Panzer Dragoon Saga Disc 1 of 4 (U) ISO

Panzer Dragoon Saga is an RPG developed by SEGA's Team Andromeda. It is the only RPG in the Panzer Dragoon series, and is frequently named as one of the greatest and most unique Japanese RPGs. The game would be Team Andromeda's last, which disbanded after its completion. The game takes place in an post-apocalyptic world that mixes fantasy with sci-fi. You play the rule of Edge, a hunter who is chosen by a mysterious ancient Dragon. Edge seeks revenge on those who killed his companions and find out why they were attacked. --- A very artistic and beautifully dramatized game. While most RPGs tend to try being massive and epic for the sake of being epic, Panzer Dragoon Saga feels minimalistic and somewhat lonely, which adds far more to the story and design than it takes away. It's a masterpiece, and still as unique now as the day it was released.

Panzer Dragoon Saga is a JRPG with time-position-based combat and an unusual excess of fully voiced dialogue & cutscenes for a 5th generation console game. All the dialogue appears to be in Japanese (some of it seems to be in a made-up language?), though there are excellently translated subtitles.

The pinnacle of PDS' success as a game is in the combat and Dragon system, and you will spend most of your time exploring and fighting (about 70%). It plays in a way that seems tastefully inspired by the series roots as an arcade action shooter. You must position your dragon smartly and quickly against the actions of the enemy, and in the later boss fights and areas, it becomes wise to change the "type" or "class" of your dragon on-the-fly.
There are two opposing pairs of Dragon characteristics that you can tweak at any time: Attack-Spirit, and Agility-Defense, each from 0 to 100. By default your dragon is 100-100 & 100-100 (Neutral).
If you have a majority of and greater than 150 of a particular stat, your Dragon becomes that class and has access to special abilities and traits. This also changes the tendency of what abilities your Dragon will learn when you level up.

There isn't an overabundance of side-quests to do in PDS like there is in modern RPGs or JRPGs, but there are still some things to do aside from the main quest (like collect all 12 D-Units). "Straight-through" on a real Saturn, PDS will clock in about 12-14 hours of game-time. Due to the relatively short length of the game and the excellence of the gameplay, I recommend anyone interested in the Saturn play this game.

DO NOTE: The ROMs for this version hosted here are CORRUPTED! Disc 1 will play fine, but Disc 2 (and Disc 3) will be unable to load your save from the previous disc if played on a real Saturn. Refer to the description of this video for fully playable ROMs:
https://youtu.be/nh1dDEKqQrs

The Greatest Console RPG of All-Time. Entered into the Smithsonian, along with Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, as proof that video games can be considered art. Frequently listed on everything from 1Up.com to Reddit to That Place as the most important game to play through before you die.

They aren't joking. No other game on console will suck you into its story like this one; you want a shiny-happy-people console RPG?
Play Dragon Warrior.

You want a bunch of tropes and idiotically long cut scenes smashed together into a barely coherent paste that feels like, "Hey! I've seen this before!"
Play Final Fantasy.

If you want a game where the thematic elements feel more grown-up than most modern novels, where there isn't a single cheery-faced innkeeper, comic relief or Big Shiny Moment of Hope anywhere, where the world has ended and you're stuck in it's aftermath, where 'psychologically dark and malevolent' could describe the HEROES more than the villains... and where the single greatest ending in the Entire History of Video Games awaits (The Smithsonian is with me on this, by the way)...

Play Panzer Dragoon Saga. It's the Seven Samurai, Citizen Kane and Empire Strikes Back-all-rolled-into-one of gaming. The masterpiece of video games. Period.