this title form.
Panzer Dragoon: Remake may be less than an hour-long, yet you’ll definitely want to replay it once more to hear the remastered soundtrack. It is not as good as the original, in my opinion, but it’s still a fantastic composition well worth a listen. While dated in some ways thanks to its faithful recreation, this title is still a great deal of fun and worth getting even for those that aren’t familiar with the series. The unique world, amazing music, and simple yet addicting gameplay make it a journey shmup fans will still enjoy to this day. This remake while not adding much in the way of content does give the classic title its much needed modern face-lift and polish, bringing the initial awe of playing it back then into the current age.
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