Time does go fast. Today, exactly ten years ago, Sega released Panzer Dragoon Orta, the fourth and to this day final installment of the Panzer Dragoon franchise, for the Xbox in Japan. At the time Team Andromeda, the team behind the original Panzer Dragoon trilogy, had already disbanded, so it was up to Smilebit and its producer Takayuki Kawagoe to make a sequel worthy of Team Andromeda’s legacy, which was certainly no easy task. In retrospect however, Smilebit managed to achieve that goal.
In the same way Panzer Dragoon Zwei added more depth to the gameplay from the original Panzer Dragoon, Panzer Dragoon Orta took aspects from all three previous Panzer Dragoon games to add a surprising amount of depth to the gameplay. The game also contained a ton of extras, including a complete version of the original Panzer Dragoon, a series of side-quests that ran parallel to the main storyline and an in-game encyclopedia that offered a ton of information about the Panzer Dragoon world and its history. Extras that today would no doubt be sold as DLC. The game was also praised for its solid graphics and animation that took full advantage of the Xbox’s technical capabilities.
While Panzer Dragoon Orta didn’t sell as much as Sega and Microsoft had hoped, it wasn’t due to the quality of the game. Panzer Dragoon Orta received high review scores and is still regarded as one of the most unique games ever released on the original Xbox. To this day I think we can safely say the game remains one of the best rail-shooters ever released.
Personally, I think this game should definitely be re-released on XBLA/PSN. Given the success of Rez HD, there’s no reason for Panzer Dragoon Orta to perform any worse in terms of sales. We’re currently running a petition asking for a re-release of the Panzer Dragoon games which has recently passed the 600 signatures mark. You can sign the petition here. We hope to reach 1000 signatures running up to the 15th anniversary of Panzer Dragoon Saga next year.