AZEL PANZER DRAGOON RPG J ISO SERIES

I’ve had a harder time opening jam jars than I’ve had defeating any boss in this game. Playing Azel without dying isn’t a challenge run for dedicated fans, it’s just how the game works – for everyone. We’ll get the bad news out of the way first: Azel is really easy.

Being able to reach out and touch things in Panzer Dragoon is a dream come true for fans of the original game and Zwei, and an equally rewarding experience for complete newcomers as well.īut for all the love I feel for it and all the praise heaped on the game over the past twenty-one years Azel does have two significant problems that I don’t think get highlighted as often as they should: Well, one is a genuine problem problem, and the other is really more of a mismatch between what Azel’s offering and what players have come to expect from the RPG genre. You don’t need and can never touch the vast majority of these fascinating items and yet every last one of them has a clear purpose within the world the game’s protagonist, Edge, inhabits and in many cases even its own space within the setting’s fictional ecosystem too. There’s a novel’s worth of flavour text in here, with the game boasting different descriptions of the same object depending on whether you’re up close or gazing at them from afar. This joy and attention to detail is shown not only in the big show-stopping moments that shed new light on key moments in Panzer Dragoon’s obtuse history or pit legendary dragons against each other in a lightning-pierced night sky, but in the small touches too: Different people are active in the camps and villages depending on the time of day when you visit, fish will leap out with a splash if you interact with them, enemy troops audibly radio in sightings of the dragon at the start of battle, and the ancient item containers scattered throughout the game all have unique visual markers on them so you can tell whether your dragon’s lasers are powerful enough to break them before you’ve waved your targeting cursor in their direction. This isn’t a game that’s had a few recognisable bosses or locations thrown in for the sake of some superficial authenticity or as a lazy attempt to woo existing fans over, Azel is absolutely a Panzer Dragoon RPG through and through: It was never meant to be anything else, and it never could be anything else either – the game oozes pride in its origins and feels equally confident in the quality of its new direction too.

AZEL PANZER DRAGOON RPG J ISO SERIES

What could have easily been a dead-end RPG offshoot, kept apart for fear of alienating everyone who fell in love with the series for its arcade-like shooting action, is instead filled to overflowing with meaningful links to the previous games and even lays the groundwork for a huge emotional hit in the Xbox-exclusive sequel Panzer Dragoon Orta.

If it was a dessert, it’d be something involving fudge, warm chocolate sauce, and a very large spoon.

I have played this game, so, so, many times over the years under its PAL title, Panzer Dragoon Saga. It’s great.

Azel panzer dragoon rpg j iso