Panzer Dragoon Orta

THE BAD:
The length of the game is a bit short, but for that it makes up in challenge. It can feel a bit too arcade-ish at times, but thats mainly just the first level. And none of the dialogue was in english, so you have to read it all which I thought was sort of a pain.

SUMMARY:
|Story|

You play as a young girl, Orta. She has been imprisoned her entire life, and she has yet to even know why. Until one day a mysterious dragon saves her from a group of Dragonmares (the empires creation), and from there on she has developed a strong relationship with this dragon. On their path to discover her true destiny, they must fight and evade the evil empire. The story is solid, and entertaining. It really helps make this game shine.

|Morph Forms|


The mysterious dragon that you ride on has three different forms. They are:

The Base Wing. The basic form, offering a good balance of attacking and maneuvering ability. The Base Wing has the glide attack and homing laser capabilities, and can lock on to a large number of enemies at once.

The Heavy Wing. The most powerful form, but lacks maneuverablitiy. The Heavy Wing has a stong Bio-laser attack, and cannot lock onto as many targets as the Base Wing. The Heavy Wing's berserk attack can be manually aimed. Also, the Heavy Wing does not support the Glide Attack.

The Glide Wing. The most agile form, and it has the largest Glide gauge. Although the Glide Wing does not support homing lasers, it can fire multiple gun shots that will home in on enemies that are in the larger target sight. The Glide Wing's berserk attack heals.

Each form has a weakness and a strength over the other. One will come in handy where the other doesn't, and vice versa. They will also level up and become even stronger. The max level is 3.


|Gameplay & Controls|

The action is almost non-stop. You will be soaring through masses of enemies trying to dodge and successfully take them out at the same time. The game can get so intense that at times you think you can feel the wind blowing through your air, and start to get sick at all the mad turns you make. Enemies can and will attack from all sides of you, so its best to make use of the 360 degrees camera that you can manual use to get the best view on things. And surprisingly enough, the camera is very easy to control. You can make 90 degree turns with the tap of the left/right trigger and 180 degree turns by tapping both the left and right triggers.

To use your homing missles you simple hold in A and scroll your target sight over the enemy(ies) you wish to attack and then release. And by tapping A continously you will fire Orta's hand gun. All with the exception of the Glide Wing, where you can hold in A and Orta will continue to fire her hand gun. The Glide Attack is used by pressing O. The glide feature is not just for attacking enemies, it can be used to speed up to dodge incoming missles or ships, or if you use Square the dragon will use its wings to push back and slow you down for a few seconds. To shift and move the dragon, you make use of only the Left thumbstick. Which is definetly a good thing, because it leaves your right hand do all the shooting instead of occupying the right thumbstick.

|Replay Value|


Although the game is rather short, it has 12 side-missions, and includes the original Panzer Dragoon game for Sega Saturn. All of which are unlockable. It really does help the game's length. The game was meant to be played more than once, and it should.

This game is now one of my favorite games of all time. IGN even dubs it: "The Best Rail Shooter Ever. Period."

I would consider this game a must for any 'fast paced shooters' lovers.