Panzer Dragoon Saga and how it came to be.

[Atticus]

Saga was brilliant. I have very fond memories of playing it. I love the safe places in RPGs, whether it's a room in an inn or whatever, and Saga's campfire with it's perfectly suited music always felt great after a battle.

I'd love to play it again but I sold my copy ages ago and it's a little crazy these days.

[Zaki]

Saga was brilliant. I have very fond memories of playing it. I love the safe places in RPGs, whether it's a room in an inn or whatever, and Saga's campfire with it's perfectly suited music always felt great after a battle.

I'd love to play it again but I sold my copy ages ago and it's a little crazy these days.

This really is one of the best videogame tracks in existence!

[Super Monkey Balls]

Replaying it on Xbone has confirmed for me that Orta is in fact the best in the series, and one of the last truly great Sega games sadly.

[Team Andromeda]

Replaying it on Xbone has confirmed for me that Orta is in fact the best in the series, and one of the last truly great Sega games sadly.

Yep pretty much. Though I thought Binary Domain was an amazing game and felt like a full on proper old school SEGA game. That was the last game to really have the SEGA magic

[Dogg Thang]

Orta wasn't as controlled as Zwei in my view. Zwei is my favourite rails shooter by far and the only one I ever got 100% on. I adore that game. The gameplay, the look, the music is all incredible.

Saga was such a beautiful expansion of that world and I found it so immersive. Yes, the soundtrack is wonderful - one of my favourite game soundtracks and also one that introduced me to the fact that game soundtracks actually got CD releases (ended up inadvertently buying a bootleg before getting the real deal). The game was epic and just sucked me right into that world. Some of the dragon exploration parts felt a bit lonely to me (as in not much to do but go from A to B) but the overall experience was great.

And it was pretty hard hitting at times, if I remember correctly.

Like a lot of Sega games, it seems such a shame that the game hasn't been remade in some form.

[fishbowlhead]

Replaying it on Xbone has confirmed for me that Orta is in fact the best in the series, and one of the last truly great Sega games sadly.

Entire Yakuza series says hi! 🖐

[Team Andromeda]

Entire Yakuza series says hi! ��

Not everyone likes Yakuza and most SEGA fans would see it as a poor mans Shenmue. I like the series, but SEGA has been running it into the ground of late, with yearly sequels and each one, feeling much like the last.

[Neon Ignition]

It'll definitely be good when Kiwami 2 is out and the western markets are pretty much caught up. The series needs to space out its releases, I've left Y6 alone so far simply because I'm burnt out on them

[Sketcz]

Yep they lost the source code. Typical Sega.

It's been alluded to that it was deliberately destroyed. An internal power struggle between department heads at Sega which resulted in the original code being discarded in the resulting management clash.

Futatsugi has told interviewers the reasons in several interviews, but always requesting it not be printed. However, in GamesTM #125 on page 142 they gave the reason:

"According to Futatsugi, an internal power struggle between department heads at Sega resulted in the series being put to rest. [...] The original code, it has been suggested, may have been discarded in the resulting management clash."

EDIT: for the record, I was not the journalist who wrote that GamesTM article, nor have I ever interviewed Futatsugi. A much older interview with James Mielke is also somewhat cryptic, saying Futatsugi gave the reasons, but asked it not be mentioned. From what I recall being told by Strider on here, GamesTM were not supposed to reveal as much as they did in that interview.

[kellog7]

In case anyone's interested, the Pal version of Orta is now fully playable on the 360. It used to crash at the end of Chapter 3, but they've added an update, presumably for the Xbone BC, which gets rid of the bug.

[S3M]

It's been alluded to that it was deliberately destroyed. An internal power struggle between department heads at Sega which resulted in the original code being discarded in the resulting management clash.

Futatsugi has told interviewers the reasons in several interviews, but always requesting it not be printed. However, in GamesTM #125 on page 142 they gave the reason:


EDIT: for the record, I was not the journalist who wrote that GamesTM article, nor have I ever interviewed Futatsugi. A much older interview with James Mielke is also somewhat cryptic, saying Futatsugi gave the reasons, but asked it not be mentioned. From what I recall being told by Strider on here, GamesTM were not supposed to reveal as much as they did in that interview.

I believe it wasn't just Saga that lost its source code Zewi and PD1's seemed to have vanished along with just about ever Sega made Saturn game going.

It's been suggested that some at Sega believe the project curse due to the troubled development and the code might have been destroyed due to superstition some people had about the project and the Saturn.

[Sketcz]

In case anyone's interested, the Pal version of Orta is now fully playable on the 360. It used to crash at the end of Chapter 3, but they've added an update, presumably for the Xbone BC, which gets rid of the bug.

Cheers - saw the news about it for Xbone, but wasn't sure if it was for 360 too. Reckon I will be buying this soon-ish.

[Team Andromeda]

It's been suggested that some at Sega believe the project curse due to the troubled development and the code might have been destroyed due to superstition some people had about the project and the Saturn.

I think that is just make-believe, think like that SEGA wouldn't go anywhere near the IP make a sequel or SEGA Ages 2600 version of the IP, much less keep the source code to the Saturn and PC originals. Think its very much that SEGA didn't look to have various back ups and that it didn't deem games so imporant and how they'll be any sort demand for low selling games to be remixed in the future.

Find it very strange how source code to Panzer Dragoon, Die Hard Arcade, Dragon Force, Sakura wars Ect is kept, but then others aren't. So I just put it down to not really looking after the back ups or not worrying if a HD fails. I can think of plenty of amazing PS games that have let to see a remaster tbh.

I remember a interview with AM#2 and they said when they moved to their new Floor, the source code for Daytona USA was lost and that caused massive issues for the Saturn port, where the Saturn Staff had to play the Arcade game down on the shop floor to check AI cars had the correct features and colour set, untill someone found the soruce code lol.

If the soruce code is really lost or damaged. SEGA should just reprint the Saturn version, but you be a nice touch

[S3M]

Find it very strange how source code to Panzer Dragoon, Die Hard Arcade, Dragon Force, Sakura wars Ect is kept, but then others aren't. So I just put it down to not really looking after the back ups or not worrying if a HD fails. I can think of plenty of amazing PS games that have let to see a remaster tbh.

Don't think you understand TA the Saturn source code of Panzer Dragon is gone by all accounts, all the later versions are based on the PC release include the PlayStation 2 as some effects seen in the Saturn version don't appear in any others. While some departments at Sega seem better at keep their code than others the picture overall isn't good. You can however reverse engineer a game as long as you have a final version, but that is very time consuming and costly

This video did a great breakdown on the Panzer Dragoon changes:

[phillai]

I looked on eBay and I can't believe how much Panzer Dragoon Saga is still worth!!