Published by Draikin November 5, 2019 9:52pm in News

We recently had a chance to get a few of our questions about the Panzer Dragoon: Remake answered by the game’s producer Benjamin Anseaume of TA Publishing! Our thanks to him for answering the questions and to Monika & Kamila from the Forever Entertainment PR team for arranging the interview! You can find our questions and Benjamin’s answers below!

1) Can you tell us a bit more about how TA publishing, Forever Entertainment and MegaPixel Studio ended up working together on the Panzer Dragoon: Remake?

Forever Entertainment is a Polish publisher, based in Gdansk and it is in the process of becoming a group. Currently the company holds 3 other companies, including TA Publishing (producing company - based in France) and Megapixel (development studio - based in Poland). The group has been built with the idea to gather talented people from all over Europe to work together on Panzer Dragoon and many other games, including existing IPs and new projects.

2) While a co-publisher and IP owner, SEGA hasn’t communicated much about the remakes. We know they’re overseeing the project, but can you tell us more about what aspects of development they’re involved in?

Sega is basically helping us on a daily basis: providing feedback, providing original material, ensuring that the game is respectful to the original one. We are communicating every day and their involvement in the project is extremely high and important.

3) At Tokyo Game Show you got to meet Yukio Futatsugi and other members of the original Team Andromeda. Can you tell us a bit more about what you talked about and what they thought of the remake? And moving forward, will they be involved in the project in any way?

We had the chance to meet a few key people from the original team, it was a pleasure and an honor. We showed them the build of the game, and we were extremely excited, but also stressed. At the end of the day, they really enjoyed their experience and provided some crucial feedback that we implemented in the game as soon as we could.

We have no plan to involve them more in the project as they are themselves working hard on their own projects, but for sure, we’d like to show them another build closer to the release, and hopefully get some important feedback before the last line!

4) Did you receive any documentation from SEGA regarding the game’s backstory and the level design, and are there any dedicated translators on board to translate what is likely predominantly Japanese content?

We had a lot of story-wise / artistic elements and it helped us a lot capture the essence of the game. Fortunately, there are still a lot of different elements still at Sega HQ, and of course, former team Andromeda members. It’s an honour to know that people who made such a masterpiece are playing and enjoying our work!

5) Some changes were made to the setting of the game’s first episode (an ancient city submerged in a lake). While we understand the idea is to make the games graphically more appealing, there’s concern that such changes won’t make sense in the context of the areas the game takes place in. Should we expect to see similar changes to the other levels, and if so, can you give us some examples of what these might look like?

We received this feedback on social media and on our Discord server, it’s great because it shows that the game is awaited and fans are loyal and involved in the development process, which is exactly what we wanted. For this first level precisely, they were some discussions and several propositions have been made, some closer to the original, others more targeted towards younger players and a larger audience. At the end, this design was chosen, it’s a new take but very respectful from the original and the vision of the former team, we are very happy with the look of this first level, and most of the fans are too, so it’s perfect.

We can’t wait to show you more screenshots, but we can’t now. But for sure, you can expect changes compared to the original. I understand the disappointment old players may have and it’s something very typical when speaking about a licence as strong as Panzer Dragoon, but for sure, we can’t make the same design, the vision of the original team was limited by device limitations we don’t have anymore, and that’s great, so we have to reinvent a part of the project. But as long as the vision of the team is preserved, I am confident that most of the players will like our direction.

6) Do you have any update on the game potentially using some of the unique features of the Switch (such as joycon motion controls)?

Not yet, but that’s a request we’ve received very often on the Discord server so we are carefully writing it down, and when the game will be complete, probably soon, we’ll be able to add some features depending on the time we have left before the release! We are listening to all fans’ ideas and we will make our best to add as many features as possible.

7) Rez: Infinite made a big impression on PlayStation VR, showing that classic rail-shooter gameplay translates very well to VR. While a PS4 or PC version hasn’t been confirmed, is VR support something you’ve discussed internally?

That’s not a discussion we’re having today, but for sure it’s a great idea and we’d love to do that. Megapixel Studio already released a few VR games, so technically it’s possible, but we have no plans yet!

8) The game’s FMV video sequences were impressive at the time, but the very low resolution means that - even using advanced upscaling algorithms - their quality leaves something to be desired on today’s Full HD and 4K TV’s. Have you decided on how these will be remade (for example, will they run in-engine)?

Cutscenes are being remade from scratch and pre-calculated to offer the best result possible. because, as you say, it was an important and impressive part of the game.

9) Have the resolution and framerate in docked and undocked mode been locked down at this point in development?

Not yet, the game was publicly playable on the Nintendo boot during Gamescom in handheld mode and the feedback was excellent, the game is smooth and really playable today, but we still have to polish the optimization part. It’s a huge task that awaits us in the upcoming months!

10) You asked fans for feedback on Twitter about the game’s music (if they preferred original, remastered or entirely new). Has any decision been made regarding that? As you know, there’s one particular video game composer that people would like to see involved with the project.

There was some progress but I can’t talk about it today, unfortunately. I hope we’ll be able to give you more details very soon, though!

11) The first remaster of Panzer Dragoon on PS2 included a Pandora’s Box (also named Pandra’s Box), a feature that was also included in Zwei and Orta. It contains things like a level select, dragon type, documentation on the enemies and levels, artwork slides, trailers and commercials for the previous games, and more. Do you plan to add a Pandora’s Box to the remake?

We have some similar ideas, not exactly that but more content about the original game and its development is definitely an option. Our goal being spreading the game and enlarging its audience. It definitely makes sense, but we’ll see! We also need to know if it’s a priority for the fans, because we won’t be able to add all the great features they suggested, so we have to make a choice, and the choice will be made depending on fans’ preferences.

12) Nowadays video games often include a photo mode (where we can pause, remove the HUD and change the camera angles) and online leaderboards. Are you planning on adding such features to the remake?

It’s also something we are considering and we may be able to add at the end of the development as a new feature, but we have to be sure that it is something really requested by a large part of the community, and the only way to tell us that is speaking about it on social network, or on the Discord server.

13) You’ve received a lot of feedback from the demo build shown at Gamescom and Tokyo Game Show. One thing I’ve seen mentioned several times by people who played the demo is that it still seems to be a very early build of the game, and a lot of work still needs to be done. Would you say you’re still on track for the winter release date, or could we see a delay to ensure the quality of the game?

We are definitely on track for this winter, as we plan. During our presentation of the game at Gamescom, we gathered a lot of feedback, and in Tokyo, we only show the game to few people, including most of the original team. They all said that the game was impressive and enjoyed the experience. It was something for us to get such a feedback from legends. We also got some modifications suggestions and we added it as soon as we were able.

14) Thanks for answering our questions! Is there anything else you’d like to share with the Panzer Dragoon community?

Thank you for your interest, please tell us what you think on the official social channels: the Steam page, Twitter, Facebook or even directly on my personal Twitter account!

Please support the game as it is the best way to see more Panzer Dragoon in the future!

Published by Solo Wing November 1, 2019 10:23pm in Meta

Traditionally we’ve always posted new art and other content that fans contribute as news updates here on the front page of Panzer Dragoon Legacy. However, the way in which people consume content has changed considerably (“social media” didn’t even exist when I founded this site in 2002). Many people only follow us on social media now instead of checking the website for updates.

Today we’re introducing a new approach to how contributions are shared. We’ll now post art and other contributions directly to three social media channels: Facebook, Twitter, and Discord. Instead of following along on the Panzer Dragoon Legacy website, you can follow us on any of these three platforms for new content.

We have also set up a new Instagram page; like our YouTube channel, Instagram will be used for media updates, so be sure to follow on Instagram and want to see our content there.

And then there are those of us who like to get updates the old school way: manually checking a website without all the noise of social media. Panzer Dragoon Legacy has always featured every new contribution here on it’s front page. Now, new contributions will become visible in a Contributions Feed instead. This will allow us to share contributions faster, without the ceremony of a news update to go with it. We may post a summary of new contributions from time to time, but the primary way of seeing which contributions are new will be to check the feed.

We encourage you to follow along on whatever channel suits your style of consumption.

Published by Draikin October 29, 2019 7:36pm in News

The Panzer Dragoon: Remake team has been using polls to gather feedback from fans, and the latest one asks if the model of the Dragon in Panzer Dragoon: Remake is truthful to the original. We haven’t really seen a lot of closeups (these will apparently be coming soon) so it’s difficult to really evaluate the design, but this is nonetheless a good time to voice your thoughts about what we’ve seen so far!

Published by Solo Wing October 26, 2019 12:46am in Contributions

Panzer Dragoon Saga Disc 1 like you’ve never seen it before!

Video Details for "Panzer Dragoon Saga Cosplay Act"

My thanks goes to IcogamerXC and his sister for their entertaining performance.

Published by Draikin October 25, 2019 10:37am in News

After its initial announcement for the Switch, Forever Entertainment have now confirmed that Panzer Dragoon: Remake will also be released on Steam this Winter! You can view the game’s page on the Steam store and add it to your wishlist.

While an exact release date hasn’t been confirmed, it appears the game might release at the same time as the Switch version! It’s not clear at the moment if the game will receive a physical release on PC as well, but we’ll keep you informed! The game’s minimum system requirements are as follows:

Minimum System Requirements:

OS: Windows 10

Processor: Intel i5

Memory: 4 GB RAM

Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 970 or AMD Radeon R9 290 (equivalent or better)

DirectX: Version 10

Storage: 8 GB available space

Sound Card: Integrated

Published by Draikin October 23, 2019 6:47pm in News

The official Xbox Game Pass Twitter account has confirmed that Panzer Dragoon Orta isn’t actually available on the Xbox Game Pass in all regions. Judging from the reports of people on social media, it appears to be limited to the US only. This begs the question why Microsoft advertised the inclusion of Panzer Dragoon Orta without mentioning this rather important caveat. Why it’s region locked isn’t clear either and it’s certainly odd as the game is in fact being sold in Europe and other regions. Either way, it’s unfortunate news for those who were hoping to play the game via the Xbox Game Pass. That being said, the game is definitely worth its low price tag (€9.99 in Europe)!

Published by Draikin October 22, 2019 7:18pm in News

UPDATE: It looks like Limited Run Games is likely to be handling the physical release.

Original article below:

While this was sort of already stated in earlier interviews, the Panzer Dragoon: Remake Twitter account has now officially confirmed that the game will indeed receive a physical release! As mentioned in our earlier article, physical releases still outsell digital games on the Nintendo Switch, so it makes sense for the game to receive a physical release there. Judging from the reaction to their tweet, the news has made a lot of people happy. There are no details on whether or not there will be different editions, or who the distributor will be, but more details will apparently be posted soon on the game’s official Twitter account.

On a side note, while no other platforms have been announced, Forever Entertainment have repeatedly stated that they “never said the game is a Switch exclusive”. With 100 million PS4’s sold on the market and Panzer Dragoon Orta being available on Xbox One, there’s certainly plenty of reason for the game to arrive on other platforms eventually.

Published by Draikin October 20, 2019 11:13pm in News

As reported in our previous article Panzer Dragoon Orta was supposed to be available on Xbox Game Pass starting October 17th, with many Game Pass subscribers looking forward to playing one of the best SEGA games on the original Xbox. Unfortunately, the game appears to be only included in the Xbox Game Pass in the US, with many people trying to reach out to Microsoft on social media and forums to find out why the game isn’t included in their region, but at the time of writing there’s still been no response from Microsoft. We’ve also reached out to them and we’ll of course post an update if or when we get a response.

Published by Draikin October 19, 2019 4:06pm in News

The official Panzer Dragoon: Remake Twitter account has tweeted another poll, this time asking Panzer Dragoon fans if they’d like to see a physical edition for the remake. Curiously, the poll only gives people the option between “S**t up and take my money” and “I’m so broke…”, which kind of suggests they already know the answer. It might be surprising that the question needs to be asked in the first place, but the truth is that digital games are becoming more and more popular. This has long been true for the PC market where digital sales dominate the market, but this year also market the first time digital sales have overtaken physical on Sony’s PS4. Even Nintendo reported that their digital sales earnings have almost doubled in the fiscal year ending March, 2019 and exceeded 100 billion yen for the first time ever, with the share of digital sales growing from 17.3% to 24.8%.

Nonetheless, there’s still a demand for physical games. In recent times, publishers and distributors like Limited Run Games and iam8bit have specialized in teaming up with smaller/indie game studios to offer a limited amount of physical copies of their games, which would otherwise be available as digital only. This introduces its own problems with scalpers trying to buy as many copies of the limited run as possible, only to sell them on eBay later at a far higher price (not dissimilar from what happened to Panzer Dragoon Saga). Hopefully, if Panzer Dragoon: Remake (which is indeed the game’s official name) does get a physical release, it’ll offer enough copies to satisfy the demand!

Published by Draikin October 11, 2019 5:34pm in News

The official Panzer Dragoon Remake Twitter account has started a new poll, asking fans which sounds they would prefer to hear in the remake. The three possible options are “original sounds”, “remastered sounds” or “entirely new sound”.

It’s certainly not an easy question to answer as we of course don’t know how good a remaster or entirely new work would actually sound. As a result, a lot of the replies to the tweet are asking the team to include multiple options in the remake. Being able to switch to the original soundtrack would certainly be a nice option to have even if they decide to remaster or remake the audio. Personally, and that’s wishful thinking, I’d think the ideal scenario would be for the game to offer a choice between the original soundtrack and a new one by Saori Kobayashi! You have another six days to make your own voice heard, so be sure to share your opinion!

Published by Draikin October 1, 2019 8:20pm in News

As you may already know, Panzer Dragoon Orta was made backwards compatible on Xbox One a while ago, allowing the game to run on much higher resolutions than on the original Xbox. Microsoft has now announced the game will be joining their lineup of Xbox Game Pass games on October 17! If you haven’t heard about the service before, Xbox Game Pass is a subscription service that offers players access to a large number of digital Xbox One games for a fixed price per month. The game still looks spectacular on Xbox One and plays just as well. It also has a surprising amount of content, including a port of the original Panzer Dragoon! If you have Xbox Game Pass, there’s really no reason not to play one of the best railshooters ever made.

Published by Solo Wing September 27, 2019 11:54pm in Contributions

Panzer Dragoon: Remake won’t be the first portable game in the series. Back in the 90s, Sega released a spin off title called Panzer Dragoon Mini for the Game Gear. Skye Welse has kindly submitted some photos of the game’s packaging, manual, and warranty card.

For completeness, you can view all of the Panzer Dragoon Mini product photos, including those previously submitted by Lance Way, over in the Panzer Dragoon Mini Product Pictures category.

Published by Draikin September 15, 2019 8:47pm in News

As we reported previously, Saori Kobayashi was present at MAGWest for a live concert of some of her Panzer Dragoon Saga and Terra Magica music. She was joined by special guests @Stemage, @RoninOpF and Michelle Dreyband. Over on Twitter, Patrick Kulikowski tweeted two videos of the concert. Stemage also tweeted this photo during their rehearsal earlier, and this nice group selfie after the concert! Our thanks to Patrick and Stemage for the uploads, and also to Stemage for allowing us to use the group photo in this article’s header.

Published by Solo Wing September 14, 2019 12:30am in News

Tokyo Game Show is upon us, and with it more Panzer Dragoon: Remake footage from Forever Entertainment’s booth. Thanks to Wildman for capturing this close up footage:

On Twitter, Benjamin (CEO of TA Publishing, subsidiary of Forever Entertainment) also replied to tweets from Wildman regarding the game, clarifying that the game is still very much a work-in-progress and many of the flaws mentioned by Wildman will be corrected in their next development version.

And the photo displayed here? It’s of none other than original Panzer Dragoon creator Yukio Futatsugi together with members of the remake team (original tweet). They’ve also linked to a photo of them having dinner and with Panzer Dragoon Saga composer Saori Kobayashi.

Published by Solo Wing September 7, 2019 11:11pm in News

Panzer Dragoon World has released a translation of his interview with Benjamin Anseaume regarding the upcoming Panzer Dragoon: Remake. There’s also a shorter interview with John Linneman of Digital Foundry at the end of the video about their technical analysis of the series.

The interview covers a number of fan questions relating to the remake. While there isn’t a lot of new information that Benjamin Anseaume could reveal, there’s a good discussion in the middle of the interview about what a Panzer Dragoon Saga remake might entail. Forever Entertainment’s priority and focus is, and always has been, to focus on remaking the first two Panzer games, as Saga would be enormous undertaking for a small studio. But it’s not outside the realm of possibility for the RPG conclusion to the Saturn trilogy to be remade in the future.

In other news, the latest Forever Entertainment email newsletter confirms that they will be visiting Tokyo Game Show 2019, where Panzer Dragoon: Remake will be presented/playable. We’ll know soon if that means more news to report as Tokyo Game Show takes place on September the 12th until the 15th, mere days away.

Published by Draikin August 20, 2019 10:18pm in News

The first off-screen footage of the Panzer Dragoon Remake demo, currently playable at Gamescom 2019, has surfaced online, courtesy of Gaming Boulevard.

The video gives us a closer look at the remake’s reimagining of the original level, which now takes place in a more dense area filled with rock formations and ancient ruins. We also get to see the start of the first boss battle this time around, and it appears to be a faithful reproduction of that battle in the original game. It’s difficult to say for sure but the water of the lake also appears bluer in this demo version of the game, compared to what we’ve previously seen in the game’s original trailer.

Published by Solo Wing August 20, 2019 8:39am in News

The official Panzer Dragoon: Remake Twitter channel has tweeted the following:

Ready to test it? Panzer Dragoon: Remake demo is waiting for you on Nintendo (Hall 9) or on our booth Hall 4.2/ B046 🎮🤩 #gamescom2019

There’s also a short video clip of the Forever Entertainment booth being set up.

We’ll have more information about what the demo consists of as that information arrives.

Published by Solo Wing August 19, 2019 8:25am in News

Although slightly old news now, the podcast SEGA Saturn, Shiro! recently interviewed Benjamin Anseaume (producer of the upcoming Panzer Dragoon: Remake). Listen to Season 3, Episode 8. The podcast doesn’t reveal too much more information, although we do learn that there’ll be two versions of the soundtrack, the classic version from Yoshitaka Azuma, and a new version.

There’s also an interview with Benjamin Anseaume from Fragments of Silicon which I unfortunately haven’t had the chance to listen to yet, however Discord member KamerzystaKarol provided this nice summary of some of the points made:

• They started working on Panzer Dragoon II Zwei and plan to “finish it next year”
• There will be new modes
• It definitely won’t be $60; the price will reflect the length of the game
• The game is being built in Unity
• It’s not necessarily Switch only, but no other platforms have been announced
• There are plans to utilise the Switch’s HD Rumble and Gyro controls
• Re-confirmation that both remakes will get physical releases
• The first remake will be 720p portable, 1080p docked
• The speed of the game was tweaked; now runs much faster than what we saw during Nintendo E3 Direct
• It’s possible that the game might be at Gamescom (but no info on if it will be playable)
• More info “in the upcoming weeks”

With Gamescom almost upon us, no doubt we’ll be learning more concrete information about Panzer Dragoon: Remake very soon.

Published by Solo Wing August 19, 2019 7:56am in News

Unfortunately we’ve just learned some sad news. Panzer Dragoon artist Takashi Iwade has passed away. James Mielke reports:

It is with great sadness to myself, his many friends on the various close-knit Panzer Dragoon teams (and current SEGA colleagues of course), and most of all his heartbroken family, that after a brief illness Iwade-san suddenly passed away last week. It goes without saying that he leaves us far too soon.

Iwade-san, thank you for everything you shared with me in our brief time knowing each other. It has been an honor to know you.

You can read the full post on James Mielke’s Instagram where he talks about meeting Iwade-san while interviewing for his Polygon article last year.

As you can see from his MobyGames profile, Takashi Iwade worked all four of the mainline Panzer Dragoon games, and the Sega Ages 2500 version of Panzer Dragoon, taking the role of art director in Panzer Dragoon Orta. Our condolences to Iwade’s friends and family, and of course this is big loss for the Panzer Dragoon community as a whole.

Published by Solo Wing August 2, 2019 6:42am in News

MAGWest has tweeted the following:

We’re excited to welcome video game composer and pianist Saori Kobayashi to MAGWest! You may recognize her from such works as Panzer Dragoon Saga for Sega Saturn, as well as her solo album, Terra Magica. magwest.org/guests

MAGWest promises free-play arcades/consoles and unlimited concerts for the weekend of September 13-15 at the DoubleTree Hilton in San Jose, CA.

Published by Solo Wing July 30, 2019 3:42am in Contributions

I’ve added some videos to the Videos section, including the two E3 trailers of Panzer Dragoon: Remake.

• Panzer Dragoon: Remake Gameplay Reveal Trailer
• Panzer Dragoon: Remake Official Gameplay Trailer
• Panzer Dragoon Sega Saturn Japanese Commercial
• Panzer Dragoon II Zwei Sega Saturn Commercial
• Segata Sanshiro Azel: Panzer Dragoon RPG Commerical
• Panzer Dragoon Orta Xbox TV Commerical

Be sure to check out the classic Panzer Dragoon commericals too, especially Segata Sanshiro dressed as a dragon.

Published by Solo Wing July 27, 2019 2:56am in News

YouTube user Kelphelp has created a nice comparison video comparing the four versions of Panzer Dragoon (going on five).

What do you think is the best version of Panzer Dragoon? Let us know in the comments on Twitter/Facebook, Discord, or on our forum.

Published by Solo Wing July 5, 2019 6:01am in News

Orion Arts, the developer behind the Panzer-esque mobile game Galerider, has announced a new “free to fly” version of the game, set to be released on July 11. Galerider: Free to Fly will include the first two levels of the game at no cost and will be available on the App Store. The premium version of the game containing the complete experience will continue to sell for US$1.99.

The full game is already available on iOS12 devices (including newer iPods) in various regions; it’s expected that Galerider: Free to Fly will be available on the same platforms and regions, but we’ll post more details as they become available. Further information is available on The Geekiary.

Published by Solo Wing July 2, 2019 9:50am in News

Nintendo World Report TV has interviewed Zbigniew Debicki, the CEO of Forever Entertainment, regarding the upcoming Panzer Dragoon: Remake.

Maybe it’s Sega Saturn Sunday at NWR because now we have a preview for Panzer Dragoon. We spoke with the CEO of Forever Entertainment & learned more about the PD remake on Switch. In addition, we can confirm Panzer Dragoon II Zwei is also coming to Switch.

Some points from the video:

• Panzer Dragoon: Remake has been in development for around a year.
• The game will have classic and modern modes; modern mode adds checkpoints throughout the levels.
• The biggest challenge is living up to the legacy of the series (the lore, story, world, and specific environments).
• Forever Entertainment intend to make the gameplay 1 to 1 with the original games.
• The source code from the original was not used; this is a remake from scratch.
• The game’s soundtrack is a secret… for now.
• Debicki has all the consoles, but prefers to play on Switch because he is always on the go.
• Panzer Dragoon II Zwei: Remake is also coming to Nintendo Switch.
• Would Forever Entertainment be interested in working on a remake of Panzer Dragoon Saga? “I cannot comment on that now”.
• No comment on whether he’s talked with Futatsugi or other Team Andromeda members about the game.

Published by Solo Wing June 29, 2019 6:47am in News

I’ve gathered up a few articles/media covering the upcoming remake of Panzer Dragoon, based on the footage that was shown at E3 2019.

First up, Digital Foundry has posted a quick technical analysis of the remake’s E3 trailer in one of their recent videos. The Panzer Dragoon: Remake analysis starts at 6:51.

Forever Entertainment have released a slideshow of their post-E3 presentation. Here they look back on the media coverage and reactions on their E3 Panzer Dragoon Remake trailer. Most of the presentation is in Polish, but with accompanying visuals.

Monika Ginter from Forever Entertainment has also confirmed that a physical version of Panzer Dragoon: Remake is coming, but no further details are currently available (or news on platforms besides Switch).

A recent entry from Polish blog Strefain goes into more detail about the development of the game, including that the remake of Panzer Dragoon II Zwei is already in pre-production. We’ll have more news in this area as it arrives.

There’s also a new interview by USGamer with the creator of the original Panzer Dragoon series, Yukio Futatsugi. His stance on a new Panzer Dragoon release is basically that if it’s just copying the work, it’s something he’s already done and he wouldn’t need to make a new one. Futatsugi acknowledges he’d need to integrate “modern trends” into any new Panzer release, so it would end up being a different kind of game. Although part of him thinks that maybe he doesn’t need to make a new Panzer Dragoon, he’d says it would be nice to create something that features the unique world and look of the original games.