Published by Solo Wing January 4, 2019 11:39pm.

Galerider’s Twitter account recently shared the following statement:

Going for iPad support and cloud save. Hard at work on both those features right now 💦

Given the similarity between iPhone and iPad (they both run iOS), I imagine the iPad version will arrive before the Panzer Dragoon-esque rail shooter arrives on Android.

Published by Solo Wing December 31, 2018 3:57am.

Looking back on 2018, it’s been a monumental year for Panzer Dragoon.

In January we were treated with Resurrection: Panzer Dragoon Saga 20th Anniversary Arrangement, an all new take on Panzer Dragoon Saga’s music from Saori Kobayashi. This was followed by digital releases of the soundtracks for the four mainline Panzer Dragoon games. I recently added entries for all of the new soundtrack releases to our encyclopaedia.

In April Panzer Dragoon Orta became playable on Xbox One. Not only did it look great, but suddenly half of the Panzer Dragoon series became playable on modern consoles. It’s also worth noticing that the emulation improvements also fixed a major long-standing problem with the Xbox 360 version, effectively making the game fully playable on all three Xbox generations.

Then, to celebrate the North American 20th Anniversary of Panzer Dragoon Saga in April, we were treated to a massive, in-depth article interviewing former Team Andromeda members. This is definitely worth a read if you missed it.

In October a new Panzer Dragoon-like game was released on iPhone called Galerider. While not directly connected with the Panzer Dragoon series, it featured a lot of similarities and was a nice surprise in a gaming landscape mostly devoid of Panzer Dragoon-esque titles.

Finally, earlier this month Forever Entertainment dropped a bombshell by announcing remakes of Panzer Dragoon and Panzer Dragoon Zwei, with the first remake due in 2019. It remains to be seen how these remakes will turn out, but it’s certainly going to make 2019 an interesting year, perhaps even more so than the current year.

It seemed for a while that Panzer Dragoon was going to go quietly into the night, but rest assured the dragon has emerged once again and is ready for the next episodes of the Panzer Dragoon saga.

Published by Solo Wing December 29, 2018 10:06pm.

Thanks to our various contributors for this lastest batch of fan art:

Here’s to an artful new year.

Published by Solo Wing December 20, 2018 8:07am.

Back in the 90s, it was common place to PCs to come with a 3.5 inch floppy drive. Sega released a version of the Panzer Dragoon’s soundtrack in MIDI format, and the entire soundtrack fit on one of these 3.5 inch disks. It was called Panzer Dragoon SMF Music Data. One of our community members, Skye Welse, has kindly scanned some pictures of his copy:

Today, Panzer Dragoon SMF Music Data is a rare collectable; even if you manage to obtain a copy you’ll need a floppy drive which Microsoft no longer includes support for in Windows 10. My hope is that Sega will bundle data like this with the upcoming remake of Panzer Dragoon as a bonus, although I expect the sound quality will be much higher quality in the remake itself.

Published by Draikin December 16, 2018 5:16am.

Now that the Panzer Dragoon community is bound to become more active, we’ve created a new Discord server for our community. While I’ve already joined several Discord servers from other communities, this is the first server I’ve created. We’re starting out with only a few channels; if needed we can always add more. Feel free to share your thoughts and ideas about the server there or here in the forum.

Join the Panzer Dragoon Legacy Discord Server

Just in case anyone is worried, the Discord server isn’t intended as a replacement for the forums. Discord is just another place for people to discuss the Panzer Dragoon franchise and the forums aren’t going anywhere.

Published by Draikin December 10, 2018 6:33pm.

Forever Entertainment, probably best known for developing and publishing Fear Effect Sedna, has announced that they will be releasing remakes of Panzer Dragoon and Panzer Dragoon Zwei! The remake of the original Panzer Dragoon will feature “completely new graphics” and modifications to make the game “more attractive to modern players, while remaining “faithful to the original in terms of story”. The first game is planned to be released before the end of 2019, and new materials will be presented in the upcoming months. No mention was made of a potential remake of Panzer Dragoon Saga.

We did learn that SEGA (aside from obviously being the IP owner) will also be a co-publisher for the game. Meanwhile, Forever Entertainment will be a co-publisher and co-producer as well as handle co-financing. Development will be handled by MegaPixel Studio. While there’s been no announcement regarding the platforms the games will be released on, we do know that MegaPixel Studio was established as a studio which would “focus on porting and publishing new games on the Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and PlayStation 4”.

Outside from a comment from Atlus USA director Sam Mullen, there’s been no official announcement on the part of SEGA. This appears to be similar to deals SEGA made for other games handled by third party studios, such as Shenmue 3, Bayonetta 2&3 and more recently Streets of Rage 4. From the information available it doesn’t seem like Yukio Futatsugi’s Grounding Inc studio or Land Ho! (developer of Sega Ages 2500 Series Vol. 27: Panzer Dragoon) will be involved with the development of the game. You can read the entire press release from Forever Entertainment here:

Forever Entertainment together with SEGA Holding Co., Ltd. from Japan will co-create and publish Panzer Dragoon: Remake and Panzer Dragoon II Zwei: Remake. The premiere of the first part is planned before the end of 2019!

Panzer Dragoon: Remake is a refreshed version of Panzer Dragoon. The original version of the game had its premiere on the Sega Saturn console in 1995 and was well received by both players and critics. The entire Panzer Dragoon series has been repeatedly remade and released on many platforms. The last re-launch took place in April 2018 on Xbox One, where players can play Panzer Dragoon Orta with a backward compatibility. The new version of the game will be characterized by a completely new graphics compatible with today’s standards and several modifications of the game, making it more attractive to modern players, while remaining faithful to the original in terms of story. The first materials from the game will be presented in the upcoming months!

This is of course huge news for the Panzer Dragoon community, coming out of the blue (pun intended). The Panzer Dragoon series has been largely dormant since 2002’s Panzer Dragoon Orta, with only an updated (but not fully remade) version of the first Panzer Dragoon released as part of the Sega Ages lineup in 2006 and more recently the arrival of Panzer Dragoon Orta on the Xbox One as part of the backwards compatibility lineup. We’ll be sure to share more details as soon as they become available. It’s time for the dragon to take flight once again.

Published by Solo Wing December 8, 2018 1:47am.

Version 1.3 of Galerider, the Panzer Dragoon-esque rail shooter for iPhone, has been released on the App Store.

The game is now available in a number of new regions: France, Germany, Japan, Korea, Brazil, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Latin American. With the update also comes support for a host of new language options: French, German, Latin American Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Simplified and Traditional Chinese.

The update also features various graphical and UI fixes and improvements, including a new control scheme for left handed players.

Published by Solo Wing December 8, 2018 1:23am.

Brave Wave are currently selling signed vinyls of Resurrection: Panzer Dragoon Saga 20th Anniversary Arrangement over on Bigwax. If you’re from Europe, Oceania, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, or Latin America you can grab one, but you’ll need to be quick as there’s only fifty being sold.

The limited edition vinyls are numbered from 1 through to 100, and each have Saori Kobayashi’s signature on them. A previous set of limited edition vinyls were released for the United States and Canada but these are unfortunately already sold out.

Published by Solo Wing November 1, 2018 2:21am.

Lusty Lundi has contributed two new drawings. The first depicts Mobo celebrating the birth of his child, and the second is of everyone’s favourite drone.

As you can see, both drawings are available in coloured and uncoloured variations.

Published by Solo Wing October 29, 2018 3:44am.

The Galerider team has kindly answered some questions about the new Panzer Dragoon-esque title for iPhone. My thanks to Daniel Choo and the development team at Orion Arts for providing this additional information about the game.

Panzer Dragoon Legacy: Were there any specific difficulties in completing the game within six months with such a small team?

Daniel Choo: There definitely were challenges, especially in the area of time. Our solution was to manage our scope to include only meaningful features.

Panzer Dragoon Legacy: Were there any major changes made to the game concept during the development process that you can share?

Daniel Choo: Fortunately there were no major changes, we managed to stay on course with our vision. A quick prototype at the pre-production stage helped us realize that the game play had potential for further development. We just kept moving forward from there.

Panzer Dragoon Legacy: Many mobile games incorporate micro-transactions. What made your team decide to make the game micro-transaction free?

Daniel Choo: We wanted to create a product that the players can truly own. Having IAPs on top of paying an up front premium did not sit well with us.

Panzer Dragoon Legacy: There are many platforms to develop for today. Why did you choose the iPhone?

Daniel Choo: We picked the iPhone for 2 reasons.

1. Piracy seems less rampant.
2. Limited resources. Given the targeted launch date and learning curve involved, we could only choose to deploy on one platform, at least for now.

Panzer Dragoon Legacy: Some say there’s no room for rail shooters in today’s marketplace. Was it difficult to secure funding for a game like Galerider compared to other mobile games and apps?

Daniel Choo: Since there aren’t many games similar to Galerider in the app stores, it would make our game unique 😉. But to be really honest, the way the funding came in was nothing short of a divine intervention.

Panzer Dragoon Legacy: Did your team grow up in the 90s playing rail shooters? Was your own nostalgia a primary reason for making this game?

Daniel Choo: Some of us actually grew up playing games since even the 80s!

But my personal reason has always been that I want to ride awesome dragons into battle. The rail shooter format helped us to provide a no frills, high-speed joyride where the player gets to focus on the action: shooting enemies and avoiding danger. Our goal is to capture the essences of arcade-styled game play for the mobile experience.

I posted my impressions about Galerider earlier, and if you haven’t tried it yet, now is as good of a time as any. Since launch, Orion Arts has released several patches for the game featuring graphical improvements and UI adjustments. The team’s next release is expected to see some improvements to the UI on iPhone X, as well as graphical improvements across different levels of the game.

Published by Solo Wing October 12, 2018 9:40pm.

Orion Arts has released version 1.1 of Galerider on the App Store, which fixes the UI scaling issues on newer iPhone models. The game should now be fully playable on modern iPhones (6S and above). With this fix released, I’ve been able to play through the game on my iPhone 8.

It’s no secret that Galerider borrows from Panzer Dragoon in many respects, particularly the lock on laser shooting mechanics (complete with an ultimate “berserk” attack). But Galerider isn’t entirely a Panzer Dragoon clone either, taking inspiration from endless runner games that include dodge mechanics and gem collection in a three lane system. It’s this three lane system which differentiates Galerider from Panzer Dragoon the most. Whereas in the Panzer Dragoon rail shooters movement and targeting enemies are both controlled by the left analog stick, Galerider splits these in two. Players lock on to enemy targets by sliding their thumb around the left side of the screen. Swiping left or right on the right side of the screen makes the dragon barrel roll into a different lane to avoid enemy fire. Tapping the right side of the screen also fires/releases lock on lasers, so the player often has to choose between barrel rolling and getting an extra shot in, creating an interesting trade off dynamic.

Being a mobile game made by a small team Galerider obviously isn’t going to be as detailed as the Panzer Dragoon rail shooters, but visually I think they’ve produced a game that is well presented. The music is solid too, and while the dialogue mainly exists to give justification for the missions, it does the job.

There’s a fair amount of gameplay to be experienced: a total of three area types, each split into three levels, so nine levels in total, each with boss fight at the end. iOS 12’s new screen time feature reported that I spent 1 hour and 40 minutes playing the game which encompassed a complete play through. The game can be challenging at times, but it never feels like you’re set up to lose, a welcome change from the plethora of pay-to-win mobile games. Given that there’s no in-app purchases, I think Galerider offers tremendous value (the complete game is only NZ$2.99 or US$1.99). The game ends with a message informing players that more content is on the way. If Orion Arts continues to monetise the game in ways that truly provide value, new content will certainly be welcome.

Galerider is the closest game you’ll find to Panzer Dragoon on mobile. If you own a recent iPhone and are a fan of the Panzer Dragoon rail shooters, there’s no reason not to try it.

Published by Solo Wing October 10, 2018 12:26am.

Galerider, a new Panzer Dragoon-esque rail shooter, has been officially released on the App Store. Congratulations to team at Orion Arts on the launch!

Galerider requires iOS 11 or later and is compatible with iPhone (an iPhone 6S or later is recommended as this was the device the game was tested on). It is available for the low price of US$1.99 and does not feature any in-app purchases.

There’s currently an issue where part of the user interface being cut off on some iPhones (edit: the full list is iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max). Daniel Choo from Orion Arts reports that “my team is implementing a fix right now and it may take up to 2 days for the patch to be available.” If you have one of those iPhones you may want to wait until the patch arrives for the best experience.

Published by Solo Wing October 9, 2018 5:16am.

We have some additional information regarding the platforms that Galerider will be available on. Daniel Choo from Orion Arts has provided the following statement:

Unfortunately the iPad will not be supported. Given the iPad’s form factor and weight, players may feel the fatigue on their hands while playing; which could get annoying after playing a few sessions.

We have plans to support Android devices, but that would come in much later. Right now my team is working on updates and improvements to the iOS version. Please expect more content in the months to come!

Given the recommendation of an iPhone 6S Plus or above to play Galerider at decent performance, we can rule out the lower speced iPod Touch hardware as well, effectively making Galerider an iPhone exclusive… for the time being.

Published by Solo Wing October 8, 2018 10:16pm.

Galerider, a new dragon rider combat game for iOS that looks a lot like Panzer Dragoon will now be launching on October the 10th. Orion Arts has released a new trailer and screenshots:

Orion Arts creative manager Daniel Choo has informed me that since the game is quite graphically intensive, Galerider will play better on an iPhone 6S Plus or above.

You can find more information about Galerider over on the official website.

Published by Solo Wing September 26, 2018 8:55am.

I’ve added six new pieces of fan art to the site. Thanks to the many contributors for this round of art.

You may also notice we’ve split some of the site’s categories, including fan art, into smaller, game-specific categories. As an example, you can now see all of the Panzer Dragoon Saga fan pictures together in one place.

Published by Solo Wing September 25, 2018 5:30am.

Singapore based mobile developer Orion Arts has announced a new mobile game, a dragon riding adventure called Galerider. The reason we’re posting it here is that it looks a lot like a certain other dragon riding rail shooter, complete with lock on lasers and barrel rolls. Check out the announcement trailer:

Galerider is expected to be released on October the 3rd, on the App Store. There’s been no word as to whether Galerider will be released on other platforms besides iOS, but it’s being built with the multi-platform Unreal Engine 4, so that’s a possibility. Keep an eye on the official Galerider Twitter and Facebook pages for updates.

Published by Solo Wing August 13, 2018 12:18pm.

We have a new fan art contribution, this time of Orta:

Thanks to Space Lion 88 for the contribution.

Published by Solo Wing July 23, 2018 9:48am.

Metroid Metal, a band which provides a “celebration and interpretation of the Metroid soundtrack” will be performing in Houston, Texas this September. Panzer Dragoon Saga composer Saori Kobayashi will also be performing at the concert as a special guest. From the blog post:

Metroid Metal is headed to Houston, TX for the very first time thanks to REPLAY – Sept 2, 2018. Join us for our 15th birthday jam party fest featuring Darren Korb w/Ashley Barret (Bastion) and Danimal Cannon (chip majesty). Also, coming from Japan (!!) is special guest Saori Kobayashi, composer of the Panzer Dragoon series. Well that’s hecka neat.

While on the subject of music, Artist Formally Known as Lundi has submitted a new in-progress fan track called No More Wandering. Be sure to check it out if you enjoyed his previous contributions.

Published by Solo Wing May 18, 2018 11:36am.

Some fans have reported that they’ve received the vinyl edition of “Resurrection: Panzer Dragoon Saga 20th Anniversary Arrangement” which had previously been delayed. Here’s an unboxing video from YouTube user SkillJim showing off the vinyls in all their purple glory:

And there’s more news surrounding the “Resurrection: Panzer Dragoon Saga 20th Anniversary Arrangement” vinyl edition. Brave Wave have announced that a second pressing in black of the vinyl edition is now available on BigWax.

Restock Announcement!

The 2nd pressing of “Resurrection: Panzer Dragoon Saga 20th Anniversary Arrangement” is now available on BigWax for EU customers!

Please note that the 2nd press comes on black vinyl, instead of the purple used in the 1st press.

The new black vinyls will be available to US customers on Fangamer in the coming days. No doubt both the purple and black versions of the album will be sought after by hardcore collectors.

Published by Solo Wing May 18, 2018 9:51am.

A new build of Cxbx-Reloaded, an Xbox emulator for Windows, has been released which runs Panzer Dragoon Orta significantly better than previous efforts. Some new footage has been released showing almost the entire first episode running on the emulator:

The Cxbx-Reloaded project began its life as a fork of the older Cxbx emulator, but with added 64-bit support. Cxbx-Reloaded is under active development, so support for Panzer Dragoon Orta may improve over time. You can follow the project over on GitHub.

Published by Solo Wing May 6, 2018 12:51pm.

We have two nice, new additions to the fan art section. The first is a picture of a battle with Atolm, while the second is of everyone’s favourite drone, Azel.

Thanks to the artists Saulo Souza and Pariah Exile Wrath for contributing these.

Published by Solo Wing May 1, 2018 7:49am.

On the 30th of April 1998, several months after it’s Japanese debut, Panzer Dragoon Saga was released in North America.

To celebrate, Polygon has released a massive article discussing the game with former members of Team Andromeda called Panzer Dragoon Saga: An oral history. The article includes a video of former Panzer Dragoon Saga character designer Katsumi Yokota sketching the story’s heroine, Azel, along with numerous comments from the original team, including what they would like to see in a continuation of the series. These words from Panzer Dragoon Saga director Yukio Futatsugi stood out for me:

At the beginning, I envisioned it to be something like [thatgamecompany’s] Journey. But we didn’t go that route, because we figured nobody would want to play a game so open and distant from the original Panzer Dragoons. But I feel that now something like that might be accepted. Of course, I would keep the dragon in the game, but the focus would be more on riding the dragon and exploring the world, and the player would find traces of the previous games within this universe. The game would be like a remake of the entire series and flash back to the originals. That’s just what comes to mind. The core members of the Orta team work at [Futatsugi’s company] Grounding now. But I think everyone would like to revisit Panzer Dragoon again. I’d like to tie up any loose ends and complete the saga before I die.

Journey is my second favourite video game (after Panzer Dragoon Saga), so it’s exciting to read that Futatsugi would consider an abstract game like it set in the Panzer Dragoon world.

Published by Solo Wing April 18, 2018 9:08am.

Xbox Live Fr has posted a video comparing Panzer Dragoon Orta running on the original Xbox compared to what is currently the most advanced way to play the game: on Microsoft’s new Xbox One X console.

As you can see from the video, the Xbox One X version looks quite incredible running at 4K. There’s no question in my mind that, visually at least, Panzer Dragoon Orta has stood the test of time very well when running on modern hardware.

Published by Solo Wing April 17, 2018 11:59pm.

Panzer Dragoon Orta is now playable on Xbox One, via backward compatibility. If you have your original Xbox disc you’ll be able to experience the game with a resolution upgrade on the Xbox One family consoles. Draikin has shared some screenshots and a video of the game running on a regular (not Xbox One X) console, but as you can see the resolution upgrade still makes the game look significantly more impressive.

If you want learn more about the new Panzer Dragoon Orta experience, there’s an active topic on our forum which includes links to footage of the game.

Published by Draikin April 14, 2018 6:02pm.

PAL Xbox 360 users who tried using the console’s backward compatibility to play Panzer Dragoon Orta may remember that the game crashed at the start of Episode 4. In a surprise move, Microsoft has now apparently patched this bug, as pointed out by Kimimi on Twitter who posted screenshots of the game’s transition from Episode 3 to Episode 4 on a PAL Xbox 360. In the past the game would always crash there, but a 6MB update that will be installed when you start the game while connected to Xbox Live finally resolves this problem.

It’s reasonable to assume that this is the result of Microsoft working on the Xbox One backward compatibility for the game, and apparently in doing so they figured out the problem with the PAL version and backported the fix to the Xbox 360. While it would have been nice had they fixed the problem all those years ago, it’s still a pleasant surprise to see them update the game now. Better late than never!