I really don't understand what people don't like about this game.
My review for the original Panzer Dragoon pegs it as a perfectly average on-rails shooter, and that's pretty much what PD:R is too. Serviceable, and a good time for 2.50$ - which you can now find it for pretty regularly. It's remarkably faithful to the Saturn version of the game, retaining all the same quirks and features while maintaining as close an approximation to the original's feel short of having the source code to build off of.
This means you still have the same shitty credits system, sure, but I also found Panzer Dragoon: Remake to be considerably easier even on normal difficulty. I'm not sure if this is due to some adjustments in how much damage you take or recover from, or if it's that everything on screen is much more readable. Perhaps a combination of all three? In any case, I only died once here whereas I needed to resort to cheats in the original, and so it's nice that this game is perfectly playable "out of the box." There's even a hard mode if you want more of a challenge, and while I didn't mess around in it, I would assume it provides enough for fans of the original's difficulty balancing to chew on.
Graphically speaking, there are few shortcomings. Some animations move with the same stilted "fluidity" of the original game, which is kind of funny to see given the leap in fidelity, but overall I think Remake does a great job of retaining the aesthetic appeal of the original. It looks suitably Panzer Dragoon-ish, and of course the OST is intact so it sounds the part as well. Most of the trophies are pretty easy to get too, which is why it is a little irritating that there's one for logging 100 hours in the game. The most expedient way to earn that is to leave the console on while god mode is enabled, and uh, I'm not doing that! The PS5 is built with budget parts that are always teetering on the edge of catastrophic failure, I don't need that thing exploding like a tank of propane because I let it idle too long. What a weird trophy to put in. I get what it's referencing but in practice it feels like a hold over from the era of Gears of War asking you to kill 10k enemies or whatever.
Overall, I actually like Remake more than the original. It's much easier to see what's going on, the gameplay is a lot more smooth, and the difficulty feels better balanced (even if it may be a tad too easy.) I think the only way I would've truly felt burned by this game is if I dropped 60$ on it, but hey, I'm only dumb enough to buy from Limited Run once, thank you very much.
My review for the original Panzer Dragoon pegs it as a perfectly average on-rails shooter, and that's pretty much what PD:R is too. Serviceable, and a good time for 2.50$ - which you can now find it for pretty regularly. It's remarkably faithful to the Saturn version of the game, retaining all the same quirks and features while maintaining as close an approximation to the original's feel short of having the source code to build off of.
This means you still have the same shitty credits system, sure, but I also found Panzer Dragoon: Remake to be considerably easier even on normal difficulty. I'm not sure if this is due to some adjustments in how much damage you take or recover from, or if it's that everything on screen is much more readable. Perhaps a combination of all three? In any case, I only died once here whereas I needed to resort to cheats in the original, and so it's nice that this game is perfectly playable "out of the box." There's even a hard mode if you want more of a challenge, and while I didn't mess around in it, I would assume it provides enough for fans of the original's difficulty balancing to chew on.
Graphically speaking, there are few shortcomings. Some animations move with the same stilted "fluidity" of the original game, which is kind of funny to see given the leap in fidelity, but overall I think Remake does a great job of retaining the aesthetic appeal of the original. It looks suitably Panzer Dragoon-ish, and of course the OST is intact so it sounds the part as well. Most of the trophies are pretty easy to get too, which is why it is a little irritating that there's one for logging 100 hours in the game. The most expedient way to earn that is to leave the console on while god mode is enabled, and uh, I'm not doing that! The PS5 is built with budget parts that are always teetering on the edge of catastrophic failure, I don't need that thing exploding like a tank of propane because I let it idle too long. What a weird trophy to put in. I get what it's referencing but in practice it feels like a hold over from the era of Gears of War asking you to kill 10k enemies or whatever.
Overall, I actually like Remake more than the original. It's much easier to see what's going on, the gameplay is a lot more smooth, and the difficulty feels better balanced (even if it may be a tad too easy.) I think the only way I would've truly felt burned by this game is if I dropped 60$ on it, but hey, I'm only dumb enough to buy from Limited Run once, thank you very much.
6 Comments
Yea I dunno why people are so harsh on PD:R, as someone that immediately went to emulate and play the original after finishing this I was surprised at how 1:1 it was even with the budget factor in mind. Said budget and the controls being a fair bit looser is sort of why I fell off with this by comparison but even then it's not a completely wrong way to experience the first game.
Good review!
Count me in as one of the haters. Didn’t it get a big patch on switch eventually though?
Could be misremembering.
Count me in as one of the haters. Didn’t it get a big patch on switch eventually though?
Could be misremembering.
Don't know, I played this on an actual console B-)
so fucking true lmao
I've been sitting on this one for a while after hearing everyone's middling reactions. In reality, it's impressive just how well they managed to recreate the game without the original source code.
FallenGrace
1 year ago
I did however enjoy this a lot. I wish they had adjusted it to dual analog rather than the original controls is my only niggle.