Panzer Dragoon (Saturn) Playthrough - NintendoComplete

A playthrough of Sega's 1995 fantasy rail-shooter for the Sega Saturn, Panzer Dragoon.
Played through on normal mode.
Panzer Dragoon was one of the handful of games Sega had ready for the launch of the 32-bit Saturn system in the Spring of 1995, and wow. If only Virtua Fighter and Daytona USA's ports had been done with this much care and polish, one can only imagine how much better the system would've sold in those vital months leading up to the release of the PlayStation.
At its heart, PD is a rail shooter that plays similarly to Star Fox or Space Harrier. To call it a clone of either of those, however, would be to ignore everything that makes it so special.
A ton of effort was clearly put into establishing the world. The art style isn't one you see often - the muted colors, the architecture, and the organic, alien enemy designs really pull together to create an amazingly cohesive picture. Though it takes clear inspiration from a number of European works, it synthesizes all of these elements into a wholly new and unique identity for itself.
The sound design is much the same. The characters all speak "Panzerese," which is a fusion of several real-world languages created specifically for the game, and it does an amazing job at making the speech sound distinctly familiar and alien all at once. The soundtrack supports it well with some brilliant combinations of traditional instruments and synthesizer pads - it's not memorable in the way that you'll hum it forever, but its unforgettable in just how well it contributes to the larger presentation. It's absolutely beautiful, and stands on its own more than well enough to justify buying the soundtrack.
All of these elements mesh in a natural way, and feel "right" in how they each take a role in shaping the narrative. The story is excellent, but it is everything working together in concert that makes it so effective.
The gameplay itself is simple, but it requires a fair amount of strategy and reflexes to stay on top of everything - Panzer Dragoon is not an easy game. I actually wish PD Zwei hadn't dialed the difficulty level back as far as it did from the original. I've always found this one's challenge to be pitch perfect.
Panzer Dragoon is as much a modern work of art as it is a video game, and because of this it has aged well. The framerate isn't great and the low-resolution texture work looks rough, sure. But for a launch game on a system that wasn't known for its 3D power, it did wonders. The aesthetic transcends all of the technical limitations of its era with ease.
It's a fantastic experience that will stay with you long after you've beaten it, and it's not like anything else you'll likely ever play, its sequel included. If you own a Saturn, you need this game. And if you don't own one, the Panzer Dragoon trilogy is more than enough reason to pick one up.
If you're interested, you can find my playthrough of the Switch remake here: • Panzer Dragoon: Remake...
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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[@NintendoComplete]

Panzer Dragoon is one of those rare, unforgettable masterpieces that never got its due. As both a game and as a work of art, it succeeds spectacularly.

[@agarza915]

Are you using a rapid fire controller?

[@NintendoComplete]

@@agarza915 Nope. The game did allow you to assign fire to multiple buttons though, so I usually just hammer both A and B at the same time. Twice the firepower with the same effort :)

[@yusakug]

Ladies and gentlemen, the killer app for the U.S. Sega Saturn launch. As much as Sega of America botched the launch of the system by releasing it early, this game's greatness still showed through. If there had just been a few more games this great to play over the summer months in 95, maybe the Saturn would have gotten more attention before the Plasytation launched on September 9th of that year.

[@DoomedEtiquette]

awesome video- one of my fav games im a huge panzer fan.. i even had panzer dragoon saga 4 disk set on saturn witch is a MASTERPIECE! Also the panzer soundtrack is unbelievable.

[@Xelpherpolis]

Saturn wasn't much to look at back in the day but gahdDAMN if it wasn't leagues ahead of the competition in terms of sound. This soundtrack is so objectively perfect they literally just ripped it from this game for the remake on Switch, and it was actually the CORRECT decision.

[@nintendorakyamato1859]

Real Masterpiece

[@MarkCabaniss]

Always love seeing your content, NintendoComplete! 😊

[@kmapharmd]

This is an extremely great masterpiece, this is like Nausicaa and the Iron giant

[@Dorelaxen]

I didn't acquire my Saturn until after a Playstation, but I gotta say, it always made me wonder just how badly Sega could fail when they had this level of quality. Of course now we know the true story behind it all, but still. Makes me wonder what could have been.

[@NintendoComplete]

If nothing else, I guess it's a lesson in how important perception is when marketing something, eh? If you market gold as shit, undersell it, or present it under a banner with a marred reputation, nobody will want it :/

[@stantonbentley2534]

Dorelaxen I'm glad people are finding a new appreciation for the Saturn. There are plenty of awesome games for it. As for the console itself, it wasn't just a 2D console with poor 3D capabilities, it was actually powerful for its time, a lot more 'raw' processing power than the PS but, of course, getting all those processors working together and understanding how it did 3D was the key! This is a real gem of a game; oh that sound chip generated music! It's a shame the source code for the even better Panzer Dragoon Saga was lost. How in the hell did that happen?

[@POLE7645]

The console was notoriously difficult to program with so very few developers could use it’s full capabilities. Especially the 3D capabilities. If I remember correctly (and I could be wrong), 3D on Saturn wasn’t based on triangles (like on the other consoles) but on Quads. Also, the chip used was so notoriously poor (made by nVidia before they hit their stride) that it was refered as a 3D decelarator by many. It’s kind of a miracle that Panzer Dragoon turned out as good as it did.

[@Dorelaxen]

@@POLE7645 You misunderstand. PD was amazing. Sega was putting out quality games one after another, yet they failed miserably in the market, with the Dreamcast being their death knell. I always wondered how that happened. The games were great, the consoles were great, yet they failed time and again against Sony and Nintendo. Bad management was really the only answer here.

[@fahriakalin5936]

reminds me of the NES shooter Dragon Spirit

[@MultiVince95]

Great video dude

[@LPetal86]

A spectacular game, and one of too many I missed. As a kid I would've LOVED to have a Saturn back in the day but had to stay a Genesis kid until 1998 when the N64 came out--I hope to rectify this soon. Thank you for posting a playthrough where there aren't deaths all over the place! You uh, wouldn't happen to have _Panzer Dragoon Orta_ , would you?

[@NintendoComplete]

I actually do have it. I might record that at some point ;)

[@barrybend7189]

@@NintendoComplete fun fact one of the two X Box magazine disks actually has a downloadable code to unlock everything on Panzer Dragoon Orta. I have both of them but I got to get the game.

[@therealseanw.stewart2071]

This game I've definitely heard of as being one of the better Saturn titles. It basically looks like Star Fox 64, but with a dragon!

[@NintendoComplete]

Yeah. Tbh, I like the PD series much more than StarFox :)

[@barrybend7189]

Actual 3D better than false 3D.

[@NintendoComplete]

@@barrybend7189 I think that depends entirely on how either was done. A lot of games that used heavy 2D scaling looked far better than early 3D games. Just look at Sega 's stuff from the late 80s. It took quite awhile for real-time 3D to surpass that.

[@李재성]

However it did mean a drop in frame rate with Panzer Dragoon only being at 20 fps. Still a great game though.

[@ultrachaoscontrol860]

Are you excited for the remake? 😁

[@Seras99]

Not sure if you do any game request and all, but.... Since you have a CD-I.... Is it possible that you might do all four of the Nintendo CD-I games? I'm just... Curious if you had the challenge to do it. :)

[@NintendoComplete]

Man, that is a huge ask lol. I'll have to think about it, but no promises :p

[@Seras99]

Oh ok! Let me know if you're committed to do it!

[@glimamou6258]

This game start like alice in wonderland...but the protagonist chase a purple mutant sand scorpion in a hole instead of a white rabbit!

[@thecowboy2]

The dragon made a noble self sacrifice to end the Ancient Tower..... or did it really die?

[@Alianger]

mono streaming cutscenes at 32khz

[@COREMEMORYUNLOCKED]

this chanel have uploaded your video kzbin.info/www/bejne/r2qqZKOwrd1lmNU

[@NintendoComplete]

Thanks, I appreciate the heads up.

[@timkasansky2528]

Wow this intro is unbearable. full of action yet much more boring than Zwei that barely has any. It's not only the game that got much better, cutscene direction is also much improved on Zwei.