PDS is truly in a league of its own, in a genre I like to refer to as the "arthouse RPG." Much like Shenmue, PDS was an insanely ambitious and forward-thinking game released by Sega as the unintentional swansong for their console at the time, and it still holds up to this day thanks to its bold and unique gameplay and battle system, compelling story, beautiful world and amazing 3D visuals by the Saturn's standards. If you take interest in the Saturn this game is unmissable... unfortunately it's also notoriously rare and INSANELY expensive... but I don't give a shit- pirate it, emulate it, burn it to a CD-R and run it off PseudoSaturn if you have to. You'll never play another RPG quite like it.

this game is a luxury item. it’s refined. it has no cruft whatsoever. it also has no equal; there are no videogames like panzer dragoon saga. even the other entries in the series (which are beautiful, don’t get me wrong) don’t hold a candle to how excellent it is. it feels like a game from the future, a future where the medium has matured and thrown off so much of the bullshit that holds it down.
all that being said, saga does not go down easy. i had to work to focus on it and play it through to the end, which seems incongruous, given how much i loved it the whole time. i also don’t really know why this was the case or what could have been done differently (either in terms of its design or in my approach to playing it) to counter this. i want to lay the blame at my own feet rather than the game’s, because i think the things that made it harder to swallow are precisely the absence of cruft and excess and skinner-box evils that make it feel so futuristic. it has no grinding or side-quests or time-wasting of any kind. it has plenty of secrets and the world feels rich and dense. it respects itself too much to string you along with little dopamine hits. it’s frankly a miraculous game. i spent my whole playthrough waiting for it to pull some bullshit that would sour everything and it never did.
extraordinarily good game. audio-visually stunning. beautiful towns. great writing. mechanically triumphant. constantly surprising, and so well put together. it’s crazy to me that team andromeda did such incredible work and then just fuckn dipped. criminal.

panzer dragoon saga is a game with a reputation, to say the least. most of the reviews of saga on this very site spend more time masturbating to the game’s rarity or building up the game’s prestige. this isn’t gonna be that! lol. i really enjoyed my time with PDS, but i don’t really buy into the exclusive narrative that’s been built around it. this isn’t a rare gem shining in the rough, anyone with a computer made in the last decade can go play it right now.
so if panzer dragoon saga isn’t an underrated gem or a masturbatory retro gamer status symbol, what is it? the obvious answer would be that panzer dragoon saga is very unique. members of team andromeda have identified themselves in the years since release as being driven by counter cultural tendencies, wanting to make something fully their own, and that streak of contrarianism certainly does run all over saga. unlike most JRPGs, saga isn’t a character driven game or a plot driven game. saga’s selling point is a lot closer to what we’ve seen in WRPGs that followed it, it’s a game about a lifelike and lore-rich world, where the story is more of an excuse to get the player to engage with it. like the previous PD games, the environmental storytelling is superb, but what i find especially impressive about saga is just how much flavor text is present and just how much detail is thought out for how these imaginary people are able to live. saga is surprisingly textual for a game of its era and with its limitations. for every monster you see, there’s a description of how it’s shell is hollowed out into bowls, or how the stomach is dried into water bags. this focus is refreshing, but it’s also somewhere i could see they could have done more. for a game with such an emphasis on a living world, the way saga handles character interaction is often stilted and limited. a good amount of the playtime in saga is spent in the “village” segments, where the player is essentially exploring populated environments and gathering information, and oftentimes these segments have information that is locked behind talking to characters multiple times or talking to specific characters in a specific order. this means that the pacing of the game, while quick, often feels held up by trial and error. i don’t mind this too much in the main story, because i always enjoyed the dialogue, but it was very deflating to learn that i had missed plenty of side content simply because i hadn’t spent time repeatedly talking to npcs with unchanging dialogue. to me, it also felt disappointing that sidequests were limited in their scope. it feels very cool to go on a hunting mission and solve an environmental puzzle to get medicine to save a villagers life… but it feels a lot less cool when your reward is a stock weapon that you can get anywhere by the time you receive it. i was overjoyed in the few parts of the game when the player is rewarded for exploring with more background information or detail to the world, and wish those types of moments were more common. speaking of background information, saga actually does connect to the rail shooters that preceded it in a lot of really interesting ways, and I appreciate that it didn’t feel as though the game was trying hard to point it out to the audience. they mostly let you connect things yourself in relation to the other two games, which leads to a lot of cool moments that really does make the world feel as though it had always been considered in detail rather than made up as they went along.
one of the things i can give unambiguous praise to in saga is the battle system. i’ve always been a detractor of ATB in the final fantasy games, but saga is able to use its rail shooter roots to iterate on it in a way that makes every encounter engaging. instead of having 1 bar that counts for all options, you have 3, with a standard shot or laser taking up one bar and magic abilities taking up two. in addition, your dragon maneuvers through 4 quadrants around the enemy, with danger and safe zones depending on the enemies position and what attack they’re going for. your standard attacks can be fired with a single button press and can be chained without using up time, meaning effective players will be bobbing and weaving around enemies before unloading their gauges on weak positions. enemy behavior in saga is varied as well, making the player feel as though they’re on a hunt, needing to learn the biology of what they’re up against. in another tradition lifted from the rail shooters, the player is even graded on how well they handle individual encounters, with higher xp gains and item drops given based on better grades, so every encounter is engaging. you never feel like you’re better off brute forcing past the designed strategies, and you never feel like your time is being wasted, which is saying something when dealing with an ATB-like system. my only real complaint with the battle system is that magic feels unnuanced and implemented almost as an afterthought. magic isn’t bad when used against enemies that you don’t fully understand, but it’s not very rewarding to use and many spells just feel like the previous one but stronger. spell descriptions are also extremely unhelpful, giving you basically no hard knowledge for their gameplay application.
i am far from an expert musically but i’ll be damned if this isn’t one of the coolest OSTs i’ve ever heard. an inspired mix of world music and chunky synthesizers, the level of spectacle present in the battles is thankfully matched by the music. the dungeon music is more on the ambient side much of the time, but it’s still wonderful and complements the atmosphere beautifully.
where team andromeda’s countercultural ambitions really hurt the game, i feel, is in the story. sagas story has a very, very strong hook and tons of great ideas. i love the idea of a story where the protagonist is caught in a conflict fought between self-serving factions bickering on the brink of annihilation. i love the idea of the protagonist being more of an unwitting pawn being used by those around him, falling backwards into a political game beyond his understanding. i love the idea of a human weapon learning to be human, and feeling indebted to those who control her. i especially love the core theme of the story, which i won’t spoil here. the issue with PDS’ story is that i don’t feel any of these things. andromeda has been open that it was an active goal to avoid the melodrama that defines franchises like final fantasy in favor of a more subtle and contemplative plot, but i feel that what we get here doesn’t fulfill those intentions well either. the runtime leaves the emotional beats of the story feeling half-hearted and rushed, despite the excellent foundation. a version of panzer dragoon saga with even 2 or 3 more hours of meat to its plot might be worthy of the “best JRPG of all time” title, and what’s here is still very cerebral and thematically interesting, but I find it difficult to analyze a plot that I just don’t care about first. this is especially present in the character of Azel, who the plot revolves around, and is ostensibly intended to be the main character, but has woefully little screentime for how much could have been done with her. the core relationship between her and Edge is no Squall and Rinoa, and it doesn’t need to be, but it’s no Amuro and Lalah either.
all in all, is panzer dragoon saga the best rpg ever made or the most underrated game ever? is it worth 1,200 dollars on ebay? no, i don’t think so. but it is a game that I would wholeheartedly recommend to anyone who is even a little interested, because you will NEVER play a game like this again. saga is always happy to dance to the beat of its own 32-bit african-tribal-inspired drum. with synth flutes in the background. and lasers all over the screen.

This game feels like it exists in the Ecco the Dolphin universe. I love it.

A good game that respects your time. In-flight RPG battles are pretty great and visually interesting. Feels very of "it's time" which is a good thing. The dragon ability morphing is kind of bonkers how it changes the visuals of the dragons.

I can't imagine if I had played this in the 90's when I was a teenager. Big recommend if you're a fan of low-poly and RPGs.

Resident Evil Zero is yet another installment in the series whose reputation and infamy precedes it. This is the game that features no item boxes, constrained inventory, high difficulty, controversial multi-character mechanics, and those damned evil monkeys. I was pleasantly surprised to find that those concerns did not greatly impact my time with the game, and in fact I found it to be a very enjoyable experience overall.

Unlike previous entries in the series, you control protagonists Rebecca Chambers and Billy Coen in tandem, switching back and forth as needed. They each have a paltry 6 inventory slots for a total of 12 slots, and there are no item storage boxes in this game. Instead, at almost any time, you can drop an item on the floor and create your own impromptu storage. This change has a massive impact on the overall design of Zero compared to its predecessors. I understand it is considered a controversial change, but I quite liked the effects of the change in curbing my worst impulses. Normally I hoard ammo and healing items until the end of Resident Evil titles, and then let loose near the end. I often find I could've made the rest of the game easier for myself by being less stingy. In Zero you do not have this option, as you can only bring so many items forward with you. In return, there is almost always enough ammo, healing items, and especially ink ribbons wherever you go. I was astonished at the number of ink ribbons. Every single typewriter in the game has 3 ink ribbons in the same room, at least on Normal mode. I saved extremely frequently as a result. Generally, there is enough ammo nearby to get past any enemy encounters, and it is often an ammo type particularly suited to killing nearby creatures. I did come close to running out of ammo with one protagonist near the end of the game during a certain section where the pair is split, though that is partially on me as I had only given them the grenade launcher. These design elements resulted in me playing looser and freer with my ammo and healing, and had a better time as a result. I was forced to make choices about what items to bring forward. Some of those choices were tough, but others were not. Leaving behind the terrible hunting gun was fine when the shotgun is a straight upgrade over it. Leaving behind one of the protagonists' pistols was tougher, but it was ultimately the right choice, as the game even spells it out for you by only offering one set of upgrade parts.

Not all is well with the inventory system. I was fortunate that I did not run into any significant issues, but I noticed some traps that were present. The abominable hookshot key item is a nuisance, taking up two precious inventory slots and requiring many uses throughout the game. The gap between the first use and the second is very long, and I could see how a player might leave it behind, and then be forced to backtrack a significant way to retrieve it. I personally kept the hookshot with me when moving between major areas, as I am used to key items asking you if you want to discard them when they are finished being used, which the hookshot did not prompt. Unfortunately the hookshot never prompts this at all, even when it is finished being used, but a quick google search solved that problem for me. This is made worse by the fact that at one point in the game when transitioning through areas, there is a change in the environment that forces you to backtrack through a corridor full of evil monkeys if you have left anything behind. These monkeys are demons. They are so quick the auto-lock on mechanic can't keep up. They jump around. They do a significant amount of damage, and if two monkeys are present in the same room they can stun lock you into a quick death. They are absolutely a huge pain to deal with and I understand their infamy. On the bright side, there are only three monkeys in the whole game that you are forced to deal with, in a puzzle room. Any other monkeys can be easily ran past or outright avoided by taking alternative routes. Of course, if you plan poorly and leave a valuable item behind, then you may be forced to encounter more monkeys than I did. I did not have to backtrack between major areas much, as I stayed light, carrying my essential guns and ammunition, and the hookshot of course. Healing items and ink ribbons can always be found later.

The hunting gun, shotgun, grenade launcher, and hookshot all being two slot items is a baffling decision. I understand they implemented it this way because they wanted to force you to juggle between Billy and Rebecca. However, I think most if not all of Zero's major pain points would be reduced if these items were only a single slot, like they are in the previous installments in the series.

Zero is very obviously running on the same engine as REmake, and as such feels familiar. Rebecca and Billy control similarly to Jill and Chris. They run and turn at about the same speed. Rebecca's health is akin to Jill, able to take 3 or 4 zombie bites before kicking the bucket, but Billy is an absolute tank. He can take punishment like no Resident Evil protagonist before him. The protagonists have additional differences, which are taken advantage of by the various puzzles in the game. Billy is stronger than Rebecca, able to lift and push things she cannot. In addition to his massive health pool, he is more proficient with firearms, shooting faster and scoring more critical headshots. Rebecca is smaller than Billy and can thus fit in tight spaces as well as be boosted up on his shoulders. She can mix herbs, a series staple, but Billy cannot. Billy is much more effective in combat than Rebecca, which I initially found to be a huge bummer as a fan of Rebecca. It is often a good strategy to leave Rebecca in a safe room carrying many items while clearing out rooms with Billy, only changing to Rebecca when needed for puzzles. As the game goes on it finds more and more opportunities to split the pair, forcing you to play long sections of the game with one or the other. By the end of the game I had grown to like Billy as much as Rebecca, and found they both shared an adequate amount of the spotlight, despite Billy's superior prowess in combat. I really enjoyed the co-operative style puzzles, though I understand they are not everyone's cup of tea.

While Zero does feel similar to REmake, it has some key differences that align it more closely with 2, 3, and Code Veronica. The game is a lot more action focused, with many cramped quarters that force you to engage in combat. The pistol is a much more effective weapon than in REmake. It now staggers zombies again like in the older games, and has higher damage on average, requiring less bullets to kill individual zombies. There are even the aforementioned gun parts hidden in the game to upgrade the pistol into a formidable custom weapon.

The game introduces a ton of new elements, but still manages to almost feel like a "Greatest Hits" edition of Resident Evil. 90% of the areas in the game are new, but they are evocative of previous series entries. The Training Facility might as well be another Spencer Mansion, with a similar aesthetic and design. There is of course a lab area as well, as all Resident Evil titles must have. There is an area late in the game that is lifted wholesale from a previous entry, though this one is more of a cheeky reference than anything, and minimal time is spent there anyway. I still really enjoyed the games environments as a massive Resident Evil fan. The pre-rendered backgrounds are stunning. The game may even be prettier than REmake in that regard. Between the backgrounds and the great music, the atmosphere is incredible.

Zero introduces new and interesting enemies like the leech zombies and the massive insects and animals, but yet still references past scares in the franchise. Creatures breaking out of glass containers, dogs crashing through windows, a fellow S.T.A.R.S. team member becoming zombified. I don't particularly mind the self-referential aspects of this game, as there simply aren't that many classic tank controls Resident Evil games in general and I'll savour each one we got. The multi-character and floor item mechanics sufficiently shake up the formula that these references don't feel excessive, but they do result in the game feeling more familiar.

The story is mostly nonsense and doesn't fit particularly well with the established plot in REmake, but I don't go to this series for incredible plots anyway. What I did really appreciate are the fleshing out and interactions of Rebecca and Billy. The introduction of Billy is a really incredible setup. You are first made aware of him when S.T.A.R.S. Bravo team identifies his crashed prison transport. The guards are mutilated, and Bravo team tells Rebecca that Billy is a former marine who snapped and has killed 23 people so far. The implication being that Billy viciously mauled these people. However, the player, knowing what game they are playing, is already aware that the prison transport crash is more likely to be related to a certain pharmaceutical company. Nonetheless, the tension builds as you wonder what sort of man this Billy Coen is, especially knowing you will be playing as him eventually. Did Billy narrowly escape with his life from T-virus creatures, or did he take advantage of the confusion to take out the guards and run? Rebecca goes searching for him on a stopped train, only to find it is full of zombies. The train departs while she is on it and she is trapped inside. When she finally bumps into Billy, he takes her by surprise by pulling a gun on her. Billy holsters his weapon when he realizes how young and inexperienced Rebecca is. Ever the pragmatist, he offers to team up to make their way through this nightmare. Rebecca pouts and refuses to collude with the enemy, and goes off alone. After more terrible things happen, she finally agrees to form a pair, and you unlock the multi-character hook of the game. Billy is introduced as a very intriguing character with some darkness to him that still has a good side. Without going into spoilers I will say that the game sufficiently de-fangs him and shows him as an overall good guy, but I didn't particularly mind as I ended up enjoying him as a character anyway.

The introductory train segment is magnificent. It is a perfect slice of what makes Resident Evil such an incredible series. The plot is at its most intriguing. The explorable areas of the train are beautiful, interesting, and deeply interconnected. You don't yet have enough items to make lugging them all around a pain. The boss fight is novel and fun. The game does a great job introducing the multi-character mechanics by forcibly splitting the duo up and giving you a dumb waiter to send items back and forth to solve puzzles. The train is not super short but it does not overstay its welcome. As a train enthusiast I would even say I wish it had been a bit longer. Before I knew much about Zero I thought the entire game took place on the train, and I think I would've been okay with that! It is almost a shame that the game peaks right at the start, but the rest of the game is still very enjoyable.

I have heard that Zero is considered the most difficult classic Resident Evil game. I did not find that to be the case. I thought REmake was more difficult, with the weaker pistol, stronger zombies, and Crimson Heads requiring more planning. Sure the defense items were nice, and were missed in Zero, but they only helped so much. It is interesting to think of a Zero that incorporated the defense items and Crimson Heads from REmake, but I believe that would be a completely different game than what we got, and not necessarily a better one. Zero gives you plenty of ammo with which to defeat enemies. I did not end up running from many enemies in the game, and I still had tons of shotgun shells and pistol bullets leftover at the end. Billy is such a tank that he can shrug off tons of hits, and then heal to full with a single green+red herb mixture or first aid spray. Rebecca (or Jill, or even Chris) would require many heals to equal out to the same amount of hits Billy can take. I do think Zero has the potential to be one of the most annoying entries in the series if you fail to manage your inventory successfully, but even then, I'll take backtracking through the monkey hallway over the horrible infinite respawning poison moth hallway in Code Veronica any day. At least you can permanently kill the monkeys!

In conclusion, I had a really fantastic time with Resident Evil Zero, and I was not expecting to. I was expecting something on the level of Code Veronica, but I got a game that feels on par with 3. It doesn't quite hit the highs of REmake or 2, but it's an excellent experience that any old school RE fan should play.